Bronsome Beta - After Worlds Collide Part 13

CHAPTER XII.

A SURPRISING REFUGEE.

Tony leaped over the side of the trailer in which he had been standing near Hendron's litter.

He ran forward. "What is it?"

The driver of the truck-Von Beitz-leaned out in the Stygian dark.

"We saw a light ahead!" he whispered.

"Light?"

"Light.... Light ahead!" The word ran among the pa.s.sengers.

"Where?" Tony asked.

"Over the hills."

Tony strained his eyes; and against the aurora and the stars he saw a series of summits. He could even see the metal road that wound over the hills, gleaming faintly. But there was no light.

Not a sound emerged from the fifty human beings packed in the caravan behind.

The wind blew-a raw wind. Then there was a soft, sighing ululation.

Tony gripped Von Beitz' arm. "What was that?"

"G.o.d knows."

They strained their eyes.

Tony saw it, then: a shape-a lightless and incomprehensible shape, moving slowly on the gleaming surface of the road-toward them.

"See!" His voice shook.

Von Beitz jumped from his seat behind the wheel. He stood beside Tony.

"Don't see anything."

Tony pointed ahead. "Something. Dipped into a valley. There!"

Again the soft moaning sound. Again the meaningless shape topped a rise and slithered along the road toward them. Its course was crooked, and suggested the motion of an animal that was sniffing its way along.

"Mein Gott!" Von Beitz had seen it.

"It looks"-Duquesne had come up behind them-"like a snuffing dog."

"A dog-as big as that?"

Duquesne shrugged, and murmured to Tony: "It comes this way on the road. We must meet it. Perhaps it is an infernal machine. An enemy scout."

Tony reached into the front compartment of the truck and brought out two rifles. Then he stuffed three grenades into his pocket. He turned to the trailer.

"Vanderbilt!" he whispered.

"Yes, Tony!"

"Something's coming toward us on the road. We're going up to meet it. You're in charge here. If I fire-one, two, one- that means try to rush through on full power-without stopping for us."

"Right. Bing-bing-bing-bing-and we lunge."

Tony, Duquesne and Von Beitz began to hurry along the road.

They went to a point about three hundred yards from the trailers. There they waited. The ululation was louder now.

"Sounds like an animal," Von Beitz whispered nervously.

"I hope to G.o.d it is!" Duquesne murmured reverently.

Then it topped a nearer hill. It was a bulk in the dark. It wavered along the road at the pace of a man running.

"Machinery!" Tony said softly.

"An engine!" Duquesne murmured simultaneously.

"Ready!" Tony sad. "I'll challenge it when its gets near. If it goes on, we'll bomb it."

They waited.

Slowly, along the road toward them, the thing came. They knew presently that it was a vehicle-a vehicle slowly and crazily driven. It loomed out of the night, and Tony stood up at the roadside.

"Stop or we'll blow you up!"

He yelled the words.

At the same time he took the pin of a bomb between his teeth.

The bulk slewed, swerved, slowed. There was a click, and the curious engine-sound ceased.

"I'll give up!" It was a woman's voice.

Tony shot a flashlight-beam at the object. It was one of the large vans the Bronson Betans had used in their cities. Its strange sound was explained by its condenser-battery-run motor.

From it stepped a girl.

Duquesne switched on another light. There was no one else in the van.

"Sacra nom!" he said.

The girl was in breeches and a leather coat. She began to speak.

"You can't blame me for trying-anyway."

'Trying what?" Tony asked, in an odd and mystified tone.

"Are you Rodonover?" she asked.

Tony's skin p.r.i.c.kled. He stepped up to the girl. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"

"You're not Rodonover! You're-oh, G.o.d! You're the Other People!" she said. Tony noticed now that her accent was British. And he was suddenly sure that she did not belong to Hendron's camp, or to Ransdell's. She had not been in Michigan. She had not come to Bronson Beta with them. But her use of the phrase Other People startled him.

"We come from earth," he said. "We're Americans."

She swayed dazedly, and Williamson took her arm.

"Better duck the lights," Tony said.

They were in the dark again.

The girl sniffled and shook herself in a little shuddering way, and suddenly poured out a babble of words to which they listened with astonishment.

"I've been a prisoner-or something like it-since-the destruction of earth. To-day I escaped in this van. I'd been running it. That was my job. I knew you were somewhere out here, and I wanted to tell you about us."

"We'll walk back," Tony said. "Can we pa.s.s that thing?"

Von Beitz looked. "Ja," he said. He had never spoken German to them before, but now in his intense excitement, he was using his mother tongue.

Tony took the girl's arm. "We're Americans. You seem to know about us. Please try to explain yourself."

"I will." She paused, and thought. They walked toward the silent, waiting train. "You know that other s.p.a.ce-ships left earth besides yours?"

Tony said grimly: "We do."

"You've been attacked. Of course. One ship left from Eastern Asia. Its crew were mixed nationalities."

"We know that."

"They're living in a city-a city that belonged to the original inhabitants of this place-north of here."

"And we know that too."

"Good. A ship also left the Alps. An English ship."

"So-"

"I was on that ship. The Eastern Asiatic expedition came through safely. We came down in a fog. We fell into a lake. Half of us, nearly, were drowned. The Russians and j.a.ps- and the others-found us the next day. They fought us. Since then-they've made us work for them. Whoever wouldn't -they killed."

"Good G.o.d! How many-"

"There were three hundred and sixty-seven of us left," she said. "Now-there are about three hundred and ten."

The truck loomed up ahead. Tony spoke rapidly. "We are moving from our camp at night. We intend to occupy a city before morning. You'll come with us. My name, by the way, is Tony Drake."

He felt her hand grasp his own.

"Mine is-or was-Lady Cynthia Cruickshank."

"Peter!"

Vanderbilt sprang from the trailer and ran up the road. "You safe, Tony?"

"Safe. This is Lady Cynthia Cruickshank. She'll tell you her story. I think we'd better move."

"Right."

Von Beitz was already in his seat. Tony vaulted aboard. The train started.

Lady Cynthia began a detailed account of the landing of the English ship. Tony moved over beside Eve.

"How's your father?"

"You can't tell. Oh-Tony-I was terrified!"

He took her hand.

"We could see it-up there in the dark, wabbling toward where we knew you were waiting."

He nodded. "It was pretty sour. Listen to her, though- she's got a story."

They listened. When she had finished, long and dark miles had been put behind. The uncomfortable pa.s.sengers had stood spellbound, chilly, swaying, listening to her narrative. Now they questioned her.

"Why did the Midianites seize you?" one asked.

"Midianites?"

'That's what we call the 'Asiatic Expedition.'"

The Englishwoman laughed softly. "Oh, Oh, I see. Joshua! Not inapt. Why-because they want to run everything and rule everything on this planet. And because their men greatly outnumber their women." She spoke bitterly. "We'd chosen the pride of England. And pretty faces-"

"Why," some one else asked, "did you wabble so horribly?"

"Wabble?"

"Weave, then. In that Bronson Beta van you drove?"