Triplanetary

by E. E. Smith

  CHAPTER XII

  The Specimens Escape

  Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatestneeds of any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted theTerrestrial specimens to retain possession of their ultra-beamcommunicators. Thus it was that Costigan had been able to keep in touchwith his sweetheart and with Bradley. He learned that each had beenplaced upon exhibition in a different Nevian city: that the three hadbeen separated in response to an insistent popular demand for such adistribution of the peculiar, but highly interesting creatures from adistant solar system. They had not been harmed. In fact, each wasvisited daily by a specialist, who made sure that his charge was beingkept in the pink of condition.

  As soon as he became aware of this condition of things Costigan becamemorose. He sat still, drooped, and pined away visibly. He refused toeat, and of the worried specialist he demanded liberty. Then, failing inthat as he knew he would fail, he demanded something to _do_. Theypointed out to him, reasonably enough, that in such a civilization astheirs there was nothing he _could_ do. They assured him that they woulddo anything they could to alleviate his mental suffering, but that sincehe was a museum piece he must see, himself, that he must be kept ondisplay for a short time. Wouldn't he please behave himself and eat, asa reasoning being should? Costigan sulked a little longer, then wavered.Finally he agreed to compromise. He would eat and exercise if they wouldfit up a laboratory in his apartment, so that he could continue thestudies he had begun upon his own native planet. To this they agreed,and thus it came about that one day the following conversation was held:

  "Clio? Bradley? I've got something to tell you this time. Haven't saidanything before, for fear things might not work out, but they did. Iwent on a hunger strike and made them give me a complete laboratory. Asa chemist I'm a darn good electrician; but luckily, with the sea-waterthey've got here, it's a very simple thing to make...."

  "Hold on!" snapped Bradley. "Somebody may be listening in on us!"

  "They aren't. They can't, without my knowing it, and I'll cut off thesecond anybody tries to synchronize with my beam. To resume--makingVee-Two is a very simple process, and I've got everything around herethat's hollow clear full of it...."

  "How come they let you?" asked Clio.

  "Oh, they don't know what I'm doing. They watched me for a few days, andall I did was make up and bottle the weirdest messes imaginable. Then Ifinally managed to separate oxygen and nitrogen, after trying hard allof one day; and when they thought they saw that I didn't know anythingabout either one of them or what to do with them after I had them, theygave me up in disgust as a plain dumb ape and haven't paid any attentionto me since. So I've got me plenty of kilograms of liquid Vee-Two, allready to touch off. I'm getting out of here in about three minutes and ahalf, and I'm coming over after you folks, in a new, iron-poweredspace-speedster that they don't know I know anything about. They've justgiven it its final tests, and it's the slickest thing you ever saw."

  "But Conway, dearest, you can't possibly rescue me," Clio's voice broke."Why, there are thousands of them, all around here. If you can get away,go, dear, but don't...."

  "I said I was coming after you, and if I can get away I'll be there. Agood whiff of this stuff will lay out a thousand of them just as easilyas it will one. Here's the idea. I've made a gas mask for myself, sinceI'll be in it where it's thick, but you two won't need any. The gas issoluble enough in water so that three or four thicknesses of wet clothover your noses will be enough. I'll tell you when to wet down. We'regoing to break away or go out trying--there aren't enough amphibiansbetween here and Andromeda to keep us humans cooped up like menagerieanimals forever! But here comes my specialist with the keys to the city;time for the overture to start. See you later!"

  The Nevian physician directed his key-tube upon the transparent wall ofthe chamber and an opening appeared, an opening which vanished as soonas he had stepped through it; Costigan kicked a valve open; and fromvarious innocent tubes there belched forth into the water of the centrallagoon and into the air over it a flood of deadly vapor. As the Nevianturned toward the prisoner there was an almost inaudible hiss and a tinyjet of the frightful, outlawed stuff struck his open gills, just belowhis huge, conical head. He tensed momentarily, twitched convulsivelyjust once, and fell motionless to the floor. And outside, the streams ofavidly soluble liquefied gas rushed out into air and into water. Itspread, dissolved, and diffused with the extreme mobility which is oneof its characteristics; and as it diffused and was borne outward theNevians, in their massed hundreds, died. Died not knowing what killedthem; not knowing even that they died. Costigan, bitterly resentful ofthe inhuman treatment accorded the three and fiercely anxious for thesuccess of his plan of escape, held his breath and, grimly alert,watched the amphibians die. When he could see no more motion anywhere hedonned his gas-mask, strapped upon his back a large canister of thepoison--his capacious pockets were already full of smallercontainers--and two savagely exultant sentences escaped him.

