* *
Suddenly flame lapped up about them, the same white fire they had seenas they lay on the crystal block. Dizziness, insensibility overcamethem. A few moments later, they were lying on the transparent table inthe Cosmic Express office, with all those great mirrors and prisms andlenses about them.
A bustling, red-faced official appeared through the door in the grill,fairly bubbling apologies.
"So sorry--an accident--inconceivable. I can't see how he got it! We gotyou back as soon as we could find a focus. I sincerely hope you haven'tbeen injured."
"Why--what--what--"
"Why I happened in, found our operator drunk. I've no idea where he gotthe stuff. He muttered something about Venus. I consulted theauto-register, and found two more passengers registered here than hadbeen recorded at our other stations. I looked up the duplicate beamcoordinates, and found that it had been set on Venus. I got men on thetelevision at once, and we happened to find you.
"I can't imagine how it happened. I've had the fellow locked up, andthe 'dry-laws' are on the job. I hope you won't hold us for excessivedamages."
"No, I ask nothing except that you don't press charges against the boy.I don't want him to suffer for it in any way. My wife and I will beperfectly satisfied to get back to our apartment."
"I don't wonder. You look like you've been through--I don't know what.But I'll have you there in five minutes. My private car--"
* * * * *
Mr. Eric Stokes-Harding, noted author of primitive life and love, ate ahearty meal with his pretty spouse, after they had washed off the grimeof another planet. He spent the next twelve hours in bed.
At the end of the month he delivered his promised story to hispublishers, a thrilling tale of a man marooned on Venus, with abeautiful girl. The hero made stone tools, erected a dwelling forhimself and his mate, hunted food for her, defended her from the mammothsaurian monsters of the Venerian jungles.
The book was a huge success.
THE END
The Cosmic Express Page 4
