CHAPTER X
Toplinsky Calls the Bluff
The two Americans released Michael, and when he got to his feet thethree stood gazing at each other in silence for several moments.Presently the air began to get extremely cold.
“S-say, fellows,” Billy grated with his lips trembling, “I don’t likethis. If the weather continues like this much longer I’ll become alittle snowball.”
Michael bounded up and slammed the hatch down. The atmosphere becameslightly warmer.
“We can’t stay in here,” he asserted presently. “This part of theairship is not connected with the oxygen tanks, and we must have airto live.”
He again opened the hatch and looked out. Epworth crowded up to him.Overhead was space, all around them was space, and they were travelingat a speed that took their breath. When they searched for a view ofthe earth it was not to be seen, as the body of the airship obscuredit.
“We will try to get out and get into the other part of the ship,”Epworth suggested.
“And Toplinsky will land on me for letting you and your companion comeaboard.”
Michael closed the hatch part way.
“Besides,” he added, “how will you pass that first hatch opening. Ifyou will look but again you will see Toplinsky standing with his headout and an air helmet over his head. For some reason he is on the lookout.”
This time he let the hatch down softly and closed it firmly.
“We will fix you up with Toplinsky,” Epworth proposed. “We will tieyou up, then go below and inform Toplinsky that we made you aprisoner.”
“Sounds fine, but it won’t work. Toplinsky will give me a beating forgetting where you could put your hands on me.”
The three men put their heads together. It was now getting terriblycold, and for the first time they discovered that breathing waspainful.
“We’ve got to do something—and do it quick,” Billy asserted anxiously.“I’m getting——”
He collapsed. Michael extended his hand to help him, and alsostumbled.
Like lightning Epworth acted. Grasping Billy by the collar in one handand Michael in the other he pulled them up to the point in thewarehouse where the panel opened into the chamber Joan was occupying,and drawing a box up put them in a position where they could get abreath of air through the hole. It was only a breath but he hadreasoned that Toplinsky would not put his sister where she would diefor want of atmosphere, and now found that he had reasoned correctly.They could barely thrust a portion of their faces toward the hole. Itwas not large enough for all three to get air, and heroically hepushed his companions forward.
* * * * *
Joan, stretched on her couch sobbing, heard a tap on the panel thatseparated her compartment from the storeroom. Curiously she got up andpushed back the panel. In front of her was Billy’s face and the faceof a guard. Both were chattering with cold.
“O-open the panel full out,” Billy choked. “We are dying for want ofair.”
“Mercy!” Joan ejaculated with infinite relief. “I thought you had leftthe airship. Where is Julian?”
Billy shoved his head aside from the blessed air hole and caughtEpworth. He was just in time to keep his companion from falling.
“Here he is,” he replied. “Get your face away from the panel so we canall get a breath of that air. This compartment is shut off from theair tanks and we will soon die if we get away from this hole.”
However all three men soon revived, and pulled boxes up to the airpanel to stand on.
“We can’t stand here all our lives,” Billy grumbled. “My legs aregetting tired already.”
“Open your door and call some one,” Epworth instructed.
“It is locked,” Joan replied. “I have——”
The door opened and Herman Toplinsky stepped in.
“Ah, ha, ho, ho, it is a great voyage—a magnificent start.” Toplinskyclosed the door carefully. “Indeed a wonderful trip is ahead of us. Weleave the earth at a speed of six hundred miles an hour with ourliquid rockets working admirably. Fair Joan, do you know where we aregoing?”
Joan was breathless with the fear that Toplinsky would discoverEpworth and Billy at the panel, but when she replied her voice wascold and hard. At least she could put this man in his place.
“I haven’t the least idea, and my name—well, my name is a good nameand I am not ashamed of it. It is Miss Joan Epworth to you, sir.”
“Ah ha, ho, ho, high hatty—somewhat ritzy. Well, Miss Joan, we are onthe way to the moon. By the time we get there I am of the opinion thatyou will be pleased to hear me call you Joan. This is our initialtrip—the first out—and I could not forego myself the pleasure ofseeing your beautiful face during the journey. In fact I am crazyabout you. Presently—ah, ha, we shall see what we shall see.”
There was a treacherous threat in the words that caused the girl togrow cold and hot by turns. The words meant more than death to her.
“And how about that agreement with me?”
Toplinsky, startled with surprise, looked up at the panel. Epworth wasgazing at him with blazing eyes over the blue barrel of a gun.
“Ah, ha, ho, ho.” The giant was not in the least disconcerted. “Ourbantam fighter—our fast foot runner. Now I wonder how you got inthere? But that is a matter of indifference. Long before we get to themoon you will be frozen into an Eskimo pie. It suits me well. I thinkthat I shall move this young lady into another apartment, and sealthis one. We can get along very well this trip without this room. Ofcourse——.” He paused as if thinking deeply, and an ugly sneer appearedon his mouth. “Yes, I really believe that such an act would preventany air from getting back into the store room.”
