group apparently fenced off their section of ground with a barrier
of low, pointed sticks, their points diagonally outward. Within this
barrier, the family squatted with their few possessions. There was no
such thing as privacy among this primitive group. The females of the
tribe apparently stayed within their family plots, with the young, the
extra spears and hunting sticks, the leftover supplies of food, and a
pile in the center of each circle of what must have been some sort of
blankets, apparently woven crudely from vegetable fibers. Robin assumed
that during the cold periods, these were used.
The males of the tribe were gathered before a central circle, watching
their visitors approach. Korree went to them, stopped, and spoke at
length. Robin could not understand him, but he knew what he must
be saying. His Glassie friend was obviously first boasting of his
friendship with the magical stranger, then warning them of terrible
consequences if they failed to obey and honor the stranger, doubtless
inserting a demand for his own full pardon of whatever tribal offense
had brought about his own banishment, and demanding the aid of the
tribal leaders in assisting them on their way.
When he had finished, Robin walked straight up to the Glassie with the
chest marking, reached out and extracted from the tip of his quivering
light-organ stalk a copper cent which Robin had first palmed in his
hand. To the astonished native, he presented this token--one of the
coins Robin had had in his pocket on his unexpected trip from New
Mexico.
The Glassie took it, stared at it. The face on the coppery-yellow coin
seemed to hypnotize him. No one had ever seen such a thing--a bit of
bright rock with a face on it! But this additional evidence of Robin's
magic clinched the argument.
Robin and Korree stayed in that cavern for about three days. In that
time Korree managed to obtain fairly specific directions from one
old-timer as to the cavern they sought. He had also evidently repaired
his tribal fences, for Robin could not fail to notice that Korree was
always accompanied by a group of anxious and placating Glassies. He
imagined that when Korree returned to stay, it would be as a chieftain.
The nature of the tribe's culture remained much of a mystery. They were
very primitive, yet they seemed to have a complicated series of taboos
and ceremonies. There was clearly a very definite code of marriage and
family relations, though its limitations were puzzling.
Robin discovered something about them, however. One of the circular
enclosures was apparently a tribal storehouse, or temple, or arsenal,
or magic circle--exactly what he could not tell--save that no family
lived within and there were little piles of oddities carefully placed
inside its magic circle. The penny Robin had "pulled from the chief's
head" reposed therein on a raised mound. The burnt match stick lay
beside it. The rest of the contents seemed to be curiously shaped
stones, odd bits of animal skin, a skeleton of something big and round
which might perhaps have been that of a Moonbowler slain by the hero of
the tribe. Several diamond spearheads were there, including some that
had fractured in use. And something that glistened like metal.
Robin saw this latter, and, stepping boldly inside the magic circle,
picked this object up and examined it. It was a knife blade!
It was nothing of Terrestrial manufacture. It was about nine inches
long and a couple of inches wide at the hilt, tapering down to a point.
It was edged on one side, and bore the marks of having been hammered
down and shaped by a hand mallet rather than ever having felt the heat
of a forge. Engraved in its rather soft white metal were a series of
odd hooks and lines that looked like writing of a sort. The hilt end
was jagged as if the blade had been snapped off in careless usage.
Robin called to Korree and asked him about the object. Korree consulted
with the chief and returned. "Sharp thing, it come from down-there
people," he said, pointing to the regions below. "Glassie of those die
in break of tunnel. We find, take this."
Well, Robin thought, this adds to the evidence. There is some sort of
higher civilization below. Not yet at the fire-building stage, but
advancing at the dawn of the Iron Age. I wonder if this is really
writing or just a design? And I wonder what metal this is? Not iron
surely.
He thought a while, then deciding that as a creature of magic he could
get away with it, informed Korree that he would take the knife blade
away with him. The Glassies seemed unconcerned. It was evident that
Robin was far outside their taboos.
The question of time among the Glassies was an odd one. The Earthling
had surmised as much in his observations of Korree. There seemed to be
no effort to divide the periods into rest and work. Some hunted and
worked when they felt like it, others slept at the same time.
