 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, auto-volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Reynard The Return by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire Chapter 1 Altamont cast a quick routine glance at the instrument panels and then looked down through the transparent nose of the helicopter at the Yellow Brown River 500 feet below. Next, he scraped the last morsel from his plate and ate it. What did you make this out of, Jim? he asked. I hope you kept notes while you were concocting it. It's good. The two smoked pork chops left over from yesterday evening, Luden said, and that bowl of rice that's been taking up space in the refrigerator the last couple of days, together with a little aged powder and some milk. I ground the chops up and mixed them with the rice and the other stuff. Then added some bacon to make grease to fry it in. Altamont chuckled. That was Luden's alright. He could take a few leftovers, mess them together, pop them in the skillet and have a meal that would turn the chef back at the fort green with envy. He filled his cup and offered the pot. Kaphchok, he asked. Luden's held his cup out to be filled. Blew on it, sipped, and then hunted on the ledge under the desk for the butt of the cigar he had half smoked the evening before. Did you ever drink coffee, Monty? The socio-psychologist asked. Getting the cigar drawing to his taste. Coffee? No. I've read about it, of course. Luden had to organise an expedition to Brazil sometime to get seeds and dry raising some. Luden's blew a smoke ring towards the rear of the cabin. A much overrated beverage, he replied. We found some once when I was on that expedition into Idaho in what must have been the stock room of a hotel. That came packed in a moisture-proof containers and free from radioactivity. It wasn't nearly as good as Kaphchok. But then, I suppose, a pre-bust-up coffee-drinker couldn't stomach this stuff we're drinking. Luden's looked forward, up the river they were following. Get anything on the radio, he asked. I noticed you took us up to about 10,000 while I was shaving. Altamont got out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filling the former slowly and carefully. Not a whisper. I tried Colony 3 in the Ozarks and I tried to call in that tribe of workers in Louisiana. I couldn't get either. Maybe if we tried to get a little more power on the set. That was Luden's too, Altamont thought. There wasn't a better man at the fort when it came to dealing with people. But confront him with a problem about things and he was lost. That was one of the reasons why he and the stocky, phlegmatic social scientist made such a good team, he thought. As far as he himself was concerned, people were just a mysterious, exasperatingly unpredictable order of things which were subject to no known natural laws. And Luden's thought the same thing about machines. He couldn't psychoanalyze them. Altamont gestured with his pipe toward the nuclear electric conversion unit between the control cabin and the living quarters in the rear of the boxcar-sized helicopter. We have enough power back there to keep this windmill in the air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the next 15 years, he said. We just don't have enough radio. If I'd step up the power in this set any more, it'd burn out before I could say, Altamont calling for Ridgeway. How far are we from Pittsburgh now? Luden's wanted to know. Altamont looked across the cabin on the map of the United States as they had been. The red and green and blue and yellow packed work have vanished political divisions. The colours gleamed through the transparent overlay on which this voyage of rediscovery was plotted. The red line of their journey started at Fort Ridgeway, in what had been Arizona. It angled east by a little north to Colony 3, in northern Arkansas. It's partly northeast to St. Louis, and it's lifeless ruins. Then to Chicago and Gary, where little bands of stone age reversions stalked and fought and ate each other. Detroit, where things that had completely forgotten they were human, emerged from their burrows only at night. Cleveland, where a couple of cobalt bombs must have landed in the lake and drenched everything with radioactivity that still lingered after two centuries. Macron, where vegetation was only beginning to break through the glassy slag. Cincinnati, where they had last stopped. How's the lake doing this morning, Jim? he asked. Little Stiff doesn't hurt much though. Why? We're about 50 miles as we follow that river, and that's relatively straight. He looked down through the transparent nose of the copter of the town, now choked with trees that grew among the tumbled walls. I think that's Alie Kipper. Ludens looked and shrugged. Then looked again and pointed. There's a bear. Just ducked into that church or movie theater or whatever. I wonder what he thinks we are. Altamont puffed slowly at his pipe. I wonder if we're going to find anything at all in Pittsburgh. You mean people? As distinct from those biped beasts we found so far. I doubt it, Ludens replied. Finishing his calf-chok and wiping his moustache with the back of his hand. I think the whole eastern half of the country is nothing but forests like this. And the highest type of life is just about three cuts below Homo Neanderthalensis, almost impossible to contact and even more impossible to educate. I wasn't thinking about that. I've just about given hope of finding anybody or even a reasonably high level of barbarism, Altamont said. I was thinking about that cache of microfilm books that was buried at the Carnegie Library. If it was buried, Ludens qualified. All we have is that article in that two-century old copy of Time about how the people at the library had constructed the crypt and were beginning the microfilming. We don't know if they ever had a chance to get it finished before the rocket started landing. They passed over a dam of flotsam that had banked up at a wrecked bridge and accumulated enough mass for the periodic floods that had kept the river usually clear. Three human figures fled across the sandflat at one end of it and disappeared into the woods. Two of them carried spears tipped with something that sparkled in the sunlight. Probably shards of glass. You know, Monty, I get nightmares sometimes thinking about what things must be like in Europe, Ludens said. Five or six wild cows went crashing through the brush below. The ultimate nodded when he saw them. Maybe tomorrow we'll let down and shoot a cow, he said. I was looking in the freeze locker and the fresh meat's getting a little low. For a wild pig, if we find a good stand of oak trees, I could enjoy what you'd do with some acorn-fed pork. He looked across the table. Finished? He asked Ludens. Take over then. I'll go back and wash the dishes. They rose and Ludens, savouring his left leg, moved over to the seat at the controls. Altamont gathered up the two cups, the stainless steel dishes and the knives and the forks and spoons, going up the steps over the shielded converter and ducking his head to avoid the seat in the forward top machine gun turret. He washed and dried the dishes, noting with satisfaction that the gauge of the water tank was still reasonably high and glanced out one of the windows. Ludens was taking the big helicopter upstairs for a better view. Now and then, among the trees, there will be a glint of glassy slag, usually a fairly small circle. That was to be expected. Beside the three or four H-bombs that had fallen on the Pittsburgh area mentioned in the transcripts of the last news to preach the fork from the outside, the whole district had been pelted, more or less at random, with fission bombs. West of the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongulia, it would probably be worse than this. Can you see Pittsburgh yet, Jim? He called out. Yes, it's a mess. Worse than Gary, worse than Akron