"Nay, we do not understand," the men and women wailed back. "We cannot
understand."
Nam-Bok thought of a combined harvester, and of the machines wherein
visions of living men were to be seen, and of the machines from which
came the voices of men, and he knew his people could never understand.
"Dare I say I rode this iron monster through the land?" he asked
bitterly.
Opee-Kwan threw up his hands, palms outward, in open incredulity. "Say
on; say anything. We listen."
"Then did I ride the iron monster, for which I gave money--"
"Thou saidst it was fed with stone."
"And likewise, thou fool, I said money was a thing of which you know
nothing. As I say, I rode the monster through the land, and through
many villages, until I came to a big village on a salt arm of the sea.
And the houses shoved their roofs among the stars in the sky, and the
clouds drifted by them, and everywhere was much smoke. And the roar of
that village was like the roar of the sea in storm, and the people were
so many that I flung away my stick and no longer remembered the notches
upon it."
"Hadst thou made small notches," Koogah reproved, "thou mightst have
brought report."
Nam-Bok whirled upon him in anger.
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