When the time came, Robin and Korree made their way out of the cavern
upward along a ledge on one side of the bubble wall, through a fault
higher up and began to climb a sloping tunnel.
For several more days they traveled, always working upward, passing
through bubbles of gradually diminishing diameter and sparser
vegetation. At one point they waded through a shallow pond, at another
they choked in a sulfury cloud of gas that hung about. They squeezed
through ever tighter cracks, and the air began to get distinctly
thinner and harder to breathe. They were both getting exhausted quite
easily; Robin knew they were nearing the surface and the spongy mass of
the Moon's interior was tightening.
Then at last they stood in a tiny spherical bubble and gazed at a pool
of brackish water at one end. There were no cracks in this little
cave, no further tunnel or means of progress. "What now?" asked Robin,
turning to his companion. Had they taken the wrong turn and come to a
dead end?
Korree went over to the water pool. He gestured at it, made motions of
holding his breath. "We go down in here, move under and come up ...
out." He waved a hand in a down-and-under gesture. Robin looked into
the water. Maybe the Glassie was right. It was possible that the water
at the bottom passed into a fault and led into another cavern. But
could he risk it?
Korree nodded and without another word, suddenly jumped into the water,
spear and all, and vanished. Robin waited. In a little while Korree's
head appeared again and the Glassie climbed out. "Tunnel over there,"
he said, waving beyond the wall of the bubble. "Go up sharp."
Well, there was nothing to do but to try it. Robin set down his pack
and thought a moment. Cheeky the monkey was scampering around the floor
of the small bubble. Robin took off his jacket and shoes, took out of
his pocket anything that might be damaged by water, and leaped into the
pool.
It was an eerie sensation. The water was as dense as on Earth but its
weight was so much less. It seemed almost to lack substance as Robin
pushed through it, dived deep, and let himself come up again as far as
possible.
He broke water in total darkness. He was outside the cavern, but
exactly where he could not tell. Korree with his light organ had known
and that was sufficient. Robin reached for a bank, felt a sloping wall.
He grabbed it, pulled himself up in the darkness. That much was right.
There was a tunnel here running steeply upward. He sniffed the air. It
was strange--breathable, but strange. This part of the Moon enclosure
was certainly cut off from the other sections, that was certain.
Robin let himself back into the water, swam for the cavern, and came
up in it. He got hold of Cheeky, opened his pack, and extracted his
homemade space helmet. He stuffed the monkey into it, closed end
upward, and got into the water again. Moving swiftly under water, the
terrified animal clutching the inside of the helmet, Robin transferred
him to the other side, found a small level section by probing around,
and deposited the helmet. He returned for the rest of his pack by this
method, and finally everything was complete again in the new passage.
By the light of Korree's head, he saw that they were in a narrow tunnel
angling steeply upward. Robin's clothes and the pack had dried with
great speed in the thin air and the low gravity. They made their way
up this passage with difficulty and at last found themselves facing a
lighted opening.
They emerged into a new cavern, but one quite different from those
that had gone before. It was long, perhaps two or three miles long,
but narrow, not more than a hundred feet or so at the widest. Looking
upward, the steep perpendicular walls seemed to come together and
closed up tightly about a quarter of a mile high.
A faint phosphorescence dimly lighted the new area. As they walked on,
Robin became aware that there was no vegetation here, that his feet
were moving through light dust. He let it run through his fingers. It
felt chalky as pumice.
He looked around them again and then he realized that he had at last
reached the surface of the Moon. He was walking through the bottom of
a long crack in the surface, a cleft that had somehow closed up again
to preserve a cache of air. But this dust, this was the surface dust of
Luna, fallen to the bottom of the cleft!
As they walked, the dimness seemed to diminish. A whitish glow began
to envelop them. Robin blinked at the strange light. Things began to
take on strange colorations that he had not noticed before. He looked
upward and saw that the ceiling of the cleft no longer was bathed in
blackness. Instead there seemed a break there, a glassy glimmer through
which poured a dazzling white light.
Somewhere up there the crack had been sealed by volcanic action into
grayish natural glass. Somewhere outside the sun was shining down upon
the Moon. Its rays were bathing the surface above the concealed cleft
and some were finding their way down. For the first time in many long
and difficult months Robin felt warmth and light together. He had
reached the sunlight!