even. Monty, come here. I think I have something. Picking up the pipe he had laid down, Altamont hurried forward, dodging his six foot length under the gun turret and swinging down from the walkway over the converter. What is it? he asked. Smoke, a lot of smoke. Twenty or thirty fires at the very least. Ludens had shifted from forward to hover and was peering through a pair of binoculars. See that island, the long one? Across the river from it, on the north side, toward this end. Yes, by Einstein, and I can see clear ground, what I think are houses. Inside a stockade. Chapter 2 Murray Hughes walked around the corner of the cabin into the morning sunlight, lacing his trousers with his hunting shirt thrown over his bare shoulders. He found, without much surprise, that his father had also slept late. Werner Hughes was just beginning to shave. Inside the kitchen, his mother and the girls were clattering pots and skillets. Outside the kitchen door, his younger brother, Hector, was noisily chopping wood. Going through the door, he filled another of the light metal basins with hot water. Found his razor, and went outside again, setting the basin on the bench. Most of the wear in the Hughes cabin was of light metal. Murray and his father had mined it at the dead city up the river, from a place where it had floated to the top of a puddle of slag, back when the city had been blasted at the end of the hard times. It had been hard work, but the stuff had been easy to carry down to where they had hidden their boat, and, for once, they'd had no trouble with the scourers. Too bad they couldn't say as much for yesterday's hunting trip. As he rubbed lather into the stubble on his face, he cursed with irritation. That had been a bad luck hunt all round. They had gone out before dawn, hunting into the hills to the north. They'd spent the day at it, and shot one small wild pig. Lucky it was small at that, they'd have had to abandon a fuller grown one, after scourers had begun hunting them. Six of them, as big a band as he'd ever seen together at one time, had managed to cut them off from the stockade. He and his father had been forced to circle miles out of their way. His father had shot one, and he'd had to leave his hatchet sticking in the skull of another when his rifle had misfired. That meant a trip to the gunsmiths for a new hatchet, and to have the mainspring of the rifle replaced. Nobody could afford to have a rifle that couldn't be trusted, least of all a hunter and a prospector. On top of everything else, he had had a few words with Alex Barrett, the gunsmith, the other day. Well, at least that could be smoothed over. Barrett would be glad to do business with him, once the gunsmith saw that hard tool steel he had dug out of that place down the river. Hardest steel either he or his father had ever found, and it hadn't been atom-spoiled either. He cleaned, wiped, and stropped his razor, and put it back in the case. He threw out the washwater on the compost pile and went into the cabin, putting on his shirt and his belt. Then he passed through to the front porch, where his father was already eating at the table. The people of the tune liked to eat in the open. It was something they'd always done, just as they'd always liked to eat together in the evenings. He sweetened his cup of chicory with a lump of maple sugar and began to sip it before he sat down, standing with one foot on the bench and looking down across the parade ground, past the HQ house, toward the river and the wall. If you're coming round to Alex's way of thinking, and mine, it won't hurt you to admit it, son," his father said. Murray turned, looking at his father with the beginning of anger, and then he grinned. The elders were constantly keeping the young men alert with these tests. He checked back over his actions as he had come out onto the porch. To the table, sugar in his chicory, one foot on the bench, which had reminded him again of the absence of the hatchet from his belt and brought an automatic frown. Then the glance toward the gunsmith's shop and across the parade ground, the glance including the house into which so much labour had gone, the wall that had been built from rubble and chopped with pointed stakes, the white slabs of marble that marked the graves of the first tenant and the men of the old tune. He had thought at that moment that maybe his father and Alex Barrett and Rita Rawson and tenant Mycroft Jones and the others were right. There were too many things here that could not be moved along with them if they decided to move. It would be false modesty, refusal to see things as they were, and not to admit that he was the leader of the younger men and the boys of the irregular's. He had been forced to face the responsibilities of that fact since last winter. Then the usual theological arguments about the proper order of the sacred books and the true nature of the risen one had been replaced by a violent controversy when Chalto Jimenez and Birdie Edwards had reopened the old question of the advisability of moving the tune and settling elsewhere. He had been in favour of the idea himself and found that the other young men had followed his lead. But for the last month or so he had begun to doubt the wisdom of it. It was probably reluctance to admit this to himself that had brought on the strained feelings between himself and his old friend the gunsmith. I'll have to drill the irregular's today, he said. Birdie Edwards has been drilling them while we've been hunting but I'll go up and see Alex and get it and fixing my rifle. I'll have a talk with him. He stepped forward toward the edge of the porch still munching on a honey-dipped piece of cornbread and glanced up at the sky. That was a queer bird. He had never seen a bird with a wing action like that. Then he realised that the object was not a bird at all. His father was staring at it too. Murray? That's... That's like the old stories from the time of the wars! But Murray was already racing across the parade ground toward the HQ house where the big iron ring hung by its chain from a gallows-like post with a hammer beside it. Chapter 3 The stockaded village became larger. Details grew planar as a helicopter came slanting down and began spiralling around it. It was a fairly big place. Some 40 or 50 acres in a rough parallelogram surrounded by a wall of very coloured stone and brick and concrete rubble from old ruins topped with a palisade of pointed poles. There was a small jetty projecting into the river to which six or eight boats of different sorts were tied. A gate opened onto this from the wall. Inside the stockade there were close to 100 buildings ranging from small cabins to a structure with a belfry. It seemed to have been a church partly ruined in the war of two centuries ago and later rebuilt. A stream came down from the woods across the cultivated land around the fortified village. There was a rough flume which carried the water from a dam close to the edge of the forest and provided a fall to turn a mill wheel. Look! Strip farming! Ludens pointed. See the alternate strips of grass and plowed ground? These people understand soil conservation. They have horses too. As he spoke, three riders left the village at a gallop. They separated and the people in the fields who had all started for the village turned and began hurrying toward the woods. Two of the riders headed for a pasture in which cattle had been grazing and started herding them also into the woods. After a while there was a scurrying of little figures in the village below. Then, not a moving thing was inside. There's good organisation, Ludens said. Everybody seems to know what to do and how to get it done promptly. Look how neat the whole place is. Policed up. I'll bet anything we'll find that they have a military organisation or a military tradition at least. We'll have a lot to find out. We can't understand a people until you understand their