"About a dozen," Conley shrugged. "More than enough to handle what
little radite's left."
"And we wouldn't even need them," Wessel spoke for the first time, "if
we could get these damn lazy Martians to stir themselves."
Jim turned his gaze on the man with slowly dawning wonderment, and
would have spoken, but was interrupted by Conley:
"Jim, we thought we'd head up into the Cap in the morning, four or
five of us. Wessel wanted to leave several days ago, but I insisted on
waiting for you. However, I can't say how far north we'll be going. It
all depends on the radite traces."
"Thanks, Conley, I really appreciate it. All I know about this Polar
Cap is what I saw flying over it. What do we do, make the trek afoot?"
"Afoot, he says!" Wessel scoffed before Conley could answer. "Man, what
a lot you've got to learn yet about that country up there!"
"No," Conley answered, with a distasteful glance at Wessel. "Most
men who've tried it afoot have not come back. We're trying it with
a couple of sleds. Motor-driven, of course, of very little metal
alloy. Furnished benignantly by Tri-Planet Mining, since it's to their
advantage that we find new radite deposits." The slight scorn in his
voice was not lost on Wessel. "We figure it'll be a two or three day
trip each way."
"But of course," Wessel said suavely, "if we find M'Tonak or any other
cities up there with big fabulous emeralds, we'll forget about the
radite."
Jim was fast learning to dislike this man; he turned to Conley. "I
think I'll see this Martian you were telling me about, the one who
accompanied my brother."
"Kaarji? Sure. I'll go fetch him."
"Better take me to him instead, I'd rather talk to him alone."
* * * * *
As Conley had said, Kaarji wasn't of much help. The tall, leathery,
heavy-chested Martian was even more taciturn than the usual members of
his race. He seemed to show a distrust of Jim.
However, he did agree to accompany Jim across the mile strip of desert
to Frank Landor's mine nestled against the hills. As they trudged
through the sand in silence, Jim glanced occasionally at Kaarji. He
was sure he had made it plain that he was Frank Landor's brother. The
Martian wasn't dumb, he knew why Jim was here.
With a friendly and almost instinctive gesture Jim offered the Martian
a cigarette. Kaarji accepted it, looked at it with distaste as though
he had tried them before and abhorred them; but he placed it clumsily
in his lips nevertheless and smoked it valiantly. At the same time he
reached into his pocket and handed Jim a few tiny purplish objects. Jim
accepted them, looked at them and shuddered. He had heard of Martian
_tsith_ stems and knew that they made almost all Earthmen violently
ill. Nevertheless he plopped them into his mouth and began chewing.
Kaarji looked at him approvingly and gave a grotesque smile. As though
the Earthman's act were a signal, he began talking.
"I don't like it in town," Kaarji said. "Too many Earthmen. I like it
over here."
"At Frank's mine, you mean?"
"Yes. Frank Landor was a fine man. I am sorry he did not come back."
"Perhaps he will come back," Jim suggested.
But Kaarji shook his head.
It took very little effort then to get the entire story. It seemed that
Frank Landor and Kaarji had trekked four days into the Martian Cap.
Only Kaarji had ever gone that far before. Late on the fourth day, as
they camped, Kaarji was awakened by a shout from Frank. He had leaped
up and glimpsed Frank Landor running toward a vehicle that rested at
the bottom of an icy decline....
Here Kaarji faltered slightly in his story. He had not seen the vehicle
plainly enough nor long enough to describe it as other than a car,
seemingly unlike any he had ever seen before. It was simply round and
grayish and metallic, and completely enclosed. It had a bluish beam of
light in the front of it. Frank Landor had seemed to enter the car--and
then it sped away with him.
"Kaarji, try to remember," Jim said to the Martian now. "Frank entered
the car of his own volition? You saw no one else, no other person?"
"No one else." Kaarji seemed sure of it.
Jim shook his head in puzzlement. This was the same story Kaarji had
told Conley, there were no discrepancies.
They walked on to the mine in silence. Jim examined several tunnels
leading back into the hills and saw that Frank's claim had indeed
petered out. In his iron-walled cabin, everything was left as though
Frank had merely gone and intended to return in a few days.
"Let's go back," Jim said finally. "Nothing we can do here."
On the walk back to Riida, Jim thought that Kaarji looked at him
several times as though he were going to speak. But when Jim questioned
him, the Martian shook his head negatively. He offered Kaarji another
cigarette but this time it was declined.
It was not until then that Jim realized he was still chewing on the
Martian _tsith_ stems, and that Kaarji was grinning at him.
It was not until he reached the edge of town that he became violently
ill.