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diff --git a/old/61872.txt b/old/61872.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9cf7d76..0000000 --- a/old/61872.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,705 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Treasure of Triton, by Charles A. Baker - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Treasure of Triton - -Author: Charles A. Baker - -Release Date: April 19, 2020 [EBook #61872] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE OF TRITON *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - TREASURE OF TRITON - - By CHARLES A. BAKER - - The Space Patrol and the terrible guards of - Triton pursued Wolf Larsen. But the black pirate - had two aces in the hole--creation's richest - prize, and a ray-death route to freedom. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Spring 1941. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Triton was a dead world. The hydrogen snow that covered the -illimitable desolation of the plain glowed a weird green in the dying -Neptune-light. Above it, grim and black, towered the west wall of the -great Temple of Triton. The evening gale had drifted the snow high -against its east wall, but here, in its lee, the ground was bare. The -faint light struck sparks of color from the gravel, the stones, the -boulders--gravel that was ruby and sapphire, stones that were giant -moissonites, boulders that were titanic diamonds. The _Wolf Cub_ rested -on that gravel, its beryllium sides a sickly green. In all that world, -only Wolf Larsen lived and moved and breathed. - -An alien might have correctly supposed that this world had been -dead for untold ages, that the builders of its Temple had perished -incalculably long ago, that nothing would ever live here again. Wolf -Larsen knew better. In a few hours, it would be dawn, and the strange -life of Triton would revive. That was the reason for his haste. - -The job had taken longer than he had expected. The Temple was built of -cyclopean blocks of bort--black diamond, the hardest of all substances. -The life-span of a Tritonian is ten times that of a human, but no one -would ever know how many generations it had taken the Tritonians, with -their primitive technique, to hew those innumerable blocks. Nor did -the Tritonians themselves know for how long they had worshiped at that -fane. Most authorities agreed that it must have been old before the -Pyramids of Egypt were begun. - -The Temple was windowless, and had only one door, some six feet square. -Set in the middle of the west face, it was hewn from a single gigantic -block of bort. With that door, Larsen had been struggling ever since -the evening gale died down. It had proved harder to blast a hole -through the bort than he had anticipated. And its thickness had amazed -him. He had been unable to get at its lock; if, indeed, it had a lock. -In fact, he might as well have tried to blast through the wall itself. - -Triton, Neptune's moon, keeps one face always turned toward that -planet, and the Temple was built directly beneath it. While Larsen -toiled, the slender crescent of the primary had broadened to the -full, ten times brighter than earth's moon, and now was dwindling -once more. Larsen had not slept for over sixty hours; and despite his -vacuum-walled, electrically heated space-suit, he was chilled to the -bone, his hands numbed with a cold but a few degrees above absolute -zero. - -Not in twenty years in the mines of Mercury had he toiled as he had -done in those sixty hours. First, he had burned holes in the bort. -Then he had filled them with cartridges of the fine hydrogen snow, -intimately mixed with solid oxygen pulverized equally fine. Finally -he had exploded the mixture with a micro-wave, and cleared out the -shattered bort. Where the tough stuff had merely crackled, he had pried -it out with a crowbar, until the bar, brittle with cold, had snapped -short. But now the worst of his task was finished. At long last, he had -holed through the door. - -Larsen emerged from the _Wolf Cub_ carrying his oxy-hydrogen cutting -torch, a heavy load even in the light gravity of Triton. A star of -blue light flared from it, and snowflakes dropped from the star, as -the products of its combustion condensed in the cold. If he once -extinguished that torch, its fuel would freeze solid, and there would -be no lighting it again. - -For all his weariness, and for all the cold, a fierce exultation fired -him. His long planning, his months-long voyage through the void, were -about to bring fruit. The most priceless jewel in the solar system was -within his grasp. - -Larsen had done many things for jewels. He had violated every law of -every world. He had killed more men than he himself could remember. He -had stolen meteoric diamonds from Mars, and rubies from Ganymede; -emeralds from Titan, and priceless moissonites from Oberon. And these -he had hidden well on a nameless asteroid, and they could stay there -till the end of time for all Larsen, or anyone else, cared. - -By the time the Interplanetary Patrol caught up with him, and he served -a twenty-year term in the mines of Mercury, the spacemen had reached -Triton. And there they had found rubies and emeralds, diamonds and -moissonites and every gemstone known in the solar system, as common as -clay or lime on earth, and Larsen's carefully hidden jewels were worth -as much as so many pebbles. - - * * * * * - -At first, Larsen had come very near to killing himself, when he learned -that. But a scheme had come to him. There was the Eye of Triton, the -great stone which people of Neptune's