_13. The Sun and the Trap_
There had been a distinct chill in the strange surface canyon, but from
the moment that the white sunlight began to stream in, there was a
definite warming effect. The rays were diffused by the substance above
which sealed the cleft, yet the sun was strong while it lasted. Robin
felt good as he bathed in its rays. He looked at himself, at Korree, in
wonder.
For the clear white light was the first normal lighting he had seen
in all the time he had been marooned below. Now he received the first
true color visualization of himself and his companion. He saw from
his hands that he had become very pale-skinned; all his normal tan
had been lost in the cavern worlds. He unpacked the bright, gleaming
space helmet and used it as a makeshift mirror. His hair had faded to a
light blond, and there were several white hairs now visible, the result
presumably of his period of exposure to the unshielded rays of the sun
during his passage through space.
In the clear light Korree seemed even more transparent than ever,
and indeed Robin could make out the shadowy, pulsating shapes of his
internal organs quite clearly--his skeleton standing out sharply. He
realized how dim and abnormal the phosphorescence of the caverns had
really been.
Reshouldering his pack, they continued up the deep canyon. In a little
while, the gray ashy surface gave way to sandy soil and there was a
dampness in the air that indicated the presence of one of the deposits
of water. Now the familiar Lunar vegetation was making its presence
known and before long they were wandering through a very dense thicket
of huge ball-trees and plants.
Robin had never seen such a dense jungle growth on the Moon before and
he attributed it to the occasional bath of sunlight this one cavern
received. It was like a hothouse, a natural one, more or less sealed
with a high dampness, natural warmth augmented by screened sunlight.
Soon the two found themselves forcing their way single file through the
growth, while Cheeky swung into the tops and made his own way, happy
in the sort of thick, warm forest his monkey nature demanded. Robin
pushed his way through first, with Korree following in the path the
Earthling cleared.
Robin went on through the jungle, struggling in spite of his powerful
Earth muscles to push his pack along. After a while he stopped to rest,
looked back. He saw behind him only the bruised and broken stalks of
the ball-trees he'd passed through. There was no sign of Korree.
Robin stared, but the forest was too thick to allow much vision. He set
the pack down, called, "Korree!"
There was no answer. Somewhere in the distance a stalk snapped. Robin
called again. Still no answer. He started back a few steps, retracing
his path, but there was still no sign of his Glassie friend.
He suddenly felt uneasy. What was going on here? How had his companion
vanished? He went back to where he had left his pack, waited, again
calling his friend's name. But still there was no answer. There were
more crackling noises somewhere in the thick vegetation. Perhaps Korree
was in trouble there?
Robin turned in that direction, started to push through the barrier of
tree stalks. Suddenly there was a rushing noise, a chorus of shrieks
all around, and something heavy fell around him.
He whirled, but something sticky and tight was encircling his body. He
caught glimpses of glasslike, one-eyed faces jumping around him, hiding
in the branches, shrieking. He struggled again to free himself but the
encircling Glassies threw more of the sticky ropes around him, more
things like barrel staves that fell and tied him up.
He struggled to use his full strength against them but his arms were
pinned to his sides, he was tight amid the stalks and he could not
brace himself. Fight as he might, he was caught, and he saw that there
were stalk-ropes attached to those that had trapped him and these were
being further secured by the creatures around him.
He stopped struggling, quieted. It was obviously no use to waste his
strength. Let's see what they intend to do next, he thought.
For a while they did nothing. Then his Glassie captors--he still could
see little of them so thick was the jungle--seemed to be working their
way together so that all their attached ropes were soon leading off in
the same direction. Then they started to pull.
Had Robin chosen to resist it might have become a fruitless tug of war,
but he did not. He had decided that his best course was to go along
with them. Doubtless they would lead him to their village or at least
to an open space where his great Earth strength might then come into
better play.
For a while, therefore, he allowed himself to be led through the
Moontree forest, dragging himself enough to give his captors a workout.
Robin had cagily decided that the more tired they were when they
finally arrived, the better for him.
