by E. E. Smith
CHAPTER III
Castaways Upon Ganymede
Upon awakening, the man's first care was to instruct the girl in theoperation of the projectors, so that she could keep the heavily-armorededge of their small section, which she had promptly christened "TheForlorn Hope," between them and the grinding, clashing mass of wreckage,and thus, if it should become necessary, protect the relatively frailinner portions of their craft from damage.
"Keep an eye on things for a while, Nadia," he instructed, as soon asshe could handle the controls, "and don't use any more power than isabsolutely necessary. We'll need it all, and besides, they can probablydetect anything we can use. There's probably enough leakage from theruptured accumulator cells to mask quite a little emission, but don'tuse much. I'm going to see what I can do about making this whole wedgenavigable."
"Why not just launch what's left of this lifeboat? It's space-worthy,isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's too small. Two or three of the big dirigible projectorsof the lower band are on the rim of this piece-of-pie-shaped sectionwe're riding, I think. If so, and if enough batteries of accumulatorsare left intact to give them anywhere nearly full power, we can get anacceleration that will make a lifeboat look sick. Those main dirigibles,you know, are able to swing the whole mass of the _Arcturus_, and whatthey'll do to this one chunk of it--we've got only a few thousand tonsof mass in this piece--will be something pretty. Also, having the metalmay save us months of time in mining it."
He found the projectors, repaired or cut out the damaged accumulatorcells, and reconnected them through the controls of the lifeboat.He moved into the "engine-room" the airtanks, stores, and equipmentfrom all the other fragments which, by means of a space-suit, he couldreach without too much difficulty. From the battery rooms of thosefragments--open shelves, after being sliced open by the shearing ray--hehelped himself to banks of accumulator cells from the enormous drivingbatteries of the ill-fated _Arcturus_, bolting them down and connectingthem solidly until almost every compartment of their craft was one massof stored-up energy.
Days fled like hours, so furiously busy were they in preparing theirpeculiar vessel for a cruise of indefinite duration. Stevens cut himselfshort on sleep and snatched his meals in passing; and Nadia, when notbusy at her own tasks of observing, housekeeping, and doing what littlepiloting was required, was rapidly learning to wield most effectivelythe spanner and pliers of the mechanic and electrician.
"I'm afraid our time is getting short, Steve," she announced, aftermaking an observation. "It looks as though we're getting wherever itis we're going."
"Well, I've got only two more jobs to do, but they're the hardest of thelot. It is Jupiter, or can you tell yet?"
"Jupiter or one of its satellites, I think, from the point where theyreversed their power. Here's the observation you told me to take."
"Looks like Jupiter," he agreed, after he had rapidly checked herfigures. "We'll pass very close to one of those two satellites--probablyGanymede--which is fine for our scheme. All four of the major satelliteshave water and atmosphere, but Ganymede, being largest, is best for ourpurposes. We've got a couple of days yet--just about time to finish up.Let's get going--you know what to do."
"Steve, I'm afraid of it. It's too dangerous--isn't there some otherway?"
"None that I can see. The close watch they're keeping on every bit ofthis junk makes it our only chance for a get-away. I'm pretty sure Ican do it--but if I should happen to get nipped, just use enough powerto let them know you're here, and you won't be any worse off than ifI hadn't tried to pull off this stunt."
He donned a space-suit, filled a looped belt with tools, picked up aportable power-drill, and stepped into the tiny air-lock. Nadia deftlyguided their segment against one of the larger fragments and held itthere with a gentle, steady pressure, while Stevens, a light cablepaying out behind him, clambered carefully over the wreckage, broughthis drill into play, and disappeared inside the huge wedge. In less thanan hour he returned without mishap and reported to the glowing girl.
"Just like shooting fish down a well! Most of the accumulator cells weretight, and installing the relays wasn't a bad job at all. Believe me,girl, there'll be junk filling all the space between here and Saturnwhen we touch them off!"
"Wonderful, Steve!" Nadia exclaimed. "It won't be so bad seeing you gointo the others, now that you have this one all rigged up."
