by Anthology
"Now will you tell?"
"No!"
Miko laughed. "No? Then I shall write my name a little deeper...."
A black sear now--a trail etched in the quivering flesh.
"Oh!" Snap's face went white as chalk as he pressed his lips together.
"Or a little acid? This fire-writing does not really hurt? Tell me what you did with those code words!"
"No!"
In his absorption Miko did not notice my light. Nor did I have the wit to try and fire along it. I was trembling. Snap under torture!
As the beam went deeper. Snap suddenly screamed. But he ended, "No! I will send no message for you--"
It had been only a moment. In the chart room window beside me again a figure appeared! No image. A solid, living person, undisguised by any cloak of invisibility. George Prince had chanced my fire and crept upon me.
"Haljan! Don't attack me."
I dropped my light connections. As impulsively I stood up, I saw through the window the figure of Coniston on the deck watching the result of Prince's venture.
"Haljan--yield."
Prince no more than whispered it. He stood outside on the deck; the low window casement touched his waist. He leaned over it.
"He's torturing Snap! Call out that you will yield."
The thought had already been in my mind. Another scream from Snap filled me with horror. I shouted, "Miko! Stop!"
I rushed to the window and Prince gripped me. "Louder!"
I called louder: "Miko! Stop!" My upflung voice mingled with Snap's agony of protest. Then Miko heard me. His head and shoulders showed up there at the radio room oval.
"You--Haljan?"
Prince shouted, "I have made him yield. He will obey you if you stop that torture."
I think that poor Snap must have fainted. He was silent. I called, "Stop! I will do what you command."
Miko jeered, "That is good. A bargain, if you and Dean obey me. Disarm him, Prince, and bring him out."
Miko moved back into the radio room. On the deck, Coniston was advancing, but cautiously mistrustful of me.
"Gregg."
George Prince flung a leg over the casement and leaped lightly into the dim chart room. His small slender figure stood beside me, clung to me.
A moment, while we stood there together. No ray was upon us. Coniston could not see us, nor could he hear our whispers.
"Gregg."
A different voice; its throaty, husky quality gone. A soft pleading. "Gregg--Gregg, don't you know me? Gregg, dear...."
Why, what was this? Not George Prince? A masquerader, yet so like George Prince.
"Gregg don't you know me?"
Clinging to me. A soft touch upon my arm. Fingers, clinging. A surge of warm, tingling current was flowing between us.
My sweep of instant thoughts. A speck of human Earth dust falling free. That was George Prince who had been killed. George Prince's body, disguised by the scheming Carter and Dr. Frank, buried in the guise of his sister. And this black-robed figure who was trying to help me....
"Anita! Anita darling--"
"Gregg, dear one!"
"Anita!" My arms went around her, my lips pressed hers, and felt her tremulous eager answer.
The form of Coniston showed at our window. She cast me off. She said, with her throaty swagger of amused, masculinity:
"I have him, Sir Arthur. He will obey us."
I sensed her warning glance. She shoved me toward the window. She said ironically, "Have no fear, Haljan. You will not be tortured, you and Dean, if you obey our commands."
Coniston gripped me. "You fool! You caused us a lot of trouble. Move along there!"
He jerked me roughly through the window. Marched me the length of the deck, out to the stern space, opened the door of my cubby, flung me in and sealed the door upon me.
"Miko will come presently."
I stood in the darkness of my tiny room, listening to his retreating footsteps. But my mind was not upon him.
All the universe, in that instant, had changed for me. Anita was alive!
XIV
The giant Miko stood confronting me. He slid my cubby door closed behind him. He stood with his head towering close against my ceiling. His cloak was discarded. In his leather clothes, and with his clanking sword ornament, his aspect carried the swagger of a brigand of old. He was bare-headed; the light from one of my tubes fell upon his grinning, leering gray face.
"So, Gregg Haljan? You have come to your senses at last. You do not wish me to write my name on your chest? I would not have done that to Dean; he forced me. Sit back."
