 Chapter 3 of Space Hounds of I.P.C. by E.E. Doc Smith. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Space Hounds of I.P.C. Chapter 3 Castaways Upon Ganymede Upon awakening the man's first care was to instruct the girl in the operation of the projectors, so that she could keep the heavily armored edge of their small section which she had promptly christened the forlorn hope between them and the grinding, clashing mass of wreckage, and thus, if it should become necessary, protect the relatively frail inner portions of their craft from damage. Keep an eye on things for a while, Nadia, he instructed, as soon as she could handle the controls. And don't use any more power than is absolutely necessary. They'll need it all, and besides, they can probably detect anything we can use. There's probably enough leakage from the ruptured accumulator cells to mask quite a little emission, but don't use much. I'm going to see what I can do about making this whole wedge navigable. Why not just launch what's left of this lifeboat? It's space worthy, isn't it? Yes, but it's too small. Two or three of the big, dirigible projectors of the lower band are on the rim of this piece of pie-shaped section we're riding, I think. If so, and if enough batteries of accumulators are left intact to give them anywhere nearly full power, we can get an acceleration that will make a lifeboat look sick. Those main dirigibles, you know, are able to swing the whole mass of the Arcturus, and what they'll do to this one chunk of it, we've got only a few thousand tons of mass in this piece, will be something pretty. Also, having the metal may save us months of time in mining it. He found the projectors, repaired or cut out the damaged accumulator cells, and reconnected them through the controls of the lifeboat. He moved into the engine room, the air tanks, stores, and equipment from all the other fragments, which, by means of a spacesuit, he could reach without too much difficulty. From the battery rooms of those fragments, open shelves, after being sliced open by the shearing ray, he helped himself to banks of accumulator cells from the enormous driving batteries of the ill-fated Arcturus, bolting them down and connecting them solidly until almost every compartment of their craft was one mass of stored up energy. Days fled like hours, so furiously busy were they in preparing their peculiar vessel for a cruise of indefinite duration. Stevens cut himself short on sleep and snatched his meals in passing. Anadia, when not busy at her own tasks of observing, housekeeping, and doing what little piloting was required, was rapidly learning to wield most effectively the spanner and pliers of the mechanic and electrician. I'm afraid our time is getting short, Steve, she announced, after making an observation. It looks as though we're getting wherever it is we're going. Well, I've got only two more jobs to do, but they're the hardest of the lot. It is Jupiter, or can you tell yet? Jupiter, or one of its satellites, I think, from the point where they reversed their power. Here's the observation you told me to take. Looks like Jupiter, he agreed, after he had rapidly checked her figures. We'll pass very close to one of those two satellites, probably Ganymede, which is fine for our scheme. All four of the major satellites have water and atmosphere, but Ganymede, being largest, is best for our purposes. We've got a couple of days yet, just about time to finish up. Let's get going, you know what to do. Steve, I'm afraid of it. It's too dangerous. Isn't there some other way? None that I can see. The close watch they're keeping on every bit of this junk makes it our only chance for a getaway. I'm pretty sure I can do it, but if I should happen to get nipped, just use enough power to let them know you're here, and you won't be any worse off than if I hadn't tried to pull off this stunt. He dawned a spacesuit, filled a looped belt with tools, picked up a portable power-drill, and stepped into the tiny airlock. Nadia deftly guided their segment against one of the larger fragments and held it there with a gentle, steady pressure, while Stevens, a light cable paying out behind him, clambered carefully over the wreckage, brought his drill into play, and disappeared inside the huge wedge. In less than an hour he returned without mishap and reported to the glowing girl. Just like shooting fish down a well, most of the accumulator cells were tight and installing the relays wasn't a bad job at all. Believe me, girl, there'll be junk filling all the space between here and Saturn when we touch them off. Wonderful, Steve," Nadia exclaimed. It won't be so bad seeing you go into the others, now that you have this one all rigged up. And in a round the massive wreckage they crept, and in each of the larger sections, Stevens connected up the enormous fixed or dirigible projectors to whatever accumulator cells were available through sensitive relays, all of which he could close by means of one radio impulse. The long and dangerous task done he stood at the lookout plate, studying the huge disc which had been the upper portion of the lower half of the Arcturus, and frowning in thought. Nadia reached over his shoulder and switched off the plate. "'Nix on that second job, big fellow,' she declared. "'They aren't really necessary, and you're altogether too apt to be killed trying to get them. It's too ghastly. I won't stand for your trying it, so that ends it.' "'We ought to have them, really,' he protested. "'With those special tools, cutting torches, and all the stuff, we'd be sitting pretty. We'll lose weeks of time by not having them.' "'We'll just have to lose it, then. You can't get them any more than a baby can get the moon, so stop crying about it.' She went over the familiar argument for the twentieth time. "'That stuff up there is all grinding together like cakes of ice in a flow. The particular section you want is in plain sight of whoever is on watch, and those tools and things are altogether too heavy to handle. You're a husky brute, I know, but even you couldn't begin to handle them, even if you had good going. I couldn't help you very much, even if you'd let me try, and the fact that you so positively refused to let me come along shows how dangerous you know the attempt is bound to be. You'd probably never even get up there alive to say nothing of getting back here. No, Steve, that's out like a light. I sure wish they'd left us weightless for a while some time, if only for an hour or two," he mourned. "'But they didn't,' she retorted, practically. So we're just out of luck to that extent. Our time is about up, too. It's time you worked us back to the tail end of this procession, or rather the head end, since we're traveling down now.' Things took the controls and slowly worked along the outer edge of the mass, down toward its extremity. Nadia put one hand upon his shoulder, and he glanced around. "'Thanks, Steve. We have a perfectly wonderful chance as it is, and we've gone so far with our scheme together that it would be a crying shame not to be able to go through with it. I'd hate like sin to have to surrender to them now, and that's all I could do if anything should become of you.' "'Besides,' her voice died away into silence. "'Sure, you're right,' he hastily replied, dodging the implication of that unfinished sentence. "'I could figure out anything that looks particularly feasible anyway. That's why I didn't try it. Well pass it up.' Soon they arrived at their objective and maintained a position well in the van, but not sufficiently far ahead of the rest to call forth the restraining ray from their captors. Already strongly affected by the gravitational pull of the mass of the satellite, many of the smaller portions of the wreck, not directly held by the tractors, began to separate from the main mass. As each bit left its place, another beam leaped out until it became apparent that no more were available, and Stephen strapped the girl and himself down before two lookout plates. "'Now for it, Nadia,' he exclaimed, and simultaneously threw on the power of his own projectors, and sent out the radio impulse which closed the relays he had so carefully set. They were thrown against the restraining straps savagely and held there by an enormous weight as the gigantic, dirigible projectors shot their fragment of the wreck away from the comparatively slight force which had been acting upon it. But they braced themselves and strained their muscles in order to watch what was happening. As the relays in the various fragments closed, the massed power of the accumulators was shorted dead across the converters and projectors, instead of being fed into them gradually through the controls of the pilot, with the result comparable to that of the explosion of an ammunition dump. Most of the masses, whose projectors were fed by comparatively few accumulator cells, darted away entirely with a stupendous acceleration. A few of them, however, received the unimpeded flow of complete batteries. Those projectors tore loose from even their massive supports and crashed through anything opposing them like a huge, armor-piercing projectile. It was a spectacle to stagger the imagination, and Stevens grinned as he turned to the girl who was staring in wide-eyed amazement. Well, Ace, I think they're busy enough now so that it'll be safe to take that long-wanted look at their controls. And he flashed the twin beams of his lookout light beyond the upper half of the Arcturus, only to see them stop abruptly in mid-space. Even the extremely short carrier-wave of Rosar's rays could not go through the invisible barrier thrown out by the tiny but powerful globe of space. No penetration, Nadia asked. Flatten them out cold. However, as the fox once remarked about the grapes, I'll bet they're sour anyway. We'll have some stuff of our own, one of these days. I sure hope the fireworks we started back there keep those birds amused until we get out of sight, because if I use much more power on these projectors we may not have juice enough left to stop