Caron faced her. "The Project is doomed in any case. My men carried out
my secondary instructions. All the cables in your valley have been cut.
There is a storm now ready to break.
"In fifteen minutes or so, everything will be destroyed, except the
domes. Regrettable, but...." He shrugged.
Jill's temper blazed, choking her so that she could hardly speak.
"Look at him, Gray," she whispered. "That's what you're so proud of
being. A cynic, who believes in nothing but himself. Look at him!"
Gray turned on her.
"Damn you!" he grated. "Do you expect me to believe you, with the world
full of hypocrites like him?"
Her eyes stopped him. He remembered Moulton, pleading for her life. He
remembered how she had looked back there at the tunnel, when they had
been sure of death. Some of his assurance was shaken.
"Listen," he said harshly. "I can save your valley. There's a chance in
a million of coming out alive. Will you die for what you believe in?"
She hesitated, just for a second. Then she looked at Dio and said,
"Yes."
Gray turned. Almost lazily, his fist snapped up and took Caron on his
flabby jaw.
"Take care of him, Dio," he grunted. Then he entered the ship, herding
the white-faced girl before him.
* * * * *
The ship hurtled up into airless space, where the blinding sunlight lay
in sharp shadows on the rock. Over the ridge and down again, with the
Project hidden under a surf of storm-clouds.
Cutting in the air motors, Gray dropped. Black, bellowing darkness
swallowed them. Then he saw the valley, with the copper cables fallen,
and the wheat already on fire in several places.
Flying with every bit of his skill, he sought the narrowest part of the
valley and flipped over in a racking loop. The stern tubes hit rock. The
nose slammed down on the opposite wall, wedging the ship by sheer
weight.
Lightning gathered in a vast javelin and flamed down upon them. Jill
flinched and caught her breath. The flame hissed along the hull and
vanished into seared and blackened rock.
"Still willing to die for principle?" asked Gray brutally.
She glared at him. "Yes," she snapped. "But I hate having to die in your
company!"
She looked down at the valley. Lightning struck with monotonous
regularity on the hull, but the valley was untouched. Jill smiled,
though her face was white, her body rigid with waiting.
It was the smile that did it. Gray looked at her, her tousled black
curls, the lithe young curves of throat and breast. He leaned back in
his seat, scowling out at the storm.
"Relax," he said. "You aren't going to die."
She turned on him, not daring to speak. He went on, slowly.
"The only chance you took was in the landing. We're acting as lightning
rod for the whole valley, being the highest and best conductor. But, as
a man named Faraday proved, the charge resides on the surface of the
conductor. We're perfectly safe."
"How dared you!" she whispered.
He faced her, almost angrily.
"You knocked the props out from under my philosophy. I've had enough
hypocritical eyewash. I had to prove you. Well, I have."
She was quiet for some time. Then she said, "I understand, Duke. I'm
glad. And now what, for you?"
He shrugged wryly.
"I don't know. I can still take Caron's other ship and escape. But I
don't think I want to. I think perhaps I'll stick around and give virtue
another whirl."
Smoothing back his sleek fair hair, he shot her a sparkling look from
under his hands.
"I won't," he added softly, "even mind going to Sunday School, if you
were the teacher."
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
The following typographical errors in the original text have been
corrected in this eBook: