Jupiter grinned and sat down. “What about your other preparations? Has Mr Barron started to gather the things he wants to take with him? What does he want to save when the Earth is destroyed?”
“He says he’ll pack his things after dark,” said Mrs Barron.
“I see.” Jupiter leaned to one side on his seat and put his arm along the back of the chair. His fingers found a flaw in the metal work. It was a small opening like a slot. He touched it, then turned and looked curiously at it.
“Irritating, isn’t it?” said Mrs Barron when she saw him examining the chair. “All the furniture has holes like that. It’s something the ironworkers did when they cast the things.”
Jupe nodded. “I see. Mrs Barron, does your husband realize that what he’s doing may be dangerous? He’s allowing himself to be manipulated. He’s seeing events that conspirators want him to see, and he’s hearing what they want him to hear. He’s doing exactly what the plotters want him to do.”
“Jupe, are you so sure there is a plot?” she said.
“I’m positive,” said Jupiter. “Actually, Mrs Barron, we’re prisoners here. We wouldn’t be allowed to leave if we tried.” Bob and Pete nodded in agreement.
“But why?” she cried. “Who are these conspirators? What do they want?”
“They’re the men on the road, and some others,” said Jupe, “and they want Mr Barron’s gold.”
The front door opened and Charles Barron came out on to the veranda. Mrs Barron jumped slightly, and he smiled at her.
“Ernestine, my dear, surely you guessed that I would listen,” he said. He sat down near his wife. “You spoke of gold,” he said to Jupiter. “Very well. I am now interested in hearing what you have to say.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jupe. “Mr Barron, it’s common knowledge that you’ve liquidated all of your assets, that you distrust the financial institutions of this country, and that you believe gold and land are the only good investments. From these facts I deduce that you have put all of your money into gold, and that the gold is concealed here on this ranch. Nothing else would make sense.”
“Why, Charles!” said Ernestine Barron. “You have gold here? You never told me.”
“There was no need for you to know, my dear,” he said.
“The conspirators who want to get the gold have reached the same conclusion I have,” said Jupe. “They know the gold is here, but they don’t know exactly where it is. They staged the fire on the cliffs and the takeoff of a flying saucer, and of course the radio message from the spaceship, believing that you’ll take the gold with you when you go to meet the rescuers. Then they’ll have it!”
Charles Barron took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said. “I planned to do that. Perfectly ridiculous. I can’t think why I’ve been so credulous. But only a coward is afraid to admit when he’s made a mistake, and I’m not a coward–or a fool.” He glowered at the three boys, as if daring them to disagree.
“No sir,” said Pete.
Barron shook himself. “Well now, I’ll be blasted if I’ll let a bunch of green striplings in fake uniforms manipulate me! That young man with the jeep is scarcely old enough to shave. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem to deal with him. I have dozens of stout young men of my own, and I have plenty of rifles and ammunition. If we need to, we can drive out of here with guns blazing.”
“Yes, you can, sir,” said Jupe, “provided all of your people are trustworthy.”
“Trustworthy?” said the millionaire. “You don’t think they are?”
“Someone on the ranch has been getting information to the men on the road,” said Jupe. “Bob can tell you about what he heard this afternoon.”
“I climbed the fence when no one was looking,” said Bob quickly. “I got near the tent where the men are camped and I heard them talking. They knew you were beginning to believe in visitors from another planet, and the lieutenant spoke to someone on the field telephone and whoever it was said you were out on your regular tour of the ranch.”
“The field telephone?” Charles Barron snorted. “They said it wasn’t working. Why wasn’t I informed of all this sooner?”
“You haven’t been very available,” Jupe pointed out. “Now, the conspirators won’t let you walk out or drive out, Mr Barron–not until they get what they came for. I’m sure you want to bring those people to justice, but you can’t do it without proof. And you can’t find out who is the spy on your staff until they make their move. Mr Barron, you have to give them room so they can trap themselves.”
“Perhaps,” said Barron, “but in the meantime, I’ll arm myself.”
He got up and went into the house. A few minutes later he returned to the veranda.
“Someone has gotten into my arsenal,” he said. He kept his voice steady. “There must be a duplicate key. The lock wasn’t broken, but all the ammunition is gone. We are trapped. We’re prisoners! And there is a traitor! One of the people I chose for my staff. I have been mistaken in one of my own people!”
“Yes, sir,” said Jupe, “and now we’d better find out which one in it.”
16
The Aliens Return
IT WAS AFTER NINE that night when Pete and Konrad stole up the lane and made for the meadows to the north of the ranch house.
“I do not understand,” said Konrad. “If it is all a trick, why does Mr Barron go to the meadow to meet a spaceship? How can he meet a ship when no ship is coming?”
“They tricked Mr Barron and now he’ll trick them,” said Pete. “It’s all Jupe’s idea.”
“Jupe has good ideas,” Konrad said, “but why does he not come with us?”
“He wants to watch the people at the ranch,” said Pete. “He wants to see what they do after Mr Barron leaves.”
“I wish he was with us,” said Konrad.
“So do I,” Pete confessed. “Never mind. All we have to do is hide on the upper meadow and keep quiet. Then Mr Barron will get the drop on the crooks and you and Mrs Barron will go out over the cliffs to get help.”
“Mrs Barron will climb up the cliff?” said Konrad.
“She says she will,” Pete told him. “She says she can do it. I’ll bet she can.”
Pete held up his hand for silence. They had reached the edge of the field below the dam. The moon was up and the grass looked silver grey in the wan moonlight, but there were deep shadows under the cliffs. Pete and Konrad kept to these shadows and worked their way around the field. Then they climbed past the dam to the higher meadow.
Fog carpeted the meadow with a thick white cloud. Pete groped forward until he found a clump of scrub brush. He and Konrad crept behind it and settled down to wait.
It seemed hours before there were voices on the field below the dam. Pete sat forward and strained to see through the fog. There was a flash of light and a clatter of stones, and Barron and his wife climbed over the rocks at the east end of the dam. The two passed within feet of the place where Pete and Konrad were hidden. Pete could see that Barron carried a bulky package under his arm. Mrs Barron walked quietly beside him, and she also carried a package. Hers was bulkier than Mr Barron’s.
The Barrons paused after they had gone ten metres into the meadow. They stood still, the fog swirling around them.
“Suppose they don’t come,” said Mrs Barron loudly.
“They’ll come,” said Mr Barron. “They promised.”
Suddenly the meadow was alive with blue-white brilliance. The Barrons started, and Mrs Barron stepped closer to her husband.
The cliffs were on fire. The flames seemed to shred the fog into bluish wisps and send it whirling on the night air.
Pete heard Konrad gasp. Something round and dark was settling towards the valley. It came from above and it moved as silently as a cloud. For a moment it blocked out the light from the blazing cliffs. Then the flames shone silver on its surface.
“It is the spaceship!” whispered Konrad.
“Shhh!” warned Pete.
The great ship touched the ground, and suddenly the flames on the cliffs dwindled and went out. For a moment nothing moved on the meadow. Then two figures came out of the darkness and the fog. They were clad in gleaming white spacesuits and they wore helmets. The one in front carried a light that looked like a blue torch.
Pete hardly dared to breathe. The aliens paused near the Barrons.
“Charles Barron?” said a voice. “Ernestine Barron?”
“I’m here,” said Barron. “My wife is with me.”