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diff --git a/22590.txt b/22590.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6abfb9e --- /dev/null +++ b/22590.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1173 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wind, by Charles Louis Fontenay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: Wind + +Author: Charles Louis Fontenay + +Release Date: September 12, 2007 [EBook #22590] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WIND *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + WIND + + By CHARLES L. FONTENAY + + + _When you have an engine with no fuel, and fuel + without an engine, and a life-and-death deadline + to meet, you have a problem indeed. Unless you are + a stubborn Dutchman--and Jan Van Artevelde was the + stubbornest Dutchman on Venus._ + + +Jan Willem van Artevelde claimed descent from William of Orange. He had +no genealogy to prove it, but on Venus there was no one who could +disprove it, either. + +Jan Willem van Artevelde smoked a clay pipe, which only a Dutchman can +do properly, because the clay bit grates on less stubborn teeth. + +Jan needed all his Dutch stubbornness, and a good deal of pure physical +strength besides, to maneuver the roach-flat groundcar across the +tumbled terrain of Den Hoorn into the teeth of the howling gale that +swept from the west. The huge wheels twisted and jolted against the +rocks outside, and Jan bounced against his seat belt, wrestled the +steering wheel and puffed at his _pijp_. The mild aroma of +Heerenbaai-Tabak filled the airtight groundcar. + +There came a new swaying that was not the roughness of the terrain. +Through the thick windshield Jan saw all the ground about him buckle and +heave for a second or two before it settled to rugged quiescence again. +This time he was really heaved about. + +Jan mentioned this to the groundcar radio. + +"That's the third time in half an hour," he commented. "The place tosses +like the IJsselmeer on a rough day." + +"You just don't forget it _isn't_ the Zuider Zee," retorted Heemskerk +from the other end. "You sink there and you don't come up three times." + +"Don't worry," said Jan. "I'll be back on time, with a broom at the +masthead." + +"This I shall want to see," chuckled Heemskerk; a logical reaction, +considering the scarcity of brooms on Venus. + + * * * * * + +Two hours earlier the two men had sat across a small table playing +chess, with little indication there would be anything else to occupy +their time before blastoff of the stubby gravity-boat. It would be their +last chess game for many months, for Jan was a member of the Dutch +colony at Oostpoort in the northern hemisphere of Venus, while Heemskerk +was pilot of the G-boat from the Dutch spaceship _Vanderdecken_, +scheduled to begin an Earthward orbit in a few hours. + +It was near the dusk of the 485-hour Venerian day, and the Twilight Gale +already had arisen, sweeping from the comparatively chill Venerian +nightside into the superheated dayside. Oostpoort, established near some +outcroppings that contained uranium ore, was protected from both the +Dawn Gale and the Twilight Gale, for it was in a valley in the midst of +a small range of mountains. + +Jan had just figured out a combination by which he hoped to cheat +Heemskerk out of one of his knights, when Dekker, the _burgemeester_ of +Oostpoort, entered the spaceport ready room. + +"There's been an emergency radio message," said Dekker. "They've got a +passenger for the Earthship over at Rathole." + +"Rathole?" repeated Heemskerk. "What's that? I didn't know there was +another colony within two thousand kilometers." + +"It isn't a colony, in the sense Oostpoort is," explained Dekker. "The +people are the families of a bunch of laborers left behind when the +colony folded several years ago. It's about eighty kilometers away, +right across the Hoorn, but they don't have any vehicles that can +navigate when the wind's up." + +Heemskerk pushed his short-billed cap back on his close-cropped head, +leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his comfortable +stomach. + +"Then the passenger will have to wait for the next ship," he pronounced. +"The _Vanderdecken_ has to blast off in thirty hours to catch Earth at +the right orbital spot, and the G-boat has to blast off in ten hours to +catch the _Vanderdecken_." + +"This passenger can't wait," said Dekker. "He needs to be evacuated to +Earth immediately. He's suffering from the Venus Shadow." + +Jan whistled softly. He had seen the effects of that disease. Dekker was +right. + +"Jan, you're the best driver in Oostpoort," said Dekker. "You will have +to take a groundcar to Rathole and bring the fellow back." + + * * * * * + +So now Jan gripped his clay pipe between his teeth and piloted the +groundcar into the teeth of the Twilight Gale. + +Den Hoorn was a comparatively flat desert sweep that ran