Nevertheless, the splendidly. Joe the soft drinks in the to cool. Then he and Sally ate and talked and laughed. Joe, in particular, had more than the for today. He’d been through twenty-four hours of but now to look better. And there was the with Sally, which had a solid about it. Sally was swell! If she’d been homely, Joe would have liked her just the same—to talk to and to be with. But she was pretty—and she was his ring. She’d some around the of the to make it fit.
The only trouble was that Joe was occasionally of the weight in his right-hand pocket.
But they at least an hour in contented, satisfying, meaningless that nobody can but that to afterward. From time to time Joe looked ashore, when the weight in his pocket him of danger.
But he didn’t look often enough. He was the soft-drink bottles out of the when he saw a movement out of the of his eye. He whirled, his hand in his pocket....
It was the Chief, with Haney and Mike the midget. They were across the small peninsula.
Haney called sharply: “Everything okay?”
“Sure!” said Joe. “Everything’s fine! What’s the matter?”
“Mike had a hunch,” said the Chief. “And—uh—I I on the job when this was twelve-fifteen years ago.” He looked about him. “It looked different then.”
Then he Joe’s and his almost to one side. Joe the signal.
“I’ll see about some more soft drinks,” he said. “Come help me fish up the bottles.”
Sally at the other two. She was already the basket.
“We still have some sandwiches,” she said hospitably, “and some cake.”
Haney came awkwardly. Mike toward her with something of truculence. Joe what was in his mind. If Sally him like a freak.... But Joe with that she wouldn’t. He to the water’s edge.
“What’s up, Chief?” he asked in a low tone.
“Mike hunch,” the Chief. “Somebody to the you brought. They did. But we started gettin’ set to it. So what would they do? Polish us off. If they were set to atom-dust the whole Shed an’ in it, they wouldn’t stop at four more murders.”
Joe for a bottle.
“Mike said something like that at the Shed,” he observed.
“Yeah. But you were the one who out. You’d be target. Haney and Mike and me—we’d be hard to off in a in Bootstrap. But you and her off by y’selves. Mike you mightn’t be safe. So we checked.”
Joe up one bottle and then another.
“We’re all right. Haven’t a soul.”
“Don’t a hasn’t you,” the Chief. “A car left Bootstrap less than twenty minutes you. There were three in it. It’s the dam, sight. We saw it. And when we came up, careful, we three hidin’ out the yonder. They look to me like they’re waiting for somebody to go from the shoreline, so’s—uh—maybe out at the can’t see ’em. That’d be you and her, huh?”
Joe cold. Not for himself. For Sally.
“There’s nobody else around,” said the Chief. “Who’d they be waiting for but you two? Suppose they got a to kill you. They’d take the car keys. They’d your two Gawdknowswhere. There’d be of a for you two. Major Holt would be plenty. Security might up. There might be for who wanted to do a little sabotage—besides maybe hamperin’ the repairin’ of the pilot gyros. Then they try for Haney and Mike and me.”
Joe said coldly: “I’ve got a pistol and so has Sally. Shall we take those pistols and go ask those three if they want to start something?”
The Chief snorted.
“Use sense! It’s good you got the pistols, though. I a twenty-two from a gallery. It was all I in a hurry. But go huntin’ trouble? Fella, I want to see that Platform go up! I’ll take of now. Good here. They got to come across the open to near. Don’t say anything to Sally. But we’ll keep our open.”
Joe nodded. He the chilled, bottles to where Haney ate a sandwich, with his to the and the shore. The Chief a .22 from his belt, where it had alongside his thigh. He over to Mike and the rifle.
“You said you like practice,” he blandly. “Here’s your armament. Any more sandwiches, ma’am?”
Sally passed him the last. She left the top of the open. The pistol that had been there was gone. Then Sally’s met Joe’s and she was aware that his three friends had not come here to crash a picnic. But she took it in stride. It was an additional for Joe to approve of Sally.
“Me,” said the Chief largely, “I’m goin’ to swim. I haven’t had any more water around me than a for so long that I to and splash. I’ll go and myself.”
He off, taking from the sandwich as he went. He vanished. Haney against a sapling, his about the and the and it.
