Garstang

“ You ought to see that with half an eye. To stick up the escort requires a little skill, a little pluck; but as for gettin’ away with the gold afterwards, that’s child’s play.”
“Dead men don’t tell no tales,” remarked Sweet William.
“But their carcases do,” objected Garstang.
“You beat everything!” exclaimed the leader, growing almost angry. “Ain’t there such a thing as a shovel? No wonder you were copped pretty often by the traps, Garstang.”
“You two men wrangle like old women,” said Carnac. “Drop it. Tell us what’s the first thing to do.”
“To go an’ look at the country,” answered Dolphin. ”

“ Garstang said, moving toward the phone. "The Earth Navy—"
"Ha!"
"The Earth Navy," repeated Garstang, "is on full alert right now."
"Solleremos will eat it up," said Kirk savagely. "Don't be a fool, Garstang. I don't care how loyal you are to Earth, you've got to admit her navy can't face Orion Squadrons for five minutes."
Garstang hesitated. His face was grim and sad, and Kirk felt sorry for him in spite of his anger. Garstang said, "We'll have to do what we can. We'll fight enemies if they come, but we'll make sure first we don't get stabbed in the back." ”

“ In 1910, in consequence of a, report by Professor Sayce, excavations were commenced in the mounds of the town and the necropolis by J. Garstang on behalf of the university of Liverpool, and the ruins of a palace and several temples were discovered, built by the Meroite kings. ”

“ The agony, the intoxication, the godlike joy and the terror were far too great to admit any petty worries about anything human.
Then, with almost shocking abruptness, they broke into clear space, and the cloud was behind them. Like men enchanted waking from a dream, Kirk and Garstang shook themselves and stood erect again, and the voice of the Starsong was stilled, and human voices spoke once more.
And human problems were still with them. Somewhat farther astern now, but still doggedly following, three tiny flecks of darkness came after them out of the cloud. ”

“ She nodded to Harold quite graciously, reminded her father that it was nearly six o’clock, and disappeared along the field path.
"Well, Harold, it's no use; we can't help ourselves, you see," declared Garstang with an air of amused resignation which only half disguised an equally amused satisfaction.
"Oh, I don't mind," said Harold quickly; "only, knowing what I do, I thought it was my duty to warn you. I suppose you have a proverb applicable to the occasion, eh, Ah-John?"
"We have a saying, 'When the road bends we cannot see what lies before us,'" admitted Yen Sung indifferently. ”

“ Garstang, looking strange now in the black uniform of Earth, spoke earnestly to Kirk the day before the Fifth was to leave.
"You know you're pretty much a hero here now, Kirk. You'll be retiring from service in not too many years. Why don't you come back to Earth to live?"
"Why does everyone say, come back to Earth," Kirk complained. "Just because I had ancestors here I'm no Earthman!"
He added, "And whatever you do, don't mention that bright idea to Lyllin! I'm going up to Orville now to get her." ”

“ Suddenly Garstang caught Kirk's shoulder. "There!" he said. He leaned forward and pointed his blunt forefinger at the screen.
Out of the depths toward the star Saiph came a swarm of tiny flecks that might have been nothing more than bits of cosmic drift, except that they moved together and very fast. They swept in toward the Solar System with a gathering rush, growing, picking up the sunlight on their polished sides. Two full squadrons of Solleremos' fleet, on planetary approach.
The five Earth ships out there wheeled in perfect formation and went on out to meet them. ”

“ Garstang shouted, and as though at a signal the screen went out again.
Kirk ran his uniform sleeve over his face, and kept still. There were so few of the Earth ships, and so many of the others, something more than double the strength of his own squadron. Far below, Earth lay naked, stripped, utterly without defense. Kirk thought of Lyllin, and the Vinson house with the dusty road in front of it. He thought of the woods and the meadow where they had fought in the night, and curiously enough he thought of the cat. Insolent little beast.... ”

