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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c280383 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65817 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65817) diff --git a/old/65817-0.txt b/old/65817-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cc97f11..0000000 --- a/old/65817-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3313 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Last Call for Doomsday!, by S. M. Tenneshaw - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Last Call for Doomsday! - -Author: S. M. Tenneshaw - -Release Date: July 10, 2021 [eBook #65817] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST CALL FOR DOOMSDAY! *** - - - - - Wales saw men around him become savage - beasts, shooting, looting, killing in frantic - hysteria. Men without hope, they awaited the-- - - Last Call For Doomsday! - - By S. M. Tenneshaw - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - December 1956 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -A deep shudder shook Jay Wales. He wished now he hadn't had to come -back here to Earth this last time. He wanted to remember the old world -of man as it had been, not as it was now in its dying hour. - -"It seems impossible that it will really happen," said Hollenberg, the -docket captain. - -He wasn't looking at Earth. He was looking beyond it at the glittering -stars. - -Wales looked too. He knew where to look. He saw the faint little spark -of light far across the Solar System. - -A spark, a pinpoint, an insignificant ray upon the optic nerves--that -was all it was. - -That--and the hand of God reaching athwart the universe. - -"It'll happen," said Wales, without turning. "September 27th, 1997. -Four months from now. It'll happen." - -The rocket-ship was suddenly convulsed through all its vast fabric by -the racking roar of brake-jets letting go. Both men exhaled and lay -back in their recoil-chairs. The thundering and quivering soon ceased. - -"People," said Hollenberg, then, "are wondering if it really will. -Happen, I mean." - -For the first time, Wales looked at him sharply. "People where?" - -Hollenberg nodded toward the window. "On Earth. Every run we make, we -hear it. They say--" - -And here it was again, Wales thought, the rumors, the whispers, that -had been coming out to Mars, stronger and more insistent each week. - -There in the crowded new prefab cities on Mars, where hundreds of -millions of Earth-folk were already settling into their new life, with -millions more supposed to arrive each month, the rumors were always the -same. - -"_Something's wrong, back on Earth. The Evacuation isn't going right. -The ships aren't on schedule--_" - -Wales hadn't worried much about it, at first. He had his own job. -Fitting the arriving millions into a crowded new planet, a new, hard -way of life, was work enough. He was fourth in command at Resettlement -Bureau, and that meant a job that never ended. - -Even when the Secretary called him in to the new UN capital on Mars, -he'd only expected a beef about resettlement progress. He hadn't -expected what he got. - -The Secretary, an ordinarily quiet, relaxed man, had been worn thin and -gray and nervous by a load bigger than any man had ever carried before. -He had wasted no time at all on amenities when Wales was shown in. - -"You knew Kendrick personally?" - -There was no need to use first names. Since five years before, there -was only one Kendrick in the world who mattered. - -"I knew him," Wales had said. "I went to school with both Lee and -Martha Kendrick--his sister." - -"Where is he?" - -Wales had stared. "Back on Earth, at Westpenn Observatory. He said he'd -be along soon." - -The Secretary said, "He's not at the Observatory. He hasn't come to -Mars yet, either. He's disappeared." - -"But, why--" - -"I don't care _why_, Wales. I want to know _where_. Kendrick's got to -be found. His disappearance is affecting the Evacuation. That's the -report I get from a dozen different men back on Earth. I message them, -'Why are the rocket-schedules falling behind?' I tell them, 'It's -Doomsday Minus 122, and Evacuation must go faster.' I get the answer -back, 'Kendrick's disappearance responsible--are making every effort to -find him'." - -After a silence the Secretary had added, "You go back to Earth, Wales. -You find Kendrick. You find out what's slowing down Evacuation. We've -_got_ to speed up, man! There's over twelve million people still left -on Earth." - -And here he was, Wales thought, in a rocket-ship speeding back to -Earth on one of the endless runs of the Marslift, and he still didn't -know why Evacuation had slowed, or what Lee Kendrick's disappearance -had to do with it, and he'd have precious little time to find out. - - * * * * * - -They were sweeping in in a landing-pattern now, and the turquoise had -become a big blue balloon fleeced with white clouds. And Hollenberg was -far too busy with his landing to talk now. The rocket-captain seemed, -indeed, relieved not to be questioned. - -The rush inward, the roar of air outside the hull, the brake-blasts -banging like the triphammers of giants, the shadowed night side of the -old planet swinging up to meet them.... - -When he stepped out onto the spaceport tarmac, Wales breathed deep of -the cool night air. Earth air. There was none like it, for men. No -wonder that they missed its tang, out there on Mars. No wonder old -women in the crowded new cities out there still cried when they talked -of Earth. - -He braced back his shoulders, buttoned the tunic of his UN uniform. He -wasn't here to let emotion run away with him. He had a job. He got onto -one of the moving beltways and went across the great spaceport, toward -the high, gleaming cluster of lights that marked the port headquarters. - -Far away across the dark plain loomed the massive black bulks of -rocket-ships. Dozens of them, hundreds of them. And more were coming -in, on rigid landing-schedule. The sky above, again and again, broke -with thunder and the great ships came riding their brake-jets of flame -downward. - -Wales knew, to the last figure, how many times in the last years -ships had risen from this spaceport, and how many times, having each -one carried thousands of people to Mars, they had returned. Tens of -millions had gone out from here. And New Jersey Spaceport was only one -of the many spaceports serving the Evacuation. The mind reeled at the -job that had been done, the vast number who had been taken to that -other world. - -And it was still going on. Under colored lights, Wales saw the long -queue of men, women, children moving toward one of the towering ships -nearby. Signals flashed. Loudspeakers bawled metallically. - -"--to Ship 778! All assigned to Ship 778 this way! Have your -evacuation-papers ready!" - -Wales went by these people, not looking at their faces, not wanting to -see their faces. - -The noise and crowded confusion got worse as he neared the -Administration Building. Near it the buses were unloading, the endless -cargoes of people, people--always people, always those pale faces. - -An armed guard outside Administration's entrance looked at Wales' -uniform and then at his credentials, and passed him through. - -"Port Coordinator's office straight ahead," he said. - -The interior of the building was a confusion of uniformed men, and -women, of clicking tabulating machines, of ringing phones. - -Wales thought that here you felt the real pulse of the Marslift. A -pulse that had quickened now--like the pulse of a dying man. - -Bourreau, the Port Coordinator, was a stocky, bald sweating man, who -had thrown off his uniform jacket and was drinking coffee at his desk -when Wales came in. - -"Sit down," he said. "Heard you were coming. Heard the Secretary was -sending you to burn our tails." - -"Nothing like that," said Wales. "He just wants to know, why the devil -are Evacuation schedules falling behind?" - -Bourreau drained his cup, set it down, and wiped his mouth. "Listen," -he said, "you don't want to talk to me." - -"I don't?" - -"No, I'm the Port Coordinator, that's all. I've passed millions of -people through here. Evacuation Authority sends them in here, from the -marshalling point over in New York. Good people, not-so-good people, -and people that aren't worth saving. But to me, they're all just units. -They reach here, I shoot them out. That's all. The man you want to talk -to is John Fairlie." - -"The regional Evacuation Marshal?" - -"Yes. Talk to him, over in New York. I've got a car and driver ready -for you." - - * * * * * - -Wales stood up. It was obvious that Bourreau had been all ready for -him, and was not going to take a rap for anybody. It was equally -obvious that he'd learn nothing about Kendrick's disappearance from -this man. - -"All right," he said. "I'll see Fairlie first." - -The driver of the car, a UN private, turned off on a side road almost -as soon as they left the spaceport. - -"No use bucking all the buses and trucks on the evacuation thruways," -he said. "We use the old roads when we want to hurry. No traffic on -_them_ now." - -The old roads. The ribbons of concrete and asphalt that once had -carried thousands of cars, day and night. Now they were dark and empty. - -The car went through a village. It too was dark and empty. They swung -on through countryside, without a light in it. And then there was a -bigger village, and its dark windows stared at them like blind eyes. - -"All evacuated," said the driver. "Every village, town, farm, between -here and New York was closed out two-three years ago." - -Wales, sitting hunched by the open window, watching the road unreel, -saw an old farmhouse on the curve ahead. The headlights caught it, -and he saw that all its window-shutters were closed. Someone, some -family, had left that house forever and had carefully shuttered its -windows--against doomsday. - -The poplars and willows and elms went by, and now and again there was a -drifting fragrance of flowers, of blossoming orchids. Old apple-trees, -innocently ignorant of world's end, were preparing to fruit once more. - -Wales felt a sharp, poignant emotion. He asked himself, as a world had -been asking for five years, _Why did it have to be?_ - -There was only one answer. Far out in the dark lonesomeness of the -solar system, far beyond man's new Martian colonies, the thousands of -asteroids that swung in incredibly intricate and eccentric orbits--they -were the answer. They had been shuttles, weaving fate's web. - -Kendrick had been the first to see it, to note the one big asteroid -whose next passage near Jupiter would make its eccentricity of orbit -_too_ great. With camera and telescope Kendrick had watched, and with -the great electronic calculators he had plotted that orbit years ahead, -and.... - -Wales had often wondered what Lee Kendrick had felt like when the first -knowledge came to him, when the first mathematical formulae of doom -came out on the calculator printing-tape. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, -spelled out in an equation. An electronic computer, passionately -prophesying the end of man's world.... - -"_In five years, the eccentricity of the asteroid Nereus will bring -it finally across Earth's orbit at a point where it will collide with -Earth. This collision will make our planet uninhabitable._" - -He well remembered the first stupefaction with which the world had -received the announcement, after Kendrick's calculations had been -proved beyond all doubt. - -"_No force available to us can destroy or swerve an asteroid so big. -But in five years, we should be able to evacuate all Earth's people to -Mars._" - -Kendrick, Wales thought now, had been able to give Earth the years -of advance warning that meant escape, the years in which the tens of -thousands of great rocket-ships could be built and the Marslift get -under way. If mankind survived, it would be due to Kendrick's warning. -Why should he vanish now? - -Wales suddenly became conscious that his driver was putting on the -brakes. They were in the outskirts of Morristown. - -The streets here were _not_ all dark and dead. He saw the glimmer of -flashlights, the movement of dark figures, and heard calling voices. - -"I thought you said these cities were all closed out?" Wales said. - -The driver nodded. "Yeah. But there's still people around some of them. -Looters." He stopped. "We'd better detour around here." - -"Looters?" Wales was astounded. "You mean, you don't stop them?" - -"Listen," said the driver. "What difference does it make what they -take, when the place is closed out?" - -Wales had forgotten. What difference did it make, indeed? The -nearly-deserted Earth was any man's property now, when inevitable -catastrophe was rushing toward it. - -A thought struck him. These folk couldn't expect to take loot with them -when they were evacuated. So they didn't plan to _be_ evacuated. - -He said, "Wait here. I'm going to have a look at them." - -"I wouldn't," said the driver hastily. "These people--" - -"Just wait," said Wales crisply. - -He walked away from the car, toward the flashlights and the shadows and -the shouting voices. - -The voices had a raw edge of excitement in them, and a few were -thick with alcohol. They were mixed men and women, and a few yelping -youngsters. - -They weren't breaking windows. They simply used crowbars to force -open doors. Many doors weren't even locked. Eager hands passed out a -motley collection of objects, small appliances, liquor bottles, canned -synthefood, clothing. - -No wonder Evacuation was going off schedule, thought Wales! Letting -people play the fool like this-- - -A flashlight beam flared beside him, a man's face peered at his -uniform, and a loud voice bellowed close to his ears, "Look, everybody! -It's an Evacuation Officer!" - -There was a dead silence, and then the flashlights converged on him. -Somewhere in the group, a woman screamed. - -"They're after us! They're going to put us on the ships and take us -away!" - -"Kill the bastard, knock him down!" yelled a raging voice. - -Wales, too astounded to defend himself, felt a sudden shower of clumsy -blows that sent him to his knees. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - -It was the very number of Wales' attackers that saved him. There were -too many of them, they were too eager to get at him. As he hit the -pavement, they dropped their flashlights and crowded around in the -dark, getting in each other's way, like frantic dogs chivvying a small -animal. - -A foot trampled his shoulder and he rolled away from it. All around him -in the dark were trousered legs, stumbling over him. Voices yelled, -"Where is he?" They yelled, "Bring the lights!" - -The lights, if they came, would mean his death. A mob, even a small mob -like this one, was a mindless animal. Wales, floundering amid the dark -legs, kept his head. He shouted loudly, - -"Here come the Evacuation trucks--here they come! We'd better beat it!" - -He didn't think it would work, but it did. In that noisy, scuffling -darkness, no one could tell who had shouted. And these people were -already alarmed. - -The legs around him shifted and stamped and ran away over the pavement. -A woman screeched thinly in fear. He was alone in the dark. - -He didn't think he would be left alone for long. He started to scramble -to his feet, beside the curb, and his hand went into an opening--a long -curbside storm-sewer drain. - -A building was what he had had in mind, but this was better. He got -down on his belly and wormed sidewise into the drain. He lay quiet, in -a concrete cave smelling of old mud. - -Feet came pounding back along the streets, he glimpsed beams of light -angling and flickering. Angry voices yelled back and forth. "He's not -here. He's got away. But there must be other goddamned Evacuation men -around. They're going to round us up--" - -"By God, nobody's going to round _me_ up and take me to Mars!" said a -deep bass voice right beside Wales. - -Somebody else said, "All that nonsense about Kendrick's World--" and -added an oath. - -Wales lay still in his concrete hole, nursing his bruised shoulder. He -heard them going away. - -He waited, and then crawled out. In the dark street, he stood, muddy -and bruised, conscious now that he was shaking. - -What in the world had come over these people? At first, five years ago, -it had been difficult to convince many that an errant asteroid would -indeed ultimately crash into Earth. Kendrick's first announcement had -been disbelieved by many. - -But when all the triple-checking by the world's scientists had -confirmed it, the big campaign of indoctrination that the UN put on -had left few skeptics. Wales himself remembered how every medium of -communication had been employed. - -"Earth will not be destroyed," the UN speakers had repeated over -and over. "But it _will_ be made uninhabitable for a long time. The -asteroid Nereus will, when it collides, generate such a heat and shock -wave that nothing living can survive it. It will take many years -for Earth's surface to quiet again after the catastrophe. Men--all -men--must live on Mars for perhaps a whole generation." - -People had believed. They had been thankful then that they had a way -of escape from the oncoming catastrophe--that the colonization of Mars -had proceeded far enough that it could serve as a sanctuary for man, -and that modern manufacture of synthetic food and water from any raw -rock would make possible feeding all Earth's millions out on that arid -world. - -They had toiled wholeheartedly at the colossal crash program of -Operation Doomsday, the building of the vast fleet of rocket-ship -transports, the construction and shipping out of the materials for the -great new prefab Martian cities. They had, by the tens and hundreds -of millions, gone in their scheduled order to the spaceports and the -silver ships that took them away. - -But now, with millions still left on Earth, there was a change. Now -skepticism and rebellion against Evacuation were breeding here on Earth. - -It didn't, Wales thought, make sense! - -He was suddenly very anxious to reach New York, to see Fairlie. - - * * * * * - -He went back along the dark street to the main boulevard, where the -little white route signs glimmered faintly. He looked for the car, but -did not see it. - -Shrugging, Wales started along the highway. He couldn't be too far -from the big Evacuation Thruways. - -He had gone only a few blocks in the dark, when lights suddenly came on -and outlined him. He whirled, startled. - -"Mr. Wales," said a voice. - -Wales relaxed. He walked toward the lights. It was the car, and the -driver in the UN uniform, parked back in an alley. - -"I thought you were back at the spaceport by now," Wales said sourly. - -The driver swore. "I wasn't going to run away. But no use tackling that -crowd. Didn't I warn you? An Evacuation uniform sets them crazy." - -Wales got in beside him. "Let's get out of here." - -As they rolled, he asked, "When I left Earth four years ago, there -didn't seem a soul who doubted Doomsday. Why are these people doubtful -now?" - -The driver told him, "They say Kendrick's World is just a scare, that -it's not going to hit Earth after all." - -"Who told them that?" - -"Nobody knows who started the talk. Not many believed it at first. -But then people began to say, 'Kendrick was the one who predicted -Doomsday--if he really believed it, _he'd_ leave Earth!'" - -"What did Kendrick say to that?" - -"He didn't say anything. He just went into hiding, they say. Leastwise, -the officials admitted he hadn't gone to Mars. No wonder a lot of folks -began to say, 'He _knows_ his prediction was wrong, that's why he's not -leaving Earth!'" - -Wales asked, after a time, "What do you think, yourself?" - -The driver said, "_I'm_ going out on Evacuation, for sure. So maybe -Kendrick and the rest are wrong? What have I got to lose? And if the -big crash does come, I won't be here." - -Dawn grayed the sky ahead as the car rolled on through more and more -silent towns. It took to a skyway and as they sped above the roofs, the -old towers of New York rose misty and spectral against the brightening -day. - -In the downtown city itself, they were suddenly among people again. -They were everywhere on the sidewalks and they were a variegated -throng. Workers and their families from the midwest, lumbermen and -miners from the north, overweight businessmen, women, children, babies, -dogs, birds in cages, a shuffling, slow-moving mass of humanity walking -aimlessly up and down the streets, waiting their call-up to the buses -and the spaceports and the leaving of their world. - -Evacuation Police in their gray uniforms were plentiful, and to Wales' -surprise they were armed. Only official cars were in the streets, and -Wales noticed the frequent unfriendly looks his own car got from faces -here and there in the throngs. He didn't suppose people would be too -happy about leaving Earth. - -The big new UN Building, towering over the city, had been built thirty -years before to replace the old one. He had supposed it would be an -empty shell, now that the whole Secretariat was out on Mars. But it -wasn't. Here was Evacuation headquarters for a whole part of America, -and the building was jammed with officials, files, clerks. - -He was expected, it seemed. He went right through to the regional -Evacuation Marshal's office. - - * * * * * - -John Fairlie was a solid, blond man of thirty-five or so, with the kind -of radiant strength, health, and intelligence that always made Wales -feel even more lanky and shy than he really was. - -"We've been discussing your mission here," Fairlie said bluntly. -He indicated the three other men in the room. "My friends and -fellow-officials--they're assistants to Evacuation Marshals of other -regions. Bliss from Pacific Coast, Chaumez from South America, Holst -from Europe--" - -They were men about Fairlie's age, and Wales thought that they were -anxious men. - -"We don't resent your coming, and you'll get 100 percent cooperation -from all of us," Fairlie was saying. "We just hope to God you can get -Evacuation speeded up to schedule again. We're worried." - -"Things are that bad?" said Wales. - -Bliss said gloomily, "Bad--and getting worse. If it keeps up, there's -going to be millions still left on Earth when Doomsday comes." - -"What," asked Wales, "do you think ought to be done first?" - -"Find Kendrick," said Fairlie promptly. - -"You think his disappearance that important?" - -"I _know_ it is." Fairlie strode up and down the office, his physical -energy too restless to be still. "Listen, Wales. It's the fact that -Kendrick, who first predicted the catastrophe, hasn't himself left -Earth that's deepening all these doubts. If we could find Kendrick and -show people how he's going to Mars, it would discredit all this talk -that his prediction was a mistake, and that he knows it." - -"You've already tried to find him?" - -Fairlie nodded. "I've had the world combed for him. I wish I could -guess what happened to him. If we could only find his sister, even, it -might lead to him." - -Yes, Wales thought. Martha and Lee Kendrick had always been close. And -now they had vanished together. - -He told Fairlie what had happened to him in the Jersey City. Neither -Fairlie nor the others seemed much surprised. - -"Yes. Things are bad in some of the evacuated regions. You see, once we -get all the listed inhabitants out, we can't go back to those places. -We haven't the time to keep going over them. So others--the ones who -don't want to go--can move into the empty towns and take over." - -"_Why_ don't they want to go?" Wales studied the other's face as he -asked the question. "Five years ago, everyone believed in the crash, -in the coming of Doomsday. Now people here are skeptical. You say that -Kendrick might convince them. But what made them skeptical, in the -first place?" - -Fairlie said, "I don't know, not for sure. But I can tell you what I -think." - -"Go ahead." - -"I think it's secret propaganda at work. I think Evacuation is being -secretly sabotaged by talk that Doomsday is all a hoax." - -Wales was utterly shocked. "Good God, man, who would do a thing like -that? Who would want millions of people to stay on Earth and die on -Doomsday?" - -Fairlie looked at him. "It's a horrible thought, isn't it? But fanatics -will sometimes do horrible things." - -"Fanatics? You mean--" - -Fairlie said, "We've been hearing rumors of a secret organization -called the Brotherhood of Atonement. A group--we don't know how large, -probably small in numbers--who seem to have been crazed by the coming -of Doomsday. They believe that Nereus is a just vengeance coming on a -sinful Earth, and that Earth's sins must be atoned by the deaths of -many." - -"They're preaching that doctrine openly?" Wales said, incredulous. - -"Not at all. Rumors is all we've heard. But--you wondered who would -want millions of people to stay on Earth till Doomsday. That's a -possible answer." - -It made, to Wales, a nightmare thought. Mad minds, unhinged by the -approach of world's end, cunningly spreading doubt of the oncoming -catastrophe, so that millions would doubt, and would stay--and would -atone. - - * * * * * - -Bliss said, "The damn fools, to believe such stuff! Well, if they get -caught on Earth, it'll be the craziest, most ignorant and backward part -of the population that we'll lose." - -Fairlie said wearily, "Our job is not to lose anybody, to get them all -off no matter who or what they are." - -Then he said to Wales, with a faint smile, "Sorry if we seem to be -griping too much. I expect your job on Mars hasn't been easy either. -Things are pretty tough there, aren't they?" - -"They're bound to be tough," said Wales. "All those hundreds of -millions, and more still coming in. But we'll make out. We've got to." - -"Anyway, that's not my worry," Fairlie said. "My headache is to get -these stubborn, ignorant fools who don't want to go, off the Earth." - -Wales thought swiftly. He said, after a time, "You're right, Kendrick -is the key. I came here to find him and I've got to do it." - -Fairlie said, "I hope to God you can. But I'm not optimistic. We looked -everywhere. He's not at Westpenn Observatory." - -"Lee and Martha and I grew up together in that western Pennsylvania -town," Wales said. "Castletown." - -"I know, we combed the whole place. Nothing." - -"Nevertheless, I'll start there," said Wales. - -Fairlie told him, "That's all evacuated territory, you know. Closed out -and empty, officially. Which means--dangerous." - -Wales looked at him. "In that case, I'll want something else to wear -than this uniform. Also I'll want a car--and weapons." - -It was late afternoon by the time Wales got the car clear of the -metropolitan area, out of the congested evacuation traffic. And it was -soft spring dusk by the time he crossed the Delaware at Stroudsburg and -climbed westward through the Poconos. - -The roads, the towns, were empty. Here and there in villages he saw -gutted stores, smashed doors and windows--but no people. - -As the darkness came, from behind him still echoed the boom-boom of -thunder, ever and again repeated, of the endless ships of the Marslift -riding their columns of flame up into the sky. - -By the last afterglow, well beyond Stroudsburg, he looked back and -thought he saw another car top a ridge and sink, swiftly down into the -shadow behind him. - -Wales felt a queer thrill. Was he being followed? If so, by whom? By -casual looters, or by some who meant to thwart his mission? By the -society of the Atonement? - -He drove on, looking back frequently, and once again he thought he -glimpsed a black moving bulk, without lights, far back on the highway. - -He saw only one man that night, on a bridge at Berwick. The man leaned -on the rail, and there was a bottle in his hand, and he was very drunk. - -He turned a wild white face to Wales' headlights, and shook the bottle, -and shouted hoarsely. Only the words, "--Kendrick's World--" were -distinguishable. - -Sick at heart, Wales went by him and drove on. