Brigands of the Moon

  XIX

  "Try again. By the infernal, Snap Dean, if you do anything to balk us,you die!"

  Miko scanned the apparatus with keen eyes. How much technicalknowledge of signaling instruments did this brigand leader have? I wastense and cold with apprehension as I sat in a corner of the radioroom, watching Snap. Could Miko be fooled? Snap, I knew, was trying tofool him.

  The Moon spread close beneath us. My log-chart, computed up to thirtyminutes past, showed us barely some thirty thousand miles over theMoon's surface. A silver quadrant. The sunset caught the Lunarmountains, flung slanting shadows over the Lunar plains. All the discwas plainly visible. The mellow Earthlight glowed serene and pale toillumine the Lunar night.

  The _Planetara_ was bathed in silver. A brilliant silver glare sweptthe forward deck, clean white and splashed with black shadows. We hadpartly circled the Moon so as now to approach it from the Earthwardside.

  Miko for a time had been at my side in the turret. I had not seenConiston or Hahn of recent hours. I had slept, awakened refreshed, andhad a meal. Coniston and Hahn remained below, one or other of themalways with the crew to execute my sirened orders. Then Coniston cameto take my place in the turret, and I went with Miko to the radioroom.

  "You are skillful, Haljan." A measure of grim approval was in hisvoice. "You evidently have no wish to try and fool me in thisnavigation."

  I had not, indeed. It is delicate work at best, coping with theintricacies of celestial mechanics upon a semicircular trajectory withretarding velocity, and with a makeshift crew we could easily havecome upon real difficulty.

  We hung at last, hull down, facing the Earthward hemisphere of theLunar disc. The giant ball of the Earth lay behind and above us--theSun over our stern quarter. With forward velocity almost checked, wepoised, and Snap began his signals to the unsuspecting Grantline.

  My work momentarily was over. I sat watching the radio room. Moa washere, close beside me. I felt always her watchful gaze, so that eventhe play of my emotions needed reining.

  Miko worked with Snap. Anita too was here. To Miko and Moa it was thesomber, taciturn George Prince, shrouded always in his black mourningcloak, disinclined to talk; sitting alone, brooding and sullen. Thisis how they thought of Anita.

  Miko repeated: "By the infernal, if you try to fool me, Snap Dean!"

  The small metal room, with its grid floor and low arched ceiling,glared with moonlight through its window. The moving figures of Snapand Miko were aped by the grotesque, misshapen shadows of them on thewalls. Miko gigantic--a great menacing ogre. Snap small and alert--atrim, pale figure in his tight-fitting white trousers, broad-flowingbelt, and white shirt open at the throat. His face was pale and drawnfrom lack of sleep and the torture to which Miko had subjected himearlier on the voyage. But he grinned at the brigand's words, andpushed his straggling hair closer under the red eyeshade.

  The room over long periods was deadly silent, with Miko and Snapbending watchfully at the crowded banks of instruments. A silence inwhich my own pounding heart seemed to echo. I did not dare look atAnita, nor she at me. Snap was trying to signal Earth, not the Moon!His main grids were set in the reverse. The infra-red waves, flungfrom the bow window, were of a frequency which Snap and I believedthat Grantline could not pick up. And over against the wall, closebeside me and seemingly ignored by Snap, there was a tiny ultra-violetsender. Its faint hum and the quivering of its mirrors had so farpassed unnoticed.

  Would some Earth station pick it up? I prayed so. There was athumbnail mirror here which would bring an answer.

  Would some Earth telescope be able to see us? I doubted it. Thepinpoint of the _Planetara's_ infinitesimal bulk would be beyondvision.

  Long silences, broken only by the faint hiss and murmur of Snap'sinstruments.

  "Shall I try the graphs, Miko?"

  "Yes."

  I helped him with the spectro. At every level the plates showed usnothing save the scarred and pitted Moon surface. We worked for anhour. There was nothing. Bleak cold night on the Moon here beneath us.A touch of fading sunlight upon the Apennines. Up near the South Pole,Tycho with its radiating open rills stood like a grim dark maw.

  Miko bent over a plate. "Something here? Is there?"

  An abnormality upon the frowning ragged cliffs of Tycho? We thoughtso. But then it seemed not.

  Another hour. No signal came from Earth. If Snap's calls were gettingthrough we had no evidence of it. Abruptly Miko strode at me fromacross the room. I went cold and tense; Moa shifted, alert to my everymovement. But Miko was not interested in me. A sweep of his clenchedfist knocked the ultra-violet sender and its coils and mirrors in atinkling crash to the grid at my feet.

  "We don't need that, whatever it is!" He rubbed his knuckles where theviolet waves had tinged them, and turned grimly back to Snap.

  "Where are your ray mirrors? If the treasure lies exposed--"

  This Martian's knowledge was far greater than we believed. He grinnedsardonically at Anita. "If our treasure is here on this hemisphere,Prince, we should pick up its rays. Don't you think so? Or isGrantline too cautious to leave it exposed?"

  Anita spoke in a careful, throaty drawl. "The rays came through enoughwhen we passed here on the way out."

  "You should know," grinned Miko. "An expert eavesdropper, Prince, Iwill say that for you.... Come, Dean, try something else. By God, ifGrantline does not signal us, I will be likely to blame you--mypatience is shortening. Shall we go closer, Haljan?"

