As he went over, Zadovitch came pounding towards him. Only just in time, he rolled aside. Swerving, the Russian kicked at him, but missed. Panting, Kem got to his knees. While he was still on them a second kick landed in his ribs, driving most of the breath from his body. Gasping with pain, he heaved himself upright and struck out desperately at his enemy’s face. The blow was a lucky one. It caught Zadovitch on the nose, causing tears to spring to his eyes that temporarily blinded him.
Kem was still too near winded to follow up his advantage. He knew that at all costs he must prevent those gorilla-like arms getting a grip on him, or he would be finished. He must get back his breath, then use the fact that Zadovitch knew nothing about boxing to land blow after blow on his head and body. Turning his back on his enemy, he covered thirty yards in a series of light leaps across the stones, until he reached a patch of open sand that would give him a surer footing.
Dashing the tears from his eyes, the Russian came bounding in pursuit only a few yards behind. As Kem’s breathing eased a little he halted, turned and lashed out. His left landed squarely on Zadovitch’s chin, his right took him in the midriff. But the two blows did not stop him: gravity again made them too comparatively light to do so. Instead, the impetus of his last leap carried him on, to fall right on to Kem and send him over backwards. The blow to the chin had knocked the Russian half-unconscious, but he managed to grab the collar of Kem’s coat and hang on to it. Both of them struggled to their knees, then to their feet. Again and again Kem struck at his enemy, but Zadovitch used his left hand to protect his face while continuing to hang on like a bulldog with his right.
Gasping and panting they lurched across the sand, Kem striving to drag himself free, his antagonist striving to draw him closer so that he could get both arms round his body. All too well Kem knew that if once that happened it would be the end of him; yet he could now only jab at the Russian’s head without enough power behind his blows to knock him out, and he was tiring rapidly.
Suddenly Zadovitch let out a terrified yell. His legs seemed to fold up under him and his head shot down to Kem’s waistline. Unnoticed by either of them as they staggered this way and that, they had approached a deep crevasse. In swerving to avoid a blow from Kem, Zadovitch had trodden on its edge. The soft sand had given way beneath him.
For one frantic moment the Russian’s feet scrabbled wildly at the ground as he strove to regain a foothold. Kem, seeing the yawning gulf into which the enemy was sliding, braced himself with all his might. But Zadovitch still had a firm grip on his coat. In vain he threw all his weight back on his heels; as the Russian dropped he dragged Kem down with him.
To save himself from going headlong after his enemy, Kem first fell to his knees, then jerked his legs out behind him. Stretched out at full length on his stomach he dug his toes into the sand; but his head protruded over the edge of the crevasse and Zadovitch was now clinging to him with both hands. Their faces were within a few inches of one another. Kem stared down into that of the Russian. The blood from his flattened nose had run all over his yellow beard, one of his eyes was closed, and his teeth were clenched in a hideous grimace from his effort to prevent himself hurtling to his death in the void.
Frantically Kem strove to thrust the Russian from him; but he could not break his hold. His enemy’s whole weight now hung like a millstone round his neck, and inch by inch he could feel himself being dragged forward over the crumbling edge of the crevasse. With every movement he made the soft sand slithered from under him, so that within a few moments he was lying on a steep slope with his head a foot below the level of his legs. In vain he beat at Zadovitch’s blood-smeared face with both fists. The Russian gasped and groaned at each blow but would not let go. More and more sand cascaded away from beneath Kem’s chest, and he knew that in a matter of seconds now his legs would lose their grip; so that he must pitch forward into the black gulf with his enemy.
It was at that moment that he felt a hard object digging into his left collar-bone. It could only be a stone. Thrusting his right hand into the sand below his chest he drew it out, clenched it firmly and struck Zadovitch with it on the forehead. Still the Russian clung on. Again Kem struck. Zadovitch gave a last despairing groan, his grip relaxed and he plunged downward into the abyss.
