Rock and Shep slammed the door to save as much remaining air as possible and hurried to the supply room. They gathered up all the oxygen bottles that they could carry and rushed back with them. They opened the petcocks on all, and the life-giving precious gas began flooding the room.
But the gauge on the wall still showed a subnormal air pressure. Shep and Rock found space suits in the supply room and began helping their companions into them. The victims could help a little, but, except for Hugh, they were still in such a state of anoxia that their rescuers had to do most of the work.
Finally the five were safely encased in suits, with clean pressurized air filling their lungs.
When the others felt like it, they began to talk.
“Kalmus had us locked up in the navigation room while they went to eat,” Hugh explained. “Then when the explosion came, Kalmus and his men must have been in such a hurry that they forgot all about us.”
“You might know that the only thing that would have made Kalmus abandon the treasure would be the saving of his own neck,” Rock said contemptuously. “You fellows had better get a physical as soon as we get to port.”
Shep asked the fellows what had happened since their capture.
“Kalmus made us blast off soon after he caught us,” Hugh was the first to reply.
“Whatever made Kalmus head for Earth?” Rock asked. “We thought that would be the last place he’d want to carry all of you since you’d be able to incriminate him.”
“Kalmus didn’t intend to land at a space station!” Ed cut in. “He was going straight for Earth and touch down in the Arizona desert where he could unload the ore without being noticed. Then he and the others were going to sell it a little at a time over a long period.”
“Carry theDog Stardirectly to Earth!” Shep exclaimed. “This ship isn’t made for atmospheric travel! It would have been turned into a meteor by skin friction!”
“That’s what we tried to tell that crazy man!” Sparky said. “But he thought we were trying to fool him and get him to dock at one of the space stations. Judas knew the danger too, but Kalmus wouldn’t listen to him either.”
“How did you keep theDog Starat such slow velocity?” Rock asked.
“We shorted out the circuit to a couple of jets,” Johnny replied. “Told Kalmus it was an accident. We had Judas fooled too. We were trying to stall reaching Earth as long as possible.”
“We hoped we’d get a chance to jump the fellows,” Hugh put in. “We even had an outside hope that you might catch up with us.”
Rock went back to the earlier capture of Leo and Ed. Kalmus wanted only two of the boys to run the ship, Leo explained, so that they could be easily watched by the four. That was why they had sent Sparky back over after the transfer of the ore.
Ed said that he and Leo had made such an unsatisfactory job (intentionally) of running the ship that Kalmus had made Judas take over. But Judas was so rusty with his piloting that he botched up the controls, making a forced landing on Luna necessary. The boys then got the idea of trying to contact theNorthern Crossby radio, which they had done in one of Kalmus’ unguarded moments. Kalmus had been so infuriated to discover this that he had destroyed the radio. He mistakenly thought he had done it before a message had been sent.
“Let’s hope we’ve seen the last of that Kalmus bunch,” Shep declared. “If everything turns out all right for us, I don’t care whether they are ever caught or not.”
“Do you suppose they got off in the lifeboats?” Hugh suddenly asked.
During their discussion of past events, they had almost forgotten about the present whereabouts of Kalmus and his men. They went to check the escape hatches and found one of four lifeboat rockets gone.
“I don’t see how they expect to reach any of the space stations with their limited knowledge of navigation,” Sparky said.
“Even Judas can find his way home from here,” Rock told him. “We’re only a few thousand miles from the outer radio relay satellite. The lifeboats have simple instructions printed on the walls that practically anybody can follow.”
Shep changed the subject. “Anybody know what caused the explosion?”
“Probably a valve lock somewhere in the chemical fuel system,” Hugh answered. “That’s what all of us think, judging from the sound of the blast. Our tinkering with the jets might have caused it.”
“The thing to do now,” Rock said, “is to get these ships back to port, that is, if theDog Starhas still got its power. I suggest we split into two groups, four on theNorthern Crossand three on theDog Star.”
It was discovered that the damage from the explosion would prevent theDog Starfrom traveling at its best speed because one entire rocket section was out of order. But it would run.
They drew lots to see who would ride in which vessel. Rock, Hugh, Ed, and Shep drew theNorthern Crossand Leo, Sparky, and Johnny theDog Star.
