CHAPTER XIX
_In the Zed-light Glow_
"Try again. By the infernal, Snap Dean, if you do anything to balk us!"
Miko scanned the apparatus with keen eyes. How much technical knowledgeof signaling instruments did this brigand leader have? I was tense andcold with apprehension as I sat in a corner of the helio-room, watchingSnap. Could Miko be fooled? Snap, I knew, was trying to fool 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. The globe lay in quadrature beneath our bow quarter--ahuge quadrant spreading across the black starry vault of the lowerheavens. A silver quadrant. The sunset caught the Lunar mountains, flungslanting shadows over the empty Lunar plains. All the disc was plainlyvisible. The mellow Earth-light glowed serene and pale to illumine theLunar night.
The _Planetara_ was bathed in silver. A brilliant silver glare swept theforward deck, clean white and splashed with black shadows. We had partlycircled the Moon, so as now to approach it from the Earthward side. Ihad worked with extreme concentration through the last few hours,plotting the trajectory of our curving sweep, setting the gravity plateswith constantly shifting combinations. And with it a necessity for thesteady retarding of our velocity.
* * * * *
Miko for a time was at my elbow in the turret. I had not seen Conistonand Hahn of recent hours. I had slept, awakened refreshed, and had ameal. Coniston and Hahn remained below, one or the other of them alwayswith the crew to execute my sirened orders. Then Coniston came to takemy place in the turret, and I went with Miko to the helio-room.
"You are skilful, Haljan." A measure of grim approval was in Miko'svoice. "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 make-shift crew we could easily havecome upon real difficulty.
We hung at last, hull-down, facing the Earthward hemisphere of the Lunardisc. The giant ball of the Earth lay behind and above us--the Sun overour stern quarter. With forward velocity almost checked, we poised, andSnap began his signals to the unsuspecting Grantline.
My work momentarily was over. I sat watching the helio-room. Moa washere, close beside me; I felt always her watchful gaze, so that even theplay of my expression 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 cowardly sullen.
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, glaredwith moonlight through its windows. The moving figures of Snap and Mikowere aped by the grotesque, misshapen shadows of them on the walls. Mikogigantic--a great, menacing ogre. Snap small and alert--a trim, palefigure in his tight-fitting white trousers, broad-flowing belt, andwhite shirt open at the throat. His face was pale and drawn from lack ofsleep and the torture to which Miko had subjected him. But he grinned atthe brigand's words, and pushed his straggling hair closer under the redeyeshade.
"I'm doing my best, Miko--you can believe it."
* * * * *
The room over long periods was deadly silent, with Miko and Snap bendingwatchfully at the crowded banks of instruments. A silence in which myown pounding heart seemed to echo. I did not dare look at Anita, nor sheat me. Snap was trying to signal Earth, not the Moon! His main helioswere set in the reverse. The infra-red waves, flung from the bowwindow, were of a frequency which Snap and I believed that Grantlinecould not pick up. And over against the wall, close beside me andseemingly ignored by Snap, there was a tiny ultra-violet sender. Itsfaint hum and the quivering of its mirrors had so far passed unnoticed.
Would some Earth-station pick it up? I prayed so. There was a thumb nailmirror here which could bring an answer. I prayed that it might swing.
Would some Earth telescope be able to see us? I doubted it. The pinpointof the _Planetara's_ infinitesimal bulk would be beyond them.
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 spectroheliograph. At every level the platesshowed us nothing save the scarred and pitted Moon-surface. We workedfor an hour. There was nothing. Bleak cold night on the Moon herebeneath us. A touch of fading sunlight upon the Apennines. Up near theSouth Pole, Tycho with its radiating open rills stood like a grim darkmaw.
Miko bent over a plate. "Something here? Is there?"
An abnormality upon the frowning ragged cliffs of Tycho? We thought so.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 from acrossthe 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 the violet waves had tinged them, andturned grimly back to Snap.
