I did not answer. I wonder if he would dare approach to see if I had
been hit. A minute passed. Then another. I thought I heard Miko's
voice on the deck outside. But it was an aerial, microscopic whisper
close beside me.
"We see you, Haljan. You must yield!"
Their eavesdropping vibrations, with audible projection, were upon me.
I retorted loudly, "Come and get me! You cannot take me alive!"
I do protest if this action of mine in the chart room may seem
bravado. I had no wish to die. There was within me a very healthy
desire for life. But I felt, by holding out, that some chance might
come wherewith I might turn events against these brigands. Yet reason
told me it was hopeless. Our loyal members of the crew were killed, no
doubt. Captain Carter and Balch were dead. The lookouts and course
masters, also. And Blackstone.
There remained only Dr. Frank and Snap. Their fate I did not yet know.
And there was George Prince. He, perhaps, would help me if he could.
But, at best, he was a dubious ally.
"You are very foolish, Haljan," murmured Miko's voice. And then I
heard Coniston:
"See here, why would not a hundred pounds of gold leaf tempt you? The
code words which were taken from Johnson--I mean to say, why not tell
us where they are?"
So that was one of the brigands' new difficulties! Snap had taken the
code word sheet that time we sealed the purser in the cage.
I said, "You'll never find them. And when a police ship sights us,
what will you do then?"
The chances of a police ship were slight indeed, but the brigands
evidently did not know that. I wondered again what had become of Snap.
Was he captured or still holding them off?
I was watching my windows; for at any moment, under the cover of talk,
I might be assailed.
Gravity came suddenly to the room. Miko's voice said: "We mean well by
you, Haljan. There is your normality. Join us. We need you to chart
our course."
"And a hundred pounds of gold leaf," urged Coniston. "Or more. Why,
this treasure--"
I could hear an oath from Miko. And then his ironic voice. "We will
not bother you, Haljan. There is no hurry. You will be hungry in good
time. And sleepy. Then we will come and get you. And a little acid
will help you to think differently about us...."
His vibrations died away. The pull of gravity in the room was normal.
I was alone in the dim silence, with the bodies of Carter and Johnson
huddled on the grid. I bent to examine them. Both were dead.
My isolation was not ruse this time. The outlaws made no further
attack. Half an hour passed. The deck outside, what I could see of it,
was vacant. Balch lay dead close outside the chart room door. The
bodies of Blackstone and the course master had been removed from the
turret window. As a forward lookout, one of Miko's men was on duty in
the nearby tower. Hahn was at the turret's controls. The ship was
under orderly handling, heading back upon a new course. For the Earth?
The Moon? It did not seem so.
I found, in the chart room, a Benson curve light projector which poor
Captain Carter had nearly assembled. I worked on it, trained it
through my rear window along the empty deck; bent it into the lounge
archway. Upon my grid the image of the lounge interior presently
focused. The passengers in the lounge were huddled in a group.
Disheveled, frightened, with Moa standing watching them. Stewards were
serving them with a meal.
Upon a bench, bodies were lying. Some were dead. I saw Rance Rankin.
Others were evidently only injured. Dr. Frank was moving among them,
attending them. Venza was there, unharmed. And I saw the gamblers,
Shac and Dud, sitting white-faced, whispering together. And Glutz's
little beribboned, becurled figure on a stool.
George Prince was there, standing against the wall, shrouded in his
mourning cloak, watching the scene with alert, roving eyes. And by the
opposite doorway, the huge towering figure of Miko stood on guard. But
Snap was missing.
A brief glimpse. Miko saw my Benson light. I could have equipped a
heat ray and fired along the curved Benson light into that lounge. But
Miko gave me no time.
He slid the lounge door closed, and Moa leaped to close the one on my
side. My grid showed only the blank deck and door.
Another interval. I had made plans. Futile plans! I could get into the
turret perhaps, and kill Hahn. I had the invisible cloak which Johnson
was wearing. I took it from his body. Its mechanism could be repaired.
Why, with it I could creep about the ship, kill these brigands one by
one, perhaps. George Prince would be with me. The brigands who had
been posing as the stewards and crew members were unable to navigate;
they would obey my orders. There were only Miko, Coniston and Hahn to
kill.
From my window I could gaze up to the radio room. And now, abruptly, I
heard Snap's voice: "No! I tell you--no!"