Chapter XI

Looping hairs around him indicated that his companions found the game most mirthful. Auckland struggled valiantly, but the mental pace was beginning to tell. He not only had to bear in mind what rules governed the hand he was playing now, but which rules carried over from before. And the shifting of wild cards with the timer, which was brought in every few deals, virtually had him gibbering.

Syeltan passed the cards to him and he looked at his pile of chips. If it could be called a pile, he thought. An orthodox hand was his only hope, yet he felt obliged to introduce something new.

A thought came to him and he smiled as he shuffled the cards. "There was a town on Earth, many years ago, where they played this variation with unwary persons," he said, "who thought they understood the game. Five cards were dealt, nothing was required to open, nothing wild and everyone was permitted to draw five new cards if he wished.

"Then, when the sucker--a term for a naive person who, I am afraid, was regarded as one to be cheated if possible--laid down his cards--somehow he always got a very good hand in these instances--someone else declared that he had a lallapaloozer, which beat everything. I hereby introduce the lallapaloozer--the first one counts--which is what some Earthmen call 2-4-6-8-10, suits irrelevant."

A glance around showed that the party found this interesting, and Auckland noticed that only one of the Vaec kept a pat hand. He drew three cards himself and put the last of his chips into the pot when his turn came to bet. At the showdown, Hcent spread out a perfect 2-4-6-8-10.

Auckland laid down his own hand, a pair of sevens, a three, jack, and eight, and said, "My lallapaloozer wins, friends."

"But excellent Roy," protested Hcent, "I have 2-4-6-8-10. Is that not what you called a lallapaloozer?"

"No, Hcent. If you will remember, I said, indeed, that the lallapaloozer beats everything and that _some_ Earthmen call 2-4-6-8-10 a lallapaloozer." He grinned. "But I didn't say that _I_ called 2-4-6-8-10 that; this is what I call a lallapaloozer." He indicated his own hand. "You neglected to inquire, just as I forgot to ask exactly when the timer would be stopped when showdown was called on Syeltan's deal."

He looked around and saw looping hairs everywhere. "Excellent Roy catch us all in sticky trap," said Ekem-ve. "Said clearly that naive person unwisely neglect to obtain necessary information. Lallapaloozer win as he call it."

It was a good pot, and he was well ahead now. Hcent had raised considerably on every possible occasion, and no one had dropped. He noticed that subsequent dealers neither cancelled the lallapaloozer nor changed its value. A few hands later, Phrecle and Rycur had been wiped out; but they watched with unabated fascination as the dizzy variations continued.

At the end of a particularly baffling one, wherein the degrees of wildness of the down cards in seven-card stud varied with the majority of suits of picture cards showing, he found that he had somehow managed to put together a royal flush. Only Syeltan fought it out with him, and then at the showdown, produced Auckland's own version of the lallapaloozer.

Auckland grinned and shook his head. "Sorry, Syeltan," he said, "but I distinctly stated that the first lallapaloozer counts. Only one is permitted a night."

The looping hairs around him looked as if they were tearing themselves out of their owners' heads as he gathered in the chips. Apparently nothing was too tricky or even childish for the Vaec. He remembered their fondness for that silly game called Red Moustache, and grinned as the deal came his way again.

He said, as he shuffled, "This is called Happy Dealer. The second rule in this hand is that you must follow the dealer exactly, or put a white chip into the pot. The third rule is that it will be played like seven card stud, eights wild up. The first rule you must deduce for yourself, but I will give you one hint: it has nothing to do with the cards you hold."

He then set up a mad system of knocking with different numbers of fingers and numbers of knocks, scratching his head, clearing his throat, bending forward to peer at cards at times, shifting his hole cards from one hand to another, and so on, which resulted in a flow of penalty chips into the pot. When showdown came, everyone was in to the hilt.

Auckland laid down his hand and said, "My friends, the pot is mine. I do not have to show my hand, as I told you that the first rule had nothing to do with the cards you held. The first rule of Happy Dealer is that the dealer wins. You should have declined to play."

As he suspected, he had not only won the game, but made a smashing hit with his tricks.

After the cards were put away, Ekem-ve suggested that some entertainment be provided for the guest, and he and Syeltan proceeded to put on a show of legerdemain that would make the finest terrestrial stage magician weep and tear his hair with envy. Despite his most skillful watching, through which he had managed to spot a great deal of stage magician's tricks, Auckland found himself completely baffled more often than not as to how they managed to make objects appear and disappear. And the shell game they showed him was magnificent, for the little white ball under the small raised ovals could not be compressed and slipped out from beneath a shell. Nor was there anything to make it adhere to the top of the shell when it was lifted. Nor was there a double shell. Nor could he see it being abstracted at any time.

Yet, it was never under the shell he lifted. On invitation, he tried to see if he could stump his hosts, and failed one hundred percent. Despite the fact that he was positive, at times, which shell contained the little white ball, there it was under a different shell which a Vaec lifted after brief scrutiny. And Ekem-ve assured him, when he asked directly, that none of them could see through the shells; none of them could smell the ball or hear it rattle, and none of them used any mechanical devices in order to detect its presence.