* * * * *
Around and around the mass of wreckage they crept, and in each of thelarger sections Stevens connected up the enormous fixed or dirigibleprojectors to whatever accumulator cells were available throughsensitive relays, all of which he could close by means of one radioimpulse. The long and dangerous task done, he stood at the lookoutplate, studying the huge disk which had been the upper portion of thelower half of the _Arcturus_ and frowning in thought. Nadia reached overhis shoulder and switched off the plate.
"Nix on that second job, big fellow!" she declared. "They aren't reallynecessary, and you're altogether too apt to be killed trying to getthem. It's too ghastly--I won't stand for your trying it, so thatends it."
"We ought to have them, really," he protested. "With those specialtools, cutting torches, and all the stuff, we'd be sitting pretty.We'll lose weeks of time by not having them."
"We'll just have to lose it, then. You can't get 'em, any more thana baby can get the moon, so stop crying about it," she went over thefamiliar argument for the twentieth time. "That stuff up there is allgrinding together like cakes of ice in a floe; the particular sectionyou want is in plain sight of whoever is on watch; and those tools andthings are altogether too heavy to handle. You're a husky brute, I know,but even you couldn't begin to handle them, even if you had good going.I couldn't help you very much, even if you'd let me try; and the factthat you so positively refuse to let me come along shows how dangerousyou know the attempt is bound to be. You'd probably never even get upthere alive, to say nothing of getting back here. No, Steve, that's outlike a light."
"I sure wish they'd left us weightless for a while, sometime, if onlyfor an hour or two," he mourned.
"But they didn't!" she retorted, practically. "So we're just out of luckto that extent. Our time is about up, too. It's time you worked us backto the tail end of this procession--or rather, the head end, since we'retraveling 'down' now."
Stevens took the controls and slowly worked along the outer edge of themass, down toward its extremity. Nadia put one hand upon his shoulderand he glanced around.
"Thanks, Steve. We have a perfectly wonderful chance as it is, and we'vegone so far with our scheme together that it would be a crying shame notto be able to go through with it. I'd hate like sin to have to surrenderto them now, and that's all I could do if anything should become of you.Besides..." her voice died away into silence.
"Sure, you're right," he hastily replied, dodging the implication ofthat unfinished sentence. "I couldn't figure out anything that lookedparticularly feasible anyway--that's why I didn't try it. We'll passit up."
Soon they arrived at their objective and maintained a position well inthe van, but not sufficiently far ahead of the rest to call forth arestraining ray from their captors. Already strongly affected by thegravitational pull of the mass of the satellite, many of the smallerportions of the wreck, not directly held by the tractors, began toseparate from the main mass. As each bit left its place another beamleaped out, until it became apparent that no more were available, andStevens strapped the girl and himself down before two lookout plates.
"Now for it, Nadia!" he exclaimed, and simultaneously threw on the powerof his own projectors and sent out the radio impulse which closed therelays he had so carefully set. They were thrown against the restrainingstraps savagely and held there by an enormous weight as the giganticdirigible projectors shot their fragment of the wreck away from thecomparatively slight force which had been acting upon it, but theybraced themselves and strained their muscles in order to watch whatwas happening. As the relays in the
various fragments closed, themassed power of the accumulators was shorted dead across the convertersand projectors instead of being fed into them gradually through thecontrols of the pilot, with a result comparable to that of the explosionof an ammunition dump. Most of the masses, whose projectors were fedby comparatively few accumulator cells, darted away entirely with astupendous acceleration. A few of them, however, received the unimpededflow of complete batteries. Those projectors tore loose from eventheir massive supports and crashed through anything opposing them likea huge, armor-piercing projectile. It was a spectacle to stagger theimagination, and Stevens grinned as he turned to the girl, who wasstaring in wide-eyed amazement.
"Well, ace, I think they're busy enough now so that it'll be safeto take that long-wanted look at their controls," and he flashedthe twin beams of his lookout light out beyond the upper half of the_Arcturus_--only to see them stop abruptly in mid-space. Even theextremely short carrier-wave of Roeser's Rays could not go through theinvisible barrier thrown out by the tiny, but powerful globe of space.
"No penetration?" Nadia asked.
