Toplinsky Calls the Bluff
The two Americans released Michael, and when he got to his feet the
three stood gazing at each other in silence for several moments.
Presently the air began to get extremely cold.
“S-say, fellows,” Billy grated with his lips trembling, “I don’t like
this. If the weather continues like this much longer I’ll become a
little snowball.”
Michael bounded up and slammed the hatch down. The atmosphere became
slightly warmer.
“We can’t stay in here,” he asserted presently. “This part of the
airship is not connected with the oxygen tanks, and we must have air
to live.”
He again opened the hatch and looked out. Epworth crowded up to him.
Overhead was space, all around them was space, and they were traveling
at a speed that took their breath. When they searched for a view of
the earth it was not to be seen, as the body of the airship obscured
it.
“We will try to get out and get into the other part of the ship,”
Epworth suggested.
“And Toplinsky will land on me for letting you and your companion come
aboard.”
Michael closed the hatch part way.
“Besides,” he added, “how will you pass that first hatch opening. If
you will look but again you will see Toplinsky standing with his head
out and an air helmet over his head. For some reason he is on the look
out.”
This time he let the hatch down softly and closed it firmly.
“We will fix you up with Toplinsky,” Epworth proposed. “We will tie
you up, then go below and inform Toplinsky that we made you a
prisoner.”
“Sounds fine, but it won’t work. Toplinsky will give me a beating for
getting where you could put your hands on me.”
The three men put their heads together. It was now getting terribly
cold, and for the first time they discovered that breathing was
painful.
“We’ve got to do something—and do it quick,” Billy asserted anxiously.
“I’m getting——”
He collapsed. Michael extended his hand to help him, and also
stumbled.
Like lightning Epworth acted. Grasping Billy by the collar in one hand
and Michael in the other he pulled them up to the point in the
warehouse where the panel opened into the chamber Joan was occupying,
and drawing a box up put them in a position where they could get a
breath of air through the hole. It was only a breath but he had
reasoned that Toplinsky would not put his sister where she would die
for want of atmosphere, and now found that he had reasoned correctly.
They could barely thrust a portion of their faces toward the hole. It
was not large enough for all three to get air, and heroically he
pushed his companions forward.
* * * * *
Joan, stretched on her couch sobbing, heard a tap on the panel that
separated her compartment from the storeroom. Curiously she got up and
pushed back the panel. In front of her was Billy’s face and the face
of a guard. Both were chattering with cold.
“O-open the panel full out,” Billy choked. “We are dying for want of
air.”
“Mercy!” Joan ejaculated with infinite relief. “I thought you had left
the airship. Where is Julian?”
Billy shoved his head aside from the blessed air hole and caught
Epworth. He was just in time to keep his companion from falling.
“Here he is,” he replied. “Get your face away from the panel so we can
all get a breath of that air. This compartment is shut off from the
air tanks and we will soon die if we get away from this hole.”
However all three men soon revived, and pulled boxes up to the air
panel to stand on.
“We can’t stand here all our lives,” Billy grumbled. “My legs are
getting tired already.”
“Open your door and call some one,” Epworth instructed.
“It is locked,” Joan replied. “I have——”
The door opened and Herman Toplinsky stepped in.
“Ah, ha, ho, ho, it is a great voyage—a magnificent start.” Toplinsky
closed the door carefully. “Indeed a wonderful trip is ahead of us. We
leave the earth at a speed of six hundred miles an hour with our
liquid rockets working admirably. Fair Joan, do you know where we are
going?”
Joan was breathless with the fear that Toplinsky would discover
Epworth and Billy at the panel, but when she replied her voice was
cold and hard. At least she could put this man in his place.
“I haven’t the least idea, and my name—well, my name is a good name
and I am not ashamed of it. It is Miss Joan Epworth to you, sir.”
“Ah ha, ho, ho, high hatty—somewhat ritzy. Well, Miss Joan, we are on
the way to the moon. By the time we get there I am of the opinion that
you will be pleased to hear me call you Joan. This is our initial
trip—the first out—and I could not forego myself the pleasure of
seeing your beautiful face during the journey. In fact I am crazy
about you. Presently—ah, ha, we shall see what we shall see.”
There was a treacherous threat in the words that caused the girl to
grow cold and hot by turns. The words meant more than death to her.
“And how about that agreement with me?”
Toplinsky, startled with surprise, looked up at the panel. Epworth was
gazing at him with blazing eyes over the blue barrel of a gun.
“Ah, ha, ho, ho.” The giant was not in the least disconcerted. “Our
bantam fighter—our fast foot runner. Now I wonder how you got in
there? But that is a matter of indifference. Long before we get to the
moon you will be frozen into an Eskimo pie. It suits me well. I think
that I shall move this young lady into another apartment, and seal
this one. We can get along very well this trip without this room. Of
course——.” He paused as if thinking deeply, and an ugly sneer appeared
on his mouth. “Yes, I really believe that such an act would prevent
any air from getting back into the store room.”