with. You're using enough now to suit me. I'm so heavy I can hardly lift a finger. You'd better lift them. You must watch what's going on back there while I navigate around this moon. All ex-chief. They've got their hands full, apparently. Those rays are shooting around all over the sky. It looks as though they were trying to capture four or five things at once with each one. Good. Tell me when the moon cuts them off. At the awful acceleration they were using, which constantly increased the terrific velocity with which they had been travelling when they made good their escape. It was not long until they had placed the satellite between them and the enemy. Then Stevens cut down and reversed his power. Such was their speed, however, that a long detour was necessary in order to reduce it to a safe landing rate. As soon as this could be done, Stevens headed for the morning zone and dropped the hope rapidly toward the surface of that new, strange world. Mountains could not be distinguished at first because of an all-en-shrouting layer of cloud, but the rising sun dispelled the mist, and when they had descended to within a few thousand feet of the surface their vision was unobstructed. Immediately below them the terrain was mountainous and heavily wooded, while far to the east the rays of a small pale sun glinted upon a vast body of water. No signs of habitation were visible as far as the eye could reach. Now to pick out a location for our power plant. We must have a waterfall for power, a good place to hide our ship from observation, and I'd like to have a little seam of coal. We can use wood if we have to, but I think we can find some coal. This is all sedimentary rock. It looks a lot like the country along the north fork of the flathead in Montana. There are a lot of coal-out crops, usually, in such topography as this is. We want to hide in a hurry, though, don't we? Not particularly, I think. If they had missed us at all they would have had us long ago, and with all the damage we did with those projectors they won't be surprised at one piece being missing. I imagine they'd lost a good many. But they'll know that somebody caused all that disturbance. Won't they hunt for us? Maybe and maybe not, no telling what they'll do. However, by the time they can land and get checked up and ready to hunt for us, we'll be a mighty small needle well hidden in a good big haystack. For several hours they roamed over the mountainous region at high velocity, seeking the best possible location. And finally they found one that was almost ideal. A narrow canyon overhung with heavy trees, opening into a wide deep gorge upon a level with its floor. A mighty waterfall cascaded into the gorge just above the canyon, and here and there could be seen black outcrops which Stevens, after a close scrutiny, declared to be coal. He deftly guided their cumbersome wedge of steel into the retreat, allowed it to settle gently to the ground and shut off the power. Well, little fellow conspirator against the peace and dignity of the Jovians, I don't know just where we are, but wherever it is, we're here. We got away clean, and as long as we don't use any high-tension stuff or anything else that they can trace, I think we're as safe as money in a bank. I suppose that I ought to be scared to death, Steve, but I'm not. I'm just too thrilled for words, Nadia answered, and the eager sparkle in her eyes bore out her words. Can we go out now? How about air? Shall we wear suits or go out as we are? Have you got a weapon of any kind? Hurry up! Let's do something! Pipe down, Ace! Remember that we don't know any more about anything around here than a pig does about Sunday, and conduct yourself accordingly. Take it easy. I'm surprised at the gravity here. This is certainly Ganymede, and it has a diameter of only about 5,700 kilometers. If I remember correctly, Damoiseau estimated its mass at about three one-hundredths that of Earth, which would make its surface gravity about one-sixth. However, it is actually almost a half, as you see by this spring balance here. Therefore, it is quite a little more massive than has been, what of it? Let's go places and do things! Come yourself, Ginger, you've got lots of time. We'll be here for quite a while, I'm afraid. We can't go out until we analyze the air. We're sure lucky there's as much as there is. I'm not exactly the world's foremost chemist, but fortunately an air analysis isn't much of a job with the apparatus we carry. While Nadia controlled her impatience as best she could, Stevens manipulated the bulbs and pipettes of the gas apparatus. Pressure? Two centimeters, more than I dared hope for. An analysis? All X, I believe. Oxygen concentration? A little high, but not much. We won't have to wear the space suits, then. Not unless I miss something in the analysis. The pressure corresponds to our own at a height of about three thousand meters, which we can get used to without too much trouble. Good thing, too. I brought along all the air I could get hold of, but as I told you back there, if we had to depend on it altogether, we might be out of luck. I'm going to pump some of our air back into a cylinder to equalize our pressure. I don't want to waste any of it until we're sure the outside air suits us without treatment. When the pressure inside had been gradually reduced to that outside and they had become accustomed to breathing the rarefied medium, Stevens opened the airlock and the outside doors, and for some time cautiously sniffed the atmosphere of the satellite. He could detect nothing harmful or unusual in it. It was apparently the same as earthly air, and he became jubilant. All ex-nadia, luck has perched right on our banner. Freedom, air, water, power, and coal. Now as you suggested, we'll go places and do things. Suppose it's safe? Her first eagerness to explore their surroundings had abated noticeably. You aren't armed, are you? No, and I don't believe there was a gun of any kind aboard the Arcturus. That kind of thing went out quite a while ago, you know. We'll take a look anyway. We've got to find out more about the coal before we decide to settle down here. Remember this half-gravity stuff and control your leg muscles accordingly. Leaping lightly to the ground, they saw that this severed section of fifty-inch armor, which was the rim of their conveyance, almost blocked the entrance to the narrow canyon which they had selected for their retreat. Upon one side, that wall of steel actually touched the almost perpendicular wall or rock. Upon the other side, there was left only a narrow passage. They stepped through it so that they could see the waterfall and the gorge, and stopped silent. The sun, now fairly high, was in no sense the familiar orb of day, but was a pale, insipid thing, only one-fifth the diameter of the sun to which they were accustomed, and which could almost be studied with the unshielded eye. From their feet a grassy meadow a few hundred feet wide sloped gently down to the river, from whose farther bank a precipice sprang upward for perhaps a thousand feet, merging into towering hills whose rugged grandeur was reminiscent of the topography of the moon. At their backs the wall of the gorge was steep, but not precipitous, and was covered with shrubs and trees, some of which leaned out over the little canyon, completely screening it, and among whose branches birds could now and then be seen flitting about. In that direction no mountains were visible, indicating that upon their side of the river there was an upland plateau or bench. To their right, the river, the gorge, and the strip of meadow extending for a mile or more, then curved away and were lost to sight. To their left, almost too close for comfort, was the stupendous cataract, towering above them to a terror-inspiring height. Nadia studied it with awe, which changed to puzzled wonder. What's the matter with it, Steve? It looks like a picture in slow motion, like the kind they take of your dives, or am I seeing things? No, it's really slow, compared to what we're used to. Remember that one-half gravity stuff. Oh, that's right, but it certainly does look funny. It gives me the creeps. You'll get used to it pretty quick, just as you'll get used to all the rest of the things having only half their earthly weight and falling only half as fast as they ought to when you drop them. Well, I don't see anything that looks dangerous yet. Let's go up toward the falls a few meters and prospect that outcrop. With a few brisk strokes of an improvised shovel, he cleared the outcrop of detritus and broke off several samples of the black substance, with which they went back to the forlorn hope. It's real coal, Stevens announced, after a series of tests. I've seen better, but on the other hand, there's lots worse. It'll make good gas, and a kind of a coke. Not so hot, but it'll do. Now we'd better get organized, old partner, for a long campaign. Go ahead and organize. I'm only the cheap help in this enterprise. Cheap help? You're apt to be the life of the party. Can you make and shoot a bow and arrow? I'll say I can. I've belonged to an archery club for five years. What did I tell you? You're a lifesaver. Here's the dope. We've got to save our own supplies as much as possible until we know exactly what we're up against, and to do that, we've got to live off the country. I'll fake up something to knock over some of those birds in small game. Then we can make real bow strings and feathered arrows, and I'll forge some steel arrowheads while you're making yourself a real bow. We'd better make me about a hundred pound war bow, too. A hundred? Interrupted Nadia. That's a lot of bow, big boy. Think you can bend it? You'd be surprised, he grinned. I'm not quite like Robin Hood. I've been known to miss a finger-thick wand at a hundred paces, but I'm not exactly a beginner. Oh, of course. I should have known by your language that you're an archer. Otherwise, you'd never have used such an old-fashioned word as pounds. I shoot a thirty-five pound bow ordinarily, but for game I should have the heaviest one I can hold