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@@ -1,36 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of And Then the Town Took Off, by Richard Wilson - -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: And Then the Town Took Off - -Author: Richard Wilson - -Release Date: February 16, 2013 [EBook #42111] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42111 *** _And Then the Town Took Off_ @@ -42,13 +10,13 @@ Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF - Copyright (C), 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. + Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. All Rights Reserved _For_ FELICITAS K. WILSON THE SIOUX SPACEMAN - Copyright (C), 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. + Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. @@ -5209,359 +5177,4 @@ listening. "Any further orders, sir?" 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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: And Then the Town Took Off - -Author: Richard Wilson - -Release Date: February 16, 2013 [EBook #42111] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - _And Then the Town Took Off_ - - by RICHARD WILSON - - - ACE BOOKS, INC. - 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y. - - AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF - - Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. - All Rights Reserved - - _For_ FELICITAS K. WILSON - - THE SIOUX SPACEMAN - Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc. - - Printed in U.S.A. - - * * * * * - - - - - THE CITY THAT RAN OFF THE MAP - - The town of Superior, Ohio, certainly was living up to its name! In - what was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of the century, it - simply picked itself up one night and rose two full miles above - Earth! - - Radio messages stated simply that Superior had seceded from Earth. - But Don Cort, stranded on that rising town, was beginning to - suspect that nothing was simple about Superior except its citizens. - Calmly they accepted their rise in the world as being due to one of - their local townspeople, a crackpot professor. - - But after a couple of weeks of floating around, it began to be - obvious that the professor had no idea how to get them down. So - then it was up to Cort: either find a way to anchor Superior, or - spend the rest of his days on the smallest--and the - nuttiest--planet in the galaxy! - - - - -I - - -The town of Superior, Ohio, disappeared on the night of October 31. - -A truck driver named Pierce Knaubloch was the first to report it. He had -been highballing west along Route 202, making up for the time he'd spent -over a second cup of coffee in a diner, when he screeched to a stop. If -he'd gone another twenty-five feet he'd have gone into the pit where -Superior had been. - -Knaubloch couldn't see the extent of the pit because it was too dark, -but it looked big. Bigger than if a nitro truck had blown up, which was -his first thought. He backed up two hundred feet, set out flares, then -sped off to a telephone. - -The state police converged on the former site of Superior from several -directions. Communicating by radiophone across the vast pit, they -confirmed that the town undoubtedly was missing. They put in a call to -the National Guard. - -The guard surrounded the area with troops--more than a thousand were -needed--to keep people from falling into the pit. A pilot who flew over -it reported that it looked as if a great ice-cream scoop had bitten into -the Ohio countryside. - -The Pennsylvania Railroad complained that one of its passenger trains -was missing. The train's schedule called for it to pass through but not -stop at Superior at 11:58. That seemed to fix the time of the -disappearance at midnight. The truck driver had made his discovery -shortly after midnight. - -Someone pointed out that October 31 was Halloween and that midnight was -the witching hour. - -Somebody else said nonsense, they'd better check for radiation. A civil -defense official brought up a Geiger counter, but no matter how he shook -it and rapped on it, it refused to click. - -A National Guard officer volunteered to take a jeep down into the pit, -having found a spot that seemed navigable. He was gone a long time but -when he came out the other side he reported that the pit was concave, -relatively smooth, and did not smell of high explosives. He'd found no -people, no houses--no sign of anything except the pit itself. - -The Governor of Ohio asked Washington whether any unidentified planes -had been over the state. Washington said no. The Pentagon and the Atomic -Energy Commission denied that they had been conducting secret -experiments. - -Nor had there been any defense plants in Superior that might have blown -up. The town's biggest factory made kitchen sinks and the next biggest -made bubble gum. - - * * * * * - -A United Airlines pilot found Superior early on the morning of November -1. The pilot, Captain Eric Studley, who had never seen a flying saucer -and hoped never to see one, was afraid now that he had. The object -loomed out of a cloudbank at twelve thousand feet and Studley changed -course to avoid it. He noted with only minimum satisfaction that his -co-pilot also saw the thing and wondered why it wasn't moving at the -terrific speed flying saucers were allegedly capable of. - -Then he saw the church steeple on it. - -A few minutes later he had relayed a message from Superior, formerly of -Ohio, addressed to whom it might concern: - -It said that Superior had seceded from Earth. - -One other radio message came from Superior, now airborne, on that first -day. A ham radio operator reported an unidentified voice as saying -plaintively: - -"_Cold_ up here!" - -Don Cort had been dozing in what passed for the club car on the Buckeye -Cannonball when the train braked to a stop. He looked out the window, -hoping this was Columbus, where he planned to catch a plane east. But it -wasn't Columbus. All he could see were some lanterns jogging as trainmen -hurried along the tracks. - -The conductor looked into the car. The redhead across the aisle in whom -Don had taken a passing interest earlier in the evening asked, "Why did -we stop?" - -"Somebody flagged us down," the conductor said. "We don't make a station -stop at Superior on this run." - -The girl's hair was a subtle red, but false. When Don had entered the -club car he'd seen her hatless head from above and noticed that the hair -along the part was dark. Her eyes had been on a book and Don had the -opportunity for a brief study of her face. The cheeks were full and -untouched by make-up. There were lines at the corners of her mouth which -indicated a tendency to arrange her expression into one of disapproval. -The lips were full, like the cheeks, but it was obvious that the scarlet -lipstick had contrived a mouth a trifle bigger than the one nature had -given her. - -Her glance upward at that moment interrupted his examination, which had -been about to go on to her figure. Later, though, he was able to observe -that it was more than adequate. - -If the girl had given Don Cort more than that one glance, or if it had -been a trained, all-encompassing glance, she would have seen a man in -his mid-twenties--about her age--lean, tall and straight-shouldered, -with once-blond hair now verging on dark brown, a face neither handsome -nor ugly, and a habit of drawing the inside of his left cheek between -his teeth and nibbling at it thoughtfully. - -But it was likely that all she noticed then was the brief case he -carried, attached by a chain to a handcuff on his left wrist. - -"Will we be here long?" Don asked the conductor. He didn't want to miss -his plane at Columbus. The sooner he got to Washington, the sooner he'd -get rid of the brief case. The handcuff it was attached to was one -reason why his interest in the redhead had been only passing. - -"Can't say," the conductor told him. He let the door close again and -went down to the tracks. - -Don hesitated, shrugged at the redhead, said, "Excuse me," and followed -the conductor. About a dozen people were milling around the train as it -sat in the dark, hissing steam. Don made his way up to the locomotive -and found a bigger knot of people gathered in front of the cowcatcher. - -Some sort of barricade had been put up across the tracks and it was -covered with every imaginable kind of warning device. There were red -lanterns, both battery and electric; flashlights; road flares; and even -an old red shirt. - -Don saw two men who must have been the engineer and the fireman talking -to an old bearded gentleman wearing a civil defense helmet, a topcoat -and riding boots. - -"You'd go over the edge, I tell you," the old gentleman was saying. - -"If you don't get this junk off the line," the engineer said, "I'll plow -right through it. Off the edge! you crazy or something?" - -"Look for yourself," the old man in the white helmet said. "Go ahead. -Look." - -The engineer was exasperated. He turned to the fireman. "You look. Humor -the old man. Then let's go." - -The bearded man--he called himself Professor Garet--went off with the -fireman. Don followed them. They had tramped a quarter of a mile along -the gravel when the fireman stopped. "Okay," he said "where's the edge? -I don't see nothing." The tracks seemed to stretch forever into the -darkness. - -"It's another half mile or so," the professor said. - -"Well, let's hurry up. We haven't got all night." - -The old man chuckled. "I'm afraid you have." - -They came to it at last, stopping well back from it. Professor Garet -swelled with pride, it seemed, as he made a theatrical gesture. - -"Behold," he said. "Something even Columbus couldn't find. The edge of -the world." - -True, everything seemed to stop, and they could see stars shining low on -the horizon where stars could not properly be expected to be seen. - -Don Cort and the fireman walked cautiously toward the edge while the -professor ambled ahead with the familiarity of one who had been there -before. But there was a wind and they did not venture too close. -Nevertheless, Don could see that it apparently was a neat, sharp edge, -not one of your old ragged, random edges such as might have been caused -by an explosion. This one had the feeling of design behind it. - -Standing on tiptoe and repressing a touch of giddiness, Don looked over -the edge. He didn't have to stand on tiptoe any more than he had to sit -on the edge of his seat during the exciting part of a movie, but the -situation seemed to call for it. Over the edge could be seen a big -section of Ohio. At least he supposed it was Ohio. - -Don looked at the fireman, who had an unbelieving expression on his -face, then at the bearded old man, who was smiling and nodding. - -"You see what I mean," he said. "You would have gone right over. I -believe you would have had a two-mile fall." - - * * * * * - -"Of course you could have stayed aboard the train," the man driving the -old Pontiac said, "but I really think you'll be more comfortable at -Cavalier." - -Don Cort, sitting in the back seat of the car with the redhead from the -club car, asked, "Cavalier?" - -"The college. The institute, really; it's not accredited. What did you -say your name was, miss?" - -"Jen Jervis," she said. "Geneva Jervis, formally." - -"Miss Jervis. I'm Civek. You know Mr. Cort, I suppose." - -The girl smiled sideways. "We have a nodding acquaintance." Don nodded -and grinned. - -"There's plenty of room in the dormitories," Civek said. "People don't -exactly pound on the gates and scream to be admitted to Cavalier." - -"Are you connected with the college?" Don asked. - -"Me? No. I'm the mayor of Superior. The old town's really come up in the -world, hasn't it?" - -"Overnight," Geneva Jervis said. "If what Mr. Cort and the fireman say -is true. I haven't seen the edge myself." - -"You'll have a better chance to look at it in the morning," the mayor -said, "if we don't settle back in the meantime." - -"Was there any sort of explosion?" Don asked. - -"No. There wasn't any sensation at all, as far as I noticed. I was -watching the late show--or trying to. My house is down in a hollow and -reception isn't very good, especially with old English movies. Well, all -of a sudden the picture sharpened up and I could see just as plain. Then -the phone rang and it was Professor Garet." - -"The old fellow with the whiskers and the riding boots?" Jen Jervis -asked. - -"Yes. Osbert Garet, Professor of Magnology at the Cavalier Institute of -Applied Sciences." - -"Professor of what?" - -"Magnology. As I say, the school isn't accredited. Well, Professor -Garet telephoned and said, 'Hector'--that's my name, Hector -Civek--'everything's up in the air.' He was having his little joke, of -course. I said, 'What?' and then he told me." - -"Told you what?" Jen Jervis asked. "I mean, does he have any theory -about it?" - -"He has a theory about everything. I think what he was trying to convey -was that this--this levitation confirmed his magnology principle." - -"What's that?" Don asked. - -"I haven't the faintest idea. I'm a politician, not a scientist. -Professor Garet went on about it for a while, on the telephone, about -magnetism and gravity, but I think he was only calling as a courtesy, so -the mayor wouldn't look foolish the next morning, not knowing his town -had flown the coop." - -"What's the population of Superior?" - -"Three thousand, including the students at the institute. Three thousand -and forty, counting you people from the train. I guess you'll be with us -for a while." - -"What do you mean by that?" Jen Jervis asked. - -"Well, I don't see how you can get down. Do you?" - -"Does Superior have an airport?" Don asked. "I've got to get back to--to -Earth." It sounded odd to put it that way. - -"Nope," Civek said. "No airport. No place for a plane to land, either." - -"Maybe not a plane," Don said, "but a helicopter could land just about -anywhere." - -"No helicopters here, either." - -"Maybe not. But I'll bet they're swarming all over you by morning." - -"Hm," said Hector Civek. Don couldn't quite catch his expression in the -rearview mirror. "I suppose they could, at that. Well, here's Cavalier. -You go right in that door, where the others are going. There's Professor -Garet. I've got to see him--excuse me." - -The mayor was off across the campus. Don looked at Geneva Jervis, who -was frowning. "Are you thinking," he asked, "that Mayor Civek was -perhaps just a little less than completely honest with us?" - -"I'm thinking," she said, "that I should have stayed with Aunt Hattie -another night, then taken a plane to Washington." - -"Washington?" Don said. "That's where I'm going. I mean where I _was_ -going before Superior became airborne. What do you do in Washington, -Miss Jervis?" - -"I work for the Government. Doesn't everybody?" - -"Not everybody. Me, for instance." - -"No?" she said. "Judging by that satchel you're handcuffed to, I'd have -thought you were a courier for the Pentagon. Or maybe State." - -He laughed quickly and loudly because she was getting uncomfortably -close. "Oh, no. Nothing so glamorous. I'm a messenger for the Riggs -National Bank, that's all. Where do you work?" - -"I'm with Senator Bobby Thebold, S.O.B." - -Don laughed again. "He sure is." - -"_Mister_ Cort!" she said, annoyed. "You know as well as I do that -S.O.B. stands for Senate Office Building. I'm his secretary." - -"I'm sorry. We'd better get out and find a place to sleep. It's getting -late." - -"_Places_ to sleep," she corrected. She looked angry. - -"Of course," Don said, puzzled by her emphasis. "Come on. Where they put -you, you'll probably be surrounded by co-eds, even if I could get out of -this cuff." - -He took her bag in his free hand and they were met by a gray-haired -woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Garet. "We'll try to make you -comfortable," she said. "What a night, eh? The professor is simply -beside himself. We haven't had so much excitement since the -cosmolineator blew up." - -They had a glimpse of the professor, still in his CD helmet, going -around a corner, gesticulating wildly to someone wearing a white -laboratory smock. - - - - -II - - -Don Cort had slept, but not well. He had tried to fold the brief case to -pull it through his sleeve so he could take his coat off, but whatever -was inside the brief case was too big. Cavalier had given him a room to -himself at one end of a dormitory and he'd taken his pants off but had -had to sleep with his coat and shirt on. He got up, feeling gritty, and -did what little dressing was necessary. - -It was eight o'clock, according to the watch on the unhandcuffed wrist, -and things were going on. He had a view of the campus from his window. A -bright sun shone on young people moving generally toward a squat -building, and other people going in random directions. The first were -students going to breakfast, he supposed, and the others were faculty -members. The air was very clear and the long morning shadows distinct. -Only then did he remember completely that he and the whole town of -Superior were up in the air. - -He went through the dormitory. A few students were still sleeping. The -others had gone from their unmade beds. He shivered as he stepped -outdoors. It was crisp, if not freezing, and his breath came out -visibly. First he'd eat, he decided, so he'd be strong enough to go take -a good look over the edge, in broad daylight, to the Earth below. - -The mess hall, or whatever they called it, was cafeteria style and he -got in line with a tray for juice, eggs and coffee. He saw no one he -knew, but as he was looking for a table a willowy blonde girl smiled and -gestured to the empty place opposite her. - -"You're Mr. Cort," she said. "Won't you join me?" - -"Thanks," he said, unloading his tray. "How did you know?" - -"The mystery man with the handcuff. You'd be hard to miss. I'm -Alis--that's A-l-i-s, not A-l-i-c-e--Garet. Are you with the FBI? Or did -you escape from jail?" - -"How do you do. No, just a bank messenger. What an unusual name. -Professor Garet's daughter?" - -"The same," she said. "Also the only. A pity, because if there'd been -two of us I'd have had a fifty-fifty chance of going to OSU. As it is, -I'm duty-bound to represent the second generation at the nut factory." - -"Nut factory? You mean Cavalier?" Don struggled to manipulate knife and -fork without knocking things off the table with his clinging brief case. - -"Here, let me cut your eggs for you," Alis said. "You'd better order -them scrambled tomorrow. Yes, Cavalier. Home of the crackpot theory and -the latter-day alchemist." - -"I'm sure it's not that bad. Thanks. As for tomorrow, I hope to be out -of here by then." - -"How do you get down from an elephant? Old riddle. You don't; you get -down from ducks. How do you plan to get down from Superior?" - -"I'll find a way. I'm more interested at the moment in how I got up -here." - -"You were levitated, like everybody else." - -"You make it sound deliberate, Miss Garet, as if somebody hoisted a -whole patch of real estate for some fell purpose." - -"Scarcely _fell_, Mr. Cort. As for it being deliberate, that seems to be -a matter of opinion. Apparently you haven't seen the papers." - -"I didn't know there were any." - -"Actually there's only one, the _Superior Sentry_, a weekly. This is an -extra. Ed Clark must have been up all night getting it out." She opened -her purse and unfolded a four-page tabloid. - -Don blinked at the headline: - - TOWN GETS HIGH - -"Ed Clark's something of an eccentric, like everybody else in Superior," -Alis said. - -Don read the story, which seemed to him a capricious treatment of an -apparently grave situation. - -_Residents having business beyond the outskirts of town today are -advised not to. It's a long way down. Where Superior was surrounded by -Ohio, as usual, today Superior ends literally at the town line._ - -_A Citizens' Emergency Fence-Building Committee is being formed, but in -the meantime all are warned to stay well away from the edge. The law of -gravity seems to have been repealed for the town but it is doubtful if -the same exemption would apply to a dubious individual bent on -investigating...._ - -Don skimmed the rest. "I don't see anything about it being deliberate." - -Alis had been creaming and sugaring Don's coffee. She pushed it across -to him and said, "It's not on page one. Ed Clark and Mayor Civek don't -get along, so you'll find the mayor's statement in a box on page three, -bottom." - -Don creased the paper the other way, took a sip of coffee, nodded his -thanks, and read: - - MAYOR CLAIMS SECESSION FROM EARTH - -_Mayor Hector Civek, in a proclamation issued locally by hand and -dropped to the rest of the world in a plastic shatter-proof bottle, said -today that Superior has seceded from Earth. His reasons were as vague as -his explanation._ - -_The "reasons" include these: (1) Superior has been discriminated against -by county, state and federal agencies; (2) Cavalier Institute has been -held up to global derision by orthodox (presumably meaning accredited) -colleges and universities; and (3) chicle exporters have conspired -against the Superior Bubble Gum Company by unreasonably raising prices._ - -_The "explanation" consists of a 63-page treatise on applied magnology by -Professor Osbert Garet of Cavalier which the editor (a) does not -understand; (b) lacks space to publish; and which (it being atrociously -handwritten) he (c) has not the temerity to ask his linotype operator to -set._ - -Don said, "I'm beginning to like this Ed Clark." - -"He's a doll," Alis said. "He's about the only one in town who stands up -to Father." - -"Does your father claim that _he_ levitated Superior off the face of the -Earth?" - -"Not to me he doesn't. I'm one of those banes of his existence, a -skeptic. He gave up trying to magnolize me when I was sixteen. I had a -science teacher in high school--not in Superior, incidentally--who gave -me all kinds of embarrassing questions to ask Father. I asked them, -being a natural-born needler, and Father has disowned me intellectually -ever since." - -"How old are you, Miss Garet, if I may ask?" - -She sat up straight and tucked her sweater tightly into her skirt, -emphasizing her good figure. To a male friend Don would have described -the figure as outstanding. She had mocking eyes, a pert nose and a mouth -of such moist red softness that it seemed perpetually waiting to be -kissed. All in all she could have been the queen of a campus much more -densely populated with co-eds than Cavalier was. - -"You may call me Alis," she said. "And I'm nineteen." - -Don grinned. "Going on?" - -"Three months past. How old are _you_, Mr. Cort?" - -"Don's the name I've had for twenty-six years. Please use it." - -"Gladly. And now, Don, unless you want another cup of coffee, I'll go -with you to the end of the world." - -"On such short notice?" Don was intrigued. Last night the redhead from -the club car had repelled an advance that hadn't been made, and this -morning a blonde was apparently making an advance that hadn't been -solicited. He wondered where Geneva Jervis was, but only vaguely. - -"I'll admit to the _double entendre_," Alis said. "What I meant--for -now--was that we can stroll out to where Superior used to be attached to -the rest of Ohio and see how the Earth is getting along without us." - -"Delighted. But don't you have any classes?" - -"Sure I do. Non-Einsteinian Relativity 1, at nine o'clock. But I'm a -demon class-cutter, which is why I'm still a Senior at my advanced age. -On to the brink!" - - * * * * * - -They walked south from the campus and came to the railroad track. The -train was standing there with nowhere to go. It had been abandoned -except for the conductor, who had dutifully spent the night aboard. - -"What's happening?" he asked when he saw them. "Any word from down -there?" - -"Not that I know of," Don said. He introduced him to Alis Garet. "What -are you going to do?" - -"What _can_ I do?" the conductor asked. - -"You can go over to Cavalier and have breakfast," Alis said. "Nobody's -going to steal your old train." - -The conductor reckoned as how he might just do that, and did. - -"You know," Don said, "I was half-asleep last night but before the train -stopped I thought it was running alongside a creek for a while." - -"South Creek," Alis said. "That's right. It's just over there." - -"Is it still? I mean hasn't it all poured off the edge by now? Was that -Superior's water supply?" - -Alis shrugged. "All I know is you turn on the faucet and there's water. -Let's go look at the creek." - -They found it coursing along between the banks. - -"Looks just about the same," she said. - -"That's funny. Come on; let's follow it to the edge." - -The brink, as Alis called it, looked even more awesome by daylight. -Everything stopped short. There were the remnants of a cornfield, with -the withered stalks cut down, then there was nothing. There was South -Creek surging along, then nothing. In the distance a clump of trees, -with a few autumn leaves still clinging to their branches, simply ended. - -"Where is the water going?" Don asked. "I can't make it out." - -"Down, I'd say. Rain for the Earth-people." - -"I should think it'd be all dried up by now. I'm going to have a look." - -"Don't! You'll fall off!" - -"I'll be careful." He walked cautiously toward the edge. Alis followed -him, a few feet behind. He stopped a yard from the brink and waited for -a spell of dizziness to pass. The Earth was spread out like a -topographer's map, far below. Don took another wary step, then sat down. - -"Chicken," said Alis. She laughed uncertainly, then she sat down, too. - -"I still can't see where the water goes," Don said. He stretched out on -his stomach and began to inch forward. "You stay there." - -Finally he had inched to a point where, by stretching out a hand, he -could almost reach the edge. He gave another wriggle and the fingers of -his right hand closed over the brink. For a moment he lay there, -panting, head pressed to the ground. - -"How do you feel?" Alis asked. - -"Scared. When I get my courage back I'll pick up my head and look." - -Alis put a hand out tentatively, then purposefully took hold of his -ankle and held it tight. "Just in case a high wind comes along," she -said. - -"Thanks. It helps. Okay, here we go." He lifted his head. "Damn." - -"What?" - -"It still isn't clear. Do you have a pocket mirror?" - -"I have a compact." She