along the +western side of the Oost Mountains, just over the mountain from +Oostpoort. It was a thin fault area of a planet whose crust was +peculiarly subject to earthquakes, particularly at the beginning and end +of each long day when temperatures of the surface rocks changed. On the +other side of it lay Rathole, a little settlement that eked a precarious +living from the Venerian vegetation. Jan never had seen it. + +He had little difficulty driving up and over the mountain, for the Dutch +settlers had carved a rough road through the ravines. But even the +2-1/2-meter wheels of the groundcar had trouble amid the tumbled rocks +of Den Hoorn. The wind hit the car in full strength here and, though the +body of the groundcar was suspended from the axles, there was constant +danger of its being flipped over by a gust if not handled just right. + +The three earthshocks that had shaken Den Hoorn since he had been +driving made his task no easier, but he was obviously lucky, at that. +Often he had to detour far from his course to skirt long, deep cracks in +the surface, or steep breaks where the crust had been raised or dropped +several meters by past quakes. + +The groundcar zig-zagged slowly westward. The tattered violet-and-indigo +clouds boiled low above it, but the wind was as dry as the breath of an +oven. Despite the heavy cloud cover, the afternoon was as bright as an +Earth-day. The thermometer showed the outside temperature to have +dropped to 40 degrees Centigrade in the west wind, and it was still +going down. + +Jan reached the edge of a crack that made further progress seem +impossible. A hundred meters wide, of unknown depth, it stretched out of +sight in both directions. For the first time he entertained serious +doubts that Den Hoorn could be crossed by land. + +After a moment's hesitation, he swung the groundcar northward and raced +along the edge of the chasm as fast as the car would negotiate the +terrain. He looked anxiously at his watch. Nearly three hours had passed +since he left Oostpoort. He had seven hours to go and he was still at +least 16 kilometers from Rathole. His pipe was out, but he could not +take his hands from the wheel to refill it. + +He had driven at least eight kilometers before he realized that the +crack was narrowing. At least as far again, the two edges came together, +but not at the same level. A sheer cliff three meters high now barred +his passage. He drove on. + + * * * * * + +Apparently it was the result of an old quake. He found a spot where +rocks had tumbled down, making a steep, rough ramp up the break. He +drove up it and turned back southwestward. + +He made it just in time. He had driven less than three hundred meters +when a quake more severe than any of the others struck. Suddenly behind +him the break reversed itself, so that where he had climbed up coming +westward he would now have to climb a cliff of equal height returning +eastward. + +The ground heaved and buckled like a tempestuous sea. Rocks rolled and +leaped through the air, several large ones striking the groundcar with +ominous force. The car staggered forward on its giant wheels like a +drunken man. The quake was so violent that at one time the vehicle was +hurled several meters sideways, and almost overturned. And the wind +smashed down on it unrelentingly. + +The quake lasted for several minutes, during which Jan was able to make +no progress at all and struggled only to keep the groundcar upright. +Then, in unison, both earthquake and wind died to absolute quiescence. + +Jan made use of this calm to step down on the accelerator and send the +groundcar speeding forward. The terrain was easier here, nearing the +western edge of Den Hoorn, and he covered several kilometers before the +wind struck again, cutting his speed down considerably. He judged he +must be nearing Rathole. + +Not long thereafter, he rounded an outcropping of rock and it lay before +him. + +A wave of nostalgia swept over him. Back at Oostpoort, the power was +nuclear, but this little settlement made use of the cheapest, most +obviously available power source. It was dotted with more than a dozen +windmills. + +Windmills! Tears came to Jan's eyes. For a moment, he was carried back +to the flat lands around 's Gravenhage. For a moment he was a +tow-headed, round-eyed boy again, clumping in wooden shoes along the +edge of the tulip fields. + +But there were no canals here. The flat land, stretching into the +darkening west, was spotted with patches of cactus and leather-leaved +Venerian plants. Amid the windmills, low domes protruded from the earth, +indicating that the dwellings of Rathole were, appropriately, partly +underground. + + * * * * * + +He drove into the place. There were no streets, as such, but there were +avenues between lines of heavy chains strung to short iron posts, +evidently as handholds against the wind. The savage gale piled dust and +sand in