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forthright and ah fully conscious of the quality and necessity of the Guild.
You would appear, I mean to say, as one who is conscious of being a part of
the Guild and ... well, you know."
"Including being committed to the Guild's specific aims?" Bleys asked.
Hytry laughed cheerfully.
"Well," he said, "we certainly wouldn't like you to go around talking against
the Guild's aims. That's only com-mon sense. And, as a matter of fact well,
yes. We'd regard it as only fair on your part if you not exactly endorsed the
Guild's point of view and aims, but made it clear that you were, let us say,
proud of being an honorary member of our Guilds' organizations. At the same
time, that would be to your advantage, too, of course, since it would make
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even more clear that you were under our pro-tection."
Bleys shook his head, smiling.
"Guildmaster, Guildmaster," he said gently. "Don't you remember what I said to
you at our lunch in New Earth City that I had to give you people the same
answer I'd given the CEOs? I can't continue to be a philosopher and speak to
people out of my own convictions and my own view of the present historic
moment, on this world and elsewhere, unless I stay entirely independent. To
identify myself with any cause or institution would completely de-stroy the
impartiality of any message that I could give. In other words, much as I
appreciate your kind offer, I can't accept."
Hytry stared at him for a long moment, with a face
showing astonishment giving way to disbelief, exhibited almost to the point of
melodrama.
"I can't believe this," he said at last. "I can't believe you'd refuse a
chance like this, Bleys Ahrens. Think about it, at least for a while. I don't
like to say this to you; but while I, myself, and certainly a large majority
of our other Guild members are strongly in favor of everything you say and do,
there are some among us who doubt your good in-tentions and flunk maybe you're
secretly letting yourself be used by the CEOs to discredit the Guildmastership
in the eyes of the job-holders. Also, have you stopped to think how it would
improve your political standing on your own world of Association, if it was
known that you'd been given an honorary Guildmastership here on New Earth? Our
world and yours do a fair amount of trading together, you know. You both buy
our manufactured proto-types and hire our engineers."
"And I hope we'll do a great deal more of it in the fu-ture." Bleys stood up.
"However, I'm afraid that taking time to think about it wouldn't make any
difference in how I feel, Guildmaster Hytry. With all due thanks, I'm afraid,
I can't accept your offer."
He reached over and touched a stud on the phone unit of the desk behind him.
"Anjo?" he said. "Or, if whoever is in the communica-tions center knows where
Anjo is, will you send him to me? I believe Guildmaster Hytry is ready to
leave."
Hytry rose slowly, and with Bleys pacing beside him, walked to and through the
door of the office lean-to. They had barely stepped onto the steps outside
when Anjo came around the curve of the structure and met them.
"I'll take over from here, Great Teacher, if you like," he said to Bleys.
"I'd appreciate that," said Bleys. "Good-bye, Guild-master, and thank you
again."
"Some things are trite but also true," said Hytry, looking at him with a
remarkably level gaze. "Believe me- you'll regret this."
"That's always possible," Bleys said.
Hytry turned away, and Anjo led him across to the first-aid building and
through its entrance out of sight.
Bleys was about to turn back into his office when he saw Dahno emerge from the
communications building and start toward him. Accordingly, he stood where he
was, waiting for the other to join him.
Watching Dahno's blocky figure plowing toward him through the thin, dry
mountain air, his arms swinging loosely at his sides, Bleys found himself
intrigued by the fact that, without some other person near him by which his
height could be measured, Dahno looked merely stocky. A little more than
average height, perhaps, but not much more. At the same time, there was
something of a relent-less quality about the way he moved, like an armored
mil-itary vehicle in action. As Dahno grew closer, however, he began to be
measurable in terms of Bleys' own building and those close to it, and his
height became more appar-ent. It had the odd effect of somehow excusing and
ob-scuring the ponderous relentlessness that Bleys had noticed a moment
before.
Bleys continued to watch him, musingly, as he came. Dahno had certainly done
something very useful and de-served to be congratulated. At the same time,
Bleys found himself surprisingly reluctant to do so. In the few mo-ments in
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which he stood at the top of the steps, he tracked down and uncovered the fact
his reluctance stemmed from an uneasiness that, useful as what Dahno had done
was, he had gone ahead and done it without consulting with Bleys first.
There was the future to be thought of. Sometime Dahno might with the best
intentions in the world operate sud-denly and silently on his own, like this,
again; and that time he might do something wrong, something that Bleys might
have foreseen if he had been told about his half-brother's plans before Dahno
put them into execution.
But now Dahno was at the foot of the steps. Bleys smiled cheerfully at him
and, turning, led the way inside. They both dropped into chairs, facing each
other.
"Well, now," said Bleys. "You certainly produced some results."
Dahno chuckled.
"You liked it, did you?" he said. "It just seemed the right time for it. You
were busy at the time I thought of it, and somebody had already pointed out
that the sandstorm was on the way. I didn't have time to talk to you first."
"Well, you were certainly right to go ahead," said Bleys. "But maybe you'd
better check with me if you ever feel like doing it again, even if time is
short or you have to in-terrupt me. I don't always get around to telling you
all of what's in my mind."
"Come on now, Bleys," said Dahno. "You'll never want to tell anyone all of
what's in your mind "
"Great Teacher?" It was Anjo's voice calling from out-side the entrance to the
office.
"Come in," said Bleys. Anjo entered, walked up to them and stood. "Sit down.
Sit down."
"Thank you, Great Teacher." Anjo took a chair. "I imag-ine Dahno Ahrens just
told you. We heard your talk with the Guildmaster over the connection to the
communica-tions building."
"No, he hadn't." Bleys glanced at Dahno and raised his eyebrows a little.
"It's a circuit that was put in, in case you needed to talk to more people [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]