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Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
_A blinding beam sheared through Peabody's middle_.]
Slaves of Mercury
_A Complete Novelette_
By Nat Schachner
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
_The Space Wanderer Returns_
[Sidenote: Hilary returns to find alien diskoids in Earth'sstratosphere, and out-world lords patrolling her cities.]
Hilary Grendon piloted his battered, time-worn space flier, the_Vagabond_, to the smiling Earth that rose rapidly to greet it. Onlythe instinctive ease of long practise prevented a smash-up, his handstrembled so at the controls.
Home again--the old familiar Earth! He could scarcely believe it!Perhaps it was only a dream, and he'd wake up among the unhumanglittering cylinders of Saturn, shuddering and crawling with theiciness of their fixed regard.
Hilary's eyes blurred with unaccustomed mistiness as he drank in thewarm sunlight, the soft green of the grass and the gracious lines ofthe slender birches as they fluttered their leaves daintily in theunhurrying breeze. How different it all was from the harsh redangularities of Mars!
He was outside, breathing deeply, inhaling the perfumed air withdelight. This was the only heaven; beyond--that far-flung immensity ofplanetary orbs--was hell! He, Hilary Grendon, the carefree, smilingskeptic of old, was a Fundamentalist now.
How long was it since they had started out on the first flight thatman had taken into outer space--he and those stanch comrades? Fiveyears? God! Had it been so long? Yet here he was, back on Earthagain, the kindly, blessed Earth their eyes had clung to when theywere fighting desperately for their lives against the protoplasmicthings that inhabited Ganymede.
Hilary brushed a tear away as he thought of those brave, loyalfriends. Dick lay as he fell on Saturn, transfixed by an icicle dart;Martin had been engulfed in an unholy maw on Ganymede; Dorn was afrozen idol to the spiral beings of Pluto; and poor Hurley, his fatewas the worst of all: his hideously bloated body was swinging in anorbit around Mars, a satellite through all eternity.
He, Hilary Grendon, was the sole survivor of that tremendous Odyssey!
Hilary shook his head vigorously to clear away the flood ofrecollections. Enough that he had returned. Then a sudden eagernesssurged through him, a joyous intensity of emotion. What a story he hadto relate--how the Earth people would hang with bated breath upon hisadventurings! And Joan--his heart gave a queer leap at the thought ofthat slender ardent wisp of a girl with her shining head and steadygray eyes. She had promised to wait for him, forever, if need be. Shehad said it simply, without heroics; yet Hilary knew then that shewould keep her promise.
A rush of impatience succeeded the inaction of his memories. He mustget to New York at once. He could not wait any longer. Joanfirst--then Amos Peabody, the venerable President of the UnitedStates--to report his return. He smiled at the stupefaction that wouldgreet him. No doubt he had long been given up for dead. The world hadbeen skeptical of the space ship he had invented; had, except for afaithful few, mocked at his plans. Indignantly he had taken hiscalculations, his blue prints of the spheroid, along with him. If theflight was a success, well and good; if not, they would not be worthmuch anyway.
In spite of his fever to be off, he carefully locked the controls,sealed the outer air-lock. Hilary Grendon was a methodical man: thatwas the reason he had survived.
Then he struck across country, walking very fast. He knew where hewas: in the wilderness of the Ramapos, some forty miles from New York.Sooner or later, he reasoned, he would strike one of the radiatingconveyors that led into the metropolis, or a human being that wouldset him on the right track.
* * * * *
A half hour's sturdy tramping brought him out of the tangled hillsinto civilization. There was a glitter of metal and vita-crystaldwellings that stood four-square to the sun and the winds. A broadribbon-conveyor hurled its shining length in ceaseless rush down thenarrow valley. Human beings--normal homely Earth men with the ordinarynumber of legs and arms, with honest-to-God faces and warm livingflesh, were seated on the conveyor-benches as they flashed by. Hilarycould have wept with delight. It was two years since he had seen hisown kind; two years since Hurley's tragic misstep through the breachin the air-lock made by a meteor as they were nearing Mars.
Hilary leaped on the slow-moving ramp, skilfully worked his way acrossthe graded speed belts until he was on the express conveyor that ledstraight on to New York.
He sank into a cushioned seat next to an oldish man with iron-grayhair through which the speed of their flight whipped and pulled.Hilary was bursting for real human conversation again; he grinned tohimself at the excited astonishment of this impassive stranger if heshould announce himself. How should he do it? Should he remarkcasually without any preamble: "Pardon me for addressing you, sir, butI'm Hilary Grendon, you know." Just like that, and lean back for theinevitable gasp: "What, not _the_ Hilary Grendon!" And he would nodoffhandedly as though he had just taken a little trip to Frisco andback.
He stole a sidelong glance at the sternly-etched profile. The man wasstaring straight in front of him, looking neither to the left nor tothe right. It did not seem as if he were aware of Hilary's existence.So with a sigh Hilary decided against that method of approach as atrifle too abrupt.
