Part 17 (2/2)
He handed me the scrolls. He watched me keenly as I glanced over them.
”Well?” I said.
”You are sparing of words, Haljan. By the devils of the airways, I could make you talk! But I want to be friendly.”
I handed him back the scrolls. I stood up. I was almost within reach of his weapon, but with a sweep of his great arm he knocked me back to my bunk.
”You dare?” Then he smiled. ”Let us not come to blows!”
In truth, physical violence could get me nothing. I would have to try guile. And I saw now that his face was flushed and his eyes unnaturally bright. He had been drinking alcolite; not enough to befuddle him, but enough to make him triumphantly talkative.
”Hahn may not be much of a mathematician,” I suggested. ”But there is your Sir Arthur Coniston.” I managed a sarcastic grin. ”Is that his name?”
”Almost. Haljan, will you verify these figures?”
”Yes. But why? Where are we going?”
He laughed. ”You are afraid I will not tell you! Why should I? This great adventure of mine is progressing perfectly. A tremendous stake, Haljan. A hundred million dollars in gold leaf. There will be fabulous riches for all of us--”
”But where are we going?”
”To that asteroid,” he said. ”I must get rid of these pa.s.sengers. I am no murderer.”
With a half-dozen killings in the recent fight this was hardly convincing. But he was obviously wholly serious. He seemed to read my thoughts.
”I kill only when necessary. We will land upon the asteroid. A perfect place to maroon the pa.s.sengers. Is it not so? I will give them the necessities of life. They will be able to signal. And in a month or so, when we are perfectly safe and finished with our adventure, a police s.h.i.+p no doubt will rescue them.”
”And then, from the asteroid,” I suggested, ”we are going--”
”To the Moon, Haljan. What a clever guesser you are! Coniston and Hahn are calculating our course. But I have no great confidence in them.
And so I want you.”
”You have me.”
”Yes. I have you. I would have killed you long ago--I am an impulsive fellow--but my sister restrained me.”
He gazed at me slyly. ”Moa seems strangely to like you, Haljan.”
”Thanks,” I said. ”I'm flattered.”
”She still hopes I may really win you to join us,” he went on. ”Gold leaf is a wonderful thing; there would be plenty for you in this affair. And to be rich, and have the love of a woman like Moa....”
He paused. I was trying cautiously to gauge him, to get from him all the information I could. I said, with another smile, ”That is premature, to talk of Moa. I will help you chart your course. But this venture, as you call it, is dangerous. A police s.h.i.+p--”
”There are not many,” he declared. ”The chances of our encountering one are very slim.” He grinned at me. ”You know that as well as I do.
<script>