"Flattened them out cold. 'However,' as the fox once remarked about thegrapes, 'I'll bet they're sour, anyway.' We'll have some stuff of ourown, one of these days. I sure hope the fireworks we started back therekeep those birds amused until we get out of sight, because if I use muchmore power on these projectors we may not have juice enough left to stopwith."
"You're using enough now to suit me--I'm so heavy I can hardly lifta finger!"
"You'd better lift 'em! You must watch what's going on back there whileI navigate around this moon."
"All x, chief.... They've got their hands full, apparently. Those raysare shooting around all over the sky. It looks as though they weretrying to capture four or five things at once with each one."
"Good! Tell me when the moon cuts them off."
* * * * *
At the awful acceleration they were using, which constantly increasedthe terrific velocity with which they had been traveling when they madegood their escape, it was not long until they had placed the satellitebetween them and the enemy; then Stevens cut down and reversed hispower. Such was their speed, however, that a long detour was necessaryin order to reduce it to a safe landing rate. As soon as this could bedone, Stevens headed for the morning zone and dropped the "Hope" rapidlytoward the surface of that new, strange world. Details could not bedistinguished at first because of an all-enshrouding layer of cloud, butthe rising sun dispelled the mist, and when they had descended to withina few thousand feet of the surface, their vision was unobstructed.Immediately below them the terrain was mountainous and heavily wooded;while far to the east the rays of a small, pale sun glinted upon a vastbody of water. No signs of habitation were visible as far as the eyecould reach.
"Now to pick out a location for our power-plant. We must have awaterfall for power, a good place to hide our ship from observation, andI'd like to have a little seam of coal. We can use wood if we have to,but I think we can find some coal. This is all sedimentary rock--itlooks a lot like the country along the North Fork of the Flathead, inMontana. There are a lot of coal outcrops, usually, in such topographyas this is."
"We want to hide in a hurry, though, don't we?"
"Not particularly, I think. If they had missed us at all, they wouldhave had us long ago, and with all the damage we did with thoseprojectors they won't be surprised at one piece being missing--I imaginethey lost a good many."
"But they'll know that somebody caused all that disturbance. Won't theyhunt for us?"
"Maybe, and maybe not--no telling what they'll do. However, by the timethey can land and get checked up and ready to hunt for us, we'll be amighty small needle, well hidden in a good big haystack."
For several hours they roamed over the mountainous region at highvelocity, seeking the best possible location, and finally they foundone that was almost ideal--a narrow canyon overhung with heavy trees,opening into a wide, deep gorge upon a level with its floor. A mightywaterfall cascaded into the gorge just above the canyon, and hereand there could be seen black outcrops which Stevens, after a closescrutiny, declared to be coal. He deftly guided their cumbersome wedgeof steel into the retreat, allowed it to settle gently to the ground,and shut off the power.
"Well, little fellow-conspirator against the peace and dignity of theJovians, I don't know just where we are, but wherever it is, we're here.We got away clean, and as long as we don't use any high-tension stuff oranything else that they can trace, I think we're as safe as money in abank."
"I suppose that I ought to be scared to death, Steve, but I'm not--I'mjust too thrilled for words," Nadia answered, and the eager sparkle inher eyes bore out her words. "Can we go out now? How about air? Shall wewear suits or go out as we are? Have you got a weapon of any kind? Hurryup--let's do something!"
"Pipe down, ace! Remember that we don't know any more about anythingaround here than a pig does about Sunday, and conduct yourselfaccordingly. Take it easy. I'm surprised at the gravity here. This iscertainly Ganymede, and it has a diameter of only about fifty sevenhundred kilometers. If I remember correctly, Damoiseau estimated itsmass at about three one-hundredths that of the Earth, which would makeits surface gravity about one-sixth. However, it is actually almost ahalf, as you see by this spring-balance here. Therefore it is quite alittle more massive than has been...."
"What of it? Let's go places and do things!"
"Calm yourself, Ginger, you've got lots of time--we'll be here for quitea while, I'm afraid. We can't go out until we analyze the air--we'resure lucky there's as much as there is. I'm not exactly the world'sforemost chemist, but fortunately an air-analysis isn't much of a jobwith the apparatus we carry."
