"Won't make me miserable," said Snap. "I love an argument. You said,
Sir Arthur--"
"I mean to say, I think I said too much. Mr. Rankin, you are more
diplomatic."
Rankin laughed. "I am a magician," he said to me. "A theatrical
entertainer. I deal in tricks--how to fool an audience--" His keen,
amused gaze was on Ob Hahn. "This gentleman from Venus and I have too
much in common to argue."
"A nasty one!" the Englishman exclaimed. "By Jove! Really, Mr. Rankin,
you're a bit too cruel!"
I could see we were doomed to have turbulent meals this voyage. I
like to eat in quiet; arguing passengers always annoy me. There were
still three seats vacant at our table; I wondered who would occupy
them. I soon learned the answer--for one seat at least. Rankin said
calmly:
"Where is the little Venus girl this meal?" His glance went to the
empty seat at my right hand. "The Venza, isn't that her name? She and
I are destined for the same theater in Ferrok-Shahn."
So Venza was to sit beside me. It was good news. Ten days of a
religious argument three times a day would be intolerable. But the
cheerful Venza would help.
"She never eats the midday meal," said Snap. "She's on the deck,
having orange juice. I guess it's the old gag about diet, eh?"
My attention wandered about the salon. Most of the seats were
occupied. At the Captain's table I saw the objects of my search:
George Prince and his sister, one on each side of the Captain. I saw
George Prince in the life now as a man who looked hardly twenty-five.
He was at this moment evidently in a gay mood. His clean-cut, handsome
profile, with its poetic dark curls, was turned toward me. There
seemed little of the villain about him.
And I saw Anita Prince now as a dark-haired, black-eyed little beauty,
in feature resembling her brother very strongly. She presently
finished her meal. She rose, with him after her. She was dressed in
Earth-fashion--white blouse and dark jacket, wide, knee-length
trousers of gray, with a red sash her only touch of color. She went
past me, flashed me a smile.
My heart was pounding. I answered her greeting, and met George
Prince's casual gaze. He, too, smiled, as though to signify that his
sister had told him of the service I had done her. Or was his smile an
ironical memory of how he had eluded me this morning when I chased
him?
I gazed after his small white-suited figure as he followed Anita from
the salon. And thinking of her, I prayed that Carter and Halsey might
be wrong. Whatever plotting against the Grantline Expedition might be
going on, I hoped that George Prince was innocent of it. Yet I knew in
my heart it was a futile hope. Prince had been the eavesdropper
outside the radio room. I could not doubt it. But that his sister must
be ignorant of what he was doing, I was sure.
My attention was brought suddenly back to the reality of our table. I
heard Ob Hahn's silky voice. "We passed quite close to the Moon last
night, Mr. Dean."
"Yes," said Snap. "We did, didn't we? Always do--it's a technical
problem of the exigencies of interstellar navigation. Explain it to
them, Gregg. You're an expert."
I waved it away with a laugh. There was a brief silence. I could not
help noticing Sir Arthur Coniston's queer look, and I have never seen
so keen a glance as Rance Rankin shot at me. Were all three people
aware of Grantline's treasure on the Moon? It suddenly seemed so. I
wished fervently at that instant that the ten days of this voyage were
over. Captain Carter was right. Coming back we should have a cordon of
Interplanetary Police aboard.
Sir Arthur broke the awkward silence. "Magnificent sight, the Moon,
from so close--though I was too much afraid of pressure sickness to be
up to see it."
I had nearly finished my hasty meal when another incident shocked me.
The two other passengers at our table came in and took their seats. A
Martian girl and man. The girl had the seat at my left, with the man
beside her. All Martians are tall. The girl was about my own height.
That is, six feet, two inches. The man was seven feet or more. Both
wore the Martian outer robe. The girl flung hers back. Her limbs were
encased in pseudomail. She looked, as all Martians like to look, a
very warlike Amazon. But she was a pretty girl. She smiled at me with
a keen-eyed, direct gaze.
"Mr. Dean said at breakfast that you were big and handsome. You are."
They were brother and sister, these Martians. Snap introduced them as
_Set_ Miko and _Setta_ Moa--the Martian equivalent of Mr. and Miss.
This Miko was, from our Earth standards, a tremendous, brawny giant.
Not spindly, like most Martians, this fellow, for all his seven feet
in height was almost heavy set. He wore a plaited leather jerkin
beneath his robe and knee pants of leather out of which his lower legs
showed as gray, hairy pillars of strength. He had come into the salon
with a swagger, his sword ornament clanking.
"A pleasant voyage so far," he said to me as he started his meal. His
voice had the heavy, throaty rasp characteristic of the Martian. He
spoke perfect English--both Martians and Venus people are by heritage
extraordinary linguists. Miko and his sister Moa, had a touch of
Martian accent, worn almost away by living for some years in Greater
New York.
The shock to me came within a few minutes. Miko, absorbed in attacking
his meal, inadvertently pushed back his robe to bare his forearm. An
instant only, then it dropped to his wrist. But in that instant I had
seen, upon the gray flesh, a thin sear turned red. A very recent
burn--as though a pencil ray of heat had caught his arm.
My mind flung back. Only last night in the city corridor, Snap and I
had been followed by a Martian. I had shot at him with a heat ray: I
thought I had hit him on the arm. Was this the mysterious Martian who
had followed us from Halsey's office?
V
Shortly after that midday meal I encountered Venza sitting on the
starlit deck. I had been in the bow observatory; taken my routine
castings of our position and worked them out. I was, I think, of the
_Planetara's_ officers the most expert handler of the mathematical
calculators. The locating of our position and charting the trajectory
of our course was, under ordinary circumstances, about all I had to
do. And it took only a few minutes every twelve hours.