Part 33 (2/2)

”Snap--” I murmured.

”Oh, Gregg, I pray we may find him alive!”

With a fifteen foot leap we cleared a pile of broken deck chairs. A man lay groaning near them. I went back with a rush. Not Snap! A steward. He had been a brigand, but he was a steward to me now.

”Get up! This is Haljan. Hurry, we must get out of here The air is escaping!”

But he sank back and lay still. No time to find if I could help him: there was Anita and Snap to save.

We found a broken entrance to one of the descending pa.s.sages. I flung the debris aside and cleared it. Like a giant of strength with only this Moon gravity holding me, I raised a broken segment of superstructure and heaved it back.

Anita and I dropped ourselves down the sloping pa.s.sage. The interior of the wrecked s.h.i.+p was silent and dim. An occasional pa.s.sage light was still burning. The pa.s.sage and all the rooms lay askew. Wreckage everywhere but the double dome and hull sh.e.l.l had withstood the shock.

Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat, like our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling on everything. The silence and the deadly chill of death would soon be here in these wrecked corridors. The end of the _Planetara_.

We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by the s.h.i.+fter pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled.

Dead? No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemed confused, but his senses clarified with the movement of our figures over him.

”Gregg! Why, Anita!”

”Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping.”

He pushed me away. He tried to stand. ”I'm all right. I was up a minute ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had her here--she wasn't killed. I spoke to her.”

Irrational!

”Snap!” I held him. Shook him. ”Snap, old fellow!”

He said normally, ”Easy, Gregg. I'm all right.”

Anita gripped him. ”Who, Snap?”

”She--there she is....”

Another figure was here! On the grid floor by the door oval. A figure partly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hook. An invisible cloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me.

”Venza!” I bent down. ”You!”

Venza here? Why ... how ... my thoughts swept on. Venza here--dying?

Her eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita, ”Where is he? I want him.”

I murmured impulsively, ”Here I am, Venza dear.” Gently, as one would speak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. ”Here I am, Venza.”

But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was upon us all. She pushed at Anita. ”I want him.” She saw me; this whimsical Venus girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by shock, confused in the dim, wrecked s.h.i.+p with the chill of death coming--even here she could jest. Her pale lips smiled.

”You, Gregg. I'm not hurt--I don't think I'm hurt.” She managed to get herself up on one elbow. ”Did you think I wanted you with my dying breath? What conceit! Not you, Handsome Haljan! I was calling Snap.”

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