mountain. On the other side of the wide, banked gulley the ground sloped towards a barricade of rock; beyond were the grazing fields that swung right, bordering the eastern shore of the lake.
In the huge pasture, men could be seen walking with staffs towards the clusters of livestock. It was late afternoon, the heat of the sun was lessening. It is time to shelter the cattle for the night, thought McAuliff.
He had been absently following Malcolm, more concerned with observing everything he could of the strange, isolated village, when he realized where the Halidonite was leading them.
Towards the base of the mountain and the waterfall.
They reached the edge of the lake-feeding channel and turned left. Alex saw the conduit of water was deeper than it appeared from a distance. The banks were about eight feet in height; the definition he had seen from the plateau was a result of carefully placed rocks, imbedded in the earth of the embankments. This natural phenomenon had been controlled by man, like the seeded fields generations ago.
There were three crossings of wooden planks with waist-high railings, each buttressed into the sides of the embankments, where there were stone steps... placed decades ago. The miniature bridges were spaced about fifty yards apart.
Then McAuliff saw it; barely saw it, as it was concealed behind a profusion of tall trees, immense giant-fern, and hundreds of flowering vines at the base of the mountain.
It was a wooded structure. A large cabinlike dwelling whose base straddled the channel, the water rushing out from under the huge pilings that supported the hidden edifice. On each side of the pilings were steps - again in stone, again placed generations ago - that led up to a wide catwalk fronting the building. In the centre of the planked catwalk was a door. It was closed.
From any distance - certainly from the air - the building was completely concealed.
Its length was perhaps thirty feet; its width impossible to determine, as it seemed to disappear into the jungle and the crashing waterfall.
As they approached the stone steps, McAuliff saw something else, which so startled him that he had to stop and stare.
On the west side of the building, emerging from within and scaling upward into the tangling mass of foliage, were thick black cables.
Malcolm turned and smiled at Alex's astonishment. 'Our contact with the outside, McAuliff. Radio signals that are piped into telephone trunk lines throughout the island. Not unlike the radio-phones in taxis and private automobiles. Generally much clearer than the usual telephone service. All untraceable, of course. Now let us see Daniel.'
'Who is Daniel?'
'He is our Minister of Council. His is an elective office. Except that his term is not guided by the calendar.'
'Who elects him?'
The Halidonite's smile faded somewhat. 'The council.'
'Who elects it?'
'The tribe.'
'Sounds like regular politics.'
'Not exactly,' said Malcolm enigmatically. 'Come. Daniel's waiting.'
The Halidonite opened the door, and McAuliff walked into a large high-ceilinged room with windows all around the upper wall. The sounds of the waterfall could be heard; these were mingled with the myriad noises of the jungle outside.
There were wooden chairs - chairs fashioned by hand, not machinery. In the centre of the back wall, in front of a second, very large, thick door was a table, at which sat a black girl in her late twenties. On her 'desk' were papers, and at her left was an office typewriter on a regulation typewriter table. The incongruity of such equipment in such a place caused Alex to stare.
And then he swallowed as he saw a telephone - a regular, pushbutton telephone - on a stand to the girl's right. 'This is Jeanine, Dr McAuliff. She works for Daniel.' The girl stood, her smile brief and tenuous. She acknowledged Alex with a hesitant nod; her eyes were concerned as she spoke to Malcolm. 'Was the trip all right?'
'Since I brought back our guest, I cannot say it was wildly successful.'
'Yes,' replied Jeanine, her expression of concern now turned to fear. 'Daniel wants to see you right away. This way... Dr McAuliff.'
The girl crossed to the door and rapped twice. Without waiting for a reply, she twisted the knob and opened it. Malcolm came alongside Alex and gestured him inside. McAuliff walked hesitantly through the door frame and into the office of the Halidon's Minister of Council.
The room was large, with a single, enormous leaded glass window taking up most of the rear wall. The view was both strange and awesome. Twenty feet beyond the glass was