Special Deliverance by Clifford D. Simak Read Free Book Online

society where a woman may become an engineer.”
    “And what is wrong with that?” asked Mary.
    “The wrongness is that women should not be engineers. They should be faithful wives, competent keepers of the home, efficient raisers of children. These activities are the natural sphere of women.”
    “In my world women are not only engineers,” said Mary. “They are physicists, physicians, chemists, philosophers, paleontologists, geologists, members of the board of great corporations, presidents of prestigious companies, lawyers and lawmakers, heads of executive agencies. The list could be greatly added to.”
    Mine Host came bustling up to the table.
    “Make way,” he said. “Make way for supper. I hope you’ll find it to your liking.”
     

 
     
    T HE MEAL WAS FINISHED, a most satisfactory one. Now, the table pushed back, they sat in front of the blazing fire. Back of them, in the other corner of the room, the card players were hunched above their table.
    Lansing made a thumb over his shoulder in their direction. “What about them? They did not join us at supper.”
    Mine Host made a gesture of contempt. “They will not leave their play. We served them sandwiches and they continued with their game. They will not cease until early in the morning and then be up again after little sleep. Then they hold a prayer breakfast and go back to the cards.”
    “To whom do they pray?” asked Mary. “The gods of chance, perhaps.”
    Mine Host shook his head. “I do not know. I have never eavesdropped.”
    “It seems to me you are a most incurious man,” said the Parson. “You know less of common matters than any man I have ever met. You do not know what land we’re in. You do not know why we’re here or what we’re supposed to do.”
    “I tell you true,” said Mine Host. “I do not know these things and I have never asked.”
    “Could it be true that there is no one for you to ask? No one we can ask?”
    “I think that is a fair statement,” said Mine Host.
    “So we’ve been dumped here,” said Mary, “without knowledge and without instructions. Someone, or some agency, must have dumped us here for whatever reason. Do you have the slightest idea of—”
    “I have none whatsoever, my lady. I can tell you this—the other groups that have come here have left this place, following an ancient road to seek out what lies beyond.”
    “So there have been other groups?”
    “Oh, yes. Very many of them. But at long intervals.”
    “And do they return?”
    “Seldom. Only stragglers now and then.”
    “What happens when the stragglers return?”
    “That I do not know. I close up for winter.”
    “The ancient road you speak of,” said the Brigadier. “Can you tell us more of it? Where it might go or what’s to be found along the way?”
    “Only rumors. There are rumors of a city and rumors of a cube.”
    “Rumors only?”
    “That is all.”
    “A cube?” asked Lansing.
    “That is all I know,” said Mine Host. “I know naught other of it. And now a matter that I hesitate to mention, but that must be done.”
    “What is it?” asked the Parson.
    “It is the matter of payment. I must be paid for my lodging and the meals, and I run a small commissary from which you might wish to purchase food and other items before you set out upon your way.”
    “I have no money on me,” said the Brigadier. “I seldom carry any. Had I known I was coming here, I would have obtained some cash.”
    “I have but a few bills and a handful of change,” the Parson told Mine Host. “As are all the clergy in my country, I am very poor.”
    “I could write you a check,” said Mary.
    “I am sorry. I can accept no checks. I must have cold, hard cash.”
    Sandra Carver complained, “I do not understand all this. Cash and checks?”
    “He is talking about money,” said the Brigadier. “You must know of money.”
    “But I don’t. Pray tell me—what is money?”
    The Brigadier answered gently. “It is a token, either