While Nadia controlled her impatience as best she could, Stevensmanipulated the bulbs and pipettes of the gas apparatus.
"Pressure, fifty-two centimeters--more than I dared hope for--andanalysis all x, I believe. Oxygen concentration a little high, butnot much."
"We won't have to wear the space-suits, then?"
"Not unless I missed something in the analysis. The pressure correspondsto our own at a height of about three thousand meters, which we can getused to without too much trouble. Good thing, too. I brought along allthe air I could get hold of, but as I told you back there, if we had todepend on it altogether, we might be out of luck. I'm going to pump someof our air back into a cylinder to equalize our pressure--don't wantto waste any of it until we're sure the outside air suits us withouttreatment."
* * * * *
When the pressure inside had been gradually reduced to that outside andthey had become accustomed to breathing the rarefied medium, Stevensopened the airlock and the outside doors, and for some time cautiouslysniffed the atmosphere of the satellite. He could detect nothing harmfulor unusual in it--it was apparently the same as earthly air--and hebecame jubilant.
"All x, Nadia--luck is perched right on our banner. Freedom, air, water,power, and coal! Now as you suggested, we'll go places and do things!"
"Suppose it's safe?" Her first eagerness to explore their surroundingshad abated noticeably. "You aren't armed, are you?"
"No, and I don't believe that there was a gun of any kind aboard the_Arcturus_. That kind of thing went out quite a while ago, you know.We'll take a look, anyway--we've got to find out about that coal beforewe decide to settle down here. Remember this half-gravity stuff, andcontrol your leg-muscles accordingly."
Leaping lightly to the ground, they saw that the severed section offifty-inch armor, which was the rim of their conveyance, almost blockedthe entrance to the narrow canyon which they had selected for theirretreat. Upon one side that wall of steel actually touched the almostperpendicular wall or rock; upon the other side there was left only anarrow passage. They stepped through it, so that they could see thewaterfall and the gorge, and stopped silent. The sun, now fairly high,was in no sense the familiar orb of day, but was a pale, insipid thing,only one-
fifth the diameter of the sun to which they were accustomed,and which could almost be studied with the unshielded eye. From theirfeet a grassy meadow a few hundred feet wide sloped gently down to theriver, from whose farther bank a precipice sprang upward for perhapsa thousand feet--merging into towering hills whose rugged grandeur wasreminiscent of the topography of the moon. At their backs the wall ofthe gorge was steep, but not precipitous, and was covered with shrubsand trees--some of which leaned out over the little canyon, completelyscreening it, and among whose branches birds could now and then be seenflitting about. In that direction no mountains were visible, indicatingthat upon their side of the river there was an upland plateau or bench.To their right the river, the gorge, and the strip of meadow extendedfor a mile or more, then curved away and were lost to sight. To theirleft, almost too close for comfort, was the stupendous cataract,towering above them to a terror-inspiring height. Nadia studied itwith awe, which changed to puzzled wonder.
"What's the matter with it, Steve? It looks like a picture in slowmotion, like the kind they take of your dives--or am I seeing things?"
"No, it's really slow, compared to what we're used to. Remember thatone-half gravity stuff!"
"Oh, that's right, but it certainly does look funny. It gives me thecreeps."
"You'll get used to it pretty quick--just as you'll get used to all therest of the things having only half their earthly weight and fallingonly half as fast as they ought to when you drop them. Well, I don't seeanything that looks dangerous yet--let's go up toward the falls a fewmeters and prospect that outcrop."
With a few brisk strokes of an improvised shovel he cleared the outcropof detritus and broke off several samples of the black substance, withwhich they went back to the "Forlorn Hope."
"It's real coal," Stevens announced after a series of tests. "I've seenbetter, but on the other hand, there's lots worse. It'll make good gas,and a kind of a coke. Not so hot, but it'll do. Now we'd better getorganized old partner, for a long campaign."
"Go ahead and organize--I'm only the cheap help in this enterprise."
