Although the nights were much longer than they had been a month before, and although we had plenty of time to get back while it was still dark in Turkey, Captain Stabb had the tug going at a savage speed. And jerking it about, too! He was in no pleasant mood. He had been denied his prey. I would somehow have to cope with that.
In a minor way, however, I had been successful. I certainly, on no account, would send for any replacement box. I had stalled him to that degree, whatever he had planned to do.
It was only then that I began to worry about his attitude. He had been busy with figures, true. But he had not said good-bye. Was his attitude one of hostility? Or was it just one of preoccupation?
Of course, the denial of that box had upset his plans. Had he just been making new plans or was he antagonistic to me?
Did he suspect something?
I began to shiver. Suppose he had seen through it all! Suppose he had realized we intended to kill him. Would that make him act that way?
But no. He had not been armed. He hadn't even worn those deadly spikes.
He had stood on the porch and he must have known that with a night sight he would have been an easy target. So he didn't know.
Or did his silence mean that he DID know?
Speeding back against the dawn to the base in Turkey, I vowed to carefully watch what he had done after we had left. Maybe that would give me a clue. I HAD to know!!!
Safely landed down through the mountaintop in the dark, I made speed through the tunnel to my secret room.
Stabb had really pushed it. It was well before dawn. But in the United States, by Eastern Standard Time, it was only 9:00 P.M.
I was very anxious to gauge his reactions. Did he know?
I ignored the current picture and backtracked to the moment of our departure. I proceeded with spot checks, ignoring unimportant bits.
He had gone inside and locked the door. With a dolly he had taken the boxes one by one into the bar. With a little block and tackle, he had lowered them through the concealed trap at the end of the bar and down into the old mine.
Evidently he had been working there before we arrived. There was a precisely measured hole in one of the galleries. Into it, he put all boxes but one.
He took two small objects out of one box and put them in a rucksack. Then he added that box to the rest. Bad light. I couldn't see the number.
He threw down the canvas and covered it with dirt. He took a machine and made some cobwebs over that gallery and one or two others.
Heller was working very fast. I could hardly follow what he was doing. The light was awful. But it showed he was being very secret. It was a bad sign. He did suspect something!
With water from a bottle, he put out the fire in the iron stove. He turned out the kerosene lanterns. He locked everything up. The care with which he did that indicated to me that he probably knew.
Playing a light over the landing place, he found a couple of weeds that had been crushed. He simply pulled them up.
He ran up the road about a hundred yards. There was an old white van standing there. Aha, he had had an escape route planned! So he did have suspicions!
He tossed the rucksack into the front seat. He got into the van and began to drive rapidly back to the road. The speed he was going showed his anxiety.
The van eventually came out on the highway. He turned south. Very shortly, his lights picked up the sheriff's car. He swung in. Aha! He had had them posted as a trap!
He got out and leaned into the window of the sheriff's car. It was Ralph and George. They looked half asleep. Deceptive!
George said, "Everything go all right, young feller?" Aha! So they had been alerted!
Ralph said, "You get your measurements?"
"Yes," said Heller.
George said, "You know, you can drive down there. You don't have to leave your car at the highway and walk. You can get a car all the way in there—I didn't know it myself until t'other day."
Ralph said, "Say, young feller, you being an engineer and all, deer season is coming right up. Sometimes we like to hunt over that way. Do you suppose the consul would mind if we hunted across that property?"
"I'm sure he'd be quite happy about it," said Heller. "He spoke very highly of you both."
George said, "You can tell your boss, Rangletangle Bowja, we're on the job."
Aha. Heller was suspicious that we'd been there to kill him. He had cunningly arranged to get the place patrolled by sheriffs posing as deer hunters! Oh, we'd better stay away from there!
When Heller pulled away, heading south, the sheriff's car pulled out and headed north. He had even arranged a rearguard action!
Suddenly I realized I had neglected another clue. I scanned back. In my hasty perusal the first time I had missed an important point. The glass jars!
He had put them down on the counter in the dance hall when he first reentered the house. Just as he removed the last box, he had picked them up and looked at them and then scraped at the inside mold. He had dumped the contents in the old iron stove. That was why it was blazing so when he had put it out. Very significant! He had been sure we were trying to poison him!
Well, there was not much need to look any further. But I did.
He had gone off the highway again and come to the old lady's house. He had put the van in the garage. He had taken off his blue coveralls. He had put on his spikes. That showed he was expecting trouble, perhaps thinking we would ambush him.
The blind old lady came out belatedly. She was carrying a shotgun. Very significant. He had tipped her off he might be pursued and have to fight a gun battle.
She said, "Oh, it's you, the young man." She offered him a cup of coffee. He apologized for disturbing her so late and she said, "That's all right."
He put on a leather taxi driver's hat, got in the old orange cab and drove away.
Only one more thing happened and was happening right this minute. He had stopped at a shore seafood restaurant and was eating two lobsters broiled in butter. Very significant. They say a condemned man is always fed a last meal. Even though he was having his late, it showed that he knew he had been condemned.
I sat back.
The conclusion, based on these collective actions of his, showed without a shadow of a doubt that Heller knew we had come there to kill him.
It must be puzzling to him why we had not done so. Yes. The way he was worrying away at a lobster claw, trying to get the meat out, showed he was under strain.
He had been alerted to my real intentions.
That meant I would have to be very careful and plan in a much more deadly way.
Tonight we had failed to do more than alert Heller.
Now I had real problems.
A wary Heller would be much more dangerous. Therefore, I had to be much more cunning.
Certainly, I could not let him go on. If he actually succeeded in this mission, Lombar would be ruined. If he didn't succeed, Earth would be ruined.
It made my head ache.
I desperately needed to untangle all this.
But how?
The next day, although I should have known better, I went from my secret office through the tunnel to the hangar. My object was actually to see if the secret alarm system was going to work.
What I intended was to carry out a drill. Now that Heller suspected we had been there to kill him, we had better be prepared in case he attacked us.
Faht Bey was in the hangar. I told him I wanted a drill. He argued with me, saying it would interrupt everybody's work. I was just trying to explain to him that we were now in danger from Heller when Captain Stabb, seeing us shaking our fists at each other, came over.
I thought the Antimanco was going to take sides and defend me. But he was in a very sour mood. He paid no attention to what we were talking about.
Captain Stabb said, "I'm facing a mutiny!"
Faht Bey didn't want anything to do with mutinies and he cut out of there at what speed his fat hulk was capable of, leaving me to face Stabb.