took it out of her bag with her free hand and -tossed it to him. It rolled and Don had to grab to keep it from going -over the edge. Alis gave a little shriek. Don was momentarily unnerved -and had to put his head back on the ground. "Sorry," she said. - -Don opened the compact and carefully transferred it to his right hand. -He held it out beyond the edge and peered into it, focusing it on the -end of the creek. "Now I've got it. The water _isn't_ going off the -edge!" - -"It isn't? Then where is it going?" - -"Down, of course, but it's as if it's going into a well, or a vertical -tunnel, just short of the edge." - -"Why? How?" - -"I can't see too well, but that's my impression. Hold on now. I'm coming -back." He inched away from the edge, then got up and brushed himself -off. He returned her compact. "I guess you know where we go next." - -"The other end of the creek?" - -"Exactly." - -South Creek did not bisect Superior, as Don thought it might, but flowed -in an arc through a southern segment of it. They had about two miles to -go, past South Creek Bridge--which used to lead to Ladenburg, Alis -said--past Raleigh Country Club (a long drive would really put the ball -out of play, Don thought) and on to the edge again. - -But as they approached what they were forced to consider the source of -the creek, they found a wire fence at the spot. "This is new," Alis -said. - -The fence, which had a sign on it, WARNING--ELECTRIFIED, was -semicircular, with each end at the edge and tarpaulins strung behind it -so they could see the mouth of the creek. The water flowed from under -the tarp and fence. - -"Look how it comes in spurts," Alis said. - -"As if it's being pumped." - -Smaller print on the sign said: _Protecting mouth of South Creek, one of -two sources of water for Superior. Electrical charge in fence is -sufficient to kill._ It was signed: _Vincent Grande, Chief of Police, -Hector Civek, Mayor_. - -"What's the other source, besides the faucet in your bathroom?" Don -asked. - -"North Lake, maybe," Alis said. "People fish there but nobody's allowed -to swim." - -"Is the lake entirely within the town limits?" - -"I don't know." - -"If it were on the edge, and if I took a rowboat out on it, I wonder -what would happen?" - -"I know one thing--I wouldn't be there holding your ankle while you -found out." - -She took his arm as they gazed past the electrified fence at the Earth -below and to the west. - -"It's impressive, isn't it?" she said. "I wonder if that's Indiana way -over there?" - -He patted her hand absent-mindedly. "I wonder if it's west at all. I -mean, how do we know Superior is maintaining the same position up here -as it used to down there?" - -"We could tell by the sun, silly." - -"Of course," he said, grinning at his stupidity. "And I guess we're not -high enough to see very far. If we were we'd be able to see the Great -Lakes--or Lake Erie, anyway." - -They were musing about the geography when a plane came out of a -cloudbank and, a second later, veered sharply. They could make out UAL -on the underside of a wing. As it turned they imagined they could see -faces peering out of the windows. They waved and thought they saw one or -two people wave back. Then the plane climbed toward the east and was -gone. - -"Well," Don said as they turned to go back to Cavalier, "now we know -that they know. Maybe we'll begin to get some answers. Or, if not -answers, then transportation." - -"Transportation?" Alis squeezed the arm she was holding. "Why? Don't you -like it here?" - -"If you mean don't I like you, the answer is yes, of course I do. But if -I don't get out of this handcuff soon so I can take a bath and get into -clean clothes, you're not going to like me." - -"You're still quite acceptable, if a bit whiskery." She stopped, still -holding his arm, and he turned so they were face to face. "So kiss me," -she said, "before you deteriorate." - -They were in the midst of an extremely pleasant kiss when the brief case -at the end of Don's handcuff began to talk to him. - - - - -III - - -Much of the rest of the world was inclined to regard the elevation of -Superior, Ohio, as a Fortean phenomenon in the same category as flying -saucers and sea monsters. - -The press had a field day. Most of the headlines were whimsical: - - TOWN TAKES OFF - - SUPERIOR LIVES UP TO NAME - - A RISING COMMUNITY - -The city council of Superior, Wisconsin, passed a resolution urging its -Ohio namesake to come back down. The Superiors in Nebraska, Wyoming, -Arizona and West Virginia, glad to have the publicity, added their -voices to the plea. - -The Pennsylvania Railroad filed a suit demanding that the state of Ohio -return forthwith one train and five miles of right-of-way. - -The price of bubble gum went up from one cent to three for a nickel. - -In Parliament a Labour member rose to ask the Home Secretary for -assurances that all British cities were firmly fastened down. - -An Ohio waterworks put in a bid for the sixteen square miles of hole -that Superior had left behind, explaining that it would make a fine -reservoir. - -A company that leased out big advertising signs in Times Square offered -Superior a quarter of a million dollars for exclusive rights to -advertising space on its bottom, or Earthward, side. It sent the offer -by air mail, leaving delivery up to the post office. - -In Washington, Senator Bobby Thebold ascertained that his red-haired -secretary, Jen Jervis, had been aboard the train levitated with Superior -and registered a series of complaints by telephone, starting with the -Interstate Commerce Commission and the railroad brotherhoods. He asked -the FBI to investigate the possibility of kidnaping and muttered about -the likelihood of it all being a Communist plot. - -A little-known congressman from Ohio started a rumor that raising of -Superior was an experiment connected with the United States earth -satellite program. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration -issued a quick denial. - - * * * * * - -Two men talked earnestly in an efficient-looking room at the end of one -of the more intricate mazes in the Pentagon Building. Neither wore a -uniform but the younger man called the other sir, or chief, or general. - -"We've established definitely that Sergeant Cort was on that train, have -we?" the general asked. - -"Yes, sir. No doubt about it." - -"And he has the item with him?" - -"He must have. The only keys are here and at the other end. He couldn't -open the handcuff or the brief case." - -"The only _known_ keys, that is." - -"Oh? How's that, General?" - -"The sergeant can open the brief case and use the item if we tell him -how." - -"You think it's time to use it? I thought we were saving it." - -"That was before Superior defected. Now we can use it to more advantage -than any theoretical use it might be put to in the foreseeable future." - -"We could evacuate Cort. Take him off in a helicopter or drop him a -parachute and let him jump." - -"No. Having him there is a piece of luck. No one knows who he is. We'll -assign him there for the duration and have him report regularly. Let's -go to the message center." - - * * * * * - -Senator Bobby Thebold was an imposing six feet two, a muscular 195, a -youthful-looking 43. He wore his steel-gray hair cut short and his skin -was tan the year round. He was a bachelor. He had been a fighter pilot -in World War II and his conversation was peppered with Air Force slang, -much of it out of date. Thebold was good newspaper copy and one segment -of the press, admiring his fighting ways, had dubbed him Bobby the Bold. -The Senator did not mind a bit. - -At the moment Senator Thebold was pacing the carpet in the ample working -space he'd fought to acquire in the Senate Office Building. He was -momentarily at a loss. His inquiries about Jen Jervis had elicited no -satisfaction from the ICC, the FBI, or the CIA. He was in an -alphabetical train of thought and went on to consider the CAA, the CAB -and the CAP. He snapped his fingers at CAP. He had it. - -The Civil Air Patrol itself he considered a la-de-da outfit of gentleman -flyers, skittering around in light planes, admittedly doing some good, -but by and large nothing to excite a former P-38 pilot who'd won a -chestful of ribbons for action in the Southwest Pacific. - -Ah, but the PP. There was an organization! Bobby Thebold had been one of -the founders of the Private Pilots, a hard-flying outfit that zoomed -into the wild blue yonder on week ends and holidays, engines aroar, -propellers aglint, white silk scarves aflap. PP's members were wealthy -industrialists, stunt flyers, sportsmen--the elite of the air. - -PP was a paramilitary organization with the rank of its officers -patterned after the Royal Air Force. Thus Bobby Thebold, by virtue of -his war record, his charter membership and his national eminence, was -Wing Commander Thebold, DFC. - -Wing Commander Thebold swung into action. He barked into the intercom: -"Miss Riley! Get the airport. Have them rev up _Charger_. Tell them I'll -be there for oh-nine-fifty-eight take-off. Ten-hundred will do. And get -my car." - -_Charger_ was Bobby the Bold's war surplus P-38 Lightning, a sleek, -twin-boomed two engine fighter plane restored to its gleaming, paintless -aluminum. Actually it was an unarmed photo-reconnaissance version of the -famous war horse of the Pacific, a fact the wing commander preferred to -ignore. In compensation, he belted on a .45 whenever he climbed into the -cockpit. - -Thebold got onto Operations in PP's midwestern headquarters in Chicago. -He barked, long distance: - -"Jack Perley? Group Captain Perley, that is? Bobby, that's right. Wing -Commander Thebold now. We've got a mission, Jack. Scramble Blue -Squadron. What? Of course you can; this is an emergency. We'll -rendezvous north of Columbus--I'll give you the exact grid in half an -hour, when I'm airborne. Can do? Good-o! ETA? Eleven-twenty EST. Well, -maybe that is optimistic, but I hate to see the day slipping by. Make it -eleven-forty-five. What? Objective? Objective Superior! Got it? -Okay--roger!" - -Wing Commander Bobby Thebold took his Lindbergh-style helmet and goggles -from a desk drawer, caressing the limp leather fondly, and put them in a -dispatch case. He gave a soft salute to the door behind which Jen Jervis -customarily worked, more as his second-in-command than his secretary, -and said half aloud: - -"Okay, Jen, we're coming to get you." - -He didn't know quite how, but Bobby the Bold and Charger would soon be -on their way. - - * * * * * - -Don Cort regretfully detached himself from Alis Garet. - -"What was that?" he said. - -"That was me--Alis the love-starved. You could be a bit more gallant. -Even 'How was that?,' though corny, would have been preferable. - -"No--I mean I thought I heard a voice. Didn't you hear anything?" - -"To be perfectly frank--and I say it with some pique--I was totally -absorbed. Obviously you weren't." - -"It was very nice." The countryside, from the edge to the golf course, -was deserted. - -"Well, thanks. Thanks a bunch. Such enthusiasm is more than I can bear. -I have to go now. There's an eleven o'clock class in magnetic flux that -I'm simply dying to audit." - -She gave her shoulder-length blonde hair a toss and started back. Don -hesitated, looked suspiciously at the brief case dangling from his -wrist, shook his head, then followed her. The voice, wherever it came -from, had not spoken again. - -"Don't be angry, Alis." He fell into step on her left and took her arm -with his free hand. "It's just that everything is so crazy and nobody -seems to be taking it seriously. A town doesn't just get up and take -off, and yet nobody up here seems terribly concerned." - -Alis squeezed the hand that held her arm, mollified. "You've got -lipstick on your whiskers." - -"Good. I'll never shave again." - -"Ah," she laughed, "gallantry at last. I'll tell you what let's do. -We'll go see Ed Clark, the editor of the Sentry. Maybe he'll give you -some intelligent conversation." - -The newspaper office was in a ramshackle one-story building on Lyric -Avenue, a block off Broadway, Superior's main street. It was in an -ordinary store front whose windows displayed various ancient stand-up -cardboard posters calling attention to a church supper, a state fair, an -auto race, and a movie starring H. B. Warner. A dust-covered banner -urged the election as president of Alfred E. Smith. - -There was no one in the front of the shop. Alis led Don to the rear -where a tall skinny man with straggly gray hair was setting type. - -"Good morning, Mr. Clark," she said. "What's that you're setting--an -anti-Hoover handbill?" - -"Hello, Al. How are you this fine altitudinous day?" - -"Super. Or should it be supra? I want you to meet Don Cort. Don, Mr. -Clark." - -The men shook hands and Clark looked curiously at Don's handcuff. - -"It's my theory he's an embezzler," Alis said, "and he's made this his -getaway town." - -"As a matter of fact," Don said, "the Riggs National Bank will be -worried if I don't get in touch with them soon. I guess you'd know, Mr. -Clark--is there any communication at all out of town?" By -prearrangement, a message from Don to Riggs would be forwarded to -Military Intelligence. - -"I don't know of any, except for the Civek method--a bottle tossed over -the edge. The telegraph and telephone lines are cut, of course. There is -a radio station in town, WCAV, operated from the campus, but it's been -silent ever since the great severance. At least nothing local has come -over my old Atwater Kent." - -"Isn't anybody _doing_ anything?" Don asked. - -"Sure," Clark said. "I'm getting out my paper--there was even an extra -this morning--and doing job printing. The job is for a jeweler in -Ladenburg. I don't know how I'll deliver it, but no one's told me to -stop so I'm doing it. I guess everybody's carrying on pretty much as -before." - -"That's what I mean. Business as usual. But how about the people who do -business out of town? What's Western Union doing, for instance? And the -trucking companies? And the factories? You have two factories, I -understand, and pretty soon there's going to be a mighty big surplus of -kitchen sinks and chewing gum." - -"You two go on settling our fate," Alis said. "I'd better get back to -school. Look me up later, Don." She waved and went out. - -"Fine girl, that Alis," Clark said. "Got her old man's gumption without -his nutty streak. To answer your question, the Western Union man here is -catching up on his bookkeeping and accepting outgoing messages -contingent on restoration of service. The sink factory made a shipment -two days ago and won't have another ready till next week, so they're -carrying on. They have enough raw material for a month. I was planning -to visit the bubble gum people this afternoon to see how they're doing. -Maybe you'd like to come." - -"Yes, I would. I still chew it once in a while, on the sly." - -Clark grinned. "I won't tell. Would you like to tidy up, Don? There's a -washroom out back, with a razor and some mysterious running water. Now -_there's_ a phenomenon I'd like to get to the bottom of." - -"Thanks. I'll shave with it now and worry about its source later. Do you -think Professor Garet and his magnology cult has anything to do with -it?" - -"He'd like to think so, I'm sure." Clark shrugged. "We've been airborne -less than twelve hours. I guess the answers will come in time. You go -clean up and I'll get back to my job." - -Don felt better when he had shaved. It had been awkward because he -hadn't been able to take off his coat or shirt, but he'd managed. He was -drying his face when the voice came again. This time there was no doubt -it came from the brief case chained to his handcuff. - -"Are you alone now?" it asked. - -Startled, Don said, "Yes." - -"Good. Speak closer to the brief case so we won't be overheard. This is -Captain Simmons, Sergeant." - -"Yes, sir." - -"Take out your ID card. Separate the two pieces of plastic. There's a -flat plastic key next to the card. Open the brief case lock with it." - -The voice was silent until Don, with the help of a razor blade, had done -as he was directed. "All right, sir; that's done." - -"Open the brief case, take out the package, open the package and put the -wrappings back in the brief case." - -Again the voice stopped. Don unwrapped something that looked like a flat -cigarette case with two appendages, one a disk of perforated hard rubber -the size of a half dollar, and the other a three-quarter-inch-wide -ribbon of opaque plastic. "I've got it, sir." - -"Good. What you see is a highly advanced radio transmitter and receiver. -You can imagine its value in the field. It's a pilot model you were -bringing back from the contractor for tests here. But this seems as -useful a way to test it as any other." - -"It's range is fantastic, Captain--if you're in Washington." - -"I am. Now. The key also unlocks the handcuff. Unlock it. Strip to the -waist. Bend the plastic strip to fit over your shoulder--either one, as -you choose. Arrange the perforated disk so it's at the base of your -neck, under your shirt collar. The thing that looks like a cigarette -case is the power pack." - -Don followed the instructions, rubbing his wrist in relief as the -handcuff came off. The radio had been well designed and its components -went into place as if they had been built to his measure. They tickled a -little on his bare skin, that was all. The power pack was surprisingly -light. - -"That's done, sir," Don said. - -The answer came softly. "So I hear. You almost blasted my ear off. From -now on, when you speak to me, or whoever's at this end, a barely audible -murmur will be sufficient. Try it." - -"Yes, Captain," Don whispered. "I'm trying it now." - -"Don't whisper. I can hear you all right, but so could people you -wouldn't want overhearing at your end. A whisper carries farther than -you think. Talk low." - -Don practiced while he put his shirt, tie and coat back on. - -"Good," Captain Simmons said. "Practice talking without moving your -lips, for occasions when you might have to transmit to us in someone's -view. Now put your handcuff back on and lock it." - -"Oh, damn," Don said under his breath. - -"I heard that." - -"Sorry, sir, but it is a nuisance." - -"I know, but you have to get rid of it logically. When you get a chance -go to the local bank. It's the Superior State Bank on McEntee Street. -Show them your credentials from Riggs National and ask them to keep your -brief case in their vault. Get a receipt. Then, at your first -opportunity, burn the plastic key and your ID card." - -"Yes, sir." - -"Keep up your masquerade as a bank messenger and try to find out, as if -you were an ordinary curiosity-seeker, all you can about Cavalier -Institute. You've made a good start with the Garet girl. Get to know her -father, the professor." - -"Yes, sir." Don realized with embarrassment that his little romantic -interlude with Alis must have been eavesdropped on. "Are there any -particular times I'm to report?" - -"You will be reporting constantly. That's the beauty of this radio." - -"You mean I can't turn it off? I won't have any privacy? There'll always -be somebody listening?" - -"Exactly. But you mustn't be inhibited. Your private life is still your -own and no one will criticize. Your unofficial actions will simply be -ignored." - -"Oh, great!" - -"You must rely on our discretion, Sergeant. I'm sure you'll get used to -it. Enough of this for now. We mustn't excite Clark's suspicions. Go -back to him now and carry on. You'll receive further instructions as -they are necessary. And remember--don't be inhibited." - -"No, sir," Don said ruefully. He went back to the printshop, feeling -like a goldfish bowl. - - - - -IV - - -Ed Clark took Don to the Superior State Bank and introduced him to the -president, who was delighted to do business with a representative of -Riggs National of Washington, D. C. Don told him nothing about the -contents of the brief case, but the banker seemed to be under the -impression they were securities or maybe even a million dollars cash, -and Don said nothing to spoil his pleasure. - -Outside again, with the receipt in his wallet, Don stood with Clark on -the corner of McEntee Street and Broadway. - -"This is the heart of town, you might say," the newspaper editor said. -"The bubble gum factory is over that way, on the railroad spur. Maybe -you can smell it. Smells real nice, I think." - -Don rubbed the wrist that had been manacled for so long. He was sniffing -politely when there was a roar of engines and a squadron of fighter -planes buzzed Broadway. - -They screamed over at little more than roof level, then were gone. They -were overhead so briefly that Don noticed only that they were P-38's, at -least four of them. - -"Things are beginning to happen," Don said. "The Air Force is having a -look-see." - -Clark shook his head. "That wasn't the Air Force. Those were the PP -boys. They're the only ones who fly those Lightnings these days." - -"PP?" - -"Private Pilots. Bobby the Bold's airborne vigilantes. Wonder what -they're up to?" - -"Oh. Senator Bobby Thebold, S.O.B." - -"If you want to put it that way, yes." - -"It's a private joke. But I think I know what they're up to--or why. The -Senator's secretary is marooned up here, like me. She was on the train, -too." - -"You don't say! I got scooped on that one. Which one is she?" - -"The redhead. Geneva Jervis. I haven't seen her since last night, come -to think of it." - -The P-38's screamed over again, this time from west to east. Don counted -six planes now and made out the PP markings. People had come out of -stores and business buildings and were looking out of upstairs windows -at the sky. They were rewarded by a third thundering flypast of the -fighter planes. They were higher this time, spread out laterally as if -to search maximum terrain. - -"Big deal," Clark said. "This show would bring anyone outdoors, but even -if they see her what do you suppose they can do about it? There's no -place in town flat enough for a Piper Cub to land, let alone a fighter -plane." - -"How about the golf course?" - -"Raleigh? Worst set of links in the whole United States. A helicopter -could put down there, but that's about all. What's old Bobby so worked -up about, I wonder? Unless there's something to that gossip about this -Jervis girl being his mistress and he's showing off for her." - -"He'd show off for anybody, they tell me," Don said. Then he remembered -that Military Intelligence was listening in. If any pro-Thebold people -were among his eavesdroppers, he hoped they respected his private right -to be anti-Thebold. - -At that moment he and Clark were thrown against the side of the bank -building. They clung to each other and Don noticed that the sun had -moved a few degrees in the sky. - -"Oh-oh," Clark grunted. "Superior's taking evasive action. Thinks it's -being attacked." As they regained their footing he asked, "Do you feel -heavy in the legs?" - -"Yes. As if I were going up in an express elevator." - -"Exactly. Somebody's getting us up beyond the reach of these pesky -planes, I'd guess." - -The P-38's were overhead again, but now they seemed to be diving on the -town. More likely, if Clark's theory was right, it was an illusion--the -planes were flying level but the town was rising fast. - -"They'd better climb," Don said, "or they'll crash!" - -There was the sound of a crash almost immediately, from the south end of -town. Don and Clark ran toward it, fighting the heaviness in their legs. - -A dozen others were ahead of them, running sluggishly across South Creek -Bridge. Beyond, just short of the edge, was the wreckage of a fighter -plane and, behind it, the torn-up ground of a crash landing. There was -no fire. - -The pilot struggled out of the cockpit. He dropped to the ground, felt -himself to see if any bones were broken, then saw the crowd running -toward him. - -The pilot hesitated, then ran toward the edge. Shouts came from the -crowd. With a last glance over his shoulder, the pilot leaped and went -over the edge. - -The crowd, Don and Clark among them, approached more cautiously. They -made out a falling dot and, a second later, saw a parachute blossom -open. The other planes appeared and flew a wide protective circle around -the chutist. - -"Do you think that's Bobby Thebold?" Don asked. - -"Probably not. That was the last plane in the formation. Thebold would -be the leader." - -They went back past the crashed plane, surrounded by a growing crowd -from town, and recrossed the bridge. - -"Look at the water," the editor said. "Ice is forming." - -"And we're still rising," Don said, "if my legs are any judge. Do you -think there's a connection?" - -Clark shrugged. He turned up his coat collar and rubbed his hands. "All -I know is the higher we go the colder we get. Come on back to the shop -and warm up." - -They turned at the sound of engines. Two of the five remaining P-38's -had detached themselves from their cover of the chutist and were flying -around the rim of Superior--as if unwilling to risk another flight -across the surface of the town that seemed determined to become a -satellite of Earth. - - * * * * * - -When Don Cort reached the campus he was shivering, in spite of the -sweater and topcoat Ed Clark had lent him. He asked a student where the -Administration Building was and at the desk inquired for Professor -Garet. - -A gray-haired, dedicated-looking woman told him impatiently that -Professor Garet was in his laboratory and couldn't be disturbed. She -wouldn't tell him where the laboratory was. - -"Have you seen Miss Jervis?" Don wondered whether the redhead -appreciated the demonstration her boss, the flying Senator, had put on -for her. - -The woman behind the desk shook her head. "You're two of the people from -the train, aren't you? Well, you're all supposed to report to the dining -room at two o'clock." - -"What for?" - -"You'll find out at two o'clock." - -It was obvious he would get no more information from her. Don left the -building. It was half-past one. He crossed the near-deserted campus. His -legs still felt heavy and he assumed Superior was still rising. It -certainly seemed to be getting increasingly colder. - -He wondered how high they were and whether it would snow. He hoped not. -How high did you have to be before you got up where it didn't snow any -more? He had no idea. He did recall that Mount Everest was 29,000 feet -up and that it snowed up there. Or would