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - -All that night, his car rolled across an unlighted, empty world. Wary -of the great thruways, he followed the lesser roads. And every village, -every town, every hillside or valley farm, was dark and silent. All -this area that included Pennsylvania had been evacuated two years ago, -and the people of these houses were now living the new life in the -sprawling new cities on another planet. - -Twice Wales stopped his car and cut the motor and lights, and waited, -listening. Once he was sure that he heard a distant humming from far -back along the highway, but it fell silent, and though he waited with -gun in hand, no one came. So each time he drove on, but he could not -rid himself of the conviction that someone followed him secretly. - -With morning, his spirits lifted a little. He was only an hour's drive -from the old Pennsylvania-Ohio line where the town of Castletown was. -And there, if anywhere, he must find the trail to Lee and Martha -Kendrick. - -Kendrick, to the world, had become identified with the asteroid that -was plunging ever nearer in its fateful orbit. It had, from the first, -been called Kendrick's World. Kendrick, if anyone could, might convince -those who had begun to doubt Doomsday. If Kendrick could be found.... - -Wales drove down a winding hillside road into the town of Butler, ten -minutes later--and ran smack into a barricade. - -The moment he saw the cars drawn up to block the highway, he tried to -swing around fast. But he wasn't quick enough. - -A voice said, "Kill the motor and get out." - -Men had come out of the bushes that, in two years, had grown up close -to the highway. They were unshaven men, wearing dirty jeans, with -rifles in their hands. There were two on one side of the highway, and -an older man on the other. - -Wales looked at their dusty faces. Then he cut the motor and got out of -the car. - -They took his weapons, and the older man said, "You can put your hands -down now. And come along with us." - -"Where?" - -"You'll see." - -One man remained, searching Wales' car. The other two, their rifles on -the ready, walked beside Wales down the long winding hill highway into -the old town. - -"I thought all these towns were evacuated," said Wales. - -"They were, a long time ago," said the older man. - -"But you men--" - -"We're not from here. Now anything more you want to know, you ask Sam -Lanterman. He'll have some things to ask _you_." - -The main street of the town looked to Wales vaguely like a gypsy camp. -Dusty cars were parked double along it, and there was a surprising -number of men and women and kids about. The men all carried rifles or -wore belted pistols. The children were pawing around in already-looted -stores, and most of the women looked with a blank, tired stare at Wales -and his guard. - -They took him into the stone courthouse. In the courtroom, dimly -lighted and smelling of dust and old oak, four men were seated around -what had once been a press-table. One of Wales' captors spoke to the -man at the head of the table. - -"Got a prisoner, Sam," he said importantly. "This fellow. He was -driving from the east." - -"From the east, was he?" said Lanterman. "Well, now, he might just have -come from the south and swung around town, mightn't he?" - -He looked keenly at Wales. He was a gangling man of forty with a red -face and slightly bulging blue eyes that had a certain fierceness -in them. The others at the table were two heavy men who looked like -farmers, and a small, dark, vicious-looking young man. - -"You didn't," said Lanterman, "just happen to come from Pittsburgh, did -you?" They all seemed to watch him with a certain tenseness, at this. - -Wales shook his head. "I came from the east, all the way across state." - -"And where were you heading?" - - * * * * * - -Wales didn't like the implications of that "were". He said, "To -Castletown. I'm looking for my girl. It's where she used to live." - -"People in Castletown been gone two years," Lanterman said promptly. -"To Mars--the damn fools!" And he suddenly laughed uproariously. - -More and more worried, Wales said, "She wrote me she wasn't going to -leave till I came." - -"You're not one of those Evacuation Officials, are you?" Lanterman -asked shrewdly. - -"A lot more likely he comes from Pittsburgh," said the dark young man. - -Wales, sensing an increasing suspicion and danger, thought his safest -bet was honest indignation. He said loudly, - -"Look, I don't know what right you have to stop me when I'm trying to -reach my girl! I'm not an Evac official and I don't know what all this -talk about Pittsburgh means. Who made you the law around here?" - -"Son," said Lanterman softly, "there isn't any law any more. The law -left here when all the people left--all except a few who wouldn't be -stampeded off Earth by a lot of moonshiny science nonsense." - -Wales said, as though himself dubious, "Then you don't think there's -really going to be Doomsday, like they say?" - -"Do _you_ think so?" - -Wales pretended perplexity. "I don't know. All the big people, the -Government people and all, have told us over and over on the teevee, -about how Kendrick's World will hit the Earth--" - -"Kendrick's so-and-so," said one of the farmer-looking men, disgustedly. - -"I thought," said Wales, "that I'd see if my girl was going to leave, -before I decided." - -He wondered if he weren't laying on the stupid yokel a little too -thick. But he had realized his danger from the first. - -All the bands of non-evacuees who remained in closed-out territory, -making their own law, were dangerous. He'd found that out in Morristown -only last night. And Lanterman and his men seemed especially -suspicious, for some reason. - -"Look," said Lanterman, and then asked, "What's your name, anyway?" - -"Jay Wilson," said Wales. His name _had_ been in the news, and he'd -better take no chances. - -"Well, look now, Wilson," said Lanterman, "you don't always want to -believe what people tell you. Me, I'm from West Virginia. Had a farm -there. On the TV it told us how this Kendrick had found out Earth was -going to be destroyed, how, everyone would have to go to Mars. My woman -said, 'Sam, we'll have to go.' I said, 'Don't you get in a panic. -People have always been predicting the end of the world. We'll wait a -while and see.' Lot of our neighbors packed up and went off. People -came to tell us we'd better get going too. I told them, I don't panic -easy, I'm waiting a while." - -Lanterman laughed. "Good thing I did. More'n a year went by, and the -world didn't end. And then it turned out that this here Kendrick that -started the whole stampede--_he_ hadn't left Earth. Not him! Got all -the fools flying out to Mars on his say-so, but wasn't fool enough -to go himself. Fact is, people say he's hiding out so the Evacuation -officials can't make him go. Well, if Kendrick himself won't go, that -predicted it all, why should _we_ go?" - -And that, Wales thought despairingly, was the very crux of the problem. -Where was Lee Kendrick anyway? He must know that his remaining on Earth -was being fatally misinterpreted by people like these. - -Lanterman added, with a certain complacency, "All the fools went, and -left their houses, cars, cities. Left 'em to those of us who wasn't -fools! That's why we gathered together. Figured we might as well pick -up what they'd left. We got near a hundred men together, I said, -'Boys, let's quit picking over these empty villages and take a real -rich town. Let's go up to Pittsburgh.'" - -One of the farmer-men said gloomily, "Only this Bauder had the idea -first. _His_ bunch took over Pittsburgh, as we found out." - -Lanterman's eyes flashed. "But they're not going to keep it! Since we -first tried it, we've got a lot more men. One or two joining us every -few days. We'll show Bauder's outfit something this time!" - -Of a sudden, the strangeness of the scene struck at Wales. A few years -before, this quiet old country courthouse had been the center of a -busy, populous town, of a county, a nation, a world. - -Now world and nation were drained of most of their people. An Earth -almost de-populated lay quiet, awaiting the coming of the destruction -from space. Yet men who did not believe in that destruction, men in -little bands, were, with the passing of all law, contending for the -possession of the great evacuated cities. - -Lanterman stood up. "Well, what about it, Wilson? You want to join up -with us and take Pittsburgh away from Bauder? Man, the loot there'll -be--liquor, cars, food, everything!" - - * * * * * - -Wales knew he had no real choice, that even though it was a maddening -interruption to his search for Kendrick, he must pretend to accede. But -he thought it best not to agree too readily. - -"About Pittsburgh, I don't care," he said. "It's Castletown I want to -get to--and my girl." - -"Ho," said Lanterman, "I'll tell you what. You join up with us and I'll -give you Castletown, all for your own. Of course, I'll still be boss of -the whole region." - -Wales made another attempt for information. "I've heard of this -Brotherhood of Atonement," he said. "Are you with that outfit?" - -Lanterman swore. "That bunch is _crazy_. No sense to 'em at all. Hell, -no, we're not Atoners." - -Wales said, slowly, "Well, looks like if I and my girl decide to stay, -we'd better be in your bunch. Sure, I'll join." - -Lanterman clapped him on the back. "You'll never regret it, Wilson. -I've got some big ideas. Those that stick with me will get more'n their -share of everything. Pittsburgh is only the start." - -He added impressively, "You're joining at a lucky time. For tonight's -when we're taking Pittsburgh." - -The young, dark man snarled, "If he's a spy, then letting him know that -will--" - -"You're too suspicious, Harry," said Lanterman. "He's no spy. He's -come." - -He looked down at the dark young man. "All right, Harry, you take your -bunch along now. And you remember not to start things till you hear our -signal." - -Ten cars, with thirty-odd men in them, pulled out of the main street in -the twilight. Harry was in the first car, and they headed south out of -town. - -Lanterman then told the others, "Rest of us better get going too, all -except those that are staying to guard the women and kids. You stick -along with me, Wilson." - -Motors roared, all along the street. Lanterman climbed grandly into a -long black limousine, and Wales followed him. - -The car was full of men and gun-barrels when its driver, a leathery -young chap who was chewing tobacco, pulled out along the street. The -other cars, nearly a score of them, followed them. But they headed -southeastward. - -"We're going pretty far east," Wales protested. "Pittsburgh's south." - -Lanterman chuckled. "Don't you worry, Wilson. You'll get to Pittsburgh, -before the night's over." - -For an hour the caravan of cars, without lights, rolled along silent -roads and through dark villages. - -They came to a halt in a little town that Wales couldn't recognize. -But when he saw wooden piers, and the broad, glinting blackness of a -river, he realized it must be one of the smaller towns a bit upriver -from Pittsburgh on the Allegheny. - -There were a dozen big skiffs tied to the piers, and a quartet of -armed men guarding them. There were no lights, and the darkness was a -confusion of shadowy men and of unfamiliar voices. - -"Get your damned gun-butt out of my ribs, will you?" - - * * * * * - -Wales realized that the whole party was embarking in the boats. He -followed Lanterman into one of them. Lanterman said, - -"Now I don't want one bit of noise from any of you. Get going." - -The boats were cast off and forged out into the dark, wide river. In -the moonless night, the shore was only a deeper bulk of blackness. -Lanterman's boat, leading, swung across to the southern shore, and then -kept close to it as they went silently downstream. - -Occasional creak of oars, the voices of frogs along the bank--these -were the only sounds. The deep summery, rotten smell of the river -brought a powerful nostalgia to Wales. - -Impossible to think that all this must soon end! - -The darkness remained absolute as they went on downriver. They had -entered what was once the busiest industrial region of the world, but -it was desolate and black and silent now. - -Wales ventured to whisper, "Why this way, instead of using the bridges?" - -Lanterman snorted. "They _expect_ us to use the bridges. Wait, and -you'll see." A moment later he called. "No more rowing. Drift. And no -noise!" - -They drifted silently along the bank. A huge span loomed up vaguely -over them. Wales thought it would be the old Chestnut Street Bridge. - -He was startled when, beside him, Lanterman hooted. It was a reasonably -good imitation of a screech-owl, twice repeated. - -A moment later, from the northern, farthest end of the big bridge, -rifle-shots shattered the silence. There was a sudden confusion of -firing and shouting there. - -Lanterman chuckled. "Harry's right on time. He'll make enough row to -bring the whole bunch there." - -Presently there was a sound of motors. Cars without lights, many of -them, were racing along the riverside highway from downtown Pittsburgh. -They rushed over the bridge, toward the distant uproar of shooting. - -"That decoyed them out," Lanterman said. He gave orders, quick and -fierce. "Allerman, you and Jim take your boats in here. Block the -bridges, so they can't get back in a hurry." - -Two skiffloads of men darted toward the dim shore. And the rest, with -Lanterman's skiff leading, moved under oars down along the riverside. - -Now Wales glimpsed lights--a few dim, scattered gleams. With a shock, -he saw big, black towers against the stars, and realized they were the -skyscrapers of downtown Pittsburgh. - -Their skiffs shot in, bumped and stopped. The men piled out, onto a -cobbled levee that slanted up from the river. - -Lanterman's voice rang out. "We've got 'em cold, with most of their -men chasing Harry across the river! Come on! But remember--don't shoot -anyone unless they show fight! Most of 'em'll join us, later." - -The dark figures of the men, gun-barrels glinting in the starlight, -went up the levee in a stumbling rush. Somewhere ahead, a voice yelled -in alarm. - -Wales, behind Lanterman, felt more than ever caught in a nightmare. -These men, ignorant in their unbelief, battling for an empty city upon -a world toward which doom was coming--it seemed a terrible dream from -which he could not wake. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - -They ran forward and were suddenly in a narrow street of tall, old -business buildings. It was a gut of darkness in which the men stumbled -and jostled each other, and now they heard an alarm-siren ahead. - -Wales had no desire at all to become embroiled in this senseless -struggle for an empty city. But with Lanterman just ahead, and men -all around, he dared not try to slip away. Some of them were surely -watching him. - -They debouched into a broader street. A few blocks away along this -wider avenue, a searchlight suddenly went into action, lighting up shop -windows and building-fronts for a quarter-mile, and half-dazzling the -dark, running figures of Lanterman's men. Instantly shots burst forth -from beyond the searchlight. Bullets whined and whanged off stone-work, -and there was the silvery crash of shattered plate-glass. - -"Get back in here!" Lanterman yelled, and his men sucked back into the -dark shelter of the narrower way. - -One of them was holding his shoulder, and sobbing, "Damn them, they -hit me--" - -Wales, pressing close against a stone facade, looked out into the eery -brilliance ahead and recognized it as Liberty Avenue. He saw, across -it, a shopwindow in which impeccably dressed dummies looked out as -though in wide-eyed amazement at what was going on. - -Lanterman paid no attention to the wounded man. "They're up in that big -hotel near the Post Office," he said quickly. "Can't be many men left -here--but we got to get to them fast, before the others hear and start -back." - -He told one of the farmer-men, - -"You, Milton--take a dozen men and get around to the back of that -hotel. Rest of us will take it from the front." - -Wales thought that however ignorant he might be in some ways, Lanterman -was a born leader. No wonder that people who had been bewildered and -lost in doubts followed the red-faced man. - -Two men with Venn guns hurried into a building at the corner of -Liberty. A minute later, from a third-floor window, they suddenly let -go. The searchlight went out. - -"Come on!" yelled Lanterman. They poured out into the wide avenue and -raced along it, keeping on the sidewalks on either side. - -There was, suddenly, a burst of firing from ahead, that sounded -muffled and distant. Then silence. They were nearly to the big hotel. - -"Hold it, Sam!" came Milton's yell from the dark building. "It's all -done." - -Flashlights began to come on, like fireflies waking. There was a sound -of women screeching from inside the hotel. Men came out of it, their -hands high. - -One was a burly, shock-haired man who cursed Lanterman when he saw him. -"Shot two of my men, you--" - -"Now quiet down, Bauder," said Lanterman. In the angling flashlight -illumination, his face was sweating and exultant. "No call for any -more fighting here. Wouldn't have been any, if you hadn't been so -big-feelinged when we first came. Pittsburgh's big enough for all of -us--long as you know I'm boss." - -He turned to his men. "Half of you get back over to those bridges--tell -'em we've got Bauder and we've got Pittsburgh. They'll give up. Take -them, Milton." - -Whooping with triumph, the men started after Milton, into one of the -dark side streets leading toward the river. - -Wales started along with them. He half expected Lanterman to call him -back, but the leader was too occupied with his moment of victory to -remember the suspicions of hours before. - -It was, Wales knew, the best chance he'd be likely to get to escape -from this band. He let himself drop behind the rest of Milton's men as -they ran down Ninth Street. Then, passing the mouth of an alley, he -dodged into it and ran alone in darkness, cutting south to Sixth. - -Wales stretched his legs toward the levee. The bridges were impassable -to him, and the skiffs were his only chance. He made sure of oars in -one of them, then pushed it out onto the dark river. - -From northward, from the bridges, came the sound of firing. But as -Wales rowed, the shots straggled into silence. - -He guessed that the fighting was over and that Sam Lanterman was master -of Pittsburgh. - -When Wales finally stood on the dark northern shore and looked back, -he saw a scattered twinkling of little lights moving amid the towering -black structures that once had been a city. - -He suddenly found that he was shaking, from reaction and despair. - -"Can anyone--_anything_--save people like that?" - -To Wales, it suddenly all seemed hopeless--the mission on which -he'd come back to Earth. Hopeless, to think that the ignorant, the -short-sighted, the fearful, could ever be induced to leave Earth in -time. - - * * * * * - -He looked up at the star-decked sky. Out there in the void, the -massive asteroid that spelled world's end was swinging ever forward on -the orbit that in four months would end in planetary collision. You -couldn't see it, though. And that was the trouble. People like these, -influenced by someone's secret propaganda, wouldn't believe it until -Kendrick's World loomed dreadful in the heavens. And then it would be -too late.... - -Wales turned and started up the street from the river. He'd been given -a mission and he had to carry it out. Not only for the sake of all -those ignorant ones who might be trapped on a doomed world, but also -for the sake of his friends. Something had happened to Lee and Martha -Kendrick, and he had to find them. - -He went through the Northside district until, beyond the old -Planetarium, he found a big garage. There were plenty of cars in it. In -ten minutes, Wales was driving north. - -He kept his lights off, and his speed down. He looked back often. No -one followed him now. - -"Whoever _was_ trailing me," he thought, "will be a while discovering -that I'm not still with Lanterman." - -Again, he wondered who the secret trailers were. They hadn't tried to -overtake him. They had just followed him. Was it someone who _also_ -wanted to find Kendrick? And for what reason? - -He thought of the Brotherhood of Atonement that was still only a name -to him, and felt a chill. - -It was fifty miles to Castletown, and he dared not drive too fast -without lights lest he run suddenly upon a block in the road. But after -a while the moon rose and Wales was able to push the car a little -faster. - -The countryside dreamed in the moonlight. It was only in towns that the -awful emptiness of the world crushed you down. Out here between fields -and hills, things were as they had always been, and it did indeed seem -mad folly for men to quit their planet. It was small wonder that some -of them refused to do so. - -Everything you saw, Wales thought, wrung your heart with a feeling of -futility. That little white house with the picket fence that he swept -past so swiftly--someone had labored hard to build that fence, to plant -the flowers, to coddle a green lawn into being. And it had all been for -nothing, the little houses, the mighty cities, all the care and toil -and planning of centuries for nothing.... - -He would not let himself get into that frame of mind. It had not been -for nothing. Out of it all, man had won for himself the knowledge that -was now saving him. The cities that now seemed so futile had built -the rocket-fleets that for years had been taking the millions out to -Mars. They had built the atomic power-plants, the great electronic -food-and-water synthesizers, that would make life on Mars possible for -all Earth's folk. No, man's past was not a failure, but a success. - -Of a sudden, Wales' brooding was shattered as he drove into the town of -Brighton Falls. - -There was no town. - -He pulled up, startled. In the moonlight, a blackened devastation -stretched around him, a few ruined walls still standing, the rest a -shapeless mass of blackened debris. - -Wales, after a moment, got over his first shock. "Lightning could -easily start a fire," he thought. "And with nobody to put it out--" - -It seemed logical enough. Yet he still felt shocked as he drove hastily -on out of the blackened ruins. - -As the moon rose, he drove faster. Castletown was very near. He would -soon know if he had come all this way for nothing. - -In this old town, Wales had grown up with Lee and Martha Kendrick. -In Westpenn College here, they'd been classmates. Lee, making -astronomy his career, had stayed here at the small but famous Westpenn -Observatory, to make finally the astronomical discovery of approaching -Doomsday. And, Wales knew, Martha had stayed with him, keeping the old -Kendrick house for him. - -He knew too that the Kendricks had stayed on here, even after the whole -region was evacuated. And then they'd disappeared. - -Fairlie had said that his men had searched here and hadn't found them. -But Wales clung to the conviction that his quest of them must begin -here. - - CASTLETOWN - A Good Place to Live - - * * * * * - -The sign at the edge of town, unintentionally ironic now, went past -him. It had been a long way from here, Wales thought, to the Rocket -Service school out west, a long way farther to Mars, and yet here he -was, after all these years, back again. - -His own boyhood home was here but there was no reason at all to visit -it. He was glad there was no reason, he was glad now that his parents -had died before Doomsday came. - -He turned off the highway. The campus of Westpenn College was on the -hills east of Castletown. The buildings were dark and silent. On the -loftiest eminence, the dome of the Observatory shouldered the stars. -There was no light there, either. - -Wales drove past the campus to the big, square, old-fashioned Kendrick -house. It was dark and quiet as everything else. He stopped his car, -made sure of the pistol in his jacket pocket, and ascended the steps. - -He felt, after all these years, like a ghost coming back to a dead -town, to a dead world. Impatient of fancies, he pushed at the front -door and it swung quietly inward. - -Wales flashed his light around the hall inside. Then he began going -through the rooms. - -Over an hour later he was back in the front hall, disappointed and -baffled. He had found no one in the house, and no evidence that either -Lee or Martha had been here recently. - -As he stood, anxious and frustrated, Wales suddenly noticed a smear of -red on the inner side of the white-painted front door. - -He flashed his light on it. Two words were written in lipstick on the -door, in a feminine hand. "The Castle." Nothing more. - -Wales' thoughts leaped. He pulled open the door and went out to his car -fast. In a moment he was driving on downtown, his hopes suddenly high. - -"The Castle." That was what, when they were all kids, they had called -the old hilltop mansion of an ancient great-aunt of the Kendricks'. -They had given it that name because of its 1900-ish wooden tower with a -crenellated top, that had fascinated them. - -Of a sudden, checking his elation, there came to Wales the sure -knowledge that Martha had been _afraid_, when she wrote that direction. - -Afraid to leave a more definite clue, than that one that only a few -people could possibly understand. - -"But she didn't leave that for me--" Wales thought, puzzledly. "As far -as they knew, I was still on Mars. But then, for whom?" - -He began to worry more deeply than before. He had found a clue to the -Kendricks, a clue that Fairlie's agents had been unable to understand, -but the careful obscurity of it made their disappearance suddenly more -sinister. - -Wales drove fast through the familiar old hometown streets. He noticed, -as he swung around the Diamond, that one store had a brave sign -chalked on its window, "Closed for Doomsday". - -He swung right, up North Jefferson Street, then on up the steep hill -that was the highest point of Castletown. He was wire-tense with hope -when he parked in front of the old wooden monstrosity of a mansion. - -Everything was dark here, too. His hopes fell a little as he went up -the tree-lined walk. Still, people would be careful about showing -light-- - -Something exploded in the back of Wales' head, and his face hit the -ground hard. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - -Wales regained a foggy consciousness, to become aware that someone -close to him was sobbing. - -He felt that he had to get up. There was something he must do. He had -very little time, the end of Earth was rushing upon him, and there was -someone he must find. He _must_ move, get up.... - -"Jay," said a voice somewhere. "It's me. _Me!_ Martha." - -Wales got his eyes open, and saw a dark figure bending over him, and he -threshed his arms numbly, trying to push it away, trying to get up, to -fight. - -"Jay!" - -A flashlight beam suddenly sprang into being right above him, almost -dazzling him. Then, his vision clearing, he saw that the beam was not -on his face but on the face that bent above him. - -A girl's face, quite familiar, framed by dark, hair, but with tears -running down it. Martha Kendrick's face. - -The beam went out and the darkness was upon them again. - -Wales found he was lying on damp grass, one hand resting on a concrete -walk. He saw trees and a big house with a crenellated wooden tower, -against the stars. - -"Martha," he muttered. "So you were here. But there's someone -else--someone slugged me--" - -Her voice came uncertainly. "That was me, Jay. I--I might have killed -you--" - -He didn't understand at all. But, as his brain began to clear a little, -he became aware of a pounding headache. - -He sat up. Martha had her arm around his shoulders, but she seemed more -to cling to him than to support him. She was sobbing again. - -"How could I _know_?" she was saying. "I didn't even know you were on -Earth. When your car came, when you came up the walk in the dark, I -knew it wasn't Lee. Not tall enough. I thought it was one of them. I -didn't dare shoot, so I used the gun to hit you--" - -He gripped her arm. "Martha, where is Lee?" - -"Jay, I don't know. I've been waiting for him here, hoping he'd come. -I've been nearly crazy, by myself. And afraid--" - -Wales perceived that she was near hysteria. And her fear communicated -to him. - -He got unsteadily to his feet. "We'd better go inside. Where we can -talk, and have a light, without anyone seeing it." - -His head felt big as a pumpkin, but he navigated the steps of the old -mansion successfully. In the dark interior of the house, he heard -Martha lock and chain the door. Then her hand gripped his wrist. - -"This way. I have one room blacked out--the kitchen." - -He let her lead him through the darkness, heard her close another door. -Then her flashlight came on again, illuminating the barny old kitchen. - -He looked at her. He had remembered Martha Kendrick as a small, dark -girl, something of a spitfire. There was no chip on her shoulder now. -She looked near collapse, her face dead white, her hands trembling. - -She insisted on putting cold wet cloths on his head. Holding them -there, feeling at the same time painful and a little ridiculous in -appearance, Wales made her sit down with him at the kitchen table. The -flashlight, lying on the table, threw angular shadows against the walls. - -"How long have you been hiding here, Martha?" - -"Five weeks. It seems like five years." Her lips began to quiver. "It's -been like a terrible dream. This old house, the town, everything you -knew all your life, deserted and strange. The little sounds you hear at -night, the glow in the sky from the burnings--" - -"But _why_ have you hidden here? Why didn't you--and Lee too--report to -New York for evacuation to Mars, like everyone else?" - -Martha Kendrick seemed to get a little control of herself. She spoke -earnestly. - -"When Castletown, like the rest of this whole region, was evacuated two -years ago, Lee wanted to stay on a while. He was working each night -over at the Observatory, keeping a constant watch on Nereus. I think -he kept hoping that he'd discover some change in its orbit, some hope. -But--he found nothing. He'd been right. It would hit Earth." - -"But why did _you_ stay, too?" Wales demanded. Martha looked at him in -surprise. - -"Somebody had to take care of Lee. I wasn't going to Mars until he -went. It was lonesome, after everybody left Castletown. Lee said we'd -soon go, ourselves. But then--he changed. He began to seem terribly -worried about something, terribly afraid." - -"We've all been afraid," Wales said somberly, but she shook her head. - -"It wasn't the crash, it wasn't Doomsday, Lee was afraid of. It was -something else. He said he feared all Earth's people weren't going to -get away. He said there were men who didn't _want_ everyone to get -away, men who wanted to see a lot of people trapped here when Doomsday -comes!" - - * * * * * - -Wales was electrified out of his headachy grogginess by her statement. -He grasped her wrist. "Martha, Lee said that? Who did he say they -were--those who wanted to trap millions into staying here?" - -Again she shook her head. "He didn't say who they were. He said he -wasn't sure, it was only a suspicion. But it worried him. He went -to New York once to see John Fairlie about--the regional Evacuation -Marshal." - -Wales thought hard. "Yes. Fairlie told me _he_ suspected some -deliberate, secret effort going on to induce millions of people to -stay on Earth till it was too late. Either Fairlie got that idea from -Lee, or Lee got it from him--" He broke off, then asked, "Did Lee ever -talk about the Brotherhood of Atonement?" - -Martha nodded. "Oh, yes, quite often. We've been afraid of them, ever -since everyone else left Castletown." - -Again, Wales was astonished. "What do you know about that Brotherhood, -Martha?" - -She seemed surprised by his excitement. "Why, Jay, they're fanatics, a -superstitious movement that started long before evacuation was carried -out here. People whose minds became unhinged by the coming of Doomsday. -They preached, down in the Diamond, I heard them, terrible ravings that -Doomsday was sent us for our sins, that only sacrifice and atonement of -lives and treasures would save the world. Then, when evacuation went -on, here, all the Brotherhood hid in the country so they wouldn't have -to go." - -"And they're here now?" he exclaimed. - -Martha shuddered. "Not _here_. It's the one thing I've feared most -these last weeks, that they'd burn Castletown." - -"Burn Castletown? Good God--why?" - -Martha looked at him. "Jay, they're burning the empty cities, one by -one. A sacrifice. An atonement. I'm afraid Sharon was burned two nights -ago--the glow in the sky seemed to come from there. And I've seen other -fire-glows in the south--" - -Wales, with a sudden cold feeling, remembered the blackened desolation -of Brighton Falls. Then it had been no accident? Then it had been -deliberate, a purposeful thing, a sacrifice-- - -He suddenly saw Earth as it was. A nearly-empty planet reeling toward -crazy anarchy. In New York, where there was still law and order and -you could see the rocket-fleets of the Marslift coming and going -methodically in the sky, it had still seemed like a civilized world. -But out here in the black, blind evacuated regions was deepening chaos, -with law gone and all the most atavistic passions of humanity let -loose. With the ignorant and mad who refused to leave battling for the -possession of deserted cities, or setting the torch to unpeopled towns -in superstitious sacrifice.... - -He asked Martha, "Did Lee think that the Brotherhood of Atonement was -behind the plot to trap people into staying on Earth?" - -That seemed to startle her. "He didn't say so. But could they be the -ones? Mad people like that--?" - -"It would take a fanatic to perpetrate a horror like getting people -trapped in Doomsday," Wales said. "But let it pass, for the moment. I -want to know what _happened_ to Lee." - -Her dark eyes filled with tears again. "I can't tell you. It was like -this. Each night, Lee went to the Observatory. I stayed in our home but -I had a portable radiophone and he had one, always open, so I could -call him if I needed him. But, one night five weeks ago, he called -_me_. He was shouting, hoarse. He said, 'Martha, men breaking in--I -think they know I suspect their plan--you get out of the house, quick! -If I get away, I'll find you--'" - -Her face was white and haunted, as she went on. "Jay, I didn't know -what to do! I had to hide but I had to leave some word for Lee so, -if he got back, he'd know where to find