accurately. About a forty-five, probably. All X. And as soon as I can, I'll make us a couple of suits of fairly heavy steel armor, so that we'll have real protection if we should need it. You see, we don't know what we're up to run up against out here. Then, with that much done, it'll be up to you to provide, since I'll have to work tooth and nail at the forges. You'll have to bring home the bacon, do the cooking, and so on, and see what you can find along the line of edible roots, grains, fruits, and whatnot. Sort of reverse the Indian idea. You be the hunter, and I'll keep the home fires burning. Can do? What it takes to do that, I've got, Nadia assured him, her eyes sparkling. Have you your job planned out as well and as fittingly as you have mine? And then some. We've got just two methods of getting away from here. One is to get in touch with Brandon, so that he'll come after us. The other is to recharge our accumulators and try to make it under our own power. Either chorus will need power and lots of it. I never thought of going back in the hope. Suppose we could? About as doubtful as the radio. I think that I could build a pair of matched frequency auto-derigible transmitter and receptor units, such as are necessary for spaceships fed by stationary power plants, but after I got them built, they'd take us less than half way there. Then we'd have only what power we can carry, and I hate even to think of what probably would happen to us. We'd certainly have to drift for months before we could get close enough to any of our plants to radio for help, and we'd be taking awful chances. You see, we'd have to take a very peculiar orbit, and if we should miss connections passing the inner planets, what the sun would do to us at the closest point, and where what's left of us would go on the backswing, would be just too bad. Besides, if we can get hold of the Sirius, they'll come loaded for bear, and we may be able to do something about the rest of the folks out there. Oh, breed the girl. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could? I thought, of course, they'd all be... Her voice died away. Not necessarily. There's always a chance. That's why I'm trying the ultra-radio first. However, either course will take lots of power, so the first thing I've got to do is build a power plant. I'm going to run a penstock up those falls and put in a turbine, driving a high-tension alternator. Then, while I'm trying to build the ultra-radio, I'll be charging our accumulators so that no time will be lost in case the radio fails. If it does fail, and remember, I'm not counting on its working. Of course, I'll tackle the transmission and receptor units before we start out to drift it. You say it easy, Steve, but how can you build all those things with nothing to work with? It's going to be a real job. I'm not trying to kid you into thinking it'll be either easy or quick. Here's the way everything will go. Before I can even lay the first length of the penstock, I've got to have the pipe. To make which, I've got to have flat steel. To get which, I'll have to cut some of the partitions out of this ship of ours. To do which, I'll have to have a cutting torch. To make which, I'll have to forge nozzles out of block metal, and to run which, I'll have to have gas. To get which, I'll have to have mine coal and build a gas plant. To do which, good heaven, Steve, are you going back to the Stone Age? I never thought of half those things. Why, it's impossible. Not quite, Guy. Things could be a lot worse. That's why I brought along the whole forlorn hope, instead of just the lifeboat. As it is, we've got several thousand tons of spare steel and lots of copper. We've got ordinary tools and a few light motors, blowers, and such stuff. That gives me a great big start. I won't have to mine the oars and smelt the metals, as would have been necessary otherwise. However, it'll be plenty bad. I'll have to start out in a pretty crude fashion. And for some of the stuff I'll need, I'll have to make not only the machine that makes the part I want, but also the machine that makes the machine that makes the machine that makes it. And so on. Just how far down the line I haven't dared to think. You must be a regular jack-of-all-trades to think you can get away with such a program as that. I am. Nothing else but. You see, while most of my school training was in advanced physics and mathematics, I worked my way through by computing and designing, and I've done a lot of truck-horse labor of various kinds besides. I can calculate and design almost anything, and I can make a pretty good stab at translating a design into fabricated material. I wouldn't wonder if Brandon's ultra-radio would stop me, since nobody had even started to build one when I saw him last, but I helped compute it, know the forces involved as well as he did at that time, and it so happens that I know more about the design of coils and fields of force than I do about anything else. So I may be able to work it out eventually. It isn't going to be not knowing how that will hold me up, it'll be the lack of something that I can't build. And that's where you'll go back and back and back, as you said about building the penstock. Back and back is right, if I can find all the necessary raw materials. That's what's probably going to put a lot of monkey wrenches into the machinery. And Stevens went to work upon a weapon of offence, fashioning a crude but powerful bow from a strip of spring steel strung with heavy wire. How about arrows? Shall I go and see if I can hit a bird with a rock for feathers, and see if I can find something to make arrows out of? Not yet. Anyway, I'd bet on the birds. I'm going to use pieces of this light brace rod off the accumulator cells for arrows. They won't fly true, of course, but with their mass I can give them enough projectile force to kill any small animal they hit, no matter how they hit it. After many misses he finally bagged a small animal, something like a rabbit and something like a kangaroo, and a couple of round-bodied, plump birds, almost as large as domestic hens. These they dressed, with considerable distaste, and a noticeable lack of skill. We'll get used to it pretty quick, Diana, also more expert, he said when the task was done. We now have raw material for bow strings and clothes, as well as food. The word raw being heavily accented, Nadia declared, with a grimace. But how do we know that they're good to eat? We'll have to eat them and see, he grinned. I don't imagine that any flesh is really poisonous, and we'll have to arrive at the ones we like best by a process of trial and error. Well, here's your job, I'll get busy on mine. Don't go more than a few hundred meters away and yell if you get into a jam. There's a couple of questions I want to ask you. What makes it so warm here when the sun's so far away and Jupiter isn't supposed to be radiating any heat? And how about time? It's twelve hours by my watch since sunrise this morning, and it's still shining. As for heat, I've been wondering about that. It must be due to internal heat, because even though Jupiter may be warm, or even hot, it certainly isn't radiating much, since it has a temperature of minus two hundred at the visible surface, which, of course, is the top of the atmosphere. Our heat here is probably caused by radioactivity, that's the most modern dope, I believe. As for time, it looks as though our days were something better than thirty hours long, instead of twenty-four. Of course, I'll keep the chronometer going on IP time, since we'll probably need it in working out observations. But we might as well let our watches run down and work, eat, and sleep by the sun. Not much sense in trying to keep tellurian time here, as I see it. Check? All X. I'll have supper ready for you at sunset. Bye! A few evenings later, when Stevens came in after his long day's work, he was surprised to see Nadia dressed in a suit of brown coveralls and high-laced moccasins. How do I look? She asked, pirouetting gaily. Neat, but not gaudy, he approved. That's good moleskin, smooth, soft, and tough. Where'd you make the rays? I didn't know we had anything like that on board. What did you do for thread? You look like a million dollars. You sure did a good job of fitting. I had to have something, what with all the thorns and brush, that was almost more of me exposed than covered, and I was getting scratched up something fierce. So I ripped up one of the spacesuits and found out that there's enough cloth, fur, and leather in one of them to make six ordinary suits, and thread by the kilometer. I was awfully glad to see all that thread. I had an idea that I'd have to unravel my stockings or something, but I didn't. Your clothes are getting pretty tacky, too, and you're getting all burned with those hot coals and things. I'm going to build you a suit out of leather for your blacksmithing activities. Fine business, Ace! Then we can save what's left of our civilized clothes for the return trip. What do we eat? The eternal question of the hungry laboring man. I've got roasted bongo, a fried filimelue bird, and a boiled warple for the meat dishes. For vegetables, mashed hikoderms and pimola greens, neocorn bread. Translate that, please, into terms of food. Eat it yourself, after you eat it. I changed the system on you to-day. I've named all the things, so it'll be easier to keep track of those we like and the ones we don't. With appetite sharp set by long hours of hard labor they ate heartily. Then in the deepening twilight they sat and talked in comradely fashion while Stephen smoked one precious cigarette. It was not long until Nadia had her work well in hand. Stephen was plentiful, and the fertile valley and the neighboring upland yielded peculiar but savoury vegetable foods in variety and abundance, so that soon she was able to spend some time with Stevens, helping him as much as she could. Thus she came to realize the true magnitude of the task he faced and the real seriousness of their position. As Stevens had admitted before the work was started he had