“The desert,” she said.
“We don’t want to come down there.”
“We’ll have to, I’m afraid. The car’s settling rapidly. I’m afraid we’ve got a lot of down speed.”
And then Click’s mind snapped with a sudden recollection.
“Parachutes!” he yelled. “I saw a couple of packed ’chutes. Can we get out?”
And she rippled into a laugh.
“How foolish of me not to have remembered. Yes, we packed a couple of emergencies. Here, I’ll get them out. You put some of the diamonds into your pockets. You can’t tell. Badger may manage to clean us out of what we leave.” Click nodded.
The bright moonlight, flooding through the window, showed them what they wanted. They strapped on the ’chutes.
“Know how to work them?”
He nodded.
“Served on an observation balloon once. How do we get that window open?”
“I’ll show you. Give me a boost. That’s it. There it comes. Doesn’t that fresh earth air feel good. How much better a place this is than that wet, miserable, soggy planet of hopelessness!”
Chapter 10
The Crater
Click walked softly to the inner door, eased off the bolt, tied the knob with a bit of heavy rope. Then he opened it a crack and called to Badger.
“Badger, we’re going to jump. You can come in when we leave. I’ve tied the door with rope. It’ll take you a minute or two to cut it. You can bring it down, but the control’s broken. You can’t come down any slower than it’s going now. We’ll jump when we see a settlement, and we’ll send a search party out after you.”
His answer was a curse.
“Boloney!” went on the cursing man. “The control’s no more broken than I am. Try getting out! I’ll send this shell dashing after you, crush the life out of you. Got some ’chutes, eh?”
“Yes, we have, and don’t experiment, either!” snapped Click.
“Oh, Click,” called the girl. “Here’s a cluster of lights out here. It looks like a desert town.”
“Coming,” he said. “You jump and I’ll follow. Don’t forget to have your hand on your rip cord as you leave.”
She waved her hand.
“See you later, dear.”
And then she tilted backward and plunged into the night.
Click opened his knife, slithered it out into the room.
“Cut the rope, Badger. We’re off.”
And he jumped to the table, caught the upper edge of the vertical window, slipped outside, and turned for a last look inside the shell.
He saw the flash of a knife blade. The lights switched on, brilliantly illuminating the interior. He saw the rope part, the door swing open, Badger come running in with a rifle in one hand.
A quick look and he saw Click, clinging to the edge of the window.
Cursing, Badger sprang for the controls, slammed the slide over, despite Click’s warning shout. Straight up he pushed the slide, then, as there was no response, pushed it clear over the other way.
Click’s hands felt the shell jerked from them as though he had been trying to hold a rifle bullet. He was left suspended in the air.
For a moment he thought he was shooting straight up at terrific speed, for the light of the shell slipped into the moonlit night below, became but a speck.
Then he realized what had happened. The shell was dashing toward earth, and there was no control that would check it.
Air that was grippingly cold rushed past him, whipped his garments. He remembered to jerk the rip cord. There was the crackle of cloth. Something white streaked up into the moonlight above him. Then the harness tugged at him. The ’chute opened with a crackling report.
He swung back and forth in a sickening arc. He looked below to see what had happened to the shell.
As he looked, it struck, struck the desert with such force that it seemed a volcano must have opened. There was a white spot of incandescent heat, a burst of flame as oxygen ignited, then nothing but a single glowing coal that melted away finally into nothing.
Far to one side, higher up, he could see the girl’s parachute, swinging in the white moonlight like a gigantic mushroom.
Down he drifted.
The surface was farther away than he had anticipated. It took them an appreciable length of time to come down. And a desert wind whipped them far to the east.
At length Click saw the ground, a white blur, coming to meet him. He braced himself, struck, tugged at the ’chute to spill the wind, and then wrestled with the harness.
The ’chute swung over, crackled in the wind, was whisked away. The silence of the desert gripped him.
“Oh, Click,” he heard a voice, and his ears had never heard a more welcome sound.
“Here, dearest,” he answered.
They found each other, melted in a single affectionate embrace. Then they began their long walk.
Somewhere to the north a coyote howled.
The moon bathed them with mellow benediction. The lights of the town twinkled in the frosty desert air.
Then there was the sweep of a searchlight. An automobile blared its horn. Another came down from the north. They could see the path of the lights, see them come to a stop, see shadowy figures moving about.
“Let’s go there. We can get a lift,” said Click.
She nodded, increased her stride.
Yet it was an hour before they reached the place, and by that time a circle of machines had gathered.
“By George, I believe — yes, it’s where the shell struck!” said Click.
They joined the throng, unnoticed.
A deep crater was in the sand. About it the sand itself had been melted by the heat of that which had happened. A twisted lump of discolored, seared metal was out on one side of the rim.
“Meteor,” explained one of the spectators. “They seen it strike an’ been digging for it. Just found it. Funny it ain’t bigger. Looked like she weighed ten ton when she come down. You folks goin’ to town? Guess the show’s all over here.”
Click nodded.
“Thanks. We’ll ride,” he said.
The desert man piloted a rattling flivver, covered with white dust, over the desert roads.
“Lookin’ for mines?” he asked.
Click shook his head.
“Looking for a preacher,” he remarked.
The girl started, squeezed his arm.
“Aren’t you rather abrupt?” she asked.
Click nodded. “Bet your life I am. We’ve got to see a preacher, and then we’ve got to see a gem expert and cash in a few thousand dollars’ worth of gems. After that? After that we’ve got to learn to keep quiet about where we’ve been and what happened. Let the Wagner shell remain one of the unsolved mysteries.”
“Yes,” she said after a while. “It’s better so. We’re in a new country. We’ll just begin life here and forget the other.”
The desert man looked back at them curiously.
“Elopers, eh? Well, you’re gettin’ a good start. See that bright star over there in the east? That’s Venus, the star of lovers. It’s the mornin’ star these days. Be daylight in coupla hours.”
The two turned, joined the gaze of the desert man in looking at the bright planet. But he would have been surprised could he have fathomed their thoughts at that moment.