The cool, devilish ingenuity of the man was appalling.
“Y-y-you mean that you will let these men die in there for lack ofbreathing air?”
Joan’s face was deathly white as she asked this question.
“I didn’t tell them to go in there,” the giant apologized withasperity. “Probably they were trying to hitch-hike a ride with us,thinking that we were going to some other part of the world, and gotcaught in their own trap. Why should I trouble myself about them? Ifthey die I assure you that decomposition will not commence during thetrip to the moon. The frigid air will act like a refrigerationprocess, and preserve their bodies from offensive smells. We can dumpthem out when we get to the moon. Their carcasses will make goodfertilizer.”
“Toplinsky, I confess that I do not get you.” Epworth spoke calmly. “Ido not understand your actions concerning Joan. You gave me your word,and I thought that your word would stick.”
“I do stick to my word,” Toplinsky shrilled in intense anger. “The manwho says that Herman Toplinsky is not a man of his word is a liar—adouble-dyed liar by the town clock.”
“And yet my sister is here—kidnaped.”
“Just so.” The giant smiled broadly. “Still I have not broken my word.I did not promise you that I would not take her with me to the moon. Idid not tell you that I would cut her off my visiting list. On thecontrary I have seen to it that she was treated like a great lady. Shehas been given every comfort, and I intend to see that she is treatedwith distinguished courtesy on this trip.”
He showed his teeth aggravatingly.
“Sounds fishy but you are going to put that down in writing. You aregoing to sign a written agreement that she shall not be harmed orinsulted, and you are going to agree that we can go along to see thatyou keep your word. With me is my chum, Billy Sand, and the guard youput over us. These two are also going with you. I will add, in justiceto the guard, that we knocked him down and took his gun away from him,making him a prisoner.”
“Really, my dear fellow, I am seriously afflicted with writer’scramp.” Toplinsky spoke politely. “I cannot put such an agreement inwriting. It would be very painful to me to have to write it.”
“We may never leave this store room alive,” Epworth saidthreateningly, and it was evident that he meant
what he said, “but assure as fate if you do not put that agreement in writing I shall shootyou. One explosion will be all that will be necessary.”
The giant did not seem to be frightened. Quite the contrary. Hereplied very quietly.
“Quite a marksman, eh?” Toplinsky’s smile was sneeringly cold andmocking. “Do you know what will happen if I am killed? I hope I maynot seem pedantic if I modestly explain. I am the only person aboardthe Aerolite who can pilot it back to the earth, or to the moon. Ifyou shoot me, all on board will be lost in space. It is hardlynecessary to inform you that the moon does not stand still. It ismoving now in three ways. First it is rotating once every sixteenhours on its axis; second it is moving around the world once everytwenty-eight days; third it is traveling through space in a giantcircle with the earth around the sun, making the circle once in threehundred and sixty-five days. Off-hand I would suggest that these threestatements alone, especially numbers two and three, present to you, anexpert air navigator, something of a problem in the way of making themoon a landing spot.”
He paused and grinned broadly, seeing a look of dismay appear on theAmerican’s face.
“Yes,” he continued pleasantly and in an academic manner, “the moonmoves 0633 miles each second—double the velocity of a cannon ball, andadd to this the encircling movement of one thousand miles an houraround the sun, we have a decided mathematical calculation innavigation—especially as our little ship is at present only making sixhundred miles an hour. Perhaps, a little later on we may get up toeight hundred. But, my dear fellow, do I see you, even at a speed ofeight hundred miles an hour, overtaking the moon? I pause for ascientific response.”
Epworth was obviously upset, and his hand trembled on the trigger.
“Toplinsky, it is all I can do to keep from killing you this instant.”
“If you really wish to see your sister live——. Well to be just alittle slangy, you will draw in your horns. Kill me and you also killher and the crew.”
“And you will leave my brother and his companions in there without airto breathe?” Joan demanded heatedly.
“My dear young lady, really, we have no air to spare.” Toplinskylifted the palms of his hands outward, and shook his head. “Wemanufacture our air with chemicals, and the supply is limited. Inmaking my preparations to visit the moon I did not anticipate thepresence of guests in a compartment where no air is needed. Our air isconfined entirely to the living-parts of the ship. Yours is the lastcompartment supplied with air. There is no sense in wasting air andrunning machinery for fun.”
Again he opened his hands expansively, and showed his horse teethapologetically.
“And—and——”
“So there you are,” he finished.
Epworth lowered his gun.
“Toplinsky, you win. I cannot endanger the lives of all the peopleaboard this airship.”
The giant grinned good humoredly. He had been very close to death, andhe realized that his escape had been narrow.
“Don’t kill them that way,” Joan moaned. “I shall not give you anytrouble. I——”
“Joan, that is enough!” Epworth hissed. “You are going to obey me, andyou are going to stay right in this room during the entire trip—staywhere I can keep my eyes on you.”
“Where you can keep your eyes on her, ha, ha!”
Toplinsky smiled crookedly.