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Miko could reach us so easily as we bounded away in plain view in the Earthlight of the open summit! We were caught, at bay in this little bowl. The camp was not visible from here. But out through the broken gully, a white beam of light suddenly came up from below. Haljan. It spelled the signal. It was coming from the Grantline instrument room, I knew.
This, her last resting place. She lay here, in her open tomb, shattered, broken, unbreathing. The lights on her were extinguished. The Erentz system had ceased to pulse the heart of the dying ship, for a while beating faintly, but now at rest. We left the two girls with some of Grantline's men at the admission port. Snap, Grantline and I, with three others, went inside.
We rushed from the rear port exit which was nearest us. The giant bloated figures had been seen running along the outside of the connecting corridor, in this direction. But before we ever got there, a new alarm came. A brigand was crouching at a front corner of the main building! His hydrogen heat torch had already opened a rift in the wall! "In with you!" ordered Grantline. "Get your helmets on!
Thought of the Grantline Moon Expedition stabbed at me. George Prince Anita's brother he whom I had been warned to watch. This renegade associate of dubious Martians, plotting God knows what. I saw, upon the adjoining door, A20, George Prince. I listened. In the humming stillness of the ship's interior there was no sound from these cabins. A20 was without windows, I knew.
It had been done just for that purpose, no doubt to make us feel sure the ledge was unoccupied and thus to guard against our own light making the search. But there was a brigand group close outside our walls! By the merest chance the radiating glow from our searchray had shown the helmeted figures scurrying for shelter. Grantline leaped to his feet.
There still seemed to be air, but not enough so that we dared remove our helmets. It was dark inside the wrecked ship. The corridors were black. The hull control rooms were dimly with Earthlight straggling through the windows. This littered tomb. Cold and silent with death. We stumbled over a fallen figure. A member of the crew. Grantline straightened from examining it. "Dead," he said.
Ninety millions, with only a million and a half to come off for expedition expenses, and the Planetara's share another million. A nice little stake. Grantline strode across the room with his rolling gait. "Cheer up, boys. Who's winning there? I say, you fellows " An audiphone buzzer interrupted him, a call from the duty man in the instrument room of the nearby building.
Its operator and I would turn it upon Miko one flash of it and he and his little band would be wiped out. But there was our escape to be thought of. We could not remain very long with these brigands. We could tell them that the Grantline camp was on the Mare Imbrium. It would delay them for a time, but our lie would soon be discovered. We must escape from them, get away and back to Grantline.
But we will find out. He will not suspect the Planetara so when we get close to the Moon, we will signal and ask him. We can trick him into telling us. You think I do not know what is on your mind, Haljan? There is a secret code of signals arranged between Dean and Grantline. I have forced Dean to confess it. Without torture! Prince helped me in that. He persuaded Dean not to defy me.
Anita put in, smiling, "He knows by now that we have unmasked his lure. Haljan and I, joining you that silenced him. His light went out very promptly, didn't it?" She flashed me a side gaze. Were we acting convincingly? But if Miko started up his signals again, they might so quickly betray us! Anita's thoughts were upon that, for she added: "Grantline will not dare show his light!
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