Collected Fiction (1940-1963)

by William P. McGivern

  He opened a wallet and showed old John his credentials from the Inter-Planetary Service. Old John started to climb to his feet but the young man said, “Don’t bother,” with a quick little smile. “It’s too hot to do much but keep comfortable. How’s everything? About as usual?”

  “Yes, about as usual,” old John said.

  “Any strangers around?”

  “No, haven’t seen any.”

  “I wouldn’t imagine they’d come here,” the young man said absently, speaking to himself and not old John. “They’ll try for a base where the ships are modern and still armed.”

  “What’s that?” old John asked him.

  “Nothing,” the young man smiled.

  Just then the little girl and Johnny came running around the corner, squealing with excitement.

  “Well, well,” the young man said, grinning after them. “‘Whose are those?”

  “The boy is my grandson, and the little girl comes over to play with him,” old John said.

  “I see,” the young man said, smiling thoughtfully. “Where does she come from?”

  “The city. Says she walks. I expect her father drops her from his plane just over the field.”

  “I think I’ll join their game,” the young man said. “Nothing like playing with kids to keep you young. Go on with your paper; I can find them.”

  The young man strolled around in back of the warehouse that adjoined old John’s house, where his ears had told him the kids were playing. They were seated on the ground, making pictures from leaves, bits of paper and twigs.

  “Well, well, a pair of artists,” he said, studying their work with his friendly, observant eyes.

  “This is a picture of the man,” Johnny said.

  “Very handsome. What man?”

  “The man in—” Johnny stopped and stared solemnly at his shoes. “Any old man,” he said.

  The young man didn’t appear to notice the break in Johnny’s reply. He smiled at the little girl who was watching him gravely. “It must be fun playing around here,” he said.

  “That’s why we do it,” she said logically.

  HE LAUGHED and sat down on the ground. “Grown-ups talk pretty foolishly, don’t they?”

  “Sometimes,” she said, turning away shyly.

  “Tell me this: have you ever played among the ships?”

  “Oh yes, we go all over the yard,” she said. “That’s fun.”

  “Have you ever seen anyone fooling around out there?”

  “No.”

  He looked at Johnny, smiling quizzically. “How about you?”

  “How about me what?” Johnny asked him, puzzled.

  “Have you ever seen anyone when you were playing among the ships?”

  Johnny looked down at his shoes, his lip beginning to tremble. “You heard her,” he said. “She said she didn’t see nobody.”

  “I’m asking you now,” the young man said gently. “But don’t answer right away. I want to tell you first why I’m here. Now both of you know what happens to bad people, don’t you? They’re put away on asteroids and kept there until we think it’s safe for them to return. We try to help them all we can, but there are some who won’t be helped. They’re very bad men, cruel, violent, and evil, with no respect for other people. They will steal and kill if we let them out, so we don’t let them out. But once in a great while these men are cunning enough to get away. That’s very serious, of course, and each planet cooperates in finding them and putting them away once again. Do you understand me?”

  The little girl nodded, watching him intently, and Johnny nodded too.

  “Good,” he said. “Well, two men have got away and I’m trying to find them. Not only I, but dozens of agents from all the other planets have joined in the search. These two men are very dangerous and if we don’t find them they’ll hurt someone. We think they are on Earth, and we know their intention is to get away from Earth and establish themselves on some remote asteroid or planetoid. They need a space ship, naturally and that’s why we’re investigating all these old yards. They just might try to equip an obsolete ship and make an escape in it.” He paused, studying Johnny’s unhappy little face. “Now do you understand how serious this is?”

  Johnny nodded sullenly.

  “Well, have you seen anyone in the yards? If you have, you must tell me. The man you saw might be one of these very bad men, and we must find them before they do a lot of damage. Did you see anyone, Johnny?”

  Johnny looked away from him, fighting back tears. The little girl bounced her rubber ball up and down, watching him with cool blue eyes.

