My attention was brought suddenly back to the reality of our table. I heard Ob Hahns silky voice:
We passed quite close to the moon last night, Mr. Dean.
Yes, said Snap. We did, didnt we? Always doits a technical problem of the exigencies of interstellar navigation. Explain it to them, Greggyoure an expert.
I waved it away with a laugh. There was a brief silence. I could not help noticing Sir Arthur Conistons queer look, and I think I have never seen so keen a glance as Rance Rankin shot at me. Were all these people aware of Grantlines treasure on the moon? It suddenly seemed so. I wished fervently at that instant that the ten days of this voyage were over and we were safely at Ferrok-Shahn. Captain Carter was absolutely right. Coming back we would have a cordon of interplanetary police aboard.
Sir Arthur broke the awkward silence. Magnificent sight, the moon, from so close a viewpointthough I was too much afraid of pressure-sickness to be up to see it.
I had nearly finished my hasty meal when another incident shocked me. The two other passengers at our table came in and took their seats. A Martian girl and man. The girl had the seat at my left, with the man beside her. All Martians are tall. This girl was about my own heightthat is, six feet, two inches. The man was seven feet or more. Both wore the Martian outer robe. The girl flung hers back. Her limbs were encased in pseudo-mail. She looked, as all Martians like to look, a very warlike Amazon. But she was a pretty girl. She smiled at me with a keen-eyed, direct gaze.
Mr. Dean said at breakfast that you were big and handsome. You are.
They were brother and sister, these Martians. Snap introduced them as Set Miko and Setta Moa.5
This Miko was, from our Earth standards, a tremendous, brawny giant. Not spindly, like most Martians, this fellow, for all his seven feet of height, was almost heavy-set. He wore a plaited leather jerkin beneath his robe, and knee pants of leather out of which his lower legs showed as gray, hairy pillars of strength. He had come into the salon with a swagger, his sword-ornament clanking.
A pleasant voyage so far, he said to me as he started his meal. His voice had the heavy, throaty rasp characteristic of the Martian. He spoke perfect Englishboth Martians and Venus people are by heritage extraordinary linguists. Miko and his sister Moa had a touch of Martian accent, worn almost away by living for some years in Great-New York.
The shock to me came within a few minutes. Miko, absorbed in attacking his meal, inadvertently pushed back his robe to bare his forearm. An instant only, then it dropped again to his wrist. But in that instant I had seen, upon the gray flesh, a thin sear turned red. A very recent burnas though a pencil-ray of heat had caught his arm.
My mind flung back. Only last night in the City Corridor, Snap and I had been followed by a Martian. I had shot at him with the heat-ray; I thought I had hit him on the arm. Was this the mysterious Martian who had followed us from Halseys office?
CHAPTER V
Venza the Venus GirlIt was shortly after that mid-day meal when I encountered Venza sitting on the starlit deck. I had been in the bow observatory; taken my routine castings of our position and worked them out. I was, I think, of the Planetaras officers the most expert handler of the mathematical mechanical calculators. The locating of our position and charting the trajectory of our course was, under ordinary circumstances, about all I had to do. And it took only a few minutes each twelve hours.
I had a moment with Carter in the isolation of his chart-room.
This voyage! Gregg, Im getting like youtoo fanciful. Weve a normal group of passengers, apparently; but I dont like the look of any of them. That Ob Hahn, at your table
Snaky-looking fellow, I commented. He and the Englishman are great on arguments. Did you have Princes cabin searched?
My breath hung on his answer.
Yes. Nothing unusual among his things. We searched both his room and his sisters.
I did not follow that up. Instead I told him about the burn on Mikos thick gray arm.
He stared. I wish to the Almighty we were at Ferrok-Shahn. Gregg, to-night when the passengers are asleep, come here to me. Snap will be here, and Dr. Frank. We can trust him.
He knows aboutabout the Grantline treasure?
Yes. And so do Balch and Blackstone.
Balch and Blackstone were our first and second officers.
Well all meet here, Greggsay about the zero hour. We must take some precautions.
He suddenly felt he should say no more now. He dismissed me.
I found Venza seated alone in a secluded corner of the starlit deck. A porthole, with the black heavens and the blazing stars, was before her. There was an empty seat nearby.
Hola-lo,6 Gregg! Sit here with me. I have been wondering when you would come after me.
I sat down beside her. What are you doinggoing to Mars, Venza? Im glad to see you.
Many thanks. But I am glad to see you, Gregg. So handsome a man Do you know, from Venus to the earth and I have no doubt on all of Mars, no man will please me more.
Glib tongue, I laughed. Born to flatter the maleevery girl of your world. And I added seriously, You dont answer my question? What takes you to Mars?
Contract. By the stars, what else? Of course, a chance to make a voyage with you
Dont be silly, Venza.
I enjoyed her. I gazed at her small, slim figure gracefully reclining in the deck chair. Her long, gray robe partedby design, I have no doubtto display her shapely, satin-sheathed legs. Her black hair was coiled in a heavy knot at the back of her neck; her carmined lips were parted with a mocking, alluring smile. The exotic perfume of her enveloped me.
She glanced at me sidewise from beneath her sweeping black lashes.
Be serious, I added.
I am serious. Sober. Intoxicated by you, but sober.
I said, What sort of a contract?
A theater in Ferrok-Shahn. Good money, Gregg. Im to be there a year. She sat up to face me. Theres a fellow here on the Planetara, Rance Rankin, he calls himself. At our tablea big, good-looking blond American. He says he is a magician. Ever hear of him?
Thats what he told me. No, I never heard of him.
Nor did I. And I thought I had heard of everyone of any importance. He is listed for the same theater where Im going. Nice sort of fellow. She paused, and added suddenly, If hes a professional entertainer, Im a motor-oiler.
It startled me. Why do you say that?
Instinctively my gaze swept the deck. An Earth woman and child and a small Venus man were in sight, but not within earshot.
Why do you look so furtive? she retorted. Gregg, theres something strange about this voyage. Im no fool, nor you, and you know it as well as I do.
Rance Rankin I prompted.
She leaned closer toward me. He could fool you. But not meIve known too many real magicians. She grinned. I challenged him to trick me. You should have seen him trying to evade!
Do you know Ob Hahn? I interrupted.
She shook her head. Never heard of him. But he told me plenty at breakfast. By Satan, what a flow of words that devil-driver can muster! He and the Englishman dont mesh very well, do they?
She stared at me. I had not answered her grin; my mind was too busy with queer fancies. Halseys words: Things are not always what they seem Were these passengers masqueraders? Put here by George Prince? And then I thought of Miko the Martian, and the burn upon his arm.
She stared at me. I had not answered her grin; my mind was too busy with queer fancies. Halseys words: Things are not always what they seem Were these passengers masqueraders? Put here by George Prince? And then I thought of Miko the Martian, and the burn upon his arm.
Come back, Gregg! Dont go wandering off like that! She dropped her voice to a whisper. Ill be serious. I want to know what in the hell is going on aboard this ship. Im a woman, and Im curious. You tell me.
What do you mean? I parried.
I mean a lot of things. What weve just been talking about. And what was the excitement you were in just before breakfast this morning?
Excitement?
Gregg, you may trust me. For the first time she was wholly serious. Her gaze made sure no one was within hearing. She put her hand on my arm. I could barely hear her whisper: I know they might have a ray upon usIll be careful.