"Keep your radio beam going. We're depending on it for direction."
"Sure, Captain."
Lamoureux snapped off the sending set. "Now let's get moving, before we
freeze to death."
The return trip was a slow one. Their spirits were all low, even
McCracken's. Lamoureux pictured the return to Earth, the eager, and
then disappointed, reception, and the wave of ridicule that would
follow their account of the difficulties they had encountered.
They stopped once to eat. Lamoureux estimated that they had supplies
for another two and a half months left in the ship, not counting what
would be needed for the return journey. They might as well stay here
until those supplies were used up. They might possibly find Kalinoff
during those two and a half months, although, with the Twilight Zone
of the whole planet to look in, and no decent clues, not to mention
the difficulties caused by the snow, the chances were none too bright.
Nevertheless, they would have to do their best.
The meal came to an end, and they started off again. They had gone only
a few hundred yards, when Lamoureux noticed something wrong.
"Haskell!"
There was no reply. Haskell's radio beam had been shut off.
* * * * *
This was a little too much. Lamoureux let loose a streak of profanity
that had even McCracken staring at him in awe. Then they started out
again, trying, through the falling snow, and over the rocky ground,
to keep in as straight a line as possible toward the ship. Lamoureux
managed to sustain his spirits only by thinking of what he would do to
his cook.
Two hours later, he had an opportunity to put his plan into practice.
For out of the snow there emerged Haskell, and the men who had been
left with him at the ship. Haskell started to run toward Lamoureux the
moment he caught sight of the other group.
"Here we are, Captain! We came as fast as we could!"
Lamoureux's eyes were almost as cold as the snow. "How thoughtful of
you."
"Who else is hurt, Captain?"
"Nobody's hurt, but somebody is going to be."
Haskell looked surprised. "I don't get it. You told me to come as fast
as I could, and you said that eight of the men were badly injured."
"_I_ told you?"
"Yes, sir. I thought you were hurt yourself, sir. Your voice sounded
hoarse."
Lamoureux's jaws were clenched together so tightly in his effort to
maintain his self-control that his teeth hurt. He unclenched them. "I
don't quite understand you, Haskell. My voice is as melodious as ever.
Something else is strange, too. You ask who _else_ is hurt."
"Yes, sir. We ran across Terrill a little while ago. He got brushed by
the tail of some animal and was walking around in a real daze."
"How do you suppose we're walking? At any rate, I'm glad you found him.
See any signs of Carvalho?"
"No, sir. We left the radio beam on to guide you--"
"What's that? You're sure you left it on?"
"Positive, sir."
"Well, someone has turned it off! Someone--Oh, my God!"
It was so damn simple, and he had never even thought of it. Carvalho
was the man. Carvalho was shrewd and quiet, a man who could keep his
intentions to himself and wreck an expedition without so much as
being suspected. Subconsciously, Lamoureux hadn't quite believed in
McCracken's guilt, despite the seeming evidence against him. McCracken
had too genuine a love of horseplay, and of childish showing off.
These things were hard to pretend. You didn't put snow down somebody's
back when you were plotting to leave him marooned on a deserted planet.
And you didn't impress people by making a seventy-five foot broad jump
when you could impress them much more effectively by condemning them
to slow death.
* * * * *
Once he had thought of it, Lamoureux couldn't doubt. Carvalho had
turned off the radio beam at the ship. By now the _Astrolight_ was
probably somewhere in space, possibly proceeding to some rendezvous
with a rival expedition. Carvalho wouldn't dare appear back on Earth as
the lone passenger returning on Lamoureux's ship. But he wouldn't have
to. He could set the _Astrolight_ adrift, be "rescued" by the people
who had employed him, and come back to tell of the dangers he had
braved on Mercury.
It all fitted in. Carvalho had been the one who had tried to hamper
their work from the moment they had landed. When McCracken had shot
that Mercurian--