Rock and his three companions who would return to theNorthern Crosswent back to the ship by way of the towline. The ghost ship still hovered overhead in the same position it had occupied before, even though the two craft were traveling at a good pace through the deeps.
The space ships were brought back into their original Earthward paths, and in a few hours’ time the braking rockets were ready to cut in.
Several futile attempts had been made to contact a space station by radio, and it wasn’t until this point that theNorthern Crosswas able to establish its first contact over the crippled set. This was by way of a continuous signal beamed out through space by a rotating antenna atop the outermost artificial satellite, the radio relay station, 50,000 miles from Earth.
Hugh signaled for an operator and when he came in, Hugh gave the name of the ship and its position.
“Who did you say you were?” Rock heard the operator ask in amazement.
“TheNorthern Cross,” Hugh answered, “serial number A45-J, World Spacecraft, manufacturer.”
There was silence on the other end for several moments. Hugh winked at Rock. “We’ll have some fun with them,” he said.
“When did the ship go out?” the operator asked.
“Twenty years ago,” Hugh replied.
“Is this a joke?” the other retorted.
“Not at all,” Hugh assured him.
The radioman chose not to argue any further. “I’ll give you approach instructions,” he said.
“There are two ships,” Hugh told him. “We’re together.”
The operator sputtered again when Hugh told him that theDog Star’sradio was completely out. “How do you expect me to bring a ship in without a radio?” he complained.
“If you give us both instructions,” Hugh answered, “we’ll relay those for the other ship to them by suit radio. We’re close enough for that.”
“I guess you know this is highly irregular,” the operator replied. “I still think you’re pulling my leg!”
As the approach instructions were given, Rock relayed them to theDog Star. The connection was rather feeble because of the low power of Rock’s suit radio transmitter, but by hooking up his own suit radio to the ship’s antenna, damaged though it was, Leo, acting as radioman, could hear well enough.
As the ships moved in parallel to the spinning station, a final adjustment by the forward jets synchronized the ships’ motion with that of the rotating station.
“Pretty good approach,” the operator admitted grudgingly. “You two will come into adjoining Docks 5 and 6. Stand by.”
Presently two sets of long, flexible metal arms reached out from the space station like the arms of an octopus and attached themselves magnetically to the sides of the ships. Then slowly theNorthern CrossandDog Starwere pulled into their docks.
Word of arrival of the derelict space ship had been spreading all over the station apparently, for Rock and his friends found the entire high brass there to meet them as they crossed through the coupling tubes into the satellite.
The boys were conducted to the official quarters of the commanding officer where he was gathered with the other members of his staff. There Rock related the entire story of their trip. At first mention of Kalmus’ name, Colonel George had spoken to one of his officers and sent him out.
When Rock was through with his story, Colonel George shook his balding gray head, although it was a gesture not without humor.
“It sounds like a fiction piece, Merrill,” the officer said, his eyes glowing with an excitement that suggested he might have enjoyed sharing such an adventure himself.
“Not that I disbelieve you! I don’t mean that. It’s just so incredible what a group of young fellows have done!” He looked at his spellbound officers and they nodded approvingly.
“I’ve sent one of my men to see if Kalmus had docked here,” Colonel George went on. “He’s probably a scoundrel with a bad record. That must have been why he was in such a hurry to get started from the servicing station, before his references could be checked at central identification on Earth. You mentioned, Merrill, that he appeared very generous in extending credit to you. I suppose you realize now that he must have planned to take over the ship from the very beginning and therefore his original so-called credit would be only a fraction of the wealth he expected to bring back.”
“Yes, we finally guessed that, sir,” Rock said.
There was a wait until the officer returned with the facts on Kalmus. He handed a yellow sheet to the commanding officer who read it with a show of regret.
“Kalmus and his men docked here about two hours ago,” Colonel George said. “As soon as they docked, they immediately jumped on a ferry going Earthward. The ferry landed some time ago and they can be anywhere on Earth. I’m afraid Kalmus and party have given us the slip. We’ve already notified the authorities to initiate a search for them. Too bad you men were unable to get in touch with us by radio so that we could have been ready for them.”
