CHAPTER 13
"You're afraid of your own shadow!" Miles snarled over his shoulder toCharley Brett who followed him out of the room. Brett was adjusting hisoxygen mask with one hand and gripping a paralo-ray gun tightly with theother.
"Never mind the cracks," snapped Brett, his voice muffled by the mask."I tell you I heard someone moving around in here."
Miles laughed again and walked straight to the middle of the room. Withtheir backs pressed to the wall beside the door, Tom and Astro saw Milesbend over and lift a trap door in the middle of the floor.
The two men flashed a light down into the opening and climbed down,pulling the trap door closed after them.
No sooner was it shut than Tom and Astro jumped forward to examine itcautiously. Astro started to pull it open but Tom held out a warninghand. He turned and pointed toward the room that Miles and Brett hadleft. Astro nodded and they walked quickly back to the door. Sliding itopen, they stepped inside.
"By the rings of Saturn!" cried Astro.
"Well, blast my jets!" Tom exclaimed.
The air in the room was clear, completely free of the misty whirlingmethane ammonia of death that swirled around them outside. Recoveringfrom his surprise quickly, Astro closed the door and walked to thecenter of the room, looking around curiously. Tom had already slippedoff his mask and was examining the equipment lying on the floor. Astrobent over an oddly shaped machine that looked somewhat like an ancientcompressed-air drill, with a long bar protruding from one end. Heexamined the bar closely and then turned slowly to Tom.
"Do you know what this machine is?" he asked in almost a whisper.
Tom looked at it and then shook his head.
"I haven't seen one of these since I left Venus, and then only when Iwas a kid hanging around the spaceports where the space rats used toblast off for the asteroids looking for uranium."
"You mean you hunt uranium with that thing?" asked Tom.
"No, you dig it out with this."
Tom gazed at the machine thoughtfully. "Why would it be here?" he mused."It's already been used," said Astro, standing up. "Look, the drill headis dull."
"That trap door!" Tom exclaimed. "It leads to a mine. Miles and Bretthave discovered high-grade uranium right here on Titan where everyonethought there was nothing but _crystal_!"
Astro nodded grimly. "And that isn't all. This room is free of ammoniagas."
"But how in the star-blazing dickens can they keep it out of here wheneverything else outside is flooded with it?" asked Tom.
Astro spun around and began to examine the walls. "Just as I thought!"he exclaimed. "This room is airtight! Sealed! Oxygen is being pumped inhere."
"From where?"
"Might be from somewhere below," replied the big Venusian. "Down thattrap where Miles and Brett went."
Tom put his mask back on and headed for the door. Astro followed him.They opened it a little and peered into the swirling mist.
"Then it's being pumped in directly," Tom asserted. "Through a ductleading directly up into this room from somewhere below."
Astro nodded. "Then there's only one thing left to do. Go down throughthat trap door and see what we can find." He stepped forward.
"Wait a minute, Astro," said Tom, stopping him. "Let me check ouroxygen. There might not be any down there. Remember, Miles and Brettwore _their_ masks."
Making a quick check of their oxygen supply, Tom patted Astro on theback and started forward. "It's O.K. We've got another four hours left.Come on!"
They moved toward the trap door slowly.
"I still wish I had a ray gun," whispered Tom.
"As long as I can use these"--Astro balled his hamlike hands intofists--"we're O.K."
When they reached the trap door, Tom got down on his knees and feltaround for the opening. He found a small ring bolt, motioned to Astro tostep back, and pulled. The trap door swung back easily and a shaft ofwhite light gleamed in his face. The young cadet leaned down and lookedthrough the opening. What he saw made him gasp.
"What is it?" demanded Astro.
_Tom got down on his knees and felt around for anopening_]
Tom motioned for him to get down and look. The big cadet dropped lightlyto his knees to peer through the opening. "By the moons of Jupiter," heexclaimed, "it's a--a mining shaft!"
"Just what we thought it was," whispered Tom. "Come on. Let's go downand find out where it leads."
"Maybe we'd better go back and tell Captain Strong about this first,"Astro said speculatively.
"There's no telling what Brett and Miles are liable to do while we'regone," said Tom. "You find Captain Strong and I'll go down into theshaft and look around."
"Not on your life," protested Astro. "You don't think I'd let you godown there alone, do you? _You_ go back to Captain Strong and _I'll_ seewhat those two are doing down there."
Tom grinned. "O.K., we'll both go down," he said.
