Then he was tired--more tired than he thought anyone could ever be. He tried to sustain himself, but his words lisped off, and nature demanded that he rest. He fell back upon the radiant pillows, asleep before his head had indented its form upon their softness.
So he couldn't have seen, as Persum did, the soft, lingering caress that the golden girl bestowed upon his brow before she hastily retired from the room.
The ensuing days were happy ones for Michel Drawers. He was entertained royally by the elite of the golden people. The dazzling little woman he had rescued, along with Persum, were always at his side, acting as a sort of self-appointed escort service. They showed him their great city, strangely devoid of any mechanical devices or any utilization of natural laws.
He was introduced to the nation's leading thinkers who expounded learnedly upon almost incomprehensible theories. He was shown the ideal, simple, quiet life led by most of the populace and noted without being told the general tone of happiness, good will, and the utter lack of crime of any sort.
The complete and utter lack of sensible equipment convinced him more than ever that he should and could repay in some ways the unusual kindness bestowed upon him.
It was heart warming to watch the jubilation upon the faces of the workers as he arranged a simple pulley for them, and showed them how their lifting could be done with comparative ease. He shuddered to think of the work that must have gone into building some of those high, glistening towers, with the utilization of only crude man-power.
He watched the eyes of the scientific men pop with incredulity as he showed them the principle of the wheel. They were chagrined that they could have overlooked so simple a principle, but Drawers knew that the discovery of the wheel on Earth had been nothing but a lucky accident. If man had not discovered it by accident, it might never have been known at all. Then, too, he began to understand the utter lack of mechanical equipment. The wheel was one of the fundamental and most vital of parts in all moving machinery. Without the wheel, it would be difficult to construct a usable pulley, or a feasible vehicle.
There was another thing he accomplished. He constructed the first wagon these people had ever seen. They viewed it with insatiable curiosity.