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The gray-blue eyes fixed steadily on Hendron’s, and the scientist abruptly decided: “Very well, I’ll sanction it.”
Ransdell and Vanderbilt knocked on the door of Eliot James’ room, from which issued the sound of typewriting. The poet swung wide the door and greeted them with an expression of pleasure. “What’s up?”
They told him.
“Go?” James repeated, his face alight with excitement. “Of course I’ll go. What a record to write—whether or not any one lives to read it!”
Tony received the news with mingled feelings. He could not help an impulse of jealousy at not being chosen for the adventure; but he understood that Ransdell hardly would have selected him. Also, he realized that his position as vice to Hendron in command of the cantonment did not leave him free for adventure.
Yet it was almost with shame that Tony assisted in the takeoff of the big plane two days later. Eve emerged from the crowd at the edge of the landing-field and walked to Ransdell; and Tony saw the light in her eyes which comes to a woman watching a man embark on high adventure. The very needlessness, the impracticalness of it, increased her feeling for him—a feeling not to be roused by a man performing a merely useful service, no matter how hazardous. Tony walked around to the other side of the plane and stayed there until Eve had said good-by to the pilot.
The motor was turning over slowly. The mechanics had made their last inspection. The maximum amount of fuel had been taken aboard, and all provisions, supplies, ammunition, instruments and paraphernalia which were deemed needful. Many of the more prominent members of the colony were grouped near the plane shaking hands with Vanderbilt and Eliot James. Bronson was there, Dodson, Smith and a dozen more, besides Hendron. Vanderbilt’s farewells were debonair and light. “We’ll send you postcards picturing latest developments.” Eliot James was receiving last-minute advice from the scientists, who had burdened him with questions, the answers of which they wished him to discover by observation. Ransdell came around the fuselage of the plane, Eve behind him.
He cast one look at the sky, where the heavy and still numerous clouds moved on a regular wind, and one at the available half of the landing-field, on which the sun shone tentatively.
“Let’s go,” he said.
There were a few last handshakes; there was a shout as the chocks were removed from the wheels of the plane. It made a long bumpy run across the field, rose slowly, circled once over the heads of the waving throng, and gradually disappeared toward the south.
Eve signaled Tony. “Aren’t they fine, those three men? Going off into nowhere like that.”
Tony made his answer enthusiastic. “I never thought I’d meet three such people in my life—one, perhaps, but not three. And there are literally hundreds of people here who are capable of the same sort of thing.”
Eve was still watching the plane. “I like Dave Ransdell.”
“No one could help liking him,” Tony agreed.
“He’s so interested in everything, and yet so aloof,” went on Eve, still watching. “In spite of all he’s been through with us, he’s still absolutely terrified of me.”
“I can understand that,” said Tony grimly.
“But you’ve never been that way around me.”
“I didn’t show it that way; no. But I know—and you know—what it means.”
“Yes, I know,” Eve replied simply.
The sun, which had been shielded by a cloud, suddenly shone on them, and both glanced toward it.
Off there to the side of the sun, hid
den by its glare, moved the Bronson Bodies on their paths which would cause them to circle the sun and return—one to pass close to the earth and the other to shatter the world—in little more than seven months more.
“If they are away only thirty days, we’re not to count them missing,” Eve was saying—of the crew of the airplane, of course. “If they’re not back in thirty—we’re to forget them. Especially we’re not to send any one to search for them.”
“Who said so?”
“David. It’s the last thing he asked.”
CHAPTER 16—THE SAGA
THE thirty days raced by. Under the circumstances, time could not drag. Nine-tenths of the people at Hendron’s encampment spent their waking and sleeping hours under a death-sentence. No one could be sure of a place on the Space Ship. No one, in fact, was positive that the colossal rocket would be able to leave the earth. Every man, every woman, knew that in six months the two Bronson Bodies would return from their rush into the space beyond the sun; even the most sanguine knew that a contact was inevitable.
Consequently every day, every hour, was precious to them. They were intelligent, courageous people. They collaborated in keeping up the general morale. The various department heads in the miniature city made every effort to occupy their colleagues and workers—and Hendron’s own foresight had assisted in the procedure.…
The First Passage was followed by relative calm. As soon as order had been restored, a routine was set up. Every one had his or her duty. Those duties were divided into five parts: First, the preparation of the rocket itself; second, the preparation of the rocket’s equipment and load; third, observation of the receding and returning Bodies to determine their nature and exact course; fourth, maintenance of the life of the colony; fifth, miscellaneous occupations.
Hendron, in charge of the first division, spent most of his time in the rocket’s vast hangar, the laboratories and the machine-shop. Bronson headed the second division. The third duty was shared by several astronomers; and in this division Eve, with her phenomenal skill in making precise measurements, was an important worker. The maintenance division was under the direction of Dodson, and under Dodson, a subcommittee headed by Jack Taylor took charge of sports and amusements. Tony was assigned to the miscellaneous category, as were the three absent adventurers.