“He may have escaped, sir,” Rock reminded him, “but not with the ore treasure, not even his own half.”
Colonel George chuckled. “That’s right. And if he should turn up to claim it, we’ll charge him with a crime that is quite serious.”
“If he and his men are ever captured, sir,” Rock said, “we’ll make a settlement with him then. He may need the money for some good lawyers.”
The colonel smiled. “I see you fellows want to do the right thing even if he hasn’t. Let me say here that I consider what you men have done, bringing into port two crippled ships, the most remarkable space performance I have ever heard about in my career. I’d have given anything to be thirty years younger and one of you!” He sighed regretfully. “In view of all this, I believe it would be embarrassing to the Space Academy not to reconsider you seven for cadet school. I’ll personally make a strong recommendation for you.”
The boys, except for their leader, were profuse in their thanks. Rock was quietly grateful and filled with a heart-warming satisfaction. For all these long weeks since their blast-off, he had suffered remorse for having brought his friends into such perils as they faced. Now it had all worked out for a purpose. Where they might never have come back, now they had not only returned without harm, but they would reclaim the opportunity for a space career that had appeared to end for them with their washout from the Space Academy.
As Rock happily thought over these things, an officer wearing the insigne of a metallurgist came into the room.
“I’ve made an assay of the ore cargo on theNorthern Cross, Colonel,” the man said. “It’s good alconite ore and is worth a fortune, and of course the ship is quite valuable too. It’ll tell us a lot about long-period effects of space conditions.”
“Now my success is complete,” Rock thought. “Dad did not lose his life for nothing. The satellite hospital will be a living memorial to his unselfish ambition. Even with all the things that happened to us, I’m glad we took the chance.”
He was sure his friends felt the same way.
“Carry your bags, sir?” The gentleman tourist in the space harbor looked at the youth who had stepped out of the night. Although the boy’s clothes weren’t as fine, perhaps, as those of the other baggage carriers, there was something about him which appealed to the man. The boy had a wiry, athletic build, and his gray, sincere eyes shone with spirit and good nature.
“Sure, son,” the big, white-thatched man said, smiling. “Suite 8, ‘B’ Deck.”
“‘B’ Deck!” Jim Vance echoed. “Thank you, sir!”
He hoisted the bags easily in his strong arms. Then, handing his patron one half of a baggage check, he headed briskly for the concrete pit where the throbbing space ship rested on torpedolike tail fins.
Jim was in a tingle of excitement. This was his first customer on ‘B’ Deck. He’d get a first-rate view of theHercules’luxury quarters! Jim always swallowed hard when he neared the astronaut. She was so incredibly big, so very much like the massiveness of the space which was her real home. Though theHerculeswas carrying some space freight this trip, she was mainly a tourist vessel; and her destination was Venus.
“I’d give anything if I could make one trip into deep space,” he thought fervently as he stepped into the outside elevator and was carried far above the brightly lighted Miami spaceport. For an instant he seemed to share a kinship with the silent stars that encircled him like a speckled bowl.
Getting off on B Deck, Jim walked slowly along the polished corridor toward Suite 8. The finery of the deck fairly numbed his senses. While studying the turquoise carpet underfoot, his eyes shifted to his worn shoes, and then he felt out of place.
It took money to go into space. If not that, it at least took extensive training to be a crewman. He had neither money nor training, not even a family. Not that Jim Vance was ready to cry about it, though. He had long ago accepted his lot without complaint.
A senior-grade lieutenant stopped him outside of Suite 8. He wore a square red mustache, and he neatly filled a uniform of gray flannel with gold piping.
“We’re blasting off at 0800 sharp, son,” he said. “Better remind your patron to get aboard.”
“I will, sir,” Jim returned. For a moment he felt like a full-fledged crewman taking orders. He liked the feel of it, and he wished desperately that it were so.
He went into the suite and set down the bags. His eyes roved over the rich trimmings, the deep honeycomb rubber cushions. An oval port looked out on the winking night lights of the coast city. There were two other rooms to the luxury quarters.
