Part 3 (1/2)

With a gesture of respect, the girl withdrew, pa.s.sing from our sight down the incline which led to the lower part of the house.

It was a very small incident, but in view of what was transpiring, it gave me a shock nevertheless.

For Elza's maid was a Venus girl!

CHAPTER III

_Spy in the House_

The insulated room was small, with a dome-shaped ceiling, no windows, and but one small, heavy door through which we entered, closing it carefully behind us.

”At last,” Dr. Brende exclaimed. ”Now we can talk freely.”

But I was not satisfied. ”That girl, Ahla--can you trust her?”

They all looked at me in surprise. When one is close to danger, sometimes one recognizes it least; with Ahla in this household for over a year now, they could not imagine her an enemy.

”I saw her looking up at the insulator,” I added swiftly. ”Out there in the corridor. Am I talking wild? Perhaps I am. But she seemed startled; and she was standing just under the insulator, wasn't she?”

”But--” began Elza.

”Wait,” I exclaimed. ”When I first saw the President fall, at Park Sixty, I felt that a Venus man had done it. These other murders--they're all the same. Done by Venus men of the Cold Country.”

”Ahla's country,” Elza murmured.

”Yes. Exactly. And the Venus Central State has been attacked and has fallen. An a.s.sa.s.sination on Mars, and three here on Earth--all simultaneously. It's one gigantic plot, I tell you--and the Cold Country of Venus is at the bottom of it.”

Georg jumped to his feet. ”I'll see if the room has been tampered with.”

He was back presently. ”The insulator is intact. I set the alarm bell.

If she touches it--”

”Where is she?”

”In the cookery, where she should be. I told her we would eat in an hour. That ought to keep her busy.”

Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. ”I think we are all a little overwrought--though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come here by me. Don't look so solemn, child.”

He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but his gesture checked me. ”I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand these events, perhaps better than any of you. Let me go back two years--when I was in the Venus Central State.”

I nodded my remembrance; and he went on:

”At that time the authorities there were greatly perturbed. They were menaced by rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold Country people into the Central State, for it is already overcrowded.

You did not know that, did you?”

”You mean the threatened rebellion?” I asked. ”They were trying to keep it secret, but we heard rumors.”

”Just so. And Jac, I will tell you why they kept it secret. The Central State was encouraging emigration to the Earth. The Venus Cold Country is a poor place to live in--and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Central State did not want them within its borders; and so it kept secret its troubles with them--and encouraged emigration to the Earth.