Waldo closed his eyes; a look of seraphic suffering came over his face
‘Uncle Gus, suppose the deKalbs fail?
‘No matter. Ambulances store six times the normal reserve.
‘You're sure?
When Baldur began to feel weight, he started to whimper. Grimes spoke to him; he quieted down. But presently - days later, it seemed to Waldo - as the ship sank farther down into the Earth's gravitational field, the absolute acceleration necessarily increased, although the speed of the ship had not changed materially. The dog felt the weary heaviness creeping over his body. He did not understand it and he liked it even less; it terrified him. He began to howl
Waldo opened his eyes. ‘Merciful heavens!' he moaned. ‘Can't you do something about that? He must be dying.
‘I'll see.' Grimes undid his safety belt and swung himself across the tank. The shift in weight changed the balance of the load in the gimbals; Waldo was rocked against the side of the tank
‘Oh!' he panted. ‘Be careful.
‘Take it easy.' Grimes caressed the dog's head and spoke to him. When he had calmed down, Grimes grabbed a handful of hide between the dog's shoulders, measured his spot, and jabbed in a hypo. He rubbed the area. ‘There, old fellow! That will make you feel better.
Getting back caused Waldo to be rocked again, but he bore it in martyred silence
The ambulance made just one jerky manoeuvre after it entered the atmosphere. Both Waldo and the dog yelped. ‘Private ship~' the pilot yelled back. ‘Didn't heed my right-of-way lights.' He muttered something about women drivers
‘It wasn't his fault,' Grimes told Waldo. ‘I saw it.
The pilot set them down with exquisite gentleness in a clearing which had been prepared between the highway and Schneider's house. A party of men was waiting for them there; under Grimes's supervision they unslung the tank and carried Waldo out into the open air. The evolution was performed slowly and carefully, but necessarily involved some degree of bumping and uneven movement. Waldo stood it with silent fortitude, but tears leaked out from under his lowered lids
Once outside he opened his eyes and asked, ‘Where is Baldur?
‘I unstrapped him,' Grimes informed him, ‘but he did not follow us out.
Waldo called out huskily, ‘Here, Baldur! Come to me, boy.
Inside the car the dog heard his boss's voice, raised his head, and gave a low bark. He still felt that terrifying sickness, but he inched forward on his belly, attempting to comply. Grimes reached the door in time to see what happened
The dog reached the edge of his shelf and made a grotesque attempt to launch himself in the direction from which he had heard Waldo's voice. He tried the only method of propulsion he knew; no doubt he expected to sail through the door and arrest his flight against the tank on the ground. Instead he fell several feet to the inner floor plates, giving one agonized yelp as he did so, and breaking his fall most clumsily with stiffened forelegs
He lay sprawled where he had landed, making no noise, but not attempting to move. He was trembling violently
Grimes came up to him and examined him superficially, enough to assure him that the beast was not really hurt, then returned to the outside. ‘Baldur's had a little accident,' he told Waldo; ‘he's not hurt, but the poor devil doesn't know how to walk. You had best leave him in the ship.
Waldo shook his head slightly. ‘I want him with me. Arrange a litter.
Grimes got a couple of the men to help him, obtained a stretcher from the pilot of the ambulance, and undertook to move the dog. One of the men said, ‘I don't know as I care for this job. That dog looks vicious. Look't those eyes.
‘He's not,' Grimes assured him. ‘He's just scared out of his wits. Here, I'll take his head.
‘What's the matter with him? Same thing as the fat guy?
‘No, he's perfectly well and strong; he's just never learned to walk. This is his first trip to Earth.
‘Well, I'll be a cross-eyed owl!
‘I knew a case like it,' volunteered the other. ‘Dog raised in Lunopolis - first week he was on Earth he wouldn't move -just squatted down, and howled, and made messes on the floor.
‘So has this one,' the first said darkly
They placed Baldur alongside Waldo's tub. With great effort Waldo raised himself on one elbow, reached out a hand, and placed it on the creature's head. The dog licked it; his trembling almost ceased. ‘There! There!' Waldo. whispered. ‘It's pretty bad, isn't it? Easy, old friend, take it easy.
