The Chief of Clanfearghus said that valid or not, part of such deeds belonged to them, and they would pledge their share of these mineral deposits to guarantee the war expenses.
MacAdam had a quiet smile. He knew which way the wind blew. He accepted that. He would not violate their confidence.
The Chiefs passed a resolution to that effect and gave Sir Robert the right to draw against this open account at his discretion as a “war chest.”
Much later, it was a very sober group that broke up.
Gillies escorted Jonnie to his door.
Chrissie was up and waiting for him and served him some tea and what she said were “crumpets.”
Legs stretched out, shirt thongs unlaced, feet in soft moccasins, Jonnie sat in the drawing room. He was worried about events in America but he forced his attention onto domestic things.
Chrissie was telling him that the parson and Aunt Ellen would be here for lunch tomorrow and she hoped he would be at home. Aunt Ellen was doing so well here in Scotland– her cheeks had filled out and she had lost a cough she had had. She was looking quite young, really.
Jonnie said you could say that about Chrissie. She looked very pretty with her long cornsilk hair piled up on top in a big puff, her eyes were brighter and blacker, her tunic cloth that had been made into a gown set off her figure even better than buckskin. The collar scars had almost vanished. Chrissie blushed over the compliments he gave her.
Pattie was better. She had gotten terribly thin. She was still in bed from her fever but it had subsided, leaving her weak. Jonnie should visit her in the morning. The only worry was that Pattie did not seem to take any interest in anything. Maybe Jonnie could tell her a story about something.
Jonnie asked whether the house had a basement and she said yes, a strong deep one. Jonnie told her she had found some very nice furniture and if things got rough she should put the better pieces in the basement, well protected. And did she have a safe place in the underground shelters at Castle Rock? Chrissie said she had thought of all that and he mustn't worry about her. She had been around in the world now and had her share of experience. And wouldn't he like some more of this tea? And another crumpet?
He found it all very pleasant. It was a lovely old house, so different from those decayed ruins in the old village. If they could just win through somehow and if his luck held, maybe someday the rather remarkably pleasant fact of sitting in this drawing room and talking about calm matters with Chrissie or friends would become routine.
Then the gong at the door was struck and Chrissie went to open it.
With a shout, Jonnie jumped up to greet Glencannon.
Part XXIII
Chapter 1
Damn Terl!
At first, Jonnie had thought he had data on the point positions of the poles. He had no adequate viewing equipment in his house in Scotland; he had only taken a quick scan and a glance at a box Ker had sent that seemed to have just a piece of cable in it. It was months to Day 92 and so he was happy to stay for lunch and see
Aunt Ellen and the parson again. And to try to cheer up Pattie.
He had flown back to the African minesite in good spirits. He had gotten up this morning all ready to really plow into it. And now this!
Glencannon had said the delay was occasioned by Terl's spending most of his time outside measuring. Terl apparently didn't like to stay outside very long: Glencannon hinted that a bit of air had been injected into breathe-gas vials when the office was set up in order to discourage Terl from developing too much of a fondness for wandering around. Also, Glencannon had told him, they had omitted something in their original planning– they didn't have a picto-recorder to record what went on around the platform itself. But they had rigged one in a tree now and the Brigantes hadn't noticed and they didn't have to depend on drone overflys anymore.
Looking at them now, Jonnie saw how meticulous Terl had been in measuring distances to poles. He had almost used a micrometer. But he had not been measuring point positions for teleportation firing!
Here it was, the full layout and plan, complete with the exact dimensions: the firing platform, the new position for the console, and a squiggly line.
Jonnie knew now why Terl had spent so many days on force equations. He had been calculating exactly how close you could put the squiggly line to the firing platform without messing up the teleportation! There it was on his final plan: seven and eight-elevenths feet. All around the firing platform and the new console.
The box Ker had sent contained a little note, written with his wrong paw if Jonnie knew Ker.
To You know who.
Here is a chunk that got sawed off by accident– ha, ha. I am digging it up for them from beside that dam to the southwest where it ain't used anymore. In case you don't know it's called "atmosphere-armor ionization cable.” I won't include the parts order number because you won't be ordering any from Psychlo. Ha, ha. Also it is a fine of three months' pay to give away company property so if I’m caught, you owe me another three months' pay. You're going to go broke at this rate. Ha, ha.
–You know who
Added: They are paying me a fortune to dig this up. You get your split when we swap lunch boxes. Ha, ha, ha!
Jonnie inspected it. The cross-section was obviously the same as that around the dam and site in Kariba. But now he had a look at what it was composed of. It had to be put in right-side up and be pointed in the direction you wanted the screen to go. It itself was armored, and how Ker had cut it, he did not have any idea.
The way it worked seemed fairly obvious: the bottom insulation interior was really a reflector. Just above that went the main current source. Then above that there was another wire and above that a third and so on up. A stack of fifteen wires. Each apparently amplified the charge of the one just below it. Out at the end it must be fastened together with a box, not included here, which assisted amplification. The resulting fabulously boosted charge must be tuned to the fields of the core and ring particles of air atoms. Hit, the molecules of air realigned themselves into molecular cohesion. The final product was an invisible curtain wall entitled "atmosphere-armor ionization cable.” They had proved it at Kariba. Not even a bullet would go through it.
It wasn't a “force screen.” Those were used in space and the Hawvins employed them on major war vessels. It was air armor.
And Terl was going to put this seven and eight-elevenths feet all around the console and platform?
Jonnie's tentative plan had been to let Terl build the console and set up the firing platform and then somehow seize it.
But this changed things.
How could one get through a solid curtain like that?
Damn Terl!
Dully, Jonnie made quite a few copies of the firing platform plan. He got out the Intergalactic Mining Company map of their one-time defenses and noted where Ker must be digging up cable for reinstallation at the platform.
The map was so old and creased that he hadn't really noticed before that all minesites had these cables around their dams and along their lines. He saw now that this African minesite had a second underground power transmission line and that what had been known as the Owens Falls Dam back in man-days was protected. He called for Angus and told him to go down there and check, and if the cable was still there, to get the trees removed from above it, using a blade scraper, and then if the switchboard at the dam still worked, to shift over to underground transmission and drill the sentries on turning it on and off so one could get in and out of the dam and in and out of the minesite.