For that instant the imperious, angry figure of Tara checked the
climbing rabble. Their shouts rose higher, but as she grimly gestured,
the shouts died into a low muttering murmur. And then she began
speaking. For just a moment her imperious words in their own tongue
held them. Most of them had stopped milling now, staring up at her,
muttering sullenly. Her voice rose above it. Then from his rock, Zogg
was shouting and the mob caught it up, mutterings that rose again into
screams as the rear ranks again began shoving forward.
Poor little Tara. For an instant she tried to shout above the din. And
then suddenly she stopped, dropped her arms and on her face was the
pathos of disillusionment. Her father's ideals, bred in her, clattering
down now like a house of cards upon her.
The mob, frenzied again, was surging up the slope now. A thrown missile
came hurtling past us, a rock that crashed into a lacery of ice-veil
above us and brought it down upon us. Then other rocks, stones, a
variety of missiles showered us. Behind me I was aware that the
terrified servants and Tara's guards had fled.
"Tara," I gasped. "No use--"
I gripped her, trying to draw her away; and she stared at me with eyes
in which tears now were gathering. "Oh, John--"
"Come--run," I muttered. "You lead us--out to the upper surface--"
We started back into the garden....
"Here they are, damn them--"
It was Duroh's growling, triumphant voice! I whirled. He and Carruthers
were here in the garden glade, with Alan behind them. Near them were
two or three of the little white Zurian guards who evidently had
released them. They stood confused as Carruthers, snarling, whipped out
a heat-gun and leaped for me. Its sizzling violet bolt stabbed, missed
me as I leaped under it; and I struck him with my lowered head. We went
down, rolling, locked together in wild scrambling combat. Above us, as
we lunged and struggled with flailing fists, I could see that Duroh had
gestured at Alan to help Carruthers. He himself had leaped for Tara,
seized her as she fought like a little wildcat, with a knife in her
hand now, trying to stab him. Carruthers' gun had dropped from his hand
with my onslaught. He was a damnably agile fellow. He twisted on top of
me, his hands fumbling at my throat to strangle me.
The confused, terrified Zurians had decamped. I saw in that second
that Alan, unarmed, was standing numbed. Duroh thought he would leap
to finish me up, of course. But he did not. Suddenly Alan seemed to
realize that Duroh's huge arms were around Tara, his hand twisting the
knife from her, his leering, grinning face pressing down with a caress
upon hers.
And then Alan swiftly stooped, seized a blue-white ragged chunk of ice
at his feet, and leaped at Duroh. The huge ice-chunk crashed on Duroh's
head and he fell, with the raging little Alan upon him, crashing his
head again and again. But the knife in Duroh's hand was stabbing....
"Got you--" Carruthers leered. His hands throttled me. He did not
see what was going on above him as he sprawled down upon me while
momentarily I lay limp. But he didn't have me. My sudden unexpected
heave caught him off balance, broke his hold on my throat. And I
tumbled him off. The little heat-gun was lying here and I seized it.
Its bolt seared full into his face, shriveling, blackening the flesh
with a ghastly stench. He was dead in that second, with his face a
bubbling, pulpy mass of horror.
"John--he--he's stabbed--dying--"
* * * * *
Tara's voice called to me as I rose. Duroh, with his skull cracked,
was dead, and beside him Alan lay with Duroh's knife buried in his
chest, a ghastly crimson stain spreading over his shirt-front. His eyes
were open, glazing. They seemed to focus on me, and his lips, on which
bloody foam was gathering, twisted into a smile. Then he gasped faintly.
"I did something worthwhile--in my new world--didn't I? That's--good--I
guess I'm--glad--"
A gush of blood from his mouth choked him. Tara was down beside him,
her hand on his. He was trying to smile at her as the light went out of
his eyes and he died.
"Oh, John--"
I was aware that the shouts from the oncoming mob were much louder now.
Rocks were clattering into the arcade opening.
