Dard allowed himself to rest until he had counted slowly to one hundred, and then he lifted Dessie again and lurched on, trying to avoid the clutching briars on neighboring bushes. In that moment, as he straightened up with the girl in his arms, he thought that he had sighted a strange glint of light from near the crown of the peak. Sun striking on ice, he reasoned dully as he plodded on.
He was never to know if he could have made the last lap of that journey under his own power. For, before he had gone a hundred yards, his fatigue-dulled ears caught the ominous sound of a copter engine. And, without trying to locate the source, he threw himself and his burden into the bushes, rolling through the snow and enduring the lash of branches.
The whine of the machines supporting blades sounded doubly clear through the morning air. And a second later he saw splinters fly from a tree trunk not a foot away. Dragging Dessie he pulled back into thicker cover. But he knew that he was only prolonging the end. They knew that he was alone except for the child, they would conclude that he was unarmed. They had only to land men and take him at their leisure.
But, though the copter swept back and forth over the tangle of brush into which he had burrowed his way, it made no move to land anyone. So, thinking that he now was screened from their sight, Dard squatted down holding Dessie tightly, trying to think.
Sach Sach and the green ray which had brought down the Peacemen back on the heights by the cave; that was it. They knew that he carried no rifle. But they were afraid that he might be armed with one of those more potent weapons such as Sach had used. Dessie whimpered and clung closer to him as the copter made another dive above their hiding placeone which leveled off only inches above the branches which might have tangled in the undercarriage.
The crack of rifle fire punctuated the whine of the engine. Again he watched splinters flyone close enough to score his cheek. By will alone he held himself immovable and kept Dessie captive, though her little body flinched at the sound of each shot. Those above could not see their quarry or they would not be spraying bullets so indiscriminately. This raking of the brush was to force him out.
And the worst of it was that they could do just that! Dard knew that the searching stream of death quartering the thicket would either kill them or force them to move.
He blinked at the bushes and made his first constructive move, stripping Lottas scarf off Dessies head and shoulders. Quickly he tangled the thick wool in some thorned branches. Then he put Dessie on her knees in the snow and pushed her away from that thorn bush. She obediently wormed her way off[as Dard followed, moving by inches. Luckily the copter was now making the rounds of the perimeter of the thicket and for a minute or two there had been no shooting. Dard traveled on until the scarf end pulled taut in his hand, until he could keep his grip on the loose end only with thumb and forefinger at the full extent of an outstretched arm. Then he lay waiting.
The copter was moving in again while more than one marksman added to a crisscross fire. Dard bit deep on the soft inner side of his lip. Now! By the sound the copter was just in the right position. As a rifle cracked, Dard gave two quick jerks of the scarf, and was answered by a loud burst of fire. Then he screamed wildly, and Dessie, shocked out of her bewilderment, echoed him thinly. Another tug at the scarf for good measure and then he was racing on hands and knees, bumping Dessie before him. If they would only believe that he, or Dessie, or both had been hit! That should bring them down, set them fighting their way to the spot where he had fastened the scarf. And then there would be a slim chance, a terribly slim chance, to get away.
Dard cringed at the sound of the vicious attack the copter riders were still centering behind himan attack delivered without any call to surrender. All that blind hatred which had boiled over during the purge was still smoldering in those who were now hunting them. He had always known that anyone of proven scientist blood would have little chance if the Peacemen tracked him down, but now the last faint hope of mercy for the helpless was gone.
Pulling Dessie he reached the end of the thicket in which they bad taken refuge. By some blind chance they had come out on the side which faced the peak. But before them lay a wide open sweep of ground, impossible to cross undetected. Dard faced it bleakly. The brightness of the sunlight somehow made that last blow harder.
But, even as his misery and despair weakened him, he suddenly noted again flashes of light on the peak-coming in too regular a pattern to be sun fostered. While he was still gaping up at that, a shadow swept over. The copter landed directly on that virgin expanse of snow before him. He sagged and his arms tightened about Dessie who gave a muffled cry as his grip hurt her. This was the endthe could not run any more.
The Peacemen were taking their time about leaving the copter. It looked as if they were still reluctant to approach that thicket. What had Sach done that made them so wary?
Two of them crept around the tail of the machine, and Dard saw the gun mounted on the copters roof swing about to cover them. The men crawled slowly through the snow. But before they had reached beyond the length of the copter, that blink of light on the peak stepped up into a steady glow. Dards eyes dropped from it to the Peacemen and so he did not see deliverance arrive.
There was a swish of sound followed by a tinkle as if glass had splintered. Green fog bellowed out about the machinethe same fatal green of the ray Sach had used on the cave slope.
Without knowing why, he threw himself face down, carrying Dessie with him, as traces of the fog wafted slowly toward the thicket. It must be gas, and those men were now floundering in it. Then the world went black and Dard fell into deep space, a place where Dessie, too, was swept away from him.
4. AD ASTRA
DARD LAY ON HIS back staring up into unfamiliar gray reaches. Then a pinkish globe swam into position over him and he concentrated upon it. Eyes, nose, a mouth that was opening and shutting, took proper place.
How is it, fella?
Dard considered the question. He had been face down in the snow, there had been Peacemen creeping after him and Dessie! Dessie! He struggled to sit up and the face of that figure above him moved.
The little girl, shes all right. Youre both all right now. You are the Nordis kids?
Dard nodded. Where is here? he formed the inquiry slowly. The face crinkled into laughter.
Well, at least thats a variation on the old Where am I? Youre in the Cleft, kid. We saw you trying to make it across the river valley with that copter after you. You managed to delay them long enough for us to lay down the fog. Then we gathered you in. Also were a copter and some assorted supplies to the good, so youve more than paid your admittance feeeven if you werent Lars Nordis kin.
How did you discover who we are? Dard asked.
Dark brown eyes twinkled. We have our little ways of learning what is necessary for us to know. And it is a painless processdone while youre asleep.
I talked in my sleep? But I dont!
Maybe not under ordinary circumstances. But let our medico get the digester on you and you do. Youve had a pretty hard pull, kid, havent you?