I had been on my bunk. I sank back at the gesture of his huge hairy arm. His forearm was bare now; the sear of a burn on it was plain to be seen. He remarked my gaze.
"True. You did that, Haljan, in Greater New York. But I bear you no malice. I want to talk to you now."
He cast about for a seat, and took the little stool which stood by my desk. His hand held a small cylinder of the Martian paralyzing ray. He rested it beside him on the desk.
"Now we can talk."
I remained silent. Alert. Yet my thoughts were whirling. Anita was alive. Masquerading as her brother. And, with the joy of it, came a shudder. Above everything, Miko must not know.
"A great adventure we are upon, Haljan."
My thoughts came back. Miko was talking with an assumption of friendly comradeship. "All is well--and we need you, as I have said before. I am no fool. I have been aware of everything that went on aboard this ship. You, of all the officers, are most clever at the routine mathematics. Is that so?"
"Perhaps."
"You are modest." He fumbled at a pocket of his jacket, produced a scroll-sheaf. I recognized it. Blackstone's figures. The calculation Blackstone made of the asteroid we had passed.
"I am interested in these," Miko went on. "I want you to verify them. And this." He held up another scroll. "This is the calculation of our present position and our course. Hahn claims he is a navigator. We have set the ship's gravity plates--see, like this."
He handed me the scrolls. He watched me keenly as I glanced over them.
"Well?" I said.
"You are sparing of words, Haljan. By the devils of the airways, I could make you talk! But I want to be friendly."
I handed him back the scrolls. I stood up. I was almost within reach of his weapon, but with a sweep of his great arm he knocked me back to my bunk.
"You dare?" Then he smiled. "Let us not come to blows!"
In truth, physical violence could get me nothing. I would have to try guile. And I saw now that his face was flushed and his eyes unnaturally bright. He had been drinking alcolite; not enough to befuddle him, but enough to make him triumphantly talkative.
"Hahn may not be much of a mathematician," I suggested. "But there is your Sir Arthur Coniston." I managed a sarcastic grin. "Is that his name?"
"Almost. Haljan, will you verify these figures?"
"Yes. But why? Where are we going?"
He laughed. "You are afraid I will not tell you! Why should I? This great adventure of mine is progressing perfectly. A tremendous stake, Haljan. A hundred million dollars in gold leaf. There will be fabulous riches for all of us--"
"But where are we going?"
"To that asteroid," he said. "I must get rid of these passengers. I am no murderer."
With a half-dozen killings in the recent fight this was hardly convincing. But he was obviously wholly serious. He seemed to read my thoughts.
"I kill only when necessary. We will land upon the asteroid. A perfect place to maroon the passengers. Is it not so? I will give them the necessities of life. They will be able to signal. And in a month or so, when we are perfectly safe and finished with our adventure, a police ship no doubt will rescue them."
"And then, from the asteroid," I suggested, "we are going--"
"To the Moon, Haljan. What a clever guesser you are! Coniston and Hahn are calculating our course. But I have no great confidence in them. And so I want
you."
"You have me."
"Yes. I have you. I would have killed you long ago--I am an impulsive fellow--but my sister restrained me."
He gazed at me slyly. "Moa seems strangely to like you, Haljan."
"Thanks," I said. "I'm flattered."
"She still hopes I may really win you to join us," he went on. "Gold leaf is a wonderful thing; there would be plenty for you in this affair. And to be rich, and have the love of a woman like Moa...."
He paused. I was trying cautiously to gauge him, to get from him all the information I could. I said, with another smile, "That is premature, to talk of Moa. I will help you chart your course. But this venture, as you call it, is dangerous. A police ship--"
"There are not many," he declared. "The chances of our encountering one are very slim." He grinned at me. "You know that as well as I do. And we now have those code passwords--I forced Dean to tell me where he had hidden them. If we should be challenged, our password answer will relieve suspicion."
"The Planetara," I objected, "being overdue at Ferrok-Shahn, will cause alarm. You'll have a covey of patrol ships after you."