background and their social organisation. Humpf. Let me have a look at their artefacts. That will tell what kind of people they are, Altamont said, swinging the glasses back and forth over the enclosure. Waterpower mill? Waterpower sawmill? Building on the left side of the water wheel. See the pile of fresh lumber beside it? Blacksmith shop? I'd say a small foundry too. Wonder what that little building out on the tip of the island is? It has a water wheel too. Under-shot wheel. And it looks like it could be raised or lowered. Now, I wonder. Monty. I think we ought to land right in the middle of the enclosure. On that open plaza thing, in front of the building that looks like a reconditioned church. That's probably the Royal Palace or the Pentagon or the Kremlin or whatever. Altamont started to object. Paused. And then nodded. I think you're right, Jim. From the way they scattered and got their livestock into the woods, they probably expect us to bomb them. We have to get inside, and that's the quickest way to do it. He thought for a moment. We'd better be armed when we go out. Pistols, auto carbines and a few of those concussion grenades in case we have to break up a concerted attack. I'll get them. The plaza. The houses and the cabins around it. The 200-year-old church. All were silent. And apparently lifeless, as they set the helicopter down. Once, Ludin's caught a movement inside the door of a house and saw a metallic glint. There's a gun up there, he said. Looks like a four-pounder. Brass. I knew that Smith shop was auto-foundry. See that little curl of smoke? That's the gunner's slow match. I thought maybe that thing on the island was a powder mill. That would be where they'd put it. Probably extract their nighter from the dung of their horses and cows. Sulphur, probably from the coal mine drainage. Jim, this is really something. I hope they don't cut loose with that thing, Ludin said, looking apprehensively at the brass-rimmed black mud. There was covering them from the belfry. I wonder if we ought to... Oh, oh, here they come. Three or four young men stepped out of the wide door of the old church. They wore fringed buckskin trousers and buckskin shirts. And odd caps of deerskin with visors to shade the eyes and similar beaks behind to protect the neck. They had powder horns and bullet pouches slung over their shoulders and long rifles in their hands. They stepped aside as soon as they were out, carefully avoiding any gesture of menace. They simply stood, watching the helicopter which had landed in their village. Three other men followed them out. They, too, wore buckskins and the odd double-visored caps. One had a close-cropped white beard and on the shoulders of his buckskin shirt he wore the same beaks and on the shoulders of his buckskin shirt he wore the single silver bars of a first lieutenant of the vanished United States Army. He had a pistol on his belt. The pistol had the sore-handled grip of an automatic but it was a flintlock as were the rifles of the young men who stood so watchfully on either side of the door. Two middle-aged men accompanied the bearded man and the trio advanced towards the helicopter. See? Ludens opened the door and let down the steps. Picking up an auto-carbine he slung it and stepped out of the helicopter out a month behind him. They advanced to meet the party from the church, halting when they were about 20 feet apart. I must apologise, Lieutenant, for dropping in on you so unceremoniously. Ludens stopped, wondering if the man with the white beard understood a word of what he was saying. The natural way to come in when you travel in the air, the old man replied. At least you came in openly. I can promise you a better reception than you got at the city to the west of us a couple of days ago. Now how did you know that we had trouble in the day before yesterday, Ludens demanded? The old man's eyes sparkled with childlike pleasure. That surprises you, my dear sir. In a moment, I dare say you have a nasty rip in the left leg of your trousers and the cloth around it is stained with blood. Through the rip, I perceive a bandage. Obviously, you have suffered a recent wound. I further observe that the side of your fly machine bears recent scratches as though from the spears or throwing hatchets of the scourers. Evidently, they attacked you as you were landing. It is fortunate that these cannibal devils are too stupid and too anxious for human flesh to exercise patience. Well, that explains how you knew we'd recently been attacked, Ludens told him. But how did you guess that it had been to the west of here, in a ruined city? I never guess. The oldster with a silver bar and the keystone-shaped red patch on his left shoulder replied. It is a shocking habit, destructive to the logical faculties. What seems strange to you is that I follow my train of thought. For example, the wheels and their framework under your flying machine are splashed with mud which seems to be predominantly brick dust mixed with plaster. Obviously, you landed recently in a dead city either during or after a rain. There was a rain here yesterday evening, the wind being from the west. Obviously, you followed behind the rain as it came up the river and now that I look at your boots I see traces of the same sort of mud around the soles and in front of the heels. But this is heartless of us keeping you standing here on a wounded leg sir. Come in and let our medic take a look at it. Well, thank you, Lieutenant. Ludens replied. But don't bother your medic. I've attended to the wound myself and it wasn't serious to begin with. You are a doctor? The white-haired man asked. Of sorts, a sort of general scientist. My name is Ludens. My friend, Mr. Altamont here is a scientist too. There was an immediate reaction. All three of the elders of the village and the young riflemen who had accompanied them exchanged glances of surprise. Ludens dropped his hand to the grip of his slung auto-carbine and Altamont sidled away from his partner. His hand moving as if by accident toward the butt of his pistol. The same thought was in both men's minds that these people might feel as the heritage of the war of two centuries ago a hostility to science and scientists. There was no hostility however in their manner as the old man came forward without a stretched hand. I am tenant Mycroft Jones the tuned leader here he said. This is Stamford Rawson our reader and Verna Hughes our tuned serge. This is his son Mary Hughes the tuned serge of the Irregulars. But coming to the HQ house gentlemen we have much to talk about. By this time the villagers had begun to emerge from the old log cabins and rubble walled houses around the plaza and the old church. Some of them mostly the young men were carrying rifles and the majority were unarmed. About half of them were women in short deerskin skirts or homespun dresses. There were a number of children the younger ones almost completely naked. Sarge the old man told one of the youths post a guard over this flying machine don't let anybody meddle with it and have all the non-coms and techs report here on the double. He turned and shouted up at the truncated steeple Atherton sound all clear a horn up in the belfry began blowing apparently to advise the people who had run from the fields into the forest that there was no danger. They went through the open doorway of the old stone church and entered the big room inside. The building had evidently once been gutted by fire two centuries ago but portions of the wall had been restored. The floor had been replaced by one of rough planks and there was a plank ceiling at about 10 feet. The room was apparently used as a community centre. There were a number of benches and chairs all very neatly made and along one wall out of the way 10 or 15 long tables had been stacked the tops in a pile and the trestles on the tops the walls were decorated with trophies of weapons 12 rifles and M16 submachine