  "I am a poor, ignorant specimen of ape, that can be let play withapparatus, am I?" he rasped, as he picked up the key-tube of thespecialist and opened the door of his prison. "Maybe they'll learnsometime that it ain't always safe to judge by the looks of a flea howfar he can jump!"

  He stepped out through the opening into the water, and, burdened as hewas, made shift to swim to the nearest ramp. Up it he ran, toward a maincorridor. But ahead of him there was wafted a breath of dread Vee-Two,and where that breath went, went also unconsciousness--anunconsciousness which would deepen gradually into permanent oblivionsave for the prompt intervention of one who possessed, not only thenecessary antidote, but the equally important knowledge of exactly howto use it. Upon the floor of that corridor were strewn Nevians, who haddropped in their tracks. Past or over their bodies Costigan strode,pausing only to direct a jet of lethal vapor into whatever branchingcorridor or open doorway caught his eye. He was going to the intake ofthe city's ventilation plant, and no unmasked creature dependent forlife upon oxygen could bar his path. He reached the intake, tore thecanister from his back, and released its full, vast volume of horridcontents into the primary air stream of the entire city.

  And all throughout that doomed city Nevians dropped; quietly and withouta struggle, unknowing. Busy executives dropped upon their cushioned,flat-topped desks; hurrying travelers and messengers dropped upon thefloors of the corridors or relaxed in the noxious waters of the ways;lookouts and observers dropped before their flashing screens; centraloperators of communications dropped under the winking lights of theirpanels. Observers and centrals in the outlying sections of the citywondered briefly at the unwonted universal motionlessness andstagnation; then the racing taint in water and in air reached them, too,and they ceased wondering--forever.

  Then through those quiet halls Costigan stalked to a certain storageroom, where with all due precaution he donned his own suit ofTriplanetary armor. Making an ungainly bundle of the other Solarianequipment stored there, he dragged it along behind him as he clankedback toward his prison, until he neared the dock at which was moored theNevian space-speedster which he was determined to take. Here, he knew,was the first of many critical points. The crew of the vessel wasaboard, and, with its independent air-supply, unharmed. They hadweapons, were undoubtedly alarmed, and were very probably highlysuspicious. They, too, had ultra-beams and might see him, but his verycloseness to them would tend to protect him from ultra-beam observation.Therefore he crouched tensely behind a buttress, staring through hisspy-ray goggles, waiting for a moment when none of the Nevians would benear the entrance, but grimly resolved to act instantly should he feelany touch of a spying ultra-beam.

  "Here's where the pinch comes," he growled to himself. "I know thecombination, but if they're suspicious enough and act quick enough theycan seal that door on me before I can get it open, and then rub me outlike a blot; but ... ah!"

  The moment had arrived, before the touch of any revealing ray. Hetrained the key-tube, the entrance opened,
and through that opening inthe instant of its appearance there shot a brittle bulb of glass, whosebreaking meant death. It crashed into fragments against a metallic walland Costigan, entering the vessel, consigned its erstwhile crew one byone to the already crowded waters of the lagoon. He then leaped to thecontrols and drove the captured speedster through the air, to plunge itdown upon the surface of the lagoon beside the door of the isolatedstructure which had for so long been his prison. Carefully hetransferred to the vessel the motley assortment of containers ofVee-Two, and after a quick check-up to make sure that he had overlookednothing, he shot his craft straight up into the air. Then only did heclose his ultra-wave circuits and speak.

  "Clio, Bradley--I got away clean, without a bit of trouble. Now I'mcoming after you, Clio."

  "Oh, it's wonderful that you got away, Conway!" the girl exclaimed. "Buthadn't you better get Captain Bradley first? Then, if anything shouldhappen, he would be of some use, while I...."

