Four days later Henry Bastaff reported to the Seven. "Our arrival was precarious, for our initial direction took us many miles to the south of the Old Floats. Nevertheless we arrived.
Apparently Blasdel experienced even worse difficulties, for he reached Green Lamp Float about the same time that we landed on Apprise. I sat at the Old Tavern when the news came, and I saw great excitement. The people seemed more curious than vindictive, even somewhat wistful. A convocation was called for the following day. Since the folk of Almack Float would attend, I thought it best that Maibte and Barway remain hidden. I stained my face, shaved eyebrows, mustache and hair, and at the convocation looked eye to eye with my Uncle Fodor the withe-peeler, who never gave a second glance.
"The convocation was vehement and lengthy- Barquan Blasdel resumed his rank of Apprise Intercessor. In my opinion Vrink Smathe, who had succeeded to the post, found no joy in Blasdel's return.
"With great eamestness Blasdel called for a punitive expedition. He spoke of those who had departed as 'iconoclasts.'
'monsters,' 'vicious scum of me world, which it was the duty of all decent folk to expunge,' "He aroused only lukewarm attention. No one showed heart for the project. The new Intercessors in particular were less than enthusiastic. Blasdel accused them of coveting their new posts, which they would lose if the old Intercessors returned. The new Intercessors refuted the argument with great dignity, 'Our concern is solely for the lives of men,' they said. 'What avail is there in destroying these folk? They are gone; good riddance. We shall maintain our ancient ways with more dedication because the dissidents have departed.' "One of the new Intercessors had a crafty thought: 'Of course, if by some means we can direct King Kragen's attention to these fugitives, that is a different story.' "Barquan Blasdel was forced to be content with this much.
'How can we do this?' " 'By our usual means for summoning King Kragen: how else?' "Blasdel agreed. 'It is necessary to hurry. These evil folk kill kragen and smelt metal from the blood. They plan mischief against us, and we must rebuff them with decisive severity.' "There was further discussion, but no clear resolutions, which exasperated Barquan Blasdel. The convocation dissolved; we caught the evening wind to the east."
The Seven considered Henry Bastaffs report. "At least we are in no immediate; peril," ruminated Robin Magram. "It appears that our surest guarantee of security is our custody of the old Intercessors, who would supersede the new officials if rescued. So here is a powerful deterrent against any largescale attack."
"Still, we always must fear discovery by King Kragen," stated Sklar Hast. "King Kragen is our basic enemy; it is King Kragen whom we must destroy." After a minute's silence Arrel Sincere said, "That, at the moment, is in the nature of a remote day-dream, in the meantime we must prepare for various contingencies, including demolishmem by King Kragen of our new facilities. Also we must maintain a continued source of information: in short, spies must presently return to the Old Floats."
Henry Bastaff looked uncomfortably at his mates. "I will volunteer, for at least one more trip. Much effort and delay could be avoided if it were possible to sail with more assurance of reaching the destination."
Meth Cagno said, "Brunei mentions the 'compass'-an iron needle which points always to the north. The iron is 'magnetized* by wrapping it in a coil of copper strands and passing an electric current through these strands. We have copper, we have iron."
"But no electricity." *'No electricity," agreed Melh Cagno"And no means of obtaining electricity."
"As to that-we shall see."
Four days later Meth Cagno summoned the Seven to his workshop. "You will now see electricity produced."
"What? In that device?" Sklar Hast inspected the clumsy apparatus. To one side a tube of hollow stalk five inches in diameter and twenty feet high was supported by a scaffold.
The base was contained at one end of a long box holding what appeared to be wet ashes. The far end of the box was closed by a slab of compressed carbon, into which were threaded copper wires. At the opposite end, between the tube and wet ashes was another slab of compressed carbon.
"This is admittedly a crude device, unwieldy to operate and of no great efficiency," said Meth Cagno. "It does however meet our peculiar requirements; which is to say. it produces electricity without metal, through the agency of water pressure. Brunei describes it in his Dicta. He calls it the 'Rous machine.' The tube is filled with water, which is thereby forced through the mud, which is a mixture of ashes and sea-slime. The water carries an electric charge which it communicates to the porous carbon as it seeps through. By this means a small but steady and quite dependable source of electricity is at our hand. As you may have guessed, I have already tested the device, and so can speak with confidence."
He turned, snapped his fingers, and his helpers mounted the scaffold carrying buckets of water which they poured into the tube. Meth Cagno connected the wires to a coil of several dozen revolutions. He brought forward a dish. On a cork rested a small rod of iron.
"I have already magnetized this iron," said Cagno. "Note how it points to the north? Now-I bring it near the end of the coil. See it jerk! Electricity is flowing in the wire!"
The other members of the Seven were impressed. "And this iron needle will now serve to guide Henry Bastaff?"
"So I believe. But the Rous machine provides an even more dramatic possibility. With electricity we can disassociate seawater to produce, after certain operations, the acid of salt. and a caustic of countering properties as well. The acid can then be used to produce more highly concentrated streams of electricity-if we are able to secure more metal. There is iron in our blood: I ask myself, where does the iron originate?
Which of our foods contains the iron? I plan to reduce each of our foods under the lens, as well as any other distinctive substance which might yield a concentration of metal." He turned, went to the table, returned with a glistening object.
"Look. A bottle of glass. Bolin Hyse has produced this bottle. He fashioned a tube of copper, fixed it to a longer tube of withe, dipped the copper into molten glass and blew. The result"-Meth Cagno inspected the object critically-"is not beautiful. The glass is gray and streaked with ash. The shape is uncertain. Nevertheless-here is a glass bottle, produced from ash and sea-ooze. Eventually, we will be building devices of great intricacy."
"Subject to the indulgence of King Kragen," muttered Sklar Hast.
Meth Cagno threw up his hands. "King Kragen bah! We shall kill him. When next a kragen is brought to the derrick, allow me to deal with it. There are tests I wish to make."