The hideaway degravity cot in the main compartment had already been pulled down out of the wall by a steward, but its front clamps were not yet snapped to the floor. Jim closed the light beryllium door of the compartment and tried out the cot. He sank down into its cloudlike softness. As he lay there dreaming of worlds beyond Earth, suddenly the front end of the cot swung upward. In trying to scramble out before he was closed up in the wall, he was sent spinning into the air by the powerful spring action of the cot. His head cracked solidly against the metal wall, and he saw more stars than there were in the night.
He lay in a daze for some time, stupefied, not realizing the passing of time. What finally roused him was the sensation of vibrating like a milk shake in a mixer. The floor beneath him throbbed like the surface of the Atlantic Ocean just beyond. Jim didn’t have to be a spaceman to know that theHerculeswas about to blast off.
Cold sweat flowed over him as he realized he could not leave the ship in time. The only thing he could do was prepare himself for the shock of the blast-off. He yanked down the degravity cot again, making certain this time that it was clamped to the floor. He guessed that all he had to do was recline on the cot as he had before and strap himself down with the black leather bands and plastic buckles.
He had scarcely done this before the pit of his stomach seemed to dive into his shoes, and he felt that exhilarating “first minute of acceleration” he had read so much about. When this was over, he knew theHerculeshad climbed above the bulk of Earth’s atmosphere and was leveling off on a horizontal curve from the planet’s surface. The rotation of the Earth would give the spaceship a final boost into the deeps.
When Jim’s stomach quieted, he unbuckled and attempted to get to his feet. The motion sent him flying up into the air! It then struck him that he had forgotten about the weightlessness of space. Some ships had artificial gravity in them; but because theHerculeswas chiefly a pleasure ship, the tourists preferred to “rough it.”
Jim became almost panicky in his efforts to right himself. His forehead grew hot although the cool atmosphere of the compartment was comfortable. He guessed that it wasn’t entirely the shock of no gravity that was making him sweat. He was thinking about his unpaid passage on theHercules.
“I’m a stowaway,” he thought. “I’ll be sent to jail for this.” He had read about the severe penalty for trying to hitch a ride on a space vessel. This was because weight was critical, and the addition of just a few extra pounds could prevent the rocket fuel from pushing the ship to its distant port, could even cause disaster.
Jim felt his head where he had taken the near knockout blow. There was only a small bump. Who would ever believe his story of what had really happened? Besides, he’d had no business trying out the degravity cot.
While he was pondering what he should do, there was a rap on the door of the suite. Jim slunk against the far wall, dreading to be found out.
“Are you all right, Mr. Bowers?” came a deep voice.
Jim opened his mouth to reply but only a wordless croak came out. The door swung open, and a husky steward with a young face “swam” in. At sight of Jim a surprised look crossed his features.
“What are you doing here?” he blurted. “Where’s Mr. Bowers?”
Jim felt as though he were in a crazy dream. The steward was floating toward him like a phantom in a nightmare, while he himself was like a desperate fish without fins in this strange sea of weightlessness.
“I don’t know Mr. Bowers,” Jim managed to reply, then went on to explain what had happened.
The steward looked at him skeptically, his round face attempting to judge him. “Is this the truth?” he asked.
Jim nodded and showed the bump on his head. Then he waited tensely for the verdict.
“Somehow I believe you,” the steward said sympathetically.
“Thanks,” Jim returned. He quickly decided that he liked the young steward with the surprisingly deep voice.
The steward looked thoughtful. “We’ve got to figure out a way to keep you from being discovered until we return to Earth. That way, you’ll have had time to help out and pay your way. It’ll go easier with you when you turn yourself in.” Then he frowned. “What about your family, though? They’ll surely be worried about you.”
“I don’t have a family,” Jim told him. “I’m an orphan, and I’ve been on my own for two years. Don’t you think I ought to make a clean breast of everything to the captain now and hope he’ll believe me?”
The steward shook his head emphatically. “Notthiscaptain. Not Captain Coppard. He’s a stickler for regulations. He’d never believe your story. If he does find out, you’ll be on prison rations for the rest of the trip!”
“What’ll I do, then?” Jim asked, suddenly feeling very dependent on the young man he faced.
