"The only time we failed was, when they wanted to end, once and for all, the prestige of the royal house. That was after they had bought the a.s.sa.s.sination of the claimant, his wife and their son. Didn"t dare take Princess Sira too, because she has always been a popular darling.
It would have been too raw, wiping out the whole family. They left one claimant, see? And then put it up to us to discredit her!
"Man! That fell down! The first attempt was very smooth, at that. But it brought in such a storm of condemnation they had to drop that.
"You can guess how we boys at the central office felt about it. No wonder we got cynical and lost all self-respect. We couldn"t have stood it at all, but sometimes we"d put on a special party, just to let off steam. Did we rip "em up high and handsome? The more outrageous the flattery we sent out, disguised as news, the more baldly truthful we were in those early morning rehearsals, with the mikes and telegs dead. Wilc.o.x was our special meat.
"Of course, it was foolhardy. One night a mixer in the room below us got his numbers mixed, killing a banquet program on a trunk channel and sending our outrageous burlesque out instead. When the poor fellow discovered his mistake he made for the bottom of the ca.n.a.l. As for me, I made for the desert. I never heard what became of the others, and that was six years ago. I wonder if I"ve changed much."
"What"s your name?" Murray asked suddenly.
"Tuman. Nay Tuman."
"The others must have been caught. As for yourself, orders have been sent all over the solar system to kill you on sight. They hung the killing of that electrician on you."
"That"s their way!" Nay Tuman absented gloomily. "A price on my head.
They thought I"d stow away on some rocket liner, I suppose."
"Weren"t you afraid some desert rat would give you away?"
"No danger. They"re just about all fugitives themselves. They hid me till I grew this foliage. They showed me how to find food and water where seemingly there was none. The desert isn"t sterile. Why, I know of three or four men within fifty miles of here! Sometimes they stop at my spring for water. As for the harness frames at the fort, those sojers might as well be blind, considering all they miss."
"You asked a while ago if you"ve changed much. You have. I remember your picture. All of us studied it, because there"s a 100,000 I. P.
dollar reward out. You were a slim lad then, not the fuzzy bear you are now. How would you like to go in to Tarog with me? They seem to have us licked now--but did you ever hear that the I. F. P. is most dangerous when it"s been thoroughly licked?"
"I don"t know--I"m used to the solitude," Tuman demurred. "In the city I"d be lost."
But Murray won him over. He had a persuasive way with him.
The next morning they started, guiding their course by the Sun. They made no attempt to travel fast, but the going was easy. Although they rested during the heat of the day, and buried themselves for the nights in the sun-warmed sand, they made about fifteen miles a day.
They saw no other human being. These desert dwellers did not meet for mere sociability.
They left the mountains on the second day, descending to the lower level of a broad, sterile plain which was studded by the low, greenish pulp-mounds, that resembled mossy rocks more than vegetation. After two days more they came to a region where huge blocks of stone, of the prevailing orange or brick color, lay scattered around on the plain.
"They look good to me," Tuman said. "If some patrol comes along now we"ll have plenty of cover, at least. This belt is a hundred miles wide, maybe a little more. Good hunting there. Plenty of desert hogs, as fat and as round as a ball of bovine b.u.t.ter. I can knock "em over with a rock, and you can use your neuro, in a pinch."
They did, in fact, succeed in capturing one of the little creatures soon afterward, and, dropping a moistened fire pellet on top of a pulp-mound, soon were roasting their meat.
Not once, however, did either one relax his vigilance. Almost simultaneously they discovered the little black dot that seemed to pop out of the irregular southern horizon. They leaped to their feet, kicked out the fire. They would have covered the ashes with sand but for hundreds of feet in either direction there was nothing but bare rock.
"Never mind!" Murray said. "Let"s make for cover. They may think it"s an old fireplace. With rains only about once in three years that spot will look like that indefinitely."
"Yes," Tuman agreed, running along, "if they didn"t see the smoke!"
As the craft neared they could make out the orange and green of the Martian army.
"From the fort," Murray guessed. "Scar Balta must have had his doubts about me. He ordered them out to finish the job, if necessary."
"It"s drifting," Tuman observed. "The driving tail seems to be missing."
"Well, anyway, it"s coming down, and where an army ship comes down is no place for us."
They heard the sc.r.a.pe of her keel as she settled down. Murray gave a gasp of surprise.
"Tuman," he muttered, "that fellow wearing the Martian uniform is an I. F. P. agent named Hemingway. The uniform doesn"t fit and I bet the man he took it from is no longer alive. Do you know the giant with him?"
"Under that dirt and blood, I"d say he"s Tolto, Princess Sira"s special pet. No other man of Mars could be that big! Seven or eight years ago--she was just a kid, you know--she picked him up in some rural province. Kids just naturally do run to pets, don"t they? And the princess was no exception. But he looks like n.o.body"s pet now. I"d rather have him peg me with his neuro, though, than to take me in his hands!"
They watched as Sime and Tolto slowly walked about in widening circles, and when they were sufficiently far away Murray and Tuman closed in. They had no expectation of finding the ship unlocked, and wasted no time trying to get it. Instead they climbed a flat-topped block of stone about ten feet high. From this position they could command, with Murray"s neuro, anyone who might seek to enter the ship.
"These fellows are our best hope," Murray told Tuman. "But we have to convince "em that we"re friends first. Otherwise we"re liable to be cold meat, and cold meat can"t convince anybody. Keep your head down."
The necessity of lying flat, in order to keep from silhouetting themselves against the sky, deprived them of the opportunity to see.
Nevertheless, they could tell, by the sound of their voices, when Sime and Tolto returned. When it seemed that they were directly beneath, Murray risked a look. There they were.
Murray carefully set the little focalizer wheel for maximum diffusion.
He felt sure that it would not be fatal, considering the distance and the physical vigor of the men he meant to hold. He pressed the trigger.
"Get down quick!" he snapped. "I"ll let up for a second; you grab their neuros."
Tuman executed the order with dispatch. Stepping back, he trained the pistols on their late owners, while Sime and Tolto, a little dazed, stumbled to their feet. A man may argue, or take chances, when menaced by a needle-ray, but mere bravery does not count with the neuros. All men"s nervous systems are similar, and when nerves are stricken, courage is of no avail.
CHAPTER IX
_Plot and Counter-Plot_
As these four men faced one another in the slanting rays of the setting Sun far out on the desert, the planetary president, Wilc.o.x, sat in his office in the executive palace in South Tarog, situated, as were so many of the public buildings, on the banks of the ca.n.a.l.
Wilc.o.x was in his sixties. A gray man, pedantic in his speech, his features were strong: his nose, short and straight, somehow, expressed his intense intolerance of opposition. His long, straight lower jaw protruded slightly, symbolizing his tenacity, his l.u.s.t for power. His eyes, large, gray, intolerant, looked before him coldly. Wilc.o.x was the result of the union of two root-stocks of the human race, of a terrestrial father, a Martian mother. He had inherited the intelligence of both--the conscience of neither.
Now he sat in a straight, severe chair, before a severe, heavy table.
Even the room seemed to frown. Wilc.o.x"s face was free of wrinkles, yet it frowned too. He seemed not to see the flaming path the setting Sun drew across the broad expanse of the ca.n.a.l, for he was thinking of bigger things. Wilc.o.x was a little mad, but he was a madman of imagination and resource, and he was not the first one to control the destinies of a world.
"Waffins!" His voice rang out sharp and querulous. A servant, resplendent in the palace livery of green and orange, was instantly before him bowing low.
"Who awaits our pleasure?"
"Scar Balta, sire," answered Waffins, bowing low again.
"We will see him."