"Cheap help! You're apt to be the life of the party. Can you make andshoot a bow and arrow?"
"I'll say I can--I've belonged to an archery club for five years."
"What did I tell you? You're a life saver! Here's the dope--we've gotto save our own supplies as much as possible until we know exactly whatwe're up against, and to do that, we've got to live off the country.I'll fake up something to knock over some of those birds and small game,then we can make real bow-strings and feathered arrows and I'll forgesome steel arrow-heads while you're making yourself a real bow. We'dbetter make me about a hundred-pound war bow, too...."
"A _hundred_!" interrupted Nadia. "That's a lot of bow, big boy--thinkyou can bend it?"
"You'd be surprised," he grinned. "I'm not quite like Robin Hood--I'vebeen known to miss a finger-thick wand at a hundred paces--but I'm notexactly a beginner."
"Oh, of course--I should have known by your language that you're anarcher, otherwise you'd never have used such an old-fashioned word as'pounds.' I shoot a thirty-five-pound bow ordinarily, but for game Ishould have the heaviest one I can hold accurately--about a forty-five,probably."
"All x. And as soon as I can I'll make us a couple of suits of fairlyheavy steel armor, so that we'll have real protection if we should needit. You see, we don't know what we are apt to run up against out here.Then, with that much done, it'll be up to you to provide, since I'llhave to work tooth and nail at the forges. You'll have to bring home thebacon, do the cooking and so on, and see what you can find along theline of edible roots, grains, fruits, and what-not. Sort of reverse theIndian idea--you be the hunter and I'll keep the home fires burning.Can do?"
"What it takes to do that, I've got," Nadia assured him, her eyessparkling. "Have you your job planned out as well and as fittingly asyou have mine?"
"And then some. We've got just two methods of getting away fromhere--one is to get in touch with Brandon, so that he'll come after us;the other is to recharge our accumulators and try to make it under ourown power. Either course will need power and lots of it...."
"I never thought of going back in the 'Hope.' Suppose we could?"
"About as doubtful as the radio--I think that I could build a pair ofmatched-frequency auto-dirigible transmitter and receptor units, such asare necessary for space-ships fed by stationary power-plants, but afterI got them built, they'd take us less than half way there. Then we'dhave only what power we can carry, and I hate even to think of whatprobably would happen to us. We'd certainly have to drift for monthsbefore we could get close enough to any of our plants to radio for help,and we'd be taking awful chances. You see, we'd have to take a verypeculiar orbit, and if we should miss connections passing the innerplanets, what the sun would do to us at the closest point and wherewhat's left of us would go on the back-swing, would be just too bad!Besides, if we can get hold of the _Sirius_, they'll come loaded forbear, and we may be able to do something about the rest of the folksout here."
* * * * *
"Oh!" breathed the girl. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could!I thought, of course, they'd all be...." her voice died away.
"Not necessarily--there's always a chance. That's why I'm trying theultra-radio first. However, either course will take lots of power,so the first thing I've got to do is to build a power plant. I'mgoing to run a penstock up those falls, and put in a turbine, drivinga high-tension alternator. Then, while I'm trying to build theultra-radio, I'll be charging our accumulators, so that no time willbe lost in case the radio fails. If it does fail--and remember I'm notcounting on its working--of course I'll tackle the transmission andreceptor units before we start out to drift it."
"You say it easy, Steve, but how can you build all those things, withnothing to work with?"
"It's going to be a real job--I'm not try to kid you into thinking it'llbe either easy or quick. Here's the way everything will go. Before I caneven lay the first length of the penstock, I've got to have the pipe--tomake which I've got to have flat steel--to get which I'll have to cutsome of the partitions out of this ship of ours--to do which I'll haveto have a cutting torch--to make which I'll have to forge nozzles out ofblock metal and to run which I'll have to have gas--to get which I'llhave to mine coal and build a gas-plant--to do which...."
"Good heavens, Steve, are you going back to the Stone Age? I neverthought of half those things. Why, it's impossible!"
