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thinking that if his father s enemy were standing at the catapult now, his
head was dead on target. But looking up at the bluff of white feldspar, he
decided that nerves were stampeding his imagination. Whatever contrivance had
launched the rock, it must have been dismantled long ago.
Once again Dick looked across to the buildings of the observatory. They shone
in the soft white light of Earth, now at full. The floor of the crater spread
out behind, quiet as a dark mirror, stretching ten miles to the opposite wall.
No one was in sight; at this particular moment no one would be at the
telescope. Dick checked his oxygen tank: plenty for another four hours.
Hoping that no one was following his movements, he ran quickly for the white
bluff, moving in twenty-and thirty-foot bounds. He sprang up the cliff,
jumping from foothold to foothold like a mountain goat. A few moments later he
stood on the round crest of the bluff. Carefully he looked around the
landscape, but so far as he could see, no one had noticed his movements.
He moved back a little, surveyed the surface of the bluff and the crater wall
behind. It was a wild patchwork of silver, black, gray crazy-angled shapes,
planes, edges, like a very bad abstract painting. It required a real effort to
bring the tangle of forms into perspective. He noticed a set of razor-edged
ridges, slanting down from the main wall to form three dark, little valleys,
all more or less shaded from the Earth-light. Dick checked the spot on the
crater floor where the rock had struck, turned back to the dark little
pockets. From the first of these, a man could well have rigged his catapult,
fired a pair of test shots to check the accuracy of his aim, then waited until
Dr.
Murdock crossed the line of fire all completely unseen.
Dick cautiously stepped forward into the gulch. For a moment he could see
nothing; then his eyes became accustomed to the reflected Earthlight, which
seeped in to outline vaguely a few boulders and ridges.
He looked around uneasily. If traces of the catapult still remained in the
dark hollow, he would be unable to see them without a light. A new thought
came to freeze him in his tracks: not impossibly, some devilish arrangement
might be waiting a deadfall, land mine, a gun trap. Dick started gingerly
back out of the hollow, the sense of danger almost strong enough to taste.
On the great luminous disk of Earth a black silhouette appeared. Dick s heart
stood still.
The shape paused, the head twisted, peered into the valley. Dick, sweating
clammily inside his suit, reached to the ground, picked tip a rock. The
movement attracted the attention of the newcomer, the head inside the helmet
twisted sharply. The speaker inside Dick s helmet hummed.
Is that you in there, Dick?
Dick recognized the voice Hutchings, the pinch-faced young bookkeeper. He
took a deep breath. Yes, it's me."
What are you doing up here, sneaking around these rocks?
Dick came forward. What business is it of yours?
Hutchings sniffed. Your father made it my business. He told me to keep an eye
on you, not to let you go off too far by yourself; although what difference it
makes, I don t know.
Well, you can forget it. I don t need you trailing around behind me.
I ve got orders. The orders had been a few hasty words over Dr. Murdock s
shoulder;
Hutchings had received them sullenly; but now, observing Dick s resentment, a
new vista of entertainment opened before his eyes. By obeying Dr. Murdock s
orders to the letter, he could indulge himself in a good deal of subtle
bullying, at the same time presenting an air of righteousness to anyone who
called him to account.
Hutchings had a thin monkey-face with black eyebrows and a perpetually sour
mouth. He had obtained his job because of a distant relationship with the late
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Dr. Vrosnek. He had come out to the moon expecting to scoop up diamonds and
moon-rubies by the bucketful. A few halfhearted
prospecting trips had shown him nothing but black rock and gloomy shadows.
Observatory routine bored him, and the project of tormenting Dick came like a
draught of cool water to a thirsty man.
Yep, Hutchings said, gloating at the sight of Dick s angry face, your
father told me to keep an
eye on you, see that you didn t get lost or wander too far away from the
observatory. And that s what I m going to do.
Dick s fury allowed him no words; he turned and marched back down the hill.
Now he thought of a ruse to annoy Hutchings. If Hutchings planned to keep an
eye on him, he d have to work at the job. Dick gave a sudden spring which
carried him thirty feet up the slope. Another, and another. He dodged behind a
jut of black rock, dived to the side, doubled back, scrambled up a slope of
broken rock, and came out on top of a sawtoothed ridge.
Hutchings was nowhere in sight, but his voice came to Dick s ears by the
radio: a stream of angry calls and muttered threats. Dick laughed contentedly.
A new idea occurred to him. He scanned the crater wall; then, climbing a
series of ledges, came out on the skyline. He called into the microphone,
Where are you, Hutchings? I thought you were planning to keep an eye on me.
Hutchings appeared two hundred yards below, looking angrily around the rocks.
I m up here, called Dick, and I m going down the other side. If you re
going to keep an eye on me, you ll have to move a little faster.
When I catch up with you, you sneaky little blatherskite, you ll wish you d
stayed on Venus where you belong! Hutchings started furiously up the hill.
Dick dropped over the ridge, ran a hundred yards along a convenient ledge,
jumped up to the ridge, looked down along the crater wall.
Hutchings was visible, clambering up the slope, progressing by ungainly,
floundering leaps, Dick chuckled, now enjoying Hutchings crusade. Hutchings
heard the chuckle, and shouted, I ll beat your ears in when I catch you!
Dick carefully slipped down into the shadow of a tall spire of rock, and as
Hutchings disappeared over the ridge, he dropped down the crater wall as fast
as he could, reached the glass, and ran with fifty-foot bounds toward the
observatory, He reached the administration building and ducked into the lock
chamber.
Hutchings, nowhere in sight, presumably was searching for him, shouting
threats on the far side of the crater wall.
With great satisfaction, Dick removed his space suit, hung it in the locker,
and went up to his room to take a shower and change his clothes.
Two hours later Hutchings returned. Dick was sitting alone in the lounge
reading. Hutchings stormed in, his face white with rage; without a word, he
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