drifts against the domes, then, shifting slightly, swept them +clean again. + +There was no one moving abroad, but just inside the community Jan found +half a dozen men in a group, clinging to one of the chains and waving to +him. He pulled the groundcar to a stop beside them, stuck his pipe in a +pocket of his plastic venusuit, donned his helmet and got out. + +The wind almost took him away before one of them grabbed him and he was +able to grasp the chain himself. They gathered around him. They were +swarthy, black-eyed men, with curly hair. One of them grasped his hand. + +"_Bienvenido, senor_," said the man. + +Jan recoiled and dropped the man's hand. All the Orangeman blood he +claimed protested in outrage. + +Spaniards! All these men were Spaniards! + + * * * * * + +Jan recovered himself at once. He had been reading too much ancient +history during his leisure hours. The hot monotony of Venus was +beginning to affect his brain. It had been 500 years since the +Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule. A lot of water over the dam +since then. + +A look at the men around him, the sound of their chatter, convinced him +that he need not try German or Hollandsch here. He fell back on the +international language. + +"Do you speak English?" he asked. The man brightened but shook his head. + +"_No hablo ingles_," he said, "_pero el medico lo habla. Venga +conmigo._" + +He gestured for Jan to follow him and started off, pulling his way +against the wind along the chain. Jan followed, and the other men fell +in behind in single file. A hundred meters farther on, they turned, +descended some steps and entered one of the half-buried domes. A +gray-haired, bearded man was in the well-lighted room, apparently the +living room of a home, with a young woman. + +"_El medico_," said the man who had greeted Jan, gesturing. "_El habla +ingles._" + +He went out, shutting the airlock door behind him. + +"You must be the man from Oostpoort," said the bearded man, holding out +his hand. "I am Doctor Sanchez. We are very grateful you have come." + +"I thought for a while I wouldn't make it," said Jan ruefully, removing +his venushelmet. + +"This is Mrs. Murillo," said Sanchez. + +The woman was a Spanish blonde, full-lipped and beautiful, with golden +hair and dark, liquid eyes. She smiled at Jan. + +"_Encantada de conocerlo, senor_," she greeted him. + +"Is this the patient, Doctor?" asked Jan, astonished. She looked in the +best of health. + +"No, the patient is in the next room," answered Sanchez. + +"Well, as much as I'd like to stop for a pipe, we'd better start at +once," said Jan. "It's a hard drive back, and blastoff can't be +delayed." + +The woman seemed to sense his meaning. She turned and called: "_Diego!_" + +A boy appeared in the door, a dark-skinned, sleepy-eyed boy of about +eight. He yawned. Then, catching sight of the big Dutchman, he opened +his eyes wide and smiled. + +The boy was healthy-looking, alert, but the mark of the Venus Shadow was +on his face. There was a faint mottling, a criss-cross of dead-white +lines. + +Mrs. Murillo spoke to him rapidly in Spanish and he nodded. She zipped +him into a venusuit and fitted a small helmet on his head. + +"Good luck, _amigo_," said Sanchez, shaking Jan's hand again. + +"Thanks," replied Jan. He donned his own helmet. "I'll need it, if the +trip over was any indication." + + * * * * * + +Jan and Diego made their way back down the chain to the groundcar. There +was a score of men there now, and a few women. They let the pair go +through, and waved farewell as Jan swung the groundcar around and headed +back eastward. + +It was easier driving with the wind behind him, and Jan hit a hundred +kilometers an hour several times before striking the rougher ground of +Den Hoorn. Now, if he could only find a way over the bluff raised by +that last quake.... + +The ground of Den Hoorn was still shivering. Jan did not realize this +until he had to brake the groundcar almost to a stop at one point, +because it was not shaking in severe, periodic shocks as it had earlier. +It quivered constantly, like the surface of quicksand. + +The ground far ahead of him had a strange color to it. Jan, watching for +the cliff he had to skirt and scale, had picked up speed over some +fairly even terrain, but now he slowed again, puzzled. There was +something wrong ahead. He couldn't quite figure it out. + +Diego, beside him, had sat quietly so far, peering eagerly through the +windshield, not saying a word. Now suddenly he cried in a high thin +tenor: + +"_Cuidado! Cuidado! Un abismo!