Insecticides from Earth to destroy the blight, and modern drugs to cure the sick, might still save the entire population of the planet from extinction.
Such thoughts as these still exercised Rex's mind as they dismounted from the Spacemaster and stood for a little while beside it to regain their sense of normal balance.
Actually, there were fewer after-effects than the Professor had anticipated. A slight dizziness and a pronounced heaviness of the limbs were the chief symptoms. However, these soon passed off, so leaving the Spacemaster where it stood they made their way into the house for a hot bath and a square meal before tidying up the ship and putting it in its hangar.
It was the Professor who went first into the study, to deposit the camera and his notebooks. The others heard him cry out, and hurrying in after him saw the reason.
A man, a man in a dark suit, with an expressionless face and cold eyes, was standing at the far side of the table. In his hand, held level, was an automatic. From the state of the room it was evident that he had been engaged in searching it when he was interrupted.
Cupboard doors were open. Drawers had been pulled out and their contents strewn on the floor. The man did not look in the least embarrassed from having been discovered in a criminal act.
The Professor raised an accusing finger. 'What are you doing here, you rascal?' he demanded wrathfully.
The man's eyelids dropped a little. He did not answer.
'Did you hear me?' cried the Professor. Tut that pistol away or it'll be the worse for you.
I'm a dangerous man, and I don't like these monkey tricks.'
The man merely smiled crookedly.
A slight movement behind made Rex turn. Another man, with the same sallow skin and expressionless face, was standing in the doorway. He, too, pointed an automatic.
Naturally, the first thought that struck Rex was that the men were common burglars; but he dismissed it instantly. These were no ordinary housebreakers. They neither looked nor behaved like burglars. There was something sinister about them, and a disconcerting confidence. He had a suspicion of what they were after. Suspicion hardened swiftly to certainty. The Professor's fears of this sort of trouble were now justified.
'Where are the plans?' asked the man by the table, in an even voice with a marked foreign accent.
'Plans of what?' demanded the Professor.
'Of the airship.'
Àh! So that's what you're after, is it, you rogues?' answered the Professor curtly. 'You're wasting your time. There are no plans.'
'Where are the plans?' repeated the man, in an ominously calm voice.
The Professor, white-faced, glared at the speaker. 'I have already told you there are no plans; and my foresight in destroying them is now rewarded. I'll see you go to prison for this, you villains.'
'Talk less,' was the harsh reply. Ìf you not give the plans I shoot all of you and find them.' The man spoke quietly, but the threat was none the less real for that.
'I cannot give you something that doesn't exist,' snapped the Professon'As for shooting us, you will gain nothing by that. For when I die my secrets die with me. Where do you come from?'
The man ignored the question. 'What I shall gain is the airship. You have landed in it.'
'Ha! Tinker with that, you nasty man, and you're likely to bump your head on the Moon.'
'You shall show us how to make it work.'
'Are you an engineer as well as a spy?'
'I am engineer. You shall show me the airship or I will kill you.'
The Professor turned to Tiger. 'You see what dreadful people there are in the world,' he said sadly. 'I was right to take precautions, but you were sceptical.'
'Not talk so much,' said the man shortly.
Tiger spoke. 'What gave you the idea that there was an airship here?'
'We know. We watch. We see. Not talk so much.'
'That pony boy was right about strangers on the hill,' averred the Professor. 'I should have taken heed, but I was thinking more of newspaper men.'
'We go to the airship,' decided the man. 'Lead!'
'This is no ordinary airship, you realize that?' said Tiger. 'We know.'
The Professor interposed. 'What would you say if I told you we have just been to Mars?
Ah! That makes you stare. No doubt your wicked master would like to go to Mars and enslave the people there.' The Professor smiled mirthlessly and glanced at Tiger. 'What a time they would have.'
The man reached for some photographs that he must have taken from a drawer. 'Mars?'
he queried.
`No, that's only the Moon,' answered the Professor. 'Very good photographs, I think, although I took them. Presently your astronomers shall have copies, for I work for the world, not myself.'
Rex wondered what all this was leading up to, for the Professor's manner had changed, as if, in his enthusiasm for his work, he had forgotten who and what these men were. For that they were enemy spies, and dangerous ones, was no longer in doubt.
'We go to the airship,' said the man who had done the talking. 'Lead!'
'Very well,' agreed the Professor. 'If you're so anxious to see it, there's no reason why you shouldn't. Naturally, I'm rather proud of it.'
He winked at Tiger. 'I think perhaps it's the best way. No use being shot—'
'Lead!' cut in the man peremptorily.
'All right. You needn't be so unpleasant about it.'
With one of the men walking in front, and the other behind, the party made its way to the hangar. 'There's nothing here except tools,' said the Professor casually, passing on to the concrete apron. ludkins, you'd better stay here to switch on the lights, should I call for them.'
The eyes of both men were now on the Spacemaster; and it may have been eagerness to examine it that caused them to ignore the fact that Judkins had dropped behind. Rex himself would have paid no attention to the incident, which was trivial and innocent in itself, had he not intercepted a meaningful glance between the Professor and Judkins.
