"Must"ve landed," hazarded the guard, straining his in- tellect.
"If you will please-" began Ole Doc.
"They"ll be here in a minute, bud," said Eddy, planting his thick boots squarely in Ole Doc"s path. He reeked of Old s.p.a.ce Ranger and was obviously a victim of an unmentionable illness.
They were there in less than that. An entire squad sled of them, complete with dirty uniforms, unshaven faces, yellow eyes and shiny weapons.
"Get in, pal," said Eddy, disarming Doc with a yank.
"Ain"t he pretty, though," said a young corporal.
"Get in!" insisted Eddy.
Ole Doc saw no sense in a chance killing. It was not that serious yet. People weren"t entirely stupid in Dorcon.
They couldn"t be!
He mounted the sled which promptly soared off toward the city, ten feet above the ground and travelling errati- cally. In the glimpse he had of the blue-green pavements and yellow houses of the suburbs, Ole Doc was aware of neglect and misery. A number of these inhabitants were evidently of Mongolian origin for the architecture had that atmosphere, but now the once-gay paG.o.das looked more like tombs, their walled gardens gone to ruin, their stunted trees straggling out from broken bonds. The deso- lation was heightened by the hobbling gait of a few ancient inhabitants who dodged in fear below the sled. It shocked Ole Doc to see that each was chained to a round ball.
The sled swept on toward the blue towers, but, as it neared, the first illusion of palace gave way to a grey atmosphere of prison. For the government buildings were
all inclosed within many walls, each complete in its de- fences, each manned like some penitentiary on Earth.
Here was prison within prison within prison. Or defence within defence within defence. And the central portion, instead of being a courtyard and keep, was a metal roofed dome, wholly bomb proof.
But the sled had no business within. It bounced to a landing outside the guard house of the first walls and there Ole Doc was thrust into the presence of a dissolute young man.
Tunic collar unb.u.t.toned to show a dirty neck, greasy hair awry, he sat with heels amongst the gla.s.ses and bottles on his desk. Obviously he was of that decayed school which thought that to be dashing one must be drunk.
"Where"s ident.i.ty card?" he hiccupped.
Ole Doc, naturally, had no such thing. But the rayed gold medallion around his neck was a pa.s.sport to the greatest kingdoms in the universe.
"What"s that?" said the young officer.
"My identification," said Ole Doc. "I am a member of the Universal Medical Society."
"The what?"
"I am a physician," said Ole Doc patiently.
The young man thereupon altered. He looked bright and interested. He brought his feet down off the desk, upsetting several gla.s.ses and bottles and s.n.a.t.c.hed up an antique gadget Doc recognized dimly as a telephone.
"I got a doctor out here, Sir Pudno. How do you like that, huh? . . . Sure he looks like one. Why do you think I"d say so?... O.K., Sir Pudno. Right away."
In the wake of the reeling young officer Ole Doc was then delivered through eighteen separate ramparts, each gated, each guarded, until he came at last to a stairway which led underground. The officer having navigated this without falling, Ole Doc was ushered-or rather shoved- into a chamber done in blue silk, a particularly gloomy place which had for furniture but one bed and one chair.
Sir Pudno was getting out of bed. He was a flabby, fat Mongolian of no definite features. He rolled himself up in a food-spattered dressing gown, sat soddenly in the chair and stared at Ole Doc.
"You really a doctor, Mac?" said Sir Pudno.
"I am. If you have some one to be treated, I shall be
happy to oblige you. However there is a matter of a pile I need. I landed here-"
"Clam it, Mac," said Sir Pudno. "We"ll go right up to Her Majesty."
He tucked his fat into a seam-strained uniform and then Doc was thrust after him into a chamber which was more like a powder magazine than a throne room. It was huge and once it had been pretty. But all the murals and mirrors had been removed and in their places were sheets of "steel. No sunlight entered here and the pale blue gleam of lamps thickened the gloom.
The dais was thickly curtained and into the curtains had been set the kind of gla.s.s which admits light and therefore sight only one way. Someone or something sat behind on a throne.
Sir Pudno saluted and bowed: "Your Majesty, by great good luck I"ve been able to get a doctor up here."
"At how much cut of his fee?" said the person behind the curtain. The voice was rasping. Her Majesty was in no good mood.
"There"s been no conversation of fee, your majesty,"
said Ole Doc. "Nor has there been any talk of services. I am a member of the Universal Medical Society and must not be detained. If you have a patient, I will do what I can without fee other than a pile for my ship. I repeat that I must not be delayed."
"He talks like he thinks he"s somebody," said the person behind the curtains. "Well, show him the young fool. And remember this, you. Cure him but not too well. What did you say you were a member of?"
"The Universal Medical Society," said Ole Doc. "We do not like governments which detain our members."
"You know your business, huh?" said Her Majesty.
"People think so," said Ole Doc. "Now take me to the patient. I have no time to waste."
"You treat crazy people, too?" said Her Majesty.
"I have been known to do so," said Ole Doc, looking fixedly at the curtain.
"You seem to be pretty young. Curly hair and pink cheeks. Would you know how to make somebody crazy, now?"
"Perhaps."
"Build a machine or something to make people crazy?"
she persisted.
"That is possible. Sometimes machines aren"t neces- sary."
"Oh yes they are. I"d pay you well if you did it."
"What?"
"Made somebody crazy," said Her Majesty behind the curtain.
"This is out of my line," said Ole Doc.
"Well, show him to the patient anyway," said Her Majesty.
It was a tortuous way Sir Pudno led them. Urging Ole Doc on ahead of him and followed by an escort of twenty guards, Sir Pudno finally brought them to a chamber some two hundred feet into the earth. It was barred and sealed and guarded in three separate depths but opened at last into a mean, damp cubicle which stank of unwashed flesh and rotting straw.