it be _down_ there, relatively -speaking? How high could they be, and didn't anybody care? - -The frosty old receptionist seemed to be typical in her -business-as-usual, come-what-may attitude. Even Ed Clark didn't seem as -concerned as he ought to be about Superior's ascent into the -stratosphere. Clark was interested, certainly, but he'd given Don the -impression that he was no more curious than he would be about any other -phenomenon he'd write about in next week's paper--a two-headed calf, for -instance. - -Don remembered now that the conquerors of Everest had needed oxygen in -the rarefied atmosphere near the summit and he experimentally took a -couple of deep breaths. No difficulty. Therefore they weren't 29,000 -feet up--yet. Small comfort, he thought, as he shivered again. - -He picked out a building at random. Classes were in session behind the -closed but windowed doors along the hall. From the third door he saw -Alis Garet, sitting at the back of a small classroom. Her attention had -wandered from the instructor and when she saw Don she smiled and -beckoned. He hesitated, then opened the door and went in as quietly as -he could. The instructor paused briefly, nodded, then went back to a -droning lecture. It seemed to be an English literature class. - -Alis cleared some books off a chair next to her and Don sat down. "Who -turned you loose?" she whispered. - -He realized she was referring to his de-handcuffed wrist and grinned, -indicating that he'd tell her later. - -"I see you've been outfitted for our new climate," she went on. A -student in the row of chairs ahead turned and frowned. The instructor -talked on, oblivious. - -Don nodded and said "_Sh_." - -"Don't let them intimidate you. Did you see the planes?" - -More students were turning and glaring and Don's embarrassment grew. -"Come on," he said. "Let's cut this class." - -"Bravo!" she said. "Spoken like a true Cavalier." - -She gathered up her books. The instructor, without interrupting his -lecture, followed them with his eyes as they left the room. - -"Now I'll never know whether the young princes got out of the tower -alive," she said. - -"They didn't. The question is, will we?" - -"I certainly hope so. I'll have to speak to Father about it." - -"He's locked up in his lab, they tell me. Where would that be?" - -"In the tower, as a matter of fact. The bell tower that the founding -fathers built and then didn't have enough money to buy bells for. But -you can't go up there--it's the holy of holies." - -"Can you?" - -"No. Why? You don't think Father is making all this happen, do you?" - -"Somebody is. Professor Garet seems as good a suspect as any." - -"Oh, he likes to act mysterious, but it's all an act. Poor old Father is -just a crackpot theorist. I told you that. He couldn't pick up steel -filing with a magnet." - -"I wonder. Look, somebody's called a meeting for us outsiders from the -train at two o'clock. It's almost that now. Maybe I'll have a chance to -ask some questions. Will your father be there?" - -"I'm sure he will. He's a great meeting-caller. I'll go with you. And, -since you have two free hands now, you can hold my books. Maybe later -you'll get a chance to hold me." - - * * * * * - -Among the people sitting around the bare tables in the dining room, Don -recognized the conductor and other trainmen, two stocky individuals who -had the look of traveling salesmen, an elderly couple who held hands, a -young couple with a baby, two nuns, a soldier apparently going on or -returning from furlough, and a tall, hawk-nosed man Don classified on no -evidence at all as a Shakespearean actor. All had been on the train. He -didn't see Geneva Jervis anywhere. - -An improvised speaker's table had been set up at one end of the room, -near the door to the kitchen. A heavy-set man sat at the table talking -to Mrs. Garet, the professor's wife. - -"The stoutish gentleman next to Mother is the president of Cavalier," -Alis said. "Maynard Rubach. When you talk to him be sure to call him -_Doctor_ Rubach. He's not a Ph.D. and he's sensitive about it, but he -did used to be a veterinarian." - -They sat down near the big table and Mrs. Garet smiled and waved at -them. Mayor Civek came in through the kitchen door, licking a finger as -if he'd been sampling something on the way, and sat down next to Mrs. -Garet. - -At that moment Don's stomach gave a hop and he felt blood rushing to his -head. Others also had pained or nauseous expressions. - -"Ugh," Alis said. "Now what?" - -"I'd guess," Don said when his stomach had settled back in place, "that -we've stopped rising." - -"You mean we've gone as high as we're going to go?" - -"I hope so. We'd run out of air if we went much higher." - -Professor Garet came in presently, looking pleased with himself. He -nodded to his wife and the men next to her and cleared his throat as he -looked out over the room. - -"Altitude 21,500 feet," he announced without preamble. "Temperature -sixteen degrees Fahrenheit. From here on out--" he paused, repeated -"out" and chuckled--"it's going to be a bit chilly. Those of you who are -inadequately clothed will see my wife for extra garments. I believe you -have been comfortably housed and fed. There will, of course, be no -charge for these services while you are the guests of the Cavalier -Institute of Applied Sciences. Thank you. I now present Mr. Hector -Civek, the mayor of Superior, who will answer any other questions you -may have." - -Don looked at Alis, who shrugged. The conductor stood and opened a -notebook which he consulted. "I have a few questions, Mr. Mayor. These -people have asked me to speak for them and there's one question that -outweighs all the others. That is--are you going to take us back to -Earth? If so, when? And how?" - -Civek cleared his throat. He took a sip of water. "As for the first -question--we certainly hope to take you and ourselves back to Earth. I -can't answer the others." - -"You hope to?" - -"Earnestly. I turn blue easily myself, and I'm as anxious as you are to -get back. But when that will be depends entirely on circumstances. -Circumstances, uh, beyond my control." - -"Who's controlling them, then? Your friend with the whiskers?" - -Professor Garet smiled amiably and patted his beard. The portly Maynard -Rubach got up and Civek sat down. - -"I am Dr. Maynard Rubach, president of Cavalier. I must insist that in -common decency we all refrain from personal references. Mr. Civek has -done his best to give you an explanation, but of course he is a layman -and, while he has many excellent qualities, we cannot expect him to be -conversant with the principles of science. I will therefore attempt to -explain. - -"As you know, science has been aware for hundreds of years that the -Earth is a giant magnet...." - -Don saw Geneva Jervis. She was at the kitchen door beyond the speaker's -table. - -"... the isogenic and the isoclinic ..." - -The red-haired Miss Jervis saw Don now and put her finger to her lips. - -"... an ultimote, which is simultaneously an integral part of ..." - -Now the redhead was beckoning to him urgently. He excused himself to -Alis, who frowned when she saw the other girl; then he went back of the -speaker's table ("... 1,257 tenescopes to the square centimeter ...") -into the kitchen. Jen Jervis was by now at the far end of it, motioning -him to hurry up. - -"I've found something," she said. She was wearing a shapeless fur coat, -apparently borrowed. - -"Come on. You'll have to see it." - -"All right, but why me?" - -"Aside from myself you seem to be the only one from the train with any -gumption. I know you've been spying around doing things while everybody -else sat back and waited for deliverance. Though I can't say I admire -your choice of companions. That tawdry blonde--" - -"Now, really, Miss Jervis!" - -"Tawny, then; sometimes I mix up my words." - -"I'll bet." - -She led him out the back door and across the frozen ground past several -buildings. They reached what once must have been an athletic field. - -"At the far end," she said. "Come on." - -"Where were you when your boy friend and his daredevil aces came over?" - -"I saw them." - -"Did they see you?" - -"None of your business." - -He shrugged. They were at a section of the grandstand at the end of the -field. Jen Jervis indicated a door and Don opened it. It led to a big -room under the stands. "What does this remind you of?" she asked. - -Don looked blank. In the dim light he could see some planking, a -long-deflated football, ancient peanut shells and an empty pint bottle. -"I don't know. What?" - -"Stagg Field? At the University of Chicago? Under the stands where they -first made an atomic pile work?" She looked at him with the air of an -investigator hot on the scent. - -He shrugged. "Never been there. So what?" - -"It's a pattern. This is where they've hidden their secret." - -"It looks more like the place a co-ed and her boy friend might go to -have a little fun. In warmer weather, of course." - -"Oh!" she said. "You're disgusting! Look over there." - -He looked, wondering what made this young attractive woman -hypersensitive on the subject of sex. This was the second time she'd -blazed up over nothing. What he saw where she pointed was a door at a -45-degree angle to the ground, set into a triangular block of concrete. -"Where does that go?" he asked. - -"Down," she said as they walked toward it. "And there's some machinery -or something down there. I heard it. Or maybe I only felt the -vibrations. It throbs, anyway." - -"Probably the generator for the school's lighting system. Did you go -down and look?" - -"No." - -"All right, then." He opened the door. "Down we go." - -At the bottom of a flight of steps there was a corridor lit by dim -electric light bulbs along one wall. The corridor became a tunnel, -sloping gradually downward. They had been going north, Don judged, but -then the tunnel made a right turn and now they were following it due -east. "I don't hear any throbbing," he said. - -"Well, I did, and from way up here. They must have turned it off." - -"How long ago was that?" - -"An hour, maybe." - -"While we were still rising. That would make sense. We've stopped again, -you know. Professor Garet gave us a bulletin on it." - -He had been going ahead of her in the narrow tunnel. Now it widened and -they were able to walk side by side. There seemed to be no end to it. -But then they came to a sturdy-looking door, padlocked. - -"That's that," Don said. - -"That's that nothing," she said. "Break it down." - -He laughed. "You flatter me. Come on back." - -"Don't you think this is at all peculiar? A tunnel starting under an -abandoned grandstand, running all this way and ending in a locked door?" - -"Maybe this was a station on the underground railway. It looks old -enough." - -"We're going through that door." She opened her purse and took out a key -ring. On it was an extensive collection of keys. Eventually she found -one that opened the padlock. - -"Well!" he said. "Who taught you _that_?" - -"Open the door." - -The corridor beyond the door was lined--walls, ceiling and floor--with a -silvery metal. It continued east a hundred yards or so, swung north and -then went east again, widening all the time. - -It ended in a great room whose far wall was glass or some equally -transparent substance. The room was a huge observatory at the end of -Superior but below its rim. They could look down from it, not without a -touch of nausea, to the Earth four miles below. - -Don, thinking of the surface of Superior above, thought it was as if -they were looking out of the gondola slung beneath a dirigible. - -Or from one of the lower portholes in a giant flying saucer. - - - - -V - - -There were clouds below that occasionally hid the Earth from sight. For -a minute or more they gazed in silence at the magnificent view. - -"This wasn't built in a day," Jen Jervis said at last. - -"I should say not," Don agreed. "Millions of years." - -She looked at him sharply. "I wasn't talking about the age of the Earth. -I mean this room--this lookout post--whatever it is." - -He grinned at her. "I agree with you there, too. I'm really a very -agreeable fellow, Miss Jervis. Obviously, whoever built it knew well in -advance that Superior was going to take off. They also knew how much of -it was going up and exactly where this would have to be built so it -would be at the edge." - -"Under the edge, you mean, with a downward view." - -"That's right. From a distance I'd say Superior looked as if someone had -cut the end off an orange. The flat part--where the cut was made--is the -surface and we're looking out from a piece of the convex skin." - -"You put things so simply, Mr. Cort, that even a child could -understand," she said acidly. - -"Thank you," he said complacently. He had remembered that whoever was -listening in for Military Intelligence through the tiny radio under his -shirt could have only a vague idea of what was going on. Any little word -pictures he could supply, therefore, would help them understand. He had -to risk the fact that his companion might think him a bit of an idiot. - -Of course with this Geneva Jervis it was easy to lay himself open to the -scathing comment and the barbed retort. He imagined she was extremely -useful in her role as Girl Friday to Senator Bobby Thebold. - -"I don't think this is the work of those boobies at the booby hatch," -she was saying. - -"I beg your pardon?" - -"The Cavalier Institution of Applied Foolishness, whatever they call it. -They just wouldn't be capable of an undertaking of this scope." - -"Oh, I agree. That's why I let you drag me away from the meeting. It was -a lot of pseudo-scientific malarkey. Old Doc Rubach, D.V.M., was going -on about the ultimote being connected to the thighbone, way up in the -middle of the air. Tell me, who do _you_ think is behind it all?" - -She was walking around the big-sided room as if taking mental inventory. -There wasn't much to catalogue--six straight chairs, heavy and -modern-looking, with a large wooden table, a framed piece of dark glass -that might be a television set, and a gray steel box about the size and -shape of a three-drawer filing cabinet. This last was near the big -window-wall and had three black buttons on its otherwise smooth top. Don -itched to push the buttons to see what would happen. Jen Jervis seemed -to have the same urge. She drummed on the box with her long fingernails. - -"I?" she said. "Behind it all?" - -"Yes. What's your theory? Is this something for the Un-Earthly -Activities Committee to investigate?" - -"Don't be impertinent. If the Senator thinks it's his duty to look into -it, he will. He undoubtedly is already. In the meantime, I can do no -less than gather whatever information I can while I'm on the scene." - -"Very patriotic. What do you conclude from your information-gathering so -far?" - -"Obviously there's some kind of conspiracy--" she began, then stopped as -if she suspected a trap. - -"--afoot," Don said with a grin. "As I see it, all you do is have Bobby -the Bold subpoena everybody up here--every last man-jack of 'em--to -testify before his committee. They wouldn't dare refuse." - -"I don't find you a bit amusing, Mr. Cort, though I have no doubt this -sophomoric humor makes a big hit with your teen-age blonde. We'd better -get back. I can see it was a mistake to expect any co-operation from -you." - -"As you like, Madame Investigator." Don gave her a mock bow, then turned -for a last look down at the vast segment of Earth below. - -Geneva Jervis screamed. - -He whirled to see her standing, big-eyed and open-mouthed, in front of -the framed dark glass he had taken for a television screen. Her face was -contorted in horror, and as Don's gaze flicked to the screen he had the -barest glimpse of a pair of eyes fading with a dissolving image. Then -the screen was blank and Don wasn't sure whether there had been a face -to go with the eyes--an inhuman, un-earthly face--or whether his -imagination had supplied it. - -The girl slumped to the floor in a faint. - - * * * * * - -_COLUMBUS, OHIO, Nov. 1 (AP)--Sen. Robert (Bobby) Thebold landed here -today after leading his Private Pilots (PP) squadron of P-38's on a -reconnaissance flight which resulted in the loss of one of the six World -War II fighters in a crash landing on the mysteriously airborne town of -Superior, Ohio. The pilot of the crashed plane parachuted safely to -Earth._ - -_Sen. Thebold told reporters grimly:_ - -_"There is no doubt in my mind that mysterious forces are at work when a -town of 3,000 population can rise in a body off the face of the Earth. -My reconnaissance has shown conclusively that the town is intact and its -inhabitants alive. On one of my passes I saw my secretary, Miss Geneva -Jervis."_ - -_Sen. Thebold said he was confident Miss Jervis would contact him the -moment she had anything to report, indicating she would make an -on-the-spot investigation._ - -_The Senator said in reply to a question that he was "amazed" at -official Washington's "complete inaction" in the matter, and declared he -would demand a probe by the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, of which -he is a member. He indicated witnesses might include officials of the -Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and "possibly -others."_ - - * * * * * - -_LADENBURG, Ohio, Nov. 1 (UPI)--Little Ladenburg, former neighbor of -"The City in the Sky," complained today of a rain of empty beer cans and -other rubbish, apparently being tossed over the edge by residents of -airborne Superior._ - -_"They're not so high and mighty," one sanitation official here said, -"that they can make Ladenburg their garbage dump."_ - - * * * * * - -_WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (Reuters)--American officials today were at a loss -to explain the strange behaviour of Superior, Ohio, "the town that took -off."_ - -_Authoritative sources assured Reuters that no military or scientific -experiments were in progress which could account for the phenomenon of a -town being lifted intact thousands of feet into the air._ - -_Rumors circulating to the effect that a "Communist plot" was at work -were greeted with extreme scepticism in official quarters._ - - * * * * * - -BULLETIN - -_COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 1 (UPI)--The airborne town of Superior began to -drift east across Ohio late today._ - - - - -VI - - -The unconscious Geneva Jervis, lying crumpled up in the oversized fur -coat, was the immediate problem. Don Cort straightened her out so she -lay on her back, took off her shoes and propped her ankles on the lower -rung of a chair. He found she was wearing a belt and loosened it. It was -obvious that she was also wearing a girdle but there wasn't anything he -wanted to do about that. He was rubbing one of her wrists when her eyes -fluttered open. - -She smiled self-consciously. "I guess I was a sissy." - -"Not at all. I saw it, too. A pair of eyes." - -"And a face! A horrible, horrible face." - -"I wasn't sure about the face. Can you describe it?" - -She darted a tentative look at the screen but it was comfortingly blank. -"It wasn't human. And it was staring right into me. It was awful!" - -"Did it have a nose, ears, mouth?" - -"I--I can't be sure. Let's get out of here. I'm all right now. Thanks -for being so good to me--Don." - -"Don't mention it--Jen. Here, put your shoes on." - -When he had closed the big wooden door behind them, Don padlocked it -again. He preferred to leave things as they'd found them, even though -their visit to the observation room was no longer a secret. - -He was relieved when they had scrambled up the steps under the -grandstand. There had been no sense of anyone or anything following them -or spying on them during their long walk through the tunnel. - -They were silent with their separate thoughts as they crossed the frosty -ground and Jen held Don's arm, more for companionship than support. At -the campus the girl excused herself, saying she still felt shaky and -wanted to rest in her room. Don went back to the dining room. - -The meeting was over but Alis Garet was there, having a cup of tea and -reading a book. - -"Well, sir," she said, giving him an intent look, "how was the -rendezvous?" - -"Fair to middling." He was relieved to see that she wasn't angry. "Did -anybody say anything while I was gone?" - -"Not a coherent word. You don't deserve it but I made notes for you. -Running off with that redhead when you have a perfectly adequate blonde. -Did you kiss her?" - -"Of course not. It was strictly business. Let me see the notes, you -angel." - -"Notes, then." She handed over a wad of paper. - -"Rubach," he read, "Magnology stuff stuff stuff etc. etc. Nothing. - -"Q. (Conductor Jas Brown) Wht abt Mayor's proclamation Superior seceded -frm Earth? - -"A. (Civek) Repeated stuff abt discrimination agnst Spr & Cavlr & bubl -gum prices. - -"Q. Wht u xpct gain? - -"A. Stuff abt end discrimination. - -"Q. Sovereignty? - -"A. How's that? - -"Q. R u trying set up Spr as separate city-state w/govt independent of U -S or Earth? ('That Conductor Brown is sharper than I gave him credit -for,' Alis elaborated.) - -"A. Hem & haw. Well now. - -"Q. Well, r u? - -"A. (Father, rescuing Civek) Q of sovereignty must remain temporarily -up in the air. Laughter (Father's). When & if Spr returns wil acpt -state-fed laws as b4 but meantime circs warrant adapt to prevailing -conditions. - -"Rest of mtg was abt sleeping arngmnts, meals, recreation privileges, -clothing etc." - -Don folded the notes and put them in his pocket. "Thanks. I see I didn't -miss much. The only thing it seems to add is that Mayor Civek is a -figurehead, and that if the Cavalier people know anything they're not -talking, except in gobbledygook." - -"Check," Alis said. "Now let's go take a look at Pittsburgh." - -"Pittsburgh?" - -"That's where we are now. One of the students who lives there peeped -over the edge a while ago. I was waiting for you to come back before I -went to have a look." - -"Pittsburgh?" Don repeated. "You mean Superior's drifting across the -United States?" - -"Either that or it's being pushed. Let's go see." - - * * * * * - -There hadn't been much to see and it had been too cold to watch for -long. The lights of Pittsburgh were beginning to go on in the dusk and -the city looked pretty and far away. A Pennsylvania Air National Guard -plane came up to investigate, but from a respectful distance. Then it -flew off. - -Don left Alis, shivering, at her door and decided he wanted a drink. He -remembered having seen a sign, _Club Lyric_, down the street from the -_Sentry_ office and he headed for it. - -"Sergeant Cort," said a muffled voice under his collar. - -Don jumped. He'd forgotten for the moment that he was a walking radio -station. "Yes?" he said. - -"Reception has been excellent," the voice said. It was no longer that of -Captain Simmons. "You needn't recapitulate. We've heard all your -conversations and feel we know as much as you do. You'll have to admit -it isn't much." - -"I'm afraid not. What do you want me to do now? Should I go back and -investigate that underground room again? That seems to be the best lead -so far." - -"No. You're just a bank messenger whose biggest concern was to safeguard -the contents of the brief case. Now that the contents are presumably in -the bank vault your official worries are over, and though you're curious -to know why Superior's acting the way it is, you're willing to let -somebody else do something about it." - -"But they saw me in the room. Those eyes, whatever they are. I had the -feeling--well, that they weren't human." - -"Nonsense!" the voice from the Pentagon said. "An ordinary -closed-circuit television hookup. Don't let your imagination run away -with you, and above all don't play spy. If they're suspicious of anyone -it will be of Geneva Jervis because of her connection with Senator -Thebold. Where are you going now?" - -"Well, sir, I thought--that is, if there's no objection--I thought I'd -go have a drink. See what the townspeople are saying." - -"Good idea. Do that." - -"What are they saying in Washington? Does anybody put any stock in this -magnology stuff of Professor Garet's?" - -"Facts are being collated. There's been no evaluation yet. You'll hear -from us again when there's something to tell you. For now, Cort, carry -on. You're doing a splendid job." - -The streets were cold, dark, and deserted. The few street lights were -feeble and the lights in houses and other buildings seemed dimmer than -normal. A biting wind had sprung up and Don was glad when he saw the -neon words _Club Lyric_ ahead. - -The bartender greeted him cheerfully. "It ain't a fit night. What'll it -be?" - -Don decided on a straight shot, to start. "What's going on?" he asked. -"Where's the old town going?" - -The bartender shrugged. "Let Civek worry about that. It's what we pay -him for, ain't it?" - -"I suppose so. How're you fixed for liquor? Big supply?" - -"Last a coupla weeks unless people start drinking more than usual. -Beer'll run out first." - -"That's right, I guess. But aren't you worried about being up in the air -like this?" - -The bartender shrugged again. "Not much I can do about it, is there? -Want another shot?" - -"Mix it this time. A little soda. Is that the general attitude? Business -as usual?" - -"I hear some business is picking up. Lot of people buying winter -clothes, for one thing, weather turning cold the way it did. And Dabney -Brothers--they run the coal and fuel oil company--got enough orders to -keep them going night and day for a week." - -"That's fine. But when they eventually run out, like you, then what? -Everybody freeze to death?" - -The bartender made a thoughtful face. "You got something there. Oh, -hello, Ed. Kinda brisk tonight." - -It was Ed Clark, the newspaperman. Clark nodded to the bartender, who -began to mix him a martini. "Freeze the ears off a brass monkey," Clark -said, joining Don. "I have an extra pair of earmuffs if you'd like -them." - -"Thanks," Don said, "but I think I'd better buy myself some winter -clothes tomorrow and return yours." - -"Suit yourself. Planning to settle down here?" - -"I don't seem to have much choice. Anything new at your end?" - -Clark lifted his brimming glass and took a sip. "Here's to a mild -winter. New? I guess you know we're in Pennsylvania now and not Ohio. -_Over_ Pennsylvania, I should say. Don't ask me why, unless Hector Civek -thinks Superior will get a better