The Collected Stories

by Earl

  “Can’t tell at that,” I admitted.

  “We can, too,” Della went on. “Test the gravity.”

  “What! How?”

  “By jumping, of course!” She didn’t add the word “dope,” but I’ll bet she thought it.

  I gave myself a kick, in my mind. Then I jumped straight up. I went pretty high. The gravity was light, less than on Earth.

  I kind of misjudged and landed crooked. Della watched me stumble to my feet. “About four times your length, that leap,” she observed. “Gravity is one-fifth to two-fifths of Earth. Hm-m-m!”

  “That means Mercury or Mars!” I said before she could, to show I wasn’t as dumb as she thought. “All the other planets are bigger.”

  She spoke right after me.

  “How about Earth’s moon, or any of the satellites in the Solar System? We’ve only eliminated—”

  She stopped and looked at me with her eyebrows raised, exactly like a school teacher prompting a little boy to answer.

  I balked. She might have bowled me over by knowing her onions in astronomy, but I wasn’t going to let her treat me like that.

  “I’ll figure this out for myself!” I told her. “I don’t need your help.”

  “All right, if you want to make a game of it,” she nodded, with an impish grin that made me see red. “We’ll talk over clues together. See which one of us gets the answer first.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. I began looking around fast. I’d beat her to it. What was that line of something just at the edge of the horizon?

  She saw it, too. She started to walk toward it, craning her neck. I watched her high-heeled slippers clattering over the rocky ground before I came out of my trance, and ran after her. I pulled her back.

  “Let go of me!” she snapped. I knew she would.

  “Stay near the ship,” I warned her. “We haven’t any weapons. Never can tell what critters run around on other planets.”

  “Let go!” she repeated, jerking free and going on. She advanced a little distance, then turned back. She gripped my arm. “You’re right. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.”

  She gave me a big smile—and meant it. I grunted something and then dived in the ship, coming out with a pair of binoculars. I always carried them for rubes in space who wanted to see the sights.

  I studied that funny line off in the distance. The glasses brought them up as square-cut, stone banks. Canals!

  “You look like the cat that ate the canary,” Della said sweetly. “That wouldn’t happen to be a canal bank, would it?”

  How the devil had she guessed that without binoculars?

  I opened my mouth quick, but she beat me to it.

  “Don’t say Mars too soon,” she laughed. “Don’t forget that several other planets and satellites were found with canal systems, built by early races. I forget which ones, though.”

  I CLOSED my mouth, grinding my teeth. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I looked up. There was a morning mist over the Sun, cutting off most of its glare. High up, I could make out two small moons.

  “Well,” I laughed, seeing her follow my glance, “anyway, we’re sure we’re not on Earth!”

  Believe it or not, but I said it only after I was positive I’d never heard of another moon of Earth being discovered. Confound her, anyway. She had me walking on eggs.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “That’s definite. It isn’t Earth.”

  I took another look at the two moons. “Those two moons eliminate—” I started, before I remembered I was going to figure it out for myself. I shut up. Let her do her own eliminating. In my mind I filed away the planets or satellites eliminated, and those still in the running. It was getting pretty complicated already.

  But I could see her lips moving, as though she were talking to herself. The facts were piling up—but I couldn’t add ’em properly. When you get a clue like the canals, and then remember other bodies have them; and see two moons and realize that includes a lot; and have a small world with a large Sun by looks, but a rather chilly atmosphere—well, it’s all pretty confusing.

  I needed more and better clues. Where were they?

  “What about Warren?” Della asked suddenly.

  She would break in on my thoughts, just when I was beginning to untangle the facts.

  “Nothing about Warren,” I retorted. “We wait until he comes back. The next move’s up to him.”

  “What do you suppose he’s looking for—treasure?”

  I jumped a little, because I’d had that thought myself.

  “Perhaps,” I said. “Last century, when the space pirates were on the rampage, they sometimes cached their loot in odd places. Some never got back to fetch them. Must be lots of buried treasure around the planets.”