The steward’s forehead creased in a frown. “The captain doesn’t know the steward crew too well because there were some last-minute substitutions. I think you’d do best to become a steward and work out your passage that way.”
A steward on a space ship! The idea of it thrilled Jim so much that he almost forgot the seriousness of his situation. He wondered how he’d look in the neat starched white that the steward in front of him wore.
“First, I think we ought to get acquainted,” his new friend said. He extended a workingman’s strong grip, and Jim took it. “My name is Al Hogan. Everybody calls me ‘Babe’ because of my face.” He grinned boyishly.
“I’m Jim Vance,” Jim said.
“You’ll make a good steward, Jim,” Babe declared. “My job depends on being able to spot good men.”
“How’s that?” Jim asked.
“I’m chief steward in charge of personnel aboard theHercules,” the other replied. “It’s lucky for you that I saw you first. I can hire you without your having to see anyone else.”
“That’s one thing in my favor,” Jim said with relief.
“I’m afraid there’s one more strike against you, though, Jim,” Babe said.
“What’s that?”
“You’ve ‘bumped’ the most important man in the space tourist business, and that isn’t good.”
“What do you mean?” Jim asked.
“I mean this suite was Mr. Bowers’, the owner of Venus Space Tours, Incorporated.”
“Why didn’t he come aboard in time for the blast-off?” Jim wanted to know.
“Mr. Bowers depends on the stewards to let him know just ahead of time because he usually has a lot of last-minute things to do.”
“I didn’t even know who he was!” Jim said. “Wow, what a mistake to make!”
“Lucky for theHercules, though,” Babe remarked, “your weight has canceled out his. There’s another rub, though. Mr. Bowers may have the Miami port radio us that you’re aboard. That would expose you for sure.”
Jim had an idea that his career as a spaceman was going to be extremely brief.
Babe showed him how to navigate in the state of no gravity. By kicking out rearward, he could shoot himself along almost as smoothly as a fish in water.
“Come with me,” Babe said, “and let’s get you started as a steward. You can bunk in my extra cot. There was an odd number of men this trip, leaving the spare bed.”
Babe locked the door of Mr. Bowers’ suite so that no one would be curious about him. He told Jim that Mr. Bowers very rarely mixed with the passengers or crew. For this reason he would not likely be missed.
Babe kept Jim out of sight of the other crewmen and hurriedly got him fitted into a steward’s white uniform.
“Your job will be to show the tourists how to get along in the space ship,” Babe told him.
Jim went around with Babe to learn the ropes. Some of the steward’s friends looked at Jim curiously and asked about him. Babe satisfied them by saying that Jim was a last-minute addition.
The first jobs Jim and Babe had to take care of were several cases of space sickness. Lack of gravity did funny things to the balancing mechanism in the ear and often made amateur space travelers feel as though they were coming apart. A dose of medicine usually fixed them up. Jim was glad that he himself did not suffer from this affliction.
Jim watched Babe instruct a gentleman how to take a nap without using a couch. The only thing the man needed was a short cord secured to his ankle and to a ring on the compartment wall to make sure that his breathing did not cause him to float off. For night sleeping, Jim was told, most people preferred using the standard sleeping-bag-type cots.
“How about some lunch?” Babe asked Jim when they had left the passenger relaxing in mid-air. “We’ll have to get ours before the tourists come in.”
“I’m all for it,” Jim replied.
As they “swam” toward the crewmen’s mess, Babe said, “This is your crucial meal, Jim. If you get by this one without anyone getting curious about you, I don’t believe you’ll have to worry about them anymore.”
“I have my fingers crossed.”
He was going to need all the luck he could get, he realized, as they navigated into the mess compartment. Across the room from them was the officer with the square red mustache who had spoken to him as he carried Mr. Bowers’ bags into Suite 8!
Jim whispered to Babe about the officer. Babe told him that there was a good chance of avoiding him, since the officers sat at one table and the stewards at another.
Jim was fascinated by his first meal in space. Everyone strapped himself to his seat so that he would stay put. Then the cooks brought in individual plates which adhered to the metallic table top by magnetism. Each bite of food was impaled on a toothpick stuck into a sponge-rubber mat which was fastened to the plate.