break, taxwise." - -"You think the mayor's behind it all?" - -"He has his delusions of grandeur, like a lot of people here. But I do -think Hector knows more than he's telling. Some of the merchants--mostly -those whose business hasn't benefited by the cold wave--have called a -meeting for tomorrow. They want to pump him." - -"He wasn't exactly a flowing spout at Cavalier this afternoon when the -people from the train wanted answers." - -"So that's where he was. They couldn't find him at Town Hall." - -"Where's it all going to end? If we keep on drifting we'll be over the -Atlantic--next stop Europe. Then Superior will be crossing national -boundaries instead of just state lines, and some country may decide -we're violating its air space and shoot us out of the sky." - -"I see you take the long view," Clark said. - -"Is there any other?" Don asked. "The alternative is to kid ourselves -that everything's all right and trust in Providence and Hector Civek. -What is it with you people? You don't seem to realize that sixteen -square miles of solid earth, and three thousand people, have taken off -to go waltzing through the sky. That isn't just something that happens. -Something or somebody's making it happen. The question is who or what, -and what are you going to do about it?" - -The bartender said, "The boy's right, Ed. How do we know they won't take -us up higher--up where there's no air? Then we'd be cooked." - -Clark laughed. "'Cooked' is hardly the word. But I agree that things are -getting out of hand." He set down his glass with a clink. "I know the -man we want. Old Doc Bendy. He could stir things up. Remember the time -they tried to run the pipeline through town and Doc formed a citizens -committee and stopped them?" - -"Stopped them dead," the bartender recalled, then cleared his throat. -"Speak of the devil." He raised his voice and greeted the man who had -just walked in. "Well, Doc. Long time since we've had the pleasure of -your company. Nice to see you." - - * * * * * - -Doc Bendy was an imposing old gentleman of more than average height and -magnificent girth. He carried a paunch with authority. His hands, at the -ends of short arms, seemed to fall naturally to it, and he patted the -paunch with satisfaction as he spoke. He was dressed for the cold -weather in an old frock coat, black turning green, with a double line of -oversized buttons down the front and huge eighteenth-century lapels. He -wore a battered black slouch hat which long ago had given up the -pretense of holding any particular shape. - -"Salutations, gentlemen!" Doc Bendy boomed, striding majestically toward -the bar. "They tell me our peripatetic little town has just passed -Pittsburgh. I'd have thought it more likely we'd crossed the Arctic -Circle. Rum, bartender, is the only suitable potable for the occasion." - -Clark introduced Don, who saw that close up Doc Bendy's face was full -and firm rather than fat. The nose had begun to develop the network of -visible blood vessels which indicated a fondness for the bottle. Shaggy -white eyebrows matched the fringe of white hair that sprouted from under -the sides and back of the slouch hat. The eyes themselves were alert -and humorous. The mouth rose subtly at the corners and, though Bendy -never seemed to smile outright, it conveyed the same humor as the eyes. -These two features, in fact, saved the old man from seeming pompous. - -Don noticed that the rum the bartender poured for Bendy was 151 proof -and the portion was a generous one. - -Bendy raised his glass. "Your health, gentlemen." He took a sip and put -it down. "I might also drink to a happy voyage, destination unknown." - -"Don here thinks we're in danger of drifting over Europe." - -"A distinct possibility," Bendy said. "Your passports are in order, I -trust? I remember the first time I went to the Continent. It was with -Black Jack Pershing and the AEF." - -"Were you in the Medical Corps, sir?" Don asked. - -Doc Bendy boomed with laughter, holding his paunch. "Bless your soul, -lad, I'm no doctor. I was on the board of directors of Superior's first -hospital, hence the title. A mere courtesy, conferred on me by a -grateful citizenry." - -"The citizens might be looking to you again, Doc," Clark said, "since -their elected representatives are letting them down." - -"But not _bringing_ them down, eh? Suppose you tell me what you know, -Mr. Editor. I assume you're the best-informed man on the situation, -barring the conspirators who have dragged us aloft." - -"You think it's a conspiracy?" - -"It's not an act of God." - -Clark began to fill an ancient pipe, so well caked that the pencil with -which he tamped the tobacco barely fitted into the bowl. By the time the -pipe was ready for a match he had exhausted the solid facts. Don then -took over and described the underground passage he had seen that -afternoon. He was about to go further when the old man held up a hand. - -"The facts only, if you please. Mr. Cort, what you saw in the -underground chamber fits in remarkably with something I stumbled on this -afternoon while I was skating." - -"Skating?" Clark said. - -"Ice skating. At North Lake. It's completely frozen over and I'm not so -decrepit that I can't glide on a pair of blades. Well, I was gliding -along, humming the _Skater's Waltz_, when I tripped over a stump. When I -said I stumbled on something I was speaking literally, because I fell -flat. While I lay there, with the breath knocked out of me, my face was -only an inch from the ice and I realized I was eye-to-eye with a thing. -Just as you were, Mr. Cort." - -"You mean there was something under the ice?" - -"Exactly. Staring up at me. Balefully, I suppose you could say, as if it -resented my presence." - -"Did you see the whole face?" - -"I'd be embroidering if I said yes. It seemed--but I must stick to the -facts. I saw only the eyes. Two perfectly circular eyes, which glared at -me for a moment, then disappeared." - -"It could have been a fish," Clark said. - -"No. A fish is about the most expressionless thing there is, while these -eyes had intelligence behind them. None of your empty, fishy stares." - -Clark knocked his pipe against the edge of the bar so the ashes fell in -the vicinity of an old brass cuspidor. "So, since what you and Don saw -were both under the surface, we could put two and two together and -assume that some kind of alien beings have taken up residence in -Superior's lower levels?" - -"Only if you think two and two make five," Doc Bendy said. "But even if -they don't, there's a great deal more going on than Civek knows, or the -Garet-Rubach crowd at Cavalier will admit. It seems to me, gentlemen, -that it's time I set up a committee." - - - - -VII - - -Miss Leora Frisbie, spinster, was found dead in the mushroom cellar of -her home on Ryder Avenue in the northeastern part of town. She had been -sitting in a camp chair, bundled in heavy clothing, when she died. She -had been subject to heart trouble and that fact, coupled with notes she -had been making on a pad in her lap, led the coroner to believe she had -been frightened to death. - -The first entry on the pad said: _Someone stealing my mushrooms; must -keep vigil_. The notes continued: - -_Sitting in chair near stairs. Single 60-w. bulb dims, gravity -increases. Superior rising again? Movement in corner--soil being pushed -up from underneath. Hand. Hand? Claw!_ - -_Claw withdraws._ - -_Head. Rat? No. Bigger._ - -_Human? No. But the eyes eyes ey_ - -That was all. - -Photostatic copies of the late Miss Frisbie's notes and the coroner's -report became exhibits one and two in Doc Bendy's dossier. Exhibit three -was a carbon copy of a report by the stock control clerk at the bubble -gum factory. - -Bubble gum had been piling up in the warehouse on the railroad siding -back of Reilly Street. The stock control clerk, Armand Specht, was -taking inventory when he saw a movement at the far end of the warehouse. -His report follows: - -_Investigated and found carton had been dislodged from top of pile and -broken into. Gross of Cheeky brand missing. Saw something sitting with -back to me opening packages, stuffing gum into mouth, wax paper and all, -half-dozen at time. Looked like overgrown chimpanzee. It turned and saw -me, continuing to chew. Didn't get clear look before it disappeared but -noticed two things: one, that its cheeks bulged out from chewing so much -gum at once, and other, that its eyes were round and bright, even in -dim corner. Then animal turned and disappeared behind pile of Cheekys. -No chimpanzee. Didn't follow right away but when I did it was gone._ - -Exhibit four: - -_Dear Diary: - -_There wasn't any TV tonight and I asked Grandfather Bendy what to do and -he said "Marie, when I was young, boys and girls made their own fun" and -so I got out the Scrabble and asked Mom and Dad to play but they said no -they had to go to the Warners and play bridge. So they went and I was -playing pretending I was both sides when the door opened and I said -Hello Grandfather but it wasn't him it was like a kangaroo and it had -big eyes that were friendly._ - -_After a while I went over and scratched its ears and it liked that and -then it went over to the table and looked at the Scrabble. I thought -wouldn't it be funny if it could play but it couldn't. But it could -spell! It had hands like claws with long black fingernails and fur on -them (the fingers) and it pushed the letters around so they spelled Name -and I spelled out Marie._ - -_Then I spelled out Who are you and it spelled Gizl._ - -_Then I spelled How old are you and it put all the blank spaces together._ - -_I said Where do you live and it spelled Here. Then I changed to Where do -you come from and it pointed to the blanks again._ - -_The gizl went away before Mom and Dad came home and I didn't tell them -about it but I'll tell Grandfather Bendy because he understands better -about things like the time I had an invisible friend._ - - * * * * * - -Don Cort went to bed in the dormitory at Cavalier with the surprised -realization that it had been only twenty-four hours since Superior took -off. It seemed more like a week. When he woke up the floating town was -over New York. - -Some high-flying skywriters were at work. _Welcome Superior--Drink -Pepsi-Cola_ their message said. - -Don dressed quickly and hurried to the brink. Alis Garet was there among -a little crowd, bundled up in a parka. - -"Is that the Hudson River?" she asked him. "Where's the Empire State -Building?" - -"Yes," he said. "Haven't you ever been to New York? I can't quite make -it out. It's somewhere south of that patch of green--that's Central -Park." - -"No, I've never been out of Ohio. I thought New York was a big city." - -"It's big enough. Don't forget we're four miles up. Have you seen any -planes besides the skywriters?" - -"Just some airliners, way down," she said. "Were you expecting someone?" - -"Seeing how it's our last port of call, I thought there might be some -Federal boys flying around. I shouldn't think they'd want a chunk of -their real estate exported to Europe." - -"Are we going to Europe?" - -"Bound to if we don't change course." - -"Why?" - -"My very next words were going to be 'Don't ask me why.' I ask you. -You're closer to the horse's mouth than I am." - -"If you mean Father," Alis said, "I told you I don't enjoy his -confidence." - -"Haven't you even got an inkling of what he's up to?" - -"I'm sure he's not the Master Mind, if that's what you mean." - -"Then who is? Rubach? Civek? The chief of police? Or the bubble gum -king, whoever he is?" - -"Cheeky McFerson?" She laughed. "I went to grade school with him and if -he's got a mind I never noticed it." - -"McFerson? He's just a kid, isn't he?" - -"His father died a couple of years ago and Cheeky's the president on -paper, but the business office runs things. We call him Cheeky because -he always had a wad of company gum in his cheek. Supposed to be an -advertisement. But he never gave me any and I always chewed Wrigley's -for spite." - -"Oh." Don chewed the inside of his own cheek and watched the coastline. -"That's Connecticut now," he said. "We're certainly not slowing down for -customs." - -A speck, trailing vapor through the cold upper air, headed toward them -from the general direction of New England. As it came closer Don saw -that it was a B-58 Hustler bomber. He recognized it by the mysterious -pod it carried under its body, three-quarters as long as the fuselage. - -"It's not going to shoot us down, is it?" Alis asked. - -"Hardly. I'm glad to see it. It's about time somebody took an interest -in us besides Bobby Thebold and his leftover Lightnings." - -The B-58 rapidly closed the last few miles between them, banked and -circled Superior. - -"Attention people of Superior," a voice from the plane said. The -magnified words reached them distinctly through the cold air. "Inasmuch -as you are now leaving the continental United States, this aircraft has -been assigned to accompany you. From this point on you are under the -protection of the United States Air Force." - -"That's better," Don said. "It's not much, but at least somebody's doing -something." - -The B-58 streaked off and took up a course in a vast circle around them. - -"I'm not so sure I like having it around," Alis said. "I mean suppose -they find out that Superior's controlled by--I don't know--let's say a -foreign power, or an alien race. Once we're out over the Atlantic where -nobody else could get hurt, wouldn't they maybe consider it a small -sacrifice to wipe out Superior to get rid of the--the alien?" - -Don looked at her closely. "What's this about an alien? What do you -know?" - -"I don't _know_ anything. It's just a feeling I have, that this is -bigger than Father and Mayor Civek and all the self-important VIP's in -Superior put together." She squeezed his arm as if to draw comfort from -him. "Maybe it's seeing the ocean and realizing the vastness of it, but -for the first time I'm beginning to feel a little scared." - -"I won't say there's nothing to be afraid of," Don said. He pulled her -hand through his arm. "It isn't as though this were a precedented -situation. But whatever's going on, remember there are some pretty good -people on our side, too." - -"I know," she said. "And you're one of them." - -He wondered what she meant by that. Nothing, probably, except "Thank you -for the reassurance." He decided that was it; the mechanical -eavesdropper he wore under his collar was making him too self-conscious. -He tried to think of something appropriate to say to her that he -wouldn't mind having overheard in the Pentagon. - -Nothing occurred to him, so he drew Alis closer and gave her a quick, -quiet kiss. - - * * * * * - -The crowd of people looking over the edge had grown. Judging by their -number, few people were in school or at their jobs today. Yesterday they -had seemed only mildly interested in what their town was up to but -today, with the North American continent about to be left behind, they -were paying more attention. Yet Don could see no signs of alarm on their -faces. At most there was a reflection of wonder, but not much more than -there might be among a group of Europeans seeing New York Harbor from -shipboard for the first time. An apathetic bunch, he decided, who would -be resigned to their situation so long as the usual pattern of their -lives was not interfered with unduly. What they lacked, of course, was -leadership. - -"It's big, isn't it?" Alis said. She was looking at the Atlantic, which -was virtually the only thing left to see except the bright blue sky, a -strip of the New England coast, and the circling bomber. - -"It's going to get bigger," Don said. "Shall we go across town and take -a last look at the States?" He also wanted to see what, if anything, was -going on in town. - -"Not the last, I hope. I'd prefer a round trip." - -An enterprising cab driver opened his door for them. "Special excursion -rate to the west end," he said. "One buck." - -"You're on," Don said. "How's business?" - -"Not what you'd call booming. No trains to meet. No buses. Hi, Alis. -This isn't one of your father's brainstorms come to life, is it?" - -"Hi, Chuck," she said. "I seriously doubt it, though I'm sure you'd -never get him to admit it. How are your wife and the boy?" - -"Fine. That boy, he's got some imagination. He's digging a hole in the -back yard. Last week he told us he was getting close to China. This week -it's Australia. He said at supper last night that they must have heard -about this hole and started digging from the other end. They've -connected up, according to him, and he had quite a conversation with a -kangaroo." - -"A kangaroo?" Don sat up straight. - -"Yeah. You know how kids are. I guess he's studying Australia in -geography." - -"What did the kangaroo tell your son?" - -The cab driver laughed defensively. "There's nothing wrong with the boy. -He's just got an active mind." - -"Of course. When I was a kid I used to talk to bears. But what did he -say the kangaroo talked about?" - -"Oh, just crazy stuff--like the kangaroos didn't like it Down Under any -more and were coming up here because it was safer." - - * * * * * - -Later that morning, at about the time Don Cort estimated that Superior -had passed the twelve-mile limit--east from the coast, not up--the -Superior State Bank was held up. - -A man clearly recognized as Joe Negus, a small-time gambler, and one -other man had driven up to the bank in Negus' flashy Buick convertible. -They walked up to the head teller, threatened him with pistols and -demanded all the money in all the tills. They stuffed the bills in a -sack, got into their car and drove off. They took nothing from the -customers and made no attempt to take anything from the vault. - -The fact that they ignored the vault made Don feel better. He thought -when he first heard about the robbery that the men might have been after -the brief case he'd stored there, which would have meant that he was -under suspicion. But apparently the job was a genuine heist, not a -cover-up for something else. - -Police Chief Vincent Grande reached the scene half an hour after the -criminals left it. His car had frozen up and wouldn't start. He arrived -by taxi, red-faced, fingering the butt of his holstered service -automatic. - -Negus and his confederate, identified as a poolroom lounger named Hank -Stacy, had gotten away with a hundred thousand dollars. - -"I didn't know there was that much money in town," was Grande's comment -on that. While he was asking other questions the telephone rang and -someone told the bank president he'd seen Negus and Stacy go into the -poolroom. In fact, the robbers' convertible was parked blatantly in -front of the place. - -Grande, looking as if he'd rather be dog catcher, got back into the -taxi. - -Joe Negus and Hank Stacy were sitting on opposite sides of a pool table -when the police chief got there, dividing the money in three piles. A -third man stood by, watching closely. He was Jerry Lynch, a lawyer. He -greeted Grande. - -"Morning, Vince," he said easily. "Come to shoot a little pool?" - -"I'll shoot some bank robbers if they don't hand over that money," -Grande said. He had his gun out and looked almost purposeful. - -Negus and Stacy made no attempt to go for their guns, Stacy seemed -nervous but Negus went on counting the money without looking up. - -"Is it your money, Vince?" Jerry Lynch asked. - -"You know damn well whose money it is. Now let's have it." - -"I'm afraid I couldn't do that," the lawyer said. "In the first place I -wouldn't want to, thirty-three and a third per cent of it being mine, -and in the second place you have no authority." - -"I'm the chief of police," Grande said doggedly. "I don't want to spill -any blood--" - -"Don't flash your badge at me, Vince," Lynch said. Negus had finished -counting the money and the lawyer took one of the piles and put it in -various pockets. "I said you had no authority. Bank robbery is a federal -offense. Not that I admit there's been a robbery. But if you suspect a -crime it's your duty to go to the proper authorities. The FBI would be -indicated, if you know where they can be reached." - -"Yeah," Joe Negus said. "Go take a flying jump for yourself, Chief." - -"Listen, you cheap crook--" - -"Hardly cheap, Vince," Lynch said. "And not even a crook, in my -professional opinion. Mr. Negus pleads extra-territoriality." - - * * * * * - -That was the start of Superior's crime wave. - -Somebody broke the plate-glass window of George Tocher's dry-goods store -and got away with blankets, half a dozen overcoats and several sets of -woolen underwear. - -A fuel-oil truck disappeared from the street outside of Dabney Brothers' -and was found abandoned in the morning. About nine hundred gallons had -been drained out--as if someone had filled his cellar tank and a couple -of his neighbors'. - -The back door of the supermarket was forced and somebody made off with -a variety of groceries. The missing goods would have just about filled -one car. - -Each of these crimes was understandable--Superior's growing food and -fuel shortage and icy temperatures had led a few people to desperation. - -But there were other incidents. Somebody smashed the window at -Kimbrough's Jewelry Store and snatched a display of medium-priced -watches. - -Half a dozen young vandals sneaked into the Catholic Church and began -toppling statues of the saints. When they were surprised by Father Brian -they fled, bombarding him with prayer books. One of the books shattered -a stained-glass window depicting Christ dispensing loaves and fishes. - -Somebody started a fire in the movie-house balcony and nearly caused a -panic. - -Vincent Grande rushed from place to place, investigating, but rarely -learned enough to make an arrest. The situation was becoming unpleasant. -Superior had always been a friendly place to live, where everyone knew -everyone else, at least to say hello to, but now there was suspicion and -fear, not to mention increasing cold and threatened famine. - -Everyone was cheered up, therefore, when Mayor Hector Civek announced a -mass meeting in Town Square. Bonfires were lit and the reviewing stand -that was used for the annual Founders' Day parade was hauled out as a -speaker's platform. - -Civek was late. The crowd, bundled up against the cold, was stamping -their feet and beginning to shout a bit when he arrived. There was a -medium-sized cheer as the mayor climbed to the platform. - -"Fellow citizens," he began, then stopped to search through his overcoat -pockets. - -"Well," he went on, "I guess I put the speech in an inside pocket and -it's too cold to look for it. I know what it says, anyway." - -This brought a few laughs. Don Cort stood near the edge of the crowd -and watched the people around him. They mostly had a no-nonsense look -about them, as if they were not going to be satisfied with more oratory. - -Civek said, "I'm not going to keep you standing in the cold and tell you -what you already know--how our food supplies are dwindling, how we're -using up our stocks of coal and fuel oil with no immediate hope of -replacement--you know all that." - -"We sure do, Hector," somebody called out. - -"Yes; so, as I say, I'm not going to talk about what the problem is. We -don't need words--we need action." - -He paused as if he expected a cheer, or applause, but the crowd merely -waited for him to go on. - -"If Superior had been hit by a flood or a tornado," Civek said, "we -could look to the Red Cross and the State or Federal Government for -help. But we've been the victims of a far greater misfortune, torn from -the bosom of Mother Earth and flung--" - -"Oh, come on, Hector," an old woman said. "We're getting froze." - -"I'm sorry about that, Mrs. Potts," Civek said. "You should be home -where it's warm." - -"We ran out of coal for the furnace and now we're running out of logs. -Are you going to do something about that?" - -"I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Mrs. Potts, for you and all the -other wonderful people here tonight. We're going to put a stop to this -lawlessness we never had before. We're going to make Superior a place to -be proud of. Superior has changed--risen, you might say, to a new -status. We're more than a town, now. We're free and separate, not only -from Ohio, but from the United States. - -"We're a sovereign place, a--a sovereignty, and we need new methods to -cope with new conditions, to restore law and order, to see that all our -subjects--our citizen-subjects--are provided for." - -The crowd had become hushed as Civek neared his point. - -"To that noble end," Civek went on, "I dedicate myself, and I take this -momentous step and hereby proclaim the existence of the Kingdom of -Superior"--he paused to take a deep breath--"and proclaim myself its -first King." - -He stopped. His oratory had carried him to a climax and he didn't quite -know where to go from there. Maybe he expected cheers to carry him over, -but none came. There was complete silence except for the crackling of -the bonfires. - -But after a moment there was a shuffling of feet and a whispering that -grew to a murmur. Then out of the murmur came derisive shouts and -catcalls. - -"King Hector the First!" somebody hooted. "Long live the king!" - -The words could have been gratifying but the tone of voice was all -wrong. - -"Where's Hector's crown?" somebody else cried. "Hey, Jack, did you -forget to bring the crown?" - -"Yeah," Jack said. "I forgot. But I got a rope over on my truck. We -could elevate him that way." - -Jack was obviously joking, but a group of men in another part of the -crowd pushed toward the platform. "Yeah," one of them said, "let's -string him up." - -A woman at the back of the crowd screamed. Two hairy figures about five -feet tall appeared from the darkness. They were kangaroo-like, with long -tails. No one tried to stop them, and the creatures reached the platform -and pulled Hector down. They placed him between them and, their way -clear now, began to hop away. - -Their hops grew longer as they reached the edge of the square. Their -leaps had become prodigious as they disappeared in the direction of -North Lake, Civek in his heavy coat looking almost like one of them. - -Don Cort couldn't tell whether the creatures were kidnaping Civek or -rescuing him. - - - - -VIII - - -Hector Civek hadn't been found by the time Judge Helms' court convened -at 10:00 A.M. - -Joe Negus was there, wearing a new suit and looking confident. His -confederate, Hank Stacy, was obviously trying to achieve the same poise -but not succeeding. Jerry Lynch, their lawyer, was talking to Ed Clark. - -Don Cort took a seat the editor had saved for him in the front row. Alis -Garet came in and sat next to him. "I cut my sociology class," she told -him. "Anybody find His Majesty yet?" - -"No," Don said. "Who gave him that crackpot idea?" - -"He's had big ideas ever since he ran for the State Assembly. He got -licked then, but this is the first time he's been kidnaped. Or should it -be kanganaped? Poor Hector. I shouldn't joke about it." - -Judge Helms, who was really a justice of the peace, came in through a -side door and the clerk banged his gavel. But the business of the court -did not get under way immediately. Someone burst in from the street and -shouted: - -"He's back! Civek's back!" - -The people at the rear of the room rushed out to see. In a moment they -were crowding back in behind Hector Civek's grand entrance. - -"Oh, no," Alis said. "Don't tell me he made it this time!" - -Civek was wearing the trappings of royalty. He walked with dignity down -the aisle, an ermine robe on his shoulders, a crown on his head and a -scepter in his right hand. - -He nodded benignly about him. "Good morning, Judge," he said. To the -clerk he said, "Frank, see to our horses, will you?" - -"Horses?" the clerk said, blinking. - -"Our royal coach is without, and the horses need attending to," Civek -said patiently. "You don't think a king walks, do you?" - -The clerk went out, puzzled. Judge Helms took off his pince-nez and -regarded the spectacle of Hector Civek in ermine. - -"What is all this, Hector?" he asked. "You weren't serious about that -king business, were you? Nice to see you back safe, by the way." - -"We would prefer to be addressed the first time as Your Majesty, Judge," -Civek said. "After that you can call us sir." - -"Us?" the judge asked. "Somebody with you?" - -"The royal 'we,'" Civek said. "I see I'll have to issue a proclamation -on the proper forms of address. I mean, _we'll_ have to. Takes a bit of -getting used to, doesn't it?" - -"Quite a bit," the judge agreed. "But right now, if you don't mind, this -court is in session and has a case before it. Suppose you make your -royal self comfortable and we'll get on with it--as soon as my clerk is -back from attending to the royal horses." - -The clerk returned and whispered in the judge's ear. Helms looked at -Civek and shook his head. "Six of them, eh? I'll have a look later. -Right now we've got a bank robbery case on the calendar." - -Vincent Grande talked and Jerry Lynch talked and Judge Helms listened -and looked up statutes and pursed his lips thoughtfully. Joe Negus -cleaned his nails. Hank Stacy bit his. - -Finally the judge said, "I hate to admit this, but I'm afraid I must -agree with you, counselor. The alleged crime contravened no local -statute, and in the absence of a representative of the Federal -Government I must regretfully dismiss the charges." - -Joe Negus promptly got up and began to walk out. - -"Just a minute there, varlet!" - -It was Hector Civek doing his king bit. - -Negus, who probably had been called everything else in his life, paused -and looked over his shoulder. - -"Approach!" Civek thundered. - -"Nuts, Your Kingship," Negus said. "Nobody stops me now." But before he -got to the door something stopped him in mid-stride. - -Civek had pointed his scepter at Negus in that instant. Negus, stiff as -a stop-action photograph, toppled to the floor. - -"Now," Civek said, motioning to Judge Helms to vacate the bench, "we'll -dispense some royal justice." - -He sat down, arranging his robes and shifting his heavy crown. "Mr. -Counselor Lynch, we take it you represent the defendants?" - -"Yes, Your Majesty," said the lawyer, an adaptable man. "What happened -to Negus, sir? Is he dead?" - -"He could have been, if we'd given him another notch. No, he's just -suspended. Let him be an example to anyone else who might incur our -royal wrath. Now, counselor, we are familiar enough with the case to -render an impartial verdict. We find the defendants guilty of bank -robbery." - -"But Your Majesty," Lynch said, "bank robbery is not a crime under the -laws of Superior. I submit that there has been no crime--inasmuch as the -incident occurred after Superior became detached from Earth, and -therefore from its laws." - -"There is the King's Law," Civek said. "We decree bank robbery a crime, -together with all other offenses against the county, state and country -which are not specifically covered in Superior's statutes." - -"Retroactively?" Lynch asked. - -"Of course. We will now pronounce sentence. First, restitution of the -money, except for ten per cent to the King's Bench. Second, indefinite -paralysis for Negus. We'll straighten out his arms and legs so he'll -take up less room. Third, probation for Hank Stacy here, with a warning -to him to stay out of bad company. Court's adjourned." - -Civek wouldn't say where he'd got the costume or the coach-and-six or -the paralyzing scepter. He refused to say where the two kangaroo-like -creatures had taken him. He allowed his ermine to be fingered, holding -the scepter out of reach, talked vaguely about better times to come now -that Superior was a monarchy, then ordered his coach. - -By royal decree Hank Stacy, who had been inching toward the door, became -royal coachman, commanded to serve out his probation in the king's -custody. Stacy drove Civek home. No one seemed to remember who had been -at the reins when the coach first appeared. - - - - -IX - - -Ed Clark was setting type for an extra when Don and Alis visited his -shop. - -KING'S IN BUSINESS, the headline said. - -"You don't sound like a loyal subject," Don said. - -"Can't say I am," Clark admitted. "Guess I won't get to be a royal -printer." - -"What's the story about?" Alis asked. "The splendid triumph of justice -in court this morning?" - -"No. Everybody knows all about that already. I've got the inside -story--what happens next. Just like _The New York Times_." - -"Where'd you get it?" Don asked. - -Clark winked. "Like Scotty Reston, I am not at liberty to divulge my -sources. Let's just say it was learned authoritatively." - -"Well," Alis said, "what does happen next?" - -"'His Unconstitutional Majesty, King Hector I, will attempt to prop up -his shaky monarchy by seeking an ambassador from the United States, the -_Sentry_ learned today. Such recognition, if obtained, would be followed -immediately by a demand for "foreign aid." - -"'It is the thesis of the self-proclaimed king--known until 24 hours ago -as just plain Hector--that the satellite status of Superior, the -traveling townoid, makes it a potentially effective arm of U. S. -diplomacy. King Hector will point out to the State Department the -benefits of bolstering Superior's economy, especially during its -expected foray over Europe and, barring such misfortune as being shot -down en route, into the Soviet domain. - -"'The King will not suggest in so many words that Superior would make a -good spy platform, but the implication is there. It will also be implied -that unless economic aid--which in plain English means food and fuel to -keep Superior from starving and freezing to death--is forthcoming from -the United States, Superior may choose the path of neutrality ...' - -"That's as far as I've got," Clark said. - -"I suppose the 'path of neutrality' means Superior might consider hiring -itself out to the highest bidder?" Don asked. - -"That would be one way of putting it," Clark said. "Undiplomatic but -accurate." - -"How does Civek intend to get his message to Washington?" asked Don, -aware that it had already been transmitted to the Pentagon via the -transceiver under his collar. "Bottle over the side?" - -"My sources tell me they've got WCAV working on short wave. That right, -Alis?" - -"Don't ask me. I only live there." - -"Do you still think Civek is fronting for the Cavalier crowd?" Don asked -her. - -"I don't remember saying that," she said. "I think I agreed with you -when you said Civek was ineffectual. Who do _you_ think is behind him? -Do you think he's king of the kangaroos?" - -"Well," Don said, "they're the ones who took him away last night. And -when he came back this morning he had all the trappings. He didn't get -that coach-and-six from foreign aid." - -Ed Clark said, "This is all very fascinating, kids, but it's not helping -me get out my extra. Don, why don't you take the little lady out to -lunch? You can continue your theorizing over the blueplate special at -the Riverside Inn. Only place in town still open, they tell me." - - * * * * * - -Doc Bendy was hurrying out of the Riverside Inn as they reached it. He -waved to them. "Save your money. His Gracious Majesty is throwing a free -lunch for everybody." - -"Where?" - -"At the palace, of course." - -"What palace?" Alis asked. - -"The bubble gum factory. He's taken it over." - -"Why the gum factory?" - -"Cheeky McFerson offered it to him. Not the factory itself but the big -old house near the west wing. The mansion that's been closed up since -the old man died. They say Cheeky's been given a title as part of the -bargain." - -"Sir Cheeky?" Alis asked, giggling. - -"Something like that. Lord Chicle, maybe, or Baron de Mouthful. Come on. -It should be quite a show." - -Dozens of people were in the streets, all heading in the same direction. -Word of the king's largess spread fast and, on the factory grounds, -guards were directing the crowd to a line that disappeared into a side -door of the old McFerson mansion. - -A flag flew from the top of a pole at the front of the house. It was -whipping in a stiff breeze and Don couldn't make out the device, except -that a crown formed part of it. - -One of the guards recognized Alis Garet and directed her to the front -door. She took Doc Bendy and Don by their arms. "Come on," she said. -"We're VIP's. Father must have sworn allegiance." - -The chief of police was sitting behind a desk in the wide front hall but -he now wore a military tunic with a chestful of decorations (including -the Good Conduct Medal, Sergeant Cort noticed), and the visor of his -military cap was overrun with gold curlicues. - -"Well, Vince," Bendy said. "I see you got in on the ground floor." - -"General Sir Vincent Grande, Minister of Defense," Grande said with a -stiff little bow, "at your service." - -"Enchanted," Bendy said, bowing back. "Tell me, Vince, how do you keep a -straight face?" - -"I'll overlook that, Bendy, and I'll give you a friendly tip. The -country is on a sound basis now and we intend to keep it that way. -Obstructionists will be dealt with." - -"The country, eh? Well, let's go in and see how it's being run." - -A clattery hubbub came from the big room on the right. To Don it sounded -like any GI mess hall. It also looked like one. The line of people -coming in through the side door helped themselves to tin trays and -silverware, then moved slowly past a row of huge pots from which -white-coated men and women ladled out food. At the end of the serving -line stood Cheeky McFerson, splendid in purple velvet. He was putting a -piece of bubble gum on each tray. - -On the other side of the room, opposite the servers, King Hector sat on -a raised chair, crown on head, scepter in hand, nodding benevolently to -anyone who looked at him. On each side of the king, sitting in lower -chairs, were members of what must have been his court. Professor Osbert -Garet was one of them, and Maynard Rubach, president of the Cavalier -Institute of Applied Sciences, was another. - -"Oh, dear, there's Father," Alis said in dismay. "What is that silly hat -he's wearing? It makes him look like Merlin." - -"But Civek doesn't look a bit like King Arthur," Bendy said. "Let's go -pay our respects. Straight faces, now." - -"Ah, my dear," the king said when he saw Alis. "And gentlemen. Welcome -to our court. May we introduce two of our associates? Sir Osbert Garet, -Royal Astronaut, and Lord Rubach, Minister of Education." - -"Father!" Alis spoke sharply to the Royal Astronaut. "How silly can you -get?" - -"Now, now, child," the king said reprovingly. "You must not risk our -displeasure. For the time being our rule must be absolute--until the -safety of our kingdom has been assured. Sir Osbert," he said, "we trust -that at a more propitious time you will have a serious talk with your -charming but impetuous daughter." - -"My liege, I shall deal with her," the Royal Astronaut said, glowering -at Alis. "As Your Majesty has so wisely observed, she is but a slip of a -girl." - -Her father's apparent sincerity left Alis speechless. She looked from -Bendy to Don, but they seemed to consider discretion and masklike faces -the better part of candor. - -"Well spoken, Sir Osbert," the king said. He clapped his hands and a -servant jumped. "Dinner for these three. Find a table, my friends, and -you will be served." - -Don firmly guided Alis away. She had seemed about to explode. They found -an empty table out of earshot of the king, and three footmen looking -like refugees from _Alice in Wonderland_ immediately began to serve -them. - -Bendy spread a napkin over his lap. "Let's curb our snickers and fill -our stomachs," he said, "and later we can go out behind the barn and -laugh our heads off. Meanwhile, keep your eyes open." - -They were eating meat loaf and potatoes. The meat loaf was so highly -spiced that it could have been almost anything. - -"I wonder where His Worship got all the grub," Alis said. - -"I don't know," Don said, "but it certainly doesn't look as if he needs -any foreign aid." - -Alis put down her fork suddenly and her eyes got big. She said, "You -don't suppose--" - -"Suppose what?" Bendy said, spearing a small potato. - -"I just had a horrible thought." She laughed feebly. "It's ridiculous, -of course, but I wondered if by any chance we were eating Joe Negus." - -"Don't be silly," Don said, but he put down his fork too. - -"Of course it's ridiculous," Bendy said. "Hector only put Negus to -sleep. He didn't kill him. Besides, Joe Negus wouldn't stretch far -enough to feed this crowd." - -"Is that why you're not eating any more?" Alis asked him. - -"Why, no," Bendy said. "It's merely that I've had enough. It's true that -Hector could have used his scepter on other transgressors, but--no, I -refuse to admit that he's turned cannibal." - -"_He_ isn't eating," Don pointed out. - -"I'll guarantee you he has, though. I've never known Hector to miss a -meal. No. Hector may be a fool and a dupe, and power-hungry to boot, but -he's not a cruel man, or a deranged one." - -"No?" Alis said. "I dare you to ask him what's in the meat loaf." - -"All right." Bendy got up. "I'll ask to see the kitchen--to compliment -the chef. Want to come?" - -"No, thanks. I might be mean to Father again." - -She and Don watched Doc Bendy go to the improvised throne and talk to -Civek. The king laughed and stood up and he and Bendy crossed the room. -They went through a door behind the line of servers. - -Don pushed his plate away. "You've certainly spoiled my appetite." - -"I'm sorry," Alis said. "Maybe it's hereditary. Look at Father in that -idiot hat. Sir Osbert! Honestly, Don, if we ever get back to Earth I'm -going to get out of Superior as fast as I can. What's it like in -Washington?" - -"Dull," he said. "Humid in the summer. And when you've exhausted the -national monuments there's nothing to do." - -"Nothing? Don't tell me you don't have a girl friend back there. No, -_don't_ tell me--I don't want to know. Oh, Don, what a terribly boring -place this must be for you." - -"Boring!" he said. "I've never had such a wild, crazy time in my life. -Furthermore," he said, "there's nobody like you back in Washington." - -She beamed. "I'd kiss you right here, only Doc Bendy's coming back. -Heck, I'll kiss you anyway." - -She did. - -"Ahem," said Bendy. "Also cough-cough. If you two can spare the time, -there's someone I'd like you to meet." - -"We're through, for now," Alis said. "Who?" - -"One of our hosts. The power behind the shaky throne of Hector the -First. I think you'll like him. He has a magnificent tail." - - * * * * * - -"Hector was very co-operative," Doc Bendy said. "I guess he figured he -couldn't keep it a secret for long anyhow, so he decided to be frank. -After all, half the town saw them take him away." - -"You mean Civek admits he's only a figurehead?" Don asked. - -"Oh, he wouldn't admit that. His story is that it's a working -arrangement--a treaty of sorts. He's absolute monarch as far as the -human inhabitants are concerned, but the kangaroos control Superior as a -piece of geography." - -"I knew Father couldn't have done it," Alis murmured. - -They went down a flight of stairs off the main hall to a basement room. -It was luxuriously furnished, as every room in the mansion must have -been. There was a rug over inlaid linoleum and a blazing fireplace. A -huge round mahogany table stood in the center of the room. - -Hector Civek sat in one of the half-dozen leather armchairs drawn up to -the table. In another sat a furry, genial-looking blue-gray kangaroo. - -Only it wasn't really a kangaroo, Don realized. It was more human than -animal in several ways. Its bearing, for instance, had dignity, and its -round eyes had intelligence. A thick tail at least three feet long stuck -through a space under the backrest of the armchair. As Doc Bendy had -said, the tail was magnificent. - -Civek nodded and smiled, apparently willing to forget his flare-up at -Alis. "I'll introduce you," Civek said. "I mean _we'll_ introduce you. -Oh, the hell with the royal 'we,' as long I'm among friends. This is -Gizl, and what I'm trying to say is that he doesn't speak English. -Doesn't talk at all, as far as I can tell. But he understands the -language and he can read and write it. That's why all this." - -He indicated the letter and number squares on the table. They were from -sets of games--Scrabble, Anagrams, I-Qubes, Lotto and poker dice. - -"My granddaughter met Gizl, you'll recall," Doc Bendy said. "Either this -one or one like him. We don't know yet whether Gizl is a personal name -or a generic one." - -"Let's find out," Don said. He sat down at the table and began to form -squares into a question. - -"Wait a minute." Doc Bendy broke up Don's sequence. "The amenities -first. Spell out 'Greetings,' or some such things. Manners, boy." - -"Sorry." Don started over. He spelled GREETINGS, then ALIS GARET, then -DON CORT, and pointed from the squares to Alis and himself. "I assume -you've already introduced yourself?" he asked Bendy. - -Bendy nodded and the kangaroo-like creature inclined his furry head in -acknowledgment to Alis and Don. Then he--Don had already stopped -thinking of the creature as an "it"--formed two words with his tapering, -black-nailed fingers. - -PLEASANT, he communicated. "GIZL." And he tapped his chest. - -Don turned to Bendy. "Now can I ask him?" - -"With His Majesty's permission," Bendy said solemnly. - -Hector nodded. Don left the three names intact, distributing the rest, -then put three squares together to spell _Man_. He pointed to the word -and then to Civek, Bendy, Alis and himself, excluding the creature. - -"Well, I like that!" Alis said. "Do I look like a man?" - -"Let's keep it simple, woman," Don said. - -The creature nodded and pointed again to GIZL, then to himself, "He -doesn't understand," Don said. - -"It's quite possible his people don't have individual names," Bendy -said. "Let's call him Gizl for now and go on." - -"Okay." Don thought for a moment, then formed a question. "Might as well -get basic," he said. - -Q. ARE YOU FROM EARTH. - -A. NO. - -At the risk of irritating the others, Don repeated the questions and -answers aloud for the benefit of his eavesdropper in the Pentagon. - -Q. ARE YOU FROM SOLAR SYSTEM - -A. NOT YOURS - -Q. WHEN DID YOU REACH EARTH - -A. 1948 YOUR CALENDAR - -Q. WHY - -A. FRIENDSHIP - -Q. WHY HAS NO ONE SEEN YOU SOONER - -A. FEAR - -Q. YOU MEAN YOU FRIGHTENED OUR PEOPLE - -A. NO I MEAN FEAR OF YOUR PEOPLE - -Q. WHY - -A. GIZL RESEMBLE EARTH ANIMALS - -Q. WAS SUPERIOR THE FIRST PLACE YOU LANDED - -A. NO - -Q. WHERE WAS IT - -A. AUSTRALIA - -"The home of the kangaroo," Doc Bendy said. "No wonder they had a bad -time. I can imagine some stockman in the outback taking umbrage at a -kangaroo asserting its equality. Let me talk to him a while, Don." - -Q. HOW MANY ARE THERE OF YOU - -A. MANY - -Q. HOW MANY - -A. NO SPECIFIC COMMENT - -Q. ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR RAISING SUPERIOR - -A. ENTIRELY - -Q. HOW - -A. IMPOSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN WITH THESE - -Q. WHERE IS SUPERIOR GOING - -A. EAST FOR NOW - -Q. AND LATER - -A. NO SPECIFIC COMMENT - -Q. 3000 LIVES ARE IN YOUR HANDS - -A. GIZLS HAVE NO MALEVOLENT DESIGNS - -Q. THANKS. YOU SAID FRIENDSHIP BROUGHT YOU. WHAT ELSE. - -A. TRADE. CULTURAL EXCHANGE - -Q. WHAT HAVE YOU TO TRADE - -A. WILL DISCUSS THIS LATER WITH DULY CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY - -Q. WHO. KING HECTOR - -A. TERMINATING INTERVIEW WITH GOOD WILL ASSURANCES - -"Wait," Alis said. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him." She formed -letters into words. "I don't think he's being very frank with us but I -have a few random questions." - -Q. HOW MANY SEXES HAVE GIZLS - -A. THREE - -Q. MALE FEMALE AND - -A. NEUTER - -Q. ARE THERE BABIES AMONG YOU - -A. BABIES ARE NEUTER AND DEVELOP ACCORDING TO NEED - -Q. CONFIDENTIALLY WHAT DO YOU THINK OF FATHERS SCIENCE - -A. UNFATHOMABLE OUR MEAGER KNOWLEDGE - -Q. FLATTERER - -A. ENDING CONVERSATION WITH PLEASANT REGARD - -Q. LIKEWISE - -Gizl slid back his chair and got up. King Hector stood and bowed as -Gizl, who had nodded politely to each in turn, walked manlike, without -hopping, to a corner of the room which then sank out of sight. - -"He's quite a guy, that Gizl," Hector said, taking off his crown and -putting it on the table. "Makes me sweat," he said, wiping his forehead. - -"Are you the duly constituted authority?" Bendy asked him. - -"Who else? Somebody's got to be in charge till we get Superior back to -Earth." - -"Sure," Bendy said, "but you don't have to rig yourself up in ermine. I -also have a sneaking suspicion that you aren't exactly anxious to get -Superior down in a hurry." - -"I'll overlook that remark for old time's sake. But I defend the -kingship. A show of force was necessary to prevent crime from running -rampant." - -"Maybe," Bendy said. "Anyhow I appreciate your frankness in introducing -us to Gizl and what he modestly describes as his meager knowledge. Since -you've already admitted that he's the one who provided the big feed, -will you ease Alis's mind now and assure her that what she was eating -wasn't Negusburger?" - -"Negusburger?" The king laughed. "Is that what you thought, Alis?" - -"Not really," she said. "But I couldn't help wondering where all the -food came from all of a sudden." - -"Over here." The king led them to the corner where Gizl had sunk from -sight. The top of the elevator, now level with the floor, blended -exactly with the linoleum tile. "I don't know how it works, but Gizl -and his people have their headquarters down there somewhere. All I have -to do is place the order and up comes food or whatever I need. Would you -like to try it?" - -"Love to," Bendy said. "What shall I ask for?" - -"Anything." - -"Anything?" - -"Anything at all." - -"Well." Bendy looked impressed. "This will take a moment of thought. How -about a gallon--no, as long as I'm asking I might as well ask for a -keg--of rum, 151 proof." - -Up it came, complete with spigot and tankard. - -"Fabulous!" Bendy said. He rolled it out of the elevator and the -elevator went down again. - -"Let me try!" Alis said. "If Doc can get a keg, I ought to be able to -have--oh, say a pint of Channel No. 5. Would that be too extravagant?" - -"A simple variation in formula, I should think," the king said. - -What came up for Alis didn't look in the least like an expensive Paris -perfume. In fact, it looked like a lard pail with a quantity of liquid -sloshing lazily in it. But its aroma belied its looks. - -"Oh, heaven!" Alis said. "Smell it!" She lifted it by its handle, stuck -a finger in it and rubbed behind each ear. - -"It's a bit overpowering by the pint," Bendy said. He'd drained off part -of a tankard of rum and looked quite at peace with the world. "You'd -better get yourself a chaperone, Alis, if you're going to carry that -around with you." - -"I'll admit they're not very good in the packaging department, but -that's just a quibble. Could I have--how many ounces in a pint?