Opening the trap door all the way, Tom eased himself down into theopening. Astro followed. Immediately below the trap, they found aladder, fixed to the wall of the shaft, which led directly down to apoint about thirty feet below the surface of Titan. At the bottom thetwo cadets paused. A long tunnel stretched before them.
"Listen to that!" exclaimed Astro.
Tom ripped off the mask and listened. He heard a strange noise whichsounded more like the roar of escaping gas than a motor.
"What is it?" asked Tom.
"That's what I'd like to know!"
"And that light," continued Tom, pointing down the length of the tunnel."Do you suppose it's Miles and Brett?"
"It isn't moving," commented Astro.
"Well, since we're here we might as well find out as much as we can,"Tom decided. "Let's go."
The two cadets flattened themselves against the side of the shaft andinched forward. The hissing noise was slowly building up to a roar now,and as they made their way along the shaft, they passed other smallertunnels that branched off to the left and right. There was evidence ofrecent work. Tools were scattered along the tunnel floors, as if theworkers had dropped them in sudden flight.
The light ahead of them grew brighter, and as they rounded a corner,they saw a bare, unshaded lamp suspended from the roof of the tunnel.
Tom suddenly stopped and jerked Astro back. "Look!" he exclaimed,pointing to the floor, not two paces away. A thin wire, hardlynoticeable, was stretched across the floor at ankle height.
"That bright light is to attract your attention while you trip over thatthing and probably blow yourself to bits," he said grimly, pointing tothe wall where the wire was connected to a small charge of explosives."Nothing to bring the roof down," he continued, "but enough to blastwhoever tripped over this wire."
Stepping over the wire carefully, they started down the shaft again, butTom paused thoughtfully.
"What's the matter?" asked Astro.
"That booby trap," said Tom. "We'd better not take any chances oftripping over it on the way back. We might be in a hurry."
"I know what you mean," grunted the big Venusian. He knelt down besidethe menacing box of explosives and quickly disconnected the trip wire,throwing the box to one side.
Straightening up, Astro announced, "It's harmless now."
Cautiously the two cadets continued down the tunnel, the roaring soundgrowing louder and louder. After twenty minutes, Astro paused, hishomely features wrinkled in a frown of worry.
"Think maybe Miles and Brett went off into one of the other sidetunnels?" he asked.
Tom thought a moment. "No, I don't, Astro. We haven't hit another sidetunnel since we passed that booby trap back there. What would be the useof setting that thing up if they went in another direction?"
"There must be another way out of here, then," Astro remarked.
"Why?"
"That part of the tunnel back there by the bomb was loose dirt. If thebomb had exploded, the whole tunnel would have been blocked off and howcould they get out?"
Tom didn't answer. He was thin
king about what he was going to do ifthere should be another booby trap in the tunnel. It was so dark nowthat they could hardly see more than a few feet ahead. The bright lightwas merely a pinpoint in the distance behind them.
And then Tom became aware that the roar that had been with themconstantly since they had entered the shaft had now lessened in volume.But they had not passed a single branch-off tunnel where the sound couldhave originated. Tom made up his mind quickly.
"Come on, Astro," he said. "We're going back."
"Why?"
"I haven't time to explain now, but you walk close to one side of theshaft and I'll take the other. Feel along with your hands for anythinglike a door or an opening. I think we've passed them."
Without another word, Astro turned around and headed back, feeling alongthe tunnel wall.
It did not take the two cadets long to discover what they were lookingfor. A heavy wooden door was set flush with the side of the tunnel. Andwhen Tom pressed his ear to it, he could hear the roaring soundthrobbing heavily inside.
"See if you can open it, Astro," said Tom. "But take it easy."
Astro felt along the side of the door until he found a wooden latch andhe lifted it gently. The door swung back, as if pushed, as a powerfuldraft caught it from the other side. The roar was now deafening.
Tom stepped inside cautiously, followed by Astro. They found themselveson a small balcony overlooking a huge subterranean room. In the roomthey saw Quent Miles and Charles Brett bending over a table on whichwere several delicate electronic instruments. Tom and Astro recognizedthem immediately as testing machinery for radioactivity, much moreadvanced and sensitive than the ordinary Geiger counter. Around the twomen was ample evidence of Astro's original assumption that they weredigging into a hot vein of uranium pitchblende. To one side of the room,lead sheets lined a rough boxlike structure that Astro and Tom guessedwas covering for the radioactive vein. Against the wall lay thelead-lined suits used by the miners. Further to one side, Tom saw ahuge open pipe. He nudged Astro.
