Jimmy's surreptitious, gaze roved Doirek. Six and a half feeta gigantic hulk of a man, with a gray, flat, flabby face, heavy jowls and a broken nose. An animalskin was draped now across his bulging, hairless chest.
Other Mercurians crowded in to question Roc about the approaching Eaitilship. Men of smaller stature, but with the same heavy barbaric look that characterized Dorrek.
' A babble of unintelligible Mercurian words enveloped Jimmy. Suddenly Jimmy thought of the girls on the lower tier.
The woman Muta might be down there alone with them.
He flashed Roc a significant look.
"Let's go down, see it from below. Why wait up here?" Tama and Rowena were standing at one of the lower windows. Strangely contrasting types, these girls of different worlds. They stood with arms around each other. Rowena's tall figure was draped in the brown dressing gown; her hair fell in brown braids down her back. Her extended arm with the robe was thrown out over Tama's wings, enveloping the small Mercurian girl who leaned affectionately against her.
Their backs were to the room; and its only other occupant at the moment was Muta. She stood against the wall gazing with heavy brooding eyes at Rowena.
They saw the Cube draw level and check its accelera-' tton, sweeping along with them some ten miles away. They saw me leave as a tiny projectile hurtling toward them across the intervening void. Roc kept everyone away from the windows; he threw his mechanism to neutral so that 't~~e attractive mass of the ball might capture and hold me. ' Roc had' no way of knowing the identity of this emissary sent by the Earth vehicle. But when I had closely approached, Jimmy could guess. He thought it likely that the personnel of the Cube now was the same as upon its first flight, when Jimmy himself had been aboard. And as my bloated, grotesquely helmeted figure now encircled Roc's ship, drawing inward until I fell against the gleaming side, Jimmy guessed who it was, for I was by far the tallest man on the Cube.
The occupants of the ball crowded one of its lower compartments at the inner entrance of the air lock chamber.
The inner slide was closed.
Jimmy said nothing. He stood tense beside Roc at the gauges of the pressure port. They saw my figure as I crawled like a fly outside the windows. I came against the outer entrance slide. Roc shoved at a lever.
They felt the vibration of the metal wall as I tumbled to the floor of the air lock.
VI WEAPONS THE AIR LOCK was black. I lay huddled on its floor. I could feel the air pressure coming into it. For a moment or two I crouched, clinging to my knife. When the air in the lock reached the pressure of the interior of the hall, the inner door would open, no doubt; and the Mercurians would leap upon me. I had an instinct to put up a -fight, if I saw that Jimmy was free. It was a chance for us. But now I felt that it would be too dangerous, shut up here in this tiny world, to start acts of violence with Rowena and Tama aboard.
I determined to keep my wits, betray myself into no rash move. ._._ I became aware that the air pressure was aboHfrTBBnnaT" The tiny gauge inside my helmet, faintly illumined, showed 15.5. The darkness continued. But my eyes were more accustomed to it now; I could see the narrow walls of a small room. Where the inner slide might be I could not yet determine.
Another moment passed and I took off my helmet, placed It on the floor and stood up cautiously. There was barely room for me to stand erect, scarce an inch above my head to the metal ceiling. As I got to my feet, I realized they were maintaining a gravity much less than that of Earth.
A sudden slit of light dazzled me. The inner slide was opening. Air of a little heavier pressure rushed in with a gust. I saw figures: squat, heavy men in crudely fashioned animalskins. One was gigantic. Then I saw a small slender fellow who was Roc. I recognized him from Guy's description.
They crowded in upon me with a rush and jerked me forward out of the lock into a metal room which seemed brightly illumined.
But though I was dazzled by the sudden light, I could see enough. Infinite relief swept me. Rowena, unharmed! Tama and Jimmy1 saw them standing in a group in the midst of the confusion. And over the babble of voices, I heard Rowena give a single cry, instantly suppressed. Joy at seeing me, yet fear, too, for my safety.
I found myself standing alone, with the Mercurians crowd ing me. The knife was still in my gloved hand; I had held it in a fold of my deflated robe.
Roc confronted me. "Who are you?" In that instant a score of wild plans flashed over me. I discarded them all. I smiled. I was holding the knife by its blade; I extended its handle.
"My only weapon. Take it. I come peacefully." He took the knife. "Who are you?"
"Jack Dean." I thought that Rowena gave a cry of protest. I could see comprehension sweep Roc's face, but to the other Mercurians the name seemed to mean nothing.
Boc demanded, "What did you come for?" ~~ace. Not war.'" I added vehemently, "The release of th~see prisoners, with my promise that then the Flying Cube wai never attack you." ~.-" Roc's face was impassive. The Mercurians were murmuring among themselves.
Jimmy said abruptly, "We had better have a talk with him. Another room. Roc, where we can talk quietly to him.
Bargain" I was aware then, as Roc ordered me to take off the pressure suit and searched me for weapons, of the smoldering undercurrent here. It seemed that Jimmy and Roc were very watchful, not of me, but of the giant and his jabbering followers.
Jimmy added, "Can the girls come with us?" Then I saw the woman Muta, standing with the smoldering dark eyes that seemed to miss nothing.
Something herea situation unexpected, to me unfathomable. I sensed at once the menace of it. I stood divested of my pressure suitbut a hidden pocket in the upper flap of my high leather boot held a small revolver. Roc had not found it when he searched me. I could reach it ' with a single swift motion.
Roc pushed me before him, roughly. Jimmy, Rowena and Tama crowded after us. The giant tried to stop them. It seemed that every other man in the room was tense, as though waiting for some signal. Muta's eyes were blazing.
Roc pushed the giant away, with a command in their native tongue. We went up a small inclined ladder to an upper level into a small room, and Roc slid the door upon us.
I could sense the relief.
Tama held onto me. Rowena flung herself into my arms.
"JackJack, dearyou should not have come into this!" I kissed her, then pushed her away.
"Rowenal" What words could tell what was in my heart? Thismy wifeagain with her arms around me. But it was no time for words, nor were they needed. She stood aside, her gaze clinging to me.
I gave Tama the message from Guy: that he would gi.yehis life to come to her. .-" '' The Mercurian said abruptly, "Sit down, all of you." There was a low metal settee, and cushions on the floor.
Roc stood over us, weapon in hand.
"You are Jack Dean, husband of Rowena here?"
"Yes."
"And you have come to rescue her?" He said it vidthout sarcasm.
"Yes," I retorted. "But not with bloodshed. I promise that the Cube will not attack."