moon had worshiped for untold -Neptunian ages. It was clearly unique on Triton, where all other gems -were so abundant. It must be unique in the system; certainly in its -historical value. What value the Tritonians themselves set on it could -be judged from the immense strength of the Temple they had built to -guard it. Tradition held that the Eye had dropped from the heavens; a -meteor, perhaps torn from the heart of Neptune; perhaps from another -system. Few humans had ever seen it, and those only from a distance, -and in the worst of lights. But they agreed that it was transparent -white, like a diamond. Moreover, it was set as the eye of a life-sized -statue of a Tritonian--and the eye of a Tritonian is upwards of five -inches in diameter. - -A certain plutocrat of Cyrene had offered Larsen a cool million for the -Eye, even if it turned out to be nothing but a diamond. For a million, -you could buy everything that Cyrene had to offer and Cyrene, the -pleasure-dome on the far side of earth's moon, offered every pleasure -and every luxury that mankind had ever developed. Men could prolong -their lives, and their vigor, indefinitely nowadays if they could -afford to pay for all the resources of modern medicine. Best of all, -the I.P.P. had no jurisdiction in Cyrene, and the local authorities -never bothered any resident of the little planet provided he was -supplied with money enough. - -It would be doubly pleasant to win such a fortune at the expense of -the Tritonians. To be sure, they had never been known to harm anyone. -But it was precisely such inoffensive beings that Larsen loathed and -despised most bitterly. Besides, he blamed them for the discovery of -the gems which had made his own valueless. - -In any case, he had gone too far to back down now. Landing on -Triton without a license, as he had done, was itself a violation of -Interplanetary Law. Attempted violation of a Tritonian temple was a -serious offense. If the Patrol caught him, he would spend the rest of -his life in the mines of Mercury. And they would be sure to catch him -if he failed to get the Eye. - -It wasn't like the good old days, when an outlaw could always keep -a million miles ahead of the Patrol. Now every port where he might -obtain supplies was too closely watched. Only Cyrene offered a place -of refuge, and there only to a man with plenty of money. Larsen smiled -grimly. Whatever happened, he was not going back to the mines. There -was always one very sure way of cheating the law! - -He pushed the torch ahead of him through the hole, cautiously. Its -exhaust condensed to ice on the cold bort. A few projections of the -bort barred his way. Larsen turned up the torch, directed it on them. -The bort glowed yellow in the fierce heat, as the pure carbon burned, -which condensed to dry ice on his space-suit. - -When those obstructions were gone, Larsen crawled past into the Temple, -and stood up. A thin powder of snow covered everything. The bluish -glare of the torch, reflected from it, suggested but faintly the -vastness of the place. Before him crouched a monstrous figure, human -sized, but lobster shaped, its head enormous, its dozen legs many -jointed. Many similar figures lay on the floor, as stiffly motionless, -each grasping a massive double-headed ax. - -Larsen had to turn up his torch before he could be sure that the -crouching figure was indeed the idol he sought, and those others its -guardian priests, frozen in the death-like sleep of their kind. Not -till dawn could anything awaken them. Dawn, he knew, could not be far -off. But he reckoned that it would take some time for its reviving -warmth to penetrate the immense thickness of those walls. - -Cautiously, he wiped the snow off the single enormous eye that -occupied the center of the idol's forehead. The eye flashed fire at -him; blue-white, transparent, lustrous as a diamond. It had been -cut, diamond fashion, in many facets, to resemble the many-lensed, -insect-like eyes of the Tritonians themselves. The eye was set in a -band of cement. Larsen tested that cement with a chisel. He cursed. It -was almost as hard as the bort from which the idol had been hewn. He -dared take no chances on scratching the Eye. He turned on his torch -full blast, and began to cut into the bort around the cement, careful -to keep the flame away from the Eye. Sudden heating might crack that -mysterious stone. - - * * * * * - -Larsen worked feverishly, forgetful of time, sweating despite the -chill, until he felt a draught on his back; a cold that bit through his -space-suit to his very marrow. Snowflakes were swirling around him. -The dawn-wind, blowing through the hole in the door! On Triton, the -hydrogen atmosphere froze every night. - -From either side, winds rushed in to fill the vacuum, but themselves -froze before they had gone far. - -The Eye seemed loose in its socket. Larsen turned down the torch. -Cautiously, he grasped the cement. The Eye came away in his hand. He -was used, by now, to the low gravity of Triton, but the lightness of -the stone surprised him. It seemed as light as pumice. - -Larsen looked up just in time. The Tritonians were stirring! The wind, -so cold to him, was warm to them; it meant air to them. Those great -pale eyes--one to each Tritonian--were fixed on him, glaring with -a phosphorescent luster. There was no expression on their gargoyle -faces. Their cavernous mouths gaped open; toothless, but rimmed with -razor-sharp horn, like the jaws of a snapping turtle. The snow dropped -from them; their lobster-segmented shells were dull black, like the -bort of the statue. They were closing in on him. He could not