As Jim ate with tongs and sucked his drink from a closed container, he was careful to avoid the roving eyes of the officer with the red mustache. Jim was glad that the other stewards weren’t inquisitive about him. They appeared hungry and weren’t talkative.
Having survived the crucial first day without discovery, Jim found the others that followed were much easier. When three weeks had passed and he still had not been discovered, he started believing that the tourist company owner he had “bumped” was not going to complain.
But one day late in the voyage Jim and Babe happened to run into a very important person in the corridor on the way to mess. Jim recognized the insigne of four platinum rockets that showed he was Captain Coppard. It was Jim’s first face-to-face meeting with the officer.
After the stewards’ salute Captain Coppard suddenly pulled up short, and Jim felt the trim, hawk-nosed man’s steely gaze on him. It was a stare that appeared to look clear through him. Why was the officer suddenly so interested in him? It brought an anxious lump up into Jim’s throat.
“Steward,” the chief officer said, “just a minute.”
Jim faced the officer in gray and gold, his heart pounding. Had Mr. Bowers radioed the ship about him? Or had Captain Coppard found out about him in some other way?
“Yes, sir?” Jim said.
Captain Coppard touched Jim’s blouse. “You’ve got a button undone on your uniform. Don’t let me see that again.”
“Yes, sir,” Jim replied in relief, and lost no time tidying himself. The captain “swam” off down the corridor.
“That scared the life out of me!” Jim blurted to Babe. “I thought he had found me out for sure! I know now why you didn’t want me to turn myself in yet.”
“The captain’s an expert spaceman, but he’s as strict as they come, just as I told you,” Babe replied.
After lunch Jim and Babe had a little time on their hands and “hung” by the port in their compartment looking out into space. By now Earth had dwindled to an arc light, and the endless star patterns and dusty nebulae challenged his imagination tremendously. The planet they were heading for was an enlarging brilliant disk that stood out prominently among the sparkling diamonds of black space.
“How long have you been out of the orphanage, Jim?” Babe asked suddenly.
“Over two years,” Jim said. “I’ve been working as an assistant athletic coach at Oceanside Boys’ Home outside Miami since then.”
“How come you were doing redcap service at the space harbor?”
Jim grinned broadly. “Just because I loved it. I loved to go aboard space ships and pretend I was a real passenger. I’ve wanted to go into space ever since I knew there was such a thing. It seems now as though I’m in a wonderful dream and that all this is not really true at all!”
A pause followed, as Jim looked at Babe. “You’ve never told me anything about yourself.”
Babe shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. I’m thirty-two, unmarried. Been going into space since I was seventeen. Like you, I have space in my blood, and I hope I’ll be rocketing until I’m eighty.”
Jim had a multitude of services to do for his patrons before the end of the trip. He had a half dozen mild cases of “collision,” resulting from tourists’ carelessly bumping into the walls of their compartments, not realizing their increased powers in “free fall.” On another occasion a traveler had failed to hitch onto a wall ring during a nap and had floated down the corridor half the length of the ship. A child had a minor case of radiation burn when he wandered into a restricted compartment next to the atomic reactor.
The trip was nearly over in a few weeks’ time, for theHerculeswas traveling the way of the straight line and crossing the orbits of the other planets. The day of landing, Jim and Babe looked out of the port in their compartment at a pearly mist. The sensation of weight had returned with the cutting in of the rocket motors.
“How long before we touch down?” Jim asked.
“Several hours yet,” Babe replied. “We’ve got to circle the planet several times to brake our speed. If we were to go straight down through this pea soup, the friction would turn us red hot.”
Jim was glad when they were dropping at respectable speed directly down. The landing, moments later, in the colony space harbor was made safely.
After Jim and Babe had made their rounds readying the passengers for debarkation, a voice came over the wall microphone:
“Steward Al Hogan, report to Captain Coppard’s suite right away.”
Jim and Babe exchanged anxious glances but did not speak as Babe left the compartment. Jim wondered if his secret had been discovered at this last moment. His concern was more for Babe than for himself. It would be an awful thing for Babe to have to pay the penalty for helping him.