Mike was talking in his crackling, high-pitched voice.
“But just the same it’s crazy! Fighting when we little take over in a week and make just plain foolish! We do the whole job while the weren’t looking!”
Sally said with interest: “Have you got the figures? Were they passed on?”
“I a month’s pay once,” said Mike sardonically, “hiring a to go over them. He one mistake. It the of what we do!”
Sally answered: “Joe! Listen to this! Mike says he has the answer to sabotage, and, in a way, to space travel! Listen!”
Joe to the ground.
“Shoot it,” he said.
He was alert, just the same. There were men waiting for them to start to the car. These were armed, and they to Sally and himself. Joe’s at the ideas that came into his mind.
But Mike was to speak.
“Forget about the Platform a minute,” he said, up to gesticulate, he was only three and a high. “Just on a to the moon. With old-style they’d a’ had to have a of a hundred and twenty to one. You’d have to a hundred and twenty of old-style fuel to land one on the moon. Now it be done with sixty, and when the Platform’s up, that figure’ll again! Okay! You’re land a man on the moon. He two hundred pounds. He up twenty of food and drink and a day. Give him and air for two months—twelve hundred pounds. A seven high and ten across. Sixteen hundred pounds, an’ for strength. That makes a pay of a an’ a half, and you’d have to a hundred an’ eighty of fuel—old-style—to take it to the moon, and another hundred an’ twenty for every the ship weighed. You might a man to the moon with a twelve-hundred-ton rocket—maybe. That’s with the old fuels. He’d there, an’ he’d live two months, an’ then he’d die for of air. With the new you’d need ninety of fuel to the guy there, and sixty more for every the ship itself. Call it six hundred for the to one man to the moon.”
Sally absorbedly.
“I’ve like that,” she agreed.
“But take a guy like me!” said Mike the bitterly. “I forty-five pounds, not two hundred! I use four of food and air a day. A for me to live in would be four high an’ five across. Bein’ smaller, it wouldn’t need so much bracing. You do it for two hundred pounds. Three hundred for and air, fifty for me. Me on the moon for two months would come to five-fifty pounds. Sixteen of fuel to me to the moon direct! To the weight of the ship—it’s smaller!—fifty maximum!”
“I—see...,” said Sally, frowning.
He looked at her suspiciously, but there was no in her face.
“It’d take a six-hundred-ton to a full-sized man to the moon,” he said with flippancy, “but a guy my size do the same job of stranglin’ in a fifty-ton job. Counting how much it’d be to back, with deceleration, I make a trip, land, take observations, up specimens, and back—all in a sixty-ton rocket. That’s just ten of what it’d cost to take a full-sized man one way!”
He his foot. Then he said coldly: “Haney, sittin’ still you’re a sittin’ duck!”
The was just. Joe that Sally was on the of this small island, and that there were her and the mainland. But Haney sat where he watch the mainland, and he hadn’t moved in a long while. If someone did to from a distance, Haney was a for a very target. He moved.
“Yeah!” said Mike with irony, to his topic. “I you of figures! There are other like me! We’ve got as much as full-sized people! If the big had on us small guys, they the Platform the size of a four-family house an’ it’d ha’ been up in the sky right now, with like me it. Guys my size man the bringin’ up fuel for storage, and four of us take a six-hundred-ton an’ out to Mars an’ be by springtime—next springtime!—with all the and the to prove ’em! By golly——”
Then he a raging, gesture.
“But that’s just the big picture,” he said bitterly. “Right now, right at this minute, we make it easy to the Platform the way it’s in the Shed! There are else. You know about them?”
Sally said apologetically: “Yes. I know there’ll be smaller ships going up to the Platform. They’ll fuel and stores and for the crew. Yes, I know there are building.”
“Those rockets,” said Mike sardonically, “carry four men, plus two for the crew. They’ll air for ten days. But put four of us small in a rocket! We’d have air and for two months, almost! Pull out the pay and put in a garden and and we’d be a Platform, right then! Send up another to join us, and it missiles! The be than the Platform! Send up three with as crews, an’ we ’em together and have a Space Platform in and working—and what’d be the use of the big Platform then? The job would be done! There’d be no the big Platform the little one do anything the big one could! It’d be up there and working! But,” he bitterly, “do you think anybody’ll do anything as as that?”
