The Winged Men of Orcon | Page 9

were to be destroyed, he had not
paused to attend to the matter himself. Hargrib thought, however, that
the failure of the cable party might change this attitude, and expressed
the belief that Leider would interview us now before he put us out of
the way. He swore, and I believed, that he did not know when or how
Leider would come to us or have us brought to him. Also he did not
know when or how we would finally be exterminated.
I now asked a series of indirect questions which led me to believe that
neither Hargrib nor his master knew of the thing I had been conscious

of from the start--that we had aboard the ship an amount of high
explosive sufficient to do ghastly damage not only to this section of the
coast but to the whole planet of Orcon. I gathered, however, that Leider
suspected we were armed against him in some way, and would watch
us carefully.
* * * * *
By now daylight had begun to peer in through the ports, a greenish
daylight which grew out of the north, and with its coming I resolved on
a plan of action.
"I am done with Hargrib," I said suddenly to Captain Crane. "We'll lock
him up in one of the staterooms, and after that we'll see if we can't get
busy with something that will at least help Earth, even if it doesn't help
us."
Hargrib, still terrified by those radio sounds he could not stand, made
no protest when I ordered him into the stateroom which had belonged
to the ship's second officer, and we were rid of him in a moment.
I now called LeConte from the radio room and Koto in from the deck,
and after Captain Crane and I had told them what we had learned, I
made my proposal.
The plan was simply that LeConte should continue to work on his
sending apparatus until he reached Earth, while Koto, Captain Crane
and I set out on a reconnaissance. I said that I hoped to be able to locate
Leider's headquarters and learn what method of attack he intended to
use against Earth; and that I hoped further that at least one of us would
be able to bring word back to LeConte, who could send it to Earth.
Finally I indicated that we would see what could be done with our two
tons of kotomite as soon as we had made the attempt to send
information home. I told LeConte, who would stay with the ship, to fire
the explosive himself if anything happened to make him believe that
we had been killed while scouting.
I did not fail to point out that since our atomic guns were useless

against the Orconites and Leider, we should have to go unarmed on our
expedition, and I did not fail to state that the whole effort seemed futile.
But the opportunity offered by Leider's present withdrawal was one we
could not afford to miss. We were drowning people, I said, and we
must clutch at straws. And my friends were good enough to agree.
* * * * *
As soon as the conference was ended, therefore, we disposed of our six
dead by the simple process of disintegrating them with one of the
atomic guns, and then LeConte returned to the radio, and Koto, Captain
Crane and I went on deck to have our first look at Orcon by daylight.
The first thing we saw was the small, rocky islet just off the shore
whence had come the cable. It seemed a harmless place now, with only
one squat building of stone and no Orconites about, but we were glad
enough to turn away from it and look toward the dark and ragged range
of mountains which loomed up some five miles inland--the mountains
of Leider's headquarters. Not that the sight inspired us with greater
confidence. It didn't. But it was good to look at the mountains, because
the fact that we were going there meant that at least we should be
acting instead of idling.
No Orconite was visible anywhere.
With the coming of daylight--the greenish daylight of Orcon--the sea
behind us had calmed until its surface was disturbed only by gigantic
lazy bubbles which broke with muffled, thudding explosions. The air
smelled of chlorine, iodine, and sulphurated hydrogen, but was
breathable. I saw that the principal characteristic of life on Orcon was
an organic ability to thrive under almost any climatic conditions. Many
of the huge, crystal clear boulders which covered the beach and the
coastal plain which led to the hills, were covered with leafless flowers
which had immense, leathery petals and sharp, fang-like spines. Other
evidences of swift growing life showed on every hand. Ugly, jelly-like