They came to the for a town called Tenochitlan, some miles from Maya City. Calhoun off the to go through it.
Whoever had the name Maya for this had been in the of Yucatan, on Earth. There were many of such in a Med Ship's list of of call. Calhoun touched ground on that had been named for and when men the stars, and their with names by homesickness. There was a Tralee, and a Dorset, and an Eire. Colonists not took their world's name as a pattern and related names for and and chains. On Texia the landing-grid rose near a town called Corral and the meat-packing settlement was named Roundup.
Whatever the name Tenochitlan would have suggested, though, was by the town itself. It was small, with a local type of architecture. There were shops and some factories, and many private homes, some close together and others in the of gardens. In those gardens also there was and among the plants. There was no grass, the plants it, but now the plants themselves were dead. Except for the one class of killed things, however, was luxuriant.
But the little city was deserted. Its were empty, its houses untenanted. Some houses were locked up here, though, and Calhoun saw three or four shops stock in had been over the owners departed. He that either this town had been than the city, or else they they had time to in motion the were with the from the west.
Allison looked at the houses with keen, eyes. He did not to notice the of people. When Calhoun on the great road the little city, Allison the of dark-green plants with much the same of interest.
"Interesting," he said when Tenochitlan and to a speck. "Very interesting! I'm in land. Real property, that's my business. I've a land-owning on Thanet Three. I've some on Dorset, too, and elsewhere. It just to me: what's all this land and the worth, with the people all away?"
"What," asked Calhoun, "are the people who've run?"
Allison paid no attention. He looked shrewd. Thoughtful.
"I came here to land," he said. "I'd to some hundreds of square miles. I'd more if the price were right. But—as are, it looks like the price of land ought to go a bit. Quite a bit!"
"It depends," said Calhoun, "on there's left alive to sell it to you, and what of thing has happened."
Allison looked at him sharply.
"Ridiculous!" he said authoritatively. "There's no question of their being alive!"
"They there might be," Calhoun. "That's why they ran away. They they'd be safe where they ran to. I they are."
Allison the comment. His and shrewd. He was not by the of the people of Maya. His mind was with of that from the of a man of business.
The car onward. The of dark green past to the rear. The was deserted, just three of road, straight, going on to the horizon. They on by and of miles, each wide to allow four ground-cars to by side. The was to allow all the produce of all these to be taken to market or a plant at the possible speed and in any quantity. The same had allowed the to be the warning—whatever the was—arrived.
Fifty miles Tenochitlan there was a mile-long of for and trucks to the to market. There was no of life about the machinery, in a hour's to westward.
Then there was a city visible to the left. But it was not by this particular highway, but another. There was no of any movement in its streets. It moved along the to the left and rear. Presently it disappeared.
Half an hour later still, Murgatroyd said:
"Chee!"
He uneasily. A moment later he said "Chee!" again.
Calhoun his from the road. Murgatroyd looked unhappy. Calhoun ran his hand over the tormal's body. Murgatroyd pressed against him. The car on. Murgatroyd a little. Calhoun's hand the little animal's sharply, and then relax, and after a little again. Murgatroyd said almost hysterically:
"Chee-chee-chee-chee!"
Calhoun stopped the car, but Murgatroyd did not to be relieved. Allison said impatiently, "What's the matter?"
"That's what I'm trying to out," said Calhoun.
He Murgatroyd's pulse. The role of Murgatroyd in the Med Ship Esclipus Twenty was not only that of in the long, in overdrive. Murgatroyd was a part of the Med Service. His had been on a in the Deneb sector, and men had of them, to the high of the tormals. Presently it was that had for patients. They were in good health. They no from other animals; they no with else. The Med Service that a to and bacteria-caused diseases. Even into their only an immediate, of antibodies, so that couldn't be any disease. Which was of value to the Med Service.
Now every Med Ship that be with a a small, affectionate, of the tribe. Men liked them, and they men. And when, as sometimes happened, by or the of nature, a new of appeared in society—why—tormals it. They produced to it. Men the and them, and they were available to all the who needed them. So a great many millions of alive, were little animals with a gift of good health.
Calhoun looked at his sweep-second watch, the that Murgatroyd displayed. They with in Murgatroyd's heartbeat, at two-second intervals. The of the just about a second.
"But I don't it!" said Calhoun.
Murgatroyd again and said, "Chee-chee!"
"What's going on?" Allison with the of a very man indeed. "If the beast's sick, he's sick! I've got to find—"
Calhoun opened his and through it until he what he needed. He put a into Murgatroyd's mouth.
"Swallow it!" he commanded.
Murgatroyd resisted, but the down. Calhoun him sharply. Murgatroyd's was delicate, but it was dependable. Anything that might be poisonous, Murgatroyd's rejected and emphatically.
The down.
"Look!" said Allison indignantly. "I've got to do! In this case I have millions of credits, in cash, to pay on of land and factories. I ought to make some good deals! And I that that's as as anything else you can think of! It's a more than a with a belly-ache!"
Calhoun looked at him coldly.
"Do you own land on Texia?" he asked.
Allison's mouth open. Extreme and appeared on his face. As a of the unease, his hand to the pocket in which he'd put a blaster. He didn't it out. Calhoun's left around and landed. He took Allison's pocket and it away among the of olive-green plants. He returned to of Murgatroyd.
In five minutes the diminished. In ten, Murgatroyd frisked. But he to think that Calhoun had done something remarkable. In the of he said:
"Chee!"
"Very good," said Calhoun. "We'll go ahead. I you'll do as well as we do—for a while."
The car the the air it above the ground. It on, still to the eastward. But Calhoun more slowly now.
"Something was Murgatroyd spasms," he said coldly. "I gave him to stop them. He's more than we are, so he to a we haven't noticed yet. But I think we'll notice it presently."