guns all in good clean condition a light machine rifle two bazookas among them were cruder weapons stone and metal tipped spears and clubs the work of the wild men of the woods a stairway led to the second floor and it was up this stairway the man who bore the title of tune leader conducted them to a small room furnished with a long table a number of chairs and several big wooden chests bound with iron sit down gentlemen the tune leader invited going to a cupboard and producing a large bottle stoppered with a corn cob and a number of small cups it's a little early in the day he went on but this is a very special occasion you smoke a pipe I take it he asked Altamont then try some of this of our own growth and curing he extended a dough skin moccasin which seemed to be the tobacco container Altamont looked at the thing dubiously then filled his pipe from it the oldster drew his pistol pushed a little wooden plug into the vent added some tow to the priming and aiming at the wall snapped it evidently at that time the formality of plugging the vent had been overlooked there were a number of holes in the wall there this time however the pistol didn't go off the old man shook out the smouldering tow blew it into flame and lit a candle from it offering the like to Altamont Ludens got out a cigar and lit it from the candle the others filled and lighted pipes the tune leader reprimed his pistol then holstered it took off his belt and laid it aside an example the others followed they drank ceremoniously and then seated themselves at the table as they did two more men entered the room they were introduced as Alexander Barrett the gunsmith and Stanley Markovich the distiller the tune leader began by asking you come then are you from Utah? the gunsmith interrupted suspiciously why no we're from Arizona a place called Fort Ridgway Ludens said the others nodded in the manner of people who wished to conceal ignorance it was obvious that none of them had ever heard of Fort Ridgway or Arizona either you say you come from a fort then the walls aren't over yet sigh shoes asked the walls have been over for a long time you know how terrible they were you know how few in all the countries were left alive Ludens said none that we know of beside ourselves and the scourers until you came the tune leader said we have found only a few small groups in the whole country who have managed to save anything of the old times most of them lived in little villages and cultivated land a few had horses or cows none that we have ever found before made guns and powder for themselves but they remembered that they were men and did not eat one another whenever we find a group of people like this we try to persuade them to let us help them why the tune leader asked why do you do this for people that you have never met before what do you want from them from us in return for your help he was speaking to Altamont rather than to Ludens it seemed obvious that he believed Altamont to be the leader and Ludens the subordinate because we are trying to bring back the best of the old times Altamont told him look you have had troubles here so have we many times years when the crops didn't didn't he looked at Ludens aware that his partner should be talking now and also suddenly aware that Ludens had recognized the situation and left the leadership up to him years that the crops failed years of storms or floods troubles with those beast men in the woods and you were alone as we were with no one to help we want to put all men who are still men in touch with one another so that they can help each other in trouble and work together if this isn't done it's different from beasts will soon be no more he's right one of us alone is helpless the reader said he's only in the tune that there is strength he wants to organize a tune of all tunes that's about it we are beginning to make helicopters like the one Ludens and I came in we'll finish your community with one or more of them we can give you a radio so that you can communicate with other communities we can give you rifles and machine guns and ammunition to fight the scourers did you call them and we can give you atomic engines so that you can build machines for yourselves some of our people Alex Barrett here the gunsmith and Stan Markovich the distiller and Harrison Grant the iron worker get their living by making things how'd they make out after your machines came in here Werner Hughes asked we've thought of that we had that problem with other groups we've helped Ludens said in some communities everybody owns everything in common so we don't have much of a problem is that the way you do it here well no if a man makes a thing or digs it out of the ruins or catches it in the woods it's his then we'll work out some way give the machines to the people who are already or something like that we'll have to talk it over with you and with the people concerned how is it you took so long finding us Alex Barrett asked it's been 200 or so years since the wars Alex you see but you do not observe the tune leader rebuked these people have their flying machines which are highly complicated mechanisms they would have to make tools and machines to make them and tools and machines to make those tools and machines they would have to find materials often going in search of them the marvel is not that they took so long but that they did it so quickly that's right Altamont said originally Fort Ridgway was a military research and development centre as the country became disorganised the government set this project up to develop ways of improvising power and transportation and communication methods and extracting raw materials if they'd had a little more time they might have saved the country as it was they were able to keep themselves alive and keep something like civilisation going at the fort while the whole country was breaking apart around them then when the rocket stopped falling they started to rebuild fortunately more than half the technicians at the fort were women so there was no question of them dying out but it's only been in the last 20 years that we've been able to make nuclear electric engines and this is the first time any of us have gotten east of the Mississippi how did your group manage to survive Ludens asked you call it the toon I suppose that's what the word platoon has become with time you were originally a military platoon PLATOON the white-bearded man said of all the unpardonable stupidities of course that's what it was and the title tenant was originally LOO tenant I know that though we have dropped all use of the first part of the word but that should have led me if I had used my wits to deduce platoon from toon the tenant took his head in dismay at the stupidity and Ludens found himself forced to say one syllable like that could have come from many words chapter 4 the tenant smiled at Ludens and said your courtesy does not excuse our stupidity we know our history and we should have identified the word accurately yes we were originally a platoon of soldiers 200 years ago at the time when the wars ended the old toon and the first tenant the powers and their sir to Ludens is a word we cannot trace we have no idea what they were in any event the powers were all killed by a big bomb and the first tenant Lieutenant Gilbert Dunbar took his platoon and started to march to DC where the government was but there was no government anymore they fought with people along the way when they needed food or ammunition or animals to pull their wagons they took them and killed those who tried to prevent them other people joined the toon and when they found women they wanted they took them they did all sorts of things that would have been crimes if there had been any law but since there was no law it was obvious that they could do no crime the first tenant lew tenant kept his men together because he had the books each evening at the end of each day's march he