  “He probably has a treasure-map,” Della said. “He seemed to know just where to go. What do you suppose he’ll find?”

  “Jewels, iridium, radium—the usual stuff. Probably a lot of fancy jewelry. The old space pirates used to barge right into rich men’s homes and cop the family treasures.”

  Her eyes began to shine at the mention of the jewelry. Didn’t she have enough of that, with a young fortune in gems already draped around her? They were never satisfied, these spoiled debutante brats. For two zans I’d tell her just what I thought of her. But I didn’t. Every time I looked in her eyes—well, never mind.

  “Pirate treasure!” she said, glowing. Her voice caught, then. “Suppose he finds it? Remember those stories of people going utterly mad at sudden riches? Killing anybody who might be a witness—”

  “You read that trash?” I said sarcastically. But I felt a little chill race down my spine. “Forget about that. Let’s get on with our guessing game.”

  Della nodded. I had to give her credit. She was brave enough to take things as they came, even if the worst happened. She was bending over a few stalks now, that grew along the plain we were on. They had big red blossoms that opened and closed all the time, as though they were breathing.

  “The breather-plant!” she cried. “Native vegetation of—”

  She stopped, of course, and I went wild. I’d never checked up on stuff like that, on other planets. She had me beat already.

  But then she shook her head.

  “No, I’m wrong. The breather-plants were seeded on various worlds. They grow almost anywhere in the System. This doesn’t help a bit—darn!”

  “If we could only see some animals—” I suggested. I knew more about them.

  “Probably wouldn’t help,” Della said. “Evolution has been surprisingly uniform on all the worlds. Thicker furs and hides on colder planets, that’s all. The few distinctive life-forms of each world are usually the rare ones that you never see in days or weeks. I think we’ll have to depend on astronomical clues.”

  WE both looked up again.

  Those two moons. Were there more around the other side? Della seemed to read my mind.

  “If we’re among the big systems of Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus, we might spot more moons when they rise. Or we may be on the outer fringes of orbits and not see them.”

  That, didn’t help much. I got another thought then, and turned away so she wouldn’t see my face. I pretended to be looking around vaguely, as though I’d about given up.

  “Waiting for the primary to rise?” Howling horn-cats! Couldn’t I get the jump on her on anything?

  “But suppose,” she went right on, wet-blanketing, “we’re on the hemisphere turned away from the alleged primary? Most of the moons, like Earth’s moon, don’t rotate in relation to their primary. Therefore we’ll never see the primary from this position.” Talk about being stumped. It would have been so easy if Jupiter, or Saturn and the Rings, or Uranus popped over the horizon. You could tell them at a glance. But if they didn’t pop, we didn’t even know if they were below at all. It might still be a primary itself we were on, like Mars, for instance.

  My eliminating had just about sunk to the zero mark.

  “We can’t even time this body’s revo
lution period,” Della further cracked down. “Warren took my wrist-watch.”

  What to do?

  “What do we know so far?” Della added up aloud. “We know the gravitation is small. We know the air is cool, though the Sun seems large. We know there are two, if not more, moons. We know it isn’t Earth.”

  We knew it wasn’t a couple other things, too, but we weren’t comparing notes any further. I got a sudden idea, when I noticed the changed positions of the two moons. One of them was going backward—the opposite of the Sun’s motion!

  “A retrogade moon, like Phobos of Mars,” said that astronomical Sherlock Holmes right away. “But there are several other retrogade moons in the Solar System. A most misleading clue. No, wait! It makes one more elimination—”

  I got that, too. And it was lucky I hadn’t blurted out Mars again, before!

  “You know too much,” I grated. I couldn’t help it. I felt sore because she was guessing rings around me. “For a society screwball, you got a lot of information that don’t help you mixing highballs or playing space-tag.”

  “I’ll have you know I—” she began huffily, then stopped. She wasn’t giving any clues there, either. Maybe she had taught school once, for the fun of it. I put my mind back to figuring out where we were, not what she was. After all, that was more important.