“ Avoiding this, the route crosses a low divide, and descends upon an arm of another river, the Cydnus, which leads down eventually to Tarsus and the sea. For a short way in this second section of the route the country is more open, but the enchantment of it is maintained in the wooded highland landscapes, with views of the dark green slopes of rugged Taurus and the snowy crest and crevices of Bulghar Dagh. Two well-placed ornamental forts [75] are passed, and the winding road, when seemingly faced by an impenetrable ridge of mountain, enters suddenly a deep rocky gorge. ”

“ These uplands are among the most attractive parts of Asia Minor; the bracing air is filled with the delicious scent of pine-woods, the verdant pastures are well watered by numerous clear streams, and the meadows ripen under a glowing sun, the rays of which are tempered by the altitude. Here, too, are numerous monuments of the Phrygian kingdom; while north-east from these, at Doghanlu Daresi, on one of many minor tributaries of the Sangarius, and south-west at Bey-Keui, at one of the sources of the same river, near the summit of the watershed, there have been found traces of Hittite handiwork. ”

“ The Fifth Lyra and the ships of Earth follow them, but not far. Space is empty, and in the ships there is a great silence, while the men breathe softly and look at nothing and feel that they are still alive. There is no light now but the light of the Sun and the distant stars. The Belt wheels on its way, and bits of riven metal that once were ships fall slowly toward it.
After a time, on the bridge of the Starsong, Garstang turned to Kirk. ”

“ The men early discovered that he never returned a blow, so, to confess the shameful truth, to prove their manliness or to impress their moral superiority, some frequently struck and kicked him. Dead mice and other carrion were thrown into his food as he ate, in exquisite drollery. Whenever Harold Holt visited the farm he never failed to drop upon good ground a few light-hearted suggestions for turning Yen Sung's eccentricities to humorous account. Garstang rather liked the impassive pagan, but there was much taking place that he could not see. ”

“ That's what Tauncer wants. The more I yell and swear the worse I look. What must I do? Something. Something....
"—so we're going to act suddenly to disarm the Fifth Squadron," Garstang was saying. "Charteris has been suspicious from the first, and what I told him there last night made him more so. And—"
"Disarm the squadron?" cried Kirk. "Are you insane?" He had a sudden nightmare vision of the Orion ships sweeping in, of the cruisers and transports of the Fifth disappearing in a storm of smoke and fire, the men falling like dead leaves. ”

“ It was night on this side of the planet. There was no moon, but on a cluster world a moon is a useless luxury. The sky blazes with a million stars, so that day is replaced not by darkness but by the light of another sort, soft and many-colored, full of strange glimmers and flitting shadows. In this eery star-glow a town was visible about a mile away. Otherwise there was nothing. No ships.... No legions of Orion Sector.
"The ships could be hidden somewhere," Garstang said. "Maybe halfway around the planet, but waiting to jump us as soon as they get word."
Kirk admitted that was possible. ”

“ This region is one of the most important in our subject. Though not extensively cultivated, for the stable population even here is relatively small, it is none the less highly fertile. Its hills and slopes are mostly green with pastures, and in the flat valleys are long reaches suitable for the plough. Another favoured district lies southward from the Halys, passing by Mount Argæus, [19] skirting the eastern edges of the plain, and watered by streamlets from the Anti-Taurus. Here in the vicinity of Tyana are wide acres of corn-land, gardens are plentiful, and even trees abound. ”

“ The head-waters of this river give life to a whole district of peculiar interest. The main stream rises just northward at Andaval, flowing past that village to Nigdeh and thence to Bor; just below here it is joined by another branch on which is Kilisse Hissar, the site of old-time Tyana. Here are abundant and picturesque ruins of antiquity, and though nothing [42] has yet been found earlier than the time of the Phrygian Midas, [67] there seems to be no doubt from the accounts of Strabo and other sources that it was from earliest times the political centre of this region. ”

“ River have scoured deep gorges in its wooded heights; and the main stream, flowing southward in a wild and sparsely cultivated valley, has hewn for itself a rocky bed through which it swirls until the hills are left behind, when turning westward it flows on to join the Orontes near to Antioch. In such a country it is not surprising that no Hittite monuments have been placed on record. ”