read to his men out of them Altamont knew without looking at his associate that Ludens were being conspicuously jotting down notes the last was an item the sociologist would be sure to record the white bearded tenant had pronounced that reference to a written testament in capital letters the story was continuing finally they came here there had been a town here but it had been burned and destroyed and there were people camping in the ruins some of them fought and were killed others came in and joined the platoon at first they built shelters around this building and made this their fort then they cleared away the ruins and built new houses when the cartridges for the rifles began to get scarce they began to make gunpowder and new rifles like these we are using now to shoot without cartridges Lieutenant Dunbar did this out of his own knowledge because there was nothing in the books about making gunpowder the guns in the books are rifles and shotguns and revolvers and air guns except the air guns which we haven't been able to make these all shots cartridges as with your people we did not die out because we too had women neither did we increase greatly too many were died or killed young but several times we had to tear down the wall and rebuild it to make room inside for more houses and we've been clearing out a little more land for the fields each year we still read and follow the teachings of the books we have made laws for ourselves out of them there was a silence during which Altamont felt himself to be the focus of attention not obtrusively but nonetheless insistently however this was Ludensfield and Altamont preferred not to speak and we are waiting for the slain and risen one Lieutenant Jones added and there was no doubt that he was looking at Altamont intently it is impossible that he will not sooner or later deduce the existence of this community if he has not done so already again the silence and lack of movement broken by Ludens this time when he picked up the candle to relight his cigar mentally Altamont thanked his partner well sir the tune leader changed the subject abruptly enough of this talk about the past if I understand rightly it is a future in which you gentlemen are interested he pushed back the cuff of his hunting shirt and looked at an old and worn wrist watch eleven hundred we'll have lunch shortly this afternoon you will meet the other people of the tune and this evening at eighteen hundred we'll have a mess together then when we have everyone together we can talk over your offer to help us and decide what it is that you can give us that we can use you spoke a while ago of what you could do for us in return Altamont said he knew that now he would have to be the one to stress their original mission Ludens would probably be so fascinated by the society that sociologists might never remember the primary reason for coming to Pittsburgh there's one thing you can do no further away than tomorrow if you're willing he had no time to wonder at the interchange of glances around the table before the tune leader said and that is in Pittsburgh somewhere there is an underground crypt full of books not printed and bound books but spools of microfilm do you know what that is the men of the tune shook their heads Altamont continued there are spools on which strips of film are wound and on which pictures have been taken of books each by page we can make other larger pictures from them big enough to read oh photographs which you can enlarge I can understand that you mean you can make many copies of them that's right and you shall have copies as soon as we can take the originals back to Fort Ridgeway where we have the equipment for enlarging them but while we have information which will help us to find the crypt where the books are which would help in getting it open of course this is wonderful copies of the books the reader exclaimed we thought that we had the only one left in the world not just the books other books the tune leader told him the books mention in the books but of course we will help you you have a map to show where they are not a map just some information check out the location of the crypt a ritual Stanford Rawson said happily of course end of part one of the return by H.Beam Piper part two of the return by H.Beam Piper read by Reynard this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the return by H.Beam Piper chapter five they lunch together at the house of Toon Sarge Hughes with the tune leader and the reader and five or six of the leaders of the community the food was plentiful but Altamont found himself wishing that the first book they found in the Carnegie Library crypt would be a cookbook in the afternoon he and Ludens separated Ludens attached himself to the tenant the reader and an old woman Irene Klein who was almost a hundred years old and was the repository and arbiter of most of the community's oral legends Altamont on the other hand started with Alex Barrett and Mordechai Rizzi the miller to inspect the gun shop and the grist mill they were later joined by half a dozen more of the village craftsmen and so also visited the forge and foundry the saw mill and the wagon shop Altamont additionally looked at the flume a rough structure of logs lined with sheet aluminium and at the nitriary a shed roofed pit in which potassium nitrate was extracted from the community's animal refuse but he reversed matters when it came to visiting the powder mill on the island he became the host and took them by helicopter to the island and then for a trip up the river the guests were a badly scared lot for the first few minutes as they watched the ground receding under them through the transparent plastic nose then when nothing serious seemed to be happening exhilaration took the place of fear by the time they set down on the tip of the island the eight men were confirmed aviation enthusiasts the trip up river was an even bigger success the high point coming when Altamont set his controls for hover pointed out a snarl of driftwood in the stream and allowed his passengers to fire one of the machine guns at it the lead balls of their own powder rifles would have plunked into the water log wood without visible effect the copper jacketed machine gun bullets ripped it to splinters they returned for a final visit to the distillery awed by what they had seen Chapter 6 Monty I don't know what the devil to make of this crowd Ludens said that evening after the feast when they had entered the helicopter and were preparing to retire we've run into some weird communities that locked down in New Mexico who live in the church and claim that they have a divine mission to redeem the world by prayer fasting and flagellation or the blackout boys in Detroit Altamont interrupted he had good reason to remember them that's understandable Ludens said after what their ancestors went through in the last war and so are the others in their own way but this crowd here Ludens put down his cigar and began chewing on his moustache a sure sign that he was more than puzzled he was a very worried man Altamont respected his partner's abilities in this area however, he also knew that the best way to get his friend to work any problem was to have him do it in conversation what has you stopped Jim? number of things Monty they're hard to explain because the sociologist shrugged winced a little as the gesture pushed his leg down on the edge of his bunk well let me just mention them these people are the descendants of an old United States Army platoon but they have a fully developed religion centered on a slain and resurrected God now Monty with all due respect to the old US Army that just doesn't work normally it would take thousands of years for a slain God religion to develop and then only in a special situation from the field fertility magic of primitive agriculturalists well you saw those people's fields from the air some members of that old platoon