Part 5

The snow fell for a solid hour, piling a good three inches of soft cotton wool on the gaunt ground. Then Lynne, with the agreement of the authorities present, turned off the device. They had harnessed the alien entity, put the super-brain to use for men. It would be irritated, of course, but so superior an entity could neither know nor care about the source of its irritation. It would merely seek to sweep it away--which it could not hope to do, any more than an Earthly elephant could hope to catch a fly.

There followed fervent congratulations and a hurried conference of officials, all of them wreathed in smiles at the prospect of employing this unlooked-for source of moisture to speed up the reconstitution of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

Krausemeier, acting as spokesman, called Rolf and Lynne over and said, “The Governing Council of Mars offers you its gratitude, not only for what you have achieved but for the dangers you have undergone in accomplishing this invaluable feat. In view of these factors, we hope you will allow us to offer you a six-month visit to Earth with all expenses paid.”

_Earth!_ Lynne’s heart sang the word. Her home planet--and six whole months. Yet, as she walked beside Rolf to their ship, she was glad their trip together was to last no longer. Here on Mars, there was so much to be done. And even though they had attained control of a sort over the Entity, it could still kill. Juan, and the prospectors and the dead members of the Callisto expedition proved it. Perhaps it would be wiser if she and Rolf postponed....

Rolf cut in on her thoughts with a rude, _stow that bosh! Revere and Tony and some of these other_ MARLETS _can carry the ball for a while. You and I_, VINRAL, _we’re having ourselves a honeymoon, beginning right now. We’re going to live it up--really live it up!_

In sheer jubilation, he did a little skipping dance and, before Lynne could warn him, he slipped in the soft snow and fell. Lynne read the thoughts of the physician who hurried to his aid, even before that worthy opened his mouth to say, “I’m afraid he’s broken his leg.”

It looked as if the honeymoon would have to wait.

Transcriber’s note:

This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe, May 1955 (Vol. 3, No. 4.). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but minor inconsistencies have been retained as printed.