known that he had set himself a gigantic task, but he had not permitted himself to follow, step by step, the difficulties that he knew awaited him. Now, as the days stretched into weeks and on into months, he was forced to take every laborious step, and it was born in upon him just how nearly impossible that herculean labor was to prove, just how dependent any given earthly activity is upon a vast number of others. Here he was alone. Everything he needed must be manufactured by his own hands, from its original sources. He had known that progress would be slow, and he had prepared for that. But he had not pictured, even to himself, half of the maddening setbacks which occurred time after time because of the crudity of the tools and equipment he was forced to use. All too often, a machine or part, the product of many hours of grueling labor would fail because of the lack of some insignificant thing, some item so common as to be taken for granted in all terrestrial shops, but impossible of fabrication with the means at his disposal. At such times he would set his grim jaw a trifle harder, go back one step farther toward the stone age, and begin all over again to find the necessary raw material or a possible substitute, and then to build the apparatus and machinery necessary to produce the part he required. Thus the heartbreaking task progressed, and Nadia watched her co-laborer become leaner and harder and more desperate day by day, unable in any way to lighten his fearful load. In the brief period of rest following a noonday meal, Stevens lay prone upon the warm fragrant grass beside the forlorn hope, and it was evident to Nadia that he was not resting. His burned and blistered hands were locked savagely behind his head. His eyes were closed too tightly, and every tense line of his body was eloquent of a strain even more mental than physical. She studied him for minutes, her fine eyes clouded, then sat down beside him and put her hand upon his shoulder. "'I want to talk to you a minute, Steve,' she said gently. "'All ex, little fellow. But it might be just as well if you didn't touch me. You see, I'm getting so rabid that I can't trust myself.' "'That's exactly what I want to talk to you about.' A fiery blush burned through her deep tan, but her low, clear voice did not falter, and her eyes held his unflinchingly. "'I know you better than you know yourself, as I've said before. You are killing yourself, but it isn't the work, frightfully hard and disheartening as it is that is doing it. It's your anxiety for me and the uncertainty of everything. You haven't been able to rest because you have been raging and fuming so at unavoidable conditions. You have been fighting facts. And it's all so useless, Steve. Being you and me, everything would check out on zero if we'd just come out into the open. The man's gaunt frame seemed to stiffen even more rigidly. "'You've said altogether too much, or else only half enough, Nadia. You know, of course, that I've loved you ever since I got really to know you, and that didn't take long. You know that I love you and you know how I love you, with the real love that a man can feel for only one woman and only once in his life, and you know exactly what we're up against. Now, that does tear it, wide open,' he finished bitterly. "'No, it doesn't, at all,' she replied steadily. "'Of course, I know that you love me, and I glory in it, and since you don't seem to realize that I love you in exactly the same way, I'll tell you so. Love you! Good Heaven, Steve, I never dream that such a man as you really existed. But you're fighting too many things at once, and they're killing you. And they're mostly imaginary at that. Can't you see that there's no need of uncertainty between you and me? That there is no need of you driving yourself to desperation on my account? Whatever must be is all X with me, love. If you can build everything you need, all well and good. We'll be engaged until then, and our love will be open and sweet. If worst comes to worst, so that we can neither communicate with Brandon and Westfall, nor leave here under our own power, even that is nothing to kill ourselves about. And yes, I do know exactly what we're facing. I have been prepared for it ever since I first saw what a perfectly impossible thing you are attempting. You are trying to go from almost the age of bronze, clear up to year after next, in a month or two. Not one man in a million could have done as much in his lifetime as you have done in the last few weeks, and I do not see how even you, with what little you have to work with, can possibly build such things as power plants, transmitters, and ultra-radio stations. But what of it? For the day that it becomes clear that we are to remain here indefinitely, that day we will marry each other here, before God. Look around at this beautiful country. Could there be a finer world upon which to found a new race? When we have decided to cut loose from the Arcturus, I told you that I was with you all the way, and now I'll repeat it, with a lot more meaning. No matter what it's like, Steve, no matter where it leads to, I'm with you, to the end of the road. Here, or upon Earth, or anywhere in the universe, I am yours for life and for eternity. While she was speaking, the grim, strained lines upon Stephen's face had disappeared, and as she fell silent, he straightened up and gently, tenderly, reverently, he took her lithe body into his arms. You're right, sweetheart. Everything will check out on zero, to nineteen decimals. He was a man transfigured. I've been fighting windmills, and I've been scared sick. But how was I to think that a wonder girl like you could ever love a mutt like me? You certainly are the gamest little partner a man ever had. You're the world straightest shooter ace. You're a square brick if there ever was one. Your sheer nerve in being willing to go the whole route makes me love you more than ever, if such a thing can be possible, and it certainly puts a new face on the whole cockeyed universe for me. However, I don't believe it will come to that. After what you've just said, I sure will lick that job, regardless of how many different factories it takes to make one armature. I'll show that mess of scrap iron what kind of trees make shingles. The girl still in his arms, he rose to his feet and released her slowly, reluctantly, unwilling ever to let her go. Then he shook himself, as though an overwhelming burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and laughed happily. See this cigarette! He went on lightly. The last of them O'Hecans. I'm going to smoke it in honor of our engagement. He drew the fragrant smoke deep into his lungs and frowned at her in mock seriousness. This would be a nice world to live on, of course, but the jobs here are too darn steady. It also seems to be somewhat lacking in modern conveniences, such as steel mills and machine tools. Then, too, it is just a trifle too far from the royal and agent for you really to enjoy living here permanently. And besides, I can't get my favorite brand of cigarettes around here. Therefore, after due deliberation, I don't believe we'll take the place. We'll go back to Tellis. Kiss me just once more, Ace, and I'll make that job think a cyclone has struck it right on the center of impact. Like Samuel Weller, or whoever it was, I'm clear-full of wigger whim and vitality. The specified kiss and several others duly delivered, he strode blithely away, and the little canyon resounded with the blows of his heavy sledge as he attacked with renewed spirit the great foraging, white-hot from his soak-pit which was to become the shaft of his turbo-alternator. Nadia watched him for a moment, her very heart in her eyes, then picked up her spanner and went after more steel, breathing along and tremulous but supremely happy sigh. CHAPTER IV. OF SPACE HOWNS OF IPC by E. E. Doc Smith. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. SPACE HOWNS OF IPC. GANIMEDEAN LIFE. Slow, hard, and disheartening as the work had been at first, Stevens had never slackened his pace, and after a time, as his facilities increased, the exasperating setbacks decreased in number and severity, and his progress became faster and faster. Large as the forlorn hope was, SPACE was soon at a premium, for their peculiarly shaped craft became a veritable factory, housing a variety of machinery and equipment unknown in any single earthly industrial plant. Nothing was ornamental, everything was stripped to its barest fundamental necessities, but every working part functioned with a smooth precision to delight the senses of any good mechanic. In a cavern under the falls was the great turbine, to be full fed by the crude but tight pen-stock which clung to the wall of the gorge, angling up to the brink of that stupendous cataract. Bedded down upon solid rock, there was a high tension alternator capable of absorbing the entire output of the mighty turbine. This turbo-alternator was connected to a set of converters from which the energy would flow along three great copper cables, the receptors of the lifeboats being altogether too small to carry the load, to the now completely exhausted accumulators of the forlorn hope. All high tension apparatus was shielded and grounded, so that no stray impulses could reveal to the possible detectors of the Jovians the presence of this foreign power plant. Housing, frames, spiders, all stationary parts were rough, crude, and massive. But bearing shafts, armatures, all moving parts, were of a polished and finished accuracy and balance that promised months and years of trouble-free operation. Everything ready for the test, Stevens took off his frayed and torn leather coveralls and moccasins and climbed nimbly up the pen-stock. He never walked down. Opening the headgate, he poised sharply upon its extremity and took off in a perfect swan dive, floating unconcernedly down toward that boiling maelstrom two hundred feet below. He struck the water with a sharp, smooth slump and raced ashore, seizing his suit as he ran toward the turbo-alternator. It was