by Ray Cummings
X
I had not been able at first to understand why Captain Carter wantedMiko left at liberty. Within me there was that cry of vengeance, asthough to strike Miko down would somehow lessen my own grief. WhateverCarter's purpose, Snap had not known it. But Balch and Dr. Frank werein the Captain's confidence--all three of them working on some plan ofaction.
It was obvious that at least two of our passengers were plotting withMiko and George Prince; trying on this voyage to learn what they couldabout Grantline's activities on the Moon--scheming doubtless to seizethe treasure when the _Planetara_ stopped at the Moon on the returnvoyage. I thought I could name those masquerading passengers. Ob Hahn,supposedly a Venus mystic. And Rance Rankin, who called himself anAmerican magician. Those two, Snap and I agreed, seemed mostsuspicious. And there was the purser.
I sat for a time on the deck outside the chart room with Snap. ThenCarter summoned us back, and we sat listening while he, Balch and Dr.Frank went on with their conference. Listening to them, I could notbut agree that our best plan was to secure evidence which wouldincriminate all who were concerned in the plot. Miko, we wereconvinced, had been the Martian who followed Snap and me from Halsey'soffice in Greater New York. George Prince had doubtless been theinvisible eavesdropper outside the radio room. He knew, and had toldthe others that Grantline had found that priceless metal on the Moonand that the _Planetara_ would stop there on the way home.
But we could not incarcerate George Prince for being an eavesdropper.Nor had we the faintest possible evidence against Ob Hahn or Rankin.And even the purser would probably be released by the InterplanetaryCourt of Ferrok-Shahn when it heard our evidence.
There was only Miko. We could arrest him for the murder of Anita. Butif we did that now, the others would be put on their guard. It wasCarter's idea to let Miko remain at liberty for a time and see if wecould identify and incriminate his fellows. The murder of Anitaobviously had nothing to do with any plot against Grantline Moontreasure.
"Why," exclaimed Balch, "there might be--probably are--huge Martianinterests concerned in this thing. These men aboard are onlyemissaries, making this voyage to learn what they can. When they getto Ferrok-Shahn, they'll make their report, and then we'll have a realdanger on our hands. Why, an outlaw ship could be launched fromFerrok-Shahn that would beat us back to the Moon--and Grantline isentirely without warning of any danger!"
It seemed obvious. Unscrupulous criminals in Ferrok-Shahn would bedangerous indeed, once these details of Grantline were given them. Sonow it was decided that in the remaining nine days of our outwardvoyage, we would attempt to secure enough evidence to arrest all theseplotters.
"I'll have them all in the cage when we land," declared Carter grimly."They'll make no report to their principals!"
Ah, the futile plans of men!
Yet, at the time, we thought it practical. We were all doubly armednow. Bullet projectors and heat ray cylinders. And we had severaleavesdropping microphones which we planned to use whenever occasionoffered.
Only twenty-eight hours of this eventful voyage had passed. The_Planetara_ was some six million miles from the Earth; it blazedbehind us, a tremendous giant.
The body of Anita was being made ready for burial. George Prince wasstill in his stateroom. Glutz, effeminate little hairdresser, whowaxed rich acting as beauty doctor for the women passengers, and who,in his youth, had been an undertaker, had gone with Dr. Frank toprepare the body.
Gruesome details. I tried not to think of them. I sat, numbed, in thechart room.
An astronomical burial--there was little precedent for it. I draggedmyself to the stern deck where, at five A.M., the ceremony took place.
We were a solemn little group, gathered there in the checkeredstarlight with the great vault of the heavens around us. A dismantledelectronic projector--necessary when a long range gun was mounted--hadbeen rigged up in one of the deck ports.
They brought out the body. I stood apart, gazing reluctantly at thesmall bundle, wrapped like a mummy in a dark metallic screen-cloth. Apatch of black silk rested over her face. Four cabin stewards carriedher; and beside her walked George Prince. A long black robe coveredhim, but his head was bare. And suddenly he reminded me of the ancientplay-character of Hamlet. His black, wavy hair; his finely chiseled,pallid face, set now in a stern patrician cast. And staring, Irealized that however much of the villain this man might be, at thisinstant, walking beside the body of his dead sister, he was strickenwith grief. He loved that sister with whom he had lived sincechildhood; and to see him now no one could doubt it.
The little procession stopped in a patch of starlight by the port.They rested the body on a bank of chairs. The black-robed chaplain,roused from his bed and still trembling from excitement of thissudden, inexplicable death on board, said a brief, solemn littleprayer. An appeal: That the Almighty Ruler of all these blazing worldsmight guard the soul of this gentle girl whose mortal remains were nowto be returned to Him.
Ah, if ever God seemed hovering close, it was now at this instant, onthis starlit deck floating in the black void of space.
Then Carter for just a moment removed the black shroud from her face.I saw her brother gaze silently; saw him stoop and implant akiss--and turn away. I did not want to look, but I found myself movingslowly forward.
She lay, so beautiful. Her face, white and calm and peaceful in death.My sight blurred.
"Easy Gregg," Snap was whispering to me. He had his arm around me."Come on away."
They tied the shroud over her face. I did not see them as they put thebody in the tube, sent it through the exhaust chamber and dropped it.
But a moment later I saw it, a small black, oblong bundle hoveringbeside us. It was perhaps a hundred feet away, circling us. Held bythe _Planetara's_ bulk, it had momentarily become our satellite. Itswung around us like a moon. Gruesome satellite, by nature's lawsforever to follow us.
Then from another tube at the bow, Blackstone operated a smallzed-co-ray projector. Its dull light caught the floating bundle,neutralizing its metallic wrappings.
It swung off at a tangent. Speeding. Falling free in the dome of theheavens. A rotating black oblong. But in a moment distance dwindled itto a speck. A dull silver dot with the sunlight on it. A speck ofhuman Earth dust, falling free....
It vanished. Anita--gone.