tell -their numbers; behind those visible, more kept crowding out of the -shadows. - -As the Tritonians neared him, he saw that they turned their heads away. -Those enormous eyes, adapted to the faint sunlight of Triton, could not -bear the glare of the torch. An ax rose over a helmeted head, grasped -by four tentacular arms. Larsen put down the Eye, and turned up the -torch, aiming it at the dragon's head, looming behind those arms. It -shriveled, turned from black to red. Its owner slumped to the floor, -its limbs still writhing feebly. - -Larsen picked up the Eye again, and started for the door. He moved -deliberately, spraying death around him. The Tritonians could not face -the blazing heat of the torch, or its blinding glare. Some fled in -panic, some retired more slowly, some stood, as if bewildered, in his -very path, until he burned them out of it. At the door, he wheeled to -face them, turning down the torch. They started to close in again, and -he turned it up, sweeping them at close range. Half a dozen fell, the -others broke. - -The torch was flickering now, as its fuel ran low. In frantic haste, -Larsen unsnapped its carrying strap, dropped it, and plunged into -the hole he had blasted. In utter blackness, he clawed through it, -expecting, every instant, to feel monstrous jaws or talons seize him -from behind. He emerged into the blinding white smother of the dawn -blizzard. Thin as the air was, the force of it hurled his light body -back against the door as he tried to rise. He dropped on all fours, and -crawled forward, dead into the freezing wind, the Eye still clutched in -one hand. The twenty yards to the _Wolf Cub_ seemed twenty miles; he -had about given up all hope when suddenly he bumped into it. - - * * * * * - -Larsen groped along its smooth side until he found the air-lock door. -As he opened it, the light inside went on automatically. - - * * * * * - -At that precise instant, steely arms wrapped themselves around him, a -monstrous face loomed over him, open-jawed. In a frenzy, Larsen thrust -out his right hand. Those jaws closed on his wrist. A blazing agony -shot up his arm. His own scream, echoing from his helmet, deafened -him. The pain was gone as abruptly as it had come. The face of the -Tritonian seemed to melt, to explode. Those arms went limp, the thing -collapsed like a punctured balloon. - -There was no feeling at all in Larsens' hand now. Not daring to look -at it, he stumbled through the air-lock, into the cabin. Even now, he -was careful to put the Eye of Triton in the velvet-lined jewel-case -he had prepared for it, before strapping himself into his pilot's -seat. Awkwardly, with his left hand, he opened the throttle of the -rocket-tube, gave the _Wolf Cub_ three gravities acceleration. That was -agony to his weary body. But the warmth of the cabin offset the pain. - -Gingerly, Larsen looked at his right hand. The glove had been torn -clean off it. It was dead white, swollen. The swelling, extending to -the wrist, had prevented much air escaping from his suit, before he -could get inside the cabin. The skin was covered with fine, bloodless -cracks, but the jaws of the Tritonian had never touched it. The -inconceivable cold had instantly frozen every drop of blood and lymph -in it, bursting every blood-vessel, every capillary, every cell. His -hand was dead. Presently, as it thawed, it would rot, turn black, and -drop off. Before that, he must get a tourniquet on it. On the other -hand, the warm air from his space-suit, escaping into the jaws of the -Tritonian, had been as fatal to it as the breath of a blast furnace -would have been to a human. - -He had been lucky, after all. The surgeons of Cyrene could graft on -a new hand--for a price. And he would have that price! In fifteen -minutes, awkward with his left hand, Larsen had the _Wolf Cub_ on her -course to Luna, and could shut off his rocket-jet. His right arm was -beginning to throb, as the nerves thawed. It would give him hell, in -the months of voyaging before him, and he knew his slender stock of -drugs would never last. But, as he fixed the tourniquet, the thought of -his million was more soothing than any narcotic could have been. - -Larsen unstrapped himself, and shoved over to the jewel case. He -blinked down at it incredulously. The charred ring of cement was there. -But it no longer enclosed the Eye of Triton. Instead, the case was half -filled with a transparent liquid. Larsen dipped a trembling finger into -it. It was cold. - -He carried the finger to his lips. The walls of the tiny cabin echoed -to his mad laughter. The Eye of Triton, the one priceless gem on a -world of gems, had been a block of ice--the only ice on Triton. The -warmth of the cabin had melted it to water, worth exactly as much as -any other water. - -Suddenly, Larsen realized that he was parched with a feverish thirst. -He lifted the jewel case to his lips, and drained it in one single -prodigious gulp. He had spent plenty of money on liquor before, he -reflected. But this must be the first time in history a man had drunk -up a million at one draught. - -His arm hurt like fire now, the ache of it mingling with the ache of -his weary body, the ache of his sick brain. With his left hand, he -began to spin the handle of the Kingston valve. The last sound Wolf -Larsen heard was the hiss of the air, as it rushed out of the cabin. -That, and the laugh with which his last breath left his lungs. - -There was always one sure way to cheat Interplanetary Law. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Treasure of Triton, by Charles A. 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