"Not quite, guy. Things could be a lot worse--that's why I brought alongthe whole 'Forlorn Hope,' instead of just the lifeboat. As it is, we'vegot several thousand tons of spare steel and lots of copper. We've gotordinary tools and a few light motors, blowers, and such stuff. Thatgives me a great big start--I won't have to mine the ores and smelt themetals, as would have been necessary otherwise. However, it'll be plentybad. I'll have to start out in a pretty crude fashion, and for some ofthe stuff I'll need I'll have to make, not only the machine that makesthe part I want, but also the machine that makes the machine thatmakes the machine that makes it--and so on, just how far down the line,I haven't dared to think."
"You must be a regular jack-of-all-trades, to think you can get awaywith such a program as that?"
"I am--nothing else but. You see, while most of my school trainingwas in advanced physics and mathematics, I worked my way through bycomputing and designing, and I've done a lot of truck-horse labor ofvarious kinds besides. I can calculate and design almost anything, andI can make a pretty good stab at translating a design into fabricatedmaterial. I wouldn't wonder if Brandon's ultra-radio would stop me,since nobody had even started to build one when I saw him last--but Ihelped compute it, know the forces involved as well as he did at thattime, and it so happens that I know more about the design of coils andfields of force than I do about anything else. So I may be able to workit out eventually. It isn't going to be not knowing how that will holdme up--it'll be the lack of something that I can't build."
"And that's where you will go back and back and back, as you said aboutbuilding the penstock?"
"Back and back is right, if I can find all the necessary rawmaterials--that's what's probably going to put a lot of monkey-wrenchesinto the machinery." And Stevens went to work upon a weapon of offense,fashioning a crude, but powerful bow from a strip of spring steel strungwith heavy wire.
"How about arrows? Shall I go see if I can hit a bird with a rock, forfeathers, and see if I can find something to make arrows out of?"
"Not yet--anyway, I'd bet on the birds! I'm going to use pieces of thislight brace-rod off the accumulator cells for arrows. They won't flytrue, of course, but with their mass I can give them enough projectileforce to kill any small animal they hit, no matter how they hit it."
After many misses, he finally bagged a small animal, something likea rabbit and something like a kangaroo, and a couple of round-bodied,plump birds, almost as large as domestic hens. These they dressed,with considerable distaste and a noticeable lack of skill.
"We'll get used to it pretty quick, Diana--also more expert," he saidwhen the task was done. "We now have raw material for bow-strings andclothes, as well as food."
"The word 'raw' being heavily accented," Nadia declared, with a grimace."But how do we know that they're good to eat?"
"We'll have to eat 'em and see," he grinned. "I don't imagine that anyflesh is really poisonous, and we'll have to arrive at the ones we likebest by a process of trial and error. Well, here's your job--I'll getbusy on mine. Don't go more than a few hundred meters away and yell ifyou get into a jam."
"There's a couple of questions I want to ask you. What makes it sowarm here, when the sun's so far away and Jupiter isn't supposed to beradiating any heat? And how about time? It's twelve hours by my watchsince sunrise this morning, and it's still shining."
"As for heat, I've been wondering about that. It must be due to internalheat, because even though Jupiter may be warm, or even hot, it certainlyisn't radiating much, since it has a temperature of minus two hundred atthe visible surface, which, of course, is the top of the atmosphere. Ourheat here is probably caused by radioactivity--that's the most moderndope, I believe. As for time, it looks as though our days were somethingbetter than thirty hours long, instead of twenty-four. Of course I'llkeep the chronometer going on I-P time, since we'll probably need it inworking out observations; but we might as well let our watches run downand work, eat, and sleep by the sun--not much sense in trying to keepTellurian time here, as I see it. Check?"
"All x. I'll have supper ready for you at sunset. 'Bye!"
A few evenings later, when Stevens came in after his long day's work,he was surprised to see Nadia dressed in a suit of brown coveralls andhigh-laced moccasins.
"How do I look?" she asked, pirouetting gayly.
"Neat, but not gaudy," he approved. "That's good mole-skin--smooth,soft, and tough. Where'd you make the raise? I didn't know we hadanything like that on board. What did you do for thread? You look likea million dollars--you sure did a good job of fitting."
