Then the sun was obscured by the earth. All about them reigned darkness save for the pin-points of flaming stars. Click groped for the light switch, set the lights going. He and the girl ate in anxious silence.
“Let’s see where we are,” said Dorothy, and switched off the lights.
Below them a luminous haze seemed to bathe the floor.
“Moonlight on the earth, being reflected back at us,” she remarked.
They sat in awed wonder, watching the spectacle. Click reached over, took her hand. Nor did she make any move to withdraw it. Hand in hand they watched.
At length there was a ribbon of light, a great horn that grew in volume.
“We’re swinging clear of the world,” she announced. “Now to check our lateral speed and start falling again. Leave the gravitational indicator over at about half gravitation. I’ll shove the lateral speed back and we’ll see how we come.”
Click moved the controls.
“I’d better see how Badger’s getting on,” he said, smiled at her in the light that was streaming into the shell from the sun’s disk as it swung around the edge of the world, and flung open the door.
He stepped into the outer shell, saw a little wad of rope lying on the floor; just the rope, nothing more.
“How did that get there?” he asked, and, of a sudden, knew the answer. Badger had slipped from his bonds. Where, then, was he?
Click turned, saw the huddled shape of menace, caught the outthrust rifle as it held upon him, steady as a rock, and gave one wild leap.
The bullet spattered squarely on the edge of the door, glanced, and hit the control box. Click slammed the metal door shut, snapped a bar into place.
“He’s in command outside. We’re cooped up in here like rats in a trap,” he said.
Dorothy Wagner nodded. “Lucky we’ve got the controls here, though. We can land almost where we want to, and we’ll land him f.o.b. Police Station at Centerberry.”
Click grinned at her.
“S’pose they’ll believe the story we tell by way of complaint?”
It was her turn to smile.
She advanced to the controls, glanced down at the earth.
“We seem to be coming in all right. Guess I’ll let it check a little bit.”
She pushed at the indicator.
“It doesn’t work. His bullet must have smashed the control wires. We’re out of control, falling into the earth, and we’ll pick up speed. I don’t think we’re over a hundred miles away, and our lateral speed has checked a lot.”
They exchanged glances.
“Can we make some sort of repairs? After all, we could come to a truce with Badger. He’ll realize that we’re all threatened by the same danger.”
She shook her head.
“The last discovery, the last experiment that gave the missing link in his invention was perfected by Dad while I was away. Then you know what happened. Dad never had a chance to explain it to me. Even if we could get out there, I couldn’t fix the controls, I’m afraid.”
Click scratched his head.
“And this box is entirely out of order?”
She had been experimenting with the keys.
“No-o-o. It isn’t quite wrecked. But it seems to have lost about nine-tenths of its control effectiveness.”
“Then,” remarked Click, “there’s nothing to do but to wait.”
Wait they did. Once more their hands touched, held.
“Dot,” said Click, his voice choking. “Now’s no time to say what I want to say, but if anything should happen, I want you to know—”
She raised her face to his, smiled at him with deep eyes, half parted lips.
“Yes, dear. I know, have known ever since I saw the look on your face when you came to rescue me.”
She gave him her lips. For a long minute they stood clasped together. Then they separated and looked destiny in the face.
The earth showed as a vast curved plain now, and the tumbled sea of water below seemed endless, sparkling in the rays of the morning sun.
Click opened the outer door a crack.
“Badger, throw down the gun. I want a truce. We’re in a bad situation.”
A taunting laugh was his only answer.
“Bluff!” snapped the man. “You’ve got another control in there.”
And the roaring of the gun punctuated his comment.
Of a sudden, as Click slammed the door and bolted it, he noticed a peculiar sound that had been gradually springing up, gathering force. It sounded like a weird whistle, long drawn, wailing.
He glanced at the girl.
“Atmosphere,” she said. “We’re getting into the air of the earth, and it’s whirling around at a speed of perhaps a thousand miles an hour, following the motion of the earth.”
Louder and louder shrilled the whistling air. The shell had been lagging behind the motion of the globe. Now as the air caught it, the shell was hurtled ahead, constantly increasing its velocity. And, as the air grew more dense, the atmospheric pressure became more pronounced.
The girl worked the lateral lever, easing the strain as much as she could. Closer and closer came the globe. And the sun ceased to sweep across the heavens, the globe ceased to whirl below them, spinning at terrific speed. Instead, the world became more fixed, and the sun resumed an orderly march across the heavens.
Minutes lengthened into anxious hours. Night enveloped them. They were within some twenty miles of the earth’s surface now, falling, but not rapidly.
Then the girl made a discovery.
“Look, the positive side of the gravitation is almost intact. Not that it does us any good except that it might facilitate landing. It’s the negative side that’s broken.”
“Don’t work that side, then,” warned Click. “There’d be nothing to check us.”
She nodded. “I wonder where we are?”
“There’s the moon. Looks different down here, doesn’t it? Look, look, that’s land!”
She followed his finger. Far to the east was a dark shadow lying upon the golden reflection of the waters.
“Looks like it, all right. It’s land unless it’s a fog bank. Get the telescope.”
They set up the telescope, gazed through one of the windows.
“Yes, yes, I can see lights. It’s a coast town!”
Click pressed his face against the window.
“And we’re drifting toward it.”
For minutes they watched. The lights came closer and closer, finally swung below them.
“S’pose it’s an island?”
She shook her head. “No. Look to the south and east. See the airport? See that whole ocean of lights looming up. I’ll bet that’s Los Angeles, and this must be Santa Barbara down below. Look, you can see a drive along the ocean front there, and there are palm trees along it. Here, use these night glasses.”
Click took the glasses, saw the city, the buildings, the mountains, quiet and serene, saw moving lights where automobiles crept along.
“We’ll be down soon,” he said.
She nodded.
“And we’ve got too much downward speed. My experimenting with the downward scale of plus gravitation increased our falling speed.”
They remained silent for another spell. Click noticed that the side speed of the car was increasing.
“Yes,” she said when he pointed it out to her, “it’s functioning somewhat, and it’s getting acceleration. It’s a good thing to have side speed. It’ll soften the bump.”
“Mountains?” asked Click.
“Below us,” she said. “We’re still five or six miles up in the air.”
Again they drifted on and down.
The lights faded away. Great pools of darkness showed ahead.