"And when I think of how our big brains have botched this all the way!" growled General Curtis from his corner.
"If this does work out, as the general seems to believe it will," President Roosevelt put in, "we shall all be eternally in your debt. I hope there is something we can do in return."
"There is something we are seeking and have been informed you have," said Elspeth, feeling far from steady. "It's a shield against the terrible heat of the disintegrator. It may be a vitally important factor on—" She caught Mack's warning look just in time and said, "where we come from."
"How about it, General?" the President asked. Curtis, who was once more examining the disintegrator, looked up thoughtfully.
After a moment he said, "Apparently this is a heat projector developed to an amazing degree—even beyond our new flame thowers. It's just possible our new asbestos-glass fabric might do the trick. We'll test in the morning.
"If it works out successfully, you people are welcome to it," the President told Elspeth and Mack. "It seems a very small return."
"It means a very great deal to us, Mr. President," Elspeth said to the chief executive. Apparently there was a chance that Juana's death might in some measure be avenged.
The following morning—none of them went to bed that night—the blueprints arrived, and again General Curtis spent his time being torn between admiration for the Reed Weston ship and self-reproach over the backwardness of American scientists.
It was that afternoon that President Roosevelt, making one of the great gambles of history, told the vast Congress of Nations assembled in the Presidio that the United States at last had the secret of space-flight within its grasp, that the road to the planets would soon be open to human pioneering and expansion.
"It will not be an easy road," he told them in conclusion. "The way of the pioneer has never been easy. It may even prove an impossible road, though this I do not believe. Man will conquer whatever he must, no matter how alien, how vast or puny, how fearsome or difficult it may appear.
"Furthermore," he went on, his voice rising to the climax of his speech, "as soon as we have successfully finished certain experiments now under way, we shall turn the entire data over to the United Nations to be shared by all who desire the planets under the United Nations banner."
Elspeth, sitting in a special seat in the balcony, barely felt the tap on her shoulder. She jumped, turned, looked up at Mack and General Curtis. Mack said, "Come out of it, Elly. We're on our way to White Sands. You wouldn't want to miss the finale?"
They were driven to a vast airport on an artificial island in the bay under one of the amazing spidery bridges, and were bundled into a vast and deadly looking Air Force jet transport which resembled nothing yet seen on either their world or that of Columbia.
IT TOOK off with a smooth roar that quickly became a faint scream, more felt than heard as it reached supersonic heights. Southeast they sped, over the towering coast range and the even loftier Rockies, scaling the rugged snow-capped mountain barriers with almost insolent ease. Elspeth got the feeling almost of being in space. She said as much to Mack, sitting beside her.
"They need seven miles a second to get clear of Earth," he told her pedantically. "That's four hundred and twenty miles a minute. I doubt if we're doing much over twelve miles a minute—if that. Still," he conceded, "that's moving right along."
"Mack," she said and to her surprise she found that her hand had somehow crept into his big mitt. "Mack, I'm scared without Juana. I feel like—oh, I don't know, I feel lost. How are we supposed to get out of this world without her?"
"I know what you mean, Elly," he told her with what she supposed was meant to be comfort. "I feel the same way. Of course, if we're stuck, we're stuck, and it's a good thing we've both got jobs and connections ready-made. Still, it isn't our world." He paused, shook his head, patted her hand.
"Somehow I don't think they'll leave us here," he went on. "They seemed much too well organized."
"But how will we know whoever comes for us if they do send someone?" Elspeth asked. She knew she was being a fine old panic bag but she couldn't help it. She had to voice her fears. "How do we know we won't pick another Everard?"
"We don't," said Mack and all at once his eyes were shadowed and the lines around his mouth had deepened. "But if we do—and if we do, we'll find out—we'll know what to do this time."
"Juana always seemed to be in touch," said Elspeth. "We're like Hansel and Gretel or babes in the wood."
