"The way the theater crowd acted. It all ties in."
The old woman shook her head. "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple
quiz program. The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is
happening all over the System. There have been riots on Earth and Mars,
police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by
representation be abolished on Jupiter. The time is ripe for a military
dictator to step in.
"And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. It seems incredible that a
single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in
my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand
times more potent and is transmiting it _en masse_."
If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would
have called her a fool. And then all at once I got an odd feeling of
approaching danger.
"Let's get out of here," I said, getting up.
_Zinnng-whack!_
"All right!"
On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks
appeared. On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the
fresco seemed to melt away suddenly.
A heat ray!
Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the
door. Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. The old
woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and
threw over the starting stud.
An instant later we were plunging through the dark night.
* * * * *
Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last
outpost of firm ground. Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as
the eye could reach. Low islands projected at intervals from the thick
water. Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray
sky like puffs of cotton.
We had traveled this far by _ganet_, the tough little two headed pack
animal of the Venus hinterland. Any form of plane or rocket would have
had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force
belt that encircled the planet's equator. Now our drivers changed to
boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy _jagua_ canoes.
It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her
confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City.
"We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. "If we find
Ezra Karn so much the better. If we don't, we follow his directions to
the lost space ship. Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. You
see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the
ship."
Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours
tossing restlessly. The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned
steadily. And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi
just before retiring still lingered in my mind. To a casual observer
that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an
isolated crime there. But viewed from the perspective Grannie had
given me, everything dovetailed. The situation on Jupiter was swiftly
coming to a head. Not only had the people on that planet demanded that
representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held
to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control.
Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. I got up and strode out of my
tent. For some time I stood there, lost in thought. Could I believe
Grannie's incredible story? Or was this another of her fantastic plots
which she had skilfully blended into a novel?
Abruptly I stiffened. The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. In its
place a ringing silence blanketed everything.
And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in
undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. Fascinated, I watched
it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk.
It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat.
There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. Sharp
talons raked my clothing. Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly,
missing the thing by the narrowest of margins.
From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress
appeared. Grannie gave a single warning:
"Stand still!"
The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us
again. This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of
purple flame shot outward. A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the
air. A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the
ground and shot aloft.
[Illustration: _Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed._]