It couldn't be mind reading, either, he thought; he'd lost track of the ball several times when he shuffled the shells. Auckland lay on the comfortable mattress that Ekem-ve provided for him, and drew the light, warm blanket given him over him. The texture was something like silk and would either cling or lie softly upon him as he wished.

Auckland sighed and drifted off to sleep, wondering what the physical test would be.

* * * * *

In the morning, the party assembled again after a simple breakfast which Auckland found both palatable and satisfying. The Vaec food, which Ekem-ve assured him had been found harmless to Earthmen, did not have much flavor to his taste, but the texture of the little cakes and fruit which composed it was pleasant. The meal was concluded with a cube of the liquid he had tried the night before; as his head was quite clear, he decided that Vaec liquor produced no hangovers.

"Other members of clan meet us at testing place," Ekem-ve said as they started a leisurely hike along the banks of the stream. The terrain was gradually uphill, he recalled, and the stream widened as they proceeded. He noticed different types of fungoid growth in places, and observed that everyone skirted patches of _dodlig_, the flowers now spread open flat in the sunlight. They were a light blue in color, and looked more like flat ovals covered with caterpillar fur. The wild bees swarmed around them, but paid no attention to the Vaec and their guest. He had hoped to catch a glimpse of some animal life, too, but there was none visible.

The stream became a small lake as they came to the top of a bluff, some thirty feet above the water. They stopped at a point about a hundred feet from the opposite bluff, where a large crowd of Carolinians awaited them. Ekem-ve greeted them and explained that the Earthman was about to try the test of skill. The crowd parted to let Ekem-ve and his party through, their single hairs swaying gently as if a light breeze was blowing from several directions at once.

Then Auckland saw the "poles." They crossed the chasm, about ten feet from each other, and each one was about six inches in diameter. Hcent stepped up to the farther one and waited. Auckland gulped. Was the test the old greased-pole ordeal? "Skill" was a most inadequate term for it!

"Test of skill, excellent Roy," said Ekem-ve, "is to cross finish line before Hcent." He pointed to the other side of the stream then looked down at Auckland's ripple-soled shoes. "Contestant may wear clothing to choice."

Auckland removed his shirt and trousers, which Syeltan took, and noted that the Vaec were interested in the designs on his red and black shorts. He decided to retain his shoes, which would help give him purchase, and noticed that Hcent retained hers; the buskin-like foot-covering that all Vaec wore. His watch was waterproof and shockproof, and he decided to use the stop-watch section.

He started toward the other pole, then turned as a thought struck him. "Is it permitted to use other equipment?"

"What would you, excellent Roy?"

"A straight stick, about so long--" he spread his hands apart "--which assists in keeping balance. Of course," he added, "I would expect Hcent to have the same advantage."

"This one not desiring stick in hands," said Hcent, "but would not deny same to excellent Roy."

Ekem-ve blinked, and Nsenol walked away toward a cluster of willow-like bushes, returning in a little while with a wand the exact length Auckland had indicated. He'd forgotten to mention the thickness desired, but it seemed just right. He looked at the end, neatly cut, and wondered how that had been done--he'd never seen a Vaec carrying a tool.

Auckland sighed, and stepped up to the pole. "All ready," he said. "Will there be a signal?"

"May mirth attend your starting," said Ekem-ve. "Begin."

Auckland pressed the start button on his watch, balanced the wand in his hands and stepped forward. The surface beneath his feet was hard and slippery like a polished but not waxed, hardwood floor. He breathed a sigh of relief; it wasn't greased.

Hcent, he saw, was walking slightly bowlegged, with an air of perfect naturalness, her toes just a trifle more turned out than usual. If she had toes, that is, Auckland thought. He remembered that he had never seen a Vaec without buskins.

It was difficult going, in that he knew he must not hurry, but Auckland found that his shoes compensated for most of the slickness of the surface beneath him. The morning sun was warm on his head and torso, and he was grateful that the occasional breezes were light.

For a time, the two remained roughly parallel, but Hcent gradually began to forge ahead, without stepping up her pace. Each step must be a light fraction longer than his, he thought, so that the difference eventually showed up. He tried to increase his own stride, and only the wand in his hands kept him from disastrous loss of balance. By the time they were nearing the halfway mark, Hcent was several feet ahead of him.

There was no sound from behind. The Vaec watched in silence, possibly to avoid distracting their guest, he thought. He tried again to lengthen his stride and this time was successful, but it still looked as if there would be no catching up.

Suddenly, Hcent fell. He didn't see her slip, or make an effort to regain balance; she was just plunging off the pole. The shock almost made Auckland lose his balance; he stopped momentarily, watching. As she plunged downward, he saw that she was curling herself up, so that by the time she hit the water, the Vaec was practically a ball.

