Doctor Who_ The Myth Makers - Donald Cotton [18]
‘So would I,’ gulped Steven.
‘Quite so. You see, I am getting more than a little tired of this interminable war. My wife, Penelope, will never believe that it has lasted this long. So already I had half decided to sail for home; but it does seem a pity to have wasted all this time, without so much as a priceless Trojan goblet to show for it. I promised the boys booty, and booty they shall have! So I am going to give you forty-eight hours to think of something really ingenious.’
‘Two days?’ calculated the Doctor, gulping in his turn. ‘That isn’t long...’
‘It should be enough if you are as clever as you say you are.’
Ever the realist, Steven asked, ‘What happens if we fail?’
‘I shouldn’t enquire if I were you. It would only upset you.
Because if you fail, I shall have been foolish to have believed your story, and I would hate to be made to seem a fool. I should be very, very angry.’
As he said this, Odysseus sliced through their bonds with a backhand sweep of his cutlass, and then drove his two protesting prisoners back the way they had come.
It seemed pointless to follow them for the moment. I had learned quite enough astonishing new facts for one morning, and I wanted to digest the implications.
I mean, if time travel were really possible, why – what a collaborator the Doctor would make. Already half a dozen ideas for new books were clamouring for attention in my reeling mind
– science fiction, I thought I might call them; at least, until a better notion occurred.
Besides, I thought it was time for somebody to see what might be happening inside the city of Troy for a change. How would they cope with a time-machine, I wondered.
So, I went to find out.
11
Paris Draws the Line
It wasn’t as difficult to get into Troy as you might suppose, considering all the heavy weather the Greeks were making of it.
However to be fair, I have to admit that an army is one thing and an inconspicuous, casually dressed poet, quite another.
At all events, I arrived outside the main gates – very impressive they were, I must say – solid bronze by the look of them, with brass ornamentations, just as Prince Paris and his men were man-handling the TARDIS through there.
Considering all the stertorous breathing, groaning and so forth that was going on, I calculated that they might be glad of some assistance, however modest; so I rolled up my sleeves and lent a shoulder. No one so much as raised an eyebrow; in fact, I was cheerfully accepted as a colleague by one and all. And in no time, there we were in the main square, the gates were barred and bolted behind us, and a crowd of miscellaneous spectators were giving us a bit of a cheer. Nothing to it.
Except that – my word! – the thing was as heavy as lead, and that removed any doubts I might have had about the Doctor’s story. Quite obviously, there was far more of it inside, then met the eye from outside – if you follow me? So we were all extremely glad to set it down.
Prince Paris was pleased with himself no end – you could tell that! He strutted about the little building like a peacock in full courtship display. Well, he could afford to; he hadn’t been doing a lot of work, and wasn’t as fagged out as the rest of us.
But an interesting looking man, all the same. By no means a bully-boy, like his deceased elder brother, and with what I believe is called a sensitive face. Intelligent, anyway – and I wondered if half the stories one heard about him were true.
He didn’t look like a debauchee – far from it. No, more like an unwilling conscript, prepared to make the best of things for the sake of family tradition, and all that. The sort of man you wouldn’t at all have minded having a drink with – except that it would have been a reasonable bet that he’d have left his money in his other uniform.
Anyway, it was obvious at the moment, that he thought he’d pulled off rather a coup. ‘Halt!’ he commanded, shortly after we’d just done so. ‘Cast off the ropes, there!’ Yes, we’d done that as well. So he thought for a moment, and added, ‘Sound the trumpets!’
Well, that was new, at any