diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42111-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42111-0.txt | 5180 |
1 files changed, 5180 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42111-0.txt b/42111-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68c2745 --- /dev/null +++ b/42111-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5180 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42111 *** + + _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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42111 *** |