"I had to have something--what with all the thorns and brush, there wasalmost more of me exposed than covered, and I was getting scratched upsomething fierce. So I ripped up one of the space-suits, and found outthat there's enough cloth, fur, and leather in one of them to make sixordinary suits, and thread by the kilometer. I was awfully glad to seeall that thread--I had an idea that I'd have to unravel my stockings orsomething, but I didn't. Your clothes are getting pretty tacky, too, andyou're getting all burned with those hot coals and things. I'm going tobuild you a suit out of leather for your blacksmithing activities."
"Fine business, ace! Then we can save what's left of our civilizedclothes for the return trip. What do we eat?"
"The eternal question of the hungry laboring man! I've got a roastedbongo, a fried filamaloo bird, and a boiled warple for the meat dishes.For vegetables, mashed hikoderms and pimola greens. Neocorn bread."
"Translate that, please, into terms of food."
"Translate it yourself, after you eat it. I changed the system on youtoday. I've named all the things, so it'll be easier to keep track ofthose we like and the ones we don't."
With appetites sharp-set by long hours of hard labor they ate heartily;then, in the deepening twilight, they sat and talked in comradelyfashion while Stevens smoked one precious cigarette.
* * * * *
It was not long until Nadia had her work well in hand. Game wasplentiful, and the fertile valley and the neighboring upland yieldedpeculiar, but savory vegetable foods in variety and abundance; so thatsoon she was able to spend some time with Stevens, helping him as muchas she could. Thus she came to realize the true magnitude of the task hefaced and the real seriousness of their position.
As Stevens had admitted before the work was started, he had known thathe had set himself a gigantic task, but he had not permitted himself tofollow, step by step, the difficulties that he knew awaited him. Now,as the days stretched into weeks and on into months, he was forced totake every laborious step, and it was borne in upon him just how nearlyimpossible that Herculean labor was to prove--just how dependent anygiven earthly activity is upon a vast number of others. Here he wasalone--everything he needed must be manufactured by his own hands, fromits original sources. He had known that progress would be slow and hehad been prepared for that; but he had not pictured, even to himself,half of the maddening setbacks which occurred time after time becauseof the crudity of the tools and equipment he was forced to use. All toooften a machine or part, the product of many hours of grueling labor,would fail because of the lack of some insignificant thing--some itemso common as to be taken for granted in all terrestrial shops, butimpossible of fabrication with the means at his disposal. At such timeshe would set his grim jaw a trifle harder, go back one step farthertoward the Stone Age, and begin all over again--to find the necessaryraw material or a possible substitute, and then to build the apparatusand machinery necessary to produce the part he required. Thus theheart-breaking task progressed, and Nadia watched her co-laborer becomeleaner and harder and more desperate day by day, unable in any way tolighten his fearful load.
In the brief period of rest following a noonday meal, Stevens lay proneupon the warm, fragrant grass beside the "Forlorn Hope," but it wasevident to Nadia that he was not resting. His burned and blistered handswere locked savagely behind his head, his eyes were closed too tightly,and every tense line of his body was eloquent of a strain even moremental than physical. She studied him for minutes, her fine eyesclouded, then sat down beside him and put her hand upon his shoulder.
"I want to talk to you a minute, Steve," she said gently.
"All x, little fellow--but it might be just as well if you didn't touchme. You see, I'm getting so rabid that I can't trust myself."
"That's exactly what I want to talk to you about." A fiery blush burnedthrough her deep tan, but her low, clear voice did not falter and hereyes held his unflinchingly. "I know you better than you know yourself,as I've said before. You are killing yourself, but it isn't the work,frightfully hard and disheartening as it is, that is doing it--it'syour anxiety for me and the uncertainty of everything. You haven't beenable to rest because you have been raging and fuming so at unavoidableconditions--you have been fighting _facts_. And it's all _so_ useless,Steve, between you and me--everything would check out on zero if we'djust come out into the open."
The man's gaunt frame seemed to stiffen even more rigidly.
