Part 2 (1/2)

”It landed among some big timber on the south end of the mountain. We got pretty close, enough to see the sides of the thing. Men busy around it, we couldn't get too close, afraid they'd see us.”

I started, a pulse of unreasoning fear, of terrific interest, ran through me. I asked in a voice I couldn't keep calm, ”What kind of men, Hank? I saw reports of such s.h.i.+ps in the papers, no one got close enough to see _that_ much. Newspapers called them illusions!”

”They're not our kind of men; they are something very different. I don't know just how to tell you, besides I couldn't be sure. But they seem to be a people--” He stopped. ”I'd rather you'd see it yourself. You wouldn't believe me.”

Noldi came out of the tent where Barto was still snoring. He came over and squatted across the fire, eyeing me strangely.

”What happened to the big jerk, Carl?” he asked, a little tremor of anger in his voice.

”I've got to tell you fellows we're in trouble,” I began. I did not believe that the girl's people would ignore Jake's attack upon her.

Hank looked at the slender man from New York's East Side. ”What's the matter with Barto?”

”S'got a bruise on his jaw the size of a goose-egg. Like a mule kicked him. Scratched up quite a bit. I just wondered. He's unconscious, too; I couldn't wake him up.”

”We may be in for it,” I went on. ”When I got back to camp, Hank had a girl. He'd thrown her down, was struggling with her. I had to put him asleep to stop it. Didn't want trouble with her people.”

Noldi glanced at the torn place in the soft sod where the scuffle had taken place. I had unconsciously nodded toward it. He got up, walked over, picked something out of the gra.s.s.

”Some girl, wearing this kind of stuff!”

He handed the glittering bauble to Polter. It was a necklace of emeralds, with a pendant of gold in which was set a big blue stone that I couldn't recognize, maybe a diamond, maybe something else. It looked almighty valuable, each stone was as big as a man's thumbnail. It had snapped, lain there unnoticed by either of us.

Noldi looked at me a little venomously.

”Looks as if you were a little premature, letting her go. We should have found out where she gets this kind of sparkle first!”

”Seemed the safest thing to do. We are only four, how could we handle her friends?”

”Bah, they wouldn't have known where she was. We could have kept her till we were good and ready to let her go.”

I stood up, took out my pipe and filled it.

”What about this s.h.i.+p you saw, and the people around it. That's important, not this girl and her jewelry.”

”We couldn't see much except that it was a s.h.i.+p and that it landed in the trees where it couldn't be seen from the sky. It's pretty big, and there are men moving around it. That's all.”

”That's plenty! If we run into them, there is no knowing what they'll do. That s.h.i.+p was never built on this planet.”

Noldi didn't smile or laugh. He just looked at me. Serious, puzzled, and a little scared.

”You think it's a s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p, eh, Keele?”

I nodded.

”What else could it be?”

”What's it doin' out here in no man's land?” Polter asked. ”You'd think strangers like that would land near a city, try to make some kind of official contact.”

”If you were landing on a strange world, would you land near a city?” I asked.