Breathless, shaken and exhausted, Kem remained sprawled on the dangerous slope for a moment; then, with a cautious heave, he wriggled back to safety. As he did so Anna’s voice, husky with excitement, came from behind him:
‘What a fight! It was touch and go, wasn’t it? But in spite of his greater strength I felt sure you would prove the better man; and I wanted you to beat him.’
Still panting from his exertions, Kem turned over and stared up at her. Then… then why the hell didn’t you help me?… Since you… followed us here… you could have … hung on to me… I might easily have… gone over with him.’
She shook her head, then extended her hand. The starlight glinted on the open blade of a penknife that she was holding in it. ‘No,’ she smiled. ‘Had he dragged you any further I meant to lean over and jab this in his neck to make him leave go. But I did not wish to deprive you of the kudos of killing him unaided if you could.’
‘While you stood by and enjoyed the spectacle, eh?’ he muttered angrily.
‘Of course,’ she replied, obviously having failed to register the sarcasm in his tone. ‘It is a good saying that none but the brave deserve the fair; and it would have pleased any girl to see the way you fought your rival for me.’
Her calm assumption that he had risked his life in order to keep her from Zadovitch annoyed him intensely; and, now he had got his breath back, he snapped: It’s no thanks to you that I had any chance to fight at all! As for wanting me to win—it’s all very well to say that now, but what about when Zadovitch first came on us? You could have said a score of things to get him into an argument; but you didn’t. You just stood there dumb as an owl and waited to see him shoot me.’
At that she laughed. ‘No, no, Comrade: you are quite wrong there. I knew beforehand that his pistol would not go off.’
‘How could you?’
‘Because I removed the bullets from it last night, and put stones in the magazine so that he should not notice the difference in the weight of the weapon.’
‘What led you to do that?’
She shrugged. ‘Had you not inferred earlier in the day that you would like to sleep with me? Once a man and woman start talking on that subject matters do not stand still. It was certain some situation as that which occurred this evening must arise fairly soon. I was tired of Nickolai and preferred you to him; so naturally I took precautions to ensure that he should not shoot you immediately he realised that you meant to take me from him. I wanted you to have a fair chance to prove your mettle.’
Apart from the fact that by her forethought she had saved his life, her words revealed to Kem a number of things. In spite of her university education she was, beneath the skin, just as primitive as Zadovitch had been. For many months now she must have enjoyed all the little kindnesses that he had been capable of showing her, and on innumerable occasions have gone happily to sleep in his arms; yet, having tired of him, she would, without hesitation, have plunged her penknife into his jugular vein.
Most men would have found such a mentality unnatural and evil. Kem shuddered inwardly at its implications, but he was broadminded enough to make allowances. To take a high moral tone with her would be as futile as to attempt to teach one of the giants the Ten Commandments, and to quarrel with her might prove highly dangerous. Simple common sense demanded that he should look on her as neither more nor less than a young animal who, for the time being at all events, asked only to submit herself to him.
Getting to his feet, he said: ‘Well, what now? Shall we stay here for the night or attempt to get back to the trolleys?’
‘I would rather stay here,’ she replied. ‘In the starlight it is easy to see the big crevasses; but not the little ridges where the duststorms h
ave blown a layer of sand over the smaller ones. If one of us puts a foot wrong we might easily break a leg.’
The temperature was now well below zero, and he shivered. ‘I know, that’s the devil of it. But I’m so damnably cold. If you’re willing, I’d prefer to take a chance on that, with the prospect of getting under our mats.’
‘I will do as you wish,’ she said submissively. ‘But I think it would be foolish to risk it. I am more used to the cold climate than you are, and I’m sure I could keep you warm. Come on; help me make a grave.’
To Kem, who was still acutely conscious that deep down in the crevasse, only a few yards from them, Zadovitch was wedged and now slowly dying, her words had a horrifying sinister ring; but evidently she had already forgotten the Russian’s existence. Kneeling down, she began to scoop a hollow in the loose sand with her cupped hands. Kem dropped to his knees and set about helping her. After ten minutes’ hard work they had made a shallow ditch some six feet long and four wide. Shaking her hair from her face she sat back on her heels and said:
‘Now lay down on it, and I will lay down beside you.’
