_At Bay_
"Gregg, you're safe!"
She had heard the camp corridors resounding with the shouts that Wilks
and Haljan were fighting. She had come upon a suit and helmet by the
manual emergency lock, had run out through the lock, confused, with
her only idea to stop Wilks and me from fighting. Then she had seen
one of us killed. Impulsive, barely knowing what she was doing, she
mounted the stairs, frantic to find if I were alive.
"Anita!"
Miko was coming! She had not seen him: for she had no thought of
brigands--only the belief that either Wilks or I had been killed.
But now, as for an instant we stood together on the rocks near the
observation platform, I could see the towering figure of Miko nearing
the top of the stairs.
"Anita, that's Miko! We must run."
Then I saw my bullet projector. It lay in a bowl-like depression quite
near us. I jumped for it. And as I tore loose from Anita, she leaped
down after me. It was a broken bowl in the rocks, some six feet deep.
It was open on the side facing the staircase--a narrow, ravinelike
gully, full of gray, broken, tumbled rock-masses. The little gully was
littered with crags and boulders. But I could see out through it.
Miko had come to the head of the staircase. He stopped there, his
great figure etched sharply by the Earthlight. I think he must have
known that Coniston was the one who had fallen over the cliff, as my
helmet and Coniston's were different enough for him to recognize which
was which. He did not know who I was, but he did know me for an enemy.
* * * * *
He stood now at the summit, peering to see where we had gone. He was
no more than fifty feet from us.
"Anita, lie down."
I pulled her down on the rocks. I took aim with the bullet projector.
But I had forgotten our helmet-lights. Miko must have seen them just
as I pulled the trigger. The flying bullet missed him as he jumped
sidewise. He dropped, but I could see him moving in the shadows to
where a jutting rock gave him shelter. I fired again.
"Gregg."
I had stood up to take aim. I saw the bullet chip a bit of rock. Anita
pulled me sharply down beside her.
"Gregg, he's armed!"
It was his turn to fire. It came--the familiar vague flash of the
paralyzing ray. It spat its tint of color on the rocks near us, but
could not reach us.
Miko rose a moment later and bounded to another rock. I scrambled up,
and shot at him, but missed. Then he crouched and returned my fire
from his new angle; but Anita and I had shifted.
Time passed--only a few moments. I could not see Miko momentarily.
Perhaps he was crouching; perhaps he had moved away again. He was, or
had been, on slightly higher ground than the bottom of our bowl. It
was dim down here where we were lying, but I feared that every moment
Miko might appear and strike at us. His ray at any short range would
penetrate our visor-panes, even though our suits might temporarily
resist it.
"Anita--it's too dangerous here."
Had I been alone, I might perhaps have leaped up to lure Miko. But
with Anita I did not dare chance it.
"We've got to get back to the camp," I told her. The audiphone brought
her comment:
"Perhaps he has gone."
* * * * *
But he had not. We saw him again, out in a distant patch of
Earthlight. He was further from us than before, but on still higher
ground. We had extinguished our small helmet-lights. But he knew we
were here, and possibly he could see us. His projector flashed again.
But we had again shifted, and were untouched. He was a hundred feet or
more away now. His weapon was of longer range than mine. I did not
answer his fire, for I could not hope to hit him at such a distance,
and the flash of my weapon would help him with his aim.
I murmured to Anita, "We must get out of here."
Yet how did I dare take Anita from these concealing shadows? Miko
could reach us so easily as we bounded away, in plain view in the
Earthlight of the open summit! We were caught, at bay in this little
bowl.
The camp from here was not visible. But out through the broken gully,
beyond the staircase top, a white beam of light suddenly came up from
below.
"_Haljan._"
It spelled the signal.
"_Haljan._"
It was coming from the Grantline instrument room, I knew.
I could answer it with my helmet-light, but I did not dare. I
hesitated.
"Try it," urged Anita.
* * * * *
We crouched where we thought we might be safe from Miko's fire. My
little light-beam shot up from the bowl. It was undoubtedly visible to
the camp.
"_Yes? I am Haljan._"
And I added:
"_Help! Send us help._"
I did not mention Anita. Miko could doubtless read these signals. And
in the camp they must have missed Anita by now. They answered:
"_Cannot_--"
I lost the rest of it. There came a flash from Miko's weapon. But it
gave us confidence. He could not reach us at the moment.
The Grantline beam repeated:
"_Cannot come out. Portes broken. You cannot get in. Stay where you
are--an hour or two. We may be able to repair portes._"
The portes were broken! Stay here an hour or two! But I could not hold
this position against Miko that long! Sooner or later he would find a
place from where he could sweep this bowl beyond possibility of our
hiding. I saw him running now, well beyond my range, to ferret out
another point of vantage.
I extinguished my light. What use was it to tell Grantline anything
further? Besides, my light was dangerous.
But the Grantline beam spelled another message:
"_The brigand ship is coming! It will be here before we can get out to
you! No lights! We will try and hide our location._"
And the signal-beam brought a last appeal to me:
"_Miko and his men will divulge where we are. Unless you can stop
them_--"
The beam vanished. The lights of the Grantline camp made a faint glow
that showed above the crater-edge. The glow died, as the camp now was
plunged into darkness.