"She knew the ropes," said Mack. "If we're going on with them we'll have to learn 'em, that's all, Elly. You'd better try to get some sleep." He slid down to accommodate her head.
Somehow she did manage to sleep, while the big plane cut across Nevada, across Arizona and part of New Mexico. She was awakened by a sudden move on the part of Mack, opened her eyes to find him leaning across her to peer out the window. The plane was banking in a sharp turn as it descended.
Below was an amazing spectacle. It was desert—desert as far as the eye could reach—desert like parts of the classic Sahara with little hills and dunes and ridges looking like ripples in some vast sand sea.
But men were there, too, and their mark was upon the desert. She saw square mile after square mile of buildings, low, long, efficient in appearance. Barracks, houses, shops, churches, hospitals, acre upon acre of glass-roofed workshops. The streets were laid out in neat geometric pattern and upon them crept small black things that must be automobiles.
Close by the city they approached was the airport, its hangars and long concrete strips in abstract pattern marking the ever-present sand. A few miles beyond lay the still vaster launching grounds, extending far into the dusk.
"It's a little like Norman in Columbia," she said to Mack.
"Not much," said Mack. "They have the plant here but they haven't got the ship. We're bringing them that." There was a certain fierce pride in his speech and it found an echo in her heart. Come what may, they were delivering the goods as promised.
"Enjoy the trip?" General Curtis was bending over them. He had spent most of the journey in the pilot's compartment, and Elspeth suspected he had been flying the big ship himself
"Wonderful!" she told him, and Mack nodded.
"Better belt in—we're landing" he said. Then, "Word just came that some big scientist from New York will be here to meet us—or rather you, Mack. He wants to talk to you about this fuel."
"I'm no nuclear physicist," said Mack. "But I have seen how it's handled. I'll do what I can."
Elspeth had one of her psychic touches as she fastened the broad webbed belt about her waist. The scientist from New York meant something—what she didn't know, or why—but she did know he was going to be important to them. She steeled herself against any sort of surprise.
But she was totally unprepared for the surprise she got on landing. The chunky dynamic bespectacled "scientist from New York," who came forward to greet them with a pleasant smile on his face, was none other than Orrin Lewis, Mack's editor-in-chief of Picture Week, the man who had teamed them up and sent them on the assignment to Hatteras Keys.
XV
SO WHEN word about Juana came in I thought I'd better come through after you," said "Doctor" Lewis, regarding them over a highball. It was late at night and they were lounging around in a room of the small frame house that had been assigned to them.
"Incidentally this is one of the damnedest worlds I ever visited," the editor went on, his broad low brow furrowed with thought. "I don't do much transferring any more and it's my first visit here." He paused, looked at his glass, shook his head. "What a slew of paradoxes!" he added.
"They have more peace organizations than any other world in this stage of development—and they fight more wars. They have more medicine—and more sickness. They have more church members—and more sinners."
"Don't the two usually walk hand in hand?" Elspeth asked.
"Touché!" said Orrin Lewis with a faint smile. "It's energy I suppose. Well, we
're giving them an outlet in the planets."
"And when the planets have been exhausted?" Mack asked.
"Who knows? We're at a tangent here, of course. We'll have to follow developments in both worlds—and along other tangencies."
"The job is endless, isn't it?" said Elspeth thoughtfully.
"Endless!" said Orrin Lewis.
"And it was through you that we got into this," said Elspeth.
"That's part of my job—selecting newcomers. They are always teamed on first assignments. Later, like Juana, they learn to work alone."
"Tell me," said the girl. "What happens if a person on one world meets her counterpart in another?"
"That's bothered me, too," said Mack unexpectedly.
"It happens, of course," Lewis said, smiling again. "For instance, Elly, there's a you on this world. You're a very famous London poetess."
"Then that book of poems was hers as well as mine?" The girl felt utter astonishment. Her verse was such a definite part of her. But Orrin Lewis shook his head.