After a time the thicket of plants came to an end and Robin found
himself, as he had presumed, at the native settlement. Unlike the ones
he had seen in Korree's home cavern, these Glassies were cavemen. They
evidently made their homes in a section of this narrow surface-cleft
where one of the walls was greatly pocked with holes and openings.
The cliff walls were apparently quite like pumice here. Under the
circumstances and because of the limited width of the area, it was
quite logical that the inhabitants should have made use of these holes.
There were several dozen such cave entrances and Robin could see a
fair number of Glassies around them, including women and young ones.
His captors, he now saw, numbered about fifteen, all male hunters like
Korree. They hustled him along to a central cave, whose entrance was
decorated with blue circles, clearly the designation of their chief.
Korree was already there, tied, as was Robin. He looked relieved to see
the Earthling, and also a little puzzled at seeing that Robin too was a
prisoner.
"They catch me when Robin not looking," he said, explaining the
obvious. "I not like these Glassies' ways. I think they mean kill."
Robin looked around at them. "We'll see. Back in my land, we have a
saying, 'There's many a slip between the cup and the lip.' I think we
will get away. Wait and watch."
Korree immediately showed relief. He had a profound faith in Robin's
magical abilities. To him, therefore, Robin's lack of fright was enough
evidence that all was really well.
The band gathered before the chief's cave was waiting. Presently a
voice came from the cave darkness. It questioned one of the captors,
who turned and repeated the query to Korree. Korree answered at length,
and his answer in turn was repeated into the cave.
At Robin's query, Korree said that he had just informed the hidden
chief that Robin was a great man-beast who would destroy them all if he
was not immediately released and placated.
More cave talk and interchange. There was a delay for a while and
Robin could faintly hear voices within the cave, as if the chief were
discussing the matter with someone else. Then a command was issued. The
captors pulled on the ropes and urged Korree and Robin to the door of
another cave. They pushed them into this and rolled a large boulder in
front of the cave mouth to block their exit.
It was dark inside the cave but not so dark that they could not see
that it was about twenty feet long and that there were a number of
piles of stuff around, food possibly, or remnants of things. Korree and
Robin eased themselves down on the hard floor.
Robin studied the vegetable cords that bound him. He twisted his hands
and pulled until he got his elbow up where he could exert pressure.
Then he strained against one of the bonds. In a few seconds it parted
and broke. In this way he snapped bond after bond until he was free. He
was sticky from them, for the stalks had been soaked in some sort of
adhesive substance which had made them so effective. But the strength
of Earth muscles was more than they had ever held before.
Next Robin went to work on Korree's bonds and broke them off one by
one. The two silently stretched their cramped bodies. Korree glanced
back at the dark end of the cave and his headlight organ glowed
brightly for a moment. Something among the bundles was stirring
slightly. Korree said quietly, "Another prisoner or a listener?"
Robin looked. Yes, there was something over there, apparently tied up
also. It might be a Glassie prisoner, or it might be some one of his
captors trying to spy on them. He shrugged. Let them try. They couldn't
understand English.
The two sat down near the entrance, conversed quietly. Korree was of
the opinion that the Glassies would eventually kill them in some sort
of ceremony. Robin never had found out how different tribes of Glassies
acted toward each other. Evidently they did not make war, but neither
did they have much contact or exchange. In general, they treated each
other like suspicious strangers, avoiding contact whenever possible.
But it seemed now that when strangers did force their way into
unwelcome tribal caverns, death was the result. This was fairly typical
of the most primitive savages on Earth and it was evidently a rule for
that level of culture anywhere in the universe.
For a while then they sat silently, thinking about their plight. Robin,
somehow, was not too worried. He had become so used to the superiority
of his muscles that he felt that he could eventually manage his escape
when the time came. The question was, where could he escape to? This
particular region was not actually a part of the honeycomb of Luna's
interior--it was a cleft sealed in by a trick of volcanic fate on the
very surface. Probably it had no other exit than the one which led into
it.
Again, escape though he might, could he save Korree too? He thought
about it in silence. Korree broke the meditations. "Have hunger. Is
food here?"
