The girls slept together in a small room of the main building. Often
during the time of sleep, when the camp was stilled except for the
night watch, Snap and I would sit in the corridor near the girls'
door, talking of that time when we would all be back on our blessed
Earth.
Our eight days of grace were passed. The brigand ship was due--now,
tomorrow, or the next day.
I recall, that night, my sleep was fitfully uneasy. Snap and I had a
cubby together. We talked, and made futile plans. I went to sleep, but
awakened after a few hours. Impending disaster lay heavily upon me.
But there was nothing abnormal nor unusual in that!
Snap was asleep. I was restless, but I did not have the heart to
awaken him. He needed what little repose he could get. I dressed, left
our cubby and wandered out into the corridor of the main building.
It was cold in the corridor, and gloomy with the weak blue light. An
interior watchman passed me.
"All as usual, Haljan."
"Nothing in sight?"
"No. They're watching."
I went through the connecting corridor to the adjacent building. In
the instrument room several of the men were gathered, scanning the
vault overhead.
"Nothing, Haljan."
I stayed with them awhile, then wandered away. An outside man met me
near the admission lock chambers of the main building. The duty man
here sat at his controls, raising the air pressure in the locks
through which the outside watchman was coming. The relief sat here in
his bloated suit, with his helmet on his knees. It was Wilks.
"Nothing yet, Haljan. I'm going up to the peak of the crater to see if
anything is in sight. I wish that damnable brigand ship would come and
get it over with."
Instinctively we all spoke in half whispers, the tenseness bearing in
on us.
The outside man was white and grim, but he grinned at Wilks. He tried
the familiar jest: "Don't let the Earthlight get you!"
Wilks went out through the ports--a process of no more than a minute.
I wandered away again through the corridors.
I suppose it was half an hour later that I chanced to be gazing
through a corridor window. The lights along the rocky cliff were tiny
blue spots. The head of the stairway leading down to the abyss of the
crater floor was visible. The bloated figure of Wilks was just coming
up. I watched him for a moment making his rounds. He did not stop to
inspect the lights. That was routine. I thought it odd that he passed
them.
Another minute passed. The figure of Wilks went with slow bounds over
toward the back of the ledge where the glassite shelter housed the
treasure. It was all dark off there. Wilks went into the gloom, but
before I lost sight of him, he came back. As though he had changed his
mind, he headed for the foot of the staircase which led up the cliff
to where, at the peak of the little crater, five hundred feet above
us, the narrow observatory was perched. He climbed with easy bounds,
the light on his helmet bobbing in the gloom.
I stood watching. I could not tell why there seemed to be something
queer about Wilks' actions. But I was struck with it, nevertheless. I
watched him disappear over the summit.
Another minute went by. Wilks did not reappear. I thought I could make
out his light on the platform up there. Then abruptly a tiny white
beam was waving from the observatory platform! It flashed once or
twice, then was extinguished. And now I saw Wilks plainly, standing in
the Earthlight, gazing down.
Queer actions! Had the Earthlight touched him? Or was that a local
signal call which he sent out? Why should Wilks be signaling? What was
he doing with a hand helio? Our watchmen, I knew, had no reason to
carry one.
And to whom could Wilks be signaling? To whom, across this Lunar
desolation? The answer stabbed at me: to Miko's band!
I waited less than a moment. No further light. Wilks was still up
there!
I went back to the lock entrance. Spare helmets and suits were here
beside the keeper. He gazed at me inquiringly.
"I'm going out, Franck. Just for a minute." It struck me that perhaps
I was a meddlesome fool. Wilks, of all of Grantline's men, was, I
knew, most in his commander's trust. The signal could have been some
part of this night's ordinary routine, for all I knew.
I was hastily donning an Erentz suit. I added, "Let me out. I just got
the idea Wilks is acting strangely." I laughed. "Maybe the Earthlight
has touched him."
With my helmet on, I went through the locks. Once outside, with the
outer panel closed behind me, I dropped the weights from my belt and
shoes and extinguished my helmet light.
Wilks was still up there. Apparently he had not moved. I bounded off
across the ledge to the foot of the ascending stairs. Did Wilks see me
coming? I could not tell. As I approached the stairs the platform was
cut off from my line of vision.
I mounted with bounding leaps. In my flexible gloved hand I carried my
only weapon, a small projector with firing caps for use in this
outside near-vacuum.
I held the weapon behind me. I would talk to Wilks first. I went
slowly up the last hundred feet. Was Wilks still up there? The summit
was bathed in Earthlight. The little metal observatory platform came
into view above my head.
Wilks was not there. Then I saw him standing on the rocks nearby,
motionless. But in a moment he saw me coming.
I waved my left hand with a gesture of greeting. It seemed to me that
he started, made as though to leap away, and then changed his mind. I
sailed from the head of the staircase with a twenty foot leap and
landed lightly beside him. I gripped his arm for audiphone contact.
"Wilks!"
Through my visor his face was visible. I saw him and he saw me. And I
heard his voice:
"You, Haljan. How nice!"
It was not Wilks, but the brigand Coniston.