Part 21 (1/2)

”I don't know what to think. I've never seen anything material sent out so fast that I couldn't trace it with an ultra-wave-but on the other hand, Roger's got a lot of stuff that I never saw anywhere else. However, I don't see that it has anything to do with the fix we're in right now-but at that, we might be worse off. We're still breathing air, you notice, and if they don't blanket my wave I can still talk.”

He put both hands into his pockets and spoke.

”Samms? Costigan. Put me on a recorder, quick-I probably haven't got much time,” and for ten minutes he talked, concisely and as rapidly as he could utter words, reporting clearly and exactly everything that had transpired. Suddenly he broke off, writhing in agony. Frantically he tore his s.h.i.+rt open and hurled a tiny object across the room.

”Wow!” he exclaimed. ”They may be deaf, but they can certainly detect an ultra-wave, and what an interference they can set up on it! No, I'm not hurt,” he rea.s.sured the anxious girl, now at his side, ”but it's a good thing I had you out of circuit-it would have jolted you loose from six or seven of your back teeth.”

”Have you any idea where they're taking us?” she asked soberly.

”No,” he answered flatly, looking deep into her steadfast eyes. ”No use lying to you-if I know you at all you'd rather take it standing up. That talk of Jovians or Neptunians is the bunk-nothing like that ever grew in our Solarian system. All the signs say that we're going for a long ride.”

CHAPTER 11

NEVIAN STRIFE

The Nevian s.p.a.ce-s.h.i.+p was hurtling upon its way. s.p.a.ce-navigators both, the two Terrestrial officers soon discovered that it was even then moving with a velocity far above that of light and that it must be accelerating at a high rate, even though to them it seemed stationary-they could feel only a gravitational force somewhat less than that of their native Earth.

Bradley, seasoned old campaigner that he was, had retired promptly as soon as he had completed a series of observations, and was sleeping soundly upon a pile of cus.h.i.+ons in the first of the three inter-connecting rooms. In the middle room, which was to be Clio's, Costigan was standing very close to the girl, but was not touching her. His body was rigid, his face was tense and drawn.

”You are wrong, Conway; all wrong,” Clio was saying, very seriously. ”I know how you feel, but it's false chivalry.”

”That isn't it, at all,” he insisted, stubbornly. ”It isn't only that I've got you out here in s.p.a.ce, in danger and alone, that's stopping me. I know you and I know myself well enough to know that what we start now we'll go through with for life. It doesn't make any difference, that way, whether I start making love to you now or whether I wait until we're back on Tellus; but I'm telling you that for your own good you'd better pa.s.s me up entirely. I've got enough horsepower to keep away from you if you tell me to-not otherwise.”

”I know it, both ways, dear, but....”

”But nothing!” he interrupted. ”Can't you get it into your skull what you'll be letting yourself in for if you marry me? a.s.sume that we get back, which isn't sure, by any means. But even if we do, some day-and maybe soon, too, you can't tell-somebody is going to collect fifty grams of radium for my head.”

”Fifty grams-and everybody knows that Samms himself is rated at only sixty? I knew that you were somebody, Conway!” Clio exclaimed, undeterred. ”But at that, something tells me that any pirate will earn even that much reward several times over before he collects it. Don't be silly, my dear-goodnight.”

She tipped her head back, holding up to him her red, sweetly curved, smiling lips, and his arms swept around her. Her arms went up around his neck and they stood, clasped together in the motionless ecstasy of love's first embrace.

”Girl, girl, how I love you!” Costigan's voice was husky, his usually hard eyes were glowing with a tender light. ”That settles that. I'll really live now, anyway, while....”

”Stop it!” she commanded, sharply. ”You're going to live until you die of old age-see if you don't. You'll simply have to, Conway!”

”That's so, too-no percentage in dying now. All the pirates between Tellus and Andromeda couldn't take me after this-I've got too much to live for. Well, goodnight, sweetheart, I'd better beat it-you need some sleep.”

The lovers' parting was not as simple and straightforward a procedure as Costigan's speech would indicate, but finally he did seek his own room and relaxed upon a pile of cus.h.i.+ons, his stern visage transformed. Instead of the low metal ceiling he saw a beautiful, oval, tanned young face, framed in a golden-blonde corona of hair. His gaze sank into the depths of loyal, honest, dark blue eyes; and looking deeper and deeper into those blue wells he fell asleep. Upon his face, too set and grim by far for a man of his years-the lives of Sector Chiefs of the Triplanetary Service were not easy, nor as a rule were they long-there lingered as he slept that newly-acquired softness of expression, the reflection of his transcendent happiness.

For eight hours he slept soundly, as was his wont, then, also according to his habit and training he came wide awake, with no intermediate stage of napping.

”Clio?” he whispered. ”Awake, girl?”

”Awake!” her voice come through the ultra phone, relief in every syllable. ”Good heavens, I thought you were going to sleep until we got to wherever it is that we're going! Come on in, you two-I don't see how you can possibly sleep, just as though you were home in bed.”

”You've got to learn to sleep anywhere if you expect to keep in....” Costigan broke off as he opened the door and saw Clio's wan face. She had evidently spent a sleepless and wracking eight hours. ”Good Lord, Clio, why didn't you call me?”

”Oh, I'm all right, except for being a little jittery. No need of asking how you feel, is there?”

”No-I feel hungry,” he answered cheerfully. ”I'm going to see what we can do about it-or say, guess I'll see whether they're still interfering on Samms' wave.”