running smoothly, and knowing that everything was tight at the receiving end, he lingered about the power plant until he was assured that nothing would go wrong and that his home manufactured lubricating oil and grease would keep those massive bearings cool. Hunger assailed him, and he glanced at the sun. He noted that it was well past dinner-time. "'Wow!' he exclaimed aloud. The boss just loves to wait meals. She'll burn me up for this!' He ran lightly toward home, eager to tell his sweetheart that the long-awaited moment had arrived. That power was now flowing into their accumulators. "'Hi, Diana of the Silver Bow,' he called. "'How come you know blow the dinner-bell?' "'Power's on. Come, give it a look!' There was no answer to his hail, and Stevens paused in shocked amazement. He knew that never of her own volition would she be out so late. Nadia was gone. A rapid tour of inspection quickly confirmed that which he already knew only too well. Forgotten was his hunger, forgotten the power-plant, forgotten everything except the fact that his Nadia, the buoyant spirit in whom centered his universe, was lost, or—he could not complete the thought even to himself. Swiftly he came to a decision and threw off his suit, revealing the body of a Hercules, a body ready for any demand he could put upon it. Always in hard training, months of grinding physical labor and of heavy eating had built him up to a point at which he would scarcely have recognized himself, could he have glanced into a mirror. Mighty but pliable muscles writhed and swelled under his clear skin as he darted here and there, selecting equipment for what lay ahead of him. He donned the heavy armored spacesuit which they had prepared months before, while they were still suspicious of possible attack. It was covered with heavy steel at every point, and the lenses of the helmet, already of unbreakable glass, had been reinforced with thick steel bars. Tank and valves supplied air at normal pressure, so that his powerful body could function at full efficiency, not handicapped by the lighter atmosphere of Ganymede. The sleeves terminated in steel-protected rubber wristlets, which left his hands free, yet sheltered from attack, wristlets tight enough to maintain the difference in pressure, yet not tight enough to cut off the circulation. He took up his mighty warbow and the full quiver of heavy arrows, full feathered and pointed with savagely barbed, tearing heads of forged steel, and slipped into their sheaths the long and heavy razor-sharp sword and the double-edged dirk, which he had made and ground long since, for he knew not what emergency, and whose bell-shaped hilts of steel further protected his hands and wrists. Thus equipped, he had approximately his normal earthly weight, a fact which would operate to his advantage, rather than otherwise, in case of possible combat. With one last look around the forlorn hope, whose every fitting spoke to him of the beloved mistress who was gone, he filled a container with water and cooked food and opened the door. It won't belong now, now it won't belong, Nadia carrelled happily, buckling on her pack-straps and taking a bow and arrows for her daily hunt. I never thought that he could do it, but what it takes to do things he's got lots of! She continued to improvise the song as she left the hope with its multitudinous devices whose very variety was a never-failing delight to her, showing as it did the sheer ability of the man whose brain and hands had almost finished a next to impossible task. Through the canyon and up a well-worn trail she climbed, and soon came out upon the sparsely timbered bench that was her hunting grounds. Upon this day, however, she was full of happy anticipation, and her mind was everywhere except upon her work. She was thinking of Stevens, of their love, of the power which he might turn on that very day, and of the possible rescue for which she had hitherto scarcely dared to hope. Thus it was that she walked miles beyond her usual limits without having loosed an arrow, and she was surprised when she glanced up at the sun to see that half the morning was gone and that she was almost to the foothills, beyond which rose a towering range of mountains. Snap out of it, girl! she reprimanded herself. Go on wool-gathering like this, and your man will go hungry, and he'll break you right off at the ankles. She became again the huntress, and soon saw an animal browsing steadily along the base of a hill. It was a six-legged, deer-like creature, much larger than anything she had as yet seen. But it was meat and her time was short, therefore she crept within range and loosed an arrow with the full power of her hunting-bow. Unfamiliar as she was with the anatomy of the peculiar creature, the arrow did not kill. The hexaped, as she instantly named it, sped away and she leaped after it. She, like her companion, had developed amazingly in musculature, and few indeed were the denizens of Ganymede who could equal her speed upon that small globe with its feeble gravitational force. Up the foothills it darted, beyond the hills and deep into a valley between two towering peaks the chase continued before Nadia's third arrow brought the animal down. Bending over the game she became conscious of a strange but wonderful sweet perfume and glanced up to see something which she certainly had not noticed when the hexaped had fallen. It was an enormous flower, at least a foot in diameter and indescribably beautiful, in its crimson and golden splendor. Almost level with her head the gorgeous blossom waved upon its heavy stem, based by a massive cluster of enormous, smooth, dark green leaves. Entranced by this unexpected and marvelous floral display, Nadia breathed deeply of the inviting fragrance and collapsed senseless upon the ground. Thereupon the weird plant moved over toward her and the thick leaves began to enfold her knees. This carnivorous thing, however, did not like the heavy cloth of her suit and turn to the hexaped. It thrust several of its leaves into the wounds upon the carcass and fed, while two other leaves rasped together sending out a piercing call. In answer to the sound the underbrush crackled and threw it and upon the scene there crashed a vegetable animal nightmare, the parent of the relatively tiny thing whose perfume had disabled the girl. Its huge and gorgeous blossom was supported by a long, flexible writhing stem, and its base was composed of many and highly specialized leaves. There were saws and spears and mighty but sinuous tendrils. There were slender shoots which seemed to possess some sense of perception. There was the massive tractor base composed of extensible leaves which, by their contraction and expansion, propelled the mass along the ground. Parent and child fell upon the hexaped and soon bones and hair were all that remained. The slender shoots then wandered about the unconscious girl in her strange covering, and as a couple of powerful tendrils coiled about her and raised her into the air over the monstrous base of the thing, its rudimentary brain could almost be perceived working as it sluggishly realized that, now full fed, it should carry this other victim along to feed its other offspring when they should return to its side. Barely outside the door of the forlorn hope, Stevens whirled about with a bitter imprecation. He had already lost time needlessly, with a lookout plate he could cover more ground in ten minutes that he could cover a foot in a week. He flipped on the power and shot the violet beam out over the plateau to the district where he knew Nadia was want to hunt. Not finding her there, he swung the beam in an ever-widening circle around that district. Finally he saw a few freshly broken twigs and scanned the scene with care. He soon found the trail of fresh blood which marked the path of the flight of the hexaped, and with the peculiar maneuverability of the device he was using it was not long until he was studying the scene when the encounter had taken place. He gasped when he saw the bones and perceived three of Nadia's arrows, but soon saw that the skeleton was not human and was reassured. Casting about in every direction he found Nadia's bow, and saw a peculiar, freshly trampled path leading from the kill past the bow down the alley. He could not understand the spore, but it was easily followed, and he shot the beam along it at a headlong speed until he came up with the monstrous creature that was making it, until he saw what burden that organism was carrying. He leaped to the controls of the lifeboat, then dropped his hand. While the stream of power now flowing was ample to operate the lookout plates, yet it would be many hours before the accumulator cells would be in condition to drive the craft even that short distance. It'll take over an hour to get there. Here's hoping I can check in all X. He muttered savagely as he took careful note of the location and direction of the creature's trail and set off at a fast jog trot. The carnivorous flowers' first warning that all was not well was received when Stephen's steel-shot feet landed squarely upon its base and one sweeping cut of his sword lopped off the malignant blossom and severed the two tendrils that still held the unconscious Nadia. With a quick heave of his shoulder he tossed her lightly backward into the smooth-beaten track the creature had made and tried to leap away, but the instant he had consumed in rescuing the girl had been enough for the thing to seize him, and he found himself battling for his very life. No soft-leaved infant this, but a full-grown monster, well equipped with mighty weapons of offense and defense. Well it was for the struggling man that he was encased in armor-steel, as though saw-edged, hard-spite leaves drove against him with crushing force. Well it was for him that he had his own independent air supply, so that the deadly perfume eddied ineffective about his helmeted head. Hard and fiercely driven as those terrible thorns were, they could do no more than dent his heavy armor. His powerful left arm, driving the double