Skeel saw the sudden startled look on her white face, he saw her mouth open, but she did not have time to speak.
“I guess this is it, Miller! Number fifteen!” He pulled the trigger and the electro hissed its flame.
THE men at Ceres Base stood in excited little groups near the dome air-lock. Every eye was on the gigantic V-panel that reflected the tiny speck far out in space that was curving in toward them. A solo cruiser, yes—but which one? The black one the girl had used? Or would this be Skeel returning from another of his murderous missions? Every man there knew about the plot by now.
Anders stood there now, his face a picture of conflicting emotions. A thousand times he had blamed himself for allowing Nadia Miller to go out on that crazy mission! He had lived through a thousand agonies of waiting.
The dot grew larger in the Visipanel and resolved at last into the bluish-silver cruiser of the Space Patrol. Anders’ face went suddenly white, then a fever of fury burned through him. If this was Skeel— If Nadia didn’t come back—
Minutes later the blue and silver cruiser neared the dome. The lock automatically opened. It swept gracefully in, and powerful magniplates brought it to rest. A figure climbed wearily out and walked toward the men.
“Nadia!” Anders cried, and leaped forward eagerly to help her out of the space suit. “Are you all right? What about Skeel?”
She smiled at him. “Jim Skeel won’t come back.” Quickly she related the story of the caves and the light-button creatures and their perilous path through the night beasts toward the cruiser.
“Skeel was a changed man in those final minutes,” she explained. “He must have known what he was going to do—what he had to do. It was all so deliberate. I had almost reached the cruiser, not realizing he was so far behind me. I turned just in time to see him raise the weapon. He called, ‘Number fifteen!’ Then he fired.”
“Fired at you?” Anders was puzzled.
“No. I thought he meant to. But the beam didn’t come within twenty feet of me. He merely fired at random, and instantly all the light-things on him went out. Then I—I could see those horrible night beasts rushing in—from all sides—waves of them—” She buried her face in her hands, trying to shut out the memory.
“The electro-beam,” Anders said musingly. “Yes, that would do it. You fire one of those pistols, especially full power, and it sends a slight electric shock all through you. But Skeel knew that! Why did he do it? If it was to save you, now, I might understand; but you say you had already gained the ship—”
“To save me?” Nadia murmured. “No. I think it was to save himself.”
Anders still looked a little puzzled. “But what about your brother? Did Skeel confess anything?”
She looked up and her eyes were shining, but she was not crying. Within her was only a vast, singing quiet too deep for tears.
“My brother, Commander? When you enter that case into the records you might say—you may say, Commander, that my brother was killed when he fell off a cliff.”
The End
