The Cache by Philip José Farmer Page B

men kept laughing and joking until the jugs were empty. They threw these into the weeds and lay down to sleep. One youth was appointed guard; he stationed himself with spear and short sword a few yards outside the range of the fire, which had died down.
    Benoni waited for an hour, then he made his way towards the sentinel. Easily, he crept up behind the nodding youth and chopped against the side of his neck with the edge of his palm. He caught the youth as he fell and eased him to the ground. Then, using the fellow’s shorts, he gagged him. Using his belt, he tied his hands behind him. A few minutes later, he silently saddled two horses. After he had hoisted the youth belly-down onto one of the animals, he cut the hobbles around the other. Two whinnied and shied away, and he froze, waiting for the sleeping blacks to awake. They slept the sleep of the half drunk.
    When he was mounted, he shouted, screamed, and rode among the other horses to spook them. Then, he urged his animal out into the forest while he held the reins of the horse on which the unconscious youth sagged.
    He rode as swiftly as he dared in the night while behind him shouts arose. After an hour, he settled for a canter; another hour, for a walk. Morning saw them far away from the scene of the thievery.
    By then, the black youth was awake. Benoni took him off his horse, hobbled the animal, and removed the gag from his captive. It took some time to convince the youth that Benoni did not intend to kill him. After he had calmed down through signs, Benoni started the task of learning the stranger’s language. He interrupted the lessons twice to feed the youth. After eating, the youth seemed to be less reticent.
    Benoni speeded up his learning when he found that part of the strangeness of the youth’s speech came from a vowel shift. Also, that Zhem’s tongue had unvoiced all word-final voiced phonemes. Where Benoni said dog, Zhem said dahk. For stown (stone), Zhem said stahn, and for leyt (late), liyt (as in seat). Kaw (cow) he pronounced ku. Thin, in Benoni’s tongue, was tin. There were other differences. Some words were unknown to Benoni; he could not find any in his vocabulary to match Zhem’s.
    The following morning, Benoni tied Zhem’s hands in front of him and allowed him to take the reins of his horse. He warned Zhem that if he tried to escape, he would be shot. They rode slowly, while Benoni practiced talking to the black youth. That night, he told Zhem why he had kidnapped him instead of killing him.
    “I need someone who can tell me about this country,” he said, “And especially about the Great River.”
    “The Great River?” said Zhem. “You mean the Mzibi? Or, as the Kay wo say, the Siy?”
    “I don’t know what it’s called. But it’s supposed to be the biggest in the world. Some say it circles the edge of the world. That if you go to its other side, you fall off.”
    Zhem laughed and then said, “ Ee de bikmo ribe iy de weh. It’s the biggest river in the world, yes. But there’s land on the other side. Tell me, white man. If I answer your questions, what you going to do with me?”
    “I’ll let you go. Without a horse, of course. I don’t want you tracking me down and killing me.
    “You’re not going to take my head home to show your folks, your woman?”
    Benoni smiled and said, “No. I had thought of taking your scalp. It’d bring me much honor in Fiiniks because they’ve never seen one like that. But you’re not a Navaho; I’ve no reason to kill you. Maybe you’ll give me a reason.”
    Zhem frowned and looked sad. “No,” he said, “if I did bring your head back with me, it wouldn’t do any good. I’m in disgrace because you captured me. No Mngumwa can never go home again if he is cowardly enough to be taken prisoner. When Mngumwa goes into battle, he either dies or wins the victory.”
    “You mean your people won’t take you back? Why? It wasn’t your fault!”
    Zhem shook his head and said, hollowly. “It