My next drink came from the long, slender fingers of a pretty little female native. This time it was water, and I stayed awake. Joe came in, saw I was awake and came back in a few minutes with Benson and Dr.
Bailey.
They both looked terrible, Benson especially. Bailey said, "Take it easy. Sue"s at the clinic. She and the baby are all right, but you d.a.m.ned near didn"t make it."
Benson said, "Can you talk?"
I cleared my throat and decided I could. He waved Joe and the female out. Then he and Bailey sat down beside me. I asked, "Any casualties?"
"Two of our babies and thirty-six native babies. Some of the _koodi_ came in after dark."
It sounded strange, Benson"s listing native casualties with our own.
The memory of the _koodi_ attack brought a wave of nausea over me. I said, "Benson, I"m sorry, but I"m all done trying to murder Joe"s race.
I want no further part of it."
Benson"s face was thin and drawn, and he stared at the floor. "If we haven"t murdered it already," he said, "there will be no more attempts while I am in charge." He covered his face with his hands. "Bailey. Tell him, Bailey."
The doctor"s voice was gravelly and weak. "If it hadn"t been for the natives we"d all have died. The venom from the flies paralyzed everyone the second day after the swarm hit us. The flies were gone the next morning, but every soul in the colony pa.s.sed out. Joe and his friends took care of us, poured tala down our throats and fed us."
"But they were soused," I said.
"Their only defense against the flies. The little black devils left the natives pretty well alone, and it appears that the tala was responsible.
Could be that the stuff is what neutralized the toxin, too. They must have poured a gallon of it down me, judging from the empty skins by my bed. At any rate, they kept us alive until we could get up and feed ourselves."
"Why did they come into the clearing when they drank the tala?" I asked.
Bailey said, "Joe told us that the day he saw Sue kill the _koodi_ that was attacking you, he got the idea that he should do something about them himself. Through his efforts the natives no longer take the little devils as an inevitable evil. They kill them wherever they find them now. And when they had to get drunk to save themselves from the flies, Joe pa.s.sed the word for them to head for the clearing. The _koodi_ usually avoid the sunlight, but it was late in the afternoon. They came anyway."
"Phil," I said, "did I see you out there with me, killing the little b.a.s.t.a.r.ds?"
He nodded silently.
"You had changed your mind about the natives at that time?"
"I--I suppose so. Don"t rub it in, Sam. It"s hard enough to live with the thought of how wrong I was. All I can do now is pray that whatever failed in our first try failed again. Joe"s people have made the human race look pretty dismal. They have every right to their planet, and if we are foolish enough to go native, well--at least we have a stronger survival instinct."
At that point Susan came in carrying Richard. He had the hiccoughs. Sue kissed me. "Richard just drew his ration of sterile tala from the clinic. He still has a slight fever. But thanks to Joe and Harmony--"
"Harmony? Who"s that?"
"The native girl who helped Joe nurse us. Her name is really Hah-ah-arm-ig-hin-ih-hee, or something like that. She answers to Harmony, though."
And she did. Hearing her name the little golden girl came through the door towing Joe by one hand.
I said, "One of your favorites, Joe?"
He ran a caressing, four-fingered hand over her shoulder. "I like her,"
he admitted. "She wants to call me husband like Sue calls you."
Bailey smiled. "It seems there is a new fad among the natives. Something like monogamy, I understand."
I said, "What do you think of the idea, Joe?"
He thought it over. "I have not made up my mind."
Sue pressed him, "Why not marry Harmony, Joe?"
In the blunt manner in which he so often made his curious revelations, Joe blurted out, "Because I am in much demand among all the females. It is--very pleasant."
Bailey"s eyes widened. He ordered, "Bend over, Joe."
Joe obliged so we could all examine his back. There were two brown stains on his shoulder blades as there should be, but Bailey was not satisfied. He poked a finger into them and examined the skin under the hair. "Mango pitch!" he announced. "Stained clean down to the skin. Did you do that, Joe?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I knew you would force me to go into the ship with the others if I didn"t have the stain."
Benson looked up, shocked. "Then you--you knew what we were trying to do?"
"Yes. You and Samrogers spoke of it outside the hut one day. You thought I was asleep. Some of your words puzzled me, so I stayed away from the ship. Then I found out what they meant."
"But you helped us get the others to go into the ship!"
"It was what you wanted," Joe said simply. "Later, when we went south, the females saw that only Joe"s favorites continued to have babies. So Joe became very--popular."
I said, "You mean they figured it out?"
Joe smiled. "Did you think we do not know about--" he paused to dredge among his amazing store of human idioms, "--the facts of life?"
Bailey shook his head. "What a man! What a race! Think what they would be if they had a human"s survival instinct!"
"And thumbs," I added.