Doctor Who: The Myth Makers by Donald Cotton Read Free Book Online Page B

That is quite customary, I believe, among primitive peoples. Fascinating.’
    ‘Doctor, will you please be quiet? I’m afraid I don’t share your admirable scientific detachment! Listen, Odysseus; my friend didn’t mean to imply that you were primitive.’
    The hero roused himself from his reverie. ‘Didn’t he? Oh, but I am – extremely primitive! I have none of the urban sophistication of my friend, Agamemnon. In fact, some people have gone so far as to call me an uncouth, barbarian pirate!
    They haven’t lived long afterwards, mark you, but they’ve said it.
    And they were quite right. That, perhaps, is why I am tempted to believe you.’
    ‘Well, I really don’t see why you shouldn’t,’ said the Doctor,
    ‘it’s all quite true.’
    ‘Possibly it is. I have travelled far in my life upon what you would probably call deplorable adventures. And they have brought me into contact with a great many deplorable persons who have told me various outrageous stories of myths and monsters. But not one of them has had the effrontery to strain my credulity as you have done. Therefore, I think your story is probably true – otherwise you could not have dared to tell it. And so, I propose to release you.’
    ‘Well,’ said Steven, relieved, ‘I think that’s very nice of you.’
    ‘Oh, no, it isn’t! You haven’t heard what I have in mind for you yet. There are, you see, certain conditions.’
    ‘Conditions, indeed!’ said the Doctor, ‘And what, pray are they?’
    ‘Why, that you use this almost supernatural power of yours to devise a scheme for the capture of Troy!’
    ‘But I’m afraid I can’t do that! Oh, no – I make it a rule never to meddle in the affairs of others!’
    ‘Then I would advise you to break it on this occasion.’
    ‘So would I,’ gulped Steven.
     
    ‘Quite so. You see, I am getting more than a little tired of this interminable war. My wife, Penelope, will never believe that it has lasted this long. So already I had half decided to sail for home; but it does seem a pity to have wasted all this time, without so much as a priceless Trojan goblet to show for it. I promised the boys booty, and booty they shall have! So I am going to give you forty-eight hours to think of something really ingenious.’
    ‘Two days?’ calculated the Doctor, gulping in his turn. ‘That isn’t long...’
    ‘It should be enough if you are as clever as you say you are.’
    Ever the realist, Steven asked, ‘What happens if we fail?’
    ‘I shouldn’t enquire if I were you. It would only upset you.
    Because if you fail, I shall have been foolish to have believed your story, and I would hate to be made to seem a fool. I should be very, very angry.’
    As he said this, Odysseus sliced through their bonds with a backhand sweep of his cutlass, and then drove his two protesting prisoners back the way they had come.
    It seemed pointless to follow them for the moment. I had learned quite enough astonishing new facts for one morning, and I wanted to digest the implications.
    I mean, if time travel were really possible, why – what a collaborator the Doctor would make. Already half a dozen ideas for new books were clamouring for attention in my reeling mind
    – science fiction, I thought I might call them; at least, until a better notion occurred.
    Besides, I thought it was time for somebody to see what might be happening inside the city of Troy for a change. How would they cope with a time-machine, I wondered.
    So, I went to find out.
     
    11

Paris Draws the Line
    It wasn’t as difficult to get into Troy as you might suppose, considering all the heavy weather the Greeks were making of it.
    However to be fair, I have to admit that an army is one thing and an inconspicuous, casually dressed poet, quite another.
    At all events, I arrived outside the main gates – very impressive they were, I must say – solid bronze by the look of them, with brass ornamentations, just as Prince Paris and his men were