_" + +Jim saw it at the same time and hit the brakes so hard the groundcar +would have stood on its nose had its wheels been smaller. They skidded +to a stop. + +The chasm that had caused him such a long detour before had widened, +evidently in the big quake that had hit earlier. Now it was a canyon, +half a kilometer wide. Five meters from the edge he looked out over +blank space at the far wall, and could not see the bottom. + +Cursing choice Dutch profanity, Jan wheeled the groundcar northward and +drove along the edge of the abyss as fast as he could. He wasted half an +hour before realizing that it was getting no narrower. + +There was no point in going back southward. It might be a hundred +kilometers long or a thousand, but he never could reach the end of it +and thread the tumbled rocks of Den Hoorn to Oostpoort before the G-boat +blastoff. + +There was nothing to do but turn back to Rathole and see if some other +way could not be found. + + * * * * * + +Jan sat in the half-buried room and enjoyed the luxury of a pipe filled +with some of Theodorus Neimeijer's mild tobacco. Before him, Dr. Sanchez +sat with crossed legs, cleaning his fingernails with a scalpel. Diego's +mother talked to the boy in low, liquid tones in a corner of the room. + + * * * * * + +Jan was at a loss to know how people whose technical knowledge was as +skimpy as it obviously was in Rathole were able to build these +semi-underground domes to resist the earth shocks that came from Den +Hoorn. But this one showed no signs of stress. A religious print and a +small pencil sketch of Senora Murillo, probably done by the boy, were +awry on the inward-curving walls, but that was all. + +Jan felt justifiably exasperated at these Spanish-speaking people. + +"If some effort had been made to take the boy to Oostpoort from here, +instead of calling on us to send a car, Den Hoorn could have been +crossed before the crack opened," he pointed out. + +"An effort was made," replied Sanchez quietly. "Perhaps you do not fully +realize our position here. We have no engines except the stationary +generators that give us current for our air-conditioning and our +utilities. They are powered by the windmills. We do not have gasoline +engines for vehicles, so our vehicles are operated by hand." + +"You push them?" demanded Jan incredulously. + +"No. You've seen pictures of the pump-cars that once were used on +terrestrial railroads? Ours are powered like that, but we cannot operate +them when the Venerian wind is blowing. By the time I diagnosed the +Venus Shadow in Diego, the wind was coming up, and we had no way to get +him to Oostpoort." + +"Mmm," grunted Jan. He shifted uncomfortably and looked at the pair in +the corner. The blonde head was bent over the boy protectingly, and over +his mother's shoulder Diego's black eyes returned Jan's glance. + +"If the disease has just started, the boy could wait for the next Earth +ship, couldn't he?" asked Jan. + +"I said I had just diagnosed it, not that it had just started, _senor_," +corrected Sanchez. "As you know, the trip to Earth takes 145 days and it +can be started only when the two planets are at the right position in +their orbits. Have you ever seen anyone die of the Venus Shadow?" + +"Yes, I have," replied Jan in a low voice. He had seen two people die of +it, and it had not been pleasant. + +Medical men thought it was a deficiency disease, but they had not traced +down the deficiency responsible. Treatment by vitamins, diet, +antibiotics, infrared and ultraviolet rays, all were useless. The only +thing that could arrest and cure the disease was removal from the dry, +cloud-hung surface of Venus and return to a moist, sunny climate on +Earth. + +Without that treatment, once the typical mottled texture of the skin +appeared, the flesh rapidly deteriorated and fell away in chunks. The +victim remained unfevered and agonizingly conscious until the +degeneration reached a vital spot. + +"If you have," said Sanchez, "you must realize that Diego cannot wait +for a later ship, if his life is to be saved. He must get to Earth at +once." + + * * * * * + +Jan puffed at the Heerenbaai-Tabak and cogitated. The place was aptly +named. It was a ratty community. The boy was a dark-skinned little +Spaniard--of Mexican origin, perhaps. But he was a boy, and a human +being. + +A thought occurred to him. From what he had seen and heard, the entire +economy of Rathole could not support the tremendous expense of sending +the boy across the millions of miles to Earth by spaceship. + +"Who's paying his passage?" he asked. "The Dutch Central Venus Company +isn't exactly a charitable institution." + +"Your _Senor_ Dekker said that would be taken care of," replied Sanchez. + +Jan relit his pipe silently, making a mental resolution that Dekker +wouldn't take care of it alone. Salaries for Venerian service were high, +and many of the men at Oostpoort would contribute readily to such a +cause. + +"Who is Diego's father?" he asked. + +"He was Ramon Murillo, a very good mechanic," answered Sanchez, with a +sliding sidelong glance at Jan's face. "He has been dead for three +years." + +Jan grunted. + +"The copters at Oostpoort can't buck this wind," he said thoughtfully, +"or I'd have come in one of those in the