She radiated a warm eagerness as she initiated the game all over again
with a kiss and then went sprinting toward the front of the house. He
watched her disappear through the next room, then went out the nearest
door, heading for the fence and his ship beyond. It had required no
small degree of restraint not to go racing off after her.
At the corner of the manor he was bowled over by a shouting Papa who
was in full flight as he shot out around a hedge, heading for the guest
house.
"All your fault it is!" he cried, recovering his balance and plunging
on. "You it be who caused this! that I'll remember!"
Cassidy sat up, arms resting on his updrawn knees, and stared after the
old man.
"Ow! Riva! Ouch!" Papa clutched his rear as he neared the cottage.
"Help! Oh, my aching back!"
* * * * *
Cassidy found Mason frozen in the shadow of the ship, fascinated by
another girl chase that was in progress nearby.
The swirl of action swerved toward him and Mason tensed, shifting from
one foot to the other. With the wind pressing her clothes in revealing
tightness about her, the flaxen-haired sprite swept past and he lunged
for her.
"Mason!" Cassidy shouted.
"Seemed like a good idea," Mason explained, checking himself. "Wonder
what it takes to get in on that chase."
Cassidy forced a fetching thought of Riva out of his mind. "What we
ought to be wondering is how soon we can blast off."
"But if we get spaceborne before the stabilizer's working, we'll only
be floundering around again."
Cassidy started for the ladder. "There's one thing we _can_ do--patch
up the hatches and jump over to another spot on this planet. Maybe
we'll find somebody who's normal, at least."
But Mason caught his arm and pointed toward Riva's estate where a
skimmer car was now parked on the side of the manor opposite the guest
house.
"Anybody who can drive one of those things," he suggested, "must know
something about the city and how to get there. Maybe he'll even give us
a lift."
* * * * *
Mason circled the skimmer craft. "It's a fine piece of workmanship," he
said in admiration.
"I'll say," Cassidy agreed. "If we can find out where that was made,
I'm sure we'll--"
His vision was suddenly cut off by a pair of hands that came around his
head from behind and clamped themselves over his eyes. If he had any
doubt as to the identity of their owner, it was soon cleared up by a
soft voice next to his ear:
"Not right this is. It's chasing _me_ you're supposed to be."
"Riva," he said, facing her, "we'd like to meet the person who came
here in that skimmer."
"Excuses, excuses," she complained. "Always something more important
than a chase it is."
"Take us to the driver of that thing," Mason prompted. "We--"
But he tensed and stared up in alarm toward the field. Cassidy followed
his gaze to the skimmer vehicle that had earlier reduced a pile of
trash to nothing. The craft was just now floating up to their ship.
Its two beams of sizzling red light swept over the hull from stem to
stern, again and again--until there was nothing left of their ship but
incandescent molten metal.
Mason displayed a sickened, then resigned expression, thrust his hands
in his pockets and shuffled off toward the field.
"Getting in on one of those chases I think I'll be," he said.
But he paused outside the fence, turned to say something, then lurched
back. "Cassidy! Watch out! There's one of those things!"
The spider-octopus came into view from around the rear of the manor
and crawled leisurely toward the guest house. Its body, covered with a
multitude of eyes and an unkempt mat of fuzz, was like a coal-black
knob perched atop hairy stilts.
Evidently, Cassidy guessed as he dived behind a hedge and pulled the
girl with him, the thing had gotten away from its master, for it was
trailing its leash in the dust.
"It's hurt you he won't," Riva assured, quite puzzled over his
apprehension. "He belongs to--"
But Cassidy clamped a hand over her mouth.
The thing reached the guest house and made a queer noise in front of
the door.
Papa came outside on the double.
The spider-octopus picked up the other end of the thong and clamped its
braceletlike device around the old man's wrist.
Grinning, Papa pulled toward the gate, straining at the leash.
Eventually, Cassidy was aware of Riva's smiling, inquisitive face in
front of his.
"Play?" she invited.
And, glancing back at the charred remains of his ship, he didn't see
why not.