Part 13 (1/2)

”Johnson is a fool.” It was Miko's voice. ”We must have the pa.s.swords.”

”He got them from the radio room.” A man's voice: I puzzled over it at first, then recognized it. Rance Rankin.

Miko said, ”He is a fool. Walking around this s.h.i.+p as though with letters blazoned on his forehead, 'Watch me.... I need watching.' Hah!

No wonder they apprehended him!”

Rankin's voice said: ”He would have turned the papers over to us. I would not blame him too much. What harm--”

”Oh, I'll release him,” Miko declared. ”What harm? That braying a.s.s did us plenty of harm. He has lost the pa.s.swords. Better he had left them in the radio room.”

Moa was in the room. Her voice said, ”We've got to have them. The _Planetara_, upon such an important voyage as this, might be watched.”

”No doubt it is,” Rankin said quietly. ”We ought to have the pa.s.swords. When we are in control of this s.h.i.+p....”

It sent a s.h.i.+ver through me. Were they planning to try and seize the _Planetara_? Now? It seemed so.

”Johnson undoubtedly memorized them,” Moa was saying. ”When we get him out--”

”Hahn is to do that, at the signal.” Miko added, ”George could do it better, perhaps.”

And then I heard George Prince for the first time, ”I'll try.”

”No need,” Miko said unexpectedly.

I could not see what had happened. A look, perhaps, which Prince could not avoid giving this man he had come to hate. Miko doubtless saw it, and the Martian's hot anger leaped.

Rankin said hurriedly, ”Stop that!”

And Moa, ”Let him alone, you fool! Sit down!”

I could hear the sound of a scuffle. A blow--a cry, half suppressed, from George Prince.

Then Miko: ”I will not hurt him. Craven coward! Look at him! Hating me--frightened!”

I could fancy George Prince sitting there with murder in his heart, and Miko taunting him:

”Hates me now, because I shot his sister!”

Moa: ”Hus.h.!.+”

”I will not! Why should I not say it? I will tell you something else, George Prince. It was not Anita I shot at, but you! I meant nothing for her but love. If you had not interfered--”

This was different from what we had figured. George Prince had come in from his own room, had tried to rescue his sister, and in the scuffle, Anita had taken the shot instead of George.

”I did not even know I had hit her,” Miko was saying. ”Not until I heard she was dead.” He added sardonically, ”I hoped it was you I had hit, George. And I will tell you this: you hate me no more than I hate you. If it were not for your knowledge of ores--”

”Is this to be a personal wrangle?” Rankin interrupted. ”I thought we were here to plan--”

”It is planned,” Miko said shortly. ”I give orders, I do not plan. I am waiting now for the moment--” He checked himself.