  "I don't think it would help," I said.

  He nodded. "Perhaps not. Are we checked?"

  "Yes." We were poised very nearly motionless. "If you wish an advance,I can ring it. But we need a surface destination now."

  "True, Haljan." He stood thinking. "Would a zed-ray penetrate thosecrater cliffs? Tycho, for instance, at this angle?"

  "It might," Snap agreed. "You think he may be on the northern innerTycho?"

  "He may be anywhere," said Miko shortly.

  "If you think that," Snap persisted, "suppose we swing the _Planetara_over the South Pole. Tycho, viewed from there--"

  "And take another quarter day of time?" Miko sneered. "Flash on yourzed-ray; help him hook it up, Haljan."

  I moved to the lens box of the spectroheliograph. It seemed that Snapwas very strangely reluctant. Was it because he knew that theGrantline camp lay concealed on the north inner wall of Tycho's giantring? I thought so. But Snap flashed a queer look at Anita. She didnot see it, but I did. And I could not understand it.

  My accursed, witless incapacity! If only I had taken warning!

  "Here," commanded Miko. "A score of 'graphs with the zed-ray. I tellyou I will comb this surface if we have to stay here until our shipcomes from Ferrok-Shahn to join us!"

  The Martian brigands were coming. Miko's signals had been answered. Inten days the other brigand ship, adequately manned and armed, would behere.

  Snap helped me connect the zed-ray. He did not dare even to whisper tome, with Moa hovering always so close. And for all Miko's sardonicsmiling, we knew that he would tolerate nothing from us now. He wasfully armed and so was Moa.

  I recall that several times Snap endeavored to touch me significantly.Oh, if only I had taken warning!

  We finished our connecting. The dull gray point of zed-ray gleamedthrough the prisms to mingle with the moonlight entering the mainlens. I stood with the shutter trip.

  "The same interval, Snap?"

  "Yes."

  Beside me, I was aware of a faint reflection of the zed-ray--a graycathedral shaft crossing the room and falling upon the opposite wall.An unreality there, as the zed-ray faintly strove to penetrate themetal room side.

  I said, "Shall I make the exposure?"

  Snap nodded. But that 'graph was never made. An exclamation from Moamade us all turn. The gamma mirrors were quivering! Grantline hadpicked our signals! With what was undoubtedly an intensified receivingequipment which Snap had not thought Grantline able to use, he hadcaught our faint zed-rays, which Snap was s
ending only to deceiveMiko. And Grantline had recognized the _Planetara_, and had releasedhis occulting screens surrounding the ore.

  And upon their heels came Grantline's message. Not in the secretsystem he had arranged with Snap, but unsuspectingly in open code. Icould read the swinging mirror, and so could Miko.

  And Miko decoded it triumphantly aloud:

  "Surprised but pleased your return. Approach Mid-Northern Hemisphereregion of Archimedes, forty thousand off nearest Apennine range."

  The message broke off. But even its importance was overshadowed. Mikostood in the center of the radio room, triumphantly reading the littleindicator. Its beam swung on the scale, which chanced to be almostdirectly over Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression change.... A lookof surprise, amazement, came over him.

  "Why--"

  He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring, for an instant.And as I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon hisheavy gray face a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap'sstartled intake of breath. He moved to the spectro, where the zed-rayconnections were still humming.

  But, with a leap, Miko flung him away. "Off with you! Moa, watch him!Haljan, don't move!"

  Again Miko stood staring. I saw now that he was staring at Anita!

  "Why, George Prince! How strange you look!"

  Anita did not move. She was stricken with horror; she shrank backagainst the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's sardonic voice cameagain:

  "How strange you look, Prince!" He took a step forward. He was grimand calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating like a great graymonster in human form toying with a fascinated, imprisoned bird.

  "Move just a little, Prince. Let the zed-ray light fall more fully."

  Anita's head was bare. That pale, Hamlet-like face. Dear God, thezed-ray light lay gray and penetrating upon it!

  Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, GeorgePrince! Why, I can hardly believe it!"

  Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder now. For all heramazement--what turgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--shenever took her eyes from Snap and me.

  "Back! Don't move either of you!" she hissed at us.

  Then Miko leaped at Anita like a giant gray leopard pouncing.

  "Away with that cloak, Prince!"

  I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faintzed-light had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrating theflesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone line of her jaw. Unmaskedthe art of Glutz.

  Miko seized her wrists, drew her forward, beyond the shaft ofzed-light, into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloakfrom her. The gentle curves of her woman's figure were sounmistakable!

  And as Miko gazed at them, all his calm triumph swept away.

  "Why, Anita!"

  I heard Moa mutter, "So that is it?" A venomous flashing look--a shaftfrom me to Anita and back again. "So that is it?"

  "Why, Anita!"

  Miko's great arms gathered her up as though she were a child. "So Ihave you back! From the dead, delivered back to me!"

  "Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip on my shoulders brought me ameasure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moathrust her weapon against my face. The grids were swaying again with amessage from Grantline. But it was ignored.

  In the glare of moonlight by the forward window, Miko held Anita, hisgreat hands pawing her with triumphant possessive caresses.

  "So, little Anita, you are given back to me!"