  PRETTY soon, something rose over the horizon.

  “Another moon!” I yelled, things clicking in my mind.

  “Also a rocket ship!” Della screeched, before I could go on. “Signal it—hurry!”

  She gave me a shove. It was a rocket ship. A big liner. I dived into my ship and came out with signal rockets. This was our big chance to escape Warren. The biggest liner, anywhere in the Solar System, had to stop when it saw SOS rockets. If it was on a long run and going too fast to decelerate in less than hours, it had to send back a high-speed life-rocket.

  I set up the tripod, all thumbs. Finally I jerked the pin of the rocket-flare. I pulled Della back and stood in front of her so sparks wouldn’t fly on her dress. The rocket gave a mighty whoosh and shot into space.

  Well, it didn’t work. The liner shot by overhead, on its way somewhere. I shot two more flares before it dawned on me that it was no use. We were on the day-side of this globe, in bright sunlight. And the red strontium flare of the rockets could be seen for thousands of miles—except in the Sun’s glare.

  “Oh!” Della sort of sobbed, with her face against my chest. “Oh, Tom, why didn’t it stop? Warren will be back soon. I’m frightened!”

  It was getting her down at that. I kind of patted her back. I don’t know if I was exactly sorry that liner went by, exactly.

  She pulled away in a while, dabbed her eyes, and looked half ashamed.

  “I’m silly,” she said. “Don’t mind me.”

  “Forget it,” I said.

  The next second her eyes danced.

  “I know something!” she chimed out. “I know something! That liner was the Earth-Uranus Express!”

  I nodded. I had just caught a glimpse of the big painted letters underneath, too.

  “So what?”

  “It was accelerating!” Della said, clapping her hands like a little girl that had found a dime. “I know how far out we are from the Sun, now!”

  “What!” My brain nearly wore out in the next minute, trying to pin that down. When I got the answer, I felt like a ninny. Sure, it was simple!

  “But still,” I said, “you don’t know exactly which—uh—body—”

  I didn’t want to say too much. There was still one little thing to figure out. It was all narrowed down now to four certain bodies. But which of the four? How in blazes could that be figured out?

  I had to beat her to it. I couldn’t let a snip of a girl show me up for a chump.

  Eeney, meeney, meinie, moe! Which of the four?

  “This is fun, isn’t it?” Della said. “I’m enjoying it—”

  I was watching her face. All of a sudden it changed. It went pale. She pointed.

  “Look! Warren is coming back. Tom—”

  She stood close to me as Warren came up. I could feel her trembling a little. I had him sized up as a desperate character, too. Things were going to come to a showdown soon.

  Warren’s face looked as though he’d just had a glimpse between the Pearly Gates.

  “I found it!” he yelled, coming up at a run. “It’s right there, and it’s all mine—mine!”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Never mind,” he snapped, clamping his teeth shut.

  “Treasure?” I said.

  I DIDN’T like the ugly look he gave then.

  “Smart guy, eh?” he rasped. “It wouldn’t be healthy for you—” He had that spark-gun of his pointed at me, like he’d shoot if I made one step in the direction he’d come from. He was like a lion in front of a bone.

  But all of a sudden he changed.

  “Yes, treasure. You may as well know. Sure, there’s plenty of it. I’ll even give you a cut for helping me out. Want to see it? Come on.”

  He led the way. I didn’t like it at all. I was going to say so to Della, but she suddenly skipped beside Warren.

  “Treasure?” she said eagerly. “How wonderful!”

  So she was that kind! One minute saying she didn’t trust him, the next warming up to him because he had a fortune. I kicked a rock out of my way and followed. Warren waved me ahead.

  “Stay in front, Blaine. I’ll direct you which way to go. You too, Sally—”

  “Must I?” pouted the girl. “I don’t like ugly guns in back of me.”

  Warren hesitated, then nodded for her to keep at his side. We marched over the plain. I glanced back once or twice. Della had her arm in Warren’s, before long.