me. That's why I wrote "The -Castle" on the door. Nobody but he would know I meant this old house. I -ran out and was only a few blocks away when I heard cars, at our house, -and men calling. I kept in the back streets, in the dark, and got here. -I--I've been waiting here since then. Weeks. Eternities. And--Lee -hasn't come. Do you think they killed him?" - -Wales gave her an honest answer. "Martha, I don't know. We'll hope they -didn't. We'll try to find him. And the first question is, Who took him? -Who are 'they'?" - -She spoke more slowly. "I've had time to think. Lots of it. When Lee -said, 'I think they know I suspect their plan--' Was he referring -to his suspicion that there was a terrible plot to keep many people -trapped on Earth till Doomsday? Did they realize Lee suspected them, -and seize him?" - -Wales' fist clenched slowly. "It's the only possible answer. Lee -somehow suspected who was behind the secret propaganda that's been -swaying people to remain on Earth. They grabbed him, to prevent him -from telling." - -He added, suddenly, "And it would serve their purpose another way! It -would enable them to point out that Lee Kendrick hadn't left Earth--so -that Kendrick's World must be a hoax!" - -An expression of pain crossed Martha's white face. "Jay, don't call it -that." - -"What?" - -"Kendrick's World. It's not fair. Lee discovered its new orbit, he gave -the whole Earth a lifesaving warning. It's not fair to give his name to -the thing that's bringing Doomsday." - - * * * * * - -He reached out and clasped her hand. "Sorry, Martha. You're right. But -we still have that question to answer. Who are 'they'--the 'they' who -took Lee? Are they the Brotherhood of Atonement? Or somebody else? Who -else would have any motive?" - -His head suddenly swayed drunkenly, and he brushed his hand across his -eyes. Martha uttered a little cry of distress. - -"Jay, you're still not over it--the blow I gave you. Here, let me make -fresh compresses." - -He held her back. "No, Martha, it's not that. I'm just out, dead tired. -Since I reached Earth on this mission, I've had it--and only a few -hours sleep in my car, last night." - -She took his wrist. "Then you're going to sleep right now. I'll -keep watch. This way--I have to put the light out when we leave the -kitchen--" - -Wales, following her through the dark house, felt that he was three -parts asleep by the time he reached the bedroom to which she led him. -His head still ached, and the headache and the exhaustion came up over -him like a drowning wave. - -When he woke, afternoon sunlight was slanting into the dusty bedroom. -He turned, and discovered that Martha sat in a chair beside the bed, -her hands folded, looking at him. - -She said, "I wasn't sleepy. And it's been so long since I've had -anyone--" - -She stopped, faintly embarrassed. Wales sat up, and reached and kissed -her. She clung to him, for a moment. - -Then she drew back. "Just propinquity," she said. "You would never even -look at me, in the old days." - -Wales grinned. "But now you're the last girl in town." - -Martha's face changed and she suddenly said, with a little rush of -words, "Oh, Jay, do you sometimes get the feeling that it just _can't_ -happen, no matter what Lee and all the other scientists say, no matter -what their instruments say, that everything we've known all our lives -just can't end in flame and shock from the sky--?" - -He nodded soberly. "I've had that feeling. We've all had it, had to -fight against it. It's that feeling, in the ignorant, that'll keep them -here on Earth until it's too late--unless we convince them in time." - -"What'll it really be like for us, on Mars?" she asked him. "I don't -mean all the cheery government talks about the splendid new life we'll -all have there. I mean, _really_." - -"Hard," he said. "It's going to be a hard life, for us all. The -mineral resources there are limitless. Out of them, with our new -sciences of synthesis, we can make air, water, food. But only certain -areas are really habitable. Our new cities out there are already badly -crowded--and more millions still pouring in." - -He still held her hand, as he said, "But we'll make out. And Earth -won't be completely destroyed, remember. Someday years from now--we'll -be coming back." - -"But it won't be the same, it'll never be the same," she whispered. - -He had no answer for that. - -Packaged food made them a meal, in the kitchen. It was nearly sunset, -by the time they finished. - -Martha asked him then, with desperate eagerness, "We're going to try to -find Lee now?" - -Wales said, "I've been thinking. We'll get nowhere by just searching -blindly. Fairlie's agents did that, and found no trace of Lee at all. I -think there's only one way to find him." - -"What?" - -"Since I left New York on this mission, I was followed," Wales told -her. He described the shadowy, unseen trailers who had tracked him -until he fell into the hands of Lanterman's men. "Now, my mission to -find Lee could well have been known. Only reason anyone would follow -me is to make sure I _didn't_ find him. So those who tracked me must be -some of the 'they' who took Lee. The Brotherhood of Atonement, it seems -sure." - -He paused, then went on. "So my shadows must know what happened to Lee, -where he is. If I could catch one of them, make him talk--" - -"We could find out what they've done with Lee!" Martha exclaimed. Then -her excitement checked. "But you said they must have lost your trail, -at Pittsburgh." - -He nodded. "Sure. But what would they do, when they made sure I wasn't -with Lanterman's band in Pittsburgh, that I'd slipped away? Knowing -that I was headed for Castletown in the first place, they'll come -_here_ to look for me. And I'll be waiting for them." - -A little pallor came into Martha's face. "What are you going to do, -Jay?" - -"I'm going to set up a little ambush for them, right down in the center -of town," he said grimly. "You'll be quite safe here, until--" - - * * * * * - -She interrupted passionately. "No. I'm going with you." He started to -argue, and then he saw the desperation in her eyes. "Jay, you don't -know what it's been like to be so alone. I'm not letting you go -without me." - -He said, after a moment, "Maybe you're right. But we'd better get -started. Do you have a gun?" - -She produced an ancient revolver. "I found this, in the house next -door. I wanted something--I was so afraid the Brotherhood would come -here--" - -Wales nodded. "We'll get you something better than that. Now listen, -Martha. You must keep silent, you must do what I say. There's no one at -all to help us, if things go wrong." - -She nodded. He opened the back door and they went out of the old house, -and across its ragged back yard to the alley. - -Wales, his gun in his hand, led the way down the alley. Where it -crossed Grant Street, he stopped, stuck his head out and peered both -ways. The street of old houses was still and dead. The maples along it -drowsed in the dying sunlight. A little breeze whispered, and was quiet -again. - -Wales and Martha darted across the street fast, into the shelter of -the alley again. As they went down it, hugging the backs of buildings, -heading toward the Diamond, Wales had again that fantastic feeling of -unreality. - -He remembered every foot of these blocks. How many times, carrying a -newspaper route as a boy, he had short-cutted along this alley. And -how would a boy dream that he would come back to it someday, when the -familiar town lay silent and empty before approaching world's end? - -They reached the Diamond, an oval of grass with benches and a Civil -War monument and with the three-story storefronts all around it, their -dusty windows looking down like blind eyes. "KEEP RIGHT" said a big -sign at each end of the Diamond, but nothing moved along the wide -street, nothing at all. - -Wales peered from a doorway, then took Martha's wrist and hurried -across. Dutton's Hardware, with its windows still full of -fishing-tackle displays, was on the other side. But when he tried the -door, it was locked. - -He could smash the plate-glass of the door but that would be to -advertise his presence inside. He hurried, tense and sweating now, -around to the alley in back of the store. The back door by the little -loading platform was locked too, but he broke a window with his -gun-butt. - -The shattering of the glass sounded in the silent town like an -avalanche. Wales swore under his breath, waited, listened. - -There was no sound. He got the window open, and drew Martha in after -him into the dim interior of the store. - -"Why here?" she whispered, now. - -"Anyone who comes searching Castletown for me is bound to come to the -Diamond sooner or later," he told her. "It's our best place to watch." - -He had another reason. He went forward through the obscurity of the -store, through sheaves of axe-handles and rural mail-boxes in piles, -with the hardware-store smell of oil and leather and paint strong in -his nostrils. - -He found a gun-rack. All rifles and pistols were gone but there were -still a row of shotguns, the barrels gleaming in the dimness like -organ-pipes. In the worn, deep wooden drawers beneath, he found shells. - -"I seem to remember you used to go after pheasant with Lee," he said. - -Martha nodded, and took one of the pumpguns. - -"Just don't use it, until I tell you," he said. - -They went on, toward the front of the store. Then they sat down, and -through the show-windows they could look out on the Diamond. - -The sun sank lower. The man on the monument cast a longer and longer -shadow across empty benches where once old men of Castletown had -gossiped. - -Nothing happened. - -Wales, waiting, thought how outraged crusty Mr. Dutton would have been -by what they'd done. It had been like him to carefully lock up the -store, front and back, before he left it forever. - -He looked across the Diamond, at the Busy Bee Cafe, at the Electric -Shoe Repair Shop, at the old brick YWCA. - -Twilight deepened. Martha moved a little, beside him. He hoped she -wasn't losing her nerve. - -Then he realized she had been nudging him. She whispered, "Jay." - -At the same moment he heard a thrumming sound. Even here inside the -store, it seemed unnaturally loud in the silent town. He crouched lower. - -A long green car came down the street and swung around the Diamond, and -then with squealing brakes it came to a stop. - -The hunters had come to Castletown. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - -Three men got out of the car and stood there in the dusk, at the south -side of the Diamond. - -They wore windbreakers and slacks. One of them was short and pudgy, the -other two were average-looking men. All of them carried Venn guns. - -They talked, briefly. One of the average men seemed to be the leader, -Wales thought, from the way he gesticulated and spoke. - -"What are they going to do?" whispered Martha. - -"Look for me," Wales said. "A hundred to one they've left a man at the -Observatory, and at your home--in case I come there. And these three -are going to search downtown for me." - -The three separated. One walked east along Washington Street. The -other one got back into the car and drove off on North Jefferson. The -remaining man--the dark-haired pudgy one, started going around the -Diamond, keeping close to the fronts of the stores, ready to dart into -cover at any moment. - -An idea came to Wales, and he acted upon it at once. He crept to the -front door of the hardware store, unlocked it, and silently opened it a -few inches. - -He came back, rummaged frantically in the dimness of the shelves till -he found a spool of wire. Then he told Martha, - -"Come on, now--get down behind this counter. And stay there." - -"Jay, he's coming this way!" she protested. "He'll see the door ajar--" - -He interrupted. "Yes. I want him to. Do as I say." - -Her face white in the dusk, she got down behind the counter, back in -the middle of the store. - -Wales crept swiftly to the front of the store, whipped behind the -counter there, and crouched down. - -Now, with the door ajar, he could hear the pudgy man coming along the -sidewalk. Then he saw him, his heavy, doughy face turning alertly from -side to side as he came along. - -The man stopped and the tommy-gun in his hands came up fast. He had -seen the hardware-store door was a little open. - -With the gun held high, the pudgy man came slowly to the door. His foot -kicked it wide open. He peered into the dimness of the store, poised on -his feet like a dancer, ready to turn instantly. - -Wales' fingers closed on a little carton of hinges, under the counter. -He suddenly hurled the little box toward the other side of the store. -It struck a display of tinware with a tremendous clatter. - -The pudgy man whirled toward that direction, in a flash. - -With a movement as swift, Wales darted out in the same moment and -jammed his pistol into the pudgy man's back. - -"Let go of that gun," Wales said, "or I'll blow your spine out!" - -He saw the pudgy man stiffen and arch his back, in a convulsive -movement. Wales' finger tightened on the trigger. But, before he pulled -it, the tommy-gun clattered to the floor. - -"Martha," said Wales. - -She came, fast, her face white and scared in the dusk. - -"Take this wire and tie his wrists behind him," Wales said. "Don't get -in front of my gun." - -With shaking fingers, she did as he ordered. "Now shut the front door." - -Wales turned the pudgy man around. "Now sit down, on the floor. First -sound you make above a whisper, you're dead." - -The pudgy man spoke, in a high falsetto whisper. "You're dead, right -now. Whatever happens to me, _you_ won't get out of Castletown." - -"Don't worry about us," Wales advised. "Worry about yourself. Where's -Lee Kendrick?" - -The pudgy man looked at him calmly. "I don't know what you're talking -about." - -Martha whispered, with astounding fierceness, "Make him tell, Jay." - - * * * * * - -Wales first searched their prisoner. He found no papers on him at all, -nothing but clips for the gun. Pudgy seemed quite unperturbed. - -"All right, where's Kendrick?" Wales said again. - -Pudgy said, "You talking about the Kendrick that discovered Doomsday -coming? _The_ Kendrick? How should I know?" - -"Who are you working for?" Wales persisted. "Who took Kendrick, who -sent you to follow me here from New York? The Brotherhood?" - -Pudgy looked at him in blank surprise. "Huh?" - -"The Brotherhood of Atonement," Wales said. "You're one of them, aren't -you? They've got Kendrick, haven't they? Where?" - -Pudgy's face split in the beginnings of a guffaw. Wales raised his -pistol quickly, and the man choked off the laugh. But his sides shook. - -"Me one of that Brotherhood? You're funny. You're really funny, Wales." - -"So you know me," Wales snapped. "You know all about me, you came -trailing me when I started to hunt for Kendrick. Who sent you?" - -A queer gleam came into the eyes of Pudgy, but he remained silent. - -Something in that look made Wales whirl around. Their prisoner sat -facing the store-front. - -Out there in the dusk, one of the two other men had come back into the -Diamond. - -"Martha," whispered Wales. - -"Yes?" - -"Take your shotgun. If he tries to open his mouth, bring it down on his -head." - -Promptly, she picked up the shotgun and stood with it raised. Pudgy -looked up at her, and winced. - -Wales crept back to the front of the store and looked out. The other -man out there seemed worried, holding his Venn gun high and looking -slowly all around the Diamond. That he was worried by Pudgy's absence, -Wales knew. - -The man out there got into cover behind the pedestal of the monument, -and waited. Waiting, obviously, for the man with the car to come back. - -Minutes passed. The twilight was deepening into the soft May darkness. -Suddenly Martha whispered. - -"Jay!" - -He swung around. Her face was a queer white blur in the darkness. -"What?" - -"I hear singing," she said. "Someone is singing, a way off." - -"Just the wind in the wires," he said. "There's no one in the whole -town but us--and them. You keep your eye on that fellow, I think we're -due for trouble soon." - -He waited again. From outside, he could hear the sound of the wind -rising and falling. Then a strange conviction crept over him. - -It was not the wind. It was the rise and fall of distant voices, many -of them. Now the breeze brought it through the night a little louder, -now it ebbed back to a murmur. Carefully, Wales opened the door a crack -to listen. - -He exclaimed, "It's from up on North Hill, but what in the world--" - -He suddenly crouched lower again, his pistol raised. Down the hill -along North Jefferson came the long green car, racing fast. - -It swung around the Diamond. The man in it leaned out and called. -The man behind the monument ran out to meet him, talking fast and -gesticulating. - -But the driver of the car pointed northward and shouted. Wales could -not see his face but he could hear the raw tone of his voice, and -caught the one final word, "--coming!" - -The other man leaped into the car, after a last look around the empty -Diamond. The car shot away down Washington, heading east. - -"Why, they've gone, run away!" Martha exclaimed. "They left their -partner here and--" - -Wales held up his hand. "Listen!" - -As the roar of the receding car died away, the sound of singing came -again--and this time it was louder, much louder, and there was a steady -throb of drums beneath it. - -It rolled down from the north and he thought now he could hear the -words of a chorus, endlessly repeated. - -"_Halle-lu-jah! Halle-lu-jah_--" - -Lights suddenly sprang into being up there on the crest of North -Jefferson Street hill. They were not steady lights, they were moving, -tossing and shaking, and there were dozens, scores of them. They were -torches. - -A long, thick snake of burning torches came down the wide street -into the dark and lifeless town. Wales could see no people, only the -torches, scores of them, hundreds of them. But he could hear the loud -chanting of the people who carried those lighted brands. - -"_Halle-lu-jah_--" - -Crash-crash-boom, thundered drums from the forefront of the river of -torches, and Wales felt a wild quickening of their beat and of the -chanting voices, that checked his breathing. - -Martha uttered a low cry. "Jay, it's the Brotherhood coming! The -fanatics coming _here_ now, to--" - -The hair bristled on Wales' neck. She did not need to finish the -horrified exclamation. The nightmare shape of the looming event was -only too clear. - -From town to town the Brotherhood of Atonement marched, those weak, -crazed minds unhinged by the coming of Doomsday. Brighton Falls -they had burned, and Sharon, and God knows how many other deserted -towns. And now it was the turn of Castletown to be a sacrifice and an -atonement.... - -He wanted to turn and flee from that mad, oncoming parade. But he did -not. He crouched, watching, and he felt Martha, beside him, shivering. - -"Jay, if they have Lee--he might be with them!" - -"That's what I'm hoping for," he whispered. - - * * * * * - -Now the torches were coming down into the Diamond, and now he could -see the people who carried them. They started around the oval, and the -tossing of the red burning brands was flashed back from the windows all -around, that shone like big eyes watching in amazement. - -First, ahead of the torches, marched a half-dozen men and women with -drums, beating a heavy, absolutely unvarying rhythm. After them came -the main mass. He thought there might be two to three hundred of them. - -Men, women, children. Torn and dusty clothes, unkempt hair, unshaven -faces, but eyes glittering with a wild, rapt emotion, voices shouting -the endless chorus of - - The Brotherhood of Atonement.... - - Halle-LU-jah! - -These crazed fanatics were gripped by no religious passion. The -religious folk of the world had seen God's hand in the saving of -Earth's peoples by man's newly-won knowledge. But these shouting -marchers had gone back to dark barbarism, to pagan propitiation of a -threatening fate, back beyond all civilization. - -Boom-boom crashed the drums, right in front of the Dutton store, as the -van of the mad parade swept past, following a tightening path around -the oval, making room for more and more of the torch-bearers here in -the center of the old town. And presently they were all in the Diamond, -a packed mass of wild faces and shaken torches, all turned toward the -center where the monument stood. - -A man with a white face and burning eyes leaped up onto the pedestal of -the monument, and the drums banged louder and a great cry went up from -the Brotherhood. He began to speak, his voice shrill and high. - -"Jay, do you see Lee? I don't--" - -"No," Wales said. "He's not with them." - -From out there, across the waving torches, came the screeching voice. -"--burn the places of sin, and the powers of night and space will see -the shining signs of our Atonement, and withhold their wrath--" - -Martha said, "Oh, Jay, they're going to burn Castletown. Can't we stop -them, somehow--" - -He took her by the shoulders. She had had too much, but he could have -no hysteria now. - -"Martha, we can't stop them, they'd tear us to shreds! And what -_difference_ does it make now? Don't you realize--in four months this -town and all towns will be destroyed anyway!" - -Their prisoner, back in the darkness, suddenly raised his voice. Wales -leaped back, pressed his pistol against the pudgy man's body. - -"You call out and you get it now!" Wales warned savagely. - -Pudgy looked up at him, and said hoarsely, "Are you crazy? Those -maniacs aren't friends of mine! They're going to burn this whole town -like they burned others--we got to get out of here!" - -The frantic fear in the man's voice was utterly sincere. And to Wales, -crouching beside the captive, came a shattering enlightenment. - -He said, "Then you and your pals aren't working for the Brotherhood? -Then it wasn't the Brotherhood that took Lee Kendrick, after all?" - -"They're maniacs!" said Pudgy, again. "For Christ's sake, Wales, are -you going to let them burn us alive?" - -Wales stooped, grabbed the man by the throat. "It's not the Brotherhood -who took Kendrick, then. All right--who was it? Who wants to see -millions of people trapped on Earth? Who sent you after me? _Who?_" - -Pudgy's voice turned raw and raging. "Get me out of here, and I'll tell -you. But if we stay here, we're goners." - -"You'll tell me right now!" - -Pudgy remained sullenly silent. Then, of a sudden, the single high -screeching voice out in the diamond ended, on a frenzied note. - -_Boom-boom_, crashed out the drums again. The Brotherhood roared, as -with the single voice of a mighty beast. The men with torches began to -mill, to split off from the main mass, to run into the four main cross -streets, shaking their firebrands and shouting. - -One yelling woman applied her torch to the faded canvas awning in front -of the Electric Shoe Repair Parlor. The canvas blazed up, and the -drums rolled again. - -"Jay!" cried Martha. - -Wales forced Pudgy to his feet, faced him toward the front windows, and -the torch-blazing chaos out beyond them. - -"Martha and I are going, out the back way," Wales said. "We're leaving -_you_ here tied and helpless--unless you tell!" - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - -A throbbing, lurid light beat in through the front windows of the -store, as the flames across the Diamond swept up the fronts of old -buildings. The hoarse hallelujah-chorus of the Brotherhood, the -quickened booming of the drums, was louder. And the fiery light -illumined the bloodless, distorted face of their prisoner as he stared -up at Wales and Martha. - -Wales still felt the shock of terrible surprise. He had been so _sure_ -that only the mad Brotherhood could possibly be behind the plot to -seize Kendrick, the ghastly scheme to keep millions of people on Earth -until Doomsday crashed down upon them. Who else but madmen would do -such a thing? Who else would have any motive? - -He didn't know. But their pudgy prisoner knew. And, even at the risk of -trapping Martha and himself in the holocaust of Castletown, he meant -to find out. - -"Please," panted Pudgy. "We haven't got a chance if we stay here -longer. I've seen these maniacs and their Atonements. They won't leave -a building standing here!" - -Wales looked at Martha's white face. "All right, Martha, we'll get -going. We'll leave this fellow here." He started to turn away. - -"No, it's murder!" screamed Pudgy. "You can't leave me here, my hands -tied--" - -"Then tell," Wales pressed. "Who seized Kendrick? Who's behind all -this?" - -Beads of sweat stood out on Pudgy's dough-white face. His eyes rolled -horribly, and then he said hoarsely, - -"Fairlie. John Fairlie. And others--" - -"Fairlie? The regional Evacuation Marshal? What about him?" Wales -demanded. - -"He--and friends of his, other Evacuation officials--they're the ones," -Pudgy said. "They've got Lee Kendrick. They're the ones that want a lot -of people left on Earth." - -Furious, Wales took their prisoner by his fat throat and shook him. -"All right, you had your chance," he raged. "And you tell us a brazen -lie like that. By God, we _are_ leaving you--" - -Pudgy's voice rose almost to a scream. "It's the truth! You made me -tell you, now I've done it, and you won't believe me! There's a bunch -of them in it, I don't know how many. I know that besides Fairlie, -there's a couple of assistant Evacuation Marshals in other countries -and some minor officials and some others I don't know. I've seen them, -up near New York. It's where they've got Lee Kendrick. They'd kill me -for telling, and now I've told and you won't believe--" - -Martha said uncertainly, "Oh, Jay, maybe he is telling the truth--maybe -that's where Lee is!" - -Wales exclaimed, "Don't you see what a lie it is? John Fairlie is one -of the men charged with evacuating all the people off Earth--why would -he and other Evacuation officials want to trick millions into staying -here?" - -"Because they don't want them on Mars, because they think they're scum -and ought to be left on Earth!" Pudgy cried. "I heard them talk, didn't -I? Talk about how hard it's going to be for years on Mars with too many -people there, already. And about how it'd be better for everyone if a -lot of ignorant crumb-bums and their families weren't taken to Mars to -be a load on everyone else. Didn't I hear them--" - -Wales' rage at their prisoner receded, swept away by an icy tide of -terrible doubt that despite himself was rising now in his mind. - - * * * * * - -He remembered things, now. He remembered Fairlie's grim face as he'd -spoken broodingly of how hard a life it would be on Mars, with every -one of Earth's millions there. He remembered the bitterly contemptuous -way in which Fairlie--and Bliss and Chaumez and Holst--had spoken of -the looters, the ignorant resisters, the crazy folk, whom it would be -difficult to evacuate from Earth. - -"Only fanatics would want to trap millions on Earth--" He, Wales, had -said that. He'd been thinking then of the Brotherhood. But suppose -there were other and more terrible fanatics? Fanatics who ruthlessly -decided that the more backward and ignorant of Earth's millions would -only be a burden in the hard years ahead, on Mars--and who secretly -planned to trick those millions into staying until it was too late? - -Such things had been planned and done before, by egotistical, -self-appointed guardians of the public interest! And if--_if_ this was -the truth, it explained why he, Wales, had been followed, it explained -why Fairlie had made him suspect the Brotherhood, it explained many -things-- - -_Halle-lu-jah!