"I know that it will not attack so long as I hold all of you here." Jimmy interrupted impatiently, "What's the use of sparring, Roc? Let me tell him our situation" In a burst Jimmy told me with lowered voice. And he ended, "You, Roc, can't you see that Dean is a help? We've got to get out of thisnot all get murdered." Roc said abruptly, "I believe I can trust you. Jack Dean."
"Yes," I agreed.
"He only wants Rowena out of this," Jimmy added. He flung a significant glance at me.
"And Tamap" Roc said. He was smiling again. A strange fellow this: I could not make him out. "You think I will release TamaP Is that what you came for. Dean? Your ship off there, threatening me."
"And meanwhile Dorrek will murder us all," Jimmy put in.
"I'm not armed, nor is Jack" I could have snapped that revolver out within a second, but I thought it best not to say so.
"If Dorrek knew I had given you a weapon," said Roc, "it would bring trouble."
"Then I'll keep it hidden," Jimmy insisted. "What weapons have you? What have Dorrek and his men? See here. Roc, you're a fool if you don't come out in the open now. Let us stand with you. Man, we're all shut up here! You're only holding Dorrek off by the grace of the Almighty1 saw his look when you crossed him as we came up here. And his menevery one of them waiting for his signal."
"True," said Roc calmly. "But they would not dare attack me now. They can handle the controls only as long as they do what I tell them. I chart our coursethe navigating.
Without me they would be helpless. When we get to Mercury"
"The danger will come then," finished Jimmy. "But that doesn't help me now. Or these girls. Or Dean."
"Dorrek will obey my orders."
"Maybe he will, maybe not. Roc, you used a lot of weapons on me. That ray-weapon"Jimmy indicated the cylinder Roc was holding"and that light-bomb in my plane, that blinded me. And gas fumeswhere are they all? Has Dorrek got them?"
"No." The Mercurian had been gazing thoughtfully at Tama. He turned abruptly to the wall of the room, pressed a hidden mechanism. A small slide opened. In a compartment like a little closet we saw an array of hidden weapons.
Roc moved the slide closed again. "Dorrek does not know this locker is here. Nor could you open it, even though you have seen me."
"All right," said Jimmy. "What weapons has Dorrek?"
"A cylinder like this. His men have knives."
"That's enough. Roc, if you'll give me and Dean each a cylinder, we'll keep them hidden, watch ourselves until we get to Mercury. Then you order a landing. That's when Dorrek will make a play to kill you. But we'll be preparedbreak awayforce a passage for you out of this" Roc was again staring fixedly at Tama. He said abruptly to Jimmy, "You spoke truth a while ago, Turk. My affairs on Mercury are none of yours. This Rowena1 wish her no harm, except that J am glad to have her as hostage so that your Earthship is not firing at me now. But there is Tama whom I love. I think I will speak to Tama a moment." He stood with Tama across the room. We could not hear what they were saying, nor could we have understood it, since it was in their native tongue; but later Tama told me.
He began quietly, "You heard this fellow Turk. He speaks with wisdom sometimes. He and I have talked much of ' you. He knows I love you." He waited but she was silent.
"You have nothing to say?"
"No."
"I am planning a conquest of all Mercury. I want you to rule with me, and keep the virgins from rebellion."
"You want many things. Roc."
"Most of all, I want your love. This Turk has the wisdom of Earth. He says I should not use force against you.
Perhaps now I realize I should try to earn your love." She measured him, wondering if he were sincere. "How, Roc? By warring on my country? By playing the traitor? By mutilating the wings of the virgins so that they might not fly, and then to-"
"That was your own country's law."
"You tricked them into passing iti" He waved that away. "I want not to quarrel, Tama. I am thinlong of joining with these Earthmen. Perhaps hoping to win your love." His calm voice turned suddenly vehement, intense, and he seemed wholly sincere.
"Perhaps I did play the traitor. Taught by my father1 was only a boy, did you never think of that? I grew up, with my father planning a conquest of the Light Country, which had banished him... . These last months, Tama, while you were taken from me to Earth, I had time to think. And now I know that to win your love, to have you, is what J want more than any conquest." Again he paused.
"You talk very strangely. Roc."
"I talk truth." He smiled. "You are not a fool but a very wise girl. I will tell you more truth: My father assembled a Cold Country army. It is waiting now. Weapons, every scientific device of war. And even in the Fire Country, the savages are ready. Do not shudder, Tama. It is ready now, everything for the conquest.
"With my father's death, I should be in command of it.
And now, because you are a wise girl, I will hide nothing from you. I say I will give up all this to win your love. I will join these Earthmen, get them to help us in the Light Country to repel the invasion. It will start very shortly." Ha paused again.
"Go on, Roc."
"You are charitable, Tama. You avoid saying the sharp things which are in your mind. You knowand therefore I am not trying to hide it from youthat I realize now I cannot lead the invasion. My father had all these forces under his control, 'but I have not. This Dorrek and his men they are only waiting to murder me. If I escape them, and try to lead the invasion, it will be the same." She said sarcastically, "And so, failing in villainy, you will try heroics?"
"Yes. But you must give me credit1 tell you frankly my reasons. And that I love you, as I always have, and that I regret the wrongs I have done." She touched him. "I wish I thought you were truthful.
But I have learned to fear your trickery."
"Tama, this time you are unjust. This time I will not change. And I think perhaps you might love me. Someday" They were startled as Jimmy darted suddenly away with a gesture of silence; he crossed the room on tiptoe and jerked at the door-slide which Roc had left unfastened. Behind the door aperture the woman Muta was standing, bending down as though listening. She started backward with surprise, recovering herself and said in her gutteral, broken English: "To the Master Roc, say food is ready." Her gaze swept the room. And abruptly she whispered to Jimmy, "I talk you alone, maybe, sometime."
"What in-" Her face was inscrutable. She turned and left the room.
Jimmy gazed after her with his )'aw dropping in astonishment. "What innow what in the devil does she mean by ' that?" VII MERCURY 1 TELL YOU, Jimmy, I'll trust Roc fust as much as I have to. No more."
"Reasonable enough. But, Jack, we have to trust him.
He's as frightened asas I am. If we ever get out of this" Jimmy's smile was lugubrious. Five days had passed. They had worn our nerves ragged. The situation was the same within the Mercurian ball, save that every hour as we approached Mercury the critical moment when we must make . our escape, or be murdered by Dorrek and his fellows, came closer.
And with it all, I could not bring myself to trust Roc. He had been allied to us these days by a common desire for safety. Yet, for all his words and his actions, I was mistrustful. Here in the narrow confines of these enclosing walls, be was with us right enough. But outside, free upon Mercury1 wondered. And I knew that Tama mistrusted him also.