Free The Honorable Barbarian by L. Sprague de Camp Page B

and such articles as I have asked him to buy for me."
    "How often comes this to pass?"
    "Belike once a year. His last visit was but three months past, so expect him not for a long time hence. Look not so stricken, boy; I shall find plenty, of chores to keep you occupied."
    "A good, healthy existence, I doubt not; but it is not my ambition to pass my life thus," mused Kerin. "Could I build mine own boat, think you?"
    "I doubt that. With palm trunks and bamboo stalks you could assemble nought better than a raft, which one good blow would demolish. Nor could you, alone, conn such a craft out of sight of land, or in contrary winds, or whilst asleep.
    "Nay, my son, give up that fancy. You will be safe and comfortable here, and free of worldly temptations. I shall make you my holy disciple, or chela as they say in Mulvan. And now let me explain my theory of the variations in sea level. . . ."
    Kerin listened with the best grace he could muster. When the old man ran down, Kerin asked: "Sir, if you were a genuine wizard, why brought you not some of your powers and instruments with you, to defend yourself?"
    Pwana shrugged. "One or two nicknacks, such as a tarncap. But I have forsworn the serious practice of magic during my penance. I have dismissed my familiars, albeit I perceive that you have one."
    "That was—" Kerin began to explain Belinka's presence but thought he had better not. Instead, he asked: "Your pardon, but what's a tarncap?"
    "A cap of invisibility. It loses its charge and after a number of usages must needs be recharged with an extensive spell.
    "Now, young man, take this bag and this pole and go along the beach, knocking ripe coconuts off their palms and gathering them. Be sure to return ere dark."
    He handed Kerin an eight-foot length of bamboo and a large string bag.
    When Kerin was out of hearing of the hut, he murmured: "Belinka!"
    "Aye, Master Kerin?" The dancing blue light flickered into view against the evening sky.
    "What in the seven frigid hells shall we do now? We must not linger here for months, awaiting Captain Bakattan's arrival."
    "Couldst not lay a signal fire away from Doctor Pwana's demesne and, when you see a ship upon the horizon, touch it off?"
    "How about pirates?"
    "Canst tell a pirate ship from that of an honest merchant?"
    "I might, if I could see it close. Pirates, my brother tells me, are a disorderly lot. Their ships are filthy, and their garb mingles dirty rags and looted finery. But if I were near enough to discern the difference, they would also see me and add me to their plunder."
    Belinka: "Methinks in Pwana's hut I witnessed one of those brazen tubes you Westerners use to peer at distant things."
    "A spyglass, like those they make in Iraz? How is it that I saw it not?"
    "You were looking for certain things and ignored the rest. If Pwana hath this instrument, you could climb one of these slanting trees and sight your ship through the glass."
    "That's an idea," said Kerin dubiously. "All I need do is borrow the glass without the good Doctor's knowledge. Methinks it more expedient to use you as my eyes, to fly out over the water for a closer look."

    For several days, Kerin was busy with chores for Pwana. Not that the old man was idle; he kept busy, with rests few and far between. To survive alone, even in this mild climate, Kerin found, required constant activity: gathering food and firewood, fetching fresh water from a distant spring, tending the fire, patching the house, mending equipment, and cultivating the garden. When Kerin's nose became painfully sunburned, Pwana lent him a large straw hat, which the exile had woven of grass stems. Kerin also began a calendar by cutting notches in a length of driftwood.
    Evenings he had to listen to Pwana's monologues. The hermit had theories on everything, including the origin of the planets, the movement of continents, the evolution of life, the rise of civilization, and the growth of mankind's morals and ethics. Although Kerin's brother