They worked hard at shifting the cargo into the cache, but the
Nameless Sun was beginning to slide down behind the mountains before
they were finished. And by the time Channok had rammed the tunnel
full of rocks with the tractor and cemented them into a glassy plug
with the drill-blast, and scattered a camouflaging mess of boulders
over everything, only a foggy red glow over the mountain crests,
half obscured by the lingering upper drifts of the explosion of the
_Ra-Twelve_, remained of the day.
There was no moon, but the sky had come full of stars big and little
over the opposite section of the plain; and so there was light enough
to make out the dark hump of the Mound in the distance. Every time
Channok looked in that direction, the low, sinister pile seemed to have
edged a little closer; and he looked as often as his work gave him a
chance to do it. Santis might have been right in stating that the Mound
wasn't dangerous if you didn't get too close to it--but the instant he
suspected there might be something going on over there, Channok was
going to hop off the tractor, grab up Peer and get off Old Nameless at
the best speed he and the _Asteroid_ could produce.
However, the Mound remained quiet. With everything done, he gave Peer
a last ride back to the _Asteroid_ on the tractor, ran it up the ramp
into the storage section and closed the rear lock. Then they discovered
they'd left their lunch containers lying among the rocks.
If he'd been alone, Channok would have left them there. But Peer looked
so matter-of-fact about it that he detached the tractor's headlight and
started back with her on foot. It was only a couple of hundred yards,
and they found the containers without any difficulty. The Mound seemed
to have moved a little closer again, but not too much. He gave it only
a casual glance this time.
"Where are your friends, the ghouls?" he inquired, shining the light
around the rocks as they started back. The grisly creatures had put
in a few cautious appearances during the afternoon, but their nerves
seemed to have suffered even more than his own from all that had
happened.
"The ghouls always hit their burrows at sundown," Peer explained.
"They're not like the story ones."
"What do they find to eat around here?" Channok inquired.
"Some sorts of rocks. They've got no real teeth but their mouth is like
a grinder inside. Most of the rest of their insides, too, Santis said.
I had a tame one I used to pitch stones at and he'd snap 'em up. But
all that weren't blue he'd spit out. The blue ones went right down--you
could hear them crunching for about a foot."
"What a diet!" Channok commented. Then he stopped short. "Say, Peer! If
they bite like that, they could chew right into our cache!"
"They won't," said Peer. "Come on."
"How do you know?" Channok asked, following her.
"They can't bite through a good grade of steel-alloy. And they don't
like its taste anyhow. Santis said so."
* * * * *
Well, it had been Santis this and Santis that for quite a while now!
Peer's father seemed to be on record with a definite opinion on just
about everything. And what made him think he knew what a ghoul liked to
chew on?
Perhaps Channok couldn't be blamed too much. He was dog-tired and dirty
and hungry. He'd killed his first two men that day, and not in fair
fight either but with an assassin's sneak thrusts, from behind and by
trickery; and he'd buried them, too. He'd seen the shining ISS disclose
itself in action as something very tarnished and ugly, and a salvaged
ship worth a fortune go up in a cloud of writhing grey smoke....
There had been a number of other things--close shaves that had felt too
close, mostly.
At any rate, Channok stated, in flat unequivocal terms, that he didn't
wish to hear anything else that Santis had said. Not ever!
"You're taking the wrong attitude," Peer informed him, frowning.
"Santis is a very smart man. He could teach you a lot!"
"What makes you think I want to learn anything from a space-rat?"
Channok inquired, exasperated.
Peer stopped short. "That was a dirty thing to say!" she said in a low,
furious voice. "I'm not talking to you any more."
She drew away till there was a space of about six feet between them and
marched on briskly towards the _Asteroid_, looking straight ahead.
Channok had to hurry to keep abreast of her. He watched her in the
starlight for a few moments from the corners of his eyes. He probably
shouldn't have used that term--the half-pint did look good and mad!
"Tsk! Tsk!" he said, disturbed.
Peer said nothing. She walked a bit faster. Channok lengthened his
stride again.
"Who's my nice little girl friend?" he inquired wheedlingly.
"Shuddup!" growled Peer.
She climbed into the _Asteroid_ ahead of him and disappeared while he
sealed the locks. The control room was dark, but he felt she was around
somewhere. He switched on the power and the instruments. Familiar
dim pools of green and pink gleamings sprang up in quick sequence
like witchfire quivering over the control desk. Perhaps it wasn't an
exceptionally beautiful sight, but it looked home-like to Channok. Like
fires lighting up on a hearth.
"Well, let's see you handle this take-off!" he invited the shadows
around him briskly. This time there weren't any mountains nearby to
worry about.
"You handle it," Peer said from behind his shoulder. "It's my turn to
laugh."
She did, too, a few minutes later--loud and long! After he'd got
over the first shock of narrowly missing the Mound, Channok gave a
convincing imitation of a chagrined pilot and indignantly blamed the
_Asteroid_....
* * * * *
He'd guided them halfway out of the Nameless System when she
came behind the control chair in the dark, wrapped her arms in a
stranglehold around his neck, and fondly bit his ear.
"Cut it out," Channok choked.
"Just the same," stated Peer, loosening her grip a trifle, "you're
_not_ so smart, like Santis is!"
"I'm not, eh?"
"No," said Peer. "But Santis said you would be some time. 'That
Channok's going to make a real spacer!' he said. 'Just give him a
chance to catch on.'"
"Well," Channok muttered, secretly flattered, "we'll hope he was right."
"And, anyway," said Peer, "I _LOVE_ you just as much!"
"Well, that's something, too!" Channok admitted. He was beginning to
feel very much better.
"And guess what I've got here," Peer said tenderly.
"What?"
"A nice, soapy cloth. For what you said when you saw the first ghoul.
So just open that big trap right up now, Channy!"
He couldn't tell in the dark; but it tasted like she'd taken the
trouble to mix something extra foul into the soap lather, too.
"And after you've stopped spitting bubbles," said crew-member Peer, who
was switching on all lights to observe that part of the business, "I'll
tell you what I saw on the Mound."
Channok shuddered.
"If you don't mind, Peer," he suggested soapily, "let's wait with that
till we're a lightyear or two farther out!"