Part 8 (1/2)

We ignored his violent protestations. The cage--in the old days of sea vessels on Earth, they called it the brig--was the s.h.i.+p's jail. A steel-lined, windowless room located under the deck in the peak of the bow. I dragged the struggling Johnson there, with the amazed watcher looking down from the observatory window at our lunging starlit forms.

”Shut up, Johnson! If you know what's good for you--”

He was making a fearful commotion. Behind us, where the deck narrowed at the superstructure, half a dozen pa.s.sengers were gazing in surprise.

”I'll have you thrown out of the service, Gregg Haljan!”

I shut him up finally. And flung him down the ladder into the cage and sealed the deck trap door upon him. I was headed back for the chart room when from the observatory came the lookout's voice:

”An asteroid, Haljan! Officer Blackstone wants you.”

I hurried to the turret bridge. An asteroid was in sight. We had nearly attained our maximum speed now. An asteroid was approaching, so dangerously close that our trajectory would have to be altered. I heard Blackstone's signals ringing in the control rooms; and met Carter as he ran to the bridge with me.

”That scoundrel! We'll get more out of him, Gregg. By G.o.d, I'll put the chemicals on him--torture him--illegal or not!”

We had no time for further discussion. The asteroid was rapidly approaching. Already, under the gla.s.s, it was a magnificent sight. I had never seen this tiny world before--asteroids are not numerous between the Earth and Mars, or in toward Venus.

At a speed of nearly a hundred miles a second the asteroid swept into view. With the naked eye, at first it was a tiny speck of star-dust unnoticeable in the gem-strewn black velvet of s.p.a.ce. A speck. Then a gleaming dot, silver white, with the light of our Sun upon it.

I stood with Carter and Blackstone on the turret bridge. It was obvious, that unless we altered our course, the asteroid would pa.s.s too close for safety. Already we were feeling its attraction; from the control rooms came the report that our trajectory was disturbed by this new ma.s.s so near.

”Better make your calculations now, Gregg,” Blackstone urged.

I cast up the rough elements from the observational instruments in the turret. When I had us upon our new course, with the attractive and repulsive plates in the _Planetara's_ hull set in their altered combinations, I went to the bridge again.

The asteroid hung over our bow quarter. No more than twenty or thirty thousand miles away. A giant ball now, filling all that quadrant of the heavens. The configurations of its mountains, its land and water areas, were plainly visible.

”Perfectly habitable,” Blackstone said. ”But I've searched all over the hemisphere with the gla.s.s. No sign of human life--certainly nothing civilized--nothing in the fas.h.i.+on of cities.”

A fair little world, by the look of it. A tiny globe, come from the region beyond Neptune. We swept past the asteroid. The pa.s.sengers were all gathered to view the pa.s.sing little world. I saw, not far from me, Anita, standing with her brother; and the giant figure of Miko with them. Half an hour since this wandering little world had showed itself, it swiftly pa.s.sed, began to dwindle behind us. A huge half moon. A thinner, smaller quadrant. A tiny crescent, like a silver barpin to adorn some lady's breast. And then it was a dot, a point of light indistinguishable among the myriad others hovering in this great black void.

The incident of the pa.s.sing of the asteroid was over. I turned from the deck window. My heart leaped. The moment for which all day I had been subconsciously longing was at hand. Anita was sitting in a deck chair, momentarily alone. Her gaze was on me as I glanced her way, and she smiled an invitation for me to join her.

VII

”But, Miss Prince, why are you and your brother going to Ferrok-Shahn?

His business--”

Even as I voiced it, I hated myself for such a question. So nimble in the humble mind that mingled with my rhapsodies of love, was my need for information of George Prince.

”Oh,” she said. ”This is pleasure, not business, for George.” It seemed to me that a shadow crossed her face. But it was gone in an instant, and she smiled. ”We have always wanted to travel. We are alone in the world, you know--our parents died when we were children.”

I filled in her pause. ”You will like Mars. So many interesting things to see.”

She nodded. ”Yes, I understand so. Our Earth is so much the same all over, cast all in one mould.”

”But a hundred or more years ago, it was not, Miss Prince. I have read how the picturesque Orient, differing from ... well, Greater New York or London, for instance--”

”Transportation did that,” she interrupted eagerly. ”Made everything the same--the people all look alike ... dress alike.”