_ roared the chorus of howling voices, out in the -streets. And the ruddy, throbbing light increased in intensity suddenly. - -"Jay!" cried Martha, in tones of horror. He whirled around. - -The front of the hardware store was on fire, with flames writhing -around the edges of the windows, outside. - -"You've got us killed!" sobbed Pudgy. - -Wales, his thoughts now a chaos, realized that he dared delay no -longer. He picked up the Venn gun, and then yanked their prisoner to -his feet. - -"Come on, Martha," he said. "Out that back window." - -Pudgy stumbled awkwardly, his hands still bound behind him. They -hurried back through the old store, with the firelight beating brighter -from behind them, and got through the window into the alley. - -To their left flames shot skyward with a roar from the Penn Hotel, -showers of sparks sailing into the darkness. A glance told Wales that -the Brotherhood had fires going along whole blocks of Mercer and South -Jefferson Streets. - -"This way," he cried, starting down the alley that ran southward -between the streets. He had Pudgy by the shoulder, but there was no -need to make their terrified prisoner hurry. - -Wales put everything from his mind, but the necessity of escape from -the holocaust of this latest flaming Atonement. And the new suspicion -in his mind was so shocking that he didn't want to think of it until he -had to. - -He knew the alleys and streets of Castletown, even in darkness. And -they had light to guide them--more and more light throbbing up into the -night sky behind them. - -He cut across Mill Street, and on up southeastward to a residential -street of cottages. Here, he gave Martha his pistol and had her stand -guard over Pudgy while he himself looked for a car. - -He found one, in the garage attached to the first cottage. He had to -break through the house itself to enter the garage. The rooms were just -as someone had left them, the furniture, the rugs, all the things they -could not take with them in Evacuation, still in place. - -Again, Wales felt a pang. Someone had toiled and planned for this -little house and the things in it. And now it would not even endure -until the common Doomsday--it would perish in the senseless flames. - -He drove out into the street, and pushed Pudgy into the back seat. -Taking no chances, he tied their prisoner's ankles too. Then, with -Martha beside him, Wales drove fast up the steep streets southeast. - -"Jay--look!" she cried, when they reached a crest. She was looking -back. He stopped the car, and looked back with her. - -The whole downtown section of Castletown blazed high toward the stars. -The wind whirled sparks away in burning clouds, and a great pall of -smoke lay toward them. - -Southward from the center of town moved a river of torches. And from -those streets, only now just kindling, above the crackle of flames came -the distant boom of the Brotherhood drums, and their rising and falling -chant. - -Martha was crying. He put his arm around her, and turned her away from -the sight. - -"It doesn't mean anything, Martha. It would have only lasted the few -months till Doomsday, anyway." - -Yet he could understand her emotion. It had been a long time since he -had lived in Castletown. But he wished his last look at the old town -had not been like this. - -He turned toward Pudgy. "Now you can talk. Let's have it." - -Pudgy said sullenly, "I've already talked too much. You didn't believe -me, anyway." - -Wales' face hardened. He said, "All right. The flames will reach this -residential section in an hour. We'll leave you here." - -It was enough. Their prisoner's doughy face seemed to fall apart a -little. - -"All right!" he cried. "But what's the use telling you when you just -say I'm lying?" - -"Nevertheless, give it to me from the first," Wales ordered. - -Pudgy said, "Look, this whole scheme to keep the crummy no-goods here -on Earth--that wasn't _my_ idea. Five years ago, when they were first -organizing Operation Doomsday, I got a job in the Evacuation Police. -I did all right. Pretty soon I was a sergeant. Then--I began to hear -things about the Evacuation from one of the other sergeants." - -The man paused, then went on. "Eugene--that was my friend in the -Police--told me that Fairlie and some other Evacuation officials needed -some men for special secret police work. Said the work was so important -and so secret nobody must know about it. I said okay, I'd like to be -one of these special secret Evacuation Police. So they took me in. And -Fairlie himself talked to me and a couple of others." - - * * * * * - -Wales, watching Pudgy narrowly, saw him mop the sweat off his -brow. "Fairlie told us, that they weren't going to be able to get -_everybody_ off Earth before Doomsday. He said it was impossible, there -was bound to be millions would get left. He told us that he and some of -the other officials in key places in the Evacuation had decided that -since they were going to have to leave people, it'd be better to leave -a lot of crummy hillbillies and share croppers and ignorant trash. He -said they'd only make things tougher for everyone on Mars, anyway. It -was better, Fairlie said, to weed them out and leave them here." - -An icy feeling of terrible conviction began to grow in Wales, despite -all his attempts to repel it. - -He'd heard just that kind of talk, before. Not openly, but in sly -whispers and hints. People who felt sure of escaping from Earth -themselves had expressed aristocratic regret that _all_ Earth's people -must be saved, that they must be burdened on the new world by the -"backward." - -No one had quite dared to advocate such ideas publicly. But there were -those who secretly held them. And those who did, very well might have -secretly decided to see that the "useless, backward" ones _didn't_ -escape Earth. Fairlie--and others like him--could be among them-- - -"Fairlie told us," Pudgy went on, "that they wouldn't prevent anyone -leaving that wanted to leave. But, he said, lots of the dumber ones -wouldn't want to leave if things were managed right, and that would -solve the whole problem." - -Martha interrupted. "But my brother--what of him? You said they had -Lee?" - -Pudgy nodded. "I was coming to that. Fairlie called some of us in real -worried one night and told us we had to go to Castletown and grab Lee -Kendrick. He said they'd been sounding Kendrick out about helping along -the scheme, and that Kendrick wouldn't play ball." - -"You mean," Wales said quickly, "that Fairlie and his group wanted -Kendrick to _help_ them trap the 'backward ones' here on Earth?" - -Pudgy's head bobbed. "Near as I got it, that was it. Kendrick could -make a statement kind of throwing doubt on whether Doomsday would -happen--and the boobs would decide to stay. But I guess when Fairlie -sounded him out a little, Kendrick was horrified at the idea, and -Fairlie had to cover up fast and say he didn't mean it." - -Martha clutched Wales' arm. "Jay, _that's_ why Lee was so terribly -worried, so anxious--that's why he wouldn't leave Earth! He was afraid -such a scheme was really being planned!" - -Wales could imagine that. He knew Lee Kendrick, and he knew that even a -breath of suspicion of a plan so ruthless and terrible would have had a -shattering effect on him. - -"So," Pudgy finished, "before Kendrick could get too suspicious and -start talking, we went to Castletown and grabbed him, and took him to -New York. And his disappearance was nearly as good as his statement -would have been--the boobs all figured Kendrick hadn't left Earth, so -they would not." - -"But he's alive?" Martha cried. "They haven't killed him." - -Pudgy shrugged. "Not so far. Fairlie still wants him to make that -statement, so all the scum will feel sure it's safe and will stay on -Earth till too late." - -Wales suddenly felt a revulsion from all that he had heard, from the -shocking nightmare quality of it. - -"It's not true, it _can't_ be true!" he exclaimed. "Martha, this man -had to tell some story to save his skin, and that's all he's done!" - -Her face was white in the distant firelight. "Jay, people have done -things like that, terrible as it is. They _have_ killed millions, in -the past, for just such reasons." - -He knew that, too, and it was a knowledge he fought against--struggling -against a cold conviction that he could not quite down. - -"If Lee is still alive, Lee could tell us!" she was saying. "If we -could reach him, rescue him--" - -Wales turned back to the sullen-faced Pudgy. "You said that Fairlie and -the others were holding Kendrick near New York. Just where?" - -"Where he's right handy and near, yet where nobody can walk in on him," -said Pudgy. "Bedloe's Island, in New York harbor. You know, the old -Statue of Liberty island." - -Wales thought, his mind a turmoil. Now the flames were marching up the -hillside streets toward them, and now the sound of drums and distant -chanting came from away southward. - -The Brotherhood were leaving Castletown, on their way to make some -other lifeless city a fiery sign of their atonement. - -"I still," said Wales, "can't believe it. But we'll prove it, one way -or another. We'll go back to New York, and see if Lee is really on that -island." - -"You haven't got a prayer!" said Pudgy, his voice rising into a high -whine. "They've got him guarded there." - -"And you," Wales said, "can tell us just where the guards are and how -best to pass them. Yes, you're going with us." - -He ignored the man's frantic objections, and started the car. He headed -eastward, to skirt the flaming city at a safe distance. - -The danger ahead, the hunters who would still be seeking him, Wales -ignored. What was there anywhere but danger, on an Earth rocking toward -Doomsday? - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - -Thunder rolled and bellowed across the night sky, mounting to a -deafening crescendo. Up into the starry heavens rose a great black -bulk, climbing starward on a column of fading fire. And hardly had -its echoes ebbed than the dull explosions came again, and another -rocket-ship took off in the unending Marslift. - -Crouching with Martha in the darkness of an old pier, with the -murmuring black vagueness of the Upper Harbor in front of them, Wales -looked over his shoulder at the fiery finger that pointed out to man's -new home in the sky. He turned back to Martha, as she whispered to him. -She was staring out over the dark water. - -"I don't see any lights, Jay. Not one." - -"They wouldn't show lights," he said. "They'd not advertise the fact -that they're there." - -"_If_ they're there," she said. "If Lee's there." - -He took her roughly by the shoulders. "Martha, don't lose your nerve -now. Think what depends on this." - -He jerked his head in the direction of the distant New Jersey -Spaceport, as still another Mars-bound ship rode up in majestic thunder -and flame. - -"There should be twice as many ships, twice as many evacuees, going out -now as there are! All the people who doubt, who hold back, who refuse -to go--Lee is the key to saving them." - -"But if we only had _help_, Jay! The authorities--" - -Wales said, "Fairlie, as regional Evacuation Marshal, _is_ the top -local authority here now. And don't you see--if that story is true, -Fairlie is the last man we dare let know we're here." - -He took her hand. "Come on. We've still got to find a skiff of some -kind." - -They started along the dark waterfront. They were, Wales figured, -somewhere in the southern Jersey City docks. Out in the dark harbor lay -Bedloe's Island, and it was past midnight and there was little time. - -He and Martha, with their prisoner, had come across Pennsylvania by -unused, deserted back roads during the day. The circuitous route had -taken time, and a few hours of sleep snatched in a thicket off the road -had taken more time. But Wales had not dared to risk being seen. - -If Pudgy's story was true, Fairlie was the enemy. Fairlie was the -man who had sent hunters after him. And it would be so easy for -the Evacuation Marshal, with his regional authority, to have Wales -proclaimed an outlaw on some phony charge, and set every Evacuation -Police post around New York looking for him. - -They dared seek aid of no one. If Kendrick was a prisoner on the little -island, they must attempt the rescue themselves. And that would not be -easy, judging from what Pudgy had said. - -Wales had driven into an alley in deserted Jersey City, and had dragged -their bound prisoner into an empty store. - -"Now," said Wales, "we're going to leave you here." - -"Tied hand and foot?" cried Pudgy. "Why not kill me and get it over -with? This town is closed out, I could yell all day and nobody would -hear me. I'll starve! No one will ever come--" - -"_We'll_ come, and free you," Wales said. "After we've got Kendrick -off that island. But of course, if we fail, if they get us, then we'll -never be back. I want you to think about that." - -Pudgy had thought about it, and it was clear that he did not like that -thought at all. When it had sunk in, Wales said, - -"Now you tell us all you know about the set-up on that island. How many -guards, where they usually are, how they're armed, where Kendrick is -kept. Everything. If you brief us well enough, we _may_ succeed--and -then we'll be back for you." - -Pudgy had got the point. He had talked long and rapidly, feverishly -giving Wales every scrap of information he possessed. - -They had left him there, and had come by foot to the waterfront, and -now if they had a boat, the island was only a little way ahead. - -But there was no boat, not a canoe even, along these dark docks. Wales -led the way farther along the waterfront. He dared not flash a light, -and they might search all night amid these dark piers without success. - - * * * * * - -He was beginning to despair, when they came to a small boatyard. He -found a skiff by stumbling over it in the dark. There were no oars, -but he soon forced the door of the dark office-shack and found those. - -"Now before we start, Martha--" He was fitting the oars into locks that -he'd made as silent as possible by rag mufflings. "--when we reach the -island, I want you to stay on the shore and wait." - -"I'm not afraid--" she began, but Wales cut her short. - -"Listen, it's not that. I'll be in the dark there. If I have to shoot, -I want to be sure I'm not shooting you by mistake." - -He pushed out onto the water, and bent to the oars, rowing steadily. -The tide was running, and he had to allow for that, but there was only -a little choppiness on the Upper Harbor. - -Wales thought again how unreal everything on Earth seemed by now. And -this scene most of all! This harbor had once been the busiest in the -world, and by night the lights of shipping, of docks, of bridges, had -flared everywhere, with the electric glow of Manhattan blazing over -everything. - -And now there was silence and darkness on the waters. All the millions -who had lived around these shores had left Earth long ago, and their -cities were dark and still. Only the downtown tip of Manhattan still -showed patterns of lighted windows, where the ceaseless activities of -Operation Doomsday centered. - -Wales rowed on, and then rested his oars a moment and turned and peered -ahead in the darkness. He saw a lofty shadow now against the stars, and -knew that it was the great Statue. He lifted the oars again, rowing now -with infinite care to make no sound. - -_Brr-rumble--oom--oom--oom--_ - -Up into the sky westward rose another of the mighty Marslift -rocket-ships, and then in quick succession, two more. - -The flare of them in the heavens sent a wild, shaking light over the -waters, over the little skiff. - -"Get down!" Wales whispered frantically, and he and Martha crouched low -in the little craft. - -The _oom--oom--oom_ faded away in muttering echoes. Wales could but -pray that they had not been seen from the island ahead, and row on. - -He hoped desperately that there would be no more rocket-ships taking -off, no more flares in the sky, until he reached the island. It seemed -to him that he rowed eternally, and got nowhere. - -Then, in the darkness, Martha whispered warning. The skiff bumped land. -Wales made out a low bank rising above them. He picked up the Venn gun -and climbed ashore. - -He whispered, "Stay in the skiff, Martha. You can push off if I fail." -And added quickly, "Don't you see, if I do fail, you'll be the last -hope left." - -He gave her no time to argue. He gripped the Venn gun, and started -through the darkness. - -There was no doubt about directions. Huge now against the stars loomed -the Statue. And in it, if Pudgy had told truth, were Lee Kendrick--and -the four of Fairlie's secret police who guarded him. - -Wales crossed the park with his stubby gun held high. The grass was -tall and ragged from long lack of care. And there was not a sound, or a -light, on the little island. - -He circled around to the front of the Statue, and stared up at the -parapet of the mighty pedestal, and the entrance to the giant figure. - -Nothing. No light, no sound of movement. - -Wales felt a chill of dismay. He had not realized how much he had begun -to hope, until now. - -_Brr-rumble--_ - -He heard the first preliminary roar from the west, and immediately he -dropped flat behind a shrub. - - * * * * * - -The full thunderous diapason of take-off broke around him, and the -flaming exclamation point in the heavens blazed brightly. - -And Wales saw a man, with a gun under his arm, standing on the parapet. - -The flare of light died, and the rocket-roar grumbled away. - -But now, as he rose to his feet, Wales felt a wild triumph. The guard -was there, as Pudgy had said, and that meant-- - -He moved forward, and started up the steps. He was more than halfway up -them, moving softly, when he heard a movement above. - -Wales froze. The guard above might not have heard him. But he could -take no chances, with all that depended on him now. - -He crouched waiting on the steps, the Venn gun raised. It seemed to him -that hours went by. - -_Rumble-boom-boom--_ - -As the distant rocket-roar crashed again, as the column of fire -streaked across the sky, by its light Wales saw the man on the parapet -peering down toward him with his gun alertly raised. - -Instantly, Wales shot him. He shot to kill. - -The man dropped. Wales raced on up the steps, hoping that the brief -burst of his Venn gun would not have been heard in the rocket-roar. - -But a door above swung open, and light spilled out from inside the -base of the giant Statue. Two men appeared in the doorway, drawing -pistols. - -"What--" one cried. - -Wales fired, a prolonged burst. He had no intention whatever of taking -extra risks by sparing life. These men, and the men they worked for, -would have taken the lives of millions. There was no mercy in him. - -One of the two in the doorway fell. The other, blood welling from his -shoulder, tried to shift his pistol to his other hand. - -Wales, racing up to them, heard pounding footsteps inside the statue, -and he took no time to shoot again. He clubbed the Venn gun's barrel -down over the head of the wounded man, and sprang over him and the dead -one in the doorway, right into the base of the lofty figure. - -A light burned in here. He ran to the foot of the winding stair that -led upward. Frantic feet running up above him made reverberating -echoes. He glimpsed a pair of legs on the stair-- - -He shot, and the legs crumpled and a man came sliding back down the -stair, screaming and trying to aim his gun. Wales triggered again, and -when the scream of richocheting steel and the echoes of gunfire died -away, there was silence unbroken. - -He started running up the stair. In a minute he heard Martha's voice -calling, from down beneath. - -"Jay!" - -He shouted back down, and ran on, his heart pounding, his lungs pumping. - -He came into the grotesque room of angled steel that was the inside -of the giant head. There was a carefully shaded light here. And a man -huddled on the floor near it, shackled to the wall. - - * * * * * - -Wales turned the light full on him. A bearded face looked at him, with -wild dark eyes--a face he could hardly recognize. - -"Lee?" he said. And then suddenly, he was sure. "Lee Kendrick." - -Kendrick said, hesitantly, "Why it's Jay Wales. But you were on -Mars. How--" And then Kendrick's eyes suddenly flamed and he shouted -hoarsely. "Wales, you don't know what's happened, what they're -planning--" - -"I know," Wales said, stooping by him. "Take it easy. Please--" - -Kendrick clutched him, babbling, pleading. Not until Martha came in, -and stooped beside her brother, crying, could Wales get away. - -He said, "Try to quiet down. There must be a key to these shackles -somewhere." - -He went back down the stair. The man he had shot in the shoulder and -then stunned, was now stirring and groaning. - -Wales made a rough bandage for the bleeding shoulder, and then tied the -man's wrists with his own belt. He thought it would hurt, when the man -came to. He hoped it would. - -He searched pockets until he found keys, and then went back up. -Kendrick seemed to have got control of himself. He talked feverishly as -Wales tried keys. - -"There's still time before Doomsday, isn't there?" he pleaded. "Still -time to get everybody off Earth? It isn't too late?" - -"I think there may be time enough," Wales said. He got the shackles -unlocked, and helped Kendrick to his feet. "But we've still Fairlie to -reckon with." - -Kendrick broke into raging curses, and Wales stopped him sharply. -"Cut it, Lee. I feel exactly the same way about it but we've no time -for hysteria. It'll be tricky trying to get to Fairlie in his own -stronghold, over in New York. Tell me--has he come here often?" - -"He hasn't been here for two weeks," Kendrick said. "He--and Bliss and -the others in it with him--you know what they wanted of me? They wanted -me to issue statements saying that Nereus might not hit Earth after -all. They said they'd leave me here for Doomsday, if I didn't. Damn -them--" - -Again, Wales calmed him down. "Those guards didn't go over to New York -to report to him, did they? Did they use radiophone?" - -Kendrick looked startled. "Why, yes, they did. I've heard them. But I -don't know what secret wavelength they used." - -"Maybe," said Wales tightly, "we can find that out. Martha, you help -him down the stairs. A few steps at a time, till his legs steady." - -He hurried back down again. The wounded man he had tied up had -recovered consciousness. He sat, his face a pallor of pain, and looked -up at Wales with wide, fearful eyes. - -"Yes," said Wales softly. "I'd love to kill you. You're right about -that. But maybe I won't. What's your name?" - -"Mowler." - -"You know how to call Fairlie, on the portable radiophone? Well, you're -going to call him. You're going to tell him just what I say." - -By the time he found the radiophone and brought it, Kendrick was coming -shakily down the last steps with Martha steadying him. - -Wales asked Mowler, "What's the wavelength for Fairlie's private -phone?" - -Mowler, looking up into his face, shivered and told him. He set the -dial. - -Then he told the wounded man what to say. He finished, "Don't do it -wrong." - -Again looking into Wales' face, Mowler said, "I won't." - - * * * * * - -Wales touched the call-button. He held the instrument in front of -Mowler. And presently a voice came from it. - -"Fairlie speaking." - -"Mowler here," said Mowler. "Our guest wants to see you. He says he's -ready to make that statement now--any statement you want." - -"About time," growled Fairlie's voice. "All right, I'll come." - -Wales switched off the instrument and took it away. He went out on the -parapet, and waited in the darkness with the Venn gun in his hands. - -Martha and Kendrick came out, and as another Marslift ship flamed up -across the sky, he saw that her face was white and strained. - -She said, "Don't kill him, Jay." - -He said, without turning, "The Evacuation has been delayed, and there -may not be enough time to make up that delay. We may not get everyone -off Earth in time. And every one of those who are left to face -Doomsday will have been killed by Fairlie and his pals." - -"I know," she said. "But don't, Jay." - -He would make no promise, or answer. He waited. And they heard the purr -of the fast power-boat, less than an hour later. - -Dawn was gray in the eastern sky when Fairlie, and one armed man in -Evacuation Police uniform, came up the steps to the pedestal. - -Wales stepped out, the Venn gun levelled, and Kendrick came out behind -him. - -Fairlie stopped. The Police officer with him made an uncertain sound -and movement. - -"Don't be stupid," Fairlie said. "He's got us cold." - -He came up a few more steps. He looked up at Wales, and there was in -his powerful face an immense disgust. - -"You're proud, aren't you, Wales?" said Fairlie. "You think you've -done something big and gallant. You've saved, or tried to save, a lot -of human lives and that makes you happy." He suddenly raged. "Human -refuse! The weak, the unfit, the no-damned-good, that we've been -saddled with all our lives here on Earth--and now we must take them -with us to drag us all down on Mars." - -"Don't, Jay," whispered Martha, and her voice was a painful sound. - -Fairlie said: - -"Let him. I'd sooner go out now as see all human civilization dragged -down out there by the weight of the useless rabble who would be better -dead." - -Wales said, "You're so sure, just who should live and who should die. -You felt such a big man, making secret decisions like that, didn't you? -Fairlie, who knows what's best for everybody. You and your pals liked -that feeling, didn't you? There have always been characters like you--" - -He paused, and then he said, "We're going over to New York. We're going -to have Kendrick tell his story to all the millions still on Earth, and -it's a story that two of your own men will back up. We're going to try -to get every last soul off Earth before Doomsday. But if we don't--" - -"If you don't?" sneered Fairlie. - -"You'll know it," said Wales, and now he was shaking. "Because you, -Fairlie, will not leave Earth till every last soul is evacuated. If any -human being faces Doomsday here, you'll face it right with him." - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - -Over New York there hung in the sky a new moon, big and red and -terrifying. - -Once it had been a mere track, on an astronomical photo, a figure in a -calculation. Once it had been a threat, but an abstract one. Now it was -real at last. Week by week, it had grown from a spark to a speck to a -little moon, and now Kendrick's World was rushing in fast toward the -fatal rendezvous with its bigger, sister world. - -Wales sat at his desk in the office high in the UN tower, and looked -out the window at the skyscrapers looming strange in the bloody light. -There was a great silence everywhere. The frantic thunder of the -Marslift was stilled at last. The last-but-one rockets had left at -dusk, and now as night advanced it seemed that the whole Earth was -hushed and waiting. - -He felt a weariness that smothered all happiness of success. For they -_had_ succeeded, in these four frantic months. After Lee Kendrick had -told his story to the world, after the plotters who had ruthlessly -condemned millions "for the good of the race" had been exposed and -arrested, those millions of dubious folk had suddenly felt the full -panicky shock of truth, had realized at last that Doomsday was real. - -They had poured into New York, in fear-driven mobs that could hardly be -handled. And Wales, as the hastily appointed new Evacuation Marshal, -had felt in his soul that it was too late, that some would surely be -left. - -He had reckoned without that quality in human beings that draws their -greatest strength out of peril. The Marslift had been speeded up, -speeded up farther, speeded up until rocket-crews fainted of fatigue at -their posts. But it had, at last, been done.... - -The door opened, and Martha came across the office to where Wales sat -hunched and weary with his hands spread out on the empty desk. - -"It's time, Jay," she said. "Lee and the others are waiting." - -He looked slowly up at her. "We got them all off," he said. - -"Yes. We got them all off." - -"About one thing," he said, "Fairlie was right. It'll be hard on Mars -for us, harder because of all those last millions. But I don't think -anyone will ever complain." - -He thought of the people who had streamed through New York, into the -Marslift rockets, these last weeks and days. - -He thought of Sam Lanterman and his people from Pittsburgh, and -Lanterman complaining, "Hell, I got to own a whole city and what -happens--I get scared out of it! Oh well, I guess it won't be so bad -out there." - -Martha touched his shoulder gently. "Come, Jay." - -He got to his feet and walked heavily with her to the lift. - -They went down through the silent, empty building to the empty street. -Empty, except for the car in which Kendrick and the two others waited, -looking up silently at the crimson face of the thing that was coming -fast, fast, toward Earth. - -The car bore them fast through the empty streets, and the lifeless -metropolis fell behind them and they rushed across a countryside -already wearing a strange and ominous new aspect, to the Spaceport. - -The last rocket waited, a silvery tower flashing back the red light -from the sky. They got out of the car and walked toward it. - -Hollenberg had won the honor of being the last rocket-captain to leave -Earth. But he did not look as though he enjoyed that honor now. - -"We're ready," he said. - -Wales asked, "Is Fairlie aboard?" - -Hollenberg nodded grimly. "Aboard, and locked up. He was the last -evacuee taken on, as per orders." - -They stood, looking at each other. It came to Wales what was the -matter. They stood upon Earth, and it was the last time that they might -ever stand upon it. - -He said harshly, "If we're ready, let's go." - -The rocket-ship bore them skyward on wings of flame and thunder, and an -Earth empty of man lay waiting. - - * * * * * - -A million miles out in space, they watched from the observation port. -They could see the planetoid only as a much smaller, dark mass against -the blue, beautiful sphere of Earth. - -"One minute, fifteen seconds," said Kendrick, in a dry, level voice. - -Martha sobbed, and hid her face against Wales' shoulder, and he held -her close. - -"Thirty seconds." - -And all Wales could think of was the cities and their silent streets, -the little houses carefully locked and shuttered, the quiet country -roads and old trees and fields, with the red moon looming over them, -coming down upon them, closer, closer-- - -"She's struck," said Kendrick. And then, "Look--look--" - -Wales saw. The blue sphere of Earth had suddenly changed, white steam -laced with leaping flames enwrapped it, puffing out from it. Giant -winds tore the steam and he glimpsed tortured continents buckling, -cracking, mountains rising-- - -He held Martha close, and watched until he could watch no more, and -turned away. Kendrick, with his telescope set up, was talking rapidly. - -"The continental damage isn't too bad. The seas are all steam now, but -they'll condense again in time. Terrific volcanoes, but they'll not -last too long. In time, it'll cool down--" - -In time, Wales thought. In their time? Maybe not until their children's -time? - -He looked ahead, at the red spark of Mars, the world of refuge. It -would be hard living on Mars, yes, for all the millions of men. But -there were other worlds in space, and they had the knowledge and the -ships. He thought they would go farther than Mars, much farther. He -thought that they could not guess now, how far. - -But someday, they or their children would come back to old Earth again. -Of that, he was very sure. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST CALL FOR DOOMSDAY! *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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M. Tenneshaw. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Last Call for Doomsday!, by S. M. Tenneshaw</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Last Call for Doomsday!</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: S. M. Tenneshaw</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 10, 2021 [eBook #65817]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST CALL FOR DOOMSDAY! ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p>Wales saw men around him become savage<br /> -beasts, shooting, looting, killing in frantic<br /> -hysteria. Men without hope, they awaited the—</p> - -<h1>Last Call For Doomsday!</h1> - -<h2>By S. M. Tenneshaw</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -December 1956<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>A deep shudder shook Jay Wales. He wished now he hadn't had to come -back here to Earth this last time. He wanted to remember the old world -of man as it had been, not as it was now in its dying hour.</p> - -<p>"It seems impossible that it will really happen," said Hollenberg, the -docket captain.</p> - -<p>He wasn't looking at Earth. He was looking beyond it at the glittering -stars.</p> - -<p>Wales looked too. He knew where to look. He saw the faint little spark -of light far across the Solar System.</p> - -<p>A spark, a pinpoint, an insignificant ray upon the optic nerves—that -was all it was.</p> - -<p>That—and the hand of God reaching athwart the universe.</p> - -<p>"It'll happen," said Wales, without turning. "September 27th, 1997. -Four months from now. It'll happen."</p> - -<p>The rocket-ship was suddenly convulsed through all its vast fabric by -the racking roar of brake-jets letting go. Both men exhaled and lay -back in their recoil-chairs. The thundering and quivering soon ceased.</p> - -<p>"People," said Hollenberg, then, "are wondering if it really will. -Happen, I mean."</p> - -<p>For the first time, Wales looked at him sharply. "People where?"</p> - -<p>Hollenberg nodded toward the window. "On Earth. Every run we make, we -hear it. They say—"</p> - -<p>And here it was again, Wales thought, the rumors, the whispers, that -had been coming out to Mars, stronger and more insistent each week.</p> - -<p>There in the crowded new prefab cities on Mars, where hundreds of -millions of Earth-folk were already settling into their new life, with -millions more supposed to arrive each month, the rumors were always the -same.</p> - -<p>"<i>Something's wrong, back on Earth. The Evacuation isn't going right. -The ships aren't on schedule—</i>"</p> - -<p>Wales hadn't worried much about it, at first. He had his own job. -Fitting the arriving millions into a crowded new planet, a new, hard -way of life, was work enough. He was fourth in command at Resettlement -Bureau, and that meant a job that never ended.</p> - -<p>Even when the Secretary called him in to the new UN capital on Mars, -he'd only expected a beef about resettlement progress. He hadn't -expected what he got.</p> - -<p>The Secretary, an ordinarily quiet, relaxed man, had been worn thin and -gray and nervous by a load bigger than any man had ever carried before. -He had wasted no time at all on amenities when Wales was shown in.</p> - -<p>"You knew Kendrick personally?"