His most recently rebuilt and most
powerful engine was still bolted to the test stand, a fact that
justified all the night's risks. Three _caroj_ wheels lay among the
other debris of the camp and two of them were to be bolted to the
engine while it was still on the stand. The ends of the driving axle
cleared the edges of the stand, Jason threaded the securing wheel
bolts into place and utilized Snarbi to tighten them.

At the other end of the stand was a strong, swiveling post that had
been a support for his test instruments, and seemed strangely large
for this small task. It was. When the instruments were stripped away a
single bar remained projecting backwards like a tiller handle. When a
third wheel was fitted with a stub axle and slid into place in the
forked lower end of the post the test stand looked remarkably like a
three-wheeled, steerable, steam engine powered platform that was
mounted on legs. This is exactly what it was, what Jason had designed
it to be from the first, and the supporting legs came away with the
same ease that the other parts had been attached. Escape had always
taken first priority in his plans.

Snarbi dragged over the crockery jars of oil, water and fuel while
Jason filled the tanks. He started the fire under the boiler and
loaded aboard tools and the small supply of _krenoj_ he had managed to
set aside from their rations. All of this took time, but not time
enough. It would soon be dawn and they would have to leave before
then, and he could no longer avoid making up his mind. He could not
leave Ijale here, and if he went to get her he could not refuse to
take Mikah as well. The man had saved his life, no matter what
murderous idiocies he had managed to pull since that time. Jason
believed that you owed something to a man who prolonged your
existence, but he also wondered just how much he still owed. In
Mikah's case he felt the balance of the debt to be mighty small, if
not overdrawn. Perhaps this one last time.

"Keep an eye on the engine and I'll be back as soon as I can," he
said, jumping to the ground and loading on equipment.

"You want me to do _what_? Stay here with this devil machine? I
cannot! It will burn and consume me--"

"Act your age, Snarbi, your physical age if not your mental one. This
rolling junk pile was made by men and repaired and improved by me, no
demons involved. It burns oil to make heat that makes steam that goes
to this tube to push that rod to make those