His small were in angry rebellion. And he was right in all his reasoning. Mankind have the to the in a hurry, and it have had its Space Platform in the sky much more quickly, if only it have to be by people like Mike—who would have very valiantly.
Sally said distressedly: “Oh, Mike, it’s all true and I’m so sorry!”
And she meant it. Joe liked Sally right then, she didn’t Mike, or try to him out of his heartbreak.
Then Haney said abruptly: “Somebody’s the Chief.”
Joe himself. The Chief had said he was going to swim. Now—but only now—Joe looked to see what he was doing.
He was out from shore, to the at the middle of the dam. He would it, and up the that just be going the of the dam’s top, and he would the on shore. A telephone call to Bootstrap would security men at eighty miles an hour, and a good faster. But they the Chief would lead the with the they for in and out of season.
The men on might or might not the Chief’s swim to be proof that he their intentions. They were the in some right now. But they couldn’t know that the party on the semi-island was armed.
Suddenly Mike said crisply: “We’re goin’ to have visitors.”
He on the ground, fifteen from Sally, where he look over the ridge. He the .22 to his shoulder. He a bead.
Three men very out of the on the shore. They moved toward the of that out to the spot. They looked like else from Bootstrap. Casual, work clothing.... Haney and up four good stones. His was pained.
Joe said: “We’ve got pistols, Haney, and Sally’s a good shot.”
The men came on. Their manner was casual. Joe up into view.
“No visitors!” he called. “We don’t want company!”
One of the men his hand to his ear, as if not understanding. They came on. They no gestures.
Then Joe took his hand out of his pocket, the pistol Sally’d him tightly.
“I that!” he said harshly. “Stand back!”
One of the three spoke sharply. On that three snub-nosed pistols appeared. Bullets as the men forward. The purpose was not so much at this moment as the of overhead while the three got close to do their job with precision.
A by Joe—Haney had it—and the small in Mike’s hands twice. Joe his fire. He had only six and three to hit. With a familiar he’d have started now, but thirty yards is a long range with a pistol at a moving target.
One of the three and to the ground. A second to be on one of his face. A .22 had his cheek. The third ran on into a by Haney. It the out of him and his pistol from his hand.
Joe at the man and saw him around. Mike’s again and the man Joe had and ran heavily, making yells. The one who’d to his and fled, crazily, one leg. Deserted, the third man and ran too, still over and still gasping.
Mike’s voice crackled. He was in a of the way the shot. It high and to the right. The paid off in cigarettes for high scores—so the didn’t shoot straight.
Until this moment Joe had been calm, he had something to do. But just then he Sally say “Oh!” in a voice. He whirled. Unknown to him, she had not been waiting under cover, but with her pistol out and ready. And her was very white, and she was at her hair. A came away in her fingers. A had it just above her shoulder.
Then Joe ... weak ... trembling, and he himself by half-hysterically Sally and to know if she was hurt, and at her for herself to fire, while his to close and off his from horror.
There came loud pop-pop-popping noises. With the of over water, two started from the along the of the dam. They for the five men, one of was the Chief, with a red-checked about his middle, a fire in of other weapons.
The was over.
But the couldn’t be immediately. They still had at least two pistols. Eight men and a girl, Mike, with an of only two pistols, a .22 rifle, two and a fire were not a properly to killers. Also by now it was close to sunset.
So the did the thing. Joe and Sally and Haney and the Chief—his retrieved—plus Mike for Bootstrap. Joe and Sally in the Major’s black car, and the other three in the they’d rented for the afternoon. On the way into the the dam, they stopped at the car their would-be had come in. They its and belt. The other men returned to the with their and the fire axe, and to Bootstrap. The three who had planned fugitives, with no means of but their legs. They had a good many thousand square miles of to in, but it wasn’t likely that they had food or any to it in the wilds. Two were hurt. With dogs and and organization, it should be possible to catch them handily, come morning.