This made him suspect that there was an understanding between them, but he little guessed what it was.
Of course, you can't see much from here,' went on the Professor, when they reached the Spacemaster. 'The motive power is, as no doubt you have guessed, something new and quite unorthodox. It is that alone which makes vertical flight possible. The controls are fairly simple.'
'Show!' ordered the man who had done the talking.
'Now look here,' said the Professor sternly 'don't you attempt to take the airship away. If you do, it will be at your own risk.'
Show,' was the curt order.
The Professor shrugged. If you say so. You hold the gun.' To Tiger and Rex he said: '
You'd better wait here or we shall get in each other's way inside.' With that he went lightly up the steps into the cabin. The two men followed him.
Rex, still puzzled, could hear him talking inside about pressure, oxygen and the like, in a manner that suggested that his enthusiasm had run away with his discretion. He looked at Tiger. 'What's he telling them?'
'Leave him alone,' replied Tiger. I don't know what his game is, but I fancy he knows.'
'Here are the controls,' the Professor was explaining. 'Here is the starting switch – so. But it's getting hard to see. We'd better have some lights. My man will put them on from the hangar. Just a moment.' The Professor appeared in the doorway. 'Right!' he shouted, 'Let her go.'
After that things happened so fast that Rex could hardly keep pace with them.
As he finished speaking the Professor jumped out, and grabbing Rex and Tiger, pulled them sideways with him. Simultaneously the jets roared.
Blue exhaust haze swirled. One of the men appeared at the door of the Spacemaster, gun raised, as if he were undecided whether to shoot or jump out. His hesitation was fatal.
But, of course, as Rex realized later, he couldn't have had the faintest notion of what was going to happen.
What did happen was, the Spacemaster went up like a ro
cket.
The speed of its ascent made even Rex gasp; for this was the first time he had seen it from outside when it was under propulsion. In a matter of seconds it was a small dark spot in the sky, rapidly diminishing in size until it was lost to sight. When he realized what had happened — or thought he did — a cry of despair came from his lips. '
Professor!' he shouted. 'They've got the ship.'
'I think it would be more correct to say that the ship has got them,'
answered the Professor calmly, still gazing up with his spectacles on the end of his nose. 'They came to take my ship, the scoundrels. Now they've got it. I hope they're enjoying it. As they've got what they wanted they have no cause for complaint — even if they could complain.'
'What do you mean by that?' asked Tiger.
'By now they are dead men,' replied the Professor quietly. Such men deserve to die for they are a menace to mankind. We need not wonder to what deadly uses they would have put my ship had they succeeded in their purpose.'
'Do you really mean they're dead?' asked Rex, in a whisper.
'I set the take-off at twelve gravities,' answered the Professor evenly.
`No human being could stand that for long. Besides, the door was open, and at such velocity the air inside would be sucked out instantly.'
'Couldn't they have shut it?'
Shut it? My dear boy, at an acceleration of twelve gravities they would be clamped to the floor as if by steel bands. You may remember what it was like in the lower atmosphere at four gravities, and that was a gradual acceleration. Be sure I was taking no risks of allowing them to escape with a weapon capable of destroying civilization. No. Indeed no.
I may tell you now that when I stepped into the Spacemaster a moment ago I was prepared to sacrifice myself rather than allow that to happen. As it turned out that wasn't necessary. Those wicked men, in their anxiety to learn my secret, gave me a chance to escape their fate. Otherwise, I would now be with them. Judkins, good man, knew what I intended he should do when I stopped him at the remote control switch.'
Understanding dawned in Rex's eyes. So he sent the ship up?'
'At my signal. He was obeying my orders.'
There was a brief silence as the full force of the Professor's words sank home.
Judkins appeared. 'I trust I did the right thing, sir?' 'You did, indeed, Judkins. Thank you.'
'But we've lost the ship,' said Rex miserably.
'That matters little,' answered the Professor. 'It was showing signs of wear and I wouldn't have risked another long journey in it. Besides, I have several modifications in mind for improved performance and comfort of travelling. I shall need a new and bigger ship for the rescue trip to Mars.'
Another pause.
'Where is the Spacemaster likely to finish up?' asked Tiger. 'It would be a tragedy if it fell in Russia.'
'There's not the slightest fear of that,' replied the Professor confidently. 'Travelling at far above escape velocity it will hurtle through all solar gravities to the deep cosmic spaces beyond. It may one day collide with one of the stars in the outer Universe.'
'How long is that likely to take?' asked Rex.
'If the Spacemaster holds together, which seems unlikely, it might hit a star in perhaps a million years. A strange thought, isn't it, that long after we are dead and forgotten, my little ship, with the men who would have stolen it, will still be somewhere far out in space, silent and alone, sailing round some
eternal orbit. By that time things on Earth, and, indeed, in the Universe, will have changed. Men may have found it no longer necessary to spy on each other. But after this distressing incident let us go in and have our baths. Judkins, I am sure, will do his best for us at the table.'
Each busy with his own thoughts they walked slowly back to the house.
Document Outline
01 Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
02 Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
01 Kings Of Space Page 17