</p> - -<p>There was no need to use first names. Since five years before, there -was only one Kendrick in the world who mattered.</p> - -<p>"I knew him," Wales had said. "I went to school with both Lee and -Martha Kendrick—his sister."</p> - -<p>"Where is he?"</p> - -<p>Wales had stared. "Back on Earth, at Westpenn Observatory. He said he'd -be along soon."</p> - -<p>The Secretary said, "He's not at the Observatory. He hasn't come to -Mars yet, either. He's disappeared."</p> - -<p>"But, why—"</p> - -<p>"I don't care <i>why</i>, Wales. I want to know <i>where</i>. Kendrick's got to -be found. His disappearance is affecting the Evacuation. That's the -report I get from a dozen different men back on Earth. I message them, -'Why are the rocket-schedules falling behind?' I tell them, 'It's -Doomsday Minus 122, and Evacuation must go faster.' I get the answer -back, 'Kendrick's disappearance responsible—are making every effort to -find him'."</p> - -<p>After a silence the Secretary had added, "You go back to Earth, Wales. -You find Kendrick. You find out what's slowing down Evacuation. We've -<i>got</i> to speed up, man! There's over twelve million people still left -on Earth."</p> - -<p>And here he was, Wales thought, in a rocket-ship speeding back to -Earth on one of the endless runs of the Marslift, and he still didn't -know why Evacuation had slowed, or what Lee Kendrick's disappearance -had to do with it, and he'd have precious little time to find out.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They were sweeping in in a landing-pattern now, and the turquoise had -become a big blue balloon fleeced with white clouds. And Hollenberg was -far too busy with his landing to talk now. The rocket-captain seemed, -indeed, relieved not to be questioned.</p> - -<p>The rush inward, the roar of air outside the hull, the brake-blasts -banging like the triphammers of giants, the shadowed night side of the -old planet swinging up to meet them....</p> - -<p>When he stepped out onto the spaceport tarmac, Wales breathed deep of -the cool night air. Earth air. There was none like it, for men. No -wonder that they missed its tang, out there on Mars. No wonder old -women in the crowded new cities out there still cried when they talked -of Earth.</p> - -<p>He braced back his shoulders, buttoned the tunic of his UN uniform. He -wasn't here to let emotion run away with him. He had a job. He got onto -one of the moving beltways and went across the great spaceport, toward -the high, gleaming cluster of lights that marked the port headquarters.</p> - -<p>Far away across the dark plain loomed the massive black bulks of -rocket-ships. Dozens of them, hundreds of them. And more were coming -in, on rigid landing-schedule. The sky above, again and again, broke -with thunder and the great ships came riding their brake-jets of flame -downward.</p> - -<p>Wales knew, to the last figure, how many times in the last years -ships had risen from this spaceport, and how many times, having each -one carried thousands of people to Mars, they had returned. Tens of -millions had gone out from here. And New Jersey Spaceport was only one -of the many spaceports serving the Evacuation. The mind reeled at the -job that had been done, the vast number who had been taken to that -other world.</p> - -<p>And it was still going on. Under colored lights, Wales saw the long -queue of men, women, children moving toward one of the towering ships -nearby. Signals flashed. Loudspeakers bawled metallically.</p> - -<p>"—to Ship 778! All assigned to Ship 778 this way! Have your -evacuation-papers ready!"</p> - -<p>Wales went by these people, not looking at their faces, not wanting to -see their faces.</p> - -<p>The noise and crowded confusion got worse as he neared the -Administration Building. Near it the buses were unloading, the endless -cargoes of people, people—always people, always those pale faces.</p> - -<p>An armed guard outside Administration's entrance looked at Wales' -uniform and then at his credentials, and passed him through.</p> - -<p>"Port Coordinator's office straight ahead," he said.</p> - -<p>The interior of the building was a confusion of uniformed men, and -women, of clicking tabulating machines, of ringing phones.</p> - -<p>Wales thought that here you felt the real pulse of the Marslift. A -pulse that had quickened now—like the pulse of a dying man.</p> - -<p>Bourreau, the Port Coordinator, was a stocky, bald sweating man, who -had thrown off his uniform jacket and was drinking coffee at his desk -when Wales came in.</p> - -<p>"Sit down," he said. "Heard you were coming. Heard the Secretary was -sending you to burn our tails."</p> - -<p>"Nothing like that," said Wales. "He just wants to know, why the devil -are Evacuation schedules falling behind?"</p> - -<p>Bourreau drained his cup, set it down, and wiped his mouth. "Listen," -he said, "you don't want to talk to me."</p> - -<p>"I don't?"</p> - -<p>"No, I'm the Port Coordinator, that's all. I've passed millions of -people through here. Evacuation Authority sends them in here, from the -marshalling point over in New York. Good people, not-so-good people, -and people that aren't worth saving. But to me, they're all just units. -They reach here, I shoot them out. That's all. The man you want to talk -to is John Fairlie."</p> - -<p>"The regional Evacuation Marshal?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Talk to him, over in New York. I've got a car and driver ready -for you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales stood up. It was obvious that Bourreau had been all ready for -him, and was not going to take a rap for anybody. It was equally -obvious that he'd learn nothing about Kendrick's disappearance from -this man.</p> - -<p>"All right," he said. "I'll see Fairlie first."</p> - -<p>The driver of the car, a UN private, turned off on a side road almost -as soon as they left the spaceport.</p> - -<p>"No use bucking all the buses and trucks on the evacuation thruways," -he said. "We use the old roads when we want to hurry. No traffic on -<i>them</i> now."</p> - -<p>The old roads. The ribbons of concrete and asphalt that once had -carried thousands of cars, day and night. Now they were dark and empty.</p> - -<p>The car went through a village. It too was dark and empty. They swung -on through countryside, without a light in it. And then there was a -bigger village, and its dark windows stared at them like blind eyes.</p> - -<p>"All evacuated," said the driver. "Every village, town, farm, between -here and New York was closed out two-three years ago."</p> - -<p>Wales, sitting hunched by the open window, watching the road unreel, -saw an old farmhouse on the curve ahead. The headlights caught it, -and he saw that all its window-shutters were closed. Someone, some -family, had left that house forever and had carefully shuttered its -windows—against doomsday.</p> - -<p>The poplars and willows and elms went by, and now and again there was a -drifting fragrance of flowers, of blossoming orchids. Old apple-trees, -innocently ignorant of world's end, were preparing to fruit once more.</p> - -<p>Wales felt a sharp, poignant emotion. He asked himself, as a world had -been asking for five years, <i>Why did it have to be?</i></p> - -<p>There was only one answer. Far out in the dark lonesomeness of the -solar system, far beyond man's new Martian colonies, the thousands of -asteroids that swung in incredibly intricate and eccentric orbits—they -were the answer. They had been shuttles, weaving fate's web.</p> - -<p>Kendrick had been the first to see it, to note the one big asteroid -whose next passage near Jupiter would make its eccentricity of orbit -<i>too</i> great. With camera and telescope Kendrick had watched, and with -the great electronic calculators he had plotted that orbit years ahead, -and....</p> - -<p>Wales had often wondered what Lee Kendrick had felt like when the first -knowledge came to him, when the first mathematical formulae of doom -came out on the calculator printing-tape. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, -spelled out in an equation. An electronic computer, passionately -prophesying the end of man's world....</p> - -<p>"<i>In five years, the eccentricity of the asteroid Nereus will bring -it finally across Earth's orbit at a point where it will collide with -Earth. This collision will make our planet uninhabitable.</i>"</p> - -<p>He well remembered the first stupefaction with which the world had -received the announcement, after Kendrick's calculations had been -proved beyond all doubt.</p> - -<p>"<i>No force available to us can destroy or swerve an asteroid so big. -But in five years, we should be able to evacuate all Earth's people to -Mars.</i>"</p> - -<p>Kendrick, Wales thought now, had been able to give Earth the years -of advance warning that meant escape, the years in which the tens of -thousands of great rocket-ships could be built and the Marslift get -under way. If mankind survived, it would be due to Kendrick's warning. -Why should he vanish now?</p> - -<p>Wales suddenly became conscious that his driver was putting on the -brakes. They were in the outskirts of Morristown.</p> - -<p>The streets here were <i>not</i> all dark and dead. He saw the glimmer of -flashlights, the movement of dark figures, and heard calling voices.</p> - -<p>"I thought you said these cities were all closed out?" Wales said.</p> - -<p>The driver nodded. "Yeah. But there's still people around some of them. -Looters." He stopped. "We'd better detour around here."</p> - -<p>"Looters?" Wales was astounded. "You mean, you don't stop them?"</p> - -<p>"Listen," said the driver. "What difference does it make what they -take, when the place is closed out?"</p> - -<p>Wales had forgotten. What difference did it make, indeed? The -nearly-deserted Earth was any man's property now, when inevitable -catastrophe was rushing toward it.</p> - -<p>A thought struck him. These folk couldn't expect to take loot with them -when they were evacuated. So they didn't plan to <i>be</i> evacuated.</p> - -<p>He said, "Wait here. I'm going to have a look at them."</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't," said the driver hastily. "These people—"</p> - -<p>"Just wait," said Wales crisply.</p> - -<p>He walked away from the car, toward the flashlights and the shadows and -the shouting voices.</p> - -<p>The voices had a raw edge of excitement in them, and a few were -thick with alcohol. They were mixed men and women, and a few yelping -youngsters.</p> - -<p>They weren't breaking windows. They simply used crowbars to force -open doors. Many doors weren't even locked. Eager hands passed out a -motley collection of objects, small appliances, liquor bottles, canned -synthefood, clothing.</p> - -<p>No wonder Evacuation was going off schedule, thought Wales! Letting -people play the fool like this—</p> - -<p>A flashlight beam flared beside him, a man's face peered at his -uniform, and a loud voice bellowed close to his ears, "Look, everybody! -It's an Evacuation Officer!"</p> - -<p>There was a dead silence, and then the flashlights converged on him. -Somewhere in the group, a woman screamed.</p> - -<p>"They're after us! They're going to put us on the ships and take us -away!"</p> - -<p>"Kill the bastard, knock him down!" yelled a raging voice.</p> - -<p>Wales, too astounded to defend himself, felt a sudden shower of clumsy -blows that sent him to his knees.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER II</p> - -<p>It was the very number of Wales' attackers that saved him. There were -too many of them, they were too eager to get at him. As he hit the -pavement, they dropped their flashlights and crowded around in the -dark, getting in each other's way, like frantic dogs chivvying a small -animal.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>A foot trampled his shoulder and he rolled away from it. All around him -in the dark were trousered legs, stumbling over him. Voices yelled, -"Where is he?" They yelled, "Bring the lights!"</p> - -<p>The lights, if they came, would mean his death. A mob, even a small mob -like this one, was a mindless animal. Wales, floundering amid the dark -legs, kept his head. He shouted loudly,</p> - -<p>"Here come the Evacuation trucks—here they come! We'd better beat it!"</p> - -<p>He didn't think it would work, but it did. In that noisy, scuffling -darkness, no one could tell who had shouted. And these people were -already alarmed.</p> - -<p>The legs around him shifted and stamped and ran away over the pavement. -A woman screeched thinly in fear. He was alone in the dark.</p> - -<p>He didn't think he would be left alone for long. He started to scramble -to his feet, beside the curb, and his hand went into an opening—a long -curbside storm-sewer drain.</p> - -<p>A building was what he had had in mind, but this was better. He got -down on his belly and wormed sidewise into the drain. He lay quiet, in -a concrete cave smelling of old mud.</p> - -<p>Feet came pounding back along the streets, he glimpsed beams of light -angling and flickering. Angry voices yelled back and forth. "He's not -here. He's got away. But there must be other goddamned Evacuation men -around. They're going to round us up—"</p> - -<p>"By God, nobody's going to round <i>me</i> up and take me to Mars!" said a -deep bass voice right beside Wales.</p> - -<p>Somebody else said, "All that nonsense about Kendrick's World—" and -added an oath.</p> - -<p>Wales lay still in his concrete hole, nursing his bruised shoulder. He -heard them going away.</p> - -<p>He waited, and then crawled out. In the dark street, he stood, muddy -and bruised, conscious now that he was shaking.</p> - -<p>What in the world had come over these people? At first, five years ago, -it had been difficult to convince many that an errant asteroid would -indeed ultimately crash into Earth. Kendrick's first announcement had -been disbelieved by many.</p> - -<p>But when all the triple-checking by the world's scientists had -confirmed it, the big campaign of indoctrination that the UN put on -had left few skeptics. Wales himself remembered how every medium of -communication had been employed.</p> - -<p>"Earth will not be destroyed," the UN speakers had repeated over -and over. "But it <i>will</i> be made uninhabitable for a long time. The -asteroid Nereus will, when it collides, generate such a heat and shock -wave that nothing living can survive it. It will take many years -for Earth's surface to quiet again after the catastrophe. Men—all -men—must live on Mars for perhaps a whole generation."</p> - -<p>People had believed. They had been thankful then that they had a way -of escape from the oncoming catastrophe—that the colonization of Mars -had proceeded far enough that it could serve as a sanctuary for man, -and that modern manufacture of synthetic food and water from any raw -rock would make possible feeding all Earth's millions out on that arid -world.</p> - -<p>They had toiled wholeheartedly at the colossal crash program of -Operation Doomsday, the building of the vast fleet of rocket-ship -transports, the construction and shipping out of the materials for the -great new prefab Martian cities. They had, by the tens and hundreds -of millions, gone in their scheduled order to the spaceports and the -silver ships that took them away.</p> - -<p>But now, with millions still left on Earth, there was a change. Now -skepticism and rebellion against Evacuation were breeding here on Earth.</p> - -<p>It didn't, Wales thought, make sense!</p> - -<p>He was suddenly very anxious to reach New York, to see Fairlie.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He went back along the dark street to the main boulevard, where the -little white route signs glimmered faintly. He looked for the car, but -did not see it.</p> - -<p>Shrugging, Wales started along the highway. He couldn't be too far -from the big Evacuation Thruways.</p> - -<p>He had gone only a few blocks in the dark, when lights suddenly came on -and outlined him. He whirled, startled.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Wales," said a voice.</p> - -<p>Wales relaxed. He walked toward the lights. It was the car, and the -driver in the UN uniform, parked back in an alley.</p> - -<p>"I thought you were back at the spaceport by now," Wales said sourly.</p> - -<p>The driver swore. "I wasn't going to run away. But no use tackling that -crowd. Didn't I warn you? An Evacuation uniform sets them crazy."</p> - -<p>Wales got in beside him. "Let's get out of here."</p> - -<p>As they rolled, he asked, "When I left Earth four years ago, there -didn't seem a soul who doubted Doomsday. Why are these people doubtful -now?"</p> - -<p>The driver told him, "They say Kendrick's World is just a scare, that -it's not going to hit Earth after all."</p> - -<p>"Who told them that?"</p> - -<p>"Nobody knows who started the talk. Not many believed it at first. -But then people began to say, 'Kendrick was the one who predicted -Doomsday—if he really believed it, <i>he'd</i> leave Earth!'"</p> - -<p>"What did Kendrick say to that?"</p> - -<p>"He didn't say anything. He just went into hiding, they say. Leastwise, -the officials admitted he hadn't gone to Mars. No wonder a lot of folks -began to say, 'He <i>knows</i> his prediction was wrong, that's why he's not -leaving Earth!'"</p> - -<p>Wales asked, after a time, "What do you think, yourself?"</p> - -<p>The driver said, "<i>I'm</i> going out on Evacuation, for sure. So maybe -Kendrick and the rest are wrong? What have I got to lose? And if the -big crash does come, I won't be here."</p> - -<p>Dawn grayed the sky ahead as the car rolled on through more and more -silent towns. It took to a skyway and as they sped above the roofs, the -old towers of New York rose misty and spectral against the brightening -day.</p> - -<p>In the downtown city itself, they were suddenly among people again. -They were everywhere on the sidewalks and they were a variegated -throng. Workers and their families from the midwest, lumbermen and -miners from the north, overweight businessmen, women, children, babies, -dogs, birds in cages, a shuffling, slow-moving mass of humanity walking -aimlessly up and down the streets, waiting their call-up to the buses -and the spaceports and the leaving of their world.</p> - -<p>Evacuation Police in their gray uniforms were plentiful, and to Wales' -surprise they were armed. Only official cars were in the streets, and -Wales noticed the frequent unfriendly looks his own car got from faces -here and there in the throngs. He didn't suppose people would be too -happy about leaving Earth.</p> - -<p>The big new UN Building, towering over the city, had been built thirty -years before to replace the old one. He had supposed it would be an -empty shell, now that the whole Secretariat was out on Mars. But it -wasn't. Here was Evacuation headquarters for a whole part of America, -and the building was jammed with officials, files, clerks.</p> - -<p>He was expected, it seemed. He went right through to the regional -Evacuation Marshal's office.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>John Fairlie was a solid, blond man of thirty-five or so, with the kind -of radiant strength, health, and intelligence that always made Wales -feel even more lanky and shy than he really was.</p> - -<p>"We've been discussing your mission here," Fairlie said bluntly. -He indicated the three other men in the room. "My friends and -fellow-officials—they're assistants to Evacuation Marshals of other -regions. Bliss from Pacific Coast, Chaumez from South America, Holst -from Europe—"</p> - -<p>They were men about Fairlie's age, and Wales thought that they were -anxious men.</p> - -<p>"We don't resent your coming, and you'll get 100 percent cooperation -from all of us," Fairlie was saying. "We just hope to God you can get -Evacuation speeded up to schedule again. We're worried."</p> - -<p>"Things are that bad?" said Wales.</p> - -<p>Bliss said gloomily, "Bad—and getting worse. If it keeps up, there's -going to be millions still left on Earth when Doomsday comes."</p> - -<p>"What," asked Wales, "do you think ought to be done first?"</p> - -<p>"Find Kendrick," said Fairlie promptly.</p> - -<p>"You think his disappearance that important?"</p> - -<p>"I <i>know</i> it is." Fairlie strode up and down the office, his physical -energy too restless to be still. "Listen, Wales. It's the fact that -Kendrick, who first predicted the catastrophe, hasn't himself left -Earth that's deepening all these doubts. If we could find Kendrick and -show people how he's going to Mars, it would discredit all this talk -that his prediction was a mistake, and that he knows it."</p> - -<p>"You've already tried to find him?"</p> - -<p>Fairlie nodded. "I've had the world combed for him. I wish I could -guess what happened to him. If we could only find his sister, even, it -might lead to him."</p> - -<p>Yes, Wales thought. Martha and Lee Kendrick had always been close. And -now they had vanished together.</p> - -<p>He told Fairlie what had happened to him in the Jersey City. Neither -Fairlie nor the others seemed much surprised.</p> - -<p>"Yes. Things are bad in some of the evacuated regions. You see, once we -get all the listed inhabitants out, we can't go back to those places. -We haven't the time to keep going over them. So others—the ones who -don't want to go—can move into the empty towns and take over."</p> - -<p>"<i>Why</i> don't they want to go?" Wales studied the other's face as he -asked the question. "Five years ago, everyone believed in the crash, -in the coming of Doomsday. Now people here are skeptical. You say that -Kendrick might convince them. But what made them skeptical, in the -first place?"</p> - -<p>Fairlie said, "I don't know, not for sure. But I can tell you what I -think."</p> - -<p>"Go ahead."</p> - -<p>"I think it's secret propaganda at work. I think Evacuation is being -secretly sabotaged by talk that Doomsday is all a hoax."</p> - -<p>Wales was utterly shocked. "Good God, man, who would do a thing like -that? Who would want millions of people to stay on Earth and die on -Doomsday?"</p> - -<p>Fairlie looked at him. "It's a horrible thought, isn't it? But fanatics -will sometimes do horrible things."</p> - -<p>"Fanatics? You mean—"</p> - -<p>Fairlie said, "We've been hearing rumors of a secret organization -called the Brotherhood of Atonement. A group—we don't know how large, -probably small in numbers—who seem to have been crazed by the coming -of Doomsday. They believe that Nereus is a just vengeance coming on a -sinful Earth, and that Earth's sins must be atoned by the deaths of -many."</p> - -<p>"They're preaching that doctrine openly?" Wales said, incredulous.</p> - -<p>"Not at all. Rumors is all we've heard. But—you wondered who would -want millions of people to stay on Earth till Doomsday. That's a -possible answer."</p> - -<p>It made, to Wales, a nightmare thought. Mad minds, unhinged by the -approach of world's end, cunningly spreading doubt of the oncoming -catastrophe, so that millions would doubt, and would stay—and would -atone.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Bliss said, "The damn fools, to believe such stuff! Well, if they get -caught on Earth, it'll be the craziest, most ignorant and backward part -of the population that we'll lose."</p> - -<p>Fairlie said wearily, "Our job is not to lose anybody, to get them all -off no matter who or what they are."</p> - -<p>Then he said to Wales, with a faint smile, "Sorry if we seem to be -griping too much. I expect your job on Mars hasn't been easy either. -Things are pretty tough there, aren't they?"</p> - -<p>"They're bound to be tough," said Wales. "All those hundreds of -millions, and more still coming in. But we'll make out. We've got to."</p> - -<p>"Anyway, that's not my worry," Fairlie said. "My headache is to get -these stubborn, ignorant fools who don't want to go, off the Earth."</p> - -<p>Wales thought swiftly. He said, after a time, "You're right, Kendrick -is the key. I came here to find him and I've got to do it."</p> - -<p>Fairlie said, "I hope to God you can. But I'm not optimistic. We looked -everywhere. He's not at Westpenn Observatory."</p> - -<p>"Lee and Martha and I grew up together in that western Pennsylvania -town," Wales said. "Castletown."</p> - -<p>"I know, we combed the whole place. Nothing."</p> - -<p>"Nevertheless, I'll start there," said Wales.</p> - -<p>Fairlie told him, "That's all evacuated territory, you know. Closed out -and empty, officially. Which means—dangerous."</p> - -<p>Wales looked at him. "In that case, I'll want something else to wear -than this uniform. Also I'll want a car—and weapons."</p> - -<p>It was late afternoon by the time Wales got the car clear of the -metropolitan area, out of the congested evacuation traffic. And it was -soft spring dusk by the time he crossed the Delaware at Stroudsburg and -climbed westward through the Poconos.</p> - -<p>The roads, the towns, were empty. Here and there in villages he saw -gutted stores, smashed doors and windows—but no people.</p> - -<p>As the darkness came, from behind him still echoed the boom-boom of -thunder, ever and again repeated, of the endless ships of the Marslift -riding their columns of flame up into the sky.</p> - -<p>By the last afterglow, well beyond Stroudsburg, he looked back and -thought he saw another car top a ridge and sink, swiftly down into the -shadow behind him.</p> - -<p>Wales felt a queer thrill. Was he being followed? If so, by whom? By -casual looters, or by some who meant to thwart his mission? By the -society of the Atonement?</p> - -<p>He drove on, looking back frequently, and once again he thought he -glimpsed a black moving bulk, without lights, far back on the highway.</p> - -<p>He saw only one man that night, on a bridge at Berwick. The man leaned -on the rail, and there was a bottle in his hand, and he was very drunk.</p> - -<p>He turned a wild white face to Wales' headlights, and shook the bottle, -and shouted hoarsely. Only the words, "—Kendrick's World—" were -distinguishable.</p> - -<p>Sick at heart, Wales went by him and drove on.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER III</p> - - -<p>All that night, his car rolled across an unlighted, empty world. Wary -of the great thruways, he followed the lesser roads. And every village, -every town, every hillside or valley farm, was dark and silent. All -this area that included Pennsylvania had been evacuated two years ago, -and the people of these houses were now living the new life in the -sprawling new cities on another planet.</p> - -<p>Twice Wales stopped his car and cut the motor and lights, and waited, -listening. Once he was sure that he heard a distant humming from far -back along the highway, but it fell silent, and though he waited with -gun in hand, no one came. So each time he drove on, but he could not -rid himself of the conviction that someone followed him secretly.</p> - -<p>With morning, his spirits lifted a little. He was only an hour's drive -from the old Pennsylvania-Ohio line where the town of Castletown was. -And there, if anywhere, he must find the trail to Lee and Martha -Kendrick.</p> - -<p>Kendrick, to the world, had become identified with the asteroid that -was plunging ever nearer in its fateful orbit. It had, from the first, -been called Kendrick's World. Kendrick, if anyone could, might convince -those who had begun to doubt Doomsday. If Kendrick could be found....</p> - -<p>Wales drove down a winding hillside road into the town of Butler, ten -minutes later—and ran smack into a barricade.</p> - -<p>The moment he saw the cars drawn up to block the highway, he tried to -swing around fast. But he wasn't quick enough.</p> - -<p>A voice said, "Kill the motor and get out."</p> - -<p>Men had come out of the bushes that, in two years, had grown up close -to the highway. They were unshaven men, wearing dirty jeans, with -rifles in their hands. There were two on one side of the highway, and -an older man on the other.</p> - -<p>Wales looked at their dusty faces. Then he cut the motor and got out of -the car.</p> - -<p>They took his weapons, and the older man said, "You can put your hands -down now. And come along with us."</p> - -<p>"Where?"</p> - -<p>"You'll see."</p> - -<p>One man remained, searching Wales' car. The other two, their rifles on -the ready, walked beside Wales down the long winding hill highway into -the old town.</p> - -<p>"I thought all these towns were evacuated," said Wales.</p> - -<p>"They were, a long time ago," said the older man.</p> - -<p>"But you men—"</p> - -<p>"We're not from here. Now anything more you want to know, you ask Sam -Lanterman. He'll have some things to ask <i>you</i>."</p> - -<p>The main street of the town looked to Wales vaguely like a gypsy camp. -Dusty cars were parked double along it, and there was a surprising -number of men and women and kids about. The men all carried rifles or -wore belted pistols. The children were pawing around in already-looted -stores, and most of the women looked with a blank, tired stare at Wales -and his guard.</p> - -<p>They took him into the stone courthouse. In the courtroom, dimly -lighted and smelling of dust and old oak, four men were seated around -what had once been a press-table. One of Wales' captors spoke to the -man at the head of the table.</p> - -<p>"Got a prisoner, Sam," he said importantly. "This fellow. He was -driving from the east."</p> - -<p>"From the east, was he?" said Lanterman. "Well, now, he might just have -come from the south and swung around town, mightn't he?"</p> - -<p>He looked keenly at Wales. He was a gangling man of forty with a red -face and slightly bulging blue eyes that had a certain fierceness -in them. The others at the table were two heavy men who looked like -farmers, and a small, dark, vicious-looking young man.</p> - -<p>"You didn't," said Lanterman, "just happen to come from Pittsburgh, did -you?" They all seemed to watch him with a certain tenseness, at this.</p> - -<p>Wales shook his head. "I came from the east, all the way across state."</p> - -<p>"And where were you heading?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales didn't like the implications of that "were". He said, "To -Castletown. I'm looking for my girl. It's where she used to live."</p> - -<p>"People in Castletown been gone two years," Lanterman said promptly. -"To Mars—the damn fools!" And he suddenly laughed uproariously.</p> - -<p>More and more worried, Wales said, "She wrote me she wasn't going to -leave till I came."</p> - -<p>"You're not one of those Evacuation Officials, are you?" Lanterman -asked shrewdly.</p> - -<p>"A lot more likely he comes from Pittsburgh," said the dark young man.</p> - -<p>Wales, sensing an increasing suspicion and danger, thought his safest -bet was honest indignation. He said loudly,</p> - -<p>"Look, I don't know what right you have to stop me when I'm trying to -reach my girl! I'm not an Evac official and I don't know what all this -talk about Pittsburgh means. Who made you the law around here?"</p> - -<p>"Son," said Lanterman softly, "there isn't any law any more. The law -left here when all the people left—all except a few who wouldn't be -stampeded off Earth by a lot of moonshiny science nonsense."</p> - -<p>Wales said, as though himself dubious, "Then you don't think there's -really going to be Doomsday, like they say?"</p> - -<p>"Do <i>you</i> think so?"