He was not gone long enough to make the pilot suspicious; within two or three minutes Lee heard both mechanic and scientist returning. They were not talking, and as they approached the pilot grew curious. He started to rise to meet them, but had time just to reach his feet before the two entered the door. The gloomy expression had left Feth’s face, to be replaced by one much harder to decipher. Lee, however, spent no time trying to solve its meaning; his eyes were both drawn instantly to the object the two were carrying in a cloth sling between them.
It was roughly cubical, perhaps a foot on a side. It was yellow in color. It trailed a visible stream of mist, and yellow droplets appeared and grew on its surface — droplets of a deeper, honey-colored hue; droplets that gathered together, ran down the sides of the block, soaked into the sling, and vanished in thin air. For an instant Lee, watching it, showed an expression of bewilderment; this changed almost at once to one of horror; then he regained control of himself.
“So that’s where the air was going,” he remarked. “What’s the idea?”
Ken, who was clad in a space suit except for the helmet, did not answer the question directly. Instead, he asked one of his own.
“You know the coordinates of Sarr, and could get there from here, don’t you?”
“Of course. I’ve made the trip often enough. So what— I hope you don’t think I’m going to tell you in order to get out of a frostbite.”
“I don’t care whether you want to tell us or not I plan for you to do the piloting. And I don’t plan to freeze you on this block — in fact, we’ll put it down right here. You have until it evaporates to make up your mind. After that, we’ll be in a position to make it up for you.” The pilot laughed.
“I was expecting that one. Am I supposed to believe you have some tofacco in the middle of that? You just made the block a couple of minutes ago.”
“Quite true. Since you bring up the matter, there is a cylinder of tofacco inside the block. I put it there myself — a few minutes ago, as you say.”
“I suppose you broke into Laj Drai’s safe and borrowed it.” The pilot was obviously incredulous.
“No. However, Drai’s suggestion of playing on the sympathies of the natives of Planet Three was a very good idea.”
“I suppose they gave you a hundred units for rescuing their kids.”
“As a matter of fact, it seems to be more like two thousand. I didn’t exactly count them, but they’re very neatly arranged; and if the unit you mean is one tenth of one of the cylinders they come in, that figure is about right.” The pilot might have been just a trifle uneasy.
“But there weren’t any landings after Drai had the idea — you couldn’t have asked for it.”
“Are you trying to insult me by saying I had to wait for Drai to have such an idea? I thought of it myself, but having been brought up with a conscience I decided against trying it. Besides, as I keep saying, I don’t know their language well enough yet. As it happened, the native I’d been talking to gave me a container of the stuff without my mentioning it at all. He seems to be a nice fellow, and apparently knows the value we place on tofacco. I fear I forgot to report that to Drai.”
Lee looked positively haggard as the likelihood of the story began to impress him; Feth, on the other hand, had brightened up amazingly. Only a slight expression of doubt still clouded his features — could the scientist be running a bluff? It seemed impossible; it was hard to see how getting started for Sarr would do any good unless he had a supply of that drug, and he had made no mention of forcing Lee to help them get it from Drai’s safe.
These points must have crossed the pilot’s mind, too; he was looking at the dwindling lump of sulfur with a growing expression of terror. He made one last objection, knowing its weakness even before he spoke.
“You won’t dare let it out — Feth has no suit, and you don’t have a helmet.”
“What difference does it make to us?”
With that, Lee made a sudden, frantic break for the door. He dived headlong into Feth, and for a few seconds there was a nightmarish swirling of legs and tentacles. Ken stood by, but his assistance was not needed. The pilot suddenly rolled back almost to his control board, tentacles lashing madly; but when he regained his feet, he did not seem eager to renew the struggle.
“If I’d only had—”
“Yes — it would have been very nice if Drai had let anyone but himself carry a gun. The fact is, he doesn’t; and you haven’t too much time. How about it?” Feth emphasized his words by turning up the control room thermostat, which was within his reach.
The pilot gave in. If any shred of doubt about Ken’s truthfulness remained in his mind, he did not dare gamble on it — he had seen drug addicts other than Feth, and remembered some harrowing details.
“All right — take it away!” he gasped. “I’ll do whatever you want!”
Without comment Ken picked up both ends of the sling and carried the now much lighter bundle back toward the air lock. He was back in two or three minutes.
“Made it!” he said. “I was wondering if it might not boil through before I got there — you held out longer than I thought you would, Lee. However, the air is clear after all. I may mention that that particular block is the top one in my little refrigerator, and it will take remarkably little time to bring it into action.
“Well, let’s make plans. I’d rather like to arrest our friend Drai, but I don’t quite see how we’re to go about it. Any ideas?”
“Arrest him?” A faint smile suddenly appeared on Feth’s face.
“Yes. I’m afraid I’m some sort of deputy narcotics investigator — not that I asked for the job, and certainly I’m not a very efficient one. Maybe I ought to swear you in, too, Feth — I guess I can do it legally.”
“You needn’t bother. It was done more than eighteen years ago. Apparently they didn’t bother to tell you that the stunt of taking an innocent general science dabbler and trying to make a policeman out of him had been tried before, with no visible results?”
“No, they didn’t. I’ll have something to say to Rade when we get back. If he knew that—”
“Take it easy on him. Under the circumstances, I’m very glad he tried again. You haven’t done such a bad job, you know.”
“Maybe not, but the job’s not done. I see the reason, now for a lot of things that puzzled me about you. As far as I’m concerned, this is your show as much as mine, from now on. How do we go about collecting Drai? I suppose the others aren’t worth bothering with.”
“Why not leave him where he it? There’s no other ship; he’s stuck as long as we have this one, unless he wants to take a ride in a torpedo. Since there’s nowhere else in this system where he could live for any length of time, I don’t think he’ll do that. My advice would be to take off right away, and let him worry about what’s happened until we get back with official support.”
“The motion is carried — except for one thing. I have to run a little errand first. Feth, you keep an eye on our friend and pilot while I’m gone.” He disappeared toward the air lock before any questions could be asked.
As a matter of fact, his absence was quite long, and eventually the ship had to go after him. He was in a valley adjacent to that of the station, with a problem he could not handle alone. Sallman Ken liked to pay his debts.
None of the Wings, of course, felt that the strange “fire-man” owed them anything. On the contrary. They did not blame him for the fire — he had been on the ground, talking to them, when the ship started it. The blaze was out by night, anyway, with the aid of the crew from Clark Fork. The only real concern the family felt was whether or not the alien would return.