were men who knew the latest methods of scientific farming they didn't need naive fairy tales about the planting and germination of seed sure enough this religion isn't just a variation of Christianity absolutely not in the first place these sacred books cannot be the Bible you heard Tennant Jones say that they mentioned firearms that used cartridges that means they can't be older than 1860 at the earliest and in the second place this slain God wasn't crucified or put to death by any force he was crucified or put to death by any form of execution he perished together with his enemy in combat and both God and Devil were later resurrected Ludens picked up his cigar again by the way the enemy is supposed to be the master mind back of these cannibal savages in the woods and also in the ruins did you get to look at these sacred books or find out what they might be discussededly every time I brought up the question they evaded me the Tennant sent the reader out to bring in this old lady Irene Klein she was a perfect goldmine of information about the history and traditions of the platoon by the way and then he sent the reader out on some other errand and doubtedly to pass the word around not to talk to us about their religion I don't get that they gave me everything their gun shop their powder mill their defences everything he smoked in silence for a moment then added in an apologetic tone Tim I'm sure you've thought of this the slain god couldn't be the original platoon commander could he I've thought of it and he isn't Monty nope definitely not I have the greatest respect for his memory he graved regularly drank toasts to him and so on but he hasn't been deified they got the idea for this god of theirs out of the sacred books Ludens put the cigar down again and returned to chewing his moustache Monty this has me worried like the devil I believe that they suspect that you are the slain and risen one Altamont considered the idea then nodded slowly could be at that I know the tenant came up to me very respectfully and said I hope you don't think sir that I was presumptuous in trying to display my humble deductive abilities to you what did you say Ludens demanded rather sharply told him certainly not that he'd used a good quick method of demonstrating that he and his people weren't like those mindless subhumans in the woods that was all right Ludens approved the story's returned I don't know how we're going to handle this Jim how about that pals business is there something there Monty Ludens voice was dryly chiding as he took a pad of paper and scribbled briefly take a look and figure for yourself Altamont looked at the paper Ludens had simply printed the first three letters of the word in capitals and separated each letter with a period ouch yes of course that's what an infancy platoon would be guarding go ahead Jim this is in your end of our business I'll stay out of it and especially I'll keep my mouth shut I don't think you'll be able to Ludens said sobly as things stand now they only suspect that you are their deity and that means this we're on trial here we've been in spots like this before Jim Altamont reminded his friend not like this Monty and let me explain I get the impression here that logic not faith is a supreme religious virtue and get this Monty because it's something practically unheard of skepticism is a religious obligation not a sin I wish I knew Chapter 7 Tenant's Mycroft Jones Reader, Stamford Rawson Toonsage, Verna Hughes and his son, Murray Hughes sat around the bare-topped table in the room on the second floor of the HQ house a lighted candle flickered in the cool breeze that came in through the open window throwing their shadows back and forth on the walls past the tantalus Murray the tenant said and the youngest of the four handed the corn cob corked bottle to the eldest tenant Jones filled his cup and then sat staring at it while Verna Hughes thrust his pipe into the toe of the moccasin and filled it finally the tenant drank about half the clear wild plum brandy gentlemen I'm baffled he confessed we have three alternate possibilities here and we dare not disregard any of them either this man who calls himself outamont is truly he or his is merely what we are asked to believe one of the community of men like ours with more of the old knowledge than we possess you know my views Verna Hughes said I cannot believe that he was more than a man as we are a great, a good, a wise man but a man and mortal let's not go into that now the reader emptied his cup and took the bottle filling it again do you know my views too I hold that he is no longer upon earth in the flesh but lives in the spirit and is only with us in the spirit but you said that there were three possibilities none of which can be eliminated what was your third possibility tenant that they are creatures of the enemy perhaps one or the other of them is the enemy reader Rawson, lifting his cup to his lips almost strangled the Hughes' father and son stared at tenant Jones in horror the enemy with such weapons and resources Murray Hughes gasped then he emptied his cup and refilled it no, I can't believe that he would have struck before this and wiped us all out not necessarily Murray the tenant replied until he became convinced that his agents, the scourers could do nothing against us he would bide his time he sits motionless like a spider at the centre of the web he does little himself his agents are numerous or perhaps he wishes to recruit us into this hellish organisation it is a possibility the reader admitted and one which we can neither accept or reject safely and we must learn the truth as soon as possible if this man is really he we must not spurn him on mere suspicions if he is a man come to help us we must accept his help if he is speaking the truth the people who sent him could do wonders for us and the greatest wonder would be to make us act again a part of a civilised community and if he is the enemy Rawson left the sentence unfinished but his face was grim but if he is really he Murray said a little diffidently he was not yet accustomed to being included in the council of the elders I think we are on trial what do you mean son oh I see of course I don't believe that he is but that's mere doubt not negative certainty however if I'm wrong if this man is truly he we will penetrate his disguise a very pretty problem gentlemen the tenant said smacking his lips over his brandy for all that it may be a deadly serious one for us there is of course nothing we can do tonight but tomorrow we have promised to help our visitors whoever they may be in searching for this crypt in the city Murray you were to be in charge of the detail that was to accompany him carry on as arranged and say nothing of our suspicions but advise your men to keep a sharp watch on the strangers that they may learn all they can from them Stanford you and Werner and I will go along we should if we have any wits at all observe something Chapter 8 listen to this infernal thing outermont raged wielding a gold plated spade handled with oak from an original rafter of the congressional library one afternoon last week one afternoon last week he cursed luredly why couldn't that blasted magazine say what afternoon I've gone over a lot of 20th century copies of that magazine and that expression was a regular cliche with them Ludens looked over his shoulder at the photo-statted magazine page well we know it was between June 13 and 19 inclusive he said a picture of the university president complete with gold plated spade breaking ground call it Wednesday the 16th over there is the tip of the shadow of the old cathedral of learning about a hundred yards away there are so many inexactitudes that one will probably cancel out the other that's so and it's also pretty futile getting angry at somebody who's been dead 200 years but why couldn't they say Wednesday or Monday or Saturday or whatever Monty