</p> - -<p>Wales pretended perplexity. "I don't know. All the big people, the -Government people and all, have told us over and over on the teevee, -about how Kendrick's World will hit the Earth—"</p> - -<p>"Kendrick's so-and-so," said one of the farmer-looking men, disgustedly.</p> - -<p>"I thought," said Wales, "that I'd see if my girl was going to leave, -before I decided."</p> - -<p>He wondered if he weren't laying on the stupid yokel a little too -thick. But he had realized his danger from the first.</p> - -<p>All the bands of non-evacuees who remained in closed-out territory, -making their own law, were dangerous. He'd found that out in Morristown -only last night. And Lanterman and his men seemed especially -suspicious, for some reason.</p> - -<p>"Look," said Lanterman, and then asked, "What's your name, anyway?"</p> - -<p>"Jay Wilson," said Wales. His name <i>had</i> been in the news, and he'd -better take no chances.</p> - -<p>"Well, look now, Wilson," said Lanterman, "you don't always want to -believe what people tell you. Me, I'm from West Virginia. Had a farm -there. On the TV it told us how this Kendrick had found out Earth was -going to be destroyed, how, everyone would have to go to Mars. My woman -said, 'Sam, we'll have to go.' I said, 'Don't you get in a panic. -People have always been predicting the end of the world. We'll wait a -while and see.' Lot of our neighbors packed up and went off. People -came to tell us we'd better get going too. I told them, I don't panic -easy, I'm waiting a while."</p> - -<p>Lanterman laughed. "Good thing I did. More'n a year went by, and the -world didn't end. And then it turned out that this here Kendrick that -started the whole stampede—<i>he</i> hadn't left Earth. Not him! Got all -the fools flying out to Mars on his say-so, but wasn't fool enough -to go himself. Fact is, people say he's hiding out so the Evacuation -officials can't make him go. Well, if Kendrick himself won't go, that -predicted it all, why should <i>we</i> go?"</p> - -<p>And that, Wales thought despairingly, was the very crux of the problem. -Where was Lee Kendrick anyway? He must know that his remaining on Earth -was being fatally misinterpreted by people like these.</p> - -<p>Lanterman added, with a certain complacency, "All the fools went, and -left their houses, cars, cities. Left 'em to those of us who wasn't -fools! That's why we gathered together. Figured we might as well pick -up what they'd left. We got near a hundred men together, I said, -'Boys, let's quit picking over these empty villages and take a real -rich town. Let's go up to Pittsburgh.'"</p> - -<p>One of the farmer-men said gloomily, "Only this Bauder had the idea -first. <i>His</i> bunch took over Pittsburgh, as we found out."</p> - -<p>Lanterman's eyes flashed. "But they're not going to keep it! Since we -first tried it, we've got a lot more men. One or two joining us every -few days. We'll show Bauder's outfit something this time!"</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, the strangeness of the scene struck at Wales. A few years -before, this quiet old country courthouse had been the center of a -busy, populous town, of a county, a nation, a world.</p> - -<p>Now world and nation were drained of most of their people. An Earth -almost de-populated lay quiet, awaiting the coming of the destruction -from space. Yet men who did not believe in that destruction, men in -little bands, were, with the passing of all law, contending for the -possession of the great evacuated cities.</p> - -<p>Lanterman stood up. "Well, what about it, Wilson? You want to join up -with us and take Pittsburgh away from Bauder? Man, the loot there'll -be—liquor, cars, food, everything!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales knew he had no real choice, that even though it was a maddening -interruption to his search for Kendrick, he must pretend to accede. But -he thought it best not to agree too readily.</p> - -<p>"About Pittsburgh, I don't care," he said. "It's Castletown I want to -get to—and my girl."</p> - -<p>"Ho," said Lanterman, "I'll tell you what. You join up with us and I'll -give you Castletown, all for your own. Of course, I'll still be boss of -the whole region."</p> - -<p>Wales made another attempt for information. "I've heard of this -Brotherhood of Atonement," he said. "Are you with that outfit?"</p> - -<p>Lanterman swore. "That bunch is <i>crazy</i>. No sense to 'em at all. Hell, -no, we're not Atoners."</p> - -<p>Wales said, slowly, "Well, looks like if I and my girl decide to stay, -we'd better be in your bunch. Sure, I'll join."</p> - -<p>Lanterman clapped him on the back. "You'll never regret it, Wilson. -I've got some big ideas. Those that stick with me will get more'n their -share of everything. Pittsburgh is only the start."</p> - -<p>He added impressively, "You're joining at a lucky time. For tonight's -when we're taking Pittsburgh."</p> - -<p>The young, dark man snarled, "If he's a spy, then letting him know that -will—"</p> - -<p>"You're too suspicious, Harry," said Lanterman. "He's no spy. He's -come."</p> - -<p>He looked down at the dark young man. "All right, Harry, you take your -bunch along now. And you remember not to start things till you hear our -signal."</p> - -<p>Ten cars, with thirty-odd men in them, pulled out of the main street in -the twilight. Harry was in the first car, and they headed south out of -town.</p> - -<p>Lanterman then told the others, "Rest of us better get going too, all -except those that are staying to guard the women and kids. You stick -along with me, Wilson."</p> - -<p>Motors roared, all along the street. Lanterman climbed grandly into a -long black limousine, and Wales followed him.</p> - -<p>The car was full of men and gun-barrels when its driver, a leathery -young chap who was chewing tobacco, pulled out along the street. The -other cars, nearly a score of them, followed them. But they headed -southeastward.</p> - -<p>"We're going pretty far east," Wales protested. "Pittsburgh's south."</p> - -<p>Lanterman chuckled. "Don't you worry, Wilson. You'll get to Pittsburgh, -before the night's over."</p> - -<p>For an hour the caravan of cars, without lights, rolled along silent -roads and through dark villages.</p> - -<p>They came to a halt in a little town that Wales couldn't recognize. -But when he saw wooden piers, and the broad, glinting blackness of a -river, he realized it must be one of the smaller towns a bit upriver -from Pittsburgh on the Allegheny.</p> - -<p>There were a dozen big skiffs tied to the piers, and a quartet of -armed men guarding them. There were no lights, and the darkness was a -confusion of shadowy men and of unfamiliar voices.</p> - -<p>"Get your damned gun-butt out of my ribs, will you?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales realized that the whole party was embarking in the boats. He -followed Lanterman into one of them. Lanterman said,</p> - -<p>"Now I don't want one bit of noise from any of you. Get going."</p> - -<p>The boats were cast off and forged out into the dark, wide river. In -the moonless night, the shore was only a deeper bulk of blackness. -Lanterman's boat, leading, swung across to the southern shore, and then -kept close to it as they went silently downstream.</p> - -<p>Occasional creak of oars, the voices of frogs along the bank—these -were the only sounds. The deep summery, rotten smell of the river -brought a powerful nostalgia to Wales.</p> - -<p>Impossible to think that all this must soon end!</p> - -<p>The darkness remained absolute as they went on downriver. They had -entered what was once the busiest industrial region of the world, but -it was desolate and black and silent now.</p> - -<p>Wales ventured to whisper, "Why this way, instead of using the bridges?"</p> - -<p>Lanterman snorted. "They <i>expect</i> us to use the bridges. Wait, and -you'll see." A moment later he called. "No more rowing. Drift. And no -noise!"</p> - -<p>They drifted silently along the bank. A huge span loomed up vaguely -over them. Wales thought it would be the old Chestnut Street Bridge.</p> - -<p>He was startled when, beside him, Lanterman hooted. It was a reasonably -good imitation of a screech-owl, twice repeated.</p> - -<p>A moment later, from the northern, farthest end of the big bridge, -rifle-shots shattered the silence. There was a sudden confusion of -firing and shouting there.</p> - -<p>Lanterman chuckled. "Harry's right on time. He'll make enough row to -bring the whole bunch there."</p> - -<p>Presently there was a sound of motors. Cars without lights, many of -them, were racing along the riverside highway from downtown Pittsburgh. -They rushed over the bridge, toward the distant uproar of shooting.</p> - -<p>"That decoyed them out," Lanterman said. He gave orders, quick and -fierce. "Allerman, you and Jim take your boats in here. Block the -bridges, so they can't get back in a hurry."</p> - -<p>Two skiffloads of men darted toward the dim shore. And the rest, with -Lanterman's skiff leading, moved under oars down along the riverside.</p> - -<p>Now Wales glimpsed lights—a few dim, scattered gleams. With a shock, -he saw big, black towers against the stars, and realized they were the -skyscrapers of downtown Pittsburgh.</p> - -<p>Their skiffs shot in, bumped and stopped. The men piled out, onto a -cobbled levee that slanted up from the river.</p> - -<p>Lanterman's voice rang out. "We've got 'em cold, with most of their -men chasing Harry across the river! Come on! But remember—don't shoot -anyone unless they show fight! Most of 'em'll join us, later."</p> - -<p>The dark figures of the men, gun-barrels glinting in the starlight, -went up the levee in a stumbling rush. Somewhere ahead, a voice yelled -in alarm.</p> - -<p>Wales, behind Lanterman, felt more than ever caught in a nightmare. -These men, ignorant in their unbelief, battling for an empty city upon -a world toward which doom was coming—it seemed a terrible dream from -which he could not wake.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IV</p> - - -<p>They ran forward and were suddenly in a narrow street of tall, old -business buildings. It was a gut of darkness in which the men stumbled -and jostled each other, and now they heard an alarm-siren ahead.</p> - -<p>Wales had no desire at all to become embroiled in this senseless -struggle for an empty city. But with Lanterman just ahead, and men -all around, he dared not try to slip away. Some of them were surely -watching him.</p> - -<p>They debouched into a broader street. A few blocks away along this -wider avenue, a searchlight suddenly went into action, lighting up shop -windows and building-fronts for a quarter-mile, and half-dazzling the -dark, running figures of Lanterman's men. Instantly shots burst forth -from beyond the searchlight. Bullets whined and whanged off stone-work, -and there was the silvery crash of shattered plate-glass.</p> - -<p>"Get back in here!" Lanterman yelled, and his men sucked back into the -dark shelter of the narrower way.</p> - -<p>One of them was holding his shoulder, and sobbing, "Damn them, they -hit me—"</p> - -<p>Wales, pressing close against a stone facade, looked out into the eery -brilliance ahead and recognized it as Liberty Avenue. He saw, across -it, a shopwindow in which impeccably dressed dummies looked out as -though in wide-eyed amazement at what was going on.</p> - -<p>Lanterman paid no attention to the wounded man. "They're up in that big -hotel near the Post Office," he said quickly. "Can't be many men left -here—but we got to get to them fast, before the others hear and start -back."</p> - -<p>He told one of the farmer-men,</p> - -<p>"You, Milton—take a dozen men and get around to the back of that -hotel. Rest of us will take it from the front."</p> - -<p>Wales thought that however ignorant he might be in some ways, Lanterman -was a born leader. No wonder that people who had been bewildered and -lost in doubts followed the red-faced man.</p> - -<p>Two men with Venn guns hurried into a building at the corner of -Liberty. A minute later, from a third-floor window, they suddenly let -go. The searchlight went out.</p> - -<p>"Come on!" yelled Lanterman. They poured out into the wide avenue and -raced along it, keeping on the sidewalks on either side.</p> - -<p>There was, suddenly, a burst of firing from ahead, that sounded -muffled and distant. Then silence. They were nearly to the big hotel.</p> - -<p>"Hold it, Sam!" came Milton's yell from the dark building. "It's all -done."</p> - -<p>Flashlights began to come on, like fireflies waking. There was a sound -of women screeching from inside the hotel. Men came out of it, their -hands high.</p> - -<p>One was a burly, shock-haired man who cursed Lanterman when he saw him. -"Shot two of my men, you—"</p> - -<p>"Now quiet down, Bauder," said Lanterman. In the angling flashlight -illumination, his face was sweating and exultant. "No call for any -more fighting here. Wouldn't have been any, if you hadn't been so -big-feelinged when we first came. Pittsburgh's big enough for all of -us—long as you know I'm boss."</p> - -<p>He turned to his men. "Half of you get back over to those bridges—tell -'em we've got Bauder and we've got Pittsburgh. They'll give up. Take -them, Milton."</p> - -<p>Whooping with triumph, the men started after Milton, into one of the -dark side streets leading toward the river.</p> - -<p>Wales started along with them. He half expected Lanterman to call him -back, but the leader was too occupied with his moment of victory to -remember the suspicions of hours before.</p> - -<p>It was, Wales knew, the best chance he'd be likely to get to escape -from this band. He let himself drop behind the rest of Milton's men as -they ran down Ninth Street. Then, passing the mouth of an alley, he -dodged into it and ran alone in darkness, cutting south to Sixth.</p> - -<p>Wales stretched his legs toward the levee. The bridges were impassable -to him, and the skiffs were his only chance. He made sure of oars in -one of them, then pushed it out onto the dark river.</p> - -<p>From northward, from the bridges, came the sound of firing. But as -Wales rowed, the shots straggled into silence.</p> - -<p>He guessed that the fighting was over and that Sam Lanterman was master -of Pittsburgh.</p> - -<p>When Wales finally stood on the dark northern shore and looked back, -he saw a scattered twinkling of little lights moving amid the towering -black structures that once had been a city.</p> - -<p>He suddenly found that he was shaking, from reaction and despair.</p> - -<p>"Can anyone—<i>anything</i>—save people like that?"</p> - -<p>To Wales, it suddenly all seemed hopeless—the mission on which -he'd come back to Earth. Hopeless, to think that the ignorant, the -short-sighted, the fearful, could ever be induced to leave Earth in -time.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He looked up at the star-decked sky. Out there in the void, the -massive asteroid that spelled world's end was swinging ever forward on -the orbit that in four months would end in planetary collision. You -couldn't see it, though. And that was the trouble. People like these, -influenced by someone's secret propaganda, wouldn't believe it until -Kendrick's World loomed dreadful in the heavens. And then it would be -too late....</p> - -<p>Wales turned and started up the street from the river. He'd been given -a mission and he had to carry it out. Not only for the sake of all -those ignorant ones who might be trapped on a doomed world, but also -for the sake of his friends. Something had happened to Lee and Martha -Kendrick, and he had to find them.</p> - -<p>He went through the Northside district until, beyond the old -Planetarium, he found a big garage. There were plenty of cars in it. In -ten minutes, Wales was driving north.</p> - -<p>He kept his lights off, and his speed down. He looked back often. No -one followed him now.</p> - -<p>"Whoever <i>was</i> trailing me," he thought, "will be a while discovering -that I'm not still with Lanterman."</p> - -<p>Again, he wondered who the secret trailers were. They hadn't tried to -overtake him. They had just followed him. Was it someone who <i>also</i> -wanted to find Kendrick? And for what reason?</p> - -<p>He thought of the Brotherhood of Atonement that was still only a name -to him, and felt a chill.</p> - -<p>It was fifty miles to Castletown, and he dared not drive too fast -without lights lest he run suddenly upon a block in the road. But after -a while the moon rose and Wales was able to push the car a little -faster.</p> - -<p>The countryside dreamed in the moonlight. It was only in towns that the -awful emptiness of the world crushed you down. Out here between fields -and hills, things were as they had always been, and it did indeed seem -mad folly for men to quit their planet. It was small wonder that some -of them refused to do so.</p> - -<p>Everything you saw, Wales thought, wrung your heart with a feeling of -futility. That little white house with the picket fence that he swept -past so swiftly—someone had labored hard to build that fence, to plant -the flowers, to coddle a green lawn into being. And it had all been for -nothing, the little houses, the mighty cities, all the care and toil -and planning of centuries for nothing....</p> - -<p>He would not let himself get into that frame of mind. It had not been -for nothing. Out of it all, man had won for himself the knowledge that -was now saving him. The cities that now seemed so futile had built -the rocket-fleets that for years had been taking the millions out to -Mars. They had built the atomic power-plants, the great electronic -food-and-water synthesizers, that would make life on Mars possible for -all Earth's folk. No, man's past was not a failure, but a success.</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, Wales' brooding was shattered as he drove into the town of -Brighton Falls.</p> - -<p>There was no town.</p> - -<p>He pulled up, startled. In the moonlight, a blackened devastation -stretched around him, a few ruined walls still standing, the rest a -shapeless mass of blackened debris.</p> - -<p>Wales, after a moment, got over his first shock. "Lightning could -easily start a fire," he thought. "And with nobody to put it out—"</p> - -<p>It seemed logical enough. Yet he still felt shocked as he drove hastily -on out of the blackened ruins.</p> - -<p>As the moon rose, he drove faster. Castletown was very near. He would -soon know if he had come all this way for nothing.</p> - -<p>In this old town, Wales had grown up with Lee and Martha Kendrick. -In Westpenn College here, they'd been classmates. Lee, making -astronomy his career, had stayed here at the small but famous Westpenn -Observatory, to make finally the astronomical discovery of approaching -Doomsday. And, Wales knew, Martha had stayed with him, keeping the old -Kendrick house for him.</p> - -<p>He knew too that the Kendricks had stayed on here, even after the whole -region was evacuated. And then they'd disappeared.</p> - -<p>Fairlie had said that his men had searched here and hadn't found them. -But Wales clung to the conviction that his quest of them must begin -here.</p> - -<p class="ph1">CASTLETOWN<br /> -A Good Place to Live</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sign at the edge of town, unintentionally ironic now, went past -him. It had been a long way from here, Wales thought, to the Rocket -Service school out west, a long way farther to Mars, and yet here he -was, after all these years, back again.</p> - -<p>His own boyhood home was here but there was no reason at all to visit -it. He was glad there was no reason, he was glad now that his parents -had died before Doomsday came.</p> - -<p>He turned off the highway. The campus of Westpenn College was on the -hills east of Castletown. The buildings were dark and silent. On the -loftiest eminence, the dome of the Observatory shouldered the stars. -There was no light there, either.</p> - -<p>Wales drove past the campus to the big, square, old-fashioned Kendrick -house. It was dark and quiet as everything else. He stopped his car, -made sure of the pistol in his jacket pocket, and ascended the steps.</p> - -<p>He felt, after all these years, like a ghost coming back to a dead -town, to a dead world. Impatient of fancies, he pushed at the front -door and it swung quietly inward.</p> - -<p>Wales flashed his light around the hall inside. Then he began going -through the rooms.</p> - -<p>Over an hour later he was back in the front hall, disappointed and -baffled. He had found no one in the house, and no evidence that either -Lee or Martha had been here recently.</p> - -<p>As he stood, anxious and frustrated, Wales suddenly noticed a smear of -red on the inner side of the white-painted front door.</p> - -<p>He flashed his light on it. Two words were written in lipstick on the -door, in a feminine hand. "The Castle." Nothing more.</p> - -<p>Wales' thoughts leaped. He pulled open the door and went out to his car -fast. In a moment he was driving on downtown, his hopes suddenly high.</p> - -<p>"The Castle." That was what, when they were all kids, they had called -the old hilltop mansion of an ancient great-aunt of the Kendricks'. -They had given it that name because of its 1900-ish wooden tower with a -crenellated top, that had fascinated them.</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, checking his elation, there came to Wales the sure -knowledge that Martha had been <i>afraid</i>, when she wrote that direction.</p> - -<p>Afraid to leave a more definite clue, than that one that only a few -people could possibly understand.</p> - -<p>"But she didn't leave that for me—" Wales thought, puzzledly. "As far -as they knew, I was still on Mars. But then, for whom?"</p> - -<p>He began to worry more deeply than before. He had found a clue to the -Kendricks, a clue that Fairlie's agents had been unable to understand, -but the careful obscurity of it made their disappearance suddenly more -sinister.</p> - -<p>Wales drove fast through the familiar old hometown streets. He noticed, -as he swung around the Diamond, that one store had a brave sign -chalked on its window, "Closed for Doomsday".</p> - -<p>He swung right, up North Jefferson Street, then on up the steep hill -that was the highest point of Castletown. He was wire-tense with hope -when he parked in front of the old wooden monstrosity of a mansion.</p> - -<p>Everything was dark here, too. His hopes fell a little as he went up -the tree-lined walk. Still, people would be careful about showing -light—</p> - -<p>Something exploded in the back of Wales' head, and his face hit the -ground hard.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER V</p> - - -<p>Wales regained a foggy consciousness, to become aware that someone -close to him was sobbing.</p> - -<p>He felt that he had to get up. There was something he must do. He had -very little time, the end of Earth was rushing upon him, and there was -someone he must find. He <i>must</i> move, get up....</p> - -<p>"Jay," said a voice somewhere. "It's me. <i>Me!</i> Martha."</p> - -<p>Wales got his eyes open, and saw a dark figure bending over him, and he -threshed his arms numbly, trying to push it away, trying to get up, to -fight.</p> - -<p>"Jay!"</p> - -<p>A flashlight beam suddenly sprang into being right above him, almost -dazzling him. Then, his vision clearing, he saw that the beam was not -on his face but on the face that bent above him.</p> - -<p>A girl's face, quite familiar, framed by dark, hair, but with tears -running down it. Martha Kendrick's face.</p> - -<p>The beam went out and the darkness was upon them again.</p> - -<p>Wales found he was lying on damp grass, one hand resting on a concrete -walk. He saw trees and a big house with a crenellated wooden tower, -against the stars.</p> - -<p>"Martha," he muttered. "So you were here. But there's someone -else—someone slugged me—"</p> - -<p>Her voice came uncertainly. "That was me, Jay. I—I might have killed -you—"</p> - -<p>He didn't understand at all. But, as his brain began to clear a little, -he became aware of a pounding headache.</p> - -<p>He sat up. Martha had her arm around his shoulders, but she seemed more -to cling to him than to support him. She was sobbing again.</p> - -<p>"How could I <i>know</i>?" she was saying. "I didn't even know you were on -Earth. When your car came, when you came up the walk in the dark, I -knew it wasn't Lee. Not tall enough. I thought it was one of them. I -didn't dare shoot, so I used the gun to hit you—"</p> - -<p>He gripped her arm. "Martha, where is Lee?"</p> - -<p>"Jay, I don't know. I've been waiting for him here, hoping he'd come. -I've been nearly crazy, by myself. And afraid—"</p> - -<p>Wales perceived that she was near hysteria. And her fear communicated -to him.</p> - -<p>He got unsteadily to his feet. "We'd better go inside. Where we can -talk, and have a light, without anyone seeing it."</p> - -<p>His head felt big as a pumpkin, but he navigated the steps of the old -mansion successfully. In the dark interior of the house, he heard -Martha lock and chain the door. Then her hand gripped his wrist.</p> - -<p>"This way. I have one room blacked out—the kitchen."</p> - -<p>He let her lead him through the darkness, heard her close another door. -Then her flashlight came on again, illuminating the barny old kitchen.</p> - -<p>He looked at her. He had remembered Martha Kendrick as a small, dark -girl, something of a spitfire. There was no chip on her shoulder now. -She looked near collapse, her face dead white, her hands trembling.</p> - -<p>She insisted on putting cold wet cloths on his head. Holding them -there, feeling at the same time painful and a little ridiculous in -appearance, Wales made her sit down with him at the kitchen table. The -flashlight, lying on the table, threw angular shadows against the walls.</p> - -<p>"How long have you been hiding here, Martha?"</p> - -<p>"Five weeks. It seems like five years." Her lips began to quiver. "It's -been like a terrible dream. This old house, the town, everything you -knew all your life, deserted and strange. The little sounds you hear at -night, the glow in the sky from the burnings—"</p> - -<p>"But <i>why</i> have you hidden here? Why didn't you—and Lee too—report to -New York for evacuation to Mars, like everyone else?"</p> - -<p>Martha Kendrick seemed to get a little control of herself. She spoke -earnestly.</p> - -<p>"When Castletown, like the rest of this whole region, was evacuated two -years ago, Lee wanted to stay on a while. He was working each night -over at the Observatory, keeping a constant watch on Nereus. I think -he kept hoping that he'd discover some change in its orbit, some hope. -But—he found nothing. He'd been right. It would hit Earth."</p> - -<p>"But why did <i>you</i> stay, too?" Wales demanded. Martha looked at him in -surprise.</p> - -<p>"Somebody had to take care of Lee. I wasn't going to Mars until he -went. It was lonesome, after everybody left Castletown. Lee said we'd -soon go, ourselves. But then—he changed. He began to seem terribly -worried about something, terribly afraid."</p> - -<p>"We've all been afraid," Wales said somberly, but she shook her head.</p> - -<p>"It wasn't the crash, it wasn't Doomsday, Lee was afraid of. It was -something else. He said he feared all Earth's people weren't going to -get away. He said there were men who didn't <i>want</i> everyone to get -away, men who wanted to see a lot of people trapped here when Doomsday -comes!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales was electrified out of his headachy grogginess by her statement. -He grasped her wrist. "Martha, Lee said that? Who did he say they -were—those who wanted to trap millions into staying here?"</p> - -<p>Again she shook her head. "He didn't say who they were. He said he -wasn't sure, it was only a suspicion. But it worried him. He went -to New York once to see John Fairlie about—the regional Evacuation -Marshal."</p> - -<p>Wales thought hard. "Yes. Fairlie told me <i>he</i> suspected some -deliberate, secret effort going on to induce millions of people to -stay on Earth till it was too late. Either Fairlie got that idea from -Lee, or Lee got it from him—" He broke off, then asked, "Did Lee ever -talk about the Brotherhood of Atonement?"</p> - -<p>Martha nodded. "Oh, yes, quite often. We've been afraid of them, ever -since everyone else left Castletown."</p> - -<p>Again, Wales was astonished. "What do you know about that Brotherhood, -Martha?"</p> - -<p>She seemed surprised by his excitement. "Why, Jay, they're fanatics, a -superstitious movement that started long before evacuation was carried -out here. People whose minds became unhinged by the coming of Doomsday. -They preached, down in the Diamond, I heard them, terrible ravings that -Doomsday was sent us for our sins, that only sacrifice and atonement of -lives and treasures would save the world. Then, when evacuation went -on, here, all the Brotherhood hid in the country so they wouldn't have -to go."</p> - -<p>"And they're here now?" he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Martha shuddered. "Not <i>here</i>. It's the one thing I've feared most -these last weeks, that they'd burn Castletown."</p> - -<p>"Burn Castletown? Good God—why?"</p> - -<p>Martha looked at him. "Jay, they're burning the empty cities, one by -one. A sacrifice. An atonement. I'm afraid Sharon was burned two nights -ago—the glow in the sky seemed to come from there. And I've seen other -fire-glows in the south—"</p> - -<p>Wales, with a sudden cold feeling, remembered the blackened desolation -of Brighton Falls. Then it had been no accident? Then it had been -deliberate, a purposeful thing, a sacrifice—</p> - -<p>He suddenly saw Earth as it was. A nearly-empty planet reeling toward -crazy anarchy. In New York, where there was still law and order and -you could see the rocket-fleets of the Marslift coming and going -methodically in the sky, it had still seemed like a civilized world. -But out here in the black, blind evacuated regions was deepening chaos, -with law gone and all the most atavistic passions of humanity let -loose. With the ignorant and mad who refused to leave battling for the -possession of deserted cities, or setting the torch to unpeopled towns -in superstitious sacrifice....</p> - -<p>He asked Martha, "Did Lee think that the Brotherhood of Atonement was -behind the plot to trap people into staying on Earth?"</p> - -<p>That seemed to startle her. "He didn't say so. But could they be the -ones? Mad people like that—?"</p> - -<p>"It would take a fanatic to perpetrate a horror like getting people -trapped in Doomsday," Wales said. "But let it pass, for the moment. I -want to know what <i>happened</i> to Lee."</p> - -<p>Her dark eyes filled with tears again. "I can't tell you. It was like -this. Each night, Lee went to the Observatory. I stayed in our home but -I had a portable radiophone and he had one, always open, so I could -call him if I needed him. But, one night five weeks ago, he called -<i>me</i>. He was shouting, hoarse. He said, 'Martha, men breaking in—I -think they know I suspect their plan—you get out of the house, quick! -If I get away, I'll find you—'"</p> - -<p>Her face was white and haunted, as she went on. "Jay, I didn't know -what to do! I had to hide but I had to leave some word for Lee so, -if he got back, he'd know where to find me. That's why I wrote "The -Castle" on the door. Nobody but he would know I meant this old house. I -ran out and was only a few blocks away when I heard cars, at our house, -and men calling. I kept in the back streets, in the dark, and got here. -I—I've been waiting here since then. Weeks. Eternities. And—Lee -hasn't come. Do you think they killed him?"