As she did so he raised his arms to put them round her, but she shook her head. ‘No, no. Not yet. Use your hands to scrape all the sand up around us.’
Silently he did as he was bid, then they shuffled with their feet until they lay nearly buried under the sand. Almost at once he was conscious of her gracious warmth. It seemed to radiate from her well-covered body with the strength of electricity, and the sand in which they lay submerged kept it in.
After they had been lying there for a few minutes she lifted up her face to kiss him once, murmured, ‘Comrade, I like you very much,’ then again laid her cheek against his shoulder. A few moments later he could tell from her gentle breathing that she had drifted off to sleep with the untroubled innocence of a little child. Utterly tired out, he took a last look at the myriad stars overhead, closed his eyes and sank into a heavy slumber.
The coming of dawn roused them. As Kem woke he became subtly aware that he was not only warm as toast, but feeling fitter in himself than at any time since he had set foot on Mars. Lifting his head he grinned into the piquant little face that lay beside his own.
Anna grinned back. Had they been in bed he would certainly have made love to her; but, after giving her one long kiss, he shook his head and murmured: ‘No, no, not now. We’ve got other things to think about.’
‘What things?’ she asked with a disappointed pout. ‘We have all day before us and nothing to do in it.’
‘Oh yes, we have,’ he contradicted her. ‘You’ve got to find lead, my pretty, then uranium; so that we can get away from this damned planet.’
Reluctantly she levered herself up out of the sand. Then they walked the few yards to the crevasse and peered over its edge. Zadovitch had stuck about twenty-five feet down. His head, with its crop of bloodstained yellow hair, lolled over backwards and his mouth gaped open. If his injuries had not killed him the icy cold had done so, for he was clearly as dead as a doornail.
Anna’s only comment was, ‘It’s a pity that we were not able to strip him of his clothes.’
Kem gave an inward shudder at her callousness, then recalled that in Soviet Russia the standard of living was still so low that millions of people there would go to practically any lengths to secure a stout pair of boots or thick overcoat. Turning away towards the ridge, he replied:
‘I’ve no use for his clothes, but I want to get hold of his gun, as that might prove a godsend in an emergency. I take it you’ve still got the load of bullets you removed from it?’
She nodded, and they walked quietly over to the bay among the rocks where Zadovitch had caught them. Kem had expected that it would be easy to spot so large an object as the pistol, but the ground was much more broken than he had realised in the semi-darkness, and to his great annoyance their search for the precious weapon was abruptly cut short.
They had been hunting about for no more than two minutes when they saw the four giants running towards them. There was nothing surprising in that, as they had expected their escort to be worried by their disappearance; but they were entirely unprepared for what followed. John Bull seized Anna and Mutt Kem. Cackling like a couple of angry geese, the two monsters shook them both with such violence that they feared that their heads would be jerked from their bodies, then threw them, breathless, dazed and sick, on to the trolley on which they had made off.
This punishment for having played truant took so much out of them that they were barely conscious of anything except their strained limbs for the next half-hour. When they did recover a little they found that they were back on the road with Mutt standing guard over them while the other three were spread out in the distance, presumably still hunting for Zadovitch.
Soon afterwards the three inspecting bee-beetles arrived on the scene and evidently received a telepathic report from Mutt about what had occurred, as they flew to join in the search for the missing Russian. Within a few moments they located his body and, summoning the giants, set them to fill in the crevasse with loose sand.
When they had been on the job for some twenty minutes, Anna expressed surprise that they should go to so much trouble; but Kem told her that, having stamped out all diseases on Mars, the bee-beetles would not consider any labour too great to prevent harmful bacteria breeding in an exposed corpse; and that as the body had fallen too far for them to get it out they would have to fill in the whole of the lower part of the crevasse before it could be safely buried. His assumption proved correct, and the best part of the morning had gone before the burial was completed.
