The Technicolor Time Machine

“I can see them and I can take care of it myself, so everyone else can stay on camera. We’re going to shoot this scene as soon as I’ve talked to them.”

Barney waited, almost at the water’s edge as the boat came in. Tex was in the stem steering the outboard and Jens Lyn sat in front of him. Both men had good growths of beard and a decidedly scruffy look.

“Well?” Barney asked, even before the boat touched shore. “What news?”

Lyn shook his head with unconcealed Scandinavian gloom. “Nothing,” he said, “anywhere along the coast. We went as far as we could with the gasoline we had, but found no one.”

“Impossible. I saw those Indians with my own eyes—and Ottar killed a couple more. They have to be around somewhere.”

Jens climbed ashore and stretched. “I would like to find them as much as you would. This is a unique opportunity for research. The construction of their boats and the carving of the spear leads me to suspect that they are members of the almost unknown Cape Dorset culture. We know comparatively little about these people, just some facts gleaned from digging on archeological sites, and a few hints from the sagas. As far as we can ascertain the last of them seem to have vanished about the end of this century, the eleventh century…”

“I’m not interested in your unique opportunity for research but in my unique opportunity to finish this picture. We need Indians in it—where are they? You must have seen some signs of them?”

“We did discover some camps on the shore, but they were deserted. The Cape Dorset are a migratory people, following the seal herds for the most part, and the schools of cod. I feel that, at this time of year, they may have moved farther north.”

Tex heaved the motorboat’s bow up on the beach, then sat down on it. “I don’t want to tell the Doc here his business, but well…”

“Superstition!” Lyn snorted. Tex cleared his throat and spat into the water. This was obviously a difference of opinion they had had before.

“What is it? Out with it,” Barney ordered.

Tex scratched the dark stubble on his jaw and spoke, not without reluctance.

“Look, the Doc is right. We didn’t see anything or anybody except some old campsites and piles of seal bones. But, well, I think they’re out there somewhere, close by, and they been watching us all the time. It wouldn’t be hard to do. You can hear this lawnmower engine five miles away. If they’re seal hunters, like the Doc says, they could lay low when they heard us coming and we’d never see a thing. I think they’re out there.”

“Do you have any evidence to support this theory?” Barney asked.

Tex writhed unhappily and scowled. “I don’t want to hear no laughing or anything,” he said pugnaciously.

Barney remembered his record as an instructor in unarmed combat. “One thing I’m never going to do, Tex, is laugh at you,” he said sincerely.

“Well… it’s like this. We used to feel it in the jungle, like someone was looking at you. Half the time someone was. Bang, a sniper. I know the feeling. And I been getting it all the time we been out. They’re out there, somewhere close, so help me they are.”

Barney considered the information, and cracked his knuckles. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, but I don’t see how it’s going to help us. We’ll talk about it during lunch, see if we can figure something out. We need those Indians.”

Nothing went right with the scene, which was probably Barney’s fault. His mind wasn’t on it. It should have been simple enough to shoot, since it was mostly action. Orlyg, played by Val de Carlo, is Thor’s best friend and right-hand man, but he has secretly fallen in love with Gudrid, who is afraid to tell Thor because of the trouble it will cause. His passion becomes too great however, and, since Gudrid has told him she can love no other man while Thor is alive, he resolves in a moment of love-inflamed madness to slay Thor. He hides behind the ship and attacks Thor when he passes. Thor at first cannot believe it, however he does believe it when Orlyg stabs him in the arm. Then, with only one arm and barehanded, Thor goes on to win the battle and kill Orlyg.

“All right,” Barney called out, his temper worn thin. “We’re going to try it again and this time I’d be very obliged if you could manage to get it right and remember your lines and everything, because we’re running out of blood and clean shirts. Positions. Orlyg, behind the boat, Thor start down the beach toward him, camera, action.”

Ottar stamped heavily through the sand and managed to look faintly surprised when de Carlo jumped out at him.

“Ho, Orlyg,” he said woodenly. “What are you doing here, what does this mean… Mikli Odinn![20] Look at that!”

“Cut!” Barney shouted. “That’s not your line, you know better than that…” He shut up abruptly as he looked out into the bay where Ottar was pointing.

One after another, small, dark boats were coming into sight from behind the island and soundlessly paddling toward the shore.

“Axir, sverd!”[21] Ottar ordered, and looked around for a weapon.