"That would be very unwise. Eyoaoc Eiioiei suggests that it would be better for us three to withdraw farther from the entrance. He will remain here and act as guard. Moreover, I can easily learn, with the audio-visiscope, what is taking place outside—just as soon as I have a moment of leisure. Come, my friends."
Well, we faced around and started back. And I could hear that nightmare thing he called Eyoaoc Eiioiei moving on down toward the rock-choked entrance—its steps surprisingly soundless, considering its clumsy appearance.
However, the entire arrangement didn't seem right to me, especially letting that thing plan our line of action as if it was one of us and, well, alive.
But that robot-thing could certainly think, and fight, as I was shortly to learn!
Doc Champ and I groped along after Rog Tanlu. He seemed to know right where he was going, and after a hundred feet or so he stopped.
It was not quite dark here—just enough light for us to see, in a vague sort of fashion, that he was bending over a low, flat block of stone, a stone suggesting that it had once served as the foundation for some huge machine. I realized that he was setting up that flashlight contraption with the black bulb at one end.
And suddenly that bulb began to glow softly.
"Now," said Rog Tanlu, "we'll see what's going on."
The three of us bent over the thing. What looked like reflections in it were shifting around and around, and abruptly the steep face of a cliff swung into view. We could see the Ice Stone as it appeared from the outside, and the ledge running up to it.
We saw no one near the Ice Stone. But suddenly, under Rog Tanlu's swift adjustment, the image shifted and enlarged—like a movie close-up—magnifying a certain portion of that ledge.