"No—parallels simply aren't that close," he told her. "We had your poems specially printed for Christine Roosevelt. I saw to that little job myself."
"May I ask you just how we happened to be selected for this job?" Elspeth inquired. Mack's eyes silently seconded her curiosity.
"Naturally you have a right to know," said Lewis. "There are some of us— more or less broken-down veteran transferees—in key positions here and abroad who do the bulk of the picking and choosing. In general, we look for two qualities—integrity and flexibility. Both are needed in this work."
HE PAUSED thoughtfully, added, "Then there is the little matter of basic character and background. You, for instance—" he looked directly at Elspeth—"have the natural flexibility of a person brought up to regard life through the detachment of a subjective career. And you have proven yourself tough enough to stick to your guns in spite of hardship and personal isolation.
"Mack, on the other hand—" Lewis studied the photographer—"has acquired similar qualities from the opposite end. He has been banged into flexibility by trying to meet life as it came along."
"You can say that again," said Mack, putting down his glass.
"I try to have a little group on the staff of Picture Week ready for these assignments, but I never seem to be able to find enough," the editor went on. "You two were all I had to send on this assignment." He looked at his watch, added, "It's getting late and I'm taking you to the Kansas transfer point tomorrow. Are you ready with the disintegrator-shield, Mack?"
"I've got samples and specifications with me," Mack replied.
"Good," said Orrin Lewis. "Things are stalled in Columbia until you get there with them. You'll both want to be in on the grand finale there, I suppose. You've done well, both of you, especially on a first assignment. But remember, Picture Week still expects a good feature on the Hatteras Keys. You'll be returned there as soon as your Columbian job is wrapped up."
"I've got a question," said Mack. "I'd like to know why it is so important that we doctor up these other worlds."
"You have," said Orrin Lewis to the photographer, "with your almost infallible super-simplicity put your well-grimed thumb on the very nub of the matter, Mack."
"Huh?" said Mack stupidly.
"You've hit the nail on the thumb," said Elspeth.
"Correct," Orrin Lewis told her. "Unfortunately, it so happens that if any of the worlds is irretrievably damaged—or destroyed—it will have a singularly deleterious effect upon the entire quantum fabric which holds the various universes in a stasis of sorts.
"If this world manages to destroy itself it will put a gap in the fabric of existence itself—a gap whose filling will affect to its disadvantage each of the myriad other worlds that co-exist with it. It is part of the job of the Watchers and their aids to see to it that no such jarring catastrophe comes to pass. Understand?"
"It's a little frightening," said Elspeth, considering the magnitude of the entire idea.
"Frightening? It's a job!" said the editor. "Once again, I hope you have prepared something to cover your original assignment. It is important for all of us to keep up our work in our own worlds."
"We've done what we could," said Mack and for some reason Elspeth was grateful for his having included her in his remark. Lewis looked at them thoughtfully before he spoke again.
"Keep your eyes open—your job here is still undone. And Mack—have you been taking pictures on these other worlds?"
"A few," said the photographer, turning red. "I've been pretty busy, Mr. Lewis."
"Well, take all you can from here in," said the editor. "If film here is not usable in your camera, get a new camera. You have enough money?"
"Juana held the purse," said Elspeth, realizing that they were broke. Orrin Lewis drew out a bulging wallet, tossed a small sheaf of alien bills on the table. "This should cover anything and everything you run into," he told them. He shook his head. "We're going to miss Juana Brooks. If the two of you become as able as she was alone, you'll be more than doing your jobs."
"Then we're in this from now on?" said Mack, his eyebrows rising as he silently counted the money. "Thanks, Mr. Lewis."
Lewis dismissed his thanks with a gesture, said, "It's up to you, of course. But we don't select persons who are apt not to want to go on."
"I'm sold," said Mack. Lewis looked at Elspeth, who nodded slowly. Tears filled her eyes and her throat ached as she thought of Juana, who had moved so surely and vividly and died so tragically. Lewis lifted a hand in farewell and went into his room.
