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Updated: May 31, 2025
His muscles tensed suddenly for a quick spring, then relaxed. He must play the game. Urga looked him over carefully, puzzled. "Strange," he grunted, "I've seen this fellow before, but I cannot remember where." Hilary was taut. Would he be recognized? But the Mercutian Cor in Earth terms, Captain of a Hundred shook his head finally, and turned away. The disguise had held up.
Sooner or later, it was their intention to transport the entire Mercutian race to the Earth, and make it their permanent home. Mercury was not an ideal place to live on; in the restricted area around the poles where life was possible, terrific storms alternated with furnace droughts, to which the hottest part of the Sahara was an Arctic paradise.
Hilary seemed to uncoil. His fist shot straight up with all the power of his body behind it. It crashed into the jutting jaw of the Mercutian like a charge of high explosive dynol. For all his height and massive strength, the giant toppled over, thudding heavily against the floor. For the moment Hilary saw freedom ahead. The sun-tube had fallen from the nerveless fingers.
"You think it is Wat Tyler and Joan, somehow escaped in the Vagabond." The giant nodded slowly. "Why not?" he challenged. "It's impossible," muttered the other. "Where could they have been all this time? Surely they would have returned to this place. And you forget that Mercutian guard who was freed. No, my friend, they have been killed, the Vagabond seized, and that was the end to that."
The artillery was moved down to a point near the Wyoming State line, about fifteen miles directly north of the Mercutian camp. Six days before this, forty-eight hours after I had returned to Billings, observation planes had reported the establishment of two more light-rays, similar in appearance to the first. During the succeeding days others rapidly appeared.
What New York did not know was that simultaneously with the appearance of the Mercutian flier over their city, a hundred others were even then hovering over the strategic capitals of the world. The first Mercutian ambassadors had put to good advantage that hurried tour of inspection. No one was alarmed.
If only he could see through; if only he had a Mercutian search beam now. Was there someone in the room on the other side of the wall? He strained his ears to listen, but the crystal was pretty much sound-proof. Very quietly Hilary drew his gun, broke it, examined the chamber. The six bullets lay snug.
Earthmen all, with here and there the grotesque huge bulk of a Mercutian who had failed to hear the warning signal. The bodies were scorched, blackened. Raw agony appeared on contorted desperate faces. It was not good to look upon. "Wh what has happened?" Grim gasped, his breath coming heavily. "Just a little pleasantry of the Mercutians," Hilary said bitterly. He looked upward.
Hilary squeezed the trigger. The gun barked. The Mercutian spun half around with the force of the tearing bullet. The deadly beam from his weapon slithered over the wall, searing a great molten gash in the crystal. He was badly hurt, but he did not fall. Howling with pain and rage, he slewed himself around again, pointed his sun weapon unsteadily upward. Hilary let him have the other slug.
One Earthman, braver than the rest, or more foolish, gave vent to a scream of rage, when a young girl, with whom he was arm in arm, was wrested brutally away. His fist shot out, caught the leering guard flush on his chin. The Mercutian staggered, then bellowed with rage. His tube flashed upward. The Earthman's eyes opened wide as with wonder, then he collapsed, cut cleanly in half.
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