The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 04

by Anthology

  "That's so," assented the Captain.

  "So I wouldn't worry about the outcome," continued Merriam, throwing the half-consumed stub of his cigar into the glowing logs. "If you don't mind, I think I'll turn in. My trip has kind of taken it out of me. See you in the morning."

  "Good-night, Jim, and — and God bless you. I can't ever tell you how grateful I am for the help you've given me, and for all —"

  "Oh, that's all right, Les," said Merriam as he turned away. "It's always a pleasure to be of service to an old friend."

  Chapter IV

  Leslie Sets Out Upon A Mission

  ON a certain clear, bright afternoon in October, Captain Leslie Gardiner, bareheaded in the warm sunshine, stood in the driveway of the hotel which was his temporary habitation, waiting for his orderly to bring his horse from the stable. The air was strong and bracing with a hint of the winter to come and the distant lines of the Connecticut hills stood out sharply against the hard blue of the sky. The Captain expanded his deep chest with a long breath of pure contentment. It was very good to be alive on such a day; to be alive and to be in love and about to set out like a knight errant of old to lay siege to the fair citadel, with every assurance that it must inevitably surrender at discretion. Possibly the Captain rather regretted that he could not array himself in shining steel with a white plume flowing from his helmet and a great two-handed sword by his side, for, although in the ordinary affairs of life Leslie Gardiner was as practical a man as the most practical of ages could desire, he was endowed with an undeniable streak of romance which, on occasions such as the present, annoyed him considerably by coming persistently to the fore. It was out of deference to this streak of romance that the Captain wore today his grey-green police uniform with the triple bars of gold on the shoulder straps, although the practical side of his nature was thoroughly satisfied that he was clad in this fashion only because his leave would be up that evening and it was a saving of time to pack his civilian garments and ship them off beforehand. Still it could not be questioned that the neat uniform set off his well-built figure to excellent advantage and the Captain was conscious of a certain innocent pleasure in the flutter his appearance caused among the white skirts on the hotel veranda.

  The arrival of the orderly with his horse put an end to the Captain's pleasant meditations and returning the trooper's respectful salute, he took the bridle of the big bay and swinging easily into the saddle, rode slowly down the winding driveway.

  The keen autumn wind hummed through the telephone wires along the roadside and the cloud banks swept their shadows over the flaming shoulders of the autumn hills. Here and there a giant maple reared a blazing pyramid of foliage against the dark background of the evergreens. Oh, it was good to be alive on such a day; to be alive and to love. He urged his willing beast into a gallop, as he turned into the road leading to the shore, and presently the flashing waters of the ocean came into sight, foaming under the lash of the vigorous breeze. There was her home — that low, grey stone building on the right of the thin line of cottages and even at that distance he could see a flutter of white at one of the windows. Only a curtain waving in the wind probably, but perhaps — And the noble animal under him snorted in surprise as his master's heel commanded even greater speed.

  She had seen him coming and stood on the steps to greet him as he dismounted, a slim dark-blue figure with welcoming eyes. Thus they met, the tall, powerful man and the dark-haired slender maid, and the gods smiled upon them in the bright sunshine and caressed them with the strong salt breeze. Their hands touched half timidly as though they were conscious that great Nature had paused in her work to bless them with her age-old blessing, but their first words were commonplace enough.

  "Oh, Leslie," the girl exclaimed, "I am glad to see you! I've just been pining away for some one to play with. You can't imagine how stupid it is here since Mabs went back to college and most of the neighbours have gone too, and, of course, those that haven't are just the ones that bore you to death every time you see them. We're going ourselves just as soon as mother can reconcile herself to the ordeal of packing."

  They had instinctively turned into the familiar path leading to the beach as she was speaking, the well- trained troop horse following docilely behind with only a halt now and then to snatch at a tempting tussock of coarse beach grass.

  "Are you sure you'll be warm enough?" he enquired solicitously as they stepped out upon the firm sand.

