Part 6 (1/2)
He checked his words, and started forward. But Dr. Brende was with him, and in doubt what to do I followed with Elza.
We entered the nearest building, into a low, dim room, with doors on the sides. In the silence I seemed to hear my heart pounding my ribs. Elza's face was pale and perturbed, but she smiled very courageously at me.
”Wait!” said Georg. ”You wait here.”
He turned into a side door leading to another room, and in an instant was back with a face from which the color had departed.
”They're not in there,” he said unsteadily. ”Elza--you go outside with father.... They must be around somewhere, Jac. Come, look.”
There was a rustle behind us. Arms came around me, pinning me. I heard Elza scream, saw Georg fighting two dark forms which had leaped upon him.
I was flung to the ground, but I fought--three men, it seemed to be, who were upon me. Then Georg's voice:
”Jac! Stop--they'll kill you.”
I yielded suddenly, and my a.s.sailants jerked me to my feet. A group of Venus men were surrounding us. Georg, his jacket torn to ribbons, was backed up against the wall with three or four Venus men holding him.
And on the floor nearby Dr. Brende lay p.r.o.ne, with a crimson stain spreading on his white ruffled s.h.i.+rt, and Elza sobbing over him.
CHAPTER V
_Outlawed Flight_
Dr. Brende was dead. We knew it in the moment that followed our sudden a.s.sault and capture. Elza knelt there sobbing. Then she stood up, her tears checked; and on her face a look of pathetic determination to repress her grief. Now that we had yielded, the Venus men, searching us for our weapons, cast us loose. We bent over Dr. Brende, Georg and I.
Dead. No power in this universe could bring him back to us.
Georg pressed his lips tightly together. His face, red from the exertion of his fight, went pale. But he showed no other emotion. And, as he leaned toward me, he whispered:
”Got us, Jac! Say nothing. Don't put up any show of fight.”
Elza now was standing against the wall, a hand before her eyes. I went to her.
”Elza, dear----”
Her hand pressed mine.
Our captors stood curiously watching us. There seemed to be at least ten of them--men as tall as myself, though not so tall as Georg. Swarthy, gray-skinned fellows--one or two of them squat, ape-like with their heavy shoulders and dangling arms. Men of the Venus Cold Country. They were talking together in their queer, soft language. One of them I took to be the leader. Argo was his name, I afterward learned. He was somewhat taller than the rest, and slim. A man perhaps thirty. Paler of skin than most of his companions--gray skin with a bronze cast. Dressed like the others in fur. But his heavy jacket was open, disclosing a ruffled white s.h.i.+rt, with a low black stock about his throat.
A s.h.i.+fty-eyed fellow, this Argo. Smooth-shaven, with a mouth slack-lipped, and small black eyes. But his features were finely chiseled; and with that bronze cast to his skin, I guessed that he was from the Venus Central State. He seemed much perturbed that Dr. Brende was dead. Occasionally he burst into English as he rebuked one of the others for the killing.
No more than a moment had pa.s.sed. Georg joined Elza and me. We stood waiting. Georg whispered: ”They killed Robins and his helpers. In there----” He gestured. ”I saw them lying in there. If only I had--”
Argo was standing before us. ”This is a very pleasant surprise--” He spoke the careful English of the educated foreigner. His tone was ironical. ”Very pleasant--”
Abruptly he turned away again. But in that instant, his eyes had roved Elza in a way that turned me cold.
They led us away, down a padded hallway into the instrument room. It was in full operation; our Inter-Allied news-tape was clicking; the low voice of the announcer droned through the silence. I started toward the tape, but Argo waved me away. He had volunteered us nothing, and again Georg advised silence.
Argo had given his orders. Through a window I saw men carrying apparatus from the house. A small metal frame of sun-mirrors, prisms and vacuum tubes. Georg whispered: ”Father's model.”