  “You like jewelry, babe?” Warren said eventually, thawing to her. “There’s stuff there that’ll knock your eye out. Look good on you, too.”

  I looked ahead after that. I didn’t like the dazzling smile she gave him. Just his type, she was. Why should it make me mad? I forgot about her, and went on figuring out what world we were on. That is, I tried. To figure it out, I mean, not forget her.

  It was about five miles altogether, as a guess, though that blasted short horizon gets you all balled up. We struck some low hills and puffed over them. Pretty soon there were cliffs. I kind of started when we rounded one hill, and a rock formation stuck up over us. It was like a pointing hand, when you squinted your eyes!

  “See where the finger points?” Warren said.

  It slanted downward, pointing at a straight cliff two hundred yards off. When we got there, Warren told me to walk into some bushes growing there. Was he going to shoot me in the back, now?

  I went for the bushes. I’d watch him over my shoulder. Maybe I could duck in time, then dive low and get away. I kept my eye on him and my feet suddenly hit—nothing!

  I rolled twenty feet down an incline into a small cave hidden by those bushes. Laughing, Warren came behind me, holding Della’s hand.

  “Searched five hours before I found this cave,” Warren said. “There’s the treasure-chest. Take a look, Sally.”

  THE cave was dark, but there was a glow from the back. We went up. It was an old, corroded, gold chest. The lid was off. Warren had melted the lock away with his spark-gun. When I looked in, I couldn’t believe it.

  Diamonds, emeralds, rare Martian glowstones, Plutonian rubies as big as eggs! Also ingots of iridium, pretty valuable for rocket-tube lining. Slabs of palladium, which markets at a dollar a gram for grids. And bars of beryllium, the metal money base of the whole Solar System.

  One compartment, set off by a partition of cheap gold, was filled with jewelry—the finished stuff. Necklaces, bracelets, anklets, girdles, brooches, and what-not. Most of it was strung together with beryllium filigree. Beryllium is about the lightest, strongest, most valuable metal you could name. There were heirlooms here that many a pedigreed family would sell their souls to have back.

  Talkative under the spe
ll of the wealth and the power in his grasp, Warren gave us the lowdown.

  “Black Barton’s lost treasure! The man who robbed the Solar System blind, a hundred years ago, then vanished. No one knew what happened to him, or his loot, except for one treasure-map.”

  Warren pointed to the floor, where an old beryllium-leaf scroll was spread out. He had used it to find the exact spot in the cave where the chest was.

  “Written in old Martian, for secrecy,” Warren said. “Practically a lost language. No one could translate it, for a century. My cousin bought it and spent twenty years working over it. He finally pieced it out.”

  Looking close, I saw the modern translation written in the margins. A long detailed account of latitude and longitude of this world, and how to find the Pointing Hand, and where the cave was, and where the chest was buried under loose sand. With those translations to work with Warren must have found it easy.

  I saw something else on the map that made me jump a little. It revealed the exact body we were on! Not by name, but by tricky little code. I was going to point it out to Della, then yell the name before she could, but didn’t.

  Because Della wasn’t interested. She was digging her hands in the jewelry, holding it up before her eyes and making little squeaky sounds. She couldn’t talk. She had the greedy look in her eyes of any dame who thinks money is the only thing in life. And for a while I’d thought—well, never mind.

  Warren was watching her, a strange glow in his eyes. He was fascinated by her looks.

  “Put them on!” he told her. “Whatever you want. Let’s see how you look in them.”

  Della didn’t hesitate a second. She began piling the stuff on. Necklaces, bracelets, anklets, girdles and all. She kept throwing them around her on top one another, covering her own jewelry. Long strings of gems clinked and rattled all the way down to her toes. Pretty soon she had a fortune on her that would make most rich men pikers.

  She glanced at me once. I guess she saw the way my lips curled. But she kept right on. And Warren kept right on watching her. I didn’t like that look in his eyes. . . .