For some minutes, Ralph stood motionless, completely bewildered. To have spent so much time and effort to no avail, hours—days wasted in a fruitless search! The thought was maddening. Obviously, she was not on board Fernand's space flyer. Where, then, was she? Certainly Fernand himself had had no opportunity to hide her, unless his whole flight into space were a trick to deceive the searchers, and that was more than unlikely. Fernand was cunning—was this some new piece of duplicity?
Turning from the empty room he ran down to where Fernand lay, still unconscious. Kneeling by his side Ralph applied a small electrical shocking device to the spine of the insensible man, with the result that in a few minutes Fernand opened his eyes and stared dazedly into those of his captor.
"Where is she?" asked Ralph hoarsely. "What have you done with her? Answer me, or by God, I'll blow you into Eternity!" and, aiming his Radioperforer at Fernand's head, he spoke with such ferocity that the other shrank involuntarily.
"I don't know," he muttered, weakly. "It's God's truth I don't know. The Martian got her. He took her away[Pg 165] and left me drugged." His voice trailed off and he seemed about to collapse.
"You're a liar!" growled Ralph, but his tone lacked the conviction of the words. There was that in the other's voice that rang true. Mechanically, he cut the cords that bound Fernand, and the man rolled over helplessly. He was weak and dazed, and altogether too broken in spirit to make any further trouble. His nerve was gone.
Ralph propped him up against the wall, but he slumped over on his side limply. Impatient at the delay, Ralph went in search of water, and finding a pitcher of it in Fernand's laboratory, unceremoniously dumped the contents over the prone man's head. This had the desired effect of restoring him somewhat, and in a short time he was able to tell the story in detail.
"When I applied the chloroformal to you that night, I used the same drug on Alice, while Paul 9B 1261, a friend of mine, took care of your driver. We dragged Alice into our cab, and made for the outskirts of New York where I had the space flyer in readiness. A maid for her was already on board. We got Alice on and I put her in the care of Lylette, and in a few seconds we were off.
"When we got well out in space I locked the steering disc and helped the maid revive Alice, and in a few minutes she was herself again, which she fully demonstrated by slapping my face and then trying to tear me apart like a wildcat, when she found where she was." He gave a wry smile at the recollection.
"Go on!" snapped Ralph.
"It was an hour later, and we were burning up space, traveling at a rate of 70,000 miles an hour, that the radio signalling apparatus began ringing furiously. I tuned in,[Pg 166] and heard a faint, gasping voice from somewhere out in the great void. With difficulty I learned that there was another space flyer somewhere near me, with two men and four women on board, and that their oxygen supply was being rapidly exhausted, due to the spoiling of some of the oxygen-producing chemicals. They asked for a small supply of oxygen, enough to get them back to Earth. Otherwise they would be doomed.
"Knowing myself to be safe from pursuit for some hours, even had you known I abducted Alice, I decided to aid the crippled flyer, and answered that I would assist them as soon as possible. I went up to the conning tower and, with the telescope, located the other machine. Then I reversed the anti-gravitator machinery and within a short time I had drawn up level with the flyer.
"We made fast, and ran the connecting tube between the two machines. When the joints were made air-tight I crawled through, and just as my head came through the opening into the other, two hands gripped me around the throat and I was jerked into the machine. I made a desperate effort to wrench myself free but I was absolutely helpless in such hands. I found myself gripped by Llysanorh', the Martian, and I might as well have fought a tiger as that seven-footer.
"He said nothing, only stared at me with his enormous eyes, while he dragged me to a small compartment, manacled my hands, and left me, locking the door behind him. But he was back in fifteen minutes or so, with a triumphant look in his eyes. He picked me up and pushed me through the connecting tube into my own flyer. He dragged me into my machine-room, and forced me to watch while he, using a big hammer, smashed the mech[Pg 167]anism of my six anti-gravitators, so that I would not be able to steer, and could fly in only one direction. He ruined all the spare parts, to make sure that I could not make any repairs or replacements.
"Then catching me by the back of the neck, he said:
"'I intercepted your letter to Paul 9B 1261, and followed you. You didn't count on me, Fernand, when you stole Alice. Neither you nor that fool scientist Ralph 124C 41+ shall have her. No man shall have her but myself. I will kill her first. I don't know why I don't kill you, except that you are scarcely worth the trouble. You can't pursue me with your machine in this condition, and when—if ever—you are found, it will be too late.'
"'Good God, man,' I said, 'surely you won't take a helpless Terrestrial girl!'
"'It is only what you did,' he replied, 'and at least, I love her!' And with that he pressed a cloth saturated with some drug unknown to me against my face, and that is all I remember.
"I must have been unconscious at least six or seven hours and when I came to, it was another hour before I shook off the effects sufficiently to recollect anything. Llysanorh' had taken off the manacles, but I was as helpless as if I had been bound. I must have dozed off, for I had only just awakened when I looked out and saw your flyer approach............