  “I didn’t see anybody,” Johnny said in a low voice. “If I saw someone I’d tell you.”

  “Why are you so upset? What’s troubling you, Johnny?”

  Johnny turned to him eagerly, responding to the gentle friendliness in his voice, but the little girl said quickly, “It’s all that about the bad men. It’s frightened him.

  And it frightened me too, mister.”

  “Was that it?” the young man asked Johnny.

  “Yes, I guess so,” he said, after a little pause. “That was it, I guess.”

  The young man got to his feet. “Well, if you see anyone, you tell your grandfather.” He stared at the little girl for a moment or so, frowning uneasily, and then he said goodby to them and walked around to where old John was sitting in the sun.

  Johnny looked at the little girl with a piteous frown on his face. “Why did you make me lie?” he whispered. “It makes me feel so bad.”

  “Would you like me to go away and never come back?” she said, looking up at the sky and tossing the ball in the air.

  “No, Lucy. Don’t go away from me.”

  “I won’t, I promise.”

  DAN and Willie sat in the control room of the space ship, facing each other across the chart desk. Between them stood a small bottle with about half a dozen pills in it.

  “One day’s ration,” Willie said, staring at Dan with hot, bitter eyes. “We got to make our move. I didn’t crash out just to starve to death.”

  Dan pounded a fist into the palm of his hand. “Where in hell are those kids?”

  “Maybe they’ll never come back. You and your bright ideas.”

  “They’ve got to,” Dan said, but his voice lacked conviction. “Kids are naturally curious. Maybe they’re busy with some other game but pretty soon they’ll remember this place and come back.”

  “Yeah? Are you sure they can find it?”

  “Well, they found it once.” Willie stared at the bottle of food ration pills. “Everything is set and we’re stuck because of a pair of kids. Power plant, communications, everything’s set. But no igniter.”

  “We’ll get it.”

  Willie stood up and began to pace the floor. “I say let’s take it,” he said. “Beat the old man over the head and take it.”

  “Very smart, very shrewd,” Dan said sarcastically. “By the time we got back and installed it they’d be on our necks. These junk yards may look like country stores but they’re booby-trapped like banks. That’s why they only need one guard.”

  TWO days later the little girl and Johnny once again penetrated into the depths of the space dump. It was obvious from Johnny’s little face that a change had taken place in their relationship. He still adored her but there was a hint of guilt and worry in his expression, very out of place on his round childish face.

  “Now let me see,” the little girl said, pausing at an intersection, and putting a dainty fist under her chin. “I think it was this way. That’s it, I’m sure. Come on, Johnny.”

  She led surely from one wide lane to another, until finally she reached the spot where they had found the tendril of tobacco. Looking up at the platform of the ship, she called out, “Dan! Hello, Dan.” The door opened with a click and Dan stared down at them from the railing of the platform. His face was pale and gaunt, but he was grinning with excitement. “Well, well, I was hoping you kids would show up. How would you like to
come inside and see what a ship looks like.”

  “That would be thrilling,” the little girl said, wriggling her shoulders with anticipation. “Thank you so much.”

  Johnny was excited too; but beneath it was the persistent tug of guilt. “Grampa told us never to go into the ships,” he said.

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” the little girl said. “He’ll never find out.” The ladder swooped down at them and the little girl ran eagerly up to the platform, her grave, delicate face working with excitement. Johnny followed reluctantly.

  Inside Dan led them through shining companionways to the chart room where he introduced them with a flourish to Willie. “We’re pleased to meet you,” the little girl said, sedately.

  Johnny looked from one man to the other, his eyes widening with anxiety.

  “He’s just bashful,” the little girl said. “Don’t worry, he’ll get over it.”

  Johnny said defiantly, “They’re the two bad men, Lucy. They’re the ones the good man told us about.”