The cool, devilish ingenuity of the man was appalling.
“Y-y-you mean that you will let these men die in there for lack of
breathing air?”
Joan’s face was deathly white as she asked this question.
“I didn’t tell them to go in there,” the giant apologized with
asperity. “Probably they were trying to hitch-hike a ride with us,
thinking that we were going to some other part of the world, and got
caught in their own trap. Why should I trouble myself about them? If
they die I assure you that decomposition will not commence during the
trip to the moon. The frigid air will act like a refrigeration
process, and preserve their bodies from offensive smells. We can dump
them out when we get to the moon. Their carcasses will make good
fertilizer.”
“Toplinsky, I confess that I do not get you.” Epworth spoke calmly. “I
do not understand your actions concerning Joan. You gave me your word,
and I thought that your word would stick.”
“I do stick to my word,” Toplinsky shrilled in intense anger. “The man
who says that Herman Toplinsky is not a man of his word is a liar—a
double-dyed liar by the town clock.”
“And yet my sister is here—kidnaped.”
“Just so.” The giant smiled broadly. “Still I have not broken my word.
I did not promise you that I would not take her with me to the moon. I
did not tell you that I would cut her off my visiting list. On the
contrary I have seen to it that she was treated like a great lady. She
has been given every comfort, and I intend to see that she is treated
with distinguished courtesy on this trip.”
He showed his teeth aggravatingly.
“Sounds fishy but you are going to put that down in writing. You are
going to sign a written agreement that she shall not be harmed or
insulted, and you are going to agree that we can go along to see that
you keep your word. With me is my chum, Billy Sand, and the guard you
put over us. These two are also going with you. I will add, in justice
to the guard, that we knocked him down and took his gun away from him,
making him a prisoner.”
“Really, my dear fellow, I am seriously afflicted with writer’s
cramp.” Toplinsky spoke politely. “I cannot put such an agreement in
writing. It would be very painful to me to have to write it.”
“We may never leave this store room alive,” Epworth said
threateningly, and it was evident that he meant what he said, “but as
sure as fate if you do not put that agreement in writing I shall shoot
you. One explosion will be all that will be necessary.”
The giant did not seem to be frightened. Quite the contrary. He
replied very quietly.
“Quite a marksman, eh?” Toplinsky’s smile was sneeringly cold and
mocking. “Do you know what will happen if I am killed? I hope I may
not seem pedantic if I modestly explain. I am the only person aboard
the Aerolite who can pilot it back to the earth, or to the moon. If
you shoot me, all on board will be lost in space. It is hardly
necessary to inform you that the moon does not stand still. It is
moving now in three ways. First it is rotating once every sixteen
hours on its axis; second it is moving around the world once every
twenty-eight days; third it is traveling through space in a giant
circle with the earth around the sun, making the circle once in three
hundred and sixty-five days. Off-hand I would suggest that these three
statements alone, especially numbers two and three, present to you, an
expert air navigator, something of a problem in the way of making the
moon a landing spot.”
He paused and grinned broadly, seeing a look of dismay appear on the
American’s face.
“Yes,” he continued pleasantly and in an academic manner, “the moon
moves 0633 miles each second—double the velocity of a cannon ball, and
add to this the encircling movement of one thousand miles an hour
around the sun, we have a decided mathematical calculation in
navigation—especially as our little ship is at present only making six
hundred miles an hour. Perhaps, a little later on we may get up to
eight hundred. But, my dear fellow, do I see you, even at a speed of
eight hundred miles an hour, overtaking the moon? I pause for a
scientific response.”
Epworth was obviously upset, and his hand trembled on the trigger.
“Toplinsky, it is all I can do to keep from killing you this instant.”
“If you really wish to see your sister live——. Well to be just a
little slangy, you will draw in your horns. Kill me and you also kill
her and the crew.”
“And you will leave my brother and his companions in there without air
to breathe?” Joan demanded heatedly.
“My dear young lady, really, we have no air to spare.” Toplinsky
lifted the palms of his hands outward, and shook his head. “We
manufacture our air with chemicals, and the supply is limited. In
making my preparations to visit the moon I did not anticipate the
presence of guests in a compartment where no air is needed. Our air is
confined entirely to the living-parts of the ship. Yours is the last
compartment supplied with air. There is no sense in wasting air and
running machinery for fun.”
Again he opened his hands expansively, and showed his horse teeth
apologetically.
“And—and——”
“So there you are,” he finished.
Epworth lowered his gun.
“Toplinsky, you win. I cannot endanger the lives of all the people
aboard this airship.”
The giant grinned good humoredly. He had been very close to death, and
he realized that his escape had been narrow.
“Don’t kill them that way,” Joan moaned. “I shall not give you any
trouble. I——”
“Joan, that is enough!” Epworth hissed. “You are going to obey me, and
you are going to stay right in this room during the entire trip—stay
where I can keep my eyes on you.”
“Where you can keep your eyes on her, ha, ha!”
Toplinsky smiled crookedly.