"There must be some around," said Robin, glancing back at the things in
the rear of their prison-cave. The figure back there stirred a bit. And
then there was a mumbling sound and a voice said something. The voice
was deep and strong, unlike the sound of a Glassie's tongue. But Robin
could not understand it. Korree too looked and listened.
"Did you understand him?" Robin asked his companion.
Korree shook his head. Now at the sound of Robin's words occurred the
most astonishing surprise that Robin had yet encountered. The unseen
speaker spoke again:
"Who is that? Is there someone here who speaks English?"
It was a human voice! It spoke Robin's language, though the intonation
and accent were not quite right. Robin and Korree hastened back to
the rear of their cave to the reclining figure of the speaker. In the
light of Korree's head-stalk, it was indeed a man, an Earth man!
He was lying, tied hand and foot, on a pile of scraps, but he was
raising his head, staring at them eagerly. He was a young man,
evidently not much older than Robin. His blue eyes looked at them with
relief and he smiled widely.
"You are a human! I thought I was dreaming when I heard a voice I could
understand. You must be an American ... then the Americans must have
beaten us here after all!"
Robin knelt down by the man, worked at his bonds. They were tight,
real cord of nylon or some Earth-made substance. It took the combined
strength of the two of them to finally open the knots and free the man.
"Who are you?" Robin asked, as he worked. "Do you have a rocket on the
surface?"
The man got to his feet, rubbed his muscles. He was dressed in a simple
blue one-piece flyer's coverall. He was taller and slimmer than Robin,
and his hair was tousled and reddish.
"My name is Piotr Ivanovitch Kareff," he said, bowing with a European
gracefulness. "I regret to tell you that my rocket is indeed on the
surface--but there it will stay forever. We crashed. But I am so glad
to see you. You do not know how glad."
Robin shook hands. "I hate to disappoint you, but I must tell you that
we are in the same predicament. I have no rocket here. I was hoping
when I heard your voice that you might have one we could go back in."
The other looked confused, shook his head. "No rocket? Oh, that is too
bad. Very bad."
The Glassie, who had been watching them without understanding too much
of the rapid-fire quality of normal speech, suddenly said, "Have hunger
much. Is food here."
He turned his back on the two men, pawed through the scraps on the cave
floor, coming up with some of the provisions that Robin had packed with
him.
"I'm hungry, also," said the Russian. "They have not fed me since they
threw me in here. Is this stuff good to eat?"
"Try it," said Robin and the three sat down and ate. Robin sat munching
and stared at the other man. The first human he had seen in almost two
years. A real live man! But where did he come from? How did he get
here? And how was it he was a prisoner?
For a while after they had finished, they looked at each other. The
Russian spoke. "You must have a story to tell me, Robin Carew. How did
you say you got here?"
Robin briefly outlined what had happened to him, the other listening
attentively. When Robin had finished, he asked, "Now I want to know
about you? It's your turn."
"Yes," said Piotr, "I shall tell you."
_14. The Man From Lake Baikal_
"I was an orphan of World War II," said Piotr Ivanovitch Kareff in a
quiet voice, speaking precise English with a fair fluency. "My family
were all vanished, I know not what happened to them. I was brought back
to Russia by our soldiers and sent to a state school in the Urals set
up to take care of such as myself.
"There I was a good scholar and I made myself good marks. When I was
old enough, I qualified for study at a higher institute and was sent
to a college for engineers. I was always interested in astronomy and
rocket aviation and I was therefore trained along those lines.
"When I was eighteen, I was allowed to continue my engineering
education as a part of my military duty. I was in the army, yet still
studying, only this time I was stationed at one of the big experimental
centers we have deep in Siberia. You probably do not know about them.
They are very secret.
"The one I was at was located near the shores of Lake Baikal, the big
inland sea in Central Asia near Mongolia. This was the biggest center
for the study of liquid-fuel rockets. While I learned the theory, I
also worked on the actual projects and helped fire many of our big
rockets. These were designed after the German V-_2, the same designs
you Americans are also building on. We, too, had captured German
scientists who had worked on these. They had much to show us, and one
of the smartest of these men was the Captain Von Borck who even became
a member of the party or so he said.