"I want you to keep going--finish what you started."
"Then what?"
"We may find weapons--and other things."
"Suppose we don't?"
"Then we'll come back. I got you in here, and I'm the only man on
Ganymede who can get you out."
Sampson's eyes narrowed. "Suppose we say yes. You can't keep a gun on
us all the time. We might jump you. There are ways of making a man do
things he doesn't want to do."
"Sure," Garth admitted, "you could torture me. Only that wouldn't help."
Sampson's gaze flicked past to the girl. Garth said quickly, "That
wouldn't help either. Here's why. The antitoxin I gave you was too old.
It isn't working the way it ought. Captain Brown was the first man to
go under. But within three days, at the latest, every damn one of you
will have Noctoli poison!"
Garth thought Sampson was going to shoot him then and there. A yell
went up from the men.
Sampson's lifted hand quieted them. The giant was pale under his
spaceburn.
"Is that straight?"
Garth nodded. "It's on the beam. Yeah. It'll take you a week to get
out of the Forest, and you won't last that long, even if you force me
to guide you. I don't think you can do that, anyway. But even if you
did--within three days you'll be like the Captain. Walking dead men!
You'll be okay at night, but you can't travel at night. By day you'll
be living statues, sitting in the Forest waiting for the bloodsucker
plants to come along and drain your blood, waiting for the poisonous
butterflies to paralyze you and lay their eggs under your skin,
waiting--you've seen what sort of things live in the Forest. Every day
you'll be helpless. You can't run. Some night you'll wake up with your
legs chewed off, or the butterfly maggots eating you alive. Like that?
Well, that's what you'll get--and I'm the _only_ guy that can save you!"
* * * * *
The faces of the men told Garth that his shots had gone home. The
deadly menace of the forest, lurking always in the background, had
worked into their nerves. Sampson's big hands clenched.
"Damn you!" he snarled. "You can't--"
Garth went on quickly. "I'm handing this to you straight. We're in
a spot, sure, but we can get out of it. I can make more antitoxin,
but it'll take a while. I can't do it while we're traveling. I need
equipment. Here's what I'm proposing--we all keep going, the way we
started. I'm immune to the pollen. If we move fast, we'll reach the
lost city, or whatever it is, before you go under. Then I can start
making antitoxin. We'll have to trap some small animals and allow time
for incubation. But I'll be able to make fresh shots and neutralize the
Noctoli pollen."
"It's too long a shot," Sampson said.
"Okay," Garth told him. "Suit yourself. Play it my way, or commit
suicide." He turned and walked toward Paula, who had not moved from
Brown's side.
Her eyes were steady on his. "Thanks. That was nice going--plenty nice,
if you pull it off."
"It's suicide either way," Garth grunted. He began packing Brown's kit
and his own.
Footsteps sounded. Garth didn't turn. He heard Sampson's deep voice,
hoarse with repressed fear and rage.
"We're playing it your way, Garth. God help you if you make any boners!"
Sudden relief weakened Garth. He tried not to show it, though he
realized that his hands were trembling.
"Fair enough," he said. "We'll march in ten minutes. Get the men ready."
Sampson muttered something and retreated. Garth slipped the pack on
Brown's shoulders. The Captain, looking blankly ahead, didn't seem to
notice.
"Keep your eye on him," Garth told Paula. "He'll be between us. He'll
keep marching till we tell him to stop. See?"
She nodded, moistening her lips. "Y-yes. Is--that--going to happen to
all of us?"
Garth said nothing. There wasn't anything to say.
But he knew, as he led the party away from the camp, how long a gamble
he was undertaking. There were so many chances that he might fail! The
odds were plenty tough--yet the stakes were equally high.
Had he known how difficult those odds were, Garth might not have risked
it. For the Noctoli poison worked faster than he had guessed.
Meantime he guided ten sullen, fearful men, a walking corpse, and
a girl deeper into the unexplored heart of the Black Forest. The
Noctoli flowers breathed their poison from the underbrush, deadly and
relentlessly.