"Look, over there," Tom whispered. "That's where the oxygen is comingfrom!"
Below them, Miles suddenly walked to the pipe and pulled a large leveron its side. The roaring sound stopped immediately and the boys felt theair pressure in the room lessen slightly.
"That blasted noise is driving me crazy," explained Miles, walking backto the table, his voice echoing in the rock-walled cavern.
Brett, leaning over the table, was stabbing around futilely in one ofthe sets of tubes in a complicated testing device. "Wish we had thatsquirt Manning here," he mumbled. "He could fix these things up in notime at all."
"I could always go back to the hide-out and get him," suggested Miles.
On the balcony Tom gripped Astro's arm tightly.
"Astro! Did you hear that?" he exclaimed.
The big cadet nodded and started to rise from their place ofconcealment. Tom pulled him down. "Wait," he whispered sharply. "No usebarging in on them yet. Maybe we can find out where Roger is first."
Astro reluctantly crouched down again, his hamlike hands balled intofists.
The two cadets watched Quent Miles and Brett work on the instrumentsawhile longer. Finally Miles slammed down a pair of wire cutters on thetable and growled at Brett. "No use messing with this thing any longer.I don't know what makes it tick, so I can't find the trouble. We neednew equipment."
"It'll take at least two weeks to get new equipment the way things aregoing here at Titan," replied Brett.
"Well, there's no use hanging around here if we can't dig any more ofthe stuff out, and I ain't going behind that lead shield unless I got amachine that tells me it's safe."
"I've been thinking about Manning," said Brett.
"What about him?"
"Suppose we move the stuff we've already mined to the hide-out, and takethis equipment along too. He can repair it out there. We can turn offthe oxygen that we're sucking off from the Solar Guard pumps, and by thetime we get back here, the old satellite will be back to normal. Then,with the equipment repaired and Olympia back to normal, we can reallybegin operations."
Quent nodded quickly. "Good idea. Come on. Let's get this stuff aboardthe ship."
On the balcony Tom and Astro looked at each other.
"They're responsible for what's happened here on Titan!" whispered Tom."They have been sucking off oxygen from the main pumps supporting theforce field."
"Come on, Tom," growled Astro. "My fist is just itching to make contactwith a couple of no-good chins."
"Not so fast! We still don't know where they've got Roger."
"You want to keep on following them?" asked Astro.
"At least to their ship," Tom replied. "Then we can notify CaptainStrong and he can track them in the _Polaris_. If we barge in on themnow, we'll just get the satisfaction of knocking their heads togetherwith no guarantee of any information." The young cadet turned to thedoor. "We'll sneak up the tunnel a way and then follow them out."
"Hurry!" said Astro. "Here they come." Quent, carrying one of theinstruments, had started up the steps to the balcony.
Tom grabbed the latch and pushed up but the door would not open. "Giveme a hand, Astro, quick!" he called.
Astro grabbed the latch and heaved his bulk against the door. Suddenlyhe stepped back dumfounded, holding the latch in his hand. It hadsnapped off.
Just at that moment Brett looked up and saw them. He shouted a warningto Miles, who dropped the instrument he was carrying and pulled out hisray gun.
"Just stand where you are!" he snarled, leveling the gun at them.
Tom and Astro stood quietly, hands in the air.
"How in blazes did they get here?" Brett cried.
"They must have followed me," said Miles. "They certainly couldn't haveknown about this place."
"But how did they get past the trap?" Brett persisted, still amazed andshaken by the unexpected appearance of the cadets.
Astro snorted his contempt. "You must think we're a couple of prizespace jerks," he growled. "You can't even kill a mouse with that thingnow."
"Let's cut the talk," said Miles. "What do we do with them?"
"Freeze them!" snapped Brett. "No telling how long they've been here andhow much they know."
"We know enough to put you on a prison asteroid," challenged Tom.
"Freeze 'em, it is," said Quent. "We'll get the ship loaded and decidewhat to do with them later."
He pressed the trigger on his ray gun. There was a harsh crackling soundand Tom and Astro stiffened into immobility, every nerve and muscledeadened. With the exception of their hearts, and sense of seeing andhearing, they might have been dead men.
Laughing to themselves, Quent Miles and Charles Brett picked up theirinstruments, walked past them, and disappeared through the door.