"Nice day to-day, isn't it?" The sound of his own voice startled him.English was an alien language to his unaccustomed tongue after thehissing syllables of the Martians.
With pathetic eagerness he awaited the inevitable answer to thiscommonplace introduction; that he might once more hear normal Earthtones in friendly converse, see the smile of greeting on a real Earthface.
But there came no answer. The man continued staring straight ahead,immobile, fixed. There was no slightest turn to the etched profile. Itwas as if he had not heard.
* * * * *
Hilary felt a sudden surge of anger. Damn discourteous, this firstEarthman he had met. What had happened to the old hospitality? Had itpassed out while he was roaming the spaces? He leaned over, harshwords tumbling for exit, when suddenly he checked himself. There wassomething strange about that fierce blank stare. The man's face, too,he saw now, was lined and worn; suffering had left its multitudinousimprint upon an ordinarily rotund countenance.
Hilary shouted suddenly: "Good morning." The man did not answer, nordid he stir from his unvarying pose. Deaf! The returned Earthmansuffered swift pity. With gentle forefinger he prodded the man.
The reaction was astounding. The man cowered like a pricked balloon;little strangling moans forced themselves out of clenched teeth. Dumb,too! His face jerked around to the direction of Hilary's gentleprodding. Merciful heavens, the man was blind also! Two vacantred-rimmed sockets stared pitifully at him--the eyeballs were gone,ripped out.
But what struck Hilary particularly was the mortal terror that wasdepicted on the blind man's face. It was as though he expected somecruel, crippling blow to follow; as though it were the last straw onthe back of unmentionable former agonies. Hilary shuddered. It was notgood to witness such animal fear. A dark shadow blotted out thebrightness of the Earth-day for him. There was something wrong here,something that required a good deal of explanation.
* * * * *
His probing eyes went
thoughtfully over the poor cowering wretch.Those careworn features were familiar, somehow. Where had he seen theman before? Suddenly he stiffened, choking an exclamation. The man wasbound immovably to his seat. Thin metal links, almost invisible,encircled his feet; held the elbows taut against the fluted columns ofthe seat-back.
Hilary's space-tanned features hardened; the light gray of his eyesdarkened. All the pleasure of his homecoming vanished. The kindlyEarth seemed suddenly grown inimical. What had happened in the fivelong years of his absence? This would have been impossible on theEarth he had known; a man, manifestly the victim of hideous tortures,bound like a wild animal to the seat of a public conveyor.
He went swiftly into action. From the depths of a capacious pocket hefished a sheathed blade of stellite, triply keen; its razor-sharp edgesawed smoothly at the bonds.
In his mounting anger Hilary had paid no attention to the scatteringof people occupying the cushioned chairs of the speeding conveyor. Buta smothered nearby gasp caused his head to jerk up. He met theincredulous stare of a paunchy, heavy-jowled man seated some chairsaway. There was more than incredulity, there was furtive fear in thesmall beady eyes sunken in folds of fat.
Hilary gave way to unreasoning anger.
"Stop looking like a stuck pig," he called sharply. "Give me a handwith this poor fellow."
The response was surprising. The man got up from his chairprecipitately, stark panic written all over him. The sweat oozed fromhis shiny forehead as he backed cautiously away. He tripped over theedge of the seat behind, and fell. Once more he scrambled to his feet,and as if the fall had released his trembling muscles, he turned andran, stumbling and dodging across the local conveyors, never oncelooking back.
* * * * *
Hilary watched his mad flight wonderingly. "Good Lord," he thought,"does my face frighten people so? Maybe I've turned into a Martian."
He turned to appeal to the others on the conveyor, and receivedanother shock. The few men within earshot were already on their feetand moving away from there with unostentatious celerity. Hilarysurveyed their receding backs thoughtfully. What was there abouthimself to frighten grown men out of their wits? Or was it the poortortured wretch he was trying to release who was responsible for theexodus?
Already the express was almost clear. He saw the deserters throwingthemselves guiltily into seats on the local belts, and then he wascarried swiftly past. Only one man remained stubbornly in his seat,some fifteen rows back. He was a huge mountain of a man, a giant uponEarth, and there was a strangeness in his wide stare.
Hilary frowned, then shook his head, and dropped down to his taskagain. The blind man moaned and jerked as he felt the bite of stelliteupon his fetters. Hilary made soothing sounds, forgetful that he couldnot hear, and worked steadily. There was a little clinking noise andthe links that bound the arms fell apart. He attacked the leg shacklesnext.
There was a tap on Hilary's shoulder, light, electric, yet strangelyheavy in its implications. Hilary turned his head sharply, saw thelandscape blotted out by a huge overshadowing bulk. Five years in ahostile universe had made him cautious. He pivoted on his heels androse in a single flowing motion, stellite blade ready for instantaction.