The Moon Colony

by William Dixon Bell

  CHAPTER XI

  Tables Turned and No Eats

  With a cautious movement that did not attract Toplinsky’s attentionBilly Sand touched Epworth on the shoulder.

  “The hatches may be closed but not locked,” he suggested in a whisper.“Perhaps we can get out on the top of the old crate, and find a way toget inside of the airchambers.”

  Epworth dropped down as silently as possible from the air hole. Thesecond he was away from the hole, Toplinsky popped up, and slammed thepanel shut.

  “Ah, ha, my young cockerel,” they heard him exclaim exultantly, “Iguess that will fix you. I have not promised that I would save yourlife when it was in jeopardy. True I have said that I would not killyou. While this was under durance I shall stick up to it. However I amnot responsible for the temperature of space. You should have remainedwhere you belong.”

  They heard him cackling shrilly but without pausing to hear more,accompanied by Michael, who had informed them that his last name wasStrauss, they ran hurriedly to the hatch, pushing it open.

  “Lady Luck,” Epworth exclaimed as he stepped out on the top of theairship. “Not a living object in view, but——”

  He was going to speak of the force of the wind but realized withsurprise that there was no wind. They were already beyond the earth’sstratosphere.

  They climbed out of the storeroom, dropped the hatch door into place,and started to walk along the narrow runway over the top of the plane.Epworth, who was in the lead, glanced outward.

  Six hundred miles an hour, and no place to fall. In every directionextended a dense black sky, lighted by gleaming balls of red that heknew were stars and the sun—nothing above, nothing below, and on eachside endless ether. If they fell off this ship going with incredibleswiftness, where would they go? They were now too far away from theearth to fall back on the terrestrial globe, and even if the gravitaldrag of the earth grasped them they would be frozen stiff before theygot there, or shattered into fragments if they landed. It was a cold,clammy, helpless feeling. Once off that ship they would go nowhere;they would find death in endless space, where it is supposed to be439° below zero.

  Aside from this they realized that they had very few minutes to spare.They must get below into the air chambers very quickly or perish withcold, or in the rare atmospheric void.

  All three were suddenly afflicted with vertigo, and began to reelalong dangerously near the edges of the little platform-run. Realizingthat this was certain destruction, they gained control of theirfaculties by sheer force of will power, and holding their breathdashed up to the first hatchway, and pulled at the ring.

  It was locked on the inside, and therefore immovable.

  For a second Epworth was appalled. Had Toplinsky beaten him to theidea of escape? If so they were doomed. Already it was too late forthem to run back to the storeroom hatch opening. They were too farspent to undertake it.

  Had they simply jumped from one death to another in leaving thestoreroom? Epworth shivered at the thought—with cold as well as thefear of death. For the first time he thought of his body floatingthrough space, embalmed in ice.

  Then gathering his courage he ran on to the next hatch opening. Bythis time he had discovered that the openings in the top of theairship were four in number and about equal distances apart.

  Glory be! The hatch door was locked but a small, slender stairway randown the side of the ship to a side door. Like a monkey he flasheddown this stairway followed by his companions. They dropped onto asmall square platform, and Epworth caught the bright knob of the door.If it was locked they were as good as dead men. They were stillholding their breath, and life hung by a hair.

  He jerked at the door nervously. It slid open, and he darted ininstantly. As his companions came down the ladder he caught eachfrantically and pulled him inside, closing the door.

  With one motion the three opened their mouths, and gulped down theliving, warm air. They were all but gone, and it required severalseconds for them to recover.

  They were treading softly down the narrow companionway when a dooropened and Toplinsky came out of Joan’s room.

  “By this time,” he was saying, “that young brother of yours is dead,and I am going to change your place of abode.”

  He extended his hand to pull the girl out of the room.

  “I’m not going. I’m going to stay here, and get that panel open so mybrother can get air.”

  She jerked back, and the giant put forth some force to move her.

  Epworth bounded forward with fierce anger, and before the giant couldturn brought the butt of his gun down on the giant’s head.

  “Get inside, and lock the door,” he urged. “Make it snappy—before someone else drifts along.”

  “Not by myself,” Joan protested quickly, sensing that in somemiraculous manner Epworth and his friend had escaped death in thestoreroom. “You and Billy must come in also.”

  “Michael Strauss, the guard who is with us, must also come.”

  “Just as you say.”

  “In with you, Billy.”

  Billy and Michael entered the room while Epworth guarded Toplinskywith his gun. Just as Michael disappeared Toplinsky came around. Hehad been knocked a little silly but was not totally out—just enough topermit Billy and Michael to get into Joan’s room without beingdiscovered.

  “Not a move! Not a whimper!” Epworth thundered when he discovered thatToplinsky was coming back to the world. “There is not going to be aloud noise.”

  “Ah, ha, so you would threaten again,” Toplinsky shouted. “Ho,comrades, this way.”

  The scientist was demonstrating that he was a man without fear.

  Epworth did not wait for the guards to appear, and from natural kindheartedness did not strike the giant with the gun. Instead he slippedinto Joan’s room, and slammed and locked the door.

  “So far so good,” he murmured. “Now if they do not shut off the supplyof air.”

  “If he does that,” Michael explained, “we can knock a hole in thedoor, and get air from the outside. The ship is constructed so thatthe air is always inside of the companionway.”

  “Fine and dandy,” Billy grinned in high good humor. “We are alldressed up and on our way.”

  “On our way,” Joan interposed, “but while we are traveling what willwe eat? I am already hungry.”

  The three Americans looked at each other in dismay.