razor-edged dirk in short, resistless arcs, managed to keep the snaky tendrils from coiling about his right arm, which was wielding the heavy, trenchant sword. Every time that mighty blade descended it cleaved its length through the snapping spikes and infinitely grinding leaves. But more than once a flailing tendril coiled about his neck armor and held his helmet immovable as though in a vice, while those frightful, grinding saws sought to rip their way through the glass to the living creature inside the peculiar metal housing. Dirk and saber and magnificent physique finally triumphed, but it was not until each leaf was literally severed from every other leaf that the outlandish organism gave up the ghost. Nadia had been tossed out into pure air, beyond the zone of the stupefying perfume, and she recovered her senses in time to see the finish of the battle. Stevens, assured that his foe was or to combat, turned toward the spot where he had thrown Nadia's body. He saw that she was unharmed and sprang toward her in relief. He was surprised beyond measure, however, to see her run away at a pace he could not hope to equal, encumbered as he was, motioning frantically at him the while to keep away from her. He stopped, astounded, and started to unscrew his helmet, whereupon she dashed back toward him, signalling him emphatically to leave his armor exactly as it was. He stood still and stared at her, an exasperated question large upon his face, until she made clear to him that he was to follow her at a safe distance, then she set off at a rapid walk. She led him back to where the Hexapent had fallen, where she retrieved her bow and arrows. Then, keeping a sharp look out upon all sides, she went on to a small stream of water. She made the dumb-founded man go out into the middle of the creek and lie down and roll over in the water, approaching him sniffing cautiously between immersions. She made him continue the bathing until she could detect not even the slightest trace of the sweet but noxious fragrance of that peculiarly terrible form of Ganemedian life. Only then did she allow him to remove his helmet, so that she could give him the greeting for which they both had longed and tell him what it was all about. So that's it, Ace! he exclaimed, still holding her tightly in his iron embrace. Great balls of fire! I thought maybe you were still a little cuckoo, an aesthetic perfume, huh? Hot stuff, I'd say. No wonder you bit. I would, too. It was lucky for us I was airtight. We both be fee—stop it! she interrupted him sharply. Forget it! Don't ever even think of it. All ex, Ace! It's out like the well-known light. What to do? It's getting darker than a hat, and we're a long way from home. Don't know whether I could find my way back in the dark or not. Just between you and me, I'm not particularly keen on night-travel in these parts, after what's just happened, are you? Anything else but—she assured him fervently. I'd lots rather stay hungry until to-morrow. No need of that. I brought along enough supper for both of us. I'm hungry as a wolf, too, now that I have time to think of it. We'll eat and den up somewhere, or climb a tree. Those wampuses probably can't climb trees. There's a nice little cave back there about a hundred meters. We'll pretend it's the Ritz, and they soon had a merry fire blazing in front of the retreat. There the aid of the provisions Stevens had brought. Then, while the man rolled up boulders before the narrow entrance of the cave, Nadia gathered leaves and made a soft bed upon its warm, dry floor. Good night, lover, and the girl, untroubled and secure, now that Stevens was at her side, was almost instantly asleep. But the man was not sleepy. He thought of the power-plant, even now sending its terrific stream of energy into his accumulators. He thought of the ultra-radio. Where could he get all the materials needed? He thought of his friends, wondering whether or not they would receive his message. He thought of Breckenridge, and the other human beings who had been aboard the Arcturus, wondering poignantly as to their fate. He thought of Newton and of his own people, who had certainly given them up for dead long since. But above all, he thought of the beautiful, steel-true companion lying there asleep at his mailed feet, and he gazed down at her, his heart in his eyes. The fire-light shone through the chinks between the boulders, casting a flickering, ruddy light throughout the little cavern. Nadia lay there, her head pillowed upon one strong, brown little hand. Her lips were red and sweetly curved. Her cheek was smooth and firm as so much brown velvet. She was literally a glow with sheer beauty and with perfect health, and the man reflected, as he studied her hungrily, that this wild life certainly had agreed with her. She was becoming more surpassingly beautiful with every passing day. "'You little trump, you wonderful, lovely, square little brick,' he breathed silently, and bent over to touch her cheek lightly with his lips. Slight as the caress was, it disturbed her, and even in her sleep her subconscious mind sent out an exploring hand to touch her sleeve and thus be reassured. He pressed her hand and she settled back comfortably, with a long, deep breath, and he stretched his iron clad length beside her and closed his eyes, firmly resolved not to waste a minute of this wonderful night in sleep. When he opened them an instant later it was broad daylight, the boulders had been rolled away, the fragrance of roasting meat permeated the atmosphere, and Nadia was making a deafening clamour, beating his steel breastplate lustily with the flat of his huge sabre. "'Dalight in the swamp, you sleeper,' she exclaimed. "'Roll out or roll up! Come and get it before I throw it away!' "'I must have been kind of tired,' he said sheepishly, when he saw that she had shot a bird and had cooked breakfast for them both while he had been buried in oblivion. "'Piculier, too, isn't it?' Nadia asked, pointedly. "'You only did about ten days' work yesterday in ten minutes, swinging this frightful snicker-snee of yours. Why, you played with it as though it were a knitting needle, and when I wanted to wake you up with it I could hardly lift it.' "'Thought you didn't want that subject even mentioned,' he tried to steer the talk away from his prowess with the broadsword. "'That was yesterday, Airely. Besides, I don't mind talking about you. It's thinking about us being—you know—that I can't stand.' "'Breakfast over,' they started down the valley, Stevens carrying the helmet under his arm. Hardly had they started, however, the Nadia's keen eye saw movement through the trees, and she stopped and pointed. Stevens looked once, then hand in hand they dashed back to their cave. "'We'll pile up some of the boulders, and you lie low,' he instructed her as he screwed on his helmet. She snapped open his face-plate. "'But what about you? Aren't you coming in, too?' she demanded. "'Can't. They'd surround us and starve us out. I'm safe in this armor. Thank heaven we made it as solid as we did, and I'll fight them in the open. I'll show them what the bear did to the buckwheat.' "'All right, I guess. But I wish I had my armor, too,' she mourned, as he snapped shut his plate, and walled her into the cave with the same great rocks he had used the night before. Then, Nadia safe from attack, he drew his quiver of war-arrows into position over his shoulder, placed one at the ready on his bowstring and turned to face the horde of things rushing up the valley toward him. Wild animals he had supposed them, but as he stood firm and raised his weapon, shrill whistle sounded in the throng, and he gasped as he realized that those frightful creatures must be intelligent beings, for not only did they signal to each other, but he saw that they were armed with bows and arrows, spears and slings. Six-limbed creatures they were, of a purplish red color, with huge, trichornigerous heads, and with staring green, phosphorescent eyes. Two of the six limbs were always legs, two always arms. The intermediate two, due to a midsection jointing of the six-foot long, almost cylindrical body, could be used at will as either legs or arms. Now, out of range, as they supposed, they halted and gathered about one who was apparently their leader. Some standing erect and waving four hands, while shaking their horns savagely in Stephen's direction. Others trotting around on four legs, busily gathering stones of suitable size for their vicious slings. Too far away to use their own weapons, and facing only one, small, four-limbed creature, they considered their game already in the bag, but they had no comprehension of earthly muscles, nor any understanding of the power and range of a hundred-pound bow driving a steel-headed war-arrow. Thus, while they were arguing, Stephen's took the offensive, and a cruelly barbed steel warhead tore completely through the body of their leader, and mortally wounded the creature next beyond him. Though surprised, they were not to be frightened off, but with wild, shrill screams rushed to the attack. Stephen's had no ammunition to waste, and every time that mighty bow twang'd, a yard-long arrow transfixed at least one of the red horde, and a body through which had torn one of those ghastly, hand-forged arrow-heads was of very little use thereafter. Accurately sped arrows splintered harmlessly against the reinforced windows of his helmet, and against the steel guards protecting his hands. He was almost deafened by the din as the stone missiles of the slingers rebounded from his reverberating shell of steel, but he fired carefully, steadily and powerfully until his last arrow had been loosed. Then, the wicked dirk in his left hand and the long and heavy sabre weaving a circuit or path of brilliance in the sun, he stepped forward a couple of paces to meet the attackers. For a few moments nothing could stand before that fiercely driven blade. Severed heads, limbs, and fragments of torsos literally filled the air, but sheer weight of numbers bore him down. As he fell, he saw the white shaft of one of