Meanwhile, although they had recovered from their shaking, they had begun to suffer from hunger and thirst. They had missed both their supper and breakfast yet Mutt, evidently under instructions, maintained a firm refusal to all their pleas to be allowed to take their rations. When the rest of the party rejoined them they fared no better; and it became clear that the bee-beetles meant the severity of their punishment to be such that it would deter them from running away again.
Still hungry, and now suffering actutely from thirst, they were compelled to resume their search for lead, and the hours of the afternoon seemed interminable. At last sunset came, and with unutterable relief they gulped down the water that they were then given. Overcome by strain and fatigue they crawled under a pile of mats, and had barely muttered ‘Schlafen sie wohl’ to one another before they were asleep.
Next day, towards evening, Anna found some pockets of galena among a mound of rocks she was prospecting, and pronounced it to have a considerably higher lead content than any she had previously come upon; so they decided to start a mine there rather than continue their search for something better. When she had shown it to the bee-beetles and carried some of the lumps of ore to one of the trolleys, to indicate that she had found the material they needed, Kem drew a picture of a row of trolleys and a number of giants digging out lumps of rock to load on to them. Having examined it, the three insects waved their pincers to show that they understood and flew off in the direction of the barracks.
Camp was made and when darkness fell Kem and Anna resumed their love-making in a much more deliberate and leisurely manner than had characterised their fierce encounter forty-eight hours earlier. Then in the morning they set the four giants to work heaving aside the boulders in a search for further pockets of galena. That evening the reinforcements they had sent for arrived. These consisted of some eighty giants with rations, bedding and equipment on fifty-five trolleys and, flying above them, a dozen bee-beetle overseers.
The equipment they brought amounted only to a collection of hand implements, large scoops and stout bean-fibre baskets. The fact that it was so primitive seemed to indicate that opencast mining had always proved sufficient to provide the bee-beetles with the various chemicals they used for their material-producing diets, but for the present purposes it was perfectly adequate. Next day the company of monsters, whose labour was equivalent to that of several
hundred humans, began operations under Anna’s directions, and early in the afternoon the first convoy of trolleys loaded with galena was despatched back to the plant.
For four days the work continued from dawn to dusk, then Anna decided that they had secured an ample supply of ore for Harsbach’s requirements, so on the fifth morning the camp was broken up, and she and Kem set out with the last load on the homeward journey. As, during their prospecting, they had covered the greater part of a circle, the run back occupied only a day and a half. They had been absent for twelve nights, and shortly after noon on the thirteenth day their trolley carried them over the bridges in the oasis to the yard in which they had left Harsbach and Carmen.
They were there now, and Escobar—who, it soon transpired, had completed the designs for his bomb ten days earlier—was with them. All three were engaged in assembling some of the newly-made parts of his projectile, but as soon as they saw Kem and Anna they stopped work and hurried over, shouting excited greetings.
As Kem waved back to Carmen the cheerful smile on his round face was very far from mirroring his state of mind. Intermittently for several days, and almost continuously for the past six hours, he had been worrying himself silly about the effect it might have on her when she learned that he had taken Anna as his mistress. He knew that it would distress her intensely; so he would have liked to spare her the knowledge, but could see no way of doing so.
It was not to be expected that Anna would make any attempt to conceal the matter out of deference to Carmen’s feelings; and, although he had considered asking her to, he had decided against it. During the past six days she seemed to have developed a genuine affection for him; so on that account it was possible that she might have agreed to do her best to conceal, temporarily at least, their new relationship; but it was the very fact that she now showed such affection for him that had restrained him from asking her to keep their affair secret. He had felt to do so was to offer her a gratuitous insult, and place her in the position of a housemaid whom the master of the house has seduced yet expects to hold her tongue out of respect for his wife.
Star of Ill-Omen Page 28