"That will be two weeks from now," he smiled. "I have a ship of my own in Ferrok-Shahn. It lies there waiting now, manned and armed. I am hoping that, with Dean's help, we may be able to flash them a signal. It will join us on the Moon. Fear not for the danger, Haljan. I have great interests allied with me in this thing. Plenty of money. We have planned carefully."
He was idly fingering his cylinder; he gazed at me as I sat docile on my bunk. "Did you think George Prince was a leader of this? A mere boy. I engaged him a year ago--his knowledge of science is valuable to us."
My heart was pounding but I strove not to show it. He went on calmly.
"I told you I am impulsive. Half a dozen times I have nearly killed George Prince, and he knows it." He frowned. "I wish I had killed him instead of his sister. That was an error."
There was a note of real concern in his voice. He added, "That is done--nothing can change it. George Prince is helpful to me. Your friend Dean, is another. I had trouble with him, but he is docile now."
I said abruptly, "I don't know whether your promise means anything or not, Miko. But Prince said you would use no more torture."
"I won't. Not if you and Dean obey me."
"You tell Dean I have agreed to that. You say he gave you the code words he took from Johnson?"
"Yes. There was a fool, for you! That Johnson! You blame me, Haljan, for the death of Carter? You need not. Johnson offered to try and capture you, take you both alive. He killed Carter because he was angry with him. A stupid, vengeful fool! He is dead and I'm glad of it."
My mind was on Miko's plans. I ventured, "This treasure on the Moon--did you say it was on the Moon?"
"Don't play the fool," he retorted. "I know as much about Grantline as you do."
"That's very little."
"Perhaps."
"Perhaps you know more, Miko. The Moon is a big place. Where, for instance, is Grantline located?"
I held my breath. Would he tell me that? A score of questions--vague plans were in my mind. How skilled at mathematics were these brigands? Miko, Coniston, Hahn--could I fool them? If I could learn Grantline's location on the Moon, and keep the Planetara away from it. A pretended error of charting. Time lost--and perhaps Snap could find an opportunity to signal Earth, get help.
Miko answered my question as bluntly as I asked it. "I don't know where Grantline is located. But we will find out. He will not suspect the Planetara so when we get close to the Moon, we will signal and ask him. We can trick him into telling us. You think I do not know what is on your mind, Haljan? There is a secret code of signals arranged between Dean and Grantline. I have forced Dean to confess it. Without torture! Prince helped me in that. He persuaded Dean not to defy me. A very persuasive fellow, George Prince. More diplomatic than I am. I give him credit for that."
I strove to hold my voice calm. "If I should join you, Miko--my word, if I ever gave it, you would find dependable--I would say George Prince is very valuable to us. You should rein your temper. He is half your size--you might some time, without intention, do him injury."
He laughed. "Moa says so. But have no fear--"
"I was thinking," I persisted. "I'd like to have a talk with George Prince."
Ah, my pounding, tumultuous heart! But I was smiling calmly. And I tried to put into my voice a shrewd note of cupidity. "I really know very little about this treasure, Miko. If there were a million or two of gold leaf in it for me--"
"Perhaps there would be."
"Suppose you let me have a talk with Prince? I have some scientific knowledge myself about the powers of this catalyst. Prince's knowledge and mine--we might be able to come to a calculation on the value of Grantline's treasure. You don't know. You are only assuming."
I paused after this glib outburst. Whatever may have been in Miko's mind, I cannot say. But abruptly he stood up. I had left my bunk but he waved me back.
"Sit down. I am not like Moa. I would not trust you just because you protested you would be loyal." He picked up his cylinder. "We will talk again." He gestured to the scrolls he had left upon my desk. "Work on those. I will judge you by the results."
He was no fool, this brigand leader.
"Yes," I agreed. "You want a true course to the asteroid?"
"Yes. And by the gods, I warn you, I can check up on you!"
I said meekly, "Very well. But you ask Prince if he wants my calculations on Grantline's possibilities."
