Part 2

For a long time there was silence broken only by an occasional soft whisper of sound as one or the other changed his position. Andy realized that he was a little thirsty, and he wondered if this was the forerunner of the violent pangs to come.

He was aware of her soft whisper.

"Sh--Look--"

A spot of weirdly glowing light was moving slowly along the cavern floor. Without body, or visible means of locomotion, it seemed to flow along. Andy felt his hair rising as he looked at it.

"Give me your heat-gun," he whispered, and the weapon was passed over to him. He lined up the sights and waited.

* * * * *

The small spectral figure slowly approached. It hesitated, moved back, then came forward again. Andy forgot that he was thirsty, that he would soon be hungry, that he was doomed to die.

He could hear the girl breathing hard.

What was the glowing figure? Was it friendly. He did not know, did not dare to guess. Perhaps it was seeking them, perhaps it recognized food in them. Perhaps it was some form of electrical energy, perhaps it resembled jelly, like the blobs that existed on Callisto that were so avid for human flesh.

Andy held the sights of the heat gun on it, waited. He did not know whether the gun would affect it.

The girl was breathing in long, slow pants, like she was holding her breath.

It came nearer, shining like a gigantic fire-fly except that the glow was pale blue instead of golden. It was within twenty feet of them.

"Shoot!" Frieda whimpered. "Shoot, quickly...."

He started to squeeze the trigger.

"Boss," a familiar but unhappy voice spoke. "Something is wrong with me. I shine."

"Oscar!" Andy shouted dropping his gun. "You imp! Where in hell have you been?"

The glowing spot bounded forward, leaped into Andy's arms.

"Do something for me, Boss. I shine and I don't like it."

The girl's laughter sounded silly.

"I'll do something for you. I'll buy you a barrel of sugar."

Radium. Somewhere in this cavern was a deposit of radium, and Oscar had run into it. The hair of the _thlot_ glowed when in the presence of radio-active energy. Andy was laughing crazily. Radium ... more precious than diamonds. Fortune. The ship on Luna. His! He had forgotten they were locked in the cavern.

"Come on," he yelped. "Lead us to the place where you started glowing."

"It's back in there, in a ball. I don't want to go. Let's get out of here."

"You take us there, or I'll break your damned neck."

"Aw, Boss...."

"Get going."

Oscar, complaining bitterly, started off. They followed.

The cave widened out into an immense chamber. In the center was a crucible of some kind, a cracked, battered crucible filled with glowing matter. Andy scratched his head, moved forward.

"There it is, Boss, right there."

A soft glow, like moonlight, filtered through the interstices of the crucible, dimly illuminating the cavern. Dust moved beneath their feet, dust that had not been disturbed for ages. Oscar sneezed.

A heavy, cup-like crucible with cracked walls that had been several feet thick ... in the center was a softly glowing ball.... Andy bent over it.... Radium.... There was no doubt.... But....

"Hell," he said, his jaw dropping. "Hell...."

His eyes caught the heavy outlines in the dust on the floor. He stirred it with his toe.

"Intelligence," he muttered. "Intelligence was here, in this cavern perhaps a hundred centuries ago. The crucible is lead, incredibly old. Perhaps part of it was once radium. It was the heart of some kind of an engine, some method of releasing energy, possibly hundreds of thousands of years ago. Look! You can see in the dust where other metals, which formed a framework, have oxidized...."

The girl said nothing, and Oscar, for once was silent.

"Once there was intelligent life on Io. It built this, and left it for some reason that we can't even guess at."

* * * * *

Frieda stared at the glowing metal, moved back.

"A fortune," she said. "Yours."

"No," he corrected. "Ours."

They were silent. The mighty cavern was silent. Dim ghosts seemed to move in it, the shadows of a mighty people that had once been here, and had gone....

"I want to get away from here," Oscar whimpered. "I don't like this place."

Andy sighed. Their dust would mingle with the dust of the builders of the cavern. Another hundred thousand years would pass before the place was rediscovered. Maybe more....

"We can't," said Andy. "The entrance is blocked."

"The hell we can't!" Oscar answered. "When all the shooting was going on the rocks started to fall in here, and I looked for a way out. The hill is hollow. There's an opening on the other side. Come on. Quit gaping at me, and get a move on."

"_Thlot_," said Andy grimly. "If you're lying, I will break your neck."

"I'm not lying. Come on. You can come back later. I itch from being near that shining stuff."

The _thlot_ led them off into the darkness. At last a dim glow of light showed up ahead. Andy pushed ahead of the honey-bear, stepped through a narrow opening, got a glimpse of the rim of Jupiter, red and angry, immovable on the horizon.

He was suddenly very tired. He sat down heavily, stared at the forbidding planet. Forbidding it was, but it looked mighty good to him at that moment.

The soft purring of the _thlot_ made him turn his head. The girl had sunk to the ground. She was scratching him and he was purring. Andy looked at him reprovingly.

"I know it's poppycock," said Oscar, "but I like it. You ought to have her scratch your back sometime."