first place instead of trying +to cross Den Hoorn by land. But if you have any sort of aircraft here, +it might make it downwind--if it isn't wrecked on takeoff." + +"I'm afraid not," said Sanchez. + +"Too bad. There's nothing we can do, then. The nearest settlement west +of here is more than a thousand kilometers away, and I happen to know +they have no planes, either. Just copters. So that's no help." + +"Wait," said Sanchez, lifting the scalpel and tilting his head. "I +believe there is something, though we cannot use it. This was once an +American naval base, and the people here were civilian employes who +refused to move north with it. There was a flying machine they used for +short-range work, and one was left behind--probably with a little help +from the people of the settlement. But...." + +"What kind of machine? Copter or plane?" + +"They call it a flying platform. It carries two men, I believe. But, +_senor_...." + +"I know them. I've operated them, before I left Earth. Man, you don't +expect me to try to fly one of those little things in this wind? They're +tricky as they can be, and the passengers are absolutely unprotected!" + +"_Senor_, I have asked you to do nothing." + +"No, you haven't," muttered Jan. "But you know I'll do it." + +Sanchez looked into his face, smiling faintly and a little sadly. + +"I was sure you would be willing," he said. He turned and spoke in +Spanish to Mrs. Murillo. + +The woman rose to her feet and came to them. As Jan arose, she looked up +at him, tears in her eyes. + +"_Gracias_," she murmured. "_Un millon de gracias._" + +She lifted his hands in hers and kissed them. + +Jan disengaged himself gently, embarrassed. But it occurred to him, +looking down on the bowed head of the beautiful young widow, that he +might make some flying trips back over here in his leisure time. +Language barriers were not impassable, and feminine companionship might +cure his neurotic, history-born distaste for Spaniards, for more than +one reason. + +Sanchez was tugging at his elbow. + +"_Senor_, I have been trying to tell you," he said. "It is generous and +good of you, and I wanted _Senora_ Murillo to know what a brave man you +are. But have you forgotten that we have no gasoline engines here? There +is no fuel for the flying platform." + + * * * * * + +The platform was in a warehouse which, like the rest of the structures +in Rathole, was a half-buried dome. The platform's ring-shaped base was +less than a meter thick, standing on four metal legs. On top of it, in +the center, was a railed circle that would hold two men, but would crowd +them. Two small gasoline engines sat on each side of this railed circle +and between them on a third side was the fuel tank. The passengers +entered it on the fourth side. + +The machine was dusty and spotted with rust, Jan, surrounded by Sanchez, +Diego and a dozen men, inspected it thoughtfully. The letters USN*SES +were painted in white on the platform itself, and each engine bore the +label "Hiller." + +Jan peered over the edge of the platform at the twin-ducted fans in +their plastic shrouds. They appeared in good shape. Each was powered by +one of the engines, transmitted to it by heavy rubber belts. + +Jan sighed. It was an unhappy situation. As far as he could determine, +without making tests, the engines were in perfect condition. Two +perfectly good engines, and no fuel for them. + +"You're sure there's no gasoline, anywhere in Rathole?" he asked +Sanchez. + +Sanchez smiled ruefully, as he had once before, at Jan's appellation for +the community. The inhabitants' term for it was simply "_La Ciudad +Nuestra_"--"Our Town." But he made no protest. He turned to one of the +other men and talked rapidly for a few moments in Spanish. + +"None, _senor_," he said, turning back to Jan. "The Americans, of +course, kept much of it when they were here, but the few things we take +to Oostpoort to trade could not buy precious gasoline. We have +electricity in plenty if you can power the platform with it." + +Jan thought that over, trying to find a way. + +"No, it wouldn't work," he said. "We could rig batteries on the platform +and electric motors to turn the propellers. But batteries big enough to +power it all the way to Oostpoort would be so heavy the machine couldn't +lift them off the ground. If there were some way to carry a power line +all the way to Oostpoort, or to broadcast the power to it.... But it's a +light-load machine, and must have an engine that gives it the necessary +power from very little weight." + +Wild schemes ran through his head. If they were on water, instead of +land, he could rig up a sail. He could still rig up a sail, for a +groundcar, except for the chasm out on Den Hoorn. + +The groundcar! Jan straightened and snapped his fingers. + +"Doctor!" he explained. "Send a couple of men to drain the rest of the +fuel from my groundcar. And let's get this platform above ground