--sixteen -one-ounce stoppered bottles? And a little funnel?" - -"Easiest thing in the world," the king said. "Don? Anything you'd like -at the same time? Save it a trip." - -"I've got an idea, Your Majesty, but I don't know whether you'd -approve. Even though I work in a bank, I've never seen a ten thousand -dollar bill. Do you think they could whip one up?" - -"I really don't know," Hector said. "It could upset the economy if we -let the money get out of hand. But we can always send it right back. -Let's see what happens." - -The elevator came up with the bottles, the funnel and a green and gold -bill. - -It was, on the face of it, a ten thousand dollar bill. But the portrait -was that of Hector Civek, crowned and ermined. And the legend on it was: - -"_Payable to Bearer on Demand, Ten Thousand Dollars. This Note is -Legal Tender for all Debts, Public and Private, and is Redeemable in -Lawful Money at the Treasury of the Kingdom of Superior._ (Signed) -_Gizl, Secretary of the Treasury._" - - - - -X - - -Don didn't know what he might learn by skulking around the freezing -grounds of Hector's palace in the faint moonlight. He hoped for a -glimpse of the kangaroo-Gizl to see if he were as sincere off-guard as -he had been during their interview. - -But his peering into basement windows had revealed nothing, and he was -about to head back to the campus for a night's sleep when someone called -his name. - -It was a girl's voice, from above. He looked up. Red-headed Geneva -Jervis was leaning out of one of the second-story windows. - -"Well, hello," he said. "What are you doing up there?" - -"I've sworn fealty," she said. "Come on up." - -"What?" he said. "How?" - -She disappeared from his sight, then reappeared. "Here." She dropped a -rope ladder. - -Don climbed it, feeling Like Romeo. "Where'd you get this?" - -"They've got them in all the rooms. Fire escapes. Old McFerson was a -precautious man, evidently." She pulled the rope back in. - -Jen Jervis had a spacious bedroom. She wore a dressing gown. - -"What do you mean, you swore fealty?" Don asked. "To Hector?" - -"Sure. What better way to find out what he's up to? Besides, I was -getting fed up with that dormitory at Cavalier. No privacy. House -mothers creeping around all the time. Want a drink?" - -Don saw that she had a half-full glass on the dresser. Next to the glass -stood a bottle of bourbon with quite a bit gone from it. - -"Why not?" he said. "Let's drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may -freeze to death." - -"Or be shot down by Reds." She poured him a stiff one. "Here's to happy -endings." - -He sipped his drink and she swallowed half of hers. - -"I didn't picture you as the drinking type, Jen." - -"Revise the picture. Come sit down." She backed to the big double bed -and relaxed into it, lying on one elbow. - -Don sat next to her, but upright. "Tell me about this fealty deal. What -did you have to do?" - -"Oh, renounce my American citizenship and swear to protect Superior -against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The usual thing." - -"Have you got a title yet? Are you Dame Jervis?" - -"Not yet." She smiled. "I think I'm on probation. They know I'm close to -Bobby and they'd like to have him on their side, for all their avowed -independence. They're not so terribly convinced that Superior's going to -stay up forever. They're hedging their bets, it looks to me." - -"It looks to me that maybe Bobby Thebold might not understand. He's the -kind of man who demands absolute fealty, from what I've seen of him." - -"Oh, to hell with Bobby Thebold." Jen took another swallow. "He's not -here. He's had plenty of time to come, if he was going to, and he -hasn't. To hell with him. Let me get you another drink." - -"No, thanks. This will do me fine." He drank it and set the empty glass -on the floor. Jen drank off the last of hers and put her glass next to -his. - -"Relax," she said. "I'm not going to bite you." She lay back and her -dressing gown opened in a V as far as the belt. She obviously wasn't -wearing anything under the gown. - -Don looked away self-consciously. - -Jen laughed. "What's the matter, boy? No red blood?" She rolled herself -off the end of the bed and went to the dresser. "Another drink?" - -"Don't you think you've had enough?" - -She shook her red hair violently. "Drinking is as drinking does. Trouble -is, nobody's doing anything." - -"Exactly. Everybody's acting as if Superior's one big pleasure dome. -Civek's on the throne and all's well with his little world. Even you've -joined the parade. Why? I don't buy that double-agent explanation." - -She was looking in the bureau mirror at the reflection of the top of her -head, peering up from under her eyebrows. "I'm going to have to touch up -the tresses pretty soon or I won't be a redhead any more." She looked at -his reflection. "You don't like me, do you, Donny-boy?" - -"I never said that." - -"You don't have to say it. But I don't blame you. I don't like myself -sometimes. I'm a cold fish. A cold, dedicated fish. Or I was. I've -decided to change my ways." - -"I can see that." - -"Can you?" She turned around and leaned against the bureau, holding her -glass. "How do you see me now?" - -"As an attractive woman with a glass in her hand. I wonder which is -doing the talking." - -"Rhetorical questions at this time of night, Donny? I think it's me -talking, not the whisky. We'll know better in the sober light of -morning, won't we?" - -"If that's an invitation," Don began, "I'm afraid--" - -Her eyes blazed at him. "I think you're the rudest man I ever met. _And_ -the most boorish." She tossed off the rest of her drink, then began to -cry. - -"Now, Jen--" He went to her and patted her shoulder awkwardly. - -"Oh, Don." She put her head against his chest and wept. His arms -automatically went around her, comfortingly. - -Then he realized that Jen's muffled sobs were going direct to the -Pentagon through his transceiver. That piece of electronics equipment -taped to his skin, he told himself, was the least of the reasons why he -could not have accepted Jen's invitation--if it had been an invitation. - -He lifted her chin from his chest to spare the man in the Pentagon any -further sobs, which must have been reaching him in crescendo. Jen's face -was tear-stained. She looked into his eyes for a second, then fastened -her mouth firmly on his. - -There was nothing a gentleman could do, Don thought, except return the -kiss. Rude, was he? - -Jen broke away first. "What's that?" she said. - -Don opened his eyes and his glance went automatically to the door. It -would not have surprised him to see King Hector coming through it in his -royal night clothes. But Jen was staring out the window. He turned. - -The sky was bright as day over in the direction of the golf course. Don -made out a pinpoint of brighter light. - -"It's a star shell," he said. "A flare." - -They went to the window and leaned out, looking past a corner of the -bubble gum factory. - -"What's it for?" Jen asked. - -Don pointed. "There. That's what for." - -"A blimp!" she said. "It's landing!" - -"Is it an Air Force job? I can't make out the markings." - -"I think I can," Jen said. "They're--PP." - -"Private Pilots! Senator Bobby the Bold!" - -Jen Jervis clutched his arm. "S.O.B.!" she whispered fiercely. - - * * * * * - -Don Cort was down the rope fire escape and away from the mansion before -it woke up to the invasion. As he crossed the railroad spur he had a -glimpse of Jen Jervis hauling up the rope and of lights going on -elsewhere in the building. There was a lot of whistle-blowing and -shouting and a lone shot which didn't seem to be aimed at him. - -Don waited at the spur, behind a boxcar, to see how the Hectorites would -react to the landing of the blimp, A few men gathered at the front gate -and looked nervously into the sky and toward the golf course. Others -joined them, armed with shotguns, pistols, and a rifle or two, but not -with King Hector's paralysis gadget. - -It was clear that Hector had no intention of starting a battle. His men -apparently were under orders only to guard the mansion and the bubble -gum factory. No one even went to see what the blimp was up to. - -Don found as he neared the golf course that the people from the blimp -apparently had no immediate plan to attack, either. He found a sand trap -to lie down in. From it he could watch without being seen. The star -shell had died out but he could see the blimp silhouetted against the -sky. Men in battle dress were establishing a perimeter around the -clubhouse. Each carried a weapon of some kind. It was all very dim. - -Don remembered his communicator. "Cort here," he said softly. "Do you -read me?" - -"Affirmative," a voice said. Don didn't recognize it. He described the -landing and asked, "Is this an authorized landing or is it Senator -Thebold's private party?" - -"Negative," said the voice from the Pentagon, irritatingly GI. - -"Negative _what_?" Don said. "You mean Thebold _is_ leading it?" - -"Affirmative," said the voice. - -"What's he up to?" Don asked. - -"Negative," the voice said. - -Don blew up. "If you mean you don't know, why the hell don't you say so? -Who is this, anyhow?" - -"This happens to be Major Johns, the O.O.D., Sergeant, and if you know -what's good for you--" - -Don stopped listening because a man in battle dress, apparently -attracted by his voice, was standing on the green, looking down into the -bunker where Don lay, pointing a carbine at him. - -"I'll have to hang up now, Major," Don said quietly. "Something negative -has just happened to me. I've been captured." - -The man with the carbine shouted down to Don, "Okay, come out with your -hands over your head." - -Don did so. He hoped he was doing it affirmatively enough. He had no -wish to be shot by one of the Senator's men, regardless of whether that -man was authorized or unauthorized. - - * * * * * - -Senator Thebold sat at a desk in the manager's office of the Raleigh -Country Club. He wore a leather trench coat and a fur hat. Wing -commander's insignia glittered on his shoulders and a cartridge belt was -buckled around his waist. A holster hung from it but Thebold had the -heavy .45 on the desk in front of it. He motioned to Don to sit down. -Two guards stood at the door. - -"Name?" Thebold snapped. - -Don decided to use his own name but pretend to be a local yokel. - -"Donald Cort." - -"What were you doing out there?" - -"I saw the lights." - -"Who were you talking to in the sand trap?" - -"Nobody. I sometimes talk to myself." - -"Oh, you do. Do you ever talk to yourself about a man named Osbert Garet -or Hector Civek?" Thebold looked at a big map of Superior that had been -pinned to the wall, thus giving Don the benefit of his strong profile. - -"Hector's the king now," Don said. "Things got pretty bad before that -but we got enough to eat now." - -"Where did the food come from?" - -Don shrugged. - -Thebold drummed his fingers on the desk. "You're not exactly a fount of -information, are you? What do you do for a living?" - -"I used to work in the gum factory but I got laid off." - -"Do you know Geneva Jervis?" - -"Who's he?" Don said innocently. - -Thebold stood up in irritation. "Take this man to O. & I.," he said to -one of the guards. "We've got to make a start some place. Are there any -others?" - -"Four or five," the guard said. - -"Send me the brightest-looking one. Give this one and the rest a meal -and a lecture and turn them loose. It doesn't look as if Civek is going -to give us any trouble right away and there isn't too much we can do -before daylight." - -The guard led Don out of the room and pinned a button on his lapel. It -said: _Bobby the Bold in Peace and War_. - -"What's O. & I.?" Don asked him. - -"Orientation and Integration. Nobody's going to hurt you. We're here to -end partition, that's all." - -"End partition?" - -"Like in Ireland. Keep Superior in the U. S. A. They'll tell you all -about it at O. & I. Then you tell your friends. Want some more buttons?" - - * * * * * - -Don was fed, lectured, and released, as promised. - -Early the next morning, after a cup of coffee with Alis Garet at -Cavalier's cafeteria, he started back for the golf course. Alis, in a -class-cutting mood, went with him. - -The glimpses of the Thebold Plan which Don had had from O. & I. were -being put into practice. Reilly Street, which provided a boundary line -between Raleigh Country Club and the gum-factory property, had been -transformed into a midway. - -The Thebold forces had strung bunting and set up booths along the south -side of the street. Hector's men, apparently relieved to find that the -battle was to be psychological rather than physical, rushed to prepare -rival attractions on their side. A growing crowd thronged the center of -Reilly Street. Some wore Thebold buttons. Some wore other buttons, twice -as big, with a smiling picture of Hector I on them. Some wore both. - -The sun was bright but the air was bitingly cold. As a result one of the -most popular booths was on Hector's side of the street where Cheeky -McFerson was giving away an apparently inexhaustible supply of -hand-warmers. Cheeky urged everybody to take two, one for each pocket, -and threw in handfuls of bubble gum. - -Two of Hector's men set up ladders and strung a banner across two -store-fronts. It said in foot-high letters: KINGDOM OF SUPERIOR, LAND OF -PLENTY. - -A group of Thebold troubleshooters watched, then rushed away and -reappeared with brushes and paint. They transformed an advertising sign -to read, in letters two feet high: SUPERIOR, U.S.A., HOME OF THE FREE. - -Hawkers on opposite sides of the midway vied to give away hot dogs, -boiled ears of corn, steaming coffee, hot chocolate, candy bars, and -popcorn. - -"There's a smart one." Alis pointed to a sign in Thebold territory. _The -Gripe Room_ it said over a vacant store. The Senator's men had set up -desks and chairs inside and long lines had already formed. - -Apparently a powerful complaint had been among the first to be -registered because a Thebold man was galvanized into action. He ran out -of the store and within minutes the sign painters were at work again. -Their new banner, hoisted to dry in the sun, proclaimed: BLIMP MAIL. - -Underneath, in smaller letters, it said: _How long since you've heard -from your loved ones on Earth? The Thebold Blimp will carry your letters -and small packages. Direct daily connections with U. S. Mail._ - -"You have to admire them," Alis said. "They're really organized." - -"One's as bad as the other," Don said. Impartially, he was eating a -Hector hot dog and drinking Thebold coffee. "Have you noticed the guns -in the upstairs windows?" - -"No. You mean on the Senator's side?" - -"Both sides. Don't stare." - -"I see them now. Do you see any Gizl-sticks? The thing Hector used on -Negus?" - -"No. Just conventional old rifles and shotguns. Let's hope nobody starts -anything." - -"Look," Alis said, grabbing Don by the arm. "Isn't that Ed Clark going -into the Gripe Room?" - -"It sure is. Gathering material for another powerful editorial, I -guess." - -But within minutes Clark's visit had provoked another bustle of -activity. Two of Thebold's men dashed out of the renovated store and off -toward the country club. They came back with the Senator himself, making -his first public appearance. - -Thebold strode down the center of the midway, wearing his soft aviator's -helmet with the goggles pushed up on his forehead and his silk scarf -fluttering behind him. A group of small boys followed him, imitating -his self-confident walk and scrambling occasionally for the Thebold -buttons he threw to them. The Senator went into the Gripe Room. - -"Looks as if Ed has wangled an interview with the great man himself," -Alis said. - -"You didn't say anything to Clark about our talk with the Gizl, did -you?" - -"I did mention it to him," Alis said. "Was that bad?" - -"Half an hour ago I would have said no. Now I'm not so sure." - - * * * * * - -A speaker's platform had been erected on the Senator's side of Reilly -Street, and now canned but stirring band music was blaring out of a -loudspeaker. Thebold came out of the Gripe Room and mounted the -platform. A fair-sized crowd was waiting to hear him. - -Thebold raised his arms as if he were stilling a tumult. The music died -away and Thebold spoke. - -"My good friends and fellow Americans," the Senator began. - -Then a Hectorite sound-apparatus started to blare directly across the -street. The sound of hammering added to the disruption as workmen began -to set up a rival speaker's platform. Then the music on the north side -of Reilly Street became a triumphal march and Hector I made his -entrance. - -Thebold spoke on doggedly. Don heard an occasional phrase through the -din. "... reunion with the U. S. A. ... end this un-American, this -literal partition ..." - -But many in the crowd had turned to watch Hector, who was magnificent -and warm-looking in his ermine robe. - -"Loyal subjects of Superior, I exhort you not to listen to this outsider -who has come to meddle in our affairs," Hector said. "What can he offer -that your king has not provided? You have security, inexhaustible food -supplies and, above all, independence!" - -Thebold increased his volume and boomed: - -"Ah, but _do_ you have independence, my friends? Ask your puppet king -who provides this food--and for what price? And how secure _do_ you feel -as you whip through the atmosphere like an unguided missile? You're over -the Atlantic now. Who knows at what second the controls may break down -and dump us all into the freezing water?" - -Hector pushed his crown back on his head as if it were a derby hat. "Who -asked the Senator here? Let me remind you that he does not even -represent our former--and I emphasize _former_--State of Ohio. We all -know him as a political adventurer, but never before has he attempted to -meddle in the affairs of another country!" - -"And you know what lies beyond Western Europe," Thebold said. "Eastern -Europe and Russia. Atheistic, communistic Red Russia. Is that where -you'd like to come down? For that's where you're heading under Hector -Civek's so-called leadership. King Hector, he calls himself. Let me -remind you, friends, that if there is anything the Soviet Russians hate -more than a democracy, it's a _monarchy_! I don't like to think what -your chances would be if you came down in Kremlinland. Remember what -they did to the Czars." - -Then Senator Bobby Thebold played his ace: - -"But there's an even worse possibility, my poor misguided friends. And -that's for the creatures behind Hector Civek to decide to go back -home--and take off into outer space. Has Hector told you about the -creatures? He has not. Has he told you they're aliens from another -planet? He has not. Some of you have seen them--these kangaroo-like -creatures who, for their own nefarious purposes, made Hector what he is -today. - -"But, my friends, these are not the cute and harmless kangaroos that -abound in the land of our friendly ally, Australia. No. These are -intelligent alien beings who have no use for us at all, and who have -brazenly stolen a piece of American territory and are now in the process -of making off with it." - -A murmur came from the crowd and they looked over their shoulders at -Hector, whose oratory had run down and who seemed unsure how to answer. - -"Yes, my friends," Thebold went on, "you may well wonder what your fate -will be in the hands of that power-mad ex-mayor of yours. A few thousand -feet more of altitude and Superior will run out of air. Then you'll -really be free of the good old U.S.A. because you'll be dead of -suffocation. That, my friends--" - -At that point somebody took a shot at Senator Bobby Thebold. It missed -him, breaking a second-story window behind him. - -Immediately a Thebold man behind that window smashed the rest of the -glass and fired back across Reilly Street, over the heads of the crowd. - -People screamed and ran. Don grabbed Alis and pulled her away from the -immediate zone of fire. They looked back from behind a truck which, -until a minute ago, had been dispensing hot buttered popcorn. - -"Hostilities seem to have commenced," Alis said. She gave a nervous -laugh. "I guess it's my fault for blabbing to Ed Clark." - -"It was bound to happen, sooner or later," Don said. "I hope nobody gets -hurt." - -Evidently neither Thebold nor Hector personally had any such intention. -Both had clambered down from the platforms and disappeared. Most of the -crowd had fled too, heading east toward the center of town, but a few, -like Alis and Don, had merely taken cover and were waiting to see what -would happen next. - -Sporadic firing continued. Then there was a concentration of shooting -from the Senator's side, and a dozen or more of Thebold's men made a -quick rush across the street and into the stores and buildings on the -north side. In a few minutes they returned, under another protective -burst, with prisoners. - -"Slick," Don said. "Hector's being outmaneuvered." - -"I wonder why the Gizls aren't helping him." - -The Thebold loudspeaker came to life. "Attention!" it boomed in the -Senator's voice. "Anyone who puts down his arms will be given safe -conduct to the free side of Reilly Street. Don't throw away your life -for a dictator. Come over to the side of Americanism and common sense." -There was a pause, and the voice added: "No reprisals." - -The firing stopped. - -The Thebold loudspeaker began to play _On the Sunny Side of the Street_. - -But nobody crossed over. Nor was there any further firing from Hector's -side. - -_Lay Down Your Arms_, the loudspeaker blared in another tune from -tin-pan alley. - -When it became clear that Hector's forces had withdrawn completely from -the Reilly Street salient, Thebold's men crossed in strength. - -They worked their way block by block to the grounds of the bubble gum -factory and proceeded to lay siege to it. - - * * * * * - -With Hector Civek immobilized, Senator Bobby Thebold went looking for -Geneva Jervis, accompanied by two armed guards. - -He was trailed by the usual pack of small boys, several of them dressed -in imitation of their hero, in helmets, silk-like scarves and toy guns -at hips. - -Alis, unable to reach the besieged palace to see if her father was safe, -had asked Don to go back with her to Cavalier after the Battle of Reilly -Street. Her mother told Alis that the professor was not only safe on the -campus but had resigned his post as Royal Astronaut at Hector's court. - -"Father broke with Hector?" Alis asked. "Good for him! But why?" - -"He and Dr. Rubach just up and walked out," Mrs. Garet said. "That's all -I know. Your father never explains these things to me. But if my -intuition means anything, the professor is up to one of his tricks -again. He's been locked up in his lab all day." - -The campus had an air of expectancy about it. Students and instructors -went from building to building, exchanging knowing looks or whispered -conversations. - -A rally was in progress in front of the Administration Building when -Senator Thebold arrived. Don and Alis joined the group of listeners for -camouflage and pretended to pay attention to what the speaker, an -intense young man on the back of a pickup truck, was saying. - -"The time has come," he said, "for men and women of, uh, perspicacity to -shun the extremes and tread the middle path. To avoid excesses as -represented on the one hand by the, uh, paternalistic dictatorship of -the Hectorites, and on the other by the, uh, pseudo-democracy of Senator -Thebold which resorts to force when thwarted. I proclaim, therefore, the -course of reason, the way of science and truth as exemplified by the, -uh, the Garet-Rubach, uh--" - -Senator Thebold had been listening at the edge of the little crowd. He -spoke up. - -"The Garet-Rubach Axis?" he suggested. - -The speaker gave him a cold stare. "And who are you?" - -"Senator Robert Thebold, representing pseudo-democracy, as you call it. -Speak on, my young friend. Like Voltaire, I will defend to the -death--but you know what Voltaire said." - -"Yes, sir," the speaker said, abashed. "No offense intended, Senator." - -"Of course you intended offense," Thebold said. "Stick to your guns, -man. Free academic discussion must never be curtailed. But at the moment -I'm more interested in meeting your Professor Garet. Where is he?" - -"In--in the bell tower, sir. Right over there." He pointed. "But you -can't go in. No one can." He looked at Alis as if for confirmation. She -shook her head. - -"We'll see about that," the Senator said. "Carry on with your free and -open discussion. And remember, stick to your guns. Sorry I can't stay." - -He headed for the bell tower, followed by his guards. - -Alis waited till he had gone in, then tugged at Don's sleeve. "Come on. -Let's see the fun." - -"Alis," the speaker called to her, "was that really Senator Thebold?" - -"Sure was. But what's this Garet-Rubach Axis? What's everybody up to?" - -"Not Axis. That was Thebold's propaganda word. It's a movement of--oh, -never mind. You don't appreciate your own father." - -"You can say that again. Come on, Don." - -As Alis closed the door to the bell tower behind them, they heard -Professor Garet's voice from above. - -"Attention interlopers," it said. "You have come unasked and now you -find yourself paralyzed, unable to move a muscle except to breathe." - -"Stay down here," Alis whispered. "There's a sort of vestibule one -flight up. That's where Thebold must have got it. Father spends all his -spare time guarding his holy of holies. Nobody gets past the vestibule." -She frowned. "But I didn't know he had a paralysis thing, too." - -"He probably swiped it from Hector before he broke with him," Don said. - -Professor Garet's voice came again. "I shall now pass among you and -relieve you of your weapons. Why, if it isn't Senator Thebold and his -strong-arm crew! I'm honored, Senator. Here we are: three archaic .45's -disposed of. Very soon now you'll have the pleasure of seeing a -scientific weapon in action." - - * * * * * - -Don, standing with Alis on the steps of the Administration Building, -didn't know whether to be impressed or amused by the giant machine -Professor Garet had assembled. It was mounted on the flat bed of an old -Reo truck, and various parts of it went skyward in a dozen directions. -Garet had driven it onto the campus from a big shed behind the bell -tower. - -The machine's crowning glory was a big bowl-shaped sort of thing that -didn't quite succeed in looking like a radar scanner. It was at the end -of a universal joint which permitted it to aim in any direction. - -"What's it supposed to do?" Don asked. - -"From what I gather," Alis said, "it's Hector's paralysis thing, adapted -for distance. Only of course nobody admits Father stole it. It's -supposed to have antigravity powers, too, like whatever it was that took -Superior up in the first place. Naturally I don't believe a word of it." - -"But where's he going with it?" - -"He's ready to take on all comers, I gather. Please don't try to make -sense out of it. It's only Father." - -The young man who had addressed the student rally took over the driver's -seat and Professor Garet hoisted himself into a bucket seat at the rear -of the truck near a panel which presumably operated the machine. Maynard -Rubach sat next to the driver. The small army of dedicated students who -had been assembling fell in behind the truck. They were unarmed, except -with faith. - -Senator Thebold and his two former bodyguards, de-paralyzed, sat trussed -up in the back of a weapons carrier, looking disgusted with everything. - -"Are we ready?" Professor Garet called. - -A cheer went up. - -"Then on to the enemy--in the name of science!" - -Don shook his head. "But even if this crazy machine could knock out -Hector's and Thebold's men and the Garet-Rubach Axis reigns supreme, -then what? Does he claim he can get Superior back to Earth?" - -Alis said only, "Please, Don ..." - -The forces of science were ready to roll. There had been an embarrassing -moment when the old Reo's engine died, but a student worked a crank -with a will and it roared back to life. - -The Garet machine, the weapons carrier and the foot soldiers moved off -the campus and onto Shaws Road toward Broadway and the turn-off