A moment later, her head appeared and she was swimming leisurely on her back. Auckland sighed in relief, gripped his pole and continued, cautiously. Obviously, the Vaec could not be hurt by a thirty foot fall into water, but it could be entirely a different story with him.

In a short time, he was ahead of his swimming competitor, and after a couple more narrow escapes he reached the other end of the pole and stepped off. Two minutes and seven seconds. As he stood there, looking down, Hcent, who was nearly at the shore--there was a shelf about two feet wide before the walls of the bluff started--dived under the water and came up at the bank itself.

She came out, doffed her buskins--she had toes, he saw--and then began to climb the nearly sheer sides of the bluff without hesitation. Auckland watched for a moment, then decided that Hcent would have no difficulty in joining him. He wondered how the others would get across. Swim probably. Then he turned, and gasped; the entire company was here, awaiting him!

"Excellent Roy most skillful," said Ekem-ve, his hair waving. "Few Vaec cross all the way."

"It was hard," Auckland said, "and I couldn't have made it without this wand. Even so, she'd have beaten me because I just couldn't have caught up." He smiled. "But I did win, didn't I?"

"No, excellent Roy, Hcent is winner. Hcent touch finish line. You did not."

"But, but ..." he sputtered, then remembered something and closed his eyes in chagrin at his stupidity. He had forgotten to ask one specific question. "Where is the finish line?" he asked weakly.

"Finish line is bank of stream, under water, excellent Roy."

Well, there was no use complaining. He'd had sufficient warning about this sort of thing, and had beaten them at their own game in it the evening before. "Then it wasn't necessary to walk across the poles at all?"

"No, excellent Roy. Contestant may swim all way, but often like to try skill at pole."

"Then I've lost," he said tiredly, then straightened as a thought came to him. The chairs that seemed to be too many for Ekem-ve to have in his dwelling, the legerdemain and vanishing little white ball, the wand cut without a tool, the sudden appearance of the company on the other side of the bluff--it all fell into place.

"Ekem-ve," he said, "you Vaec can all teleport, can't you? Transport yourselves and objects various distances by some sort of mental power, without touching them?"

"This is truth, excellent Roy."

Auckland's mind was working furiously. What else had he forgotten to ask? Nothing could be too elementary, he decided. He smiled and said, "I told you that among some old-time Earthmen, an outsider must pass tests before becoming a member of a clan, or a special friend. You told me that the Vaec had three tests: the test of skill, the test of mind, and the test of understanding. But you did not say that all three tests must be passed, and you did not say that I had to beat Hcent in order to pass the test of skill."

He looked around him and saw signs of pleasure.

"Much wisdom in Earthman's deduction," said Ekem-ve. "We return now and after refreshment candidate may ask one question about the Vaec. Answer truthful and complete."

* * * * *

They had given him ample time to think. Roy Auckland ate with them, drank a cube of Vaec liquid and put his thoughts in order. The test of skill was over. The test of mind--wasn't the mad poker game of the night before a test of mind? And the test of understanding.... Understanding what?

It would seem most logical--and the Vaec were quite logical in their own way--that the "understanding" here referred to understanding the Vaec themselves. And the Vaec were difficult to understand.

Why? Because they seemed to be two incompatible things. They understood English perfectly, yet spoke in a caricature of the English like some old-time fictioneer's idea of how "ignorant" natives spoke to the superior white man. They lived simply and effortlessly, yet there was no doubt that they actually had a technology far in advance of Earth--a power source so simple and efficient that everything resembling machinery could be kept out of sight.

They were clearly advanced in philosophy, and had a genuine sense of humor in well-balanced personalities. They were sympathetic and friendly with the Earthmen, willing to act virtually as servants. Yet there was nothing servile about them.

Again, like the stories of old-time Earth--a combination of the happy, ignorant, childlike "natives" who loved practical jokes, and the dignified "savages" who served the "lords from beyond the seas" with genuine respect and liking but without losing their own values.

His one question, he was sure, would be crucial. And this, he felt, would be the only test that really counted.

He set the cube down beside the chair as they sat outside Ekem-ve's dwelling. The others who had been there the night before sat around quietly, and he wondered if they were the testing committee. Very likely.

"Ekem-ve, and excellent testers," he began, "I have been curious about certain matters for a long time." He told them about the peoples of Earth which they seemed superficially to resemble. "This," he said, "is how many, perhaps most, Earthmen see the Vaec. But I think their vision is mistaken."

He took out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth, and puffed a few times after the tip started glowing. The hairs around him were perfectly still.

"I think," he said, "that you have been hoaxing Earthmen, that you are playing a long joke upon us, and that the villa in the desert plays some part in that joke. But my question is: Am I the first Earthman to tell you he had come to this conclusion and ask you about it?"

Now the hairs were in motion as the committee turned to Ekem-ve, and he saw various blinking.

Ekem-ve arose and held out both hands. "Welcome to fellowship with the Vaec, Roy Auckland."