He came to understand the
worth of a cross-shaped tin ingot compared to a string of amber beads
and some well-cured white furs. He now understood why he had been shown
a traders' caravan during that first encounter with the purpose behind
Operation Retrograde.
During the training days his feeling toward Ashe changed materially. A
man could not work so closely with another and continue to resent his
attitude; either he blew up entirely, or he learned to adjust. His awe
at Ashe's vast amount of practical knowledge, freely offered to serve
his own blundering ignorance, created a respect for the man which might
have become friendship, had Ashe ever relaxed his own shield of
impersonal efficiency. Ross did not try to breach the barrier between
them mainly because he was sure that the reason for it was the fact
that he was a "volunteer." It gave him an odd new feeling he avoided
trying to analyze. He had always had a kind of pride in his record; now
he had begun to wish sometimes that it was a record of a different type.
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