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Taylor swore, then laughed. “We don’t know what we could do; or what we’d have to do. But we do know this: some of us, somehow, have got to get into that city, and that Citadel of that city. Then we can trust to God and what chances He may offer us. But first, and whatever’s before us, we’re going to get in! Agreed?”
“Agreed!” said all voices, and Vanderbilt’s was distinct among them.
“Now how? We’ve no chance to advance against them by air or on the ground—or under the ground from the direction of this city. We know they’ve got guarded all the conduits and passages which we’ve discovered; and probably some we don’t know about. But would they guard the conduits from the other cities?”
“That’s something, Jack! Say—”
“See here. There’s Danot—on the other side of them from us. They’ve a guard in there; we’ve nobody. They’d never look for us to come from that quarter. We get into Danot and go underground! We—”
That night was long, but not long enough for the five conspirators.
CHAPTER XX
JUSTICE TIPS THE SCALES
RANSDELL, on the evening of the third day later, reported to Tony:
“Five men have not returned—three of our best friends, Tony,” he said, dropping formality. “Eliot, Jack Taylor and Peter Vanderbilt—and Whittington and Crosby with them. They left, you know, in two ‘larks’ about two hours before dusk yesterday. They said they were only going to have a look around. I thought it was a good idea; I told them to go.”
“No word from them at all since?” Tony asked.
“Not a syllable. Marian Jackson is missing too.”
“She went with them?”
“No. Entirely separately; and she went on the ground, not in the air. The gate watch who let her go out—it was Cluett—was ashamed of himself and did not report it promptly. It appears that she drove to the gate in one of the small cars, and wheedled Cluett into letting her take a turn outside. It was near noon, and the sun was shining. He saw no harm and let her pass. Then she turned the battery on full, and streaked away.
“Still he thought she was just fooling with him, and would return, probably by another gate; so he sent no one after her. But as far as we’re concerned, that was the end of her.”
“Which gate?” asked Tony briefly.
“The northern gate. Duquesne’s Porte de Gorfulu.”
“She disappeared down that road?”
“Yes. And the only word she left behind with the girls she knew was that she was tired of being cold; she thought she’d try being warm again. She commented, further, that she sees now she pried herself into the wrong party.”
Tony nodded; he knew what that meant. Marian frequently reminded everybody that she hadn’t been selected among the original company for either Hendron’s or Ransdell’s space-ships; she had pried herself into the party. Obviously, she meant she wished she had chosen the ship of the Asian Realists who now held the capital city, Gorfulu.
“Have you searched for her?” asked Tony.
“I’ve flown myself,” Dave said, “along the road more than halfway, to be sure she wasn’t wrecked by the road.”
“Probably,” said Tony, “she went right on. But do you think the others were up to anything foolish?”
“I’m sure of it,” Ransdell answered.
“Why? Did they tell you?”
“Not me—Higgins. And he’s just told me. Tony, they’re dead now; or they’re trying to get into Gorfulu from Danot. From what they told Higgins,—who swore to keep it until to-night,—we can’t possibly help them now, except by being ready to respond to their signal that they’re in Gorfulu and will have a gate open for us.”
Tony rose excitedly.
“From what they told Higgins, and he told you, is the signal—overdue?”
“It is, Tony; that’s the trouble. I don’t know in detail what those—those glorious idiots tried to do; but the signal, Tony, is overdue!”
* * *
