That left the rest of the gumdrops. Although this was probably the only one with a message, there was a chance that another might contain a similar capsule with further plans of escape. He therefore did not dare hand over the rest of the bag to Kaalund, though he was already sated with the taste of gumdrops. He kept right on eating, remarking to the ceiling, "You know, Sven old man, my studio would pay plenty to get me back pronto. We were just gonna start shooting Scaramouche, and it'll raise hell with their plans if they gotta dig up a new star at this late date."
"Unh," said Kaalund.
"In fact I'm not exactly broke myself. If I chipped in, the guy who arranged to have me sent back to Hollywood would pick up a nice piece of lettuce."
"Ha. You tink I am vun of your corrupt American policemen, so you can bribe me to let you go, huh? Veil, dis is Groenland, Claude, and de sooner you learn de difference the better off you are. No more bribes, please."
Godwin stewed a while in silence, then said, "Say, don't they have anything to read in this dump?"
"Do you read Dansk?"
"No."
"Den it vould no good do yon. De newspapers and books in de hospital library is all in Dansk, except some in Eskimo."
The door opened again and the nurse spoke to Kaalund, who reported: "Another visitor, Claude. My, such a popular fellow ve got!"
THE VISITOR turned out to be a stout, eyeglassed young man who bounced in and said effusively, "I am glad to meet you, Mr. Godwin! I am Karl Bruun, the son of Viggo Bruun. We understand you wish to visit my father's laboratories?"
"I did say something of the sort to Gram."
"Would tomorrow morning suit you?"
"Okay, if they let me out by then. Do you work in this lab?"
"Only on my off-time. I am a whale-herd."
"A what?"
"I herd whales. The bowhead whale, once almost extinct, is one of Greenland's main economic assets."
"How do you do it? I mean, d'you chase 'em around with a motor-boat?"
"No, with a helicopter. I also have to be ready to drive off orcas. Just now, my relief has the machine out. We shall see you tomorrow morning, then. And by the way, lest you be bored while awaiting your release from the hospital, I brought you some gumdrops." Karl Bruun handed over another paper bag. "They taste better if you grip them between your teeth and let them dissolve slowly. I must be running: good-bye!"
Godwin glared into the bag. Another capsule message? He grimly popped the first into his mouth ...
This time he had to go through nearly the entire bag, while Kaalund glowered at him and made Danish noises in his throat. At last he came upon the one containing the capsule. The message said, Mr. Godwin? You know who this is. If you do not like your situation we may find it possible to cooperate, for there are those who would like to do, with that upon which the present stasis depends, that which you would like to do with yourself. If you agree, signify by saying, when you meet us, "The gumdrops were superb."
Now what did that mean? They (the Bruuns, he supposed) evidently wanted to help him somehow, but he could not make any sense of that long and involved third sentence. He would play along with them anyway to see what happened.
He finished the bag, crumpled it, and threw it into the waste basket just as the nurse announced another visitor. This was a tall blond young man, of pure Nordic type, with several scars crisscrossing his face who began, "Godwin? I'm Werner von Wittelsbach. My boss, Thor Thomsen, sent me to ask if you were comfortable."
"I'm doing about as good as you can in jail."
"Mr. Thomsen will be glad to hear it. By the way, he thought you might like these."
And the young man thrust forward a third bag of white paper. As Godwin took it, von Wittelsbach said: "He suggests you go through the gumdrops before you start on the big piece."
Godwin, locking into the bag, saw that it did indeed contain a number of gumdrops and, at the bottom, something that looked like a small chocolate-bar wrapped in aluminum foil.
"Thanks," he said with notable lack of enthusiasm.
THE FACE of Werner von Wittelsbach, who was standing by Godwin's bed, now underwent a noticeable change. Up to now the young man had behaved with the correct and colorless affability of any well-brought-up man sent on such an errand. Now, however, there was a glitter of animosity in his eye and a hostile edge to his voice as he said, "So you are the so-called Saxon Pretender, eh?"
"The—? Oh, that. So they tell me, though I think it's a lot of fertilizer. And you're the—uh—Jacobite Pretender, huh?"
"I am the rightful King of Great Britain. We shall see, sir, whose claim prevails."
Thereupon von Wittelsbach brought his heels together with a click, bowed, and stalked out. Godwin had never seen anybody click heels outside of actors playing parts in movies about Old Vienna; he did not suppose that anybody actually did it in the twenty-second century. Yet there it was.
"Herregott" said Kaalund. "Are dey trying vith gumdrops to poison you? You better not eat dem all; dey make you sick."
Godwin glowered at his jailer and went grimly to work on the gumdrops, though by now the taste almost nauseated him. This time the one with the capsule was the third one he ate. The message ran, Claude Godwin! If you wish help in achieving your objective of escaping from Greenland, hide the chocolate bar in the parachon tomorrow morning and leave it there. That is all for the present.
Godwin sighed. Everybody seemed anxious to help him to escape except Kaalund and Gram, the ones who really mattered. And why should they want him to leave a chocolate bar in the time-viewing machine? Was Thor Thomsen trying to sneak a message to the Bruuns, too? Or was it a bomb to blow up the machine? That seemed unlikely; if Viggo Bruun were a man of any sense, he would have at least one complete set of plans of the parachon in a safe place. Fie might, even have filed applications for patents, in which case the machine's principles of operation would eventually become public knowledge. There was no such thing as a secret invention anymore; even if there were, .why should Thomsen wish to blow up such a marvelous machine?
Anyway, Thomsen had been the only one to sign off at the end of his message so that Godwin would not have to eat all the other gumdrops to make sure they had no capsules in them. Accordingly Godwin removed the chocolate bar from the bag and tendered the rest of the gumdrops to Kaalund, saying, "Like some?"
"Tank you."
"Keep the whole bag."
"Tanks; I told you you vould not feel good if you ate too many."
THE DETECTIVE went through the rest of the gumdrops like a devouring flame. In a few minutes they were all gone. An orderly came in and spoke. Kaalund said, "He vants to know vat you vish for lunch."
"Tell him thanks, but I don't want any lunch."
"I told you! But dat is no reason vy I am starving." He spoke at length in Danish to the orderly who went out and returned with a tray heaped with enough food for two ordinary men. Kaalund fell to with his free hand while Godwin, bored and restless, stared gloomily out the window.
"Sven," Godwin asked, "if the climatic engineers had such success in melting the ice-cap off Greenland, why don't they do the same with Antarctica? That's a lot bigger than Greenland."
"Sure," said Kaalund with his mouth full of Smoerrebrod, "but so much vater vould de level of the de oceans raise maybe ten, tvelve meters, and vat vould happen to all de seaports? De melting of the Greenland cap raised it about a meter and a half, and some cities like New Orleans raised a awful stink."
Kaalund finished and summoned the orderly to remove the tray.