Apparently he had seen the biscuit and wanted it, for he flew down and came to rest a short distance away.

Steve tossed the biscuit outside on the ledge. The bird dove quickly, snapping it up with one hard thrust of his bill.

As Steve watched him fly off with the biscuit, he regretted having given away his only tangible evidence of the last weird hour. It was all too fantastic to believe! He looked up at the night sky and saw nothing but the two birds in flight. A chill swept over him. It was all a dream, wasn’t it? Nothing had actually happened. There were no such persons as Jay and Flick.

“… ALWAYS WORRYING ABOUT NOTHING”

5

Steve cooked a large meal. He opened tins of beef and peas and carrots and onions. He used garlic and herbs, trying to remember all that Pitch had told him about preparing a savory stew. Actually he was not hungry, although he knew that once the food was before him he would eat. To keep busy was his main objective. He did not want to think about his strange visitors any longer.

When he finally sat down to eat, he found the stew not at all to his liking and not at all like Pitch’s. Too much garlic. Too much thyme. But he scarcely paused between mouthfuls. It was as though he were willing to do anything, anything at all, to keep from thinking. The next stew would be better, he told himself. He’d been experimenting. He’d learned a lot. The next stew would be better. He’d go easy on the garlic, easy on the thyme.

Later he heated water and washed the dishes and pots. He dried them slowly, not certain what he could find to do next. He looked outside the cave. The evening sky was clear. There would be no cold rain tonight to chill him, no shivering. He heard the soft neighs of the mares calling their colts. Flame was quiet. There was not a sound from him, not even a hoofbeat.

When Steve had finished doing the dishes, he walked onto the ledge, where he could see the dark silhouettes of the band. His eyes followed their movements but his thoughts wavered and then rushed headlong past every mental barrier he had erected to keep himself from thinking of Jay and Flick. Surely their being here meant the destruction of all he held so priceless!

Why was it that he was so alarmed now, when he had willingly accepted them without fear only a short while ago? Was this the aftermath of all he had seen and experienced? Was this reality and the other a ghastly hoax, a scheme by which Jay and Flick had somehow warped his mind, making him see good where there was only evil?

He thought of the airship that had swept through the heavens like a second sun and had come to rest, invisible, on the water. Surely this craft with its slender cruisers was the most advanced, most secret weapon in the world! Jay had said he didn’t believe it had been seen before.

If the United States had developed it, he’d surely be taken to Washington.