  "One couldn't be cold in this glorious sunlight," she replied, smiling happily up at him. "Doesn't it just make you feel like doing something rash and reckless and shockingly unconventional? If I wasn't sure that those horrid Lemoines next door had their eyes glued to their windows watching us, I'd race you to the point. Only I suppose it would be rather unladylike," she added demurely. "And besides I know you'd beat me all to pieces."

  "I'll dare you to when we're safely hidden under the bluff from the prying gaze of the neighbours. We really ought to do something out of the ordinary to commemorate our last day together."

  The girl turned startled eyes to his. "Our last day together?"

  "I'm afraid so. My leave is up tonight and in twenty-four hours more I'll be on my way to Baltimore, unless the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Atlantic Coast District has decided that he'd rather have me somewhere else since I heard from him yesterday."

  "Leslie! You're not really going away tonight!"

  "'When duty calls I must obey,'" quoted the Captain. "Will you honestly be just a little bit sorry to have me go, Eve?"

  "Sorry!"

  Did Leslie Gardiner realise that not to every man is it given to have an exquisite being, quivering with life and love, waiting only for his word to come to him in wonderful, sweet surrender? Perhaps he did, for when presently he held her hands between his own and asked her to be his wife, he bowed his head humbly as under a rich blessing scarcely deserved and he kissed the hands he held before he crushed her in his arms.

  They sat on the warm, white sand through the long hours of the afternoon, talking of the golden future that had opened before them, while the big bay troop horse browsed contentedly on the short, sparse grass that grew on the bluff above their heads. The waves swelled and broke in front of them, scattering diamond drops in the clear air. The white clouds moved majestically above them, momentarily hiding the sun, only to have it break forth again, flooding earth and sea and sky and making wonderful lights and shadows in the girl's dark hair. Out on the blue ocean the white sails of a yacht, bound for New London, gleamed as she tossed and ploughed through the steep rollers, and far away on the horizon long, steady flashes of light showed where an outward-bound mail dirigible was heliographing her name and destination to the Point Judith station.

  At length the shadow of the bluff creeping nearly to their feet and the impatient stampings of the horse, anxious for his evening oats, warned them that the day was drawing to a close. They rose protestingly and slowly made their way back to the house, the girl frankly encircled by the Captain's arm. He held her to him for many minutes before he mounted, kissing her wonderful hair, her flushed cheeks, and her warm crimson lips. He leaned from his saddle to kiss her once again and when at length he drove his booted heels into the flanks of his eager horse, she called him back again before he had covered half the distance to the highroad. She had unclasped a rich gold bracelet from her arm and now reached up and fastened it about his wrist, pressing her lips to the red metal and the bronzed flesh beneath.

  "Oh, my dear, dear love," she whispered, "you must come back to me very, very soon, for you are more to me than anything else in heaven or earth — more to me even than my own soul."

  He could not trust himself to reply, but his fingers crushed the hand that lay white against the black mane of his horse and he hastily wheeled the splendid animal towards the crimson heart of the sunset lest the weeping girl should see the mist in his own eyes.

  The exaltation of the afternoon still held him as he rode up the winding driveway of
the hotel in the clear twilight, tossed his bridle to the waiting orderly, and ran quickly up to his room. A letter lay on his table and he was dimly conscious of a curious little spasm at his heart as he recognized the long official envelope and embossed blue seal of the International Police. For some seconds he stood, holding the letter in his hands and staring as if fascinated at the brief address and the seal with its simple design of a police officer in full uniform and the encircling motto, "For the greatest good of all mankind."

  "It must be the answer to my petition," he said half aloud, but the lips that spoke the words were dry and uncomfortable. A month ago he would have welcomed gladly the prospect of active service, but now — With sudden resolution he tore open the stiff envelope and unfolded the single thin sheet of the wireless despatch which it contained.