They arose early the following morning, were taken directly from the bungalow to the airfield, where a small cabin plane awaited them. To Elspeth's surprise Orrin Lewis himself took the controls. Before they got going he said, "You'll board your train in Topeka— same transfer point you used coming into this world. It's all arranged. You'll be met in Kansas City this time and flown to Norman in a Pipit. Got that?"
"Got it," said Mack and Elspeth nodded. Seconds later they were in the air, climbing rapidly.
ALONE in the rear car of the train both of them missed Juana increasingly—yet neither mentioned her name. They sat side by side through the blackness of transfer, journeyed with little conversation to Kansas City in an ornate Columbian rocket train. There they transferred with considerable secrecy to the first Columbian-built Pipit they had seen, and shortly afterward left the highway south of the metropolis to fly to Reed Weston's Headquarters.
Their arrival with the asbestos-glass fabric, gave the stalling three-way negotiations a new lease on life. Again Elspeth found time heavy on her hands for a couple of weeks. Mack seemed as busy as ever and Marshal Henry was seldom in headquarters, his duties taking him further south in his efforts to negotiate a satisfactory treaty.
Then one night, very late, he summoned her from her quarters in the barracks. He embraced her almost roughly, said, "Elly, darling, we've done it. When that material you and Mack brought us stood by, they knuckled under. I wanted you to be the first to know. We'll meet again tomorrow—in New Orleans."
"Thanks, Johnny," she said and for some reason tears were close behind her eyes. "Thanks, Johnny—I think it's wonderful."
It took her a long long time to get to sleep.
The next day, shortly after nine o'clock, the Reed Weston party took off for New Orleans in four Pipits—the original well-worn vehicle that had brought them there and three shining new copies that had only just finished their tests.
Mack was flying one of the new models—the one which carried Reed Weston and two of the great scientists who had planned to accompany him on his flight from Earth. Marshal Henry himself flew the second, containing high Rebel military leaders. Their pilot to Natchez, first Columbian to master Pipit flight, flew the third, also celebrity-laden. Elspeth handled the fourth, which apparently held the leading legal lights the rebels were calling on.
All of them, Elspeth noted, were dressed in simple khaki work clothes— with
shirts open at the neck and decorations and insignia of rank at a minimum. Elspeth herself, at Reed Weston's behest, was similarly attired. She wondered a little at such ultra-simplicity, then dismissed it from her mind.
"This—isn't bad, is it?" the gray-haired and distinguished attorney beside her said, relaxing a death-grip on his briefcase as they leveled off in flight.
"You were going to Mars—and you let a little flight like this bother you," gibed Elspeth to put them more at ease. "We'll be over New Orleans by eleven o'clock.
"It's a matter of getting used to the idea," said another legal light from the back seat. "It's so new."
"Relax and enjoy it," said Elspeth. "The water's fine."
It was a perfect sunny day and their height and motion made the heat un-noticeable. In loose diamond formation they flew southeast to the Mississippi, then followed the densely populated area that marked the course of the great brown river to the capital, cutting bird-fashion across curve and bayou in direct line.
ACCORDING to plan they landed at eleven-five in the great plaza before the domed white capitol at the western end of the tremendous moving boulevard that was Canal Street. At once an armed guard of khaki-clad Weston men, who had entered New Orleans in advance according to treaty, moved up in a hollow square to surround the vehicles.
The emissaries from Norman lined up irregularly in front of their Pipits and Elspeth, looking around her, found herself bedazzled by the splendor of the scene unfolded in the plaza. It was far and away the most brilliant display she had ever viewed.
Imperial and Columbian leaders, in red, in blue, in green, in yellow, in lavender, their uniforms weighed down with gold braid, buttons, medals and ribbons, cast coruscating reflections as they stood in an immense human cluster in the sunlight on the capitol steps. It was like returning to some Napoleonic victory review.
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