“ The Fifth is Ferdias' elite squadron, and nobody gets command of it unless he's in Ferdias' special favor."
"Friendship is one thing," said Kirk hotly, "and favor is another. I don't like your choice of words."
He was just talking, words, sounds with no meaning. Inside he was thinking of Garstang and the Starsong, and all the lives of all the men in her. He had led them here.
He looked at Tauncer, and he began now to hate him, with a hate as deep and cold as space.
"Ferdias will tear your heart out," he said.
"Perhaps," said Tauncer. "But he may have other things to occupy his mind."
"Earth? ”

“ It rises in the watershed of the Ak Dagh Mountains, under the southern slopes of which the Halys itself flows down the long reach between Sivas and the bridges near Cæsarea. Thence in its course it makes a similar circuit within that of the Halys, which it only joins in the middle of the north-westerly reach. This river is more gentle in its flow, and its banks are mostly flat alluvial tracts of great fertility; indeed, the land would support a population many times more numerous than its settled inhabitants. Long green pastures and arable spots remain unneeded and neglected. ”

“ There are two further sculptured fragments of stones from Marash worthy also of special mention. On the one there is preserved the front part of a chariot and the hind part of a horse; [258] the carving is rough, and the drawing neither clear nor good. A small animal under the horse may be a dog. The wheel of the chariot seems to have had eight spokes. The driver is hardly seen, except for the forearm and the hand that grasps the reins. We may conclude none the less that the fragment formed part of a scene of the royal hunt. ”

“ A mountain-track, leaving the road at Bayal, leads southward over a series of parallel ridges of increasing height and grandeur [71] directly for Bulghar-Madên. The silver mines, to which the place owes its name and probably its being, seem to have been considerably worked in ancient times. The village is found deep in a valley under the Bulghar Dagh, a chief range of Taurus, nearly nine thousand feet in height. The stream rises far up the ridge, from the opposite side of which a branch of the Kodja Su flows down towards Ivrîz and Eregli. ”

“ That near Bogche [46] is no longer passable in the winter and spring-time. The village itself lies back from the river-brink about fifteen miles below the Bir-Geuz bridge. Karaburna [28] lies near the opposite bank, another day’s journey lower down. Hereabouts the hilly ground which lies eastward of the great lake Tuz Geul arrests the southerly progress of the river, which, thrown back, turns in a great sweep north-westwards for nearly a hundred miles, then northwards to latitude of Angora, so dividing the heart of the peninsula. ”

“ Numerous early tributaries of this great river rise indeed in the slopes of those northern mountains, while others fall from the western side of the divide, which on the east overlooks the Halys. These meander southward and westward, seeking for an opening through the upland region of which Angora is the economic centre. The country which they water [36] resembles in general characteristics many portions in the basin of the Halys; and though large tracts equally remain barren and neglected through lack of population, it is on the whole better cultivated, and hence more productive. ”

“ Even in summer-time thunder-clouds from time to time collect above the heights, and amid a gorgeous display of lightning and reverberating thunder a torrential rain transforms in a few minutes the rocky basin of the river. ”

“ The figure is short and thickset, betokening stamina and strength. Our photograph [12] was obtained at Kuchuk Kizil-Hissar, nearer to Aintab, but it is clear that the home of this type is now the mountainous country, where it has persevered in seclusion and still survives.
Our wanderings in this district have not then been fruitless. The traveller may be rewarded also by a picture of wonderful beauty to be seen at sunset from the wooded heights near the sources of the Afrîn River and the Kara Su. ”

“ These people are poor but proud. They have traditions of long-ago splendor, claim their kings ruled the whole cluster and so on. They dislike strangers, and won't let many in."
"But if Solleremos' men are already here—"
"That's the reason for the porto." Kirk frowned, trying to plan ahead. "Exactly twenty minutes after I enter the town I'll contact you, and I'll continue to do so at twenty-minute intervals. If I'm so much as a minute late, take off and buzz hell out of the place. It'll give me a bargaining point, anyway."
Garstang said dourly, "A lot can happen in twenty minutes. ”