I shot Miko a foxy look as he stood by the door. I added, "You think you are clever. There is plenty you don't know. Our first night out from Earth--Grantline's signals--didn't it ever occur to you that I might have some figures on his treasure?"
It startled him. "Where are they?"
I tapped my forehead. "You don't suppose I was foolish enough to record them. You ask Prince if he wants to talk to me. A hundred million, or two hundred million--it would make a big difference, Miko."
"I will think about it." He backed out and sealed the door upon me.
But Anita did not come. I verified Hahn's figures, which were very nearly correct. I charted a course for the asteroid; it was almost the one which had been set.
Coniston came for my results. "I say, we are not so bad as navigators, are we? I think we're jolly good, considering our inexperience. Not bad at all, eh?"
"No."
I did not think it wise to ask him about Prince.
"Are you hungry, Haljan?"
"Yes."
A steward came with a meal. The saturnine Hahn stood at my door with a weapon upon me while I ate. They were taking no chances and they were wise not to.
The day passed. Day and night, all the same of aspect here in the starry vault of space. But with the ship's routine it was day. And then another time of sleep. I slept fitfully, worrying, trying to plan. Within a few hours we would be nearing the asteroid.
The time of sleep was nearly passed. My chronometer marked five A.M. original Earth starting time. The seal of my cubby door hissed. The door slowly opened.
Anita!
She stood there with her cloak around her. A distance away on the shadowed deck Coniston was loitering.
"Anita!" I whispered it.
"Gregg, dear!"
She turned and gestured to the watching brigand. "I will not be long, Coniston."
She came in and half closed the door upon us, leaving it open enough so that we could make sure that Coniston did not advance.
I stepped back where he could not see us. "Anita!"
She flung herself into my opened arms.
XV
A moment when, beyond the thought of the nearby brigand--or the possibility of an eavesdropping ray trained now upon my cubby--a moment while Anita and I held each other, and whispered those things which could mean nothing to the world, but which were all the world to us!
Then it was she whose wits brought us back from the
shining fairyland of our love, into the sinister reality of the Planetara.
"Gregg, if they are listening--"
I pushed her away. This brave little masquerader! Not for my life, or for all the lives on the ship, would I consciously have endangered her.
"But Grantline's findings!" I said aloud. "In his message--see here, Prince--"
Coniston was too far away on the deck to hear us. Anita went to my door again and waved at him reassuringly. I put my ear to the door opening and listened at the space across the grid of the ventilator over my bunk. The hum of a vibration would have been audible at those two points. But there was nothing.
"It's all right," I whispered, and she clung to me--so small beside me. With the black robe thrown aside, it seemed that I could not miss the curves of her woman's figure. A dangerous game she was playing. Her hair had been cut short to the base of her neck, in the fashion of her dead brother. Her eyelashes had been clipped: the line of her brows altered. And now, in the light of my tube as it shone upon her earnest face, I could remark other changes. Glutz, the little beauty specialist, was in this secret. With plastic skill he had altered the set of her jaw--put masculinity here.
She was whispering: "It was--was poor George whom Miko shot."
I had now the true version of what had occurred. Miko had been forcing his wooing upon Anita. George Prince was a weakling whose only good quality was his love for his sister. Some years ago he had fallen into evil ways. Been arrested, and then been discharged from his position with the Federated Corporation. He had taken up with evil companions in Greater New York. Mostly Martians. And Miko had met him. His technical knowledge, his training with the Federated Corporation, made him valuable to Miko's enterprise. And so Prince had joined the brigands.
Of all this, Anita had been unaware. She had never liked Miko. Feared him. But it seemed that the Martian had some hold upon her brother, which puzzled and frightened Anita.
Then Miko had fallen in love with her. George had not liked it. And that night on the Planetara, Miko had come and knocked upon Anita's door, and incautiously she had opened it. He forced himself in. And when she repulsed him, struggled with him, George had been awakened.
She was whispering to me now. "My room was dark. We were all three struggling. George was holding me--the shot came--and I screamed."