and tie +it down until we can get it started." + +Sanchez gave rapid orders in Spanish. Two of the men left at a run, +carrying five-gallon cans with them. + +Three others picked up the platform and carried it up a ramp and +outside. As soon as they reached ground level, the wind hit them. They +dropped the platform to the ground, where it shuddered and swayed +momentarily, and two of the men fell successfully on their stomachs. The +wind caught the third and somersaulted him half a dozen times before he +skidded to a stop on his back with outstretched arms and legs. He turned +over cautiously and crawled back to them. + +Jan, his head just above ground level, surveyed the terrain. There was +flat ground to the east, clear in a fairly broad alley for at least half +a kilometer before any of the domes protruded up into it. + +"This is as good a spot for takeoff as we'll find," he said to Sanchez. + +The men put three heavy ropes on the platform's windward rail and +secured it by them to the heavy chain that ran by the dome. The platform +quivered and shuddered in the heavy wind, but its base was too low for +it to overturn. + +Shortly the two men returned with the fuel from the groundcar, +struggling along the chain. Jan got above ground in a crouch, clinging +to the rail of the platform, and helped them fill the fuel tank with it. +He primed the carburetors and spun the engines. + +Nothing happened. + + * * * * * + +He turned the engines over again. One of them coughed, and a cloud of +blue smoke burst from its exhaust, but they did not catch. + +"What is the matter, _senor_?" asked Sanchez from the dome entrance. + +"I don't know," replied Jan. "Maybe it's that the engines haven't been +used in so long. I'm afraid I'm not a good enough mechanic to tell." + +"Some of these men were good mechanics when the navy was here," said +Sanchez. "Wait." + +He turned and spoke to someone in the dome. One of the men of Rathole +came to Jan's side and tried the engines. They refused to catch. The man +made carburetor adjustments and tried again. No success. + +He sniffed, took the cap from the fuel tank and stuck a finger inside. +He withdrew it, wet and oily, and examined it. He turned and spoke to +Sanchez. + +"He says that your groundcar must have a diesel engine," Sanchez +interpreted to Jan. "Is that correct?" + +"Why, yes, that's true." + +"He says the fuel will not work then, _senor_. He says it is low-grade +fuel and the platform must have high octane gasoline." + +Jan threw up his hands and went back into the dome. + +"I should have known that," he said unhappily. "I would have known if I +had thought of it." + +"What is to be done, then?" asked Sanchez. + +"There's nothing that can be done," answered Jan. "They may as well put +the fuel back in my groundcar." + +Sanchez called orders to the men at the platform. While they worked, Jan +stared out at the furiously spinning windmills that dotted Rathole. + +"There's nothing that can be done," he repeated. "We can't make the trip +overland because of the chasm out there in Den Hoorn, and we can't fly +the platform because we have no power for it." + +Windmills. Again Jan could imagine the flat land around them as his +native Holland, with the Zuider Zee sparkling to the west where here the +desert stretched under darkling clouds. + + * * * * * + +Jan looked at his watch. A little more than two hours before the +G-boat's blastoff time, and it couldn't wait for them. It was nearly +eight hours since he had left Oostpoort, and the afternoon was getting +noticeably darker. + +Jan was sorry. He had done his best, but Venus had beaten him. + +He looked around for Diego. The boy was not in the dome. He was outside, +crouched in the lee of the dome, playing with some sticks. + +Diego must know of his ailment, and why he had to go to Oostpoort. If +Jan was any judge of character, Sanchez would have told him that. +Whether Diego knew it was a life-or-death matter for him to be aboard +the _Vanderdecken_ when it blasted off for Earth, Jan did not know. But +the boy was around eight years old and he was bright, and he must +realize the seriousness involved in a decision to send him all the way +to Earth. + +Jan felt ashamed of the exuberant foolishness which had led him to spout +ancient history and claim descent from William of Orange. It had been a +hobby, and artificial topic for conversation that amused him and his +companions, a defense against the monotony of Venus that had begun to +affect his personality perhaps a bit more than he realized. He did not +dislike Spaniards; he had no reason to dislike them. They were all +humans--the Spanish, the Dutch, the Germans, the Americans, even the +Russians--fighting a hostile planet together. He could not understand a +word Diego said when the boy spoke to him, but he liked Diego and wished +desperately he could do something. + +Outside, the windmills of Rathole spun