</p> - -<p>Wales gave her an honest answer. "Martha, I don't know. We'll hope they -didn't. We'll try to find him. And the first question is, Who took him? -Who are 'they'?"</p> - -<p>She spoke more slowly. "I've had time to think. Lots of it. When Lee -said, 'I think they know I suspect their plan—' Was he referring -to his suspicion that there was a terrible plot to keep many people -trapped on Earth till Doomsday? Did they realize Lee suspected them, -and seize him?"</p> - -<p>Wales' fist clenched slowly. "It's the only possible answer. Lee -somehow suspected who was behind the secret propaganda that's been -swaying people to remain on Earth. They grabbed him, to prevent him -from telling."</p> - -<p>He added, suddenly, "And it would serve their purpose another way! It -would enable them to point out that Lee Kendrick hadn't left Earth—so -that Kendrick's World must be a hoax!"</p> - -<p>An expression of pain crossed Martha's white face. "Jay, don't call it -that."</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"Kendrick's World. It's not fair. Lee discovered its new orbit, he gave -the whole Earth a lifesaving warning. It's not fair to give his name to -the thing that's bringing Doomsday."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He reached out and clasped her hand. "Sorry, Martha. You're right. But -we still have that question to answer. Who are 'they'—the 'they' who -took Lee? Are they the Brotherhood of Atonement? Or somebody else? Who -else would have any motive?"</p> - -<p>His head suddenly swayed drunkenly, and he brushed his hand across his -eyes. Martha uttered a little cry of distress.</p> - -<p>"Jay, you're still not over it—the blow I gave you. Here, let me make -fresh compresses."</p> - -<p>He held her back. "No, Martha, it's not that. I'm just out, dead tired. -Since I reached Earth on this mission, I've had it—and only a few -hours sleep in my car, last night."</p> - -<p>She took his wrist. "Then you're going to sleep right now. I'll -keep watch. This way—I have to put the light out when we leave the -kitchen—"</p> - -<p>Wales, following her through the dark house, felt that he was three -parts asleep by the time he reached the bedroom to which she led him. -His head still ached, and the headache and the exhaustion came up over -him like a drowning wave.</p> - -<p>When he woke, afternoon sunlight was slanting into the dusty bedroom. -He turned, and discovered that Martha sat in a chair beside the bed, -her hands folded, looking at him.</p> - -<p>She said, "I wasn't sleepy. And it's been so long since I've had -anyone—"</p> - -<p>She stopped, faintly embarrassed. Wales sat up, and reached and kissed -her. She clung to him, for a moment.</p> - -<p>Then she drew back. "Just propinquity," she said. "You would never even -look at me, in the old days."</p> - -<p>Wales grinned. "But now you're the last girl in town."</p> - -<p>Martha's face changed and she suddenly said, with a little rush of -words, "Oh, Jay, do you sometimes get the feeling that it just <i>can't</i> -happen, no matter what Lee and all the other scientists say, no matter -what their instruments say, that everything we've known all our lives -just can't end in flame and shock from the sky—?"</p> - -<p>He nodded soberly. "I've had that feeling. We've all had it, had to -fight against it. It's that feeling, in the ignorant, that'll keep them -here on Earth until it's too late—unless we convince them in time."</p> - -<p>"What'll it really be like for us, on Mars?" she asked him. "I don't -mean all the cheery government talks about the splendid new life we'll -all have there. I mean, <i>really</i>."</p> - -<p>"Hard," he said. "It's going to be a hard life, for us all. The -mineral resources there are limitless. Out of them, with our new -sciences of synthesis, we can make air, water, food. But only certain -areas are really habitable. Our new cities out there are already badly -crowded—and more millions still pouring in."</p> - -<p>He still held her hand, as he said, "But we'll make out. And Earth -won't be completely destroyed, remember. Someday years from now—we'll -be coming back."</p> - -<p>"But it won't be the same, it'll never be the same," she whispered.</p> - -<p>He had no answer for that.</p> - -<p>Packaged food made them a meal, in the kitchen. It was nearly sunset, -by the time they finished.</p> - -<p>Martha asked him then, with desperate eagerness, "We're going to try to -find Lee now?"</p> - -<p>Wales said, "I've been thinking. We'll get nowhere by just searching -blindly. Fairlie's agents did that, and found no trace of Lee at all. I -think there's only one way to find him."</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"Since I left New York on this mission, I was followed," Wales told -her. He described the shadowy, unseen trailers who had tracked him -until he fell into the hands of Lanterman's men. "Now, my mission to -find Lee could well have been known. Only reason anyone would follow -me is to make sure I <i>didn't</i> find him. So those who tracked me must be -some of the 'they' who took Lee. The Brotherhood of Atonement, it seems -sure."</p> - -<p>He paused, then went on. "So my shadows must know what happened to Lee, -where he is. If I could catch one of them, make him talk—"</p> - -<p>"We could find out what they've done with Lee!" Martha exclaimed. Then -her excitement checked. "But you said they must have lost your trail, -at Pittsburgh."</p> - -<p>He nodded. "Sure. But what would they do, when they made sure I wasn't -with Lanterman's band in Pittsburgh, that I'd slipped away? Knowing -that I was headed for Castletown in the first place, they'll come -<i>here</i> to look for me. And I'll be waiting for them."</p> - -<p>A little pallor came into Martha's face. "What are you going to do, -Jay?"</p> - -<p>"I'm going to set up a little ambush for them, right down in the center -of town," he said grimly. "You'll be quite safe here, until—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She interrupted passionately. "No. I'm going with you." He started to -argue, and then he saw the desperation in her eyes. "Jay, you don't -know what it's been like to be so alone. I'm not letting you go -without me."</p> - -<p>He said, after a moment, "Maybe you're right. But we'd better get -started. Do you have a gun?"</p> - -<p>She produced an ancient revolver. "I found this, in the house next -door. I wanted something—I was so afraid the Brotherhood would come -here—"</p> - -<p>Wales nodded. "We'll get you something better than that. Now listen, -Martha. You must keep silent, you must do what I say. There's no one at -all to help us, if things go wrong."</p> - -<p>She nodded. He opened the back door and they went out of the old house, -and across its ragged back yard to the alley.</p> - -<p>Wales, his gun in his hand, led the way down the alley. Where it -crossed Grant Street, he stopped, stuck his head out and peered both -ways. The street of old houses was still and dead. The maples along it -drowsed in the dying sunlight. A little breeze whispered, and was quiet -again.</p> - -<p>Wales and Martha darted across the street fast, into the shelter of -the alley again. As they went down it, hugging the backs of buildings, -heading toward the Diamond, Wales had again that fantastic feeling of -unreality.</p> - -<p>He remembered every foot of these blocks. How many times, carrying a -newspaper route as a boy, he had short-cutted along this alley. And -how would a boy dream that he would come back to it someday, when the -familiar town lay silent and empty before approaching world's end?</p> - -<p>They reached the Diamond, an oval of grass with benches and a Civil -War monument and with the three-story storefronts all around it, their -dusty windows looking down like blind eyes. "KEEP RIGHT" said a big -sign at each end of the Diamond, but nothing moved along the wide -street, nothing at all.</p> - -<p>Wales peered from a doorway, then took Martha's wrist and hurried -across. Dutton's Hardware, with its windows still full of -fishing-tackle displays, was on the other side. But when he tried the -door, it was locked.</p> - -<p>He could smash the plate-glass of the door but that would be to -advertise his presence inside. He hurried, tense and sweating now, -around to the alley in back of the store. The back door by the little -loading platform was locked too, but he broke a window with his -gun-butt.</p> - -<p>The shattering of the glass sounded in the silent town like an -avalanche. Wales swore under his breath, waited, listened.</p> - -<p>There was no sound. He got the window open, and drew Martha in after -him into the dim interior of the store.</p> - -<p>"Why here?" she whispered, now.</p> - -<p>"Anyone who comes searching Castletown for me is bound to come to the -Diamond sooner or later," he told her. "It's our best place to watch."</p> - -<p>He had another reason. He went forward through the obscurity of the -store, through sheaves of axe-handles and rural mail-boxes in piles, -with the hardware-store smell of oil and leather and paint strong in -his nostrils.</p> - -<p>He found a gun-rack. All rifles and pistols were gone but there were -still a row of shotguns, the barrels gleaming in the dimness like -organ-pipes. In the worn, deep wooden drawers beneath, he found shells.</p> - -<p>"I seem to remember you used to go after pheasant with Lee," he said.</p> - -<p>Martha nodded, and took one of the pumpguns.</p> - -<p>"Just don't use it, until I tell you," he said.</p> - -<p>They went on, toward the front of the store. Then they sat down, and -through the show-windows they could look out on the Diamond.</p> - -<p>The sun sank lower. The man on the monument cast a longer and longer -shadow across empty benches where once old men of Castletown had -gossiped.</p> - -<p>Nothing happened.</p> - -<p>Wales, waiting, thought how outraged crusty Mr. Dutton would have been -by what they'd done. It had been like him to carefully lock up the -store, front and back, before he left it forever.</p> - -<p>He looked across the Diamond, at the Busy Bee Cafe, at the Electric -Shoe Repair Shop, at the old brick YWCA.</p> - -<p>Twilight deepened. Martha moved a little, beside him. He hoped she -wasn't losing her nerve.</p> - -<p>Then he realized she had been nudging him. She whispered, "Jay."</p> - -<p>At the same moment he heard a thrumming sound. Even here inside the -store, it seemed unnaturally loud in the silent town. He crouched lower.</p> - -<p>A long green car came down the street and swung around the Diamond, and -then with squealing brakes it came to a stop.</p> - -<p>The hunters had come to Castletown.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VI</p> - - -<p>Three men got out of the car and stood there in the dusk, at the south -side of the Diamond.</p> - -<p>They wore windbreakers and slacks. One of them was short and pudgy, the -other two were average-looking men. All of them carried Venn guns.</p> - -<p>They talked, briefly. One of the average men seemed to be the leader, -Wales thought, from the way he gesticulated and spoke.</p> - -<p>"What are they going to do?" whispered Martha.</p> - -<p>"Look for me," Wales said. "A hundred to one they've left a man at the -Observatory, and at your home—in case I come there. And these three -are going to search downtown for me."</p> - -<p>The three separated. One walked east along Washington Street. The -other one got back into the car and drove off on North Jefferson. The -remaining man—the dark-haired pudgy one, started going around the -Diamond, keeping close to the fronts of the stores, ready to dart into -cover at any moment.</p> - -<p>An idea came to Wales, and he acted upon it at once. He crept to the -front door of the hardware store, unlocked it, and silently opened it a -few inches.</p> - -<p>He came back, rummaged frantically in the dimness of the shelves till -he found a spool of wire. Then he told Martha,</p> - -<p>"Come on, now—get down behind this counter. And stay there."</p> - -<p>"Jay, he's coming this way!" she protested. "He'll see the door ajar—"</p> - -<p>He interrupted. "Yes. I want him to. Do as I say."</p> - -<p>Her face white in the dusk, she got down behind the counter, back in -the middle of the store.</p> - -<p>Wales crept swiftly to the front of the store, whipped behind the -counter there, and crouched down.</p> - -<p>Now, with the door ajar, he could hear the pudgy man coming along the -sidewalk. Then he saw him, his heavy, doughy face turning alertly from -side to side as he came along.</p> - -<p>The man stopped and the tommy-gun in his hands came up fast. He had -seen the hardware-store door was a little open.</p> - -<p>With the gun held high, the pudgy man came slowly to the door. His foot -kicked it wide open. He peered into the dimness of the store, poised on -his feet like a dancer, ready to turn instantly.</p> - -<p>Wales' fingers closed on a little carton of hinges, under the counter. -He suddenly hurled the little box toward the other side of the store. -It struck a display of tinware with a tremendous clatter.</p> - -<p>The pudgy man whirled toward that direction, in a flash.</p> - -<p>With a movement as swift, Wales darted out in the same moment and -jammed his pistol into the pudgy man's back.</p> - -<p>"Let go of that gun," Wales said, "or I'll blow your spine out!"</p> - -<p>He saw the pudgy man stiffen and arch his back, in a convulsive -movement. Wales' finger tightened on the trigger. But, before he pulled -it, the tommy-gun clattered to the floor.</p> - -<p>"Martha," said Wales.</p> - -<p>She came, fast, her face white and scared in the dusk.</p> - -<p>"Take this wire and tie his wrists behind him," Wales said. "Don't get -in front of my gun."</p> - -<p>With shaking fingers, she did as he ordered. "Now shut the front door."</p> - -<p>Wales turned the pudgy man around. "Now sit down, on the floor. First -sound you make above a whisper, you're dead."</p> - -<p>The pudgy man spoke, in a high falsetto whisper. "You're dead, right -now. Whatever happens to me, <i>you</i> won't get out of Castletown."</p> - -<p>"Don't worry about us," Wales advised. "Worry about yourself. Where's -Lee Kendrick?"</p> - -<p>The pudgy man looked at him calmly. "I don't know what you're talking -about."</p> - -<p>Martha whispered, with astounding fierceness, "Make him tell, Jay."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales first searched their prisoner. He found no papers on him at all, -nothing but clips for the gun. Pudgy seemed quite unperturbed.</p> - -<p>"All right, where's Kendrick?" Wales said again.</p> - -<p>Pudgy said, "You talking about the Kendrick that discovered Doomsday -coming? <i>The</i> Kendrick? How should I know?"</p> - -<p>"Who are you working for?" Wales persisted. "Who took Kendrick, who -sent you to follow me here from New York? The Brotherhood?"</p> - -<p>Pudgy looked at him in blank surprise. "Huh?"</p> - -<p>"The Brotherhood of Atonement," Wales said. "You're one of them, aren't -you? They've got Kendrick, haven't they? Where?"</p> - -<p>Pudgy's face split in the beginnings of a guffaw. Wales raised his -pistol quickly, and the man choked off the laugh. But his sides shook.</p> - -<p>"Me one of that Brotherhood? You're funny. You're really funny, Wales."</p> - -<p>"So you know me," Wales snapped. "You know all about me, you came -trailing me when I started to hunt for Kendrick. Who sent you?"</p> - -<p>A queer gleam came into the eyes of Pudgy, but he remained silent.</p> - -<p>Something in that look made Wales whirl around. Their prisoner sat -facing the store-front.</p> - -<p>Out there in the dusk, one of the two other men had come back into the -Diamond.</p> - -<p>"Martha," whispered Wales.</p> - -<p>"Yes?"</p> - -<p>"Take your shotgun. If he tries to open his mouth, bring it down on his -head."</p> - -<p>Promptly, she picked up the shotgun and stood with it raised. Pudgy -looked up at her, and winced.</p> - -<p>Wales crept back to the front of the store and looked out. The other -man out there seemed worried, holding his Venn gun high and looking -slowly all around the Diamond. That he was worried by Pudgy's absence, -Wales knew.</p> - -<p>The man out there got into cover behind the pedestal of the monument, -and waited. Waiting, obviously, for the man with the car to come back.</p> - -<p>Minutes passed. The twilight was deepening into the soft May darkness. -Suddenly Martha whispered.</p> - -<p>"Jay!"</p> - -<p>He swung around. Her face was a queer white blur in the darkness. -"What?"</p> - -<p>"I hear singing," she said. "Someone is singing, a way off."</p> - -<p>"Just the wind in the wires," he said. "There's no one in the whole -town but us—and them. You keep your eye on that fellow, I think we're -due for trouble soon."</p> - -<p>He waited again. From outside, he could hear the sound of the wind -rising and falling. Then a strange conviction crept over him.</p> - -<p>It was not the wind. It was the rise and fall of distant voices, many -of them. Now the breeze brought it through the night a little louder, -now it ebbed back to a murmur. Carefully, Wales opened the door a crack -to listen.</p> - -<p>He exclaimed, "It's from up on North Hill, but what in the world—"</p> - -<p>He suddenly crouched lower again, his pistol raised. Down the hill -along North Jefferson came the long green car, racing fast.</p> - -<p>It swung around the Diamond. The man in it leaned out and called. -The man behind the monument ran out to meet him, talking fast and -gesticulating.</p> - -<p>But the driver of the car pointed northward and shouted. Wales could -not see his face but he could hear the raw tone of his voice, and -caught the one final word, "—coming!"</p> - -<p>The other man leaped into the car, after a last look around the empty -Diamond. The car shot away down Washington, heading east.</p> - -<p>"Why, they've gone, run away!" Martha exclaimed. "They left their -partner here and—"</p> - -<p>Wales held up his hand. "Listen!"</p> - -<p>As the roar of the receding car died away, the sound of singing came -again—and this time it was louder, much louder, and there was a steady -throb of drums beneath it.</p> - -<p>It rolled down from the north and he thought now he could hear the -words of a chorus, endlessly repeated.</p> - -<p>"<i>Halle-lu-jah! Halle-lu-jah</i>—"</p> - -<p>Lights suddenly sprang into being up there on the crest of North -Jefferson Street hill. They were not steady lights, they were moving, -tossing and shaking, and there were dozens, scores of them. They were -torches.</p> - -<p>A long, thick snake of burning torches came down the wide street -into the dark and lifeless town. Wales could see no people, only the -torches, scores of them, hundreds of them. But he could hear the loud -chanting of the people who carried those lighted brands.</p> - -<p>"<i>Halle-lu-jah</i>—"</p> - -<p>Crash-crash-boom, thundered drums from the forefront of the river of -torches, and Wales felt a wild quickening of their beat and of the -chanting voices, that checked his breathing.</p> - -<p>Martha uttered a low cry. "Jay, it's the Brotherhood coming! The -fanatics coming <i>here</i> now, to—"</p> - -<p>The hair bristled on Wales' neck. She did not need to finish the -horrified exclamation. The nightmare shape of the looming event was -only too clear.</p> - -<p>From town to town the Brotherhood of Atonement marched, those weak, -crazed minds unhinged by the coming of Doomsday. Brighton Falls -they had burned, and Sharon, and God knows how many other deserted -towns. And now it was the turn of Castletown to be a sacrifice and an -atonement....</p> - -<p>He wanted to turn and flee from that mad, oncoming parade. But he did -not. He crouched, watching, and he felt Martha, beside him, shivering.</p> - -<p>"Jay, if they have Lee—he might be with them!"</p> - -<p>"That's what I'm hoping for," he whispered.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Now the torches were coming down into the Diamond, and now he could -see the people who carried them. They started around the oval, and the -tossing of the red burning brands was flashed back from the windows all -around, that shone like big eyes watching in amazement.</p> - -<p>First, ahead of the torches, marched a half-dozen men and women with -drums, beating a heavy, absolutely unvarying rhythm. After them came -the main mass. He thought there might be two to three hundred of them.</p> - -<p>Men, women, children. Torn and dusty clothes, unkempt hair, unshaven -faces, but eyes glittering with a wild, rapt emotion, voices shouting -the endless chorus of</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The Brotherhood of Atonement....</p> - -<p><i>Halle-LU-jah!</i></p></div> - -<p>These crazed fanatics were gripped by no religious passion. The -religious folk of the world had seen God's hand in the saving of -Earth's peoples by man's newly-won knowledge. But these shouting -marchers had gone back to dark barbarism, to pagan propitiation of a -threatening fate, back beyond all civilization.</p> - -<p>Boom-boom crashed the drums, right in front of the Dutton store, as the -van of the mad parade swept past, following a tightening path around -the oval, making room for more and more of the torch-bearers here in -the center of the old town. And presently they were all in the Diamond, -a packed mass of wild faces and shaken torches, all turned toward the -center where the monument stood.</p> - -<p>A man with a white face and burning eyes leaped up onto the pedestal of -the monument, and the drums banged louder and a great cry went up from -the Brotherhood. He began to speak, his voice shrill and high.</p> - -<p>"Jay, do you see Lee? I don't—"</p> - -<p>"No," Wales said. "He's not with them."</p> - -<p>From out there, across the waving torches, came the screeching voice. -"—burn the places of sin, and the powers of night and space will see -the shining signs of our Atonement, and withhold their wrath—"</p> - -<p>Martha said, "Oh, Jay, they're going to burn Castletown. Can't we stop -them, somehow—"</p> - -<p>He took her by the shoulders. She had had too much, but he could have -no hysteria now.</p> - -<p>"Martha, we can't stop them, they'd tear us to shreds! And what -<i>difference</i> does it make now? Don't you realize—in four months this -town and all towns will be destroyed anyway!"</p> - -<p>Their prisoner, back in the darkness, suddenly raised his voice. Wales -leaped back, pressed his pistol against the pudgy man's body.</p> - -<p>"You call out and you get it now!" Wales warned savagely.</p> - -<p>Pudgy looked up at him, and said hoarsely, "Are you crazy? Those -maniacs aren't friends of mine! They're going to burn this whole town -like they burned others—we got to get out of here!"</p> - -<p>The frantic fear in the man's voice was utterly sincere. And to Wales, -crouching beside the captive, came a shattering enlightenment.</p> - -<p>He said, "Then you and your pals aren't working for the Brotherhood? -Then it wasn't the Brotherhood that took Lee Kendrick, after all?"</p> - -<p>"They're maniacs!" said Pudgy, again. "For Christ's sake, Wales, are -you going to let them burn us alive?"</p> - -<p>Wales stooped, grabbed the man by the throat. "It's not the Brotherhood -who took Kendrick, then. All right—who was it? Who wants to see -millions of people trapped on Earth? Who sent you after me? <i>Who?</i>"</p> - -<p>Pudgy's voice turned raw and raging. "Get me out of here, and I'll tell -you. But if we stay here, we're goners."</p> - -<p>"You'll tell me right now!"</p> - -<p>Pudgy remained sullenly silent. Then, of a sudden, the single high -screeching voice out in the diamond ended, on a frenzied note.</p> - -<p><i>Boom-boom</i>, crashed out the drums again. The Brotherhood roared, as -with the single voice of a mighty beast. The men with torches began to -mill, to split off from the main mass, to run into the four main cross -streets, shaking their firebrands and shouting.</p> - -<p>One yelling woman applied her torch to the faded canvas awning in front -of the Electric Shoe Repair Parlor. The canvas blazed up, and the -drums rolled again.</p> - -<p>"Jay!" cried Martha.</p> - -<p>Wales forced Pudgy to his feet, faced him toward the front windows, and -the torch-blazing chaos out beyond them.</p> - -<p>"Martha and I are going, out the back way," Wales said. "We're leaving -<i>you</i> here tied and helpless—unless you tell!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VII</p> - - -<p>A throbbing, lurid light beat in through the front windows of the -store, as the flames across the Diamond swept up the fronts of old -buildings. The hoarse hallelujah-chorus of the Brotherhood, the -quickened booming of the drums, was louder. And the fiery light -illumined the bloodless, distorted face of their prisoner as he stared -up at Wales and Martha.</p> - -<p>Wales still felt the shock of terrible surprise. He had been so <i>sure</i> -that only the mad Brotherhood could possibly be behind the plot to -seize Kendrick, the ghastly scheme to keep millions of people on Earth -until Doomsday crashed down upon them. Who else but madmen would do -such a thing? Who else would have any motive?</p> - -<p>He didn't know. But their pudgy prisoner knew. And, even at the risk of -trapping Martha and himself in the holocaust of Castletown, he meant -to find out.</p> - -<p>"Please," panted Pudgy. "We haven't got a chance if we stay here -longer. I've seen these maniacs and their Atonements. They won't leave -a building standing here!"</p> - -<p>Wales looked at Martha's white face. "All right, Martha, we'll get -going. We'll leave this fellow here." He started to turn away.</p> - -<p>"No, it's murder!" screamed Pudgy. "You can't leave me here, my hands -tied—"</p> - -<p>"Then tell," Wales pressed. "Who seized Kendrick? Who's behind all -this?"</p> - -<p>Beads of sweat stood out on Pudgy's dough-white face. His eyes rolled -horribly, and then he said hoarsely,</p> - -<p>"Fairlie. John Fairlie. And others—"</p> - -<p>"Fairlie? The regional Evacuation Marshal? What about him?" Wales -demanded.</p> - -<p>"He—and friends of his, other Evacuation officials—they're the ones," -Pudgy said. "They've got Lee Kendrick. They're the ones that want a lot -of people left on Earth."</p> - -<p>Furious, Wales took their prisoner by his fat throat and shook him. -"All right, you had your chance," he raged. "And you tell us a brazen -lie like that. By God, we <i>are</i> leaving you—"</p> - -<p>Pudgy's voice rose almost to a scream. "It's the truth! You made me -tell you, now I've done it, and you won't believe me! There's a bunch -of them in it, I don't know how many. I know that besides Fairlie, -there's a couple of assistant Evacuation Marshals in other countries -and some minor officials and some others I don't know. I've seen them, -up near New York. It's where they've got Lee Kendrick. They'd kill me -for telling, and now I've told and you won't believe—"</p> - -<p>Martha said uncertainly, "Oh, Jay, maybe he is telling the truth—maybe -that's where Lee is!"</p> - -<p>Wales exclaimed, "Don't you see what a lie it is? John Fairlie is one -of the men charged with evacuating all the people off Earth—why would -he and other Evacuation officials want to trick millions into staying -here?"</p> - -<p>"Because they don't want them on Mars, because they think they're scum -and ought to be left on Earth!" Pudgy cried. "I heard them talk, didn't -I? Talk about how hard it's going to be for years on Mars with too many -people there, already. And about how it'd be better for everyone if a -lot of ignorant crumb-bums and their families weren't taken to Mars to -be a load on everyone else. Didn't I hear them—"</p> - -<p>Wales' rage at their prisoner receded, swept away by an icy tide of -terrible doubt that despite himself was rising now in his mind.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He remembered things, now. He remembered Fairlie's grim face as he'd -spoken broodingly of how hard a life it would be on Mars, with every -one of Earth's millions there. He remembered the bitterly contemptuous -way in which Fairlie—and Bliss and Chaumez and Holst—had spoken of -the looters, the ignorant resisters, the crazy folk, whom it would be -difficult to evacuate from Earth.</p> - -<p>"Only fanatics would want to trap millions on Earth—" He, Wales, had -said that. He'd been thinking then of the Brotherhood. But suppose -there were other and more terrible fanatics? Fanatics who ruthlessly -decided that the more backward and ignorant of Earth's millions would -only be a burden in the hard years ahead, on Mars—and who secretly -planned to trick those millions into staying until it was too late?</p> - -<p>Such things had been planned and done before, by egotistical, -self-appointed guardians of the public interest! And if—<i>if</i> this was -the truth, it explained why he, Wales, had been followed, it explained -why Fairlie had made him suspect the Brotherhood, it explained many -things—</p> - -<p><i>Halle-lu-jah!</i> roared the chorus of howling voices, out in the -streets. And the ruddy, throbbing light increased in intensity suddenly.</p> - -<p>"Jay!" cried Martha, in tones of horror. He whirled around.</p> - -<p>The front of the hardware store was on fire, with flames writhing -around the edges of the windows, outside.</p> - -<p>"You've got us killed!" sobbed Pudgy.</p> - -<p>Wales, his thoughts now a chaos, realized that he dared delay no -longer. He picked up the Venn gun, and then yanked their prisoner to -his feet.</p> - -<p>"Come on, Martha," he said. "Out that back window."</p> - -<p>Pudgy stumbled awkwardly, his hands still bound behind him. They -hurried back through the old store, with the firelight beating brighter -from behind them, and got through the window into the alley.</p> - -<p>To their left flames shot skyward with a roar from the Penn Hotel, -showers of sparks sailing into the darkness. A glance told Wales that -the Brotherhood had fires going along whole blocks of Mercer and South -Jefferson Streets.</p> - -<p>"This way," he cried, starting down the alley that ran southward -between the streets. He had Pudgy by the shoulder, but there was no -need to make their terrified prisoner hurry.</p> - -<p>Wales put everything from his mind, but the necessity of escape from -the holocaust of this latest flaming Atonement. And the new suspicion -in his mind was so shocking that he didn't want to think of it until he -had to.</p> - -<p>He knew the alleys and streets of Castletown, even in darkness. And -they had light to guide them—more and more light throbbing up into the -night sky behind them.</p> - -<p>He cut across Mill Street, and on up southeastward to a residential -street of cottages. Here, he gave Martha his pistol and had her stand -guard over Pudgy while he himself looked for a car.</p> - -<p>He found one, in the garage attached to the first cottage. He had to -break through the house itself to enter the garage. The rooms were just -as someone had left them, the furniture, the rugs, all the things they -could not take with them in Evacuation, still in place.</p> - -<p>Again, Wales felt a pang. Someone had toiled and planned for this -little house and the things in it. And now it would not even endure -until the common Doomsday—it would perish in the senseless flames.