checked back in the astronomical handbook and the photo-statted pages of the old almanac then looked over his calculations all right here is the angle of the shadow and the compass bearing I had a look yesterday when I was taking the local citizenry on that junket the old baseball diamond at Forbes fields is plainly visible and I located the ruins of the cathedral of learning from that here's the above sea level altitude of the top of the tower after you've landed us go up this altitude use the barometric altimeter not the radar and hold position Ludens leaned forward from the desk to the contraption Altamont had rigged up in the nose of the helicopter one of the telescope sighted hunting rifles clamped in a vice with a compass and a spirit level under it rifle was pointing downward at the correct angle now he asked good then all I have to do is to hold the helicopter steady keep it at the right altitude level and pointed in the right direction and watch through the sight while you move the flag around and direct you by radio simple if I had been born quintuplets Mr. Altamont Dr. Ludens a voice outside the helicopter called are you ready for us now Altamont went to the open door and looked out the old tune leader the reader tune Sarge Hughes his son and four young men in buck skins with slung rifles were standing outside I have decided the tenant said Mr. Rawson and Sarge Hughes and I would be of more help than an equal number of young men we may not be as active but we do know the old ruins better especially the paths and hiding places of the scourers these four young men you probably met last evening but it will be no harm to introduce them again Birdie Edwards Sholto Jimenez Jefferson Burns Murdo Olson very pleased tenant gentlemen I met all of you young men last evening and I remember you Altamont said now if you're a crowd in here I'll explain what we're going to try to do he showed them the old picture you see where the shadow of a tall building falls he asked we know the heights and location of this building Dr. Ludens will hold this helicopter at exactly the position of the top of the building and aim through the sights of the rifle there one of you will have this flag in his hand and will move it back and forth Dr. Ludens will tell us when the flag is in sight of the rifle he'll need a good pair of lungs to do that Verne Hughes commented he'll use the radio a portable set on the ground and the helicopter's radio set, Altamont said to his surprise he was met with looks of incomprehension he had not supposed that these people would have lost all memory of radio communication why that's wonderful the reader exclaimed when the explanation was concluded you can talk directly how much better than just sending a telegram but finding the crypt by the shadow that's exactly like the Murray Hughes began then stopped short immediately he began talking about the rifle that was to be used as a surveying transit comparing it with the ones in the big first floor room at the HQ house locating the point where the shadow of the old cathedral of learning had fallen proved easier than either Altamont or Ludens had expected the towering building was now a tumbled mass of slagged rubble but it was quite possible to determine its original centre and with the old data from the excellent reference library at Fort Ridgway its height above sea level was known after a little jockeying the helicopter came to a hovering stop and the slanting barrel of the rifle in the vice pointed downward along the line of the shadow that had been cast on that afternoon in June 1993 the crosshairs of the scope site centred almost exactly on the spot Altamont had estimated on the map guiding himself by peering through the rifle site Ludens brought the helicopter slanting down to land on the sheet of fused glass that had once been a grassy campus well, this is probably it Altamont said we didn't have to bother fussing around with that flag after all that hump over there looks as though it had been a small building and there's nothing corresponding to it on the city map that may be the bunker over the stair head to the crypt they began unloading equipment a small portable nuclear electric conversion unit a powerful solenoid hammer crowbars and entrenching tools tins of blasting plastic they took out the two hunting rifles and the auto carbine and Altamont showed the young men of Murray Hughes Detail how to use them if you'll pardon me sir the tenant said to Altamont I think it would be a good idea if your companion went up in the flying machine and circled over us to keep watch for the scourers there are quite a few of them particularly further up the rivers to the east where the damage was not so great and they can find cellars and shelters and buildings to live in good idea that way we won't have to put out guards Altamont said from the looks of this we'll need everybody to help dig into that thing hand out one of those portable radios Jim and go up to about a thousand feet if you see anything suspicious give us a yell then spray it with bullets and find out what it is afterward they waited until the helicopter had climbed to position and was circling above and then turned their attention to the place where the sheets of fused earth and stone bulged upward it must have been almost ground zero of one of the hydrogen bombs the wreckage of the cathedral learning had fallen predominantly to the north and the Carnegie library was tumbled to the east I think the entrance would be on this side toward the library Altamont said let's try it to begin with he used a solenoid hammer slowly pounding a hole in the glaze and placed a small charge of the plastic explosive chunks of the lava like stuff pelted down between the little mound and the huge one of the old library blowing a hole six feet in diameter and the two and a half feet deep revealing concrete bonded with crushed steel mill flag we missed the door Altamont said that means we'll have to tunnel in through who knows how much concrete well he used a second and larger charge after digging a hole a foot deep when he and his helpers came up to look they found a large mass of concrete blown out and solid steel behind it Altamont cut two more holes one on either side of the blown out place and fired a charge in each of them bringing down more concrete he found he hadn't missed the door after all it had merely been concreted over a few more shots cleared it and after some work they got it open there was a room inside concrete floored and entirely empty Altamont stood in the doorway and inspected the interior with his flashlight he heard somebody behind him say something about a most peculiar sort of dark lantern across the small room on the opposite wall was a bronze plaque the plaque carried quite a lengthy inscription including the names of all the persons and institutions participating in the microfilm project the history department had the thought would be interested in that but the only thing that interested Altamont was a statement that the floor had been laid over at the trap door leading to the vault where the microfilms were stored he went outside to the radio hello Jim, we're inside but the films were stored in an underground vault and so we had to tear up a concrete floor he said go back to the village and gather up all the men you can carry I don't want to use explosives inside the interior of the crypt oughtn't to be damaged besides, I don't know what a blast in there might do to the film and I don't want to take any chances no of course not how thick do you think the floor is haven't the least idea plenty thick I would guess those films would have to be well buried to shield them from radioactivity we can expect that it will take some time alright I'll be back as soon as I can the helicopter turned and went windmilling away over what had been the golden triangle down the Ohio Altamont went back to the little concrete