Baldur thumped his tail
It took four men to carry Waldo and two more to handle Baldur. Gramps Schneider was waiting for them at the door of his house. He said nothing as they approached, but indicated that they were to carry Waldo inside. The men with the dog hesitated. ‘Him, too,' he said
When the others had withdrawn - even Grimes returned to the neighbourhood of the ship - Schneider spoke again. ‘Welcome, Mr Waldo Jones.
‘I thank you for your welcome, Grandfather Schneider.
The old man nodded graciously without speaking. He went to the side of Baldur's litter. Waldo felt impelled to warn him that the beast was dangerous with strangers, but some odd restraint - perhaps the effect of that enervating gravitational field - kept him from speaking in time. Then he saw that he need not bother
Baldur had ceased his low whimpering, had raised his head, and was licking Gramps Schneider's chin. His tail thumped cheerfully. Waldo felt a sudden tug of jealousy; the dog had never been known to accept a stranger without Waldo's specific injunction. This was disloyalty - treason! But he suppressed the twinge and coolly assessed the incident as a tactical advantage to him
Schneider pushed the dog's face out of the way and went over him thoroughly, prodding, thumping, extending his limbs. He grasped Baldur's muzzle, pushed back his lips, and eyed his gums. He peeled back the dog's eyelids. He then dropped the matter and came to Waldo's side. ‘The dog is not sick,' he said; ‘his mind confuses. What made it?
Waldo told him about Baldur's unusual background. Schneider nodded acceptance of the matter - Waldo could not tell whether he had understood or not - and turned his attention to Waldo. ‘It is not good for a sprottly lad to lie abed. The weakness - how long has it had you?
‘All my life, Grandfather.
'That is not good.' Schneider went over him as he had gone over Baldur. Waldo, whose feeling for personal privacy was much more intense than that of the ordinarily sensitive man, endured it for pragmatic reasons. It was going to be necessary, he felt, to wheedle and cajole this strange old creature. It would not do to antagonize him
To divert his own attention from the indignity he chose to submit to, and to gain further knowledge of the old quack, Waldo let his eyes rove the room. The room where they were seemed to be a combination kitchen-living room. It was quite crowded, rather narrow, but fairly long. A fireplace dominated the kitchen end, but it had been bricked up, and a hole for the flue pipe of the base-burner had been let into the chimney. The fireplace was lopsided, as an oven had been included in its left side. The corresponding space at the right was occupied by a short counter which supported a tiny sink. The sink was supplied with water by a small hand pump which grew out of the counter
Schneider, Waldo decided, was either older than he looked, which seemed incredible, or he had acquired his house from someone now long dead
The living room end was littered and crowded in the fashion which is simply unavoidable in constricted quarters. Books filled several cases, were piled on the floor, hung precariously on chairs. An ancient wooden desk, crowded with papers and supporting a long-obsolete mechanical typewriter, filled one corner. Over it, suspended from the wall, was an ornate clock, carved somewhat like a house. Above its face were two little doors; while Waldo looked at it, a tiny wooden bird painted bright red popped out of the left-hand door, whistled ‘Th-wu th-woo!' four times, and popped frantically back into its hole. Immediately thereafter a little grey bird came out of the right-hand door, said ‘Cuckoo' three times in a leisurely manner, and returned to its hole. Waldo decided that he would like to own such a clock; of course its pendulum-and-weight movement would not function in Freehold, but he could easily devise a one-g centrifuge frame to enclose it, wherein it would have a pseudo Earth-surface environment
It did not occur to him to fake a pendulum movement by means of a concealed power source; he liked things to work properly
To the left of the clock was an old-fashioned static calendar of paper. The date was obscured, but the letters above the calendar proper were large and legible: New York World's Fair - Souvenir of the World of Tomorrow. Waldo's eyes widened a little and went back to something he had noticed before, sticking into a pincushion on the edge of the desk. It was a round plastic button mounted on a pin whereby it could be affixed to the clothing. It was not far from Waldo's eyes; he could read the lettering on it:
FREE SILVER SIXTEEN TO ONE
Schneider must be - old! There was a narrow archway, which led into another room. Waldo could not see into it very well; the arch was draped with a fringe curtain of long strings of large ornamental beads
The room was rich with odours, many of them old and musty, but not dirty
Schneider straightened up and looked down at Waldo. ‘There is nought wrong with your body. Up get yourself and walk.
Waldo shook his head feebly. ‘I am sorry, Grandfather. I cannot.