"Tara--we've got to--"
It seemed too late. In the opening three or four of the mob appeared,
brandishing their weapons. My gun spat its sizzling bolt. One of the
men screamed, leaped and fell. The others scattered as I ran forward.
On the ledge, with Tara behind me, I stared down at the advancing mob.
The first milling ranks of it were hardly more than fifty feet from the
top. My bolt hissed again; another man fell....
"John--oh, please--my people--" Tara's hand checked me. But I could
not be sure, if we tried to retreat, but that the frenzied throng
would be able to overtake us. Then with sudden thought I adjusted the
gun to a spreading heat-beam. The wave of heat leaped down--again and
again--heat diffused over a wide area, not intense enough to kill. But
before it the leaders of the Zurians staggered back, terrified, with
their hands before their faces. The mob behind them wavered. Down at
the bottom of the slope, others were pressing upward. In a moment it
was a milling, scrambling crowd with panic spreading. And then the
wavering ranks of it began rolling back until it was a rout....
"Tara, come--hurry--they'll be after us in a moment--"
* * * * *
White-faced, with sorrow in her eyes mingled with wonderment, as though
still she could not believe this catastrophe, she nodded. She led me as
we ran, plunging down into the maze of tortuous corridors. Breathless,
panting, we ran; rested a moment in a dim, glowing passage--and ran
again.
"Oh, John--"
"Don't talk, Tara--keep going--"
It seemed that we could hear muffled shouts far behind us. But
presently we outdistanced them, and then at last, after an eternity, we
came safely out onto the upper surface.
It was night; glittering starlight on this doomed little world, heading
for the heat of our giant sun.
And there, quite near us, was the dark little globe of the _Planeteer_,
with the starlight glittering on its glassite dome-top.
"Wait, Tara--just a moment--" Unexpectedly, here on the sloshing
half-melted surface, I came upon the pickaxe, shovel and big canvas
bags, which Carruthers had dropped here when we were captured. The
sword-slash of gray Xalite ore was visible, a gleaming inlay in the
cliff-face nearby. I ran there. It chipped out readily under the axe
and then I shoveled it up, stuffed a hundred pounds or so of it into a
bag and staggered away.
The _Planeteer_. Never was anything so welcome as that lower little
door-oval. I tossed the bag into it. Barely in time. From over by the
cliff, the first of the pursuing Zurians were pouring out.
"Hurry! Get inside, Tara--I'll close the door--"
Mutely she obeyed. The oncoming Zurians were led by a huge figure.
Zogg. Grimly I leveled my gun, sizzled a bolt which struck him full,
crumpled him. It checked the others for a moment as I slammed the
_Planeteer's_ door and with Tara rushed up to its upper control turret.
The mechanisms hummed as they went into operation.
And then slowly, silently, we lifted. The Zurians were in a horde down
there around the _Planeteer_, milling and scrambling. A few of them
dropped off as we rose, up into the starlight with the strange little
world sliding away beneath us.
* * * * *
"Tell me more of what I will see on earth," Tara said.
The _Planeteer's_ journey was nearing its end. In the pale glittering
starlight, Tara and I sat in the control room, watching the approaching
earth, which was spread in a great crescent before us.
"You're too warm, Tara?"
"No, I'm getting used to it."
"The cold, on Zura--you never felt it?"
"I was born to that," she said. "My father, when I was a little girl,
he did everything to make me fitted for it. But I will like earth's
warmth."
Then again, as a hundred times before, I was telling her of earth--the
things that we were going to do there together. She was seated now on
a blanket on the floor-grid. Her knees were hunched up to her chin,
with her hands clasping them and her eager little face over her rounded
knees turned to me. Just an interested little earthgirl, making plans.
And presently I sat beside her on the blanket, with my arm around her,
and her head tilted so that her cheek was resting against my shoulder.
Then we fell silent as we stared out to the approaching crescent of
earth.
Good or bad--our world.