  "I'll knock him into an outside loop if he does!" the captain snorted,and Costigan went on:

  "You won't need to. You come first, Clio, of course. But you're too faraway for me to see you with my spy, and I don't want to use thehigh-powered beam of this boat for fear of detection; so you'd betterkeep on talking, so that I can trace you."

  "That's one thing I _am_ good at!" Clio laughed in sheer relief. "Iftalking were music, I'd be a full brass band!" and she kept up a flow ofinconsequential chatter, until Costigan told her that it was no longernecessary; that he had established the line.

  "Any excitement around there yet?" he asked her then.

  "Nothing unusual that I can see," she replied. "Why? Should there besome?"

  "I hope not, but when I made my get-away I couldn't kill them all, ofcourse, and I thought maybe they might connect things up with myjail-break and tell the other cities to take steps about you two. But Iguess they're pretty well disorganized back there yet, since they can'tknow who hit them, or what with, or why. I must have got about everybodythat wasn't sealed up somewhere, and it doesn't stand to reason thatthose who are left can check up very closely for a while yet. Butthey're nobody's fools--they'll certainly get conscious when I snatchyou, maybe before ... there, I see your city, I think."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Same as I did back there, if I can. Poison their primary air and allthe water I can reach...."

  "Oh, Conway!" Her voice rose to a scream. "They must know--they're allgetting out of the water and are rushing inside the buildings as fast asthey possibly can!"

  "I see they are," grimly. "I'm right over you now, 'way up. Beenlocating their primary intake. They've got a dozen ships around it, andhave guards posted all along the corridors leading to it; and _thoseguards are wearing masks!_ They're clever birds, all right, thoseamphibians--they know what they got back there and how they got it. Thatchanges things, girl! If we use gas here we won't stand a chance in theworld of getting old Bradley. Stand by to jump when I open that door!"

  "Hurry, dear! They are coming out here after me!"

  "Sure they are." Costigan had already seen the two Nevians swimming outtoward Clio's cage, and had hurled his vessel downward in a screamingpower dive. "You're too valuable a specimen for them to let you begassed, but if they can get there before I do they're traveling fast!"

  He miscalculated slightly, so that instead of coming to a halt at thesurface of the liquid medium the speedster struck with a crash thathurled solid masses of water for hundreds of yards. But no ordinarycrash could harm that vessel's structure, her gravity controls were notoverloaded, and she shot back to the surface; gallant ship and recklesspilot alike unharmed. Costigan trained his key-tube upon the doorway ofClio's cell, then tossed it aside.

  "Different combinations over here!" he barked. "Got to cut you out--liedown in that far corner!"

  His hands flashed over the panel, and as Clio fell prone withouthesitation or question a heavy beam literally blasted away a largeportion of the roof of the structure. The speedster shot into the airand dropped down until she rested upon the tops of opposite walls; wallsstill glowing, semi-molten. The girl piled a stool upon the table andstood upon it, reached upward, and seized the mailed hands extendeddownward toward her. Costigan heaved her up into the vessel with apowerful jerk, slammed the door shut, leaped to the controls, and thespeedster darted away.

  "Your armor's in that bundle there. Better put it on, and check yourLewistons and pistols--no telling what kind of jams we'll get into," hesnapped, without turning. "Bradley, start talking ... all right, I'vegot your line. Better get your wet rags ready and get organizedgenerally--every second will count by the time we get there. We'recoming so fast that our outer plating's white hot, but it may not befast enough, at that."

  "It isn't fast enough, quite," Bradley announced, calmly. "They'recoming out after me now."

  "Don't fight them and probably they won't paralyze you. Keep on talking,so that I can find out where they take you."

  "No good, Costigan." The voice of the old space-flea did not reveal asign of emotion as he made his dread announcement. "They have it allfigured out. They're not taking any chances at all--they're going toparal...." His voice broke off in the middle of the word.

  With a bitter imprecation Costigan flashed on the powerful ultra-beamprojector of the speedster and focused the plate upon Bradley's prison;careless now of detection, since the Nevians were already warned. Uponthat plate he watched the Nevians carry the helpless body of the captaininto a small boat, and continued to watch as they bore it into one ofthe largest buildings of the city. Up a series of ramps they took thestill form, placing it finally upon a soft couch in an enormous andheavily guarded central hall. Costigan turned to his companion, Clio,and even through the helmets she could see plainly the white agony ofhis expression. He moistened his lips and tried twice to speak--triedand failed: but he made no move either to cut off their power or tochange their direction.