bunker and sat down lighting his pipe very hues and his four riflemen spread out one circling around the great glazed butt that had been the cathedral of learning another climbing to the top of the old library and the others taking positions to the south and east Altamont sat in silence smoking his pipe and trying to form some conception of the wealth under that concrete floor it was no use Jim Ludens probably understood a little more clearly what those books would mean to the world of today and what they could do towards shaping the world of the future there was a library at Fort Ridgway and it was an excellent one for its purpose in 1996 when the rockets had come crashing down it had contained the cream of the world's technical knowledge and very little else there was only a little fiction a few books of ideas just enough to give the survivors a tantalising glimpse of their fathers but now a rifle banged to the south and east and banged again either Murray Hughes or Birdie Edwards it was one of the two hunting rifles from the helicopter on the heels of the reports they heard a voice shouting Scourers! a lot of them coming from up the river a moment later there was a light whip crack of one of the muzzle loaders from the old Carnegie library and Altamont could see a wisp of grey-white smoke drifting away from where it had been fired Altamont jumped to his feet and raced to the radio picking it up and bringing it to the bunker Tennant Jones old reader Rawson and Verna Hughes had caught up their rifles the Tennant was shouting Come on in everybody! Come on in! the boy on top of the library began scrambling down another came running from the direction of the half demolished cathedral of learning a third from the baseball field that had served as Altamont's point of reference the afternoon before the fourth Murray Hughes was running in from the ruins of the old Carnegie tech building and Birdie Edwards sped up the main road from Schenley Park once, twice as he ran Murray Hughes paused turned and fired behind him then his pursuers came into sight they ran erect they wore a few rags of skin garments and they carried spears and hatchets and clubs so they were probably classifiable as men but their hair was long and unkempt and their bodies were almost black with dirt and from the sun a few of them were yelling but most of them ran silently they ran more swiftly than the boys they were pursuing the distance between them narrowed every moment there were at least 50 of them Verna Hughes' rifle barked one of them dropped as coolly as though he were shooting squirrels instead of his son's pursuers he dropped the butt of the rifle to the ground poured a charge of powder patched a ball and rammed it home replaced the ramrod Tennant Jones fired then and Birdie Edwards joined them beginning to shoot with a telescope sighted rifle the young man who had been north of the cathedral of learning had one of the auto carbines luckily Altamont had providentially set the control for semi-auto before giving it to him he dropped one knee and began to empty the clip shooting slowly and deliberately picking off the runners who were in the lead the boy who had started to climb down off the library halted fired his flintlock and began reloading it Altamont sitting down and propping his elbows on his knees through both hands the automatic which was his only weapon emptying the magazine and replacing it the last three savages he shot in the back they had had enough and were running for their lives so far everybody was safe the boy in the library came down to replace where the wall had fallen Murray Hughes stopped running and came slowly toward the bunker putting a fresh clip into his rifle the others came drifting in Altamont calling Ludens the scientists from Fort Ridgeway were saying to the radio Monty to Jim can you hear me silence we'd better get ready for another attack Birdie Edwards said there's another gang coming from down that way I never saw so many scourers maybe there's a reason Birdie Tenant Jones said the enemy is after big game this time Jim where the devil are you Altamont fairly yelled into the radio and as he did he knew the answer Ludens was in the village away from the helicopter gathering tools and workers nothing to do but keep on trying here they come reader Rawson warned how far can these rifles be depended on Birdie Edwards wanted to know Altamont straightened saw the second band of savages approaching about 400 yards away start shooting now he said aimed the upper part of their bodies the two auto loading rifles began to crack after the first few shots the savages took cover evidently they understood the capabilities and limitations of the vigilages flintlocks but this was a terrifying surprise to them Jim Altamont was almost praying into the radio come in Jim what is it Monty I was outside Altamont told him those fellows you had with you yesterday think they could be trusted to handle the guns a couple of them are here with me Ludens inquired take a chance on it it won't cost anything but my life and that's not worth much at the present alright hold on we'll be there in a few minutes Ludens is bringing the helicopter Altamont told the others all we have to do is hold on here until he comes a naked savage raised his head from behind what might 200 years ago have been a cement park bench and he was only 100 yards away Rita Rawson promptly killed him and began reloading I think you're right Tenant he said the scourers have never attacked him bands like this before they must have a powerful reason to think of only one that's what I'm beginning to think too at least we've eliminated the third of your possibilities Tenant and I think probably the second as well Altamont wondered what they were double talking about there wasn't any particular mystery about the mass attack of the wild men to him debased as they were they still possessed speech and the ability to transmit experiences no matter how be clouded in superstition they still remembered that aircraft dropped bombs and bombs killed people and where people had been killed they would find fresh meat they had seen the helicopter circling about and had heard the blasting everyone in the area had been drawn to the scene as soon as Ludens had gone down the river but they seemed to have forgotten that aircraft carried guns although they did spring to their feet and start to run at the return of the helicopter however most of them did not run far Chapter 9 Altamont and Ludens shook hands many times in front of the HQ house and listened to many good wishes and repeated their promise to return most of the microfilmed books were to be stored in the old church they were taking with them only the catalogue and a few of the most important works finally they entered the helicopter the crowd shouted farewell as they rose Altamont, at the controls waited until they had gined 5,000 feet then turned on a compass course for Colony 3 I can't wait until we're in range of the fort Jim this is one report I really want to make he said of all the wonderful luck he went on and I don't know which is the more important finding these books or finding those people in a few years when we get them supplied and instructed in its use what's the matter Jim you should be even more excited than I am I'm not very happy about this Monty Ludens confessed I keep thinking about what's going to happen to them why? nothing's going to happen to them they're going to be given the means of producing more food keeping more of them alive giving them more leisure to develop themselves in Monty I saw the sacred books the juice what were they? it one volume a collection of works we have it at the fort and I've read it however missed all those clues you see Monty what I'm worried about is what's going to happen to those people when they find out that we're not really Sherlock Holmes and talk to Watson end of the return by H.Beam Piper