  WILLIE, his eyes blazing with anger, took a step toward the little boy, but Dan stopped him with a heavy hand against his chest. “Now, relax,” he said, smiling at the little girl. “Who is this ‘good man’ he’s talking about?”

  “That was a man who came a couple of days ago,” the little girl said. “He told us about some bad men who had run away. He was looking for them.”

  “Did you tell him about me?”

  “Oh, no. That was a secret.”

  “Now listen to me,” Dan said, kneeling and putting his big hands on her thin arms. “Those bad men are trying to find us. That’s why we’re hiding. If they find us they’ll kill us. Do you understand that?”

  The little girl wet her lips. “Yes, but I’m scared.”

  “There’s nothing to be frightened of,” Dan said softly. “But you’ve got to help us. Otherwise these bad men will find us and kill us. Will you help us? You don’t want us to be killed, do you?”

  “No,” the little girl said quickly.

  “All right. We’ve got to get away in this ship. But we don’t have an igniter to start it. Do you know what that is?”

  The little girl shook her head.

  Willie turned away and muttered something under his breath. Dan paid no attention to him; his hard, direct eyes were focused intently on the little girl’s. “Now please listen very carefully,” he said. “And igniter is a tube about six inches long, and its solid black in color. There are two kinds. One is for very short trips, like if you just wanted to move this ship from one mooring tower to another. The other is long range. Now we need the long range igniter, and there are some in the warehouse next to your Grampa’s house.”

  “He’s not her Gramps, he’s mine,” Johnny said sullenly.

  “Do you understand this so far?” Dan said, ignoring the boy.

  “Yes, I understand,” she said.

  “Very well. You’re a smart little girl. I knew that right away. Now I’ll tell you where to find the igniter we want. This is real important. When you get into the warehouse . . .”

  “THE NEXT thing is how to get into the warehouse,” Dan said, after he had described in detail the location of the igniters. “That’s going to take some planning, because we can’t let your Grampa know what we’re doing. Otherwise the bad men would kill him too. Do you see that?”

  “I can get into the warehouse,” the little girl said proudly. “I’ve watched Gramps do it ever so often.”

  “How?” Dan asked, watching her shrewdly.

  “Well, there’s a box in his house with levers in it. He pulls a lever and the door of the warehouse opens. But he can only pull it at a certain time, or else a message goes out somewhere and warns somebody that it isn’t Grampa pulling the lever but somebody else.”

  “I see you’ve got a good pair of eyes,” Dan said, with a glance of amused triumph at Willie.

  “And also,” the little girl said in the same proud voice, “he has to keep his hand inside the box a certain length of time before he takes it out. Otherwise, if he didn’t, that would send out a message too.”

  “Some kind of an electric eye and radar business with a timer on it,” Dan said, nodding at Willie. Then he looked searchingly at the little girl. “Can you do this while your Grampa is taking a nap or something?”

  “I think so,” she said.

  “You don’t want the bad men to kill him, do you?”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Well, be careful then. Be sure he’s asleep. Now do you have any questions? You know where the igniter is, and you know where the short-term ones are. Get into the warehouse, grab a long-termer and get back here as fast as you can. All right?”

  “Yes, we’ll hurry.”

  A SHORT distance from the house the little girl stopped and looked sternly at Johnny, who was weeping. “You know what to tell your Grandfather, don’t you?”

  “Don’t make me lie to him, Lucy.”

  “You must.”

  “They’re bad men. You’re helping them get away. And you’re making me lie again.”

  “Do you want me to go away and never come back?”

  “No, but I don’t want to be bad.”

  “Very well. What will you tell your Grandfather?”

  The little boy gulped and drew a trembling breath. “That I fell down and that’s why I’ve been crying.”

  “And what else?”

  “That I want to rest for a while, and for him to read to me.” “Good, don’t forget any of it,” the little girl said.