  "Of course," she approved, steadily. "We are going through. I know thatyou _want_ to run with me, but if you actually did it, I would neverwant to see you or hear of you again, and you would hate me forever."

  "Hardly that." The anguish did not leave his eyes and his voice washoarse and strained, but his hands did not vary the course of thespeedster by so much as a hair's breadth. "You're the finest littlefellow that ever waved a plume, and I would love you no matter whathappened. I'd trade my immortal soul to the devil if it would get youout of this mess, but we're both in it up to our necks and we can't dogit now. If they kill him we beat it--he and I both knew that it was onthe chance of that happening that I took you first--but as long as allthree of us are alive it's all three or none."

  "Of course," she said again, as steadily, thrilled this time to thedepths of her being by the sheer manhood of him who had thus simplyvoiced his Code; a man of such fiber that neither love of life, nor theinfinitely more powerful love of her which she knew he bore, could makehim lower its high standard.

  "We are going through. Forget that I am a woman. We are three humanbeings, fighting a world full of monsters. I am simply one of us three.I will steer your ship, fire your projectors, or throw your bombs. Whatcan I do best?"

  "Throw bombs," he directed, briefly. He knew what must be done were theyto have even the slightest chance of winning clear. "I'm going to blasta hole down into the auditorium, and when I do you stand by that portand start dropping bottles of perfume. Throw a couple of big ones rightdown the shaft I make, and the rest of them most anywhere, after I cutthe wall open. They'll do good wherever they hit, land or water."

  "But Captain Bradley--he'll be gassed, too." Her fine eyes weretroubled.

  "Can't be helped. I've got the antidote, and it'll work any time underan hour. That'll be lots of time--if we aren't gone in less than tenminutes we'll be staying here. They're bringing in platoons of militiain full armor, and if we don't beat those boys to it we're in for plentyof grief. All right--start throwing!"

  The speedster had come to a halt di
rectly over the imposing edificewithin which Bradley was incarcerated, and a mighty beam had flareddownward, digging a fiery well through floor after floor of stubbornmetal. The ceiling of the amphitheater pierced, the beam expired; anddown into that assembly hall there dropped two canisters of Vee-Two; tocrash and to fill its atmosphere with imperceptible death. Then the beamflashed on again, this time at maximum power, and with it Costiganburned away half of the gigantic building. Burned it away until roomabove room gaped open, shelf-like, to outer atmosphere; the great hallnow resembling an over-size pigeon-hole surrounded by smaller ones. Intothat largest pigeon-hole the speedster darted, and cushioned desks andbenches crashed down, crushed flat under its enormous weight as it cameto rest upon the floor.

  Every available guard had been thrown into that room, regardless ofcustomary occupation or of equipment. Most of them had been ordinarywatchmen, not even wearing masks, and all such were already down. Many,however, were protected by masks, and a few were dressed in full armor.But no portable armor could mount defenses of sufficient power towithstand the awful force of the speedster's weapons, and one flashingswing of a projector swept the hall almost clear of life.

  "Can't shoot very close to Bradley with this big beam, but I'll mop upon the rest of them by hand. Stay here and cover me, Clio!" Costiganordered, and went to open the door.

  "I can't--I won't!" Clio replied instantly. "I don't know the controlswell enough. I'd kill you or Captain Bradley, sure; but I _can_ shoot,and I'm going to!" and she leaped out, close upon his heels.

  Thus, flaming Lewiston in one hand and barking automatic in the other,the two mailed figures advanced toward Bradley; now doubly helpless:paralyzed by his enemies and gassed by his friends. For a time theNevians melted away before them, but as they approached more nearly thecouch, upon which the captain was, they encountered six figures encasedin armor fully as capable as their own. The beams of the Lewistonsrebounded from that armor in futile pyrotechnics, the bullets of theautomatics spattered and exploded impotently against it. And behind thatsingle line of armored guards were massed perhaps twenty unarmored, butmasked, soldiers; and scuttling up the ramps leading into the hall werecoming the platoons of heavily-armored figures which Costigan hadpreviously seen.

  Decision instantly made, Costigan ran back toward the speedster, but hewas not deserting his companions.