</p> - -<p>He drove out into the street, and pushed Pudgy into the back seat. -Taking no chances, he tied their prisoner's ankles too. Then, with -Martha beside him, Wales drove fast up the steep streets southeast.</p> - -<p>"Jay—look!" she cried, when they reached a crest. She was looking -back. He stopped the car, and looked back with her.</p> - -<p>The whole downtown section of Castletown blazed high toward the stars. -The wind whirled sparks away in burning clouds, and a great pall of -smoke lay toward them.</p> - -<p>Southward from the center of town moved a river of torches. And from -those streets, only now just kindling, above the crackle of flames came -the distant boom of the Brotherhood drums, and their rising and falling -chant.</p> - -<p>Martha was crying. He put his arm around her, and turned her away from -the sight.</p> - -<p>"It doesn't mean anything, Martha. It would have only lasted the few -months till Doomsday, anyway."</p> - -<p>Yet he could understand her emotion. It had been a long time since he -had lived in Castletown. But he wished his last look at the old town -had not been like this.</p> - -<p>He turned toward Pudgy. "Now you can talk. Let's have it."</p> - -<p>Pudgy said sullenly, "I've already talked too much. You didn't believe -me, anyway."</p> - -<p>Wales' face hardened. He said, "All right. The flames will reach this -residential section in an hour. We'll leave you here."</p> - -<p>It was enough. Their prisoner's doughy face seemed to fall apart a -little.</p> - -<p>"All right!" he cried. "But what's the use telling you when you just -say I'm lying?"</p> - -<p>"Nevertheless, give it to me from the first," Wales ordered.</p> - -<p>Pudgy said, "Look, this whole scheme to keep the crummy no-goods here -on Earth—that wasn't <i>my</i> idea. Five years ago, when they were first -organizing Operation Doomsday, I got a job in the Evacuation Police. -I did all right. Pretty soon I was a sergeant. Then—I began to hear -things about the Evacuation from one of the other sergeants."</p> - -<p>The man paused, then went on. "Eugene—that was my friend in the -Police—told me that Fairlie and some other Evacuation officials needed -some men for special secret police work. Said the work was so important -and so secret nobody must know about it. I said okay, I'd like to be -one of these special secret Evacuation Police. So they took me in. And -Fairlie himself talked to me and a couple of others."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales, watching Pudgy narrowly, saw him mop the sweat off his -brow. "Fairlie told us, that they weren't going to be able to get -<i>everybody</i> off Earth before Doomsday. He said it was impossible, there -was bound to be millions would get left. He told us that he and some of -the other officials in key places in the Evacuation had decided that -since they were going to have to leave people, it'd be better to leave -a lot of crummy hillbillies and share croppers and ignorant trash. He -said they'd only make things tougher for everyone on Mars, anyway. It -was better, Fairlie said, to weed them out and leave them here."</p> - -<p>An icy feeling of terrible conviction began to grow in Wales, despite -all his attempts to repel it.</p> - -<p>He'd heard just that kind of talk, before. Not openly, but in sly -whispers and hints. People who felt sure of escaping from Earth -themselves had expressed aristocratic regret that <i>all</i> Earth's people -must be saved, that they must be burdened on the new world by the -"backward."</p> - -<p>No one had quite dared to advocate such ideas publicly. But there were -those who secretly held them. And those who did, very well might have -secretly decided to see that the "useless, backward" ones <i>didn't</i> -escape Earth. Fairlie—and others like him—could be among them—</p> - -<p>"Fairlie told us," Pudgy went on, "that they wouldn't prevent anyone -leaving that wanted to leave. But, he said, lots of the dumber ones -wouldn't want to leave if things were managed right, and that would -solve the whole problem."</p> - -<p>Martha interrupted. "But my brother—what of him? You said they had -Lee?"</p> - -<p>Pudgy nodded. "I was coming to that. Fairlie called some of us in real -worried one night and told us we had to go to Castletown and grab Lee -Kendrick. He said they'd been sounding Kendrick out about helping along -the scheme, and that Kendrick wouldn't play ball."</p> - -<p>"You mean," Wales said quickly, "that Fairlie and his group wanted -Kendrick to <i>help</i> them trap the 'backward ones' here on Earth?"</p> - -<p>Pudgy's head bobbed. "Near as I got it, that was it. Kendrick could -make a statement kind of throwing doubt on whether Doomsday would -happen—and the boobs would decide to stay. But I guess when Fairlie -sounded him out a little, Kendrick was horrified at the idea, and -Fairlie had to cover up fast and say he didn't mean it."</p> - -<p>Martha clutched Wales' arm. "Jay, <i>that's</i> why Lee was so terribly -worried, so anxious—that's why he wouldn't leave Earth! He was afraid -such a scheme was really being planned!"</p> - -<p>Wales could imagine that. He knew Lee Kendrick, and he knew that even a -breath of suspicion of a plan so ruthless and terrible would have had a -shattering effect on him.</p> - -<p>"So," Pudgy finished, "before Kendrick could get too suspicious and -start talking, we went to Castletown and grabbed him, and took him to -New York. And his disappearance was nearly as good as his statement -would have been—the boobs all figured Kendrick hadn't left Earth, so -they would not."</p> - -<p>"But he's alive?" Martha cried. "They haven't killed him."</p> - -<p>Pudgy shrugged. "Not so far. Fairlie still wants him to make that -statement, so all the scum will feel sure it's safe and will stay on -Earth till too late."</p> - -<p>Wales suddenly felt a revulsion from all that he had heard, from the -shocking nightmare quality of it.</p> - -<p>"It's not true, it <i>can't</i> be true!" he exclaimed. "Martha, this man -had to tell some story to save his skin, and that's all he's done!"</p> - -<p>Her face was white in the distant firelight. "Jay, people have done -things like that, terrible as it is. They <i>have</i> killed millions, in -the past, for just such reasons."</p> - -<p>He knew that, too, and it was a knowledge he fought against—struggling -against a cold conviction that he could not quite down.</p> - -<p>"If Lee is still alive, Lee could tell us!" she was saying. "If we -could reach him, rescue him—"</p> - -<p>Wales turned back to the sullen-faced Pudgy. "You said that Fairlie and -the others were holding Kendrick near New York. Just where?"</p> - -<p>"Where he's right handy and near, yet where nobody can walk in on him," -said Pudgy. "Bedloe's Island, in New York harbor. You know, the old -Statue of Liberty island."</p> - -<p>Wales thought, his mind a turmoil. Now the flames were marching up the -hillside streets toward them, and now the sound of drums and distant -chanting came from away southward.</p> - -<p>The Brotherhood were leaving Castletown, on their way to make some -other lifeless city a fiery sign of their atonement.</p> - -<p>"I still," said Wales, "can't believe it. But we'll prove it, one way -or another. We'll go back to New York, and see if Lee is really on that -island."</p> - -<p>"You haven't got a prayer!" said Pudgy, his voice rising into a high -whine. "They've got him guarded there."</p> - -<p>"And you," Wales said, "can tell us just where the guards are and how -best to pass them. Yes, you're going with us."</p> - -<p>He ignored the man's frantic objections, and started the car. He headed -eastward, to skirt the flaming city at a safe distance.</p> - -<p>The danger ahead, the hunters who would still be seeking him, Wales -ignored. What was there anywhere but danger, on an Earth rocking toward -Doomsday?</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VIII</p> - - -<p>Thunder rolled and bellowed across the night sky, mounting to a -deafening crescendo. Up into the starry heavens rose a great black -bulk, climbing starward on a column of fading fire. And hardly had -its echoes ebbed than the dull explosions came again, and another -rocket-ship took off in the unending Marslift.</p> - -<p>Crouching with Martha in the darkness of an old pier, with the -murmuring black vagueness of the Upper Harbor in front of them, Wales -looked over his shoulder at the fiery finger that pointed out to man's -new home in the sky. He turned back to Martha, as she whispered to him. -She was staring out over the dark water.</p> - -<p>"I don't see any lights, Jay. Not one."</p> - -<p>"They wouldn't show lights," he said. "They'd not advertise the fact -that they're there."</p> - -<p>"<i>If</i> they're there," she said. "If Lee's there."</p> - -<p>He took her roughly by the shoulders. "Martha, don't lose your nerve -now. Think what depends on this."</p> - -<p>He jerked his head in the direction of the distant New Jersey -Spaceport, as still another Mars-bound ship rode up in majestic thunder -and flame.</p> - -<p>"There should be twice as many ships, twice as many evacuees, going out -now as there are! All the people who doubt, who hold back, who refuse -to go—Lee is the key to saving them."</p> - -<p>"But if we only had <i>help</i>, Jay! The authorities—"</p> - -<p>Wales said, "Fairlie, as regional Evacuation Marshal, <i>is</i> the top -local authority here now. And don't you see—if that story is true, -Fairlie is the last man we dare let know we're here."</p> - -<p>He took her hand. "Come on. We've still got to find a skiff of some -kind."</p> - -<p>They started along the dark waterfront. They were, Wales figured, -somewhere in the southern Jersey City docks. Out in the dark harbor lay -Bedloe's Island, and it was past midnight and there was little time.</p> - -<p>He and Martha, with their prisoner, had come across Pennsylvania by -unused, deserted back roads during the day. The circuitous route had -taken time, and a few hours of sleep snatched in a thicket off the road -had taken more time. But Wales had not dared to risk being seen.</p> - -<p>If Pudgy's story was true, Fairlie was the enemy. Fairlie was the -man who had sent hunters after him. And it would be so easy for -the Evacuation Marshal, with his regional authority, to have Wales -proclaimed an outlaw on some phony charge, and set every Evacuation -Police post around New York looking for him.</p> - -<p>They dared seek aid of no one. If Kendrick was a prisoner on the little -island, they must attempt the rescue themselves. And that would not be -easy, judging from what Pudgy had said.</p> - -<p>Wales had driven into an alley in deserted Jersey City, and had dragged -their bound prisoner into an empty store.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Wales, "we're going to leave you here."</p> - -<p>"Tied hand and foot?" cried Pudgy. "Why not kill me and get it over -with? This town is closed out, I could yell all day and nobody would -hear me. I'll starve! No one will ever come—"</p> - -<p>"<i>We'll</i> come, and free you," Wales said. "After we've got Kendrick -off that island. But of course, if we fail, if they get us, then we'll -never be back. I want you to think about that."</p> - -<p>Pudgy had thought about it, and it was clear that he did not like that -thought at all. When it had sunk in, Wales said,</p> - -<p>"Now you tell us all you know about the set-up on that island. How many -guards, where they usually are, how they're armed, where Kendrick is -kept. Everything. If you brief us well enough, we <i>may</i> succeed—and -then we'll be back for you."</p> - -<p>Pudgy had got the point. He had talked long and rapidly, feverishly -giving Wales every scrap of information he possessed.</p> - -<p>They had left him there, and had come by foot to the waterfront, and -now if they had a boat, the island was only a little way ahead.</p> - -<p>But there was no boat, not a canoe even, along these dark docks. Wales -led the way farther along the waterfront. He dared not flash a light, -and they might search all night amid these dark piers without success.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He was beginning to despair, when they came to a small boatyard. He -found a skiff by stumbling over it in the dark. There were no oars, -but he soon forced the door of the dark office-shack and found those.</p> - -<p>"Now before we start, Martha—" He was fitting the oars into locks that -he'd made as silent as possible by rag mufflings. "—when we reach the -island, I want you to stay on the shore and wait."</p> - -<p>"I'm not afraid—" she began, but Wales cut her short.</p> - -<p>"Listen, it's not that. I'll be in the dark there. If I have to shoot, -I want to be sure I'm not shooting you by mistake."</p> - -<p>He pushed out onto the water, and bent to the oars, rowing steadily. -The tide was running, and he had to allow for that, but there was only -a little choppiness on the Upper Harbor.</p> - -<p>Wales thought again how unreal everything on Earth seemed by now. And -this scene most of all! This harbor had once been the busiest in the -world, and by night the lights of shipping, of docks, of bridges, had -flared everywhere, with the electric glow of Manhattan blazing over -everything.</p> - -<p>And now there was silence and darkness on the waters. All the millions -who had lived around these shores had left Earth long ago, and their -cities were dark and still. Only the downtown tip of Manhattan still -showed patterns of lighted windows, where the ceaseless activities of -Operation Doomsday centered.</p> - -<p>Wales rowed on, and then rested his oars a moment and turned and peered -ahead in the darkness. He saw a lofty shadow now against the stars, and -knew that it was the great Statue. He lifted the oars again, rowing now -with infinite care to make no sound.</p> - -<p><i>Brr-rumble—oom—oom—oom—</i></p> - -<p>Up into the sky westward rose another of the mighty Marslift -rocket-ships, and then in quick succession, two more.</p> - -<p>The flare of them in the heavens sent a wild, shaking light over the -waters, over the little skiff.</p> - -<p>"Get down!" Wales whispered frantically, and he and Martha crouched low -in the little craft.</p> - -<p>The <i>oom—oom—oom</i> faded away in muttering echoes. Wales could but -pray that they had not been seen from the island ahead, and row on.</p> - -<p>He hoped desperately that there would be no more rocket-ships taking -off, no more flares in the sky, until he reached the island. It seemed -to him that he rowed eternally, and got nowhere.</p> - -<p>Then, in the darkness, Martha whispered warning. The skiff bumped land. -Wales made out a low bank rising above them. He picked up the Venn gun -and climbed ashore.</p> - -<p>He whispered, "Stay in the skiff, Martha. You can push off if I fail." -And added quickly, "Don't you see, if I do fail, you'll be the last -hope left."</p> - -<p>He gave her no time to argue. He gripped the Venn gun, and started -through the darkness.</p> - -<p>There was no doubt about directions. Huge now against the stars loomed -the Statue. And in it, if Pudgy had told truth, were Lee Kendrick—and -the four of Fairlie's secret police who guarded him.</p> - -<p>Wales crossed the park with his stubby gun held high. The grass was -tall and ragged from long lack of care. And there was not a sound, or a -light, on the little island.</p> - -<p>He circled around to the front of the Statue, and stared up at the -parapet of the mighty pedestal, and the entrance to the giant figure.</p> - -<p>Nothing. No light, no sound of movement.</p> - -<p>Wales felt a chill of dismay. He had not realized how much he had begun -to hope, until now.</p> - -<p><i>Brr-rumble—</i></p> - -<p>He heard the first preliminary roar from the west, and immediately he -dropped flat behind a shrub.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The full thunderous diapason of take-off broke around him, and the -flaming exclamation point in the heavens blazed brightly.</p> - -<p>And Wales saw a man, with a gun under his arm, standing on the parapet.</p> - -<p>The flare of light died, and the rocket-roar grumbled away.</p> - -<p>But now, as he rose to his feet, Wales felt a wild triumph. The guard -was there, as Pudgy had said, and that meant—</p> - -<p>He moved forward, and started up the steps. He was more than halfway up -them, moving softly, when he heard a movement above.</p> - -<p>Wales froze. The guard above might not have heard him. But he could -take no chances, with all that depended on him now.</p> - -<p>He crouched waiting on the steps, the Venn gun raised. It seemed to him -that hours went by.</p> - -<p><i>Rumble-boom-boom—</i></p> - -<p>As the distant rocket-roar crashed again, as the column of fire -streaked across the sky, by its light Wales saw the man on the parapet -peering down toward him with his gun alertly raised.</p> - -<p>Instantly, Wales shot him. He shot to kill.</p> - -<p>The man dropped. Wales raced on up the steps, hoping that the brief -burst of his Venn gun would not have been heard in the rocket-roar.</p> - -<p>But a door above swung open, and light spilled out from inside the -base of the giant Statue. Two men appeared in the doorway, drawing -pistols.</p> - -<p>"What—" one cried.</p> - -<p>Wales fired, a prolonged burst. He had no intention whatever of taking -extra risks by sparing life. These men, and the men they worked for, -would have taken the lives of millions. There was no mercy in him.</p> - -<p>One of the two in the doorway fell. The other, blood welling from his -shoulder, tried to shift his pistol to his other hand.</p> - -<p>Wales, racing up to them, heard pounding footsteps inside the statue, -and he took no time to shoot again. He clubbed the Venn gun's barrel -down over the head of the wounded man, and sprang over him and the dead -one in the doorway, right into the base of the lofty figure.</p> - -<p>A light burned in here. He ran to the foot of the winding stair that -led upward. Frantic feet running up above him made reverberating -echoes. He glimpsed a pair of legs on the stair—</p> - -<p>He shot, and the legs crumpled and a man came sliding back down the -stair, screaming and trying to aim his gun. Wales triggered again, and -when the scream of richocheting steel and the echoes of gunfire died -away, there was silence unbroken.</p> - -<p>He started running up the stair. In a minute he heard Martha's voice -calling, from down beneath.</p> - -<p>"Jay!"</p> - -<p>He shouted back down, and ran on, his heart pounding, his lungs pumping.</p> - -<p>He came into the grotesque room of angled steel that was the inside -of the giant head. There was a carefully shaded light here. And a man -huddled on the floor near it, shackled to the wall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales turned the light full on him. A bearded face looked at him, with -wild dark eyes—a face he could hardly recognize.</p> - -<p>"Lee?" he said. And then suddenly, he was sure. "Lee Kendrick."</p> - -<p>Kendrick said, hesitantly, "Why it's Jay Wales. But you were on -Mars. How—" And then Kendrick's eyes suddenly flamed and he shouted -hoarsely. "Wales, you don't know what's happened, what they're -planning—"</p> - -<p>"I know," Wales said, stooping by him. "Take it easy. Please—"</p> - -<p>Kendrick clutched him, babbling, pleading. Not until Martha came in, -and stooped beside her brother, crying, could Wales get away.</p> - -<p>He said, "Try to quiet down. There must be a key to these shackles -somewhere."</p> - -<p>He went back down the stair. The man he had shot in the shoulder and -then stunned, was now stirring and groaning.</p> - -<p>Wales made a rough bandage for the bleeding shoulder, and then tied the -man's wrists with his own belt. He thought it would hurt, when the man -came to. He hoped it would.</p> - -<p>He searched pockets until he found keys, and then went back up. -Kendrick seemed to have got control of himself. He talked feverishly as -Wales tried keys.</p> - -<p>"There's still time before Doomsday, isn't there?" he pleaded. "Still -time to get everybody off Earth? It isn't too late?"</p> - -<p>"I think there may be time enough," Wales said. He got the shackles -unlocked, and helped Kendrick to his feet. "But we've still Fairlie to -reckon with."</p> - -<p>Kendrick broke into raging curses, and Wales stopped him sharply. -"Cut it, Lee. I feel exactly the same way about it but we've no time -for hysteria. It'll be tricky trying to get to Fairlie in his own -stronghold, over in New York. Tell me—has he come here often?"</p> - -<p>"He hasn't been here for two weeks," Kendrick said. "He—and Bliss and -the others in it with him—you know what they wanted of me? They wanted -me to issue statements saying that Nereus might not hit Earth after -all. They said they'd leave me here for Doomsday, if I didn't. Damn -them—"</p> - -<p>Again, Wales calmed him down. "Those guards didn't go over to New York -to report to him, did they? Did they use radiophone?"</p> - -<p>Kendrick looked startled. "Why, yes, they did. I've heard them. But I -don't know what secret wavelength they used."</p> - -<p>"Maybe," said Wales tightly, "we can find that out. Martha, you help -him down the stairs. A few steps at a time, till his legs steady."</p> - -<p>He hurried back down again. The wounded man he had tied up had -recovered consciousness. He sat, his face a pallor of pain, and looked -up at Wales with wide, fearful eyes.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Wales softly. "I'd love to kill you. You're right about -that. But maybe I won't. What's your name?"</p> - -<p>"Mowler."</p> - -<p>"You know how to call Fairlie, on the portable radiophone? Well, you're -going to call him. You're going to tell him just what I say."</p> - -<p>By the time he found the radiophone and brought it, Kendrick was coming -shakily down the last steps with Martha steadying him.</p> - -<p>Wales asked Mowler, "What's the wavelength for Fairlie's private -phone?"</p> - -<p>Mowler, looking up into his face, shivered and told him. He set the -dial.</p> - -<p>Then he told the wounded man what to say. He finished, "Don't do it -wrong."</p> - -<p>Again looking into Wales' face, Mowler said, "I won't."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Wales touched the call-button. He held the instrument in front of -Mowler. And presently a voice came from it.</p> - -<p>"Fairlie speaking."</p> - -<p>"Mowler here," said Mowler. "Our guest wants to see you. He says he's -ready to make that statement now—any statement you want."</p> - -<p>"About time," growled Fairlie's voice. "All right, I'll come."</p> - -<p>Wales switched off the instrument and took it away. He went out on the -parapet, and waited in the darkness with the Venn gun in his hands.</p> - -<p>Martha and Kendrick came out, and as another Marslift ship flamed up -across the sky, he saw that her face was white and strained.</p> - -<p>She said, "Don't kill him, Jay."</p> - -<p>He said, without turning, "The Evacuation has been delayed, and there -may not be enough time to make up that delay. We may not get everyone -off Earth in time. And every one of those who are left to face -Doomsday will have been killed by Fairlie and his pals."</p> - -<p>"I know," she said. "But don't, Jay."</p> - -<p>He would make no promise, or answer. He waited. And they heard the purr -of the fast power-boat, less than an hour later.</p> - -<p>Dawn was gray in the eastern sky when Fairlie, and one armed man in -Evacuation Police uniform, came up the steps to the pedestal.</p> - -<p>Wales stepped out, the Venn gun levelled, and Kendrick came out behind -him.</p> - -<p>Fairlie stopped. The Police officer with him made an uncertain sound -and movement.</p> - -<p>"Don't be stupid," Fairlie said. "He's got us cold."</p> - -<p>He came up a few more steps. He looked up at Wales, and there was in -his powerful face an immense disgust.</p> - -<p>"You're proud, aren't you, Wales?" said Fairlie. "You think you've -done something big and gallant. You've saved, or tried to save, a lot -of human lives and that makes you happy." He suddenly raged. "Human -refuse! The weak, the unfit, the no-damned-good, that we've been -saddled with all our lives here on Earth—and now we must take them -with us to drag us all down on Mars."</p> - -<p>"Don't, Jay," whispered Martha, and her voice was a painful sound.</p> - -<p>Fairlie said:</p> - -<p>"Let him. I'd sooner go out now as see all human civilization dragged -down out there by the weight of the useless rabble who would be better -dead."</p> - -<p>Wales said, "You're so sure, just who should live and who should die. -You felt such a big man, making secret decisions like that, didn't you? -Fairlie, who knows what's best for everybody. You and your pals liked -that feeling, didn't you? There have always been characters like you—"</p> - -<p>He paused, and then he said, "We're going over to New York. We're going -to have Kendrick tell his story to all the millions still on Earth, and -it's a story that two of your own men will back up. We're going to try -to get every last soul off Earth before Doomsday. But if we don't—"</p> - -<p>"If you don't?" sneered Fairlie.</p> - -<p>"You'll know it," said Wales, and now he was shaking. "Because you, -Fairlie, will not leave Earth till every last soul is evacuated. If any -human being faces Doomsday here, you'll face it right with him."</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IX</p> - - -<p>Over New York there hung in the sky a new moon, big and red and -terrifying.</p> - -<p>Once it had been a mere track, on an astronomical photo, a figure in a -calculation. Once it had been a threat, but an abstract one. Now it was -real at last. Week by week, it had grown from a spark to a speck to a -little moon, and now Kendrick's World was rushing in fast toward the -fatal rendezvous with its bigger, sister world.</p> - -<p>Wales sat at his desk in the office high in the UN tower, and looked -out the window at the skyscrapers looming strange in the bloody light. -There was a great silence everywhere. The frantic thunder of the -Marslift was stilled at last. The last-but-one rockets had left at -dusk, and now as night advanced it seemed that the whole Earth was -hushed and waiting.</p> - -<p>He felt a weariness that smothered all happiness of success. For they -<i>had</i> succeeded, in these four frantic months. After Lee Kendrick had -told his story to the world, after the plotters who had ruthlessly -condemned millions "for the good of the race" had been exposed and -arrested, those millions of dubious folk had suddenly felt the full -panicky shock of truth, had realized at last that Doomsday was real.</p> - -<p>They had poured into New York, in fear-driven mobs that could hardly be -handled. And Wales, as the hastily appointed new Evacuation Marshal, -had felt in his soul that it was too late, that some would surely be -left.</p> - -<p>He had reckoned without that quality in human beings that draws their -greatest strength out of peril. The Marslift had been speeded up, -speeded up farther, speeded up until rocket-crews fainted of fatigue at -their posts. But it had, at last, been done....</p> - -<p>The door opened, and Martha came across the office to where Wales sat -hunched and weary with his hands spread out on the empty desk.</p> - -<p>"It's time, Jay," she said. "Lee and the others are waiting."</p> - -<p>He looked slowly up at her. "We got them all off," he said.</p> - -<p>"Yes. We got them all off."</p> - -<p>"About one thing," he said, "Fairlie was right. It'll be hard on Mars -for us, harder because of all those last millions. But I don't think -anyone will ever complain."</p> - -<p>He thought of the people who had streamed through New York, into the -Marslift rockets, these last weeks and days.</p> - -<p>He thought of Sam Lanterman and his people from Pittsburgh, and -Lanterman complaining, "Hell, I got to own a whole city and what -happens—I get scared out of it! Oh well, I guess it won't be so bad -out there."</p> - -<p>Martha touched his shoulder gently. "Come, Jay."</p> - -<p>He got to his feet and walked heavily with her to the lift.</p> - -<p>They went down through the silent, empty building to the empty street. -Empty, except for the car in which Kendrick and the two others waited, -looking up silently at the crimson face of the thing that was coming -fast, fast, toward Earth.</p> - -<p>The car bore them fast through the empty streets, and the lifeless -metropolis fell behind them and they rushed across a countryside -already wearing a strange and ominous new aspect, to the Spaceport.</p> - -<p>The last rocket waited, a silvery tower flashing back the red light -from the sky. They got out of the car and walked toward it.</p> - -<p>Hollenberg had won the honor of being the last rocket-captain to leave -Earth. But he did not look as though he enjoyed that honor now.</p> - -<p>"We're ready," he said.</p> - -<p>Wales asked, "Is Fairlie aboard?"</p> - -<p>Hollenberg nodded grimly. "Aboard, and locked up. He was the last -evacuee taken on, as per orders."</p> - -<p>They stood, looking at each other. It came to Wales what was the -matter. They stood upon Earth, and it was the last time that they might -ever stand upon it.</p> - -<p>He said harshly, "If we're ready, let's go."</p> - -<p>The rocket-ship bore them skyward on wings of flame and thunder, and an -Earth empty of man lay waiting.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A million miles out in space, they watched from the observation port. -They could see the planetoid only as a much smaller, dark mass against -the blue, beautiful sphere of Earth.</p> - -<p>"One minute, fifteen seconds," said Kendrick, in a dry, level voice.</p> - -<p>Martha sobbed, and hid her face against Wales' shoulder, and he held -her close.</p> - -<p>"Thirty seconds."</p> - -<p>And all Wales could think of was the cities and their silent streets, -the little houses carefully locked and shuttered, the quiet country -roads and old trees and fields, with the red moon looming over them, -coming down upon them, closer, closer—</p> - -<p>"She's struck," said Kendrick. And then, "Look—look—"</p> - -<p>Wales saw. The blue sphere of Earth had suddenly changed, white steam -laced with leaping flames enwrapped it, puffing out from it. Giant -winds tore the steam and he glimpsed tortured continents buckling, -cracking, mountains rising—</p> - -<p>He held Martha close, and watched until he could watch no more, and -turned away. Kendrick, with his telescope set up, was talking rapidly.</p> - -<p>"The continental damage isn't too bad. The seas are all steam now, but -they'll condense again in time. Terrific volcanoes, but they'll not -last too long. In time, it'll cool down—"</p> - -<p>In time, Wales thought. In their time? Maybe not until their children's -time?</p> - -<p>He looked ahead, at the red spark of Mars, the world of refuge. It -would be hard living on Mars, yes, for all the millions of men. But -there were other worlds in space, and they had the knowledge and the -ships. He thought they would go farther than Mars, much farther. He -thought that they could not guess now, how far.</p> - -<p>But someday, they or their children would come back to old Earth again. -Of that, he was very sure.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST CALL FOR DOOMSDAY! ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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