Negotiations Without Language

Poul Anderson, The Man Who Counts, III, see here.

Van Rijn's acute observation continues. Recognizing a bowline, he feels homesick. The Diomedeans dare not bring their dugout too close to the sinking skycruiser so the three human beings must be pulled across on a rope. However, without any common language, it is necessary to convey to the rescuers first that boxes of food supplies must also be transported and secondly that the merchant prince absolutely refuses to be pulled through the water! Three of the winged natives must improvise a rope sling and air-lift his stubbornness who had screamed indignantly and sat down mutinously on the nearly submerged vessel to make his point. How this is achieved without any common language is beyond Wace - but then Wace has a lot to learn about "The Man Who Counts."