  "Keep the good work up!" he instructed the girl as he ran. "I'll pickthose jaspers off with a pencil ray and then stand off the bunch that'scoming while you rub out the rest of that crew there and drag Bradleyback here."

  Back at the control panel, he trained a narrow, but intensely densepencil of livid flame, and one by one the six armored figures fell.Then, knowing that Clio could handle the remaining opposition, hedevoted his attention to the reenforcements so rapidly approaching fromthe sides. Again and again the heavy beam lashed out, now upon thisside, now upon that, and in its flaming path Nevians disappeared. Andnot only Nevians--in the incredible energy of that beam's blast, floor,walls, ramps, and every material thing vanished in clouds of thick andbrilliant vapor. The room temporarily clear of foes, he sprang again toClio's assistance, but her task was nearly done. She had "rubbed out"all opposition and, tugging lustily at Bradley's feet, had alreadydragged him almost to the side of the speedster.

  "'At-a-girl, Clio!" cheered Costigan, as he picked up the burly captainand tossed him through the doorway. "Highly useful, girl of my dreams,as well as ornamental. In with you, and we'll start out to go places!"

  But getting the speedster out of the now completely ruined hall provedto be much more of a task than driving it in had been, for scarcely hadthe Terrestrials closed their locks than a section of the buildingcollapsed behind them, cutting off their retreat. Nevian submarines andairships were beginning to arrive upon the scene, and were raying thebuilding viciously in an attempt to entrap or to crush the Terrestrialsin its ruins. Costigan managed finally to blast his way out, but theNevians had had time to assemble in force and he was met by aconcentrated storm of beams and of metal from every inimical weaponwithin range.

  But not for nothing had Conway Costigan selected for his dash forliberty the craft which, save only for the two immense interstellarcruisers, was the most powerful vessel ever built upon red Nevia. Andnot for nothing had he studied minutely and to the last, least detailevery item of its controls and of its armament during wearily long daysand nights of solitary imprisonment. He had studied it under test, inaction, and at rest; studied it until he knew thoroughly its everypossibility--and what a ship it was! The iron-driven generators of hisshielding screens handled with ease the terrific load of the Nevians'assault, his polycyclic screens were proof against any materialprojectile, and the machines supplying his offensive beams with powerwere more than equal to their tasks. Driven now at full rating thosefrightful weapons lashed out against the Nevian blocking the way, andunder their impacts her screens flared brilliantly through the spectrumand went down. And in the instant of their failure the enemy vessel wasliterally blown into nothingness--no unprotected metal, howeverresistant, could exist for a moment in the pathway of those iron-driventornadoes of pure energy.

  Ship after ship of the Nevians plunged toward the speedster indesperately suicidal attempts to ram her down, but each met the sameflaming fate before its mass could collide with the ship of theTerrestrials. Then, from the grouped submarines far below, there reachedup red rods of force, which seized the space-ship and began relentlesslyto draw her down.

  "What are they doing that for, Conway? _They_ can't fight us!"

  "They don't want to fight us. They want to hold us, but I know what todo about that, too," and the powerful tractor rods snapped as a plane oflurid light drove through them. Upward now at the highest permissiblevelocity the speedster leaped, and past the few ships remaining aboveher she dodged; there was nothing now between her and the freedom ofboundless space.

  "You did it, Conway; you did it!" Clio exulted. "Oh, Conway, you're justsimply wonderful!"

  "I haven't done it yet," Costigan cautioned her. "The worst is yet tocome. Nerado. He's why they wanted to hold us back, and why I was insuch a hurry to get away. That boat of his is bad medicine, girl, and wewant to put plenty of kilometers behind us before he gets started."

  "But do you think he will chase us?"

  "_Think_ so? I _know_ so! The mere facts, that we are rare specimens andthat he told us that we were going to stay there all the rest of ourlives, would make him chase us clear to Dustheimer's Nebula. Besidesthat, we stepped on their toes pretty heavily before we left. We knowaltogether too much now to be let get back to Tellus; and finally,they'd all die of acute enlargement of the spleen if we get away withthis prize ship of theirs. I hope to tell you they'll chase us!"