Allison to be at the him. It appeared to be that might hands on him.
"What the has that to do with me?" he angrily. "And what did you me for? You're going to pay for this!"
"Until I do," Calhoun told him, "you'll be quiet. And it have the to do with you. There was a Med Service once—a little device to produce of muscles. It was useful for re-starting stopped without the need of an operation. It the of that were too slow or irregular. But some had a idea and got a to link that to ground currents. I you know that businessman!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Allison. But he was tense.
"I do," said Calhoun unpleasantly. "I a public health on Texia a of years ago. The whole is a single, gigantic, cattle-raising enterprise. They don't use metal fences—the are too big to be stopped by such things. They don't use cowboys—they cost money. On Texia they use ground-induction and the Med Service together to as fences. They act like fences, though they're through the ground. Cattle when they try to them. So they back. So men them. They move them from place to place by the fences, which are in the ground. The have to keep moving or be by the moving fence. They're into the by ground-induction fields! That's the on Texia, where cattle. I think it's the on Maya, where people are like and out of their so the value of their and will drop,—so a land can bargains!"
"You're insane!" Allison. "I just on this planet! You saw me land! I don't know what I got here! How I?"
"You might have it," said Calhoun.
Allison an air of and dignity. Calhoun the car at very much less than the head-long he'd been to. Presently he looked at his hands on the wheel. Now and then the to his to twitch. At intervals, the skin on the of his hands. He at Allison. Allison's hands were clenched.
"There's a ground-induction in action, all right," said Calhoun calmly. "You notice? It's a and we're into it. If we were cattle, now, we'd turn around and move away."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" said Allison.
But his hands clenched. Calhoun the car still more. He to feel, all over his body, that every to at the same time. It was a sensation. His to too, with the rest, but one's has its own rate. Sometimes the normal with the twitch. Then his violently—so that it was painful. But often the of the came just after a normal contraction, and then it for a second. It missed a beat, and the was agony.
No animal would have pressed in the of such sensations. It would have long ago. No animal. Not Man.
Calhoun stopped the car. He looked at Murgatroyd. Murgatroyd was himself. He looked at Calhoun. Calhoun to him, but he spoke—with some difficulty—to Allison.
"We'll see—if this thing—builds up. You know that it's the Texia—trick. A ground-induction unit set up—here. It people—like cattle. Now we've—run into it.—It's people—like cattle."
He panted. His with the rest, so that his was with. But Murgatroyd, who'd been and Calhoun noticed anything wrong, was now and frisky. Medication had his to stimuli. He would be able to take a electric without to it.
But he be killed by one that was enough.
A anger Calhoun. Everything together. Allison had put his hand to his when Calhoun mentioned Texia. It meant that Calhoun what Allison to be true. A cattle-fence unit had been set up on Maya, and it was holding—like cattle—the people it had driven—like cattle. Calhoun with some what had been done. The of Maya with the would have been very mild. It would have been low-power, just to be noticed. It would have moved from west to east, slowly, and it would have a spot and there out. And it would have been a and an thing, and nobody would it on Maya. In a week it would almost be forgotten. But then there'd come a disturbance. And it would travel like the one; the length of the on which the lay, but stopping at the same spot as before, and then away to nothingness. And this also would have mysterious. But nobody would of it. There would be and much questioning, but it would be an natural event.
Probably the third use of the would be most disturbing. This time it would be painful. But it would move into the and through them and past them, and it would go the to where it had stopped and on two previous occasions.
The people of Maya would be and scared. But they that they it to the of Maya City, and moved toward the east at such-and-such a speed, and it so and no farther. And they would themselves to apply this out information.
It would not to any of them that they had learned how to be like cattle.
Calhoun, of course, only that this must have happened. But nothing else have taken place. Perhaps there were more than three of the moving to the people prepared to move past the place at which it always to nothingness. They might have been days apart, or apart, or months. There might have been by ones and then ones again.
But there was an across the here. Calhoun had into it. Every two the of his tensed. Sometimes his missed a at the time that his stopped, and sometimes it violently. It that the more and more unbearable.
He got out his kit, with hands that uncontrollably. He out the same he'd Murgatroyd. He took two of the pellets.
"In reason," he said coldly, "I ought to let you take what this thing would give you. But—here!"
Allison had panicked. The idea of a discomfort, of course, but it did not danger. The of a fence, designed for of men, was terrifying. Allison gasped. He movements. Calhoun himself moved erratically. For one and a out of two, he his muscles. For a second at a time, he not. But he a into Allison's mouth.
"Swallow it!" he commanded. "Swallow!"
The ground-car rested on the highway, which here on for a mile and then in a and then rose once more. The totally level to right and left came to an end here. Native trees grew, with long fronds. Brushwood much of the ground. That looked normal. But the lower, ground-covering was and rotting.
Allison upon the pellet. Calhoun a second upon him. Murgatroyd looked at one and then the other of the two men. He said:
"Chee? Chee?"
Calhoun in his seat, to keep alive. But he couldn't do anything about his heartbeat. The sun brightly, though now it was low, toward the horizon. There were clouds in the sky. A blew. Everything, to appearance, was peaceful and and upon this small world.
But in the area that beings had taken over there were which were still and and deserted, and somewhere—somewhere!—the population of the waited for the latest of a series of to come to an end. Up to this time the strange, creeping, had at one place, and moved slowly to another, and then and to be. But this was the and of the torments. And it hadn't ended. It hadn't diminished. After three days it at full at the place where it had stopped and died away.
The people of Maya were frightened. They couldn't return to their homes. They couldn't go anywhere. They hadn't prepared for an to last for days. They hadn't of food.
It to look as if they were going to starve.