"You've said altogether too much or else only half enough, Nadia. Youknow, of course, that I've loved you ever since I got really to knowyou--and that didn't take long. You know that I love you and you knowhow I love you--with the real love that a man can feel for only onewoman and only once in his life; and you know exactly what we're upagainst. Now that _does_ tear it--wide open!" he finished bitterly.
"No, it doesn't, at all," she replied, steadily. "Of course I know thatyou love me, and I glory in it; and since you don't seem to
realizethat I love you in exactly the same way, I'll tell you so. Love you!Good heavens, Steve, I never dreamed that such a man as you are reallyexisted! But you're fighting too many things at once, and they'rekilling you. And they're mostly imaginary, at that. Can't you see thatthere's no need of uncertainty between you and me? That there is no needof you driving yourself to desperation on my account? Whatever must beis all x with me, Steve. If you can build everything you need, all welland good. We'll be engaged until then, and our love will be open andsweet. If worst comes to worst, so that we can neither communicate withBrandon and Westfall nor leave here under our own power--even that isnothing to kill ourselves about. And yes, I do know exactly what weare facing. I have been prepared for it ever since I first saw what aperfectly impossible thing you are attempting. You are trying to go fromalmost the Age of Bronze clear up to year-after-next in a month or two.Not one man in a million could have done as much in his lifetime as youhave done in the last few weeks, and I do not see how even you, withwhat little you have to work with, can possibly build such things aspower-plants, transmitters, and ultra-radio stations. But what ofit? For the day that it becomes clear that we are to remain hereindefinitely; that day we will marry each other here, before God.Look around at this beautiful country. Could there be a finer worldupon which to found a new race? When we decided to cut loose from the_Arcturus_ I told you that I was with you all the way, and now I'llrepeat it, with a lot more meaning. No matter what it's like, Steve, nomatter where it leads to, I'm with you--_to--the--end--of--the--road_.Here or upon Earth or anywhere in the Universe. I am yours for life andfor eternity."
* * * * *
While she was speaking, the grim, strained lines upon Stevens' facehad disappeared, and as she fell silent he straightened up and gently,tenderly, reverently he took her lithe body into his arms.
"You're right, sweetheart--everything _will_ check out on zero, tonineteen decimals." He was a man transfigured. "I've been fightingwindmills and I've been scared sick--but how was I to think that awonder-girl like you could ever love a mutt like me? You certainly arethe gamest little partner a man ever had. You're the world's straightestshooter, ace--you're a square brick if there ever was one. Your sheernerve in being willing to go the whole route makes me love you more thanever, if such a thing can be possible, and it certainly puts a new faceon the whole cock-eyed Universe for me. However, I don't believe itwill come to that. After what you've just said, I sure will lick thatjob, regardless of how many different factories it takes to make onearmature--I'll show that mess of scrap-iron what kind of trees makeshingles!"
The girl still in his arms, he rose to his feet and released her slowly,reluctantly, unwilling ever to let her go. Then he shook himself, asthough an overwhelming burden had been lifted from his shoulders, andlaughed happily.
"See this cigarette?" he went on lightly. "The Last of the Mohicans.I'm going to smoke it in honor of our engagement." He drew the fragrantsmoke deep into his lungs and frowned at her in mock seriousness.
"This would be a nice world to live on, of course, but the jobs hereare too darn steady. It also seems to be somewhat lacking in modernconveniences, such as steel-mills and machine tools. Then, too, it isjust a trifle too far from the Royal and Ancient for you really to enjoyliving here permanently, and besides, I can't get my favorite brandof cigarettes around here. Therefore, after due deliberation, I don'tbelieve we'll take the place--we'll go back to Tellus. Kiss me just oncemore ace, and I'll make that job think a cyclone has struck it right onthe center of impact. Like Samuel Weller, or whoever it was, I'm clearfull of 'wigor, wim, and witality'!"
The specified kiss and several others duly delivered he strode blithelyaway, and the little canyon resounded with the blows of his heavy sledgeas he attacked with renewed spirit the great forging, white-hot from hissoak-pit, which was to become the shaft of his turbo-alternator. Nadiawatched him for a moment, her very heart in her eyes, then picked up herspanner and went after more steel, breathing a long and tremulous, butsupremely happy sigh.