  He fell silent, devoting his whole attention to his piloting, drivinghis craft onward at such velocity that its outer plating held steadilyat the highest point of temperature compatible with safety. Soon theywere out in open space, hurtling toward the sun under the drive of everypossible iota of power, and Costigan took off his armor and turnedtoward the helpless body of the captain.

  "He looks so ... so ... so _dead_, Conway! Are you really sure that youcan bring him to?"

  "Absolutely. Lots of time yet. Just three simple squirts in the rightplaces will do the trick." He took from a locked compartment of hisarmor a small steel box, which housed a surgeon's hypodermic and threevials. One, two, three, he injected small, but precisely measuredamounts of the fluids into the three vital localities, then placed theinert form upon a deeply cushioned couch.

  "There! That'll take care of the gas in five or six hours. The paralysiswill wear off before that, so he'll be all right when he wakes up; andwe're going away from here with every watt of power we can put out. Wehave done everything I know how to do, for the present."

  Then only did Costigan turn and look down, directly into Clio's eyes.Wide, eloquent blue eyes that gazed back up into his, tender andunafraid; eyes freighted with the oldest message of woman to
chosen man.His hard young face softened wonderfully as he stared at her; there weretwo quick steps and they were in each other's arms. Clio's lithelyrounded form nestled against Costigan's powerful body as his mighty armstightened around her; his neck and shoulder were no lessenthusiastically clasped, and less strongly only because of her woman'sslighter musculature. Lips upon eager lips, blue eyes to gray,motionless they stood clasped in ecstasy; thinking nothing of thedreadful past, nothing of the fearful future, conscious only of theglorious, the wonderful present.

  "Clio mine ... darling ... girl, girl, how I love you!" Costigan's deepvoice was husky with emotion. "I haven't kissed you for seven thousandyears! I don't rate you, by hundreds of steps; but if I can just get youout of this mess, I swear by all the space...."

  "You needn't, lover. Rate _me_? Good Heavens, Conway? It's just theother way...."

  "Chop it!" he commanded in her ear. "I'm still dizzy at the idea of yourloving me at all, to say nothing of loving me _this_ way! But you do,and that's all I ask, here or hereafter!"

  "Love you? _Love_ you!" Their mutual embrace tightened and her low voicethrilled brokenly as she went on: "Conway, dearest.... I can't say athing, but you know.... Oh, Conway!"

  After a time Clio drew a long and tremulous, but supremely happy breathas the realities of their predicament once more obtruded themselves uponher consciousness. She released herself gently from Costigan's arms.

  "Do you really think that there is a chance of us getting back to theearth, so that we can be together ... always?"

  "A chance, yes. A probability, no," he replied, unequivocally. "Itdepends upon two things. First, how much of a start we got on Nerado.His ship is the biggest and fastest thing I ever saw, and if he stripsher down and drives her--which he will--he'll catch us long before wecan make Tellus. On the other hand, I gave Rodebush a lot of data, andif he and Lyman Cleveland can add it to their own stuff and get thatsuper-ship of ours rebuilt in time, they'll be out here on the prowl;and they'll have what can give even Nerado plenty of argument. No useworrying about it, anyway. We won't know anything until we can detectone or the other of them, and then will be the time to do somethingabout it."

  "If Nerado catches us, will you...." She paused.

  "Rub you out? I will not. Even if he does catch us, and takes us back toNevia, I won't. There's lots more time coming onto the clock. Neradowon't hurt either of us badly enough to leave scars, either physical,mental, or moral. I'd kill you in a second if it were Roger; he's dirtyand he's thoroughly bad. But Nerado's a good enough old scout, in hisway. He's big and he's clean. You know, I could really like that fish,if I could meet him on terms of equality sometime?"

  "_I_ couldn't!" she declared, vigorously. "He's crawly and scaly andsnaky; and he smells so ... so...."

  "So rank and fishy?" Costigan laughed deeply. "Details, girl; meredetails. I've seen people who looked like money in the bank and whosmelled like a bouquet of violets that you couldn't trust half thelength of Nerado's neck."

  "But look what he did to us!" she protested. "And they weren't trying torecapture us back there; they were trying to kill us."

  "That was perfectly all right, what he did and what they did--what elsecould they have done?" he wanted to know. "And while you're looking,look at what we did to them--plenty, I'd say. But we all had it to do,and neither side will blame the other for doing it. He's a squareshooter, I tell you."