for the -country club. - -They met an advance party of the Thebold forces just north of McEntee -Street. There were about twenty of them, armed with carbines and -submachine guns. As soon as they spotted the weird armada from Cavalier -they dropped to the ground, weapons aimed. - -Senator Thebold rose in his seat. "Hold your fire!" he shouted to his -men. "We don't shoot women, children, or crackpots." He said to -Professor Garet, "All right, mastermind, untie me." - - - - -XI - - -A submarine surfaced on the Atlantic, far below Superior. - -It was obvious to the commander of the submarine, which bore the -markings of the Soviet Union, that the runaway town of Superior, being -populated entirely by capitalist madmen, was a menace to humanity. The -submarine commander made a last-minute check with the radio room, then -gave the order to launch the guided missiles which would rid the world -of this menace. - -The first missile sped skyward. - -Superior immediately took evasive action. - -First, in its terrific burst of acceleration, everybody was knocked -flat. - -Next, Superior sped upward for a few hundred feet and everybody was -crushed to the ground. - -At the same time the first missile, which was now where Superior would -have been had it maintained its original course, exploded. A miniature -mushroom cloud formed. - -The submarine fired again and a second missile streaked up. - -Superior dodged again. But this time its direction was down. Everyone -who was outdoors--and a few who had been under thin roofs--found himself -momentarily suspended in space. - -Don and Alis, among the hundreds who had had the ground snatched out -from under them, clung to each other and began to fall. All around them -were the various adversaries who had been about to clash. Professor -Garet had been separated from his machine and they were following -separate downward orbits. Many of Thebold's men had dropped their guns -but others clung to them, as if it were better to cling to something -than merely to fall. - -The downward swoop of Superior had taken it out of the immediate path of -the second missile, but whoever had changed the townoid's course had -apparently failed to take the inhabitants' inertia into immediate -consideration. The missile was headed into their midst. - -Then two things happened. The missile exploded well away from the -falling people. And scores of kangaroo-like Gizls appeared from -everywhere and began to snatch people to safety. - -Great jumps carried the Gizls into the air and they collected three or -four human beings at each leap. The leaps appeared to defy gravity, -carrying the creatures hundreds of feet up. The Gizls also appeared to -have the faculty of changing course while airborne, saving their charges -from other loose objects, but this might have been illusion. - -At any rate, Geneva Jervis, who had been hurled up from the roof of -Hector's palace, where she had gone in hopes of catching a glimpse of -Senator Thebold, was reunited with the Senator when they were rescued by -the same Gizl, whose leap had carried him in a great arc virtually from -one edge of Superior to the other. - -Don Cort, pressed close to Alis and grasped securely against the hairy -chest of their particular rescuer, was experiencing a combination of -sensations. One, of course, was relief at being snatched from certain -death. - -Another was the delicious closeness of Alis, who he realized he hadn't -been paying enough attention to, in a personal way. - -Another was surprise at the number of Gizls who had appeared in the -moment of crisis. - -Finally he saw beyond doubt that it was the Gizls who were running the -entire show--that Hector I, Bobby the Bold, and the pseudo-scientific -Garet-Rubach Axis were merely strutters on the stage. - -It was the Gizls who were maneuvering Superior as if it were a giant -vehicle. It was the Gizls who were exploding the missiles. And it was -the alien Gizls who, unlike the would-be belligerents among the -Earth-people, were scrupulously saving human lives. - -"Thanks," Don said to his rescuing Gizl as it set him and Alis down -gently on the hard ground of the golf course. - -"Don't mention it," the Gizl said, then leaped off to save others. - -"He talked!" Alis said. - -Don watched the Gizl make a mid-air grab and haul back a man who had -looked as if he might otherwise have gone over the edge. "He certainly -did." - -"Then that must have been a masquerade, that other time--all that -mumbo-jumbo with the Anagrams." - -"It must have been, unless they learn awfully fast." - -He and Alis clutched each other again as Superior tilted. It remained -steady otherwise and they were able to see the ocean, whose surface was -marked with splashes as a variety of loose objects fell into it. Don had -a glimpse of Professor Garet's machine plummeting down in the midst of -most of Superior's vehicular population. - -"There's a plane!" Alis cried. "It's going after something on the -surface." - -"It's the Hustler," Don said. "It's after the submarine." - -The B-58's long pod detached itself, became a guided missile and hit the -submarine square in the middle. There was a whooshing explosion, the -B-58 banked and disappeared from sight under Superior, and the sub went -down. - - * * * * * - -"Sergeant Cort," a voice said, and because Alis was lying with her head -on Don's chest she heard it first. - -"Is that somebody talking to you, Don? Are you a sergeant?" - -"I'm afraid so," he said. "I'll have to explain later. Sergeant Cort -here," he said to the Pentagon. - -"Things are getting out of hand, Sergeant," the voice of Captain Simmons -said. - -"Captain, that's the understatement of the week." - -"Whatever it is, we can't allow the people of Superior to be endangered -any longer." - -"No, sir. Is there another submarine?" - -"Not as far as we know. I'm talking about the state of anarchy in -Superior itself, with each of three factions vying for power. Four, -counting the kangaroos." - -"They're not kangaroos, sir. They're Gizls." - -"Whatever they are. You and I know they're creatures from some other -world, and I've managed to persuade the Chief of Staff that this is the -case. He's in seeing the Defense Secretary right now. But the State -Department isn't buying it." - -"You mean they don't believe in the Gizls?" - -"They don't believe they're interplanetary. Their whole orientation at -State is toward international trouble. Anything interplanetary sends -them into a complete flap. We can't even get them to discuss the -exploration of the moon, and that's practically around the corner." - -"What shall we do, sir?" - -"Between you and me, Sergeant--" Captain Simmons' voice interrupted -itself. "Never mind that now. Here comes the Defense Secretary." - -"Foghorn Frank?" Don asked. - -"Sh." - -Frank Fogarty had earned his nickname in his younger years when he -commanded a tugboat in New York Harbor. That was before his quick rise -in the shipbuilding industry where he got the reputation as a wartime -expediter that led to his cabinet appointment. - -"Is this the gadget?" Don heard Fogarty say. - -"Yes, sir." - -"Okay. Sergeant Cort?" Fogarty boomed. "Can you hear me?" It was no -wonder they called him Foghorn. - -"Yes, sir," Don said, wincing. - -"Fine. You've been doing a topnotch job. Don't think I don't know what's -been going on. I've heard the tapes. Now, son, are you ready for a -little action? We're going to stir them up at State." - -"Yes, sir," Don said again. - -"Good. Then stand up. No, better not if Superior is still gyrating. Just -raise your right hand and I'll give you a field promotion to major. -Temporary, of course. I can do that, can't I, General?" - -Apparently the Chief of Staff was there, and agreed. - -"Right," Fogarty said. "Now, Sergeant, repeat after me...." - -Don, too overwhelmed to say anything else, repeated after him. - -"Now then, Major Cort, we're going to present the State Department with -what they would call a _fait accompli_. You are now Military Governor of -Superior, son, with all the power of the U.S. Defense Establishment -behind you. A C-97 troop carrier plane is loading. I'll give you the -ETA as soon as I know it. A hundred paratroopers. Arrange to meet them -at the golf course, near the blimp. And if Senator Thebold tries to -interfere--well, handle him tactfully. But I think he'll go along. He's -got his headlines and by now he should have been able to find his -missing lady friend. Help him in that personal matter if you can. As for -Hector Civek and Osbert Garet, be firm. I don't think they'll give you -any trouble." - -"But, sir," Don said. "Aren't you underestimating the Gizls? If they see -paratroops landing they're liable to get unfriendly fast. May I make a -suggestion?" - -"Shoot, son." - -"Well, sir, I think I'd better go try to have a talk with them and see -if we can't work something out without a show of force. If you could -hold off the troops till I ask for them...." - -Foghorn Frank said, "Want to make a deal, eh? If you can do it, fine, -but since State isn't willing to admit that there's such a thing as an -intelligent kangaroo, alien or otherwise, any little deals you can make -with them will have to be unofficial for the time being. All right--I'll -hold off on the paratroopers. The important thing is to safeguard the -civilian population and uphold the integrity of the United States. You -have practically unlimited authority." - -"Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I'll do my best." - -"Good luck. I'll be listening." - - * * * * * - -"As I see it," Alis said after Don had explained his connection with the -Pentagon, "Senator Thebold licked Hector Civek. Father, who defected -from Hector, captured the Senator and vice versa. But now the Gizls have -taken over from everybody and you have to fight them--all by your -lonesome." - -"Not fight them," Don said. "Negotiate with them." - -"But the Gizls are on Hector's side. It seems to come full circle. Where -do you start?" - -Superior had returned to an even keel and Don helped her up. "Let's -start by taking a walk over to the bubble gum factory. We'll try to see -the Gizl-in-Chief." - -There didn't seem to be anyone on the grounds of the McFerson place. The -boxcar which had been on the siding near the factory was gone. It was -probably at the bottom of the Atlantic by now, along with everything -else that hadn't been fastened down. Don wondered if Superior's -gyrations had been strong enough to dislodge the train that had -originally brought him to town. The Pennsylvania Railroad wouldn't be -happy about that. - -They saw no one in the mansion and started for the basement room in -which they'd had their talk with the Gizl, passing through rooms where -the furniture had been knocked about as if by an angry giant. They were -stopped en route by Vincent Grande, ex-police chief now Minister of -Defense. "All right, kids," he said, "stick 'em up. Your Majesty," he -called, "look what I got." - -Hector Civek, crownless but still wearing his ermine, came up the -stairs. "Put your gun away, Vince. Hello, Alis. Hello, Don. Glad to see -you survived the earthquake. I thought we were all headed for kingdom -come." - -Vincent protested, "This is that traitor Garet's daughter. We can hold -her hostage to keep her father in line." - -"Nuts," the king said. "I'm getting tired of all this foolishness. I'm -sure Osbert Garet is just as shaken up as we are. And that crazy -Senator, too. All I want now is for Superior to go back where it came -from, as soon as possible. And that's up to Gizl, I'm afraid." - -"Have you seen him since the excitement?" Don asked. - -"No. He went down that elevator of his when the submarine surfaced. I -guess his control room, or whatever it is that makes Superior go, is -down there. Let's take a look. Vince, will you put that gun away? Go -help them clean up the mess in the kitchen." - -Vincent Grande grumbled and went away. - -In the basement room, Hector went to the corner and said, "Hey! Anybody -down there?" - -A deep voice said, "Ascending," and the blue-gray kangaroo-like creature -appeared. He stepped off the elevator section. "Greetings, friends." - -"Well," Hector said, "I didn't know you could talk." - -"Forgive my lack of frankness," Gizl said. "Alis," he said, bowing -slightly. "Your Majesty." - -"Frankly," Hector said, "I'm thinking of abdicating. I don't think I -like being a figurehead. Not when everybody knows about it, anyhow." - -"Major Cort," Gizl said. - -Don looked startled. "What? How did you know?" - -"We have excellent communications. We thank your military for its -assistance with the submarine." - -"A pleasure. And we thank you and your people for saving us when we went -flying." - -"Mutuality of effort," Gizl said. "I'll admit a dilemma ensued when the -submarine attacked. But our obligation to safeguard human lives -outweighed the other alternative--escape to the safety of space. Now -suppose we have our conference. You, Major, represent Earth. I, Rezar, -represent the survivors of Gorel-zed. Agreed?" - -"Rezar?" Don said. "I thought your name was Gizl. And what's Gorel-zed?" - -"Little Marie Bendy called me Gizl," Rezar said. "She couldn't pronounce -Gorel-zed. I'm afraid I haven't been entirely candid with you about a -number of things. But I think I know you better now. I heard your -conversation with Foghorn Frank." - -Don smiled. "Do you mean you've been listening in ever since I strapped -on the transceiver?" - -"Oh, yes," Rezar said. "So recapitulation is unnecessary. But we Gizls, -so-called, are still a mystery to you, of course. I suppose you'd like -some background. Where from, where to, when, and all that." - -"I certainly would," Don said. "So would everybody else, I imagine, -especially King Hector here, and Mr. Fogarty." - -"By all means let us communicate on the highest level," Rezar said. -"First, where from, eh?" - -"Right. Are you listening, Mr. Secretary?" - -"I sure am," Fogarty said. "What's more, son, you're being piped -directly into the White House--and a few other places." - -"Good," Rezar said. "Now marvel at our saga." - - - - -XII - - -The end of a civilization is a tragic thing. - -On the desert planet of Gorel-zed, the last world to survive the slow -nova of its sun, the Gizls, once the pests but now through brain surgery -the possessors in their hardy bodies of the accumulated knowledge of the -frail human beings, were preparing to flee. Their self-supporting ships -were ready, capable of crossing space to the ends of the universe. - -But their universe was barren. No planet could receive them. All were -doomed as was theirs, Gorel-zed. They set out for a new galaxy, knowing -they would not reach it but that their descendants might. They became -nomads of space, self-sufficient. - -For generations they wandered, their population diminishing. Their -scientist-philosophers evolved the theory that accounted for their -spaceborn ennui with life, their acceptance of their fate, their -eventual doom. They had no roots, no place of their own. They had only -the mechanistic world of their ships--which were vehicles, not a land. -They must find a home of their own, or die. - -Several times in their odyssey they had come to a planet which could -have housed them. But each time an injunction which had been built into -them at the time of the brain surgery prevented them from staying. The -doomed human beings on Gorel-zed had built into the very fiber of the -Gizls--who were, after all, only animals--the injunction that no human -being could be harmed for their comfort. - -This meant that the world of Ladnora, whose gentle saffron inhabitants -were incapable of offering resistance, could not be conquered. The -Ladnorans, in their generosity, had offered the refugees from Gorel-zed -a hemisphere of their own. But the Gizls required a world of their own, -not a half-world. They accepted a small continent only and made it -spaceborne and took it with them. - -The Crevisians were the next to be visited. They ruled a belt of fertile -land around the equator of their world--the rest was icy waste. The -Gizls took a slice of each polar region and, joining them, made them -spaceborne. - -In time they reached the system of Sol. - -Mars attracted them first because of its sands. Mars was like Gorel-zed -in many ways. But that very resemblance meant it was not for them. Mars -was a dead world, as their own Gorel-zed had become. - -But the next planet they came to was a green planet. The Gizls moored -the acquisitions in the asteroid belt and visited Earth. - -Here, at their planetfall, Australia, was the perfect land. Even its -inhabitants--the great kangaroos, the smaller wallabies--breathed Home -to the Gizls. But there were also the human beings who had made the land -their own. And though memory of their origin had weakened in the Gizls, -the injunction had not. - -For a time they set up a kind of camp in the great central desert and -with delight found their legs again. Out of the cramped ships they came, -to bound in freedom and fresh breathable air across the wasteland. But -hardy, naked, black human beings lived in the desert and they attacked -the Gizls with their primitive weapons. And when the Gizls fled, not -wishing to harm them, they came to white men, who attacked them with -explosive weapons. - -And so they took to their ships and were spaceborne again. But the -attraction of Earth was strong and they sought another continent, called -North America. - -And in the center of it they found a great race whose technology was -nearly as great as their own. These people had an intelligence and drive -which rivaled that of their human antecedents, whose minds had been -transferred to the Gizl's hardy, cumbersome bodies. - - * * * * * - -Rezar paused. His intelligent eyes seemed misplaced in his heavy animal -body. - -"What attracted you to Superior, of all places?" Alis asked. - -Rezar seemed to smile. "Two things. Cavalier and bubble gum." - -"What?" Alis said. "You're kidding!" - -"No," Rezar said. "It's true. Bubble gum because after generations of -subsistence on capsule food our teeth had weakened and loosened, and -bubble gum strengthened them. Nourishment, no. Exercise, yes. And -Cavalier Institute because here were men who spoke in terms which -paralleled the secret of our spacedrive." - -Alis laughed. "This would make Father expire of joy," she said. "But now -you know he's just a phony." - -"Alas," Rezar said. "Yes, alas. But he was so close. Magnology. -Cosmolineation. It's jargon merely, as we learned in time. Osbert Garet -is mad. Harmless, but mad." - -Don asked Rezar, "But if this built-in morality of yours is so strong, -why didn't it prevent you from taking off with Superior?" - -Rezar replied, "There are factions among us now. An evolution of a sort, -I suppose. Nothing is static. One faction"--he tapped his chest--"is -completely bound by the injunction. But in the other, self-preservation -places a limit on the injunction." - -The explanation seemed to be that the other faction, which grew in -strength with every failure to find a world of their own, felt that on a -planet such as Earth, with a history of men warring against men, -required the Gizls to be no more moral than the human inhabitants -themselves. - -"The Good Gizls versus the Bad Gizls?" Alis asked. - -Rezar seemed to smile. The Bad Gizls, led by one called Kaliz, had got -the upper hand for a time and elevated Superior, intending to join it to -the bits and pieces of other planets they had previously collected and -stored in the asteroid belt. But Rezar's influence had persuaded them -not to head directly into space--at least not until they had solved the -problem of how to put Superior's inhabitants "ashore" first. - -Don, unaccustomed to his new role of interplanetary arbitrator, said -tentatively: - -"I can't authorize you to take Superior, even if you do put us all -ashore, but there must be a comparable piece of Earth we could let you -have." - -"But Superior is not all," Rezar said. "To use one of your nautical -expressions, Superior merely represents a shake-down cruise. Our ability -to detach such a populated center had shown the feasibility of raising -other typical communities--such as New York, Magnitogorsk and -Heidelberg--each a different example of Earth culture." - -Don heard a gasp from the Pentagon--or it might have come from the White -House. - -"You mean you've burrowed under each one of those 'communities'?" Don -asked. - -Rezar shrugged. "Kaliz's faction," he said, as if to dissociate himself -from the project of removing some of Earth's choicest property. "They -aim at a history-museum of habitable worlds." - -"Interplanetary souvenirs," Alis said. "With quick-frozen inhabitants? -Don, what are you going to do?" - -Don didn't even know what to say. His eyes met Hector's. - -"Don't look at me," Hector said. "I definitely abdicate." - -"Look," Don said to Rezar, "how far advanced are these plans? I mean, is -there a deadline for this mass levitation?" - -"Twenty-four hours, your time," Rezar said. - -"Can't you stop them? Aren't you the boss?" - -The alien turned Don's question back on him. "Are _you_ the boss?" - -Don had started to shake his head when Foghorn Frank's voice boomed out. - -"Yes, by thunder, he _is_ the boss! Don, raise your right hand. I'm -going to make you a brigadier general. No, blast it, a full general. -Repeat after me...." - - * * * * * - -General Don Cort squared his shoulders. He was almost getting used to -these spot promotions. - -"Now negotiate," Fogarty said. "You hear me, Mr. Gizl-Rezar? The United -States of America stands behind General Cort." There was no audible -objection from the White House. "Who stands behind you?" - -"A democratic government," Rezar said. "Like yours." - -"You represent them?" Fogarty asked. - -"With my council, yes." - -"Then we can make a deal. Talk to him, Don. I'll shut up now." - -Don said to Rezar, "Was it your decision to burrow under New York and -Magnitogorsk and Heidelberg?" - -"I agreed to it, finally." - -"But you agreed to it in the belief that the Earth-people were a warring -people and that your old prohibitions did not apply. But we are not a -warring people. Earth is at peace." - -"Is it?" Rezar asked sadly. "Your plane warred on the submarine." - -"In self-defense," Don said. "Don't forget that we defended you, too. -And we'd do it again--but not unless provoked." - -Rezar looked thoughtful. He tapped his long fingernails on the table. -Finally he said, "I believe you. But I must talk to my people first, as -you have talked to yours. Let us meet later"--he seemed to be making a -mental calculation--"in three hours. Where? Here?" - -"How about Cavalier?" Alis suggested. "It would be the first important -thing that ever happened there." - - * * * * * - -For the first time since Superior took off, all of the town's elected or -self-designated representatives met amicably. They gathered in the -common room at Cavalier Institute as they waited for Rezar and his -council to arrive for the talks which could decide, not only the fate of -Superior, but of New York and two foreign cities as well. - -Apparently the Pentagon expected Don to pretend he had authority to -speak for Russia and Germany as well as the United States. But could he -speak for the United States constitutionally? He was sure that Bobby -Thebold, comprising exactly one percent of that great deliberative body, -the Senate, would let him know if he went too far, crisis or no crisis. - -The Senator, reunited with Geneva Jervis, sat holding her hand on a sofa -in front of the fireplace in which logs blazed cheerfully. Thebold -looked untypically placid. Jen Jervis, completely sober and with her -hair freshly reddened, had greeted Don with a cool nod. - -Thebold had been chagrined at learning that Don Cort was not the yokel -he had taken him for. But he recovered quickly, saying that if there was -any one thing he had learned in his Senate career it was the art of -compromise. He would go along with the duly authorized representative of -the Pentagon, with which he had always had the most cordial of -relations. - -"Isn't that so, sweetest of all the pies?" he said to Jen Jervis. - -Jen looked uncomfortable. "Please, Bobby," she said. "Not in public." -The Senator squeezed her hand. - -Professor Garet, whose wife and daughter were serving tea, stood with Ed -Clark near the big bay window, through which they looked occasionally to -see if the Gizls were coming. Maynard Rubach sat in a leather armchair -next to Hector Civek, who had discarded his ermine and wore an old heavy -tweed suit. Doc Bendy sat off in a corner by himself. He was untypically -quiet. - -Don Cort, despite his four phantom stars, was telling himself he must -not let these middle-aged men make him feel like a boy. Each of them had -had a chance to do something positive and each had failed. - -"Gentlemen," Don said, "my latest information from Washington confirms -that the Gizls have actually tunneled under the cities they say their -militant faction wants to take up to the asteroid belt, just as they dug -in under Superior before it took off. So they're not bluffing." - -"How'd we find out about Magnitogorsk?" Ed Clark asked. "Iron curtain -getting rusty?" - -Don told him that the Russians, impressed by the urgency of an -unprecedented telephone call from the White House to the Kremlin, had -finally admitted that their great industrial city was sitting on top of -a honeycomb. The telephone conversation had also touched delicately on -the subject of the submarine that had been sunk in mid-Atlantic, and -there had been tacit agreement that the sub commander had exceeded his -authority in firing the missiles and that the sinking would not be -referred to again. - -Maynard Rubach turned away from the window. "Here they come. Three of -them. But they're not coming from the direction of the McFerson place." - -"They could have come up from under the grandstand." Don said. "Miss -Jervis and I found one of their tunnels there. Remember, Jen?" - -Jen Jervis colored slightly and Don was sorry he'd brought it up. "Yes," -she said. "I fainted and Don--Mr. Cort--General Cort--helped me." - -"I'm obliged to the general," Senator Thebold said. - -Professor Garet went to the door. The three Gizls followed him into the -room. Everyone stood up formally. There was some embarrassed scurrying -around because no one had remembered that the Gizls required backless -chairs