"Where are your Gamma ray mirrors? If the treasure is exposed--"
This Martian's knowledge was far greater than we believed. He grinnedsardonically at Anita. "If our treasure is on this hemisphere, Prince,we should pick up Gamma rays? Don't you think so? Or is Grantline socautious it will all be protected?"
Anita spoke in a careful, throaty drawl. "The Gamma rays came plainenough when we passed here on the way out."
"You should know," grinned Miko. "An expert eavesdropper, Prince--I willsay that for you. Come Dean, try something else. By God, if Grantlinedoes not signal us, I will be likely to blame you--my patience isshortening. 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?"[B]
"It might," Snap agreed. "You think he may be on the Northern inner sideof Tycho?"
"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."
[B] An allusion to the use of the zed-ray light for making spectro-photographs of what might be behind obscuring rock masses, similar to the old-style X-ray.
* * * * *
I moved to the lens-box of the spectroheliograph. It seemed that Snapwas very strangely reluctant: Was it because he knew that the Grantlinecamp lay concealed on the north inner wall of Tycho's giant ring? Ithought so. But Snap flashed a queer look at Anita. She did not 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 tell youI will comb this surface if we have to stay here until our ship comesfrom 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 Snap several times tr
ied to touch me significantly. Oh, ifonly 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 main lens.I stood with the shutter trip.
"The same interval, Snap?"
"Yes."
Beside me, I was aware of a faint reflection of the zed-light--a grayCathedral shaft crossing the helio-room and falling upon the oppositewall. An unreality there, as the zed-light faintly strove to penetratethe metal 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 had pickedour signals! With what undoubtedly was an intensified receivingequipment which Snap had not thought Grantline able to use, he hadcaught our faint zed-rays, which Snap was sending only to deceive Miko.And Grantline had recognized the _Planetara_, and had released hisocculting screens surrounding the radium ore. The Gamma rays were here,unmistakable!
And upon their heels came Grantline's message. Not in the secret systemhe had arranged with Snap, but unsuspectingly in open code. I could readthe swinging mirror, and so could Miko.
And Miko decoded it triumphantly aloud:
"_Surprised but pleased your return. Approach Mid-Northern hemisphere,region of Archimedes, forty thousand toises[C] off nearest Apenninerange._"
The message broke off. But even its importance was overshadowed. Mikostood in the center of the helio-room, triumphantly reading thelight-indicator. Its beam swung on the scale, which chanced to be almostdirectly over Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression change. A look ofsurprise, amazement came to him.
"Why--"
He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring for an instant. Andas I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon his heavy grayface a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap's startled intakeof breath. He moved to the spectroheliograph, 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!"
[C] About fifty miles.
* * * * *
Again Miko stood staring. Oh dear God, I saw now that he was staring atAnita!
"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 grim andcalm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating--like a great gray monster inhuman 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, Hamletlike face. Dear God, thezed-light reflection lay gray and penetrating upon it!
Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, George Prince!Why, I can hardly believe it!"
Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder. For all her amazement--whatturgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--she never took her eyesfrom Snap and me.
"Back! Don't move, either of you!" She hissed it at us.
Then Miko leaped at Anita like giant gray leopard pouncing.
"Away with that cloak, Prince!"
* * * * *
I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faintzed-light glow had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrated theflesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone-line of her jaw. Unmasked thewaxen art of Glutz.
And Miko had seen it.
"Why George, how surprising! Away with that cloak!"
He seized her wrist, drew her forward, beyond the shaft of zed-light,into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloak from her. Thegentle curves of her woman's figure were so unmistakable!
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 I haveyou back; from the dead delivered back to me!"
"Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip over my shoulders brought me ameasure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moathrust her weapon against my face. The helio mirrors were swaying againwith another message from Grantline. But it came ignored by us all.
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."
Against her futile struggles he held her.
Dear God, if only I had had the wit to have prevented this!