  "Well, maybe, but I don't like him a bit, and let's not talk about himany more. Let's talk about us. Remember what you said once, when youadvised me to 'let you lay,' or whatever it was?" Woman-like, she wishedto dip again lightly into the waters of pure emotion, even though shehad such a short time before led the man out of their profoundestdepths. But Costigan, into whose hard life love of woman had neverbefore entered, had not yet recovered sufficiently from his soul-shakingplunge to follow her lead. Inarticulate, distrusting his newly foundsupreme happiness, he must needs stay out of those enchanted waters orplunge again. And he was afraid to plunge--diffident, still deeminghimself unworthy of the miracle of this wonder-girl's love--even thoughevery fiber of his being shrieked its demand to feel again that slenderbody in his clasping arms. He did not consciously think those thoughts.He acted them without thinking; they were inherent in his personality.

  "I do remember, and I still think it's a sound idea, even though I amtoo far gone now to let you put it into effect," he assured her, halfseriously. He kissed her, tenderly and reverently, then studied hercarefully. "But you look as though you'd been on a Martian picnic. Whendid you eat last?"

  "I don't remember, exactly. This morning, I think."

  "Or maybe last night, or yesterday morning? I thought so! Bradley and Ican eat anything that's chewable, and drink anything that will pour, butyou can't. I'll scout around and see if I can't fix up something thatyou'll be able to eat."

  He rummaged through the store-rooms, emerging with sundry viands fromwhich he prepared a highly satisfactory meal.

  "Think you can sleep now, sweetheart?" After supper, once more withinthe circle of Costigan's arms, Clio nodded her head against hisshoulder.

  "Of course I can, dear. Now that you are with me, out here alone, I'mnot a bit afraid any more. You will get us back to the earth some way,sometime; I just know that you will. Good-night, Conway."

  "Good-night, Clio ... little sweetheart," he whispered, and went back toBradley's side.

  In due time the captain recovered consciousness, and slept. Then fordays the speedster flashed on toward our distant solar system; daysduring which her wide-flung detector screens remained cold.

  "I don't know whether I'm afraid they'll hit something or afraid thatthey won't," Costigan remarked more than once, but finally those tenuoussentinels did in fact encounter an interfering vibration. Along thedetector line a visibeam sped, and Costigan's face hardened as he sawthe unmistakable outline of Nerado's interstellar cruiser, far behindthem.

  "Well, a stern chase always was a long one," Costigan said finally. "Hecan't catch us for plenty of days yet ... now what?" for the alarms ofthe detectors had broken out anew. There was still another point ofinterference to be investigated. Costigan traced it; and there, almostdead ahead of them, between them and their sun, nearing them at theincomprehensible rate of the sum of the two vessels' velocities, cameanother cruiser of the Nevians!

  "Must be the sister-ship, coming back from our System with a load ofiron," Costigan deduced. "Heavily loaded as she is, we may be able tododge her; and she's coming so fast that if we can stay out of her rangewe'll be all right--she won't be able to stop for probably three or fourdays. But if our super-ship is anywhere in these parts, now's the timefor her to rally 'round!"

  He gave the speedster all the side-thrust she would take; then, puttingevery available communicator tube behind a tight beam, he drove itsunward and began sending out a long-continued call to his fellows ofTriplanetary's Secret Service.

  Nearer and nearer the Nevian flashed, trying with all her power tointercept the speedster; and it soon became evident that, heavily ladenthough she was, she could make enough sideway to bring her within rangeat the time of meeting.

  "Of course, they've got partial neutralization of inertia, the same aswe have," Costigan cogitated, "and by the way he's coming I'd say thathe had orders to blow us out of the ether--he knows as well as we dothat he can't capture us alive at anything like the relative velocitieswe've got now. I can't give her any more side thrust without overloadingthe gravity controls, so overloaded they've got to be. Strap down, youtwo, because they may go out entirely."

  "Do you think that you can pull away from them, Conway?" Clio wasstaring in horrified fascination into the plate, watching the picturedvessel increase in size, moment by moment.

  "I don't know, girl, but I'm going to try. Just in case we don't,though, I'm going to keep on yelling for help. In solid? All right,boat, DO YOUR STUFF!"