to accommodate their tails. - -The Gizls, looking remarkably alike, sat close together. Don tentatively -addressed the one in the middle. - -"Gentlemen," he said, "first it is my privilege to award to you in the -name of the President, the Medal of Merit in appreciation of your quick -action in saving uncounted lives during the submarine incident. The -actual medal will be presented to you when we re-establish physical -contact with Earth." - -Rezar, who, it turned out, was the one in the middle, accepted with a -grave bow. "Our regret is that we were unable to prevent the loss of -many valuable objects as well," he said. - -"Mr. Rezar," Don said, "I haven't been trained in diplomacy so I'll -speak plainly. We don't intend to give up New York. Contrary to general -belief, there are about eight million people who _do_ want to live -there. And I'm sure the inhabitants of Heidelberg and Magnitogorsk feel -the same way about their cities." - -"Then you yield Superior," Rezar said. - -"I didn't say that." - -"Yield Superior and we will guarantee safe passage to Earth for all its -inhabitants. We only want its physical facilities." - -"We'll yield the bubble gum factory to help your dental problem--for -suitable reparations," Don said. - -"Payment will be made for anything we take. Give us Superior intact, -including the factory and Cavalier Institute, and we will transport to -any place you name an area of equal size from the planet Mars." - -"Mars?" Don said. "That'd be a very valuable piece of real estate for -the researchers." - -"Take it," Don heard Frank Fogarty say from the Pentagon. - -Professor Garet spoke up. "If Cavalier goes, I go with it. I won't leave -it." - -"And I won't leave you, Osbert," his wife said. "Will there be air up -there among the asteroids?" - -"We are air-breathers like you," Rezar said. "When we have assembled our -planet there will be plenty. You will be welcome, Professor and Mrs. -Garet." - -"Hector?" Don said. "You're still mayor of Cavalier. What do you think?" - -"They can have it," Hector said. "I'll take a nice steady civil service -job with the Federal Government, if you can arrange it." - -"Hector," Ed Clark said, "I think that sums up why you've never been a -howling success in politics. You don't give a damn for the people. All -you care about is yourself." - -Hector shrugged. "You needn't be so holy-sounding, Eddie-boy," he said. -"Why isn't the _Sentry_ out this week? I'll tell you why. Because you've -been so busy filing to the Trimble-Grayson papers on Thebold's private -radio that you haven't had time for anything else. How much are they -paying you?" - -Ed Clark, deflated, muttered, "News is news." - -"Is that what you were doing in Senator Thebold's Gripe Room on the -midway?" Don asked Clark. "Making this deal?" - -"Now, General," Thebold said. "Would you deprive the people of their -right to know? Throughout my Senate career I have carried the torch -against government censorship, which is the path to a totalitarian -state." - -"I'm sure part of the deal was that Clark's copy didn't make you -anything less than a hero," Don said. - -"Don't be too righteous, young man," Thebold said. "'Lest ye be -judged,' as they say. Are you not at this moment bargaining away a piece -of a sovereign State of the sovereign United States? I don't happen to -represent Ohio, but if I did I would rise in the upper chamber to demand -your court-martial." - -"At ease, Senator!" Don ordered. "You're not in the upper chamber now. -You're on an artificial satellite which at any moment is apt to take off -into outer space." - -Doc Bendy spoke for the first time: "Oops-a-daisy! You tell 'im, -Donny-boy. Soo-perior--the town everybody looks up to." - -Don frowned at him. Bendy had sunk deep into his chair in his corner. He -acknowledged Don's look with a broad smile that vanished in a hiccup. - -"Y' don't have to say it, Donny. I been drinkin'. Ever since Superior -looped the looperior and flung me feet over forehead into the bee-yond. -Shatterin' experience to have nothin' but a kangaroo-hop between you and -eternity. Yop, ol' Bendy's been on a bender ever since. But you carry -on, boy. Y' doin' a great job." - -"Thanks," Don said in irony. "I guess that completes the roster of those -qualified to speak for Superior. Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Rubach. Did you have -something to say?" - -But all the portly president of Cavalier had to say, though he said it -at great length, was that if Cavalier were taken as part of a package -deal, its trustees would have to receive adequate compensation. -Professor Garet tugged at his sleeve and said, "Sit down, Maynard. -They've already said they'll pay." - -Fogarty's voice rumbled at Don: "Let's try to speed things up, General. -Close the deal on Superior, at least, before the press get there." - -"The press?" - -"The rest of the papers couldn't let the Trimble-Grayson chain keep -their exclusive. Clark's going to have lots of company soon. The boys -have hired a vertiplane. First one off the assembly line. You've seen -it. Lands anywhere." - -"Okay, I'll try to hurry it up." To the Gizls Don said, "All right. You -take Superior, minus its people, and bring us a piece of Mars." - -"Agreed," Rezar said. It was as easy as that. Nobody objected. Too many -of Superior's self-proclaimed saviors had been caught with their motives -showing. - -"You've got to give up New York, though," Don said. He felt as if he -were playing a game of interplanetary Monopoly. "Well give you a chunk -of the great central desert instead, if Australia's willing. (Would that -come under the South East Asia Treaty Organization, Mr. Secretary?) -Complete with kangaroos and assorted wallabies, if you want them." - -"Agreed," said Rezar. - -Don sighed quietly to himself. It should be smooth sailing now that the -hurdle of New York was past. - -But Kaliz, the one Alis had called the Bad Gizl, shook his head -violently and spoke for the first time. "No," he said firmly. "We must -have New York. It is by far the greatest of our conquests and I will not -yield it." - -Rezar said sharply, "We have foresworn conquest." - -"I am tired of your moralizing," Kaliz said. "We are dealing with beings -whose greatest respect is for power. If we temporize now we will lose -their respect. They will think our new world weak and itself open to -conquest. We have the power--let us use it. I say take New York _and_ -its people and hold them hostage. The city is ready for lifting." - -"No!" Don said. "You can't have New York." - -Kaliz seemed to smile. "We already have it. It's merely a question of -transporting it." He put a long-fingered hand to his furry chest where, -almost hidden in the blue-gray fur, was a flat perforated disk. He said -into it, "Show them that New York is ours!" - -"Wait!" Rezar said. - -"Merely a demonstration," Kaliz told him, "for the moment at least." - -Frank Fogarty's voice, alarmed, said urgently, "Tell him we believe him. -New York's reporting an earthquake, or something very like it. For God's -sake tell him to put it back while we reorient our thinking." - -Kaliz nodded in satisfaction. "The city is as it was. Our people under -New York raised it a mere fraction of an inch. It could as easily have -been a mile. Do not underestimate our power." - -Rezar was agitated. "We came in peace," he said to his fellow Gizl. "Let -us not leave in war. There's power on both sides, capable of untold -destruction. Neither must use it. We are a democratic people. Let us -vote. I say we must not take New York." - -"And I say we must," Kaliz told him, "in self-interest." - -They turned to the third of their people, who had been looking from one -to the other, his eyes reflecting indecision. - -Kaliz barked at him: "Well, Ezial? Vote!" - -Ezial said, "I abstain." - -Deadlock. - -Don was sweating. He looked at the others in the room. They were tense -but silent, apparently willing to leave it up to Don and his link with -the Defense Department. - -Frank Fogarty's voice said: - -"SAC has been airborne in total strength for half an hour, General. It -was a purely precautionary alert at the time." - -Don started to interrupt. - -"I know they hear me," the Secretary of Defense said. "I intend that -they should. We don't want to fight but we will if we must. Son ..." The -rough voice faltered for a moment. "If necessary, we'll destroy Superior -to kill this alien and save New York. As a soldier, I hope you -understand. It's the lives of three thousand people against the lives of -eight million." - -Only Don and the Gizl had heard. Don looked across the room and into -Alis' eyes. She gave him a tentative smile, noting his grave expression. - -"Yes, sir," Don said finally. - -Rezar spoke. "This is folly." He touched the disk in the fur of his own -chest. - -"No!" Kaliz cried. - -"It is time," Rezar said. "We are beginning to fail in our mission." He -spoke reverently into the disk, "My lord, awake." - -Kaliz said quickly, "Raise New York! Take it up!" - -"They will not obey you now," Rezar said. "I have invoked the counsel of -the Master." - - * * * * * - -The man was frail and incredibly old. He had sparse white hair and a -deeply lined face, but his eyes were alert and wise. He wore a -cloak-like garment of soft, warm-looking material. His expression was -one of kindliness but strength. - -The doorbell had rung and Mrs. Garet had answered it. The old man had -walked slowly into the room, followed respectfully by two Gizls. - -"My lord," said Rezar. He got to his feet and bowed, as did the other -Gizls. "I had hoped to let you sleep until your new world had been -prepared for you. But the risk was great that, if I delayed, your world -would never be. Forgive me." - -"You did well," the old man said. - -Don stood up too, feeling the sense of awe that this personage inspired. -"How do you do, sir," he said. - -"How do you do, General Cort." - -"You know my name?" - -"I know many things. Too many for such a frail old body. But someone had -to preserve the heritage of our people, and I was chosen." - -"Won't you sit down, sir?" - -"I'll stand, thanks. I've rested long enough. Generations, as a matter -of fact. Shall I answer some of your obvious questions? I'd better say a -few things quickly, before Foghorn Frank hits the panic button." - -Don smiled. "Can he hear you or shall I repeat everything?" - -"Oh, he hears me. I've got gadgets galore, even though I'm between -planets at the moment. I must say it's a pleasure to be among people -again." He nodded pleasantly around the room. - -Mrs. Garet smiled to him. "Would you like a cup of tea?" - -"Later, perhaps, thank you. First I must assure you and everyone of -Earth that no one will be harmed by us and that we want nothing for our -new world that you are not willing to give." - -"That's good to hear," Don said. "I gather you've been in some kind of -suspended animation since you left your old world. So I wonder how -you're able to speak English." - -"Everything was suspended but the subconscious. That kept perking along, -absorbing everything the Gizls fed into it. And they've been absorbing -your culture for ten years, so I'm pretty fluent. And I certainly know -enough to apologize for all the inconvenience my associates have caused -you in their zeal to re-establish the human race of Gorel-zed. In the -case of Kaliz, of course, it was excessive zeal which will necessitate -his rehabilitation." - -"Your pardon, Master," Kaliz said humbly. - -"Granted. But you'll be rehabilitated anyway." - -Don asked, "Did I understand you to say you plan to re-establish your -race? Do you mean there are more of you, aside from the -kangaroo-people?" - -"Oh, yes. Young people. The youngest of all from Gorel-zed. They were -put to sleep like me, to be ready to carry on when their new world is -built. I won't wake them till then. I hope to live that much longer." - -"I'm sure you will, sir." - -"Kind of you. But let's get on with the horse trading. Of course we -won't take New York, or the two other cities." (There was a collection -of sighs of relief from Washington.) "But we would like some of your -uninhabited jungle land--the lusher the better, to help us out in the -oxygen department. We'd also like some of your air, if you can spare -it. We've got a planet to supply now, not just ships." - -"How would you get air across space?" Don asked. - -"At the moment," the Master said, "I'm afraid we're not prepared to -barter our scientific knowledge." - -"I didn't mean to pry. It just didn't seem to be something you could do. -Do you think we could spare some air, Mr. Secretary?" - -"I'll have to ask the science boys about that one," Frank Fogarty said. -"Meanwhile it's okay with Australia on the desert. But your Gizl friends -have to agree to relocate the aborigines from that tract, and they must -take every last rabbit or it's no deal." - -"Agreed," the Master said with a smile. "But please ask their stockmen -to hold their fire. My friends only _look_ like kangaroos." - - * * * * * - -As Don and the Master were making arrangements for Superior to touch -down so its people could be transferred to Earth, a blaze of light -stabbed down from the sky. Through the window they saw the vertiplane -settling slowly to the campus. - -"It sure beats a blimp," Senator Thebold said in admiration. - -Professor Garet got up to look. "It's the press," he said to his wife. -"You might as well invite them in. I hope we have enough tea." - -The vertiplane's door opened and the first wave of reporters spilled -out. - - - - -XIII - - -As Superior headed back across the Atlantic, the Earth-people were given -a farewell tour. For the first time they had an authorized look at the -underground domain of the Gizls, which they reached through the tunnel -that led below from under Cavalier's grandstand. - -The observation room which Don and Jen Jervis had found was connected by -a hidden elevator to a vast main chamber. A control console formed the -entire wall of one end of it. Half a dozen Gizls stood at the base of -the console. From time to time one of them would launch himself upward -with his powerful legs, grab a protruding rung, make an adjustment, then -drop lightly back to the floor. - -Don and Alis stood for a moment watching Professor Garet, who was -tugging at his beard as he became aware of the magnitude of the -operation which drove Superior through the skies and was soon to take it -across space to the asteroid belt. - -"Poor Father," Alis whispered to Don. "Magnology in action, after all -these years--and he didn't have a thing to do with it." - -"Is that why he wants to go with the Master?" - -"I imagine so. If he stayed on Earth he'd have nothing. He's too old to -start again. It's kind of them to take him--and Mother. In a way, I -suppose, his going is justification for his years of work. He'll at -least be close to the things he might have developed in the right -circumstances." - -"He certainly won't be lonely," Don said. "Have you noticed the rush to -emigrate? Cheeky McFerson's decided to stick with his bubble gum -factory. He says the Gizls are a ready-made market. He saw one of them -cram five Super-Bubs into his mouth, at one time. That's twenty-five -cents right there." - -Alis giggled. "And half of the student body of Cavalier wants to go. -You'd think they'd be disillusioned with Father, but they're not. I -guess they had to be crazy to enroll in the first place." - -"Senator Thebold's started campaigning to be named U.S. Ambassador to -Superior. I heard him talking to the man from the _New York Times_. I -suspect they'll give it to him--they'll need his influence to get Senate -approval of the treaty with the Gizls." - -"I had a little talk with Jen Jervis," Alis said. "She's radiant, have -you noticed? The Senator finally asked her to marry him. That's all that -was the matter with her--Bobby the Bold had left her hanging by her -thumbs too long." - -"I guess he did." Don sought a way to get the conversation away from Jen -Jervis. "Where's Doc Bendy? He certainly turned out to be a -disappointment." - -"Poor Doc!" Alis said. "He's always the first to form a committee. But -then his enthusiasm wears off and he goes back to the bottle. Only now -he's got a keg." - -Don snapped his fingers. "The keg. I almost forgot about that matter -duplicator. If it can give you perfume and Doc rum.... Come on. Let's -reopen negotiations with the Master." - -They found the old man surrounded by a group of reporters, being -charmingly evasive with the science editor of _Time_. Professor Garet -had now joined this group, where he listened as eagerly as a student. - -The Master was showing the vault-like chamber in which he had spent the -generations since the spaceships left Gorel-zed. He let them examine the -coffin-sized drawer that had been his bed and indicated the others where -the younger ones still slept, awaiting the birth of their new planet. -Don counted fewer than three dozen drawers. - -"Is that all?" he asked. - -"Infants and children take up less room," the Master said. "There are -two or three in each drawer, and still others in the ships that never -come to Earth. Even so, we number fewer than a thousand." - -"But you have the matter duplicator," Don said. "Won't it work on -people?" - -"Unfortunately, no. Transubstantiation has never worked on living cells. -Don't think we haven't tried. We shall have to encourage early marriages -and hope for a high birth rate." - -"Now about this transubstantiator," the _Time_ man said, and Garet's -head cocked in delight, apparently at the resounding sound of the word. -"What's the principle? You don't have to give away the secret--just give -me a general idea." - -The Master shook his head. - -Don asked, "What will you trade for the transubstantiator and the -paralysis scepter you gave Hector?" - -The old man smiled. "Not even New York," he said. "Our moral code -couldn't permit us to trade either. Earth has enough problems already." - -"Offer him the formula for fusion," Frank Fogarty's voice said from the -Pentagon. - -The old man shuddered. "I heard that," he said. "No, thank you, Mr. -Secretary!" - -"This is the _clean_ bomb," Fogarty said. "It ought to come in very -handy in construction work on your new planet." - -"We will try to manage in our own way," the Master said. He asked Garet, -"Wouldn't you say that magnology was sufficient for our purposes, -Professor?" - -Alis' father beamed at being consulted and hearing his own term applied -to the Gorel-zed propulsion system. - -"More than sufficient," he said enthusiastically. "Preferable, in fact. -Magnology is safe, stressless, and permanently powerful in stasis. It is -the ultimate in gravity-beam nullification. If anything can glue the -asteroids back into the planet they once were, magnology will do it. You -can understand how I was misled. Your system so fitted my theory that I -imagined it was I who had caused Superior to rise from Earth." - -"I understand perfectly," the Master replied graciously. "And I cannot -say how glad I am that you and Mrs. Garet have chosen to stay with -Cavalier and Superior and become citizens of our new world." - -"What will you call your new planet?" the AP man asked. "Asteroida? -Something like that?" - -"We haven't decided. I welcome suggestions." - -The UPI man was inspired. "How about Neworld?" he asked. "That describes -it perfectly, doesn't it? New world--Neworld?" He wrote it on a piece of -paper and admired it. - -"Thank you," the Master said. "Well certainly consider it." - -The UPI man was satisfied. He had a lead for his story. - - * * * * * - -_SUPERIOR, Nov. 6 (AP)--The floating city of Superior, Earthbound again -after nearly six days of aerial meandering, prepared today to discharge -its former residents. Its new inhabitants, the kangaroo-like Gizls who -came from beyond the stars to swing an unprecedented barter deal -involving the United States, Russia and Germany, said they would leave -almost immediately to join Superior with the new planet they have been -building in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter...._ - - * * * * * - -_HEIDELBERG, Nov. 6 (AP)--This university city said good-by today to -some 400 interplanetary visitors it belatedly realized had long been -burrowed under it. The first officially acknowledged flying saucer -landed on Heidelberg's outskirts early today and took aboard the Gizls, -who, but for the shrewd maneuvering of the U. S. Secretary of State, -"Foghorn Frank" Fogarty, acting through a hastily commissioned -ex-sergeant troubleshooter, General Don Cort ..._ - - * * * * * - -_MOSCOW, Nov. 6 (Reuters)--The industrial city of Magnitogorsk was -assured of remaining Soviet territory today with the departure of 1,000 -kangaroo-like aliens. These visitors from Gorel-zed, the doomed world -whose survivors will increase the number of planets in the solar system -to ten with the creation between Mars and Jupiter of ..._ - - * * * * * - -From the editorial page of the New York Daily News: - - NICE KNOWING YOU, GIZLS, BUT-- - -_Next time you visit us, how about doing it openly, instead of burrowing -underground like a bunch of Reds?_ - - * * * * * - -BULLETIN - -_ABOARD THE SPACESHIP SUPERIOR, Nov. 6 (UPI)--This former Ohio town, -adapted for space travel, took off for the asteroid belt today after -transferring 2,878 of its citizens to a convoy of buses bound for a -relocation center. The other 122 of its previous population of 3,000 -chose to remain aboard to pioneer the birth of the tenth planet of the -solar system--Neworld._ - -_Neworld, named by the United Press International correspondent -accompanying the survivors of the burned-out planet of Gorel-zed, will -become the second known inhabited planet in the solar system...._ - - * * * * * - -"Just a minute, Alis," Don said. - -"No, sir, Sergeant-General Donald Cort, sir. Not a minute longer. You -tell him now." - -"All right. Sir," Don Cort (Gen., temp.) said to Frank Fogarty, -Secretary of Defense, "has the mission been accomplished?" - -Don and Alis were in the back seat of an army staff car that was leading -the bus convoy. - -"Looks that way, son. Our best telescopes can't see them any more. I'd -say Neworld was well on its way to a-borning." - -Alis Garet, her arms around Don and her head on his shoulder, spoke -directly into the transceiver. "Mr. Fogarty, are you aware that I -haven't had a single minute alone with this human radio station since -I've know him? This is the most inhibited man in the entire U. S. Army." - -"Miss Garet," the Defense Secretary said, "I understand perfectly. When -I was courting Mrs. Fogarty I was a pilot on the Meseck Line.... Well, -never mind that. Mission accomplished, General Cort, my boy." - -"Then, sir," Don said, "Sergeant Cort respectfully requests permission -to disconnect this blasted invasion of privacy so he can ask Miss Alis -Garet if she thinks two of us can live on a non-com's pay." - -The driver of the staff car, a sergeant himself, said over his shoulder, -"Can't be done, General." - -Fogarty said, "Don't be too anxious to revert to the ranks, my boy. I'll -admit the T/O for generals isn't wide open but I'm sure we can -compromise somewhere between three stripes and four stars. Suppose you -take a ten-day delay en route to Washington while we see what we can do. -I'll meet you in the White House on November sixteenth. The President -tells me he wants to pin a medal on you." - -"Yes, sir," Don said. Alis was very close and he was only half -listening. "Any further orders, sir?" - -"Just one, Don. Kiss her for me, too. Over to you." - -"Yes, sir!" Don said. "Over and out." - - * * * * * - - - - - RICHARD WILSON, a part-time novelist, is a full-time newsman for an - international press service (Reuters). He is the author of two - previous books and several dozen short stories in science-fiction - magazines since 1940. - - He finds time for his fiction writing at night and on week ends in - the attic workroom of his century-old ex-farmhouse exactly 35 miles, - as the odometer on his Volkswagen computes it, from Times Square. - - Reviewers have not exactly compared his writing to those of some - others who once labored in Reuters' 109-year-old vineyards, among - them John Buchan and Edgar Wallace. But one _New York Times_ critic - praised "his whacky humor," which he said has "the bite of shrewd - satire behind its madness," and the _New York Herald-Tribune'_s man - maintained that "there's not another male in the science-fiction - field who can beat Wilson in the easy, intimate exposition of the - private lives of the space-future." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's And Then the Town Took Off, by Richard Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF *** - -***** This file should be named 42111-8.txt or 42111-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/1/1/42111/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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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: And Then the Town Took Off - -Author: Richard Wilson - -Release Date: February 16, 2013 [EBook #42111] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42111 ***</div> <div class="figcenter"> <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> @@ -227,13 +191,13 @@ Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net <p class="center">AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF</p> -<p class="center">Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc.<br /> +<p class="center">Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc.<br /> All Rights Reserved</p> <p class="center"><i>For</i> <span class="smcap">Felicitas K. Wilson</span></p> <p class="center">THE SIOUX SPACEMAN<br /> -Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc.</p> +Copyright ©, 1960, by Ace Books, Inc.</p> <p class="center">Printed in U.S.A.</p> @@ -5379,380 +5343,6 @@ its madness," and the <i>New York Herald-Tribune'</i>s man maintained that Wilson in the easy, intimate exposition of the private lives of the space-future."</p></blockquote> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's And Then the Town Took Off, by Richard Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND THEN THE TOWN TOOK OFF *** - -***** This file should be named 42111-h.htm or 42111-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/1/1/42111/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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