To take his mind off his concern, Jim went to the side port for his first sight of Venus. Although the upper layers of the atmosphere were impenetrably dense, the air at ground level was clear except for occasional wisps of vapor floating by. The intense rising heat gave a shimmering effect to the canyon landscape. When Babe returned, he eased Jim’s mind with a grin.
“How’d you like to make the cable-car tour with me, Jim?” he asked.
“I’m all for it!” Jim said, greatly relieved that Babe had nothing bad to report.
“One of the regular cable-car drivers is sick and can’t make the trip,” Babe went on. “Captain Coppard knew I’d had experience driving the car a few times before and asked me if I wanted to make some overtime pay.”
“When do we start?” Jim asked eagerly.
“In a few hours—after the tourists have had time to rest up from the landing.”
Five hours later, Jim and Babe were helping tourists into breathing outfits. There wasn’t enough oxygen in Venus’ atmosphere to support life from Earth, although the planet had animal life of its own. The apparatus was a light helmet with an attachment covering the nose of the wearer. The gadget contained two slender tubes which fitted into the nostrils and supplied them with oxygen from shoulder tanks. Also attached to the helmet were dark lenses for protecting the eyes from the extreme brilliance.
As they left the ship, Jim saw that almost all of the many buildings of the settlement were clustered about the rim of the space harbor. Venus was still in the pioneer stage of development; the only persons living permanently on the planet were scientists, engineers, and tourist workers. The harbor lay on a broad, high plateau. On three sides of it, precipices dropped away sharply into deep canyons.
It took Jim a while to get used to the oppressive hotness of the atmosphere. It was like breathing fire each time he took a breath through his mouth. Babe instructed him and the others to breathe only through their noses in order to avoid the discomfort.
Babe led the party toward one of the edges of the plateau where the cable car rested, a hundred feet or so from the cliff. Its overhead cable extended out as far as Jim could see into the deep country.
When all were aboard, one of the tourists, weighted down with camera equipment, asked, “When are we leaving, Chief? Right away? I can’t wait to get this terrific scenery down on film! Isn’t this a fabulous place!”
The man was Mr. Benjamin, one of the more enthusiastic travelers.
“We’re leaving just as soon as we get the rear jet firing,” Babe told him. He led Jim into the foremost of two Plexiglas-enclosed drivers’ quarters that were located at each end of the car.
Jim saw that only a single lever was used to control the cable car. There was a radio set for contact with the space harbor if this were necessary.
Babe turned on the ignition and shoved the lever. The car began gliding over the ground toward the edge of the precipice. “A child can run this,” he said. “One jet behind to push us forward, one in front to slow us down.”
Jim felt his knees go weak in tingling anticipation as the car swung out into empty space, with only its slender overhead cable as a support for forty people. Babe presently let Jim try the control lever. Jim could hear the hollowswooshof the rear jet as it shot the car along, and he could hear the singing of the cable as the car rolled smoothly on its fine overhead bearings.
“We seem to be going uphill,” Jim commented.
“We are,” Babe said. “We’re heading for Point Luna, which is a thousand feet higher than where we started.”
“I don’t see how they ever got this cable in place,” Jim said.
“I’ve heard that it wasn’t too much of a job, using helicopters,” Babe explained. “It was worth the trouble because the tourist revenue from it has helped the building projects here.”
Reaching Point Luna, the car was stopped and the tourists got out to look over the view. The space harbor was only a miniature tongue of land beyond the vast spread of canyon behind them. Babe pointed out the Great Crimson Desert in the distance, which looked to Jim like a sea of fire as the heat waves rose from it up into the white sky. Jim thought it odd, not seeing a sun up there. He knew the planet was forever shut off from any view of the outer magnificent solar system because of its dense atmosphere.
The car moved on again, and presently a flock of snow-white birds began circling about. Jim knew these to be the Venus albatrosses, which often accompanied the cable car. The next peak reached was Point Hastings, named for the man who had first set foot on Venus. The spot was a rugged mesa jutting up from the canyon floor. The excited party left the car and trooped down a slope which was thick with salmon-pink umbrella fern.
“Get ready to see Venus’ most interesting and bad-tempered animals,” Babe had told them just before.