Nadia's hunting-arrows flash past his helmet and bury itself to the flock in the body of one of the horde above him. Nadia knew that her arrows could not harm her lover, and through a chink between two boulders she was shooting into the thickest of the mob, speeding her light arrows with the full power of her bow. Though down, the savages soon discovered that Stevens was not out. In such close quarters he could not use his sword, but the fourteen-inch blade of the dirk, needle-pointed as it was, with two razor-sharp serrated cutting-edges was itself no mean weapon, and time after time he drove it deep, taking life at every thrust. Four more red monsters threw themselves upon the prostrate man, but not sufficiently versed in armor to seek out its joints, their fierce short spear-thrusts did no damage. Presently four more corpses lay still, and Stevens, with his, to them, incredible earthly strength, was once more upon his feet in spite of their utmost efforts to pinyon his mighty limbs, and was again swinging his devastating weapon. Half their force lying upon the field, wiped out by a small, but invincible and apparently invulnerable being, the remainder broke and ran, pursued by Stevens to the point where the red monsters had first halted. He recovered his arrows and returned to the cave, opening his face-plate as he came. All ex-sweetheart, he asked, rolling away the boulders. Didn't get anything through to you, did they? No, they didn't even realize that I was taking part in the battle, I guess. Did they hurt you while you were down? I was scared to death for a minute. No, the old armor held. One of them must have gnawed on my ankle some between the grave and the heel-plate, but he couldn't quite get through. It's a darn small opening there, too. Must have bent my foot way round to get in at all. Have to tighten that joint up a little, I guess. I'll bet I've got a black spot and a blue spot there the size of my hand. Maybe it's only the size of yours, though. You won't die of that, probably. Heaven, Steve, that cleaver of yours is a frightful thing in action. Suppose it's safe for us to go home? Absolutely. Right now is the best chance we'll ever have, and something tells me that we'd better make it snappy. They'll be back, and the next time they won't be so easy to take. All ex, then. Hold me, Steve. I can't stand the sight of that, let alone wade through it. I'm going to faint or something, sure. As you were, he snapped. You aren't going to pass out now that it's all over. It's a pretty ghastly mess, I know. But shut your eyes, and I'll carry you out of sight. Aren't we out of sight of that place yet? She demanded after a time. I have been for quite a while, he confessed, but you're sitting pretty, aren't you? And you aren't very heavy, not here on Ganymede anyway. Put me down, she commanded. After that crack I won't play with you any more at all. I'll pick up my marbles and go home. He released her, and they hurried back toward their waterfall, keeping wary eyes sharp, set for danger in any form, animal or vegetable. On the way back across the foothills Stephen shot another hexaped, and upon the plateau above the river Nadia bagged several birds and small animals. But it was not until they were actually in their own little canyon that their rapid pace slackened and their vigilance relaxed. After this, Ace, we hunt together, and we go back to wearing armor while we're hunting. It scared me out of a year's growth when you checked up missing. We sure do, Steve, she concurred emphatically. I'm not going to get more than a meter away from you from now on. What do you suppose those horrible things are? Which. Both. Those flowers aren't like anything Telus ever saw, so we have no basis of comparison. They may be a development of a fly-catching plant, or they may be a link between the animal and vegetable kingdom. However, we don't intend to study them, so let's forget them. Those animals were undoubtedly intelligent beings. They probably are a race of savages of this satellite. Then the really civilized races are probably—not necessarily. There may well be different types, each struggling towards civilization. They certainly are on Venus, and they once were on Mars. Why haven't we seen anything like that before, in all these months? Things have been so calm and peaceful that we thought we had the whole world to ourselves, as far as danger or man are concerned. We never saw them before, because we never went where they lived. You were a long ways from your usual stamping grounds, you know. That animal-vegetable flower is probably a high-altitude organism, living in the mountains and never coming as low as we are down here. As for the savages, whatever they are, they probably never come within five kilometers of the falls. Many primitive peoples think that waterfalls are inhabited by demons, and maybe these folks are afflicted the same way. We don't know much about our new world yet, do we? We sure don't, and I'm not particularly keen on finding out much more about it until we get organized for trouble, either. Well, here we are. Just like getting back home to see the hope, isn't it? It is home, and will be, until we get one of our own on Earth. And after Stevens had read his meters, learning with satisfaction that the full current was still flowing into the accumulators, he began to cut up the meat. Now that you've got the power plant running at last, what next? asked Nadia, piling the cuts in the freezer. Brandon's ultra-radio comes next, but it's got more angles to it than a cubist's picture of a set of prisms. So many that I don't know where to begin. There, that job's done. Let's sit down and I'll talk at you a while. Maybe between us we can figure out where to start. I've got everything to build it lined up except for the tube, but that's got me stopped cold. You see, fields of forest are all right in most places, but I've got to have one tube, and it's got to have the hardest possible vacuum. That means a mercury-vapor super-pump. Mercury is absolutely the only thing that will do the trick, and the mercury is one thing that is conspicuous by its absence in these parts. So are tungsten for filaments, tantalum for plates, and platinum for leads. And I haven't found anything that I can use as a getter, either. A metal, you know, to flash inside the tube to clean up the glass traces of atmosphere in it. I didn't suppose that such a simple thing as a radio tube could hold you up after the perfectly unbelievable things that you've done already, but I see now how it could. Of course, the tubes in our receiver over there are too small. Yes, they are only receiver and communicator tubes, and I need a high-power transmitting tube, a fifty kilowater at least. I'd give my left leg to the knee joint for one of those big, water-cooled sixty kilowatt, ten-nineteens right now. It would save us a lot of grief. Maybe you could break up those tubes and use the plates and so on. I thought of that, but it won't work. There isn't half enough metal in the lot, and the filaments in particular are so tiny that I couldn't possibly work them over into a big one. Then, too, we haven't got many spare tubes, and if I smashed the ones we're using, I put our communicators out of business for good, so that we can't yell for help if we have to drift home, and I still don't get any mercury. Do you mean to tell me there's no mercury on this whole planet? Not exactly, but I do mean that I haven't been able to find any, and that it's probably darn scarce. And since all the other metals I want worst are also very dense and of high atomic weight, they're probably mighty scarce here, too. Why? Because we're on a satellite, and no matter what hypothesis you accept for the origin of satellites, you come to the same conclusion, that heavy metals are either absent or most awfully scarce and buried deep down toward the center. There are lots of heavy metals in Jupiter somewhere, but we probably couldn't find them. Jupiter's atmosphere is one mass of fog, and we couldn't see, since we haven't got an infrared transformer. I could build one, in time, but it would take quite a while, and we couldn't work on Jupiter anyway, because of its gravity, and probably because of its atmosphere. And even if we could work there, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives prospecting for mercury. Stevens fell silent, brow wrinkled in thought. You mean, dear, that we're...? Nadia broke off, the sentence unfinished. Gosh, no! There's lots of things not tried yet, and we can always set out to drift it. I was thinking only of building the tube. And I'm trying to think. Say, Nadia, what do you know about Cantrell's comet? Not a thing, except that I remember reading in the newspapers that it was peculiar for something or other. But what has Cantrell's comet got to do with the high cost of living, or with radio tubes? Have you gone cuckoo all of a sudden? You'll be surprised, Stevens grinned at her puzzled expression. Cantrell's comet is one of Jupiter's comet family, and is peculiar in being the most massive one known to science. It was hardly known until after they built those thousand-foot reflectors on the moon where the seeing is always perfect, but it has been studied a lot since then. Its nucleus is small, but extremely heavy. It seems to have an average density of somewhere around sixteen. There's platinum and everything else that's heavy there, girl. They ought to be there in such quantity that even such a volunteer chemist as I am could find them. Heaven, Steve! A look of alarm flashed over Nadia's face then disappeared as rapidly as it had come into being. But, of course, comets aren't really dangerous. Sure not. A comet's tail, which so many people are afraid of as being poison gas, is almost a perfect vacuum, even at its thickest, and we'd have to wear spacesuits anyway. And speaking of vacuum, whoopee! We don't need mercury any more than a goldfish needs a gas mask. When we get Mr. Tube done, we'll take him out into space, leaving his mouth open, and very shortly he'll be as empty as a