So Joe and Sally to Bootstrap with the other car closely through all the miles that had to be in the dark. Halfway back, they met a search party in cars, for the to their man in the morning. After that, Joe better. But his teeth still to every time he of Sally’s startled, as she away a lock of her that had been by a bullet.
When they got to the Shed, Major Holt looked and old. Sally that her was her own fault. Joe’d she was safely under cover....
“It was my fault,” said the Major detachedly. “I let you go away from the Shed. I do not Joe at all.”
But he did not look kindly. Joe wet his lips, to agree that any he might be to was justified, since he had Sally to be at.
“I myself a great deal, sir,” he said grimly. “But I can promise I’ll take Sally away from safety again. Not until the Platform’s up and there’s no more for her to be in danger.”
The Major said remotely: “I shall have to for more than that. I shall put you in touch with your father by telephone. You will to him, in detail, how the repair of your is planned. I that the can be more by the method you have out?”
Joe said: “Yes, sir. The of the can, which was the single job. But anything can be the second time. The patterns for the are all made, and the out of the production process.”
“You will that to your father,” said the Major heavily. “Your father’s plant will to these—ah—pilot at once. Meanwhile your—ah—work will start to repair the one that is here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And,” said the Major, “I am sending you to the airfield. I to the the might at. You are one of them. Your is another. From time to time you will with them and their work. If any of them should be—disposed of, you will be able to others.”
“It’s the other way about, sir,” Joe. “The Chief and Haney are good, and Mike’s got brains——”
The Major moved impatiently.
“I am looking at this from a security standpoint,” he said. “I am trying to make it to attack the again. Duplicates will be in production at your father’s plant. There will be three men repairing the ones. There will be another man in another place—and this will be you—who can new in the repair if anything should happen. Thus there will have to be three successful if the pilot are not to be when the Platform needs them. Saboteurs might try one. Possibly two. But I think they will look for another weak spot to attack.”
Joe did not like the idea of being moved away. He wanted to be on the job repairing the device that was his responsibility. Besides, he had a about Sally. If she were in danger, he wanted to be on hand.
“About Sally, sir——”
“Sally,” said the Major tiredly, “is going to have to restrict herself to the point where she’ll that would be preferable. But she will see the need for it. She will be a good more than before—and you may not know it, but she has been well.”
Joe saw Sally at him. What the Major had said was unpleasant, but he was right. This was one of those that nobody likes, an irritating, uncomfortable, necessity. But such are a part of every achievement. The that done and that don’t done is often the patience and with details. This would that Joe couldn’t see Sally very often. It would that the Chief and Haney and Mike would do the work of the ready. It would take all the out of Joe’s contribution. These shouldn’t be necessary. But they were.
“All right, sir,” said Joe gloomily. “When do I go over to the field?”
“Right away,” said the Major. “Tonight.” Then he added detachedly: “Officially, the for your presence there will be that you have been useful in methods. You have. After all, through you a number of that would have been up have now had their removed. I know you do not for the fact, but it is an for you where I want you to be for another entirely. So it will be that you are at the for counter-sabotage inspection.”
The Major with an air of irony, and Joe out of his office. He his father at length. His father did not Joe’s at being to a place of safety. He to the for an entire new set of pilot at once.
A little later Sally came out of her father’s office.
“I’m sorry, Joe!”
He unhappily.
“So am I. I don’t very heroic, but if this is what has to be done to the Platform out of the Shed and on the way up—it’s what has to be done. I I can phone you?”
“You can,” said Sally. “And you’d better!”
They had talked a long time that afternoon, very and without any at all. Neither have much of what had been said. It was not earth-shaking in importance. But now there to be a very great of other urgently needing to be gone through.
“I’ll call you!” said Joe.
Then somebody approached to take him to the airfield. They very under the of the security officer who would drive Joe to his destination.
It was a through the darkness. This particular security officer was not companionable. He was one of those people who think that if they keep their mouths it will make up for their to keep their open. Socially he Joe as if he were a person. It be that he that way.
Joe to sleep in the car.
He was only half-awake when he arrived, and he didn’t to himself when he was to a in the officers’ barracks. He to bed, making a half-conscious note to himself some clothes—especially fresh linen—in the morning.
Then he nothing until he was in the early by what like the of doom.