Babe led them down to the bottom of the slope and through a dense thicket of gorgeous orange-colored blossoms. At this point the black rock slope dropped away to a sandy plain covered with a herd of giant unicorns. The animals were about the size of elephants, with glossy tan hides and slender antelope legs. Their huge heads carried swordlike horns just above the nose. The unicorns were browsing on patches of blue spider grass.
Mr. Benjamin piped excitedly, “I’ve got to get a picture of one of those babies!” He scrambled recklessly down the slope and took up a position behind a large rock.
“Better be careful, sir!” Babe warned. “It doesn’t take much to rile them.”
“It’s funny how the animals on Venus can get along without breathing oxygen,” Jim commented to Babe.
“They have a huge lung capacity,” Babe explained, “and also take in what little oxygen Venus has while they sleep. They store it up in a special air sac inside their bodies.”
Mr. Benjamin waved his hand to attract the attention of the beasts. Several in the herd raised their heads and peered at the man. One of them decided to investigate. He trotted over toward the rock where Mr. Benjamin was clicking away with his camera, an ugly frown on its wrinkled features. The rock shifted unexpectedly, and the tourist slid around the edge of it. He lost his balance and tumbled down the slope, shouting wildly for help.
Jim’s blood chilled, but he acted promptly, darting forward and scrambling down the incline after the helpless man. The unicorn rushed up the slope, his head lowered and his frightening ivory horn poised for attack.
Mr. Benjamin cried out and barely squirmed out of the way of the charging animal. The force of the unicorn’s thrust caused him to bury his sharp horn to the ground. He withdrew it with a grunt of fury and shook black earth from the glossy white tip. Then he retreated for another charge.
The unicorn rushed up the slope, his head lowered and his frightening ivory horn poised for attack.
The unicorn rushed up the slope, his head lowered and his frightening ivory horn poised for attack.
“Help me!” Mr. Benjamin cried desperately, scrambling madly to get a foothold in the slipping gravel.
By now Jim was within arm’s reach of the tourist. He braced himself against the boulder that had settled into a hollow and strained forward to grasp Mr. Benjamin’s hand. Just as the man was pulled to his feet, the unicorn struck again, burying his horn in the ground barely inches below the tourist’s boots. Jim shuddered as he hurried Mr. Benjamin up the slope to safety.
“My poor camera!” the tourist groaned. “It’s down there with that animal!”
“You’re lucky not to be down there with him yourself, Mr. Benjamin,” Babe said grimly and led the party back toward the car.
Next the car passed over the fascinating Lake of Steam. A mist, like the sheerest of veils, rose in a solid sheet from the depths to a height of half a mile, shot through with every imaginable color. Jim thought it an incredibly beautiful sight.
Jim took over running the car while Babe went back with the passengers to point out more of the picturesque wonders. Jim was surprised when suddenly the car began roller-coasting down a steep slope toward a forbidding dark opening in the cliff face. Quickly he realized that this was the famous Haunted Tunnel of Venus.
Jim switched on the headlights Babe had told him about and slowed the car with a burst of the forward jet. Slowly the car entered the enchanted cavern. The darkness seemed to make Jim’s ears keener. Presently there came to him the mysterious sighs and groans that had given the tunnel its name. Although he knew this was caused by wind whistling through the opening and the shifting of rock strata, it nevertheless caused chills to run up his spine.
All at once an unexpected loud buzz from the radio set shocked him into an involuntary cry. As his nerves calmed, he switched on the radio and spoke into the mike, “Yes?”
“Let me speak to Steward Hogan,” came a brisk voice that Jim knew could belong only to Captain Coppard.
“Yes, sir,” Jim replied.
He opened the door of the cabin and called Babe. Jim saw a flashlight advance toward him down the dark aisle.
“It’s Captain Coppard,” Jim whispered.
“Hogan speaking,” Babe said into the mike.
“Steward,” the chief officer of theHerculessaid, “who is the young man with you?”
Jim’s heart seemed to give a final quiver and go dead inside of him.
“Jim Vance, sir,” Babe answered.
“I don’t find him on my roster of personnel,” snapped the officer.
“He isn’t on it, sir,” Babe admitted manfully.
“Then he’s a stowaway?”