  "CAPTAIN LESLIE GARDINER," he read, "Intelligence Department, U. S. Atlantic Coast District, New York. Sir: Immediately upon receipt of this order you will report to the Commandant of the Cape Cod airship station, who has been instructed to place a ship at your disposal. You will proceed at once to London and report to me at headquarters as soon thereafter as possible. Speed is of the utmost importance. PIERRE VILLON, Colonel and Chief, Intelligence Department."

  The Captain let the message slip from his fingers and stood staring at the fading light in the western sky. Such an end to such a day! The order could mean but one thing — active service of the most exacting nature. At best he would be sent to the ends of the earth, perhaps for six months, perhaps for a year, perhaps for several years. Who could say?

  "And I can't even say good-bye to her," he said hoarsely. "Not even good-bye!"

  Rousing himself after a brief interval, he summoned his orderly and bade the man make all haste with the preparations for departure. His own belongings were already in his bag which stood at the door and when the trooper had gone, he sat down at the table and drawing a sheet of paper towards him, commenced to write.

  "MY DEAR, DEAR GIRL:

  "I have been ordered away on secret duty, the nature of which I do not even yet know myself. It may mean months of separation — perhaps even years. I am trying to face it bravely, but oh, my darling, it is very, very hard when I think of the long, weary time that must pass before I can look upon your face again. Surely the gods are laughing at the grim humour of the trick they have played upon us. But even though they part us forever, they cannot take away this wonderful love that has been granted to us. Your sweet beauty will be before me always, in the daytime when I move in the world of men and through the night in my dreams. You are the highest and most perfect thing my mind can imagine or my soul conceive and my heart is yours for all this life and to the end of time."

  He signed and addressed the letter rapidly and rose as a knock came on his door.

  "The car is ready, sir."

  He handed the missive to the trooper, averting his face lest the man read the misery in his eyes, and passed out into the night.

  Action is grateful to the tortured soul. The Captain found relief in the dark, swift ride to the station, found relief in the stir of the arrangements necessary for a special train to take him to his destination, found relief in the dizzy pace of the big electric locomotive, as it tore through the sleeping countryside. The brilliant headlight glanced along the polished steel of the monorail on which they ran and the gyroscope, hidden in the black interior of the engine, hummed steadily, like a huge hive of bees. To the Captain it presently seemed to take on a cadence, matching the monotonous repetition in his brain. "When will I see her again? When will I see her again? When — oh, when will I see her again?" But as they crashed over the switches at Middleboro and headed eastward towards the Cape, it took on a deeper and more sinister tone: "Will I ever see her again? Ever — again?"

  A single lighted window in the black mass of buildings constituting the airship station at Chatham marked the commandant's office, and thither the Captain bent his steps, after answering the challenge of the sentry at the gate. The richly-furnished room held but a solitary occupant; a stocky young man in the blue of the Naval Division, who was comfortably ensconced in the commandant's big arm-chair, with his feet on the polished mahogany of the commandant's sacred desk, and engaged in smoking a doubtful-looking pipe. He looked up as the Captain entered, but did not offer to remove his feet or otherwise alter his eminently satisfactory position.

  "Captain Gardiner?" he enquired, stretching out a huge, hairy hand. "Glad to meet you, Captain. I'm Lieutenant Hooker of the Ariadne — dirigible of the first class. The Chief went to bed three hours ago and left me to do the honours. There's something or other he wants you to sign — I guess that's it" — indicating a paper on the desk with the stem of his pipe — "and as soon as you've done that, we'd better be off. They seem to be in something of a hurry at London, to judge from the despatch we got this evening."

  Leslie bent over the reflecting mahogany and affixed his signature to the printed form which the naval officer had pointed out to him. This formality completed, he signified that he was ready to depart, whereupon Lieutenant Hooker knocked out his pipe against the corner of the commandant's desk and after summoning a sleepy cadet to stand watch for the remainder of the night, led the way out into the shadows of the yard. Guiding Leslie expertly among the many pitfalls that beset their path, the Lieutenant paused at the wireless telephone station only long enough to command the shirt-sleeved operator, "Tell London we're off," and then continued to the long row of steel sheds which sheltered the airship fleet.