flapper's skull. Then we'll seal him up, flash him out, come back here, and start spilling our troubles into brand and shell-like ear. Wonderful, Steve! You do get an idea occasionally, don't you? But how do we get out there? Where is this cantrell's comet? I don't know exactly. There's one rub. Another is that I haven't even started the transmitter and receptor units. But we've got some field generators here on board that I can use, so it won't be so bad. And our comet is in this part of the solar system, somewhere fairly close. Wish we had an ephemeris, a couple of IP solar charts, and a real telescope. You can't do much without an ephemeris, I should think. It's a good thing you kept the chronometers going. You know the IP time, day and dates, anyway. I'll have to do without some things, that's all. And the man stared absently at the steel wall. I remember something about its orbit, since it is one thing that all IP vessels have to steer clear of. Think I can figure it close enough so that we'll be able to find it in our little telescope, or even on our plate, since we'll be out of this atmosphere. And it might not be a bad idea for us to get away anyway. I'm afraid of those folks on that spaceship, whoever they are, and they must live around here somewhere. Cantrell's comet swings about 50 million kilometers outside Jupiter's orbit at Ephelion, close enough for us to reach, and yet probably too far for them to find us easily. By the time we get back here, they probably will have quit looking for us, if they look at all. Then too I expect these savages to follow us up. What say, the lace? Do we try it, or do we stay here? You know best, Steve. As I said before, I'm with you from now on in whatever you think best to do. I know that you think it best to go out there. Therefore, so do I. Well, he said, finally. I'd better get busy, then. There's a lot to do before we can start. The radio doesn't come next, after all. The transmitter and receptor units come ahead of it. They won't mean wasted labor in any event, since we'll have to have them in case the radio fails. You'd better lay in a lot of supplies while I'm working on that stuff, but don't go out of sight, and yell like fury if you see anything. We'd both better wear full armor every time we go out of doors. Unless I'm all out of control, we aren't done with those savages yet. Even though they may be afraid of the demons of the falls, I think they'll have at least one more try at us. While Nadia brought in meat and vegetables and stored them away, Stevens attacked the problem of constructing the pair of tight beam, auto-derigible transmitter and receptor units, which would connect his great turbo-alternator to the accumulators of their craft, wherever it might be in space. From the force field generators of the Forlorn Hope, he selected the two most suitable for his purpose, tuned them to the exact frequency he required, and around them built a complex system of condensers and coils. Day after day passed. Their larder was full, the receptor was finished, and the beam transmitter was almost ready to attach to the turbo-alternator before the calm was broken. Steve, Nadia shrieked, glancing idly into the communicator plate, she had been perfunctorily surveying the surrounding territory. They're coming! Thousands of them! They're all over the bench up there and just simply pouring down the hills and up the valley. Wish they'd waited a few hours longer, we'd have been gone. However, we're just about ready for them, he commented grimly, as he stared over her shoulder into the communicator plate. We'll make a lot of those Indians wish they had stayed at home with their pap-pooses. Have you got all those rays and things fixed up? Not as many as I'd like to have. You see, I don't know the composition of the IP ray, since it is outlawed to everybody except the police. Of course, I could have found out from Brandon, but never paid any attention to it. I've got some nice ultraviolet, though, and a short-wave oscillatory that'll cook an elephant to a cinder in about eight seconds. We'll keep them amused, no fooling. Glad we had time to cover our open sides, and it looks as though that meteorite armor we put over the projectors may be mighty useful, too. On and on the savages came masked in formations showing some signs of rude discipline. This time there was neither shrieking nor yelling. The weird creatures advanced silently and methodically. Here and there were masked groups of hundreds, dragging behind them engines which Stephen studied with interest. Catapults, he mused. You were right, girl of my dreams. Armor and bow and arrows won't help us much right now. They're going to throw rocks at us that'll have both mass and momentum. With those things they can cave in our side armor and might even dent our roof. When one of those projectiles hits we want to know where it ain't, that's all. Stephen's cast off the heavily insulated plug connecting the power plant leads to his now almost fully charged accumulators, strapped himself and Naughty into place at the controls, and waited, staring into the plate. Catapult, after Catapult, was dragged to the lip of the Little Canyon, until six of them bore upon the target. The huge stranded springs of hair, fiber and sinew were wound up to the limit, and enormous masses of rock were toilsomely rolled upon the platforms. Each gunner seized his trip, and as the leader shrieked his signal, the six ponderous masses of metalliferous rock heaved into the air as one. But they did not strike their objective, for as the signal was given Stephen shot power into his projectors. The forlorn hope leaped out of the canyon and high into the air over the open meadow, just as the six great projectiles crashed into the ground upon the spot, which, an instant before, she had occupied. Rudimentary discipline forgotten, the horde rushed down into the canyon and the valley, in full clamor of their barbaric urgings. Horns and arms tossed fiercely, savage noises rent the air, and arrows splintered harmlessly upon steel plate, and the mystified and maddened warriors upon the plain below gave vent to their outraged feelings. Look, Nadia, a whole gang of them are smelling around that power plug. Pretty soon somebody's going to touch a hot spot, and when he does, we'll cut loose on the rest of them. The huge insulating plug, housing the ends of the three great cables leading to the converters of the turbo-alternator, lay innocently upon the ground, its three yawning holes invitingly open to savage arms. The chief, who had been inspecting the power plant, walked along the triplex lead and joined his followers at its terminus. Pointing with his horns, he jabbered orders and the three red monsters, one at each cable, bent to lift the plug, while the leader himself thrust an arm into each of the three contact holes. There was a flash of searing flame and the reeking smoke of burning flesh. Those three arms had taken the terrific no-load voltage of the three-phase converter system, and the full power of the alternator had been shorted directly to the ground through the comparatively small resistance of his body. Stevens had poised the forlorn hope edgewise in mid-air, so that the gleaming, heavily armored parabolic reflectors of his projectors, mounted upon the leading edge of the fortress, covered the scene below. As the charred corpse of the savage chieftain dropped to the ground, it seemed to the six limbed creatures that the demons of the falls had indeed been annoyed beyond endurance by their intrusion. For, as if in response to the flash of fire from the power plug, that structure so peculiarly and so stolidly hanging in the air came plunging down toward them. From it there reached down twin fans of death and destruction. One flaming and almost invisibly incandescent violet, which tore at the eyes and excruciatingly disintegrated brain and nervous tissues. The other, dully glowing and equally invisible red, at the touch of which body temperatures soared to lethal heights and foliage burst cracklingly into spontaneous flame. In their massed hundreds the savages dropped where they stood, life rived away by the torturing ultraviolet, burned away by the blast of pure heat, or consumed by the conflagrations that raged instantly wherever that wide sweeping fan encountered combustible material. In the face of power supernatural they lost all thought of attack or of conquest, and sought only and madly to escape. Weapons were thrown away, the catapults were abandoned, and, every man for himself, the mob fled in wildest disorder, each striving to put as much distance as possible between himself and that place of dread mystery, the waterfall. Well, I guess that'll hold them for a while. Stevens dropped their craft back into its original quarters in the canyon. Whether they ever believed before that this falls was inhabited by devils or not, they think so now. I'll bet that it will be six hundred Jovian years before any of them ever come within a hundred kilometers of it again. I'm glad of it too, because they'll let our power plant alone now. Well, let's get going. We've got to make things hum for a while. Why all the rush? You just said that we have scared them away for good. The savages, yes, but not those others. We've just turned loose enough radiation to affect detectors all over the system, and it's up to us to get this beam projector set up, get away from here, and get our power shut off before they can trace us. Snap it up, Ace! The transmitter unit was installed at the converters, the cable was torn out, and having broken the last material link between it and Ganymede, Stevens hurled the forlorn hope out into space, using the highest acceleration Nadia could endure. Hour after hour the massive wedge of steel bore outward, away from Jupiter. Hour after hour Stevens' anxious eyes scanned his instruments. Hour after hour hope mounted and relief took the place of anxiety, as the screens remained blank throughout every inquiring thrust into empty ether. But they knew they would have to keep sharp vigilance.