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* * * * *

The snow stopped before he reached the edge, and the sun was shining when he found a slanting way down into the valley. Then, out of the north, a black dot appeared in the sky and grew larger, until he saw that it was a Government airboat–one of the kind used by the men who measured the growth of the Ice-Father. It came curving in and down toward him, and a window slid open and a man put his head out.

“Want us to lift you down?” he asked. “We’re going to Long Valley Town. If that’s where you’re going, we can take you the whole way.”

“Yes. That’s where I’m going.” He said it as though he were revealing, for the first time, some discovery he had just made. “For your kindness and help, I thank you.”

In less time than a man could walk two miles with a pack, they were letting down in front of the Government House in Long Valley Town.

He had never been in the Government House before. The walls were clear glass. The floors were plastic, clean and white. Strips of bright new lumicon ran around every room at the tops of all the walls. There were no fires, but the great rooms were as warm as though it were a midsummer afternoon.

Still carrying his pack and his rifle, Raud went to a desk where a Southron in a white shirt sat.

“Has Yorn Nazvik’s ship, the Issa, been here lately?” he asked.

“About six days ago,” the Southron said, without looking up from the papers on his desk. “She’s on a trading voyage to the west now, but Nazvik’s coming back here before he goes south. Be here in about ten days.” He looked up. “You have business with Nazvik?”

Raud shook his head. “Not with Yorn Nazvik, no. My business is with the two Starfolk who are passengers with him. Dranigo and Salvadro.”

The Southron looked displeased. “Aren’t you getting just a little above yourself, old man, calling the Prince Salsavadran and the Lord Dranigrastan by their familiar names?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Those were the names they gave me; I didn’t know they had any others.”

The Southron started to laugh, then stopped.

“And if I may ask, what is your name, and what business have you with them?” he inquired.

Raud told him his name. “I have something for them. Something they want very badly. If I can find a place to stay here, I will wait until they return–“

The Southron got to his feet. “Wait here for a moment, Keeper,” he said. “I’ll be back soon.”

He left the desk, going into another room. After a while, he came back. This time he was respectful.

“I was talking to the Lord Dranigrastan–whom you know as Dranigo–on the radio. He and the Prince Salsavadran are lifting clear of the Issa in their airboat and coming back here to see you. They should be here in about three hours. If, in the meantime, you wish to bathe and rest, I’ll find you a room. And I suppose you’ll want something to eat, too….”

* * * * *

He was waiting at the front of the office, looking out the glass wall, when the airboat came in and grounded, and Salvadro and Dranigo jumped out and came hurrying up the walk to the doorway.

“Well, here you are, Keeper,” Dranigo greeted him, clasping his hand. Then he saw the bearskin bundle under Raud’s arm. “You brought it with you? But didn’t you believe that we were coming?”

“Are you going to let us have it?” Salvadro was asking.

“Yes; I will sell it to you, for the price you offered. I am not fit to be Keeper any longer. I lost it. It was stolen from me, the day after I saw you, and I have only yesterday gotten it back. Both my dogs were killed, too. I can no longer keep it safe. Better that you take it with you to Dremna, away from this world where it was made. I have thought, before, that this world and I are both old and good for nothing any more.”

“This world may be old, Keeper,” Dranigo said, “but it is the Mother-World, Terra, the world that sent Man to the Stars. And you–when you lost the Crown, you recovered it again.”

“The next time, I won’t be able to. Too many people will know that the Crown is worth stealing, and the next time, they’ll kill me first.”

“Well, we said we’d give you twenty thousand trade-tokens for it,” Salvadro said. “We’ll have them for you as soon as we can draw them from the Government bank, here. Or give you a check and let you draw them as you want them.” Raud didn’t understand that, and Salvadro didn’t try to explain. “And then we’ll fly you home.”

He shook his head. “No, I have no home. The place where you saw me is Keeper’s House, and I am not the Keeper any more. I will stay here and find a place to live, and pay somebody to take care of me….”

With twenty thousand trade-tokens, he could do that. It would buy a house in which he could live, and he could find some woman who had lost her man, who would do his work for him. But he must be careful of the money. Dig a crypt in the corner of his house for it. He wondered if he could find a pair of good dogs and train them to guard it for him…. [=]

End of the ProjectEBook of The Keeper, by Henry Beam Piper