  The door of No. 5 stood open and the Lieutenant entered, drawing Leslie after him. Sputtering arc lights made brilliant the vast interior and bathed with their powerful rays the slate-coloured hull of the Ariadne as she lay ready in her cradle, shifting a little and tugging at her moorings as some one on board tested the tank controls, port and starboard, bow and stern. When she rested quiet again, the Lieutenant gave a brief order to a man in soiled white duck who stood at the switchboard built against the wall of the shed and the great steel leaves that composed the roof swung upward, revealing a rectangle of the star-studded sky. Another short command and the huge clamps that moored the Ariadne to her cradle yawned wide, leaving her free. The two officers crossed the short gangplank, which was immediately drawn in after them, and mounted to the pilot house, where a young cadet, fresh from the training school, saluted and stepped back from the control board.

  "I'll take her to-night, sonny," said Hooker kindly. "We're in a bit of a hurry. You'd better turn in."

  He filled his pipe deliberately, offering his pouch to the Captain, who shook his head, having encountered navy tobacco before, and taking his place at the control board, moved the handle of the engine-room telegraph to the right. The long hull trembled as the subdued noise of rapidly revolving machinery arose under their feet and then lifted perpendicularly, guided by the steel runways of the shed, until it hovered above the roof. Then, as the glare of the arc lights faded out into blackness, the Ariadne pointed her nose to the glittering stars in a magnificent upward curve and set out on her race towards the sun.

  In the dim pilot house, Hooker puffed at his pipe slowly and studied the dials on the control board while the Captain stared with unseeing eyes at the moonlit ocean beneath and fingered the gold circlet that bound his wrist. At length the Ariadne ceased climbing and Hooker, settling back more easily in his chair, filled a fresh pipe and became communicative.

  "They seem to want you pretty bad over there, Captain," he remarked. "Any idea what's up?"

  Gardiner shook his head. "My orders were simply to report at headquarters as soon as possible," he replied.

  "When they send for an Intelligence officer in such a hurry, it usually means something pretty big," observed the other reflectively. "The last trip I made with a man of your department was when I carried LeClerc down to Cape Town to investigate that African trouble. He never came back."

  "No," said the Captain in a low voice. "He was killed in Uganda. We never knew how he di
ed, but months after a friendly tribesman brought in his report, carefully written out in detail. He evidently knew he was to die and die horribly, but his last thought was of his duty."

  "Not quite," returned the Lieutenant, staring through the window in front of him. "A little while before I landed him, he gave me a diamond ring — a woman's ring. 'If I'm never heard from again,' he said, 'you'll see that this reaches a — a certain woman in Rouen and you'll tell her that I died with her name on my lips, because it will be true.'"

  The Lieutenant stopped and puffed at his nearly cold pipe.

  "And you did?" asked Gardiner in a troubled voice. The other nodded briefly.

  "She was a wonderful girl," he continued. "One of those dark French beauties who fairly take a man's breath away with the miracle of them. And brave — great God, how brave she was! She heard the awful news I brought her without a tremor and thanked me with a dignity that made me feel like crawling to her feet and kissing the hem of her gown. A few months afterwards, I happened to be in that part of the world again and I took a day's leave and went to Rouen to see her, but they told me she'd gone into a convent. She must have loved him very much."

  There was a long silence in the pilot house while the stars outside began to pale and a dim light commenced to show in the east. Finally the Captain spoke rather huskily. "Hooker, it seems an unusual request to make of a man I've just met, but — but I've left a girl back in America whom I hoped to marry before I was sent off to the end of the world again, and will you — and I wonder if you'd be willing to do as much for me as you did for poor LeClerc if it should become necessary? I know it's very foolish of me, but I have a feeling I can't explain that this mission on which I am starting out will be a dangerous one — perhaps a very dangerous one — and if anything should happen to me, I wouldn't want her to think that in my last hour I hadn't remembered her," he ended simply.