the column of men had traversed the grassy plain, had climbed steadily through the region of undulating hills. and suddenly, hidden until the last moment by a rise in the terrain and spread out at the foot of the higher mountains, they saw a city. circular, walled, pleasantly pastel-tinted despite the purple gloom, it lay before them, lights which might or might not have been electricity winking on to dispel the gathering darkness.
and there, at the city's gateway, stood leclarc. leclarc—and not leclarc. the man seemed as much leclarc as the short stocky figure who led the procession seemed charlie stedman. "welcome to uashalume," he said, and steve pulled up short at the sound of his voice. there was something of the volatile frenchman in it, but something else which was alien.
"you will be billeted in temporary quarters for the night," leclarc continued. "you will of course have no need for such quarters after tomorrow's bazaar."
"of course, my foot!" teejay cried petulantly. "see here, leclarc, we've been getting orders and directives without knowing what they mean or why they were given or—"
"must you be so impatient?" leclarc's smile was almost devoid of mirth. "you've come one hundred thousand light years, and surely you can wait until morning."
"light years!" this was steve.
and kevin, "one hundred thousand!"
the academic problem didn't bother teejay as much as the human one. she said, defiantly, "what he needs is a good swift kick."
leclarc failed to wait for that, or anything else. chuckling, he led the first anthrovac through the high-arched stone gateway and the other two creatures herded the humans in after him. charlie—although obviously, the man was not charlie—went on ahead with leclarc, and steve had to restrain teejay with a few terse words.
the purple mists cloaked the city completely now, and as they plodded along a wide roadway, steve half-saw figures watching them from the darkness. he could not make the figures out, however, and he heard nothing but the sounds their feet made on the stone roadway.
presently, they came to a smaller, divergent path which led back to the base of the wall. here, in deepest shadow, was their destination—a squat, rectangular building carved from stone. a gate creaked and clanged open before them; they streamed through, weary after hours of forced march; the gate clanged resoundingly behind them. charlie had not entered with them, nor leclarc, nor the anthrovacs. it took steve only a moment to discover the gate had been securely fastened from the outside.
"i guess we bed down here for the night," he said, grinning ruefully.
teejay shrugged, wrapped the black cape tightly about her. it was cold and damp in the one large chamber which took up the interior of the building. in the center of the place stood a stone table, and on it a gas lamp which flickered and spluttered and cast grotesque shadows as the men wandered about. there were no beds, no furniture of any sort except for the table. and the two small peep-hole windows were fifteen or more feet off the ground.
the crew of the frank buck gathered in small, anxious knots and whispered grimly among themselves. after a time, men circulated between one group and another, and finally one of them, evidently designated as spokesman for the rest, approached schuyler barling.
he seemed nervous, frightened, unsure of himself. "captain barling, my name's steiner, and the fellows thought that—well, that i might speak for them. we don't know what's going on, but we do know this much: we don't like it."
"i can't blame you," said barling.
"point is, sir, we want you to do something about it."
"eh? me? what can i do?"
"we don't know that, sir. but a spaceman's a peculiar individual; some say he's got characteristics you won't find elsewhere, and one of them is this: he has complete confidence in his captain."
"why, thank you, steiner."
"me, i work in fission. i like to have that confidence and the rest of the men, they like to have it too. when they lose it, they're kind of at a loss. we don't want to think we've lost it here, sir."
"what do you want me to do?" barling was restless, fidgety, twisting his hands together.
"lead us, sir. tell us you can get us out of here. tell us we must be prepared to fight behind you and maybe to die, but lead us."
"but how can you expect me to lead you when i don't know what's happening? how can i plan for escape when i don't know what it is we have to escape from?"
"there's talk among the men, sir," steiner went on. "some of them are for you, although i'll be frank. there aren't many, sir. but they need a leader, all of them agree on that. what they want to know is this: are you their man?"
barling squared his thin shoulders arrogantly. "i'm the frank buck's captain."
"the frank buck lies behind us in those purple mists, sir. could you find it? finding it, could you make it run again?"
"i don't know."
"then the fact that you captain the frank buck doesn't mean much. we've decided that leaves us without a leader, sir. we need a leader."
barling smiled coldly. "are you trying to tell me the men have selected you?"
"no, sir. i'm not. but the majority of the men have their choice—and that is captain moore. we who have been with the frank buck longest have heard a lot of bad talk about captain moore, but that changes completely whenever we make planetfall. the talk in all the frontier towns is all in captain moore's favor. when there are decisions to be made, sir, we'd like her to make them."
"a woman? when all your lives may be at stake?"