  OLD JOHN was alarmed to see his grandson crying. When he heard what had happened he took the boy inside and gave him a glass of milk. He was greatly surprised when Johnny told him he wanted to lie down and have a story read to him; that just wasn’t like the boy. But he led him upstairs to his room, made him comfortable with a pillow, and began to read to him in his slow, patient voice.

  Downstairs the little girl walked to the cabinet against the wall, opened it and stared solemnly at a panel of levers. Then she glanced at a clock above the mantle, her lips moving silently, and stood perfectly still for several moments. Drawing a deep breath at last she reached quickly into the cabinet and pulled a lever. She held onto it for ten seconds, then withdrew her hand and ran outside. The main door of the warehouse stood open. Smiling happily, the little girl darted inside, as quick as a bird on the wing . . .

  “Johnny!” she called later in her sweet high voice. “Johnny, are you feeling better?”

  She stood before old John’s house, her feet turned inward, her small golden head tilted to one side, a picture of innocent childhood. The two bulges in her pockets were obscured by the way she was hugging herself with her thin arms.

  “Johnny!” she called again. “Come out and play.”

  The little boy came quickly through the door, his grandfather trailing after him with a worried little frown on his little-boy face.

  “I guess he’s chipper enough,” old John said. “But he acts like he hurt more than his knee with that fall.”

  “I’ll make him happy again,” the little girl said. “Come on, Johnny, let’s play.”

  “I don’t want to play,” he said.

  “Don’t be such a goose. Come on.”

  Holding his hand she drew him reluctantly toward the rows of great ships.

  Dan was waiting on the platform of the ship with Willie. The two men stood perfectly still, staring down at the empty street. Only their eyes gave away their inner desperation.

  “You better be right,” Willie said.

  “It’ll work, it’s got to work,” Dan said. “She’s a smart little gal. In fifteen or twenty years we could use her.”

  “You got faith in the future, eh?”

  “I haven’t lost it. We’ll blastoff here and find a spot. And find others like us. And we’ll live like we want, fight like we want. Don’t worry, we got futures.”

  Suddenly they heard the little girl’s voice, and the figures of the children came into sight a
round the corner formed by the hull of the adjoining ship.

  “We got it, Dan,” the little girl cried, waving at the two men.

  “Get inside and get ready,” Dan snapped to Willie. “I told you we had futures.” He ran down the ladder and grabbed the igniter cylinder from the little girl’s hands. “Thanks, kid,” he said, looking at both of them with his narrowed, thoughtful eyes.

  “You’re welcome,” the little girl said. “We must hurry back now.”

  “Just a minute,” Dan said smiling thoughtfully at her. “I got a little present for you in the ship.”

  “Oh, goodie,” the little girl said, clapping her hands together happily. “You hear, Johnny? We can show it to the man?”

  “What man?” Dan snapped.

  “The one I told you about the other day,” the little girl said patiently. “The one asking us about you. He was ever so nice. And he came back today. We’re playing a game with him now. It’s called hide-and-seek. Would you like to play?”

  Dan looked quickly up and down the shadowed street, then turned and ran back up the ladder. He disappeared into the ship and the door closed behind with a soft rush of power.

  “They’re going away now,” Johnny said, sobbing. “You helped them, Lucy. They’re bad and you’re bad too.”

  The ship suddenly trembled and moved upward from the ground. It hovered fifty feet in the air and glowing lights appeared in the cones of the rear propulsion rockets.

  “You’ve helped them getaway,” Johnny said, weeping and stamping his feet on the ground. His round, apple-cheeked face was frantic with misery. “You’re bad, Lucy! I hate you!”

  The little girl caught him to her and hugged him with her thin arms. “No, don’t say that,” she cried softly. Her eyes followed the ship as it roared out of the atmosphere, trailing a crimson train of hot, blue-white fire in its wake.

  “Let me go, I hate you,” Johnny cried. He pulled away from her but she caught him once more and forced the red rubber ball into his chubby hands. “Keep this, Johnny, please.”