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Updated: June 8, 2025
"It's like this, Potan: if he could get you to land unsuspectingly near his cavern " I pictured how Grantline might have figured on a sudden surprise attack upon the ship. It was his only chance to catch it unprepared. We were all three in friendly, intimate mood now. Potan said, "We'll land down there right enough! But I need a few hours for my assembling." "He will not dare advance," I said.
By the infernal they'll kill themselves!" "Franck, let me out." "I'll go with you, Commander." But the volunteer was not equipped. Grantline would not wait. The duty man turned to his panel. The volunteer shoved a weapon at Grantline. Grantline jammed on his helmet, took the weapon. He moved the few steps into the air chamber which was the first of the three pressure locks.
But it was Wilks and Haljan in a fight up there on the cliff. The men crowded at the bull's-eye windows. And over all the confusion the alarm siren, with no one thinking to shut it off, was screaming. Grantline, momentarily stricken, stood gazing. One of the figures broke away from the other, bounded up to the summit from the stair platform to which they had both fallen. The other followed.
An unreality there, as the zed-ray faintly strove to penetrate the metal room side. I said, "Shall I make the exposure?" Snap nodded. But that 'graph was never made. An exclamation from Moa made us all turn. The gamma mirrors were quivering! Grantline had picked our signals!
An improvement indeed over the inactivity of their former peaceful weeks! Grantline mentioned it to me. "Well put up a good fight, Haljan. These fellows from Mars will know they've had a task before they ever sail off with the treasure." I had many moments alone with Anita. I need not mention them. It seemed that our love was crossed by the stars, with an adverse fate dooming it.
"This is not the control room." "No, I know it isn't." I put my helmet carefully on the floor beside Anita's. I straightened to find the brigand gazing at her. He did not speak: he was still scowling. But in the dim blue glow of the cubby, I caught the look in his eyes. I said hastily, "Grantline knows your ship has landed here on Archimedes. His camp is off there on the Mare Imbrium.
The government of Mars would not dare " "Of course not!" Captain Carter exclaimed sardonically. "Not openly! But if Martian Brigands had a supply of radiactum I don't imagine where it came from would make much difference. The Martian company would buy it, and you know that as well as I do!" Halsey added, "And George Prince, my agents inform me, seems to know that Grantline is on the Moon.
"An expert eavesdropper, Prince, I will say that for you.... Come, Dean, try something else. By God, if Grantline does not signal us, I will be likely to blame you my patience is shortening. Shall we go closer, Haljan?" "I don't think it would help," I said. He nodded. "Perhaps not. Are we checked?" "Yes." We were poised very nearly motionless. "If you wish an advance, I can ring it.
We planned that, in event of disaster to the buildings, we could at least escape in this fashion. Food supplies and water were now being placed at the ports. Depressing preparations! Our buildings uninhabitable, a rush out and away, abandoning the treasure.... Grantline had never mentioned such a contingency, but I noticed, nevertheless, that preparations were being made.
As we headed for the Grantline buildings, where still the rift in the wall had not quite broken, there came the final triumph. Miko had been aware of it, and knew he had lost. Grantline's searchlight leaped upward, swept the sky, caught its sought-for object a huge silver cylinder, bathed brightly in the white searchbeam glare. The police ship from Earth.
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