merrily. + +There was power, the power that lighted and air-conditioned Rathole, +power in the air all around them. If he could only use it! But to turn +the platform on its side and let the wind spin the propellers was +pointless. + +He turned to Sanchez. + +"Ask the men if there are any spare parts for the platform," he said. +"Some of those legs it stands on, transmission belts, spare propellers." + +Sanchez asked. + +"Yes," he said. "Many spare parts, but no fuel." + +Jan smiled a tight smile. + +"Tell them to take the engines out," he said. "Since we have no fuel, we +may as well have no engines." + + * * * * * + +Pieter Heemskerk stood by the ramp to the stubby G-boat and checked his +watch. It was X minus fifteen--fifteen minutes before blastoff time. + +Heemskerk wore a spacesuit. Everything was ready, except climbing +aboard, closing the airlock and pressing the firing pin. + +What on Venus could have happened to Van Artevelde? The last radio +message they had received, more than an hour ago, had said he and the +patient took off successfully in an aircraft. What sort of aircraft +could he be flying that would require an hour to cover eighty +kilometers, with the wind? + +Heemskerk could only draw the conclusion that the aircraft had been +wrecked somewhere in Den Hoorn. As a matter of fact, he knew that +preparations were being made now to send a couple of groundcars out to +search for it. + +This, of course, would be too late to help the patient Van Artevelde was +bringing, but Heemskerk had no personal interest in the patient. His +worry was all for his friend. The two of them had enjoyed chess and good +beer together on his last three trips to Venus, and Heemskerk hoped very +sincerely that the big blond man wasn't hurt. + +He glanced at his watch again. X minus twelve. In two minutes, it would +be time for him to walk up the ramp into the G-boat. In seven minutes +the backward count before blastoff would start over the area +loudspeakers. + +Heemskerk shook his head sadly. And Van Artevelde had promised to come +back triumphant, with a broom at his masthead! + +It was a high thin whine borne on the wind, carrying even through the +walls of his spacehelmet, that attracted Heemskerk's attention and +caused him to pause with his foot on the ramp. Around him, the rocket +mechanics were staring up at the sky, trying to pinpoint the noise. + +Heemskerk looked westward. At first he could see nothing, then there was +a moving dot above the mountain, against the indigo umbrella of clouds. +It grew, it swooped, it approached and became a strange little flying +disc with two people standing on it and _something_ sticking up from its +deck in front of them. + +A broom? + +No. The platform hovered and began to settle nearby, and there was Van +Artevelde leaning over its rail and fiddling frantically with whatever +it was that stuck up on it--a weird, angled contraption of pipes and +belts topped by a whirring blade. A boy stood at his shoulder and tried +to help him. As the platform descended to a few meters above ground, the +Dutchman slashed at the contraption, the cut ends of belts whipped out +wildly and the platform slid to the ground with a rush. It hit with a +clatter and its two passengers tumbled prone to the ground. + +"Jan!" boomed Heemskerk, forcing his voice through the helmet diaphragm +and rushing over to his friend. "I was afraid you were lost!" + +Jan struggled to his feet and leaned down to help the boy up. + +"Here's your patient, Pieter," he said. "Hope you have a spacesuit in +his size." + +"I can find one. And we'll have to hurry for blastoff. But, first, what +happened? Even that damned thing ought to get here from Rathole faster +than that." + +"Had no fuel," replied Jan briefly. "My engines were all right, but I +had no power to run them. So I had to pull the engines and rig up a +power source." + +Heemskerk stared at the platform. On its railing was rigged a tripod of +battered metal pipes, atop which a big four-blade propeller spun slowly +in what wind was left after it came over the western mountain. Over the +edges of the platform, running from the two propellers in its base, hung +a series of tattered transmission belts. + +"Power source?" repeated Heemskerk. "That?" + +"Certainly," replied Jan with dignity. "The power source any good +Dutchman turns to in an emergency: a windmill!" + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +This etext was produced from _Amazing Science Fiction Stories_ April +1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and +typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wind, by Charles Louis Fontenay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WIND *** + +***** This file should be named 22590.txt or 22590.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/9/22590/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. 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