“Are you ready to leave?” said the spaceman with the light. “Have you brought everything you wish to take with you?”
“I’ve brought the only thing that can’t be replaced,” declared Charles Barron. He held his package out towards the astronaut. “Blight!” he said.
“What?” said the alien.
“Blight!” Barron repeated the word. “It’s the title of the book I’m writing. It’s about the flaws in the American economic structure. Perhaps on Omega I’ll have a chance to finish it at last.”
“Is that all?” said the spaceman. Pete had to hold himself to keep from laughing. The man from Omega had developed a shaky voice.
“That’s all I’ve brought,” said Barron. “My wife has her own treasures.”
Mrs Barron stepped forward. “I’ve brought the latest pictures of my two sons,” she said, “and my wedding dress. I just couldn’t leave it behind.”
“I see,” said the spaceman. “Very well. Come with us.”
The aliens retreated the way they had come and the Barrons started after them. Pete stood up, suddenly afraid. The Barrons were no more than indistinct shapes moving through a dream landscape of fog. In a moment they would vanish completely.
But then the aliens stopped. The one who held the torch stepped to one side, and the second one spun around to face the Barrons. His arms were raised stiffly, pointing toward Barron and his wife. Pete realized that this was a stance he had seen thousands of times on television. The spaceman was aiming a gun!
“Okay, Dad!” said the man. “Don’t move.”
The man with the torch waded through the fog to the great saucer-shaped thing that was moored on the meadow. He bent and fumbled with something, then moved and bent again. Suddenly the cliffs blazed once more and the saucer drifted upward. At first it rose slowly, but then it went more and more rapidly until it disappeared into the night above the cliffs.
The flames died and the meadow was silver in the moonlight again.
Charles Barron spoke. “I presume they will see that display of fireworks at the ranch below–and on the road. My people will believe I am gone, and those pitiful imitation soldiers will now feel free to invade my property.”
The man with the gun removed his helmet with one hand. He was quite an ordinary-looking young man with longish dark hair. “You should have brought the loot with you, Pops,” he said. “But don’t worry. We’ll get it in the end.”
He moved close to Barron and thrust the gun almost into the millionaire’s face. “Of course, we don’t want it to take too long,” he said. “We’ve put too much time into the job already. Now don’t give us a hard time. If we have to search the whole ranch, we will. But if we do that, believe me, it will be over your dead body!”
Mrs Barron let out a frightened gasp.
“Be kind to yourself,” said the gunman. “Be kind to the lady here. Tell us where you stashed the gold.”
Barron sighed. “The existence of my gold appears to be an ill-kept secret,” he said. “Very well. It’s pointless to die for money. The gold is under the floor of the basement in the big house.”
The gunman stepped back and the second man vanished into the fog. After a moment there was a ringing sound, like the jingle of a defective doorbell.
“Aha!” said Barron. “A field telephone!”
The gunman didn’t reply. He stood watching the Barrons, and from the darkness came the voice of the second man.
“He didn’t bring it with him,” said the second man. “It’s buried under the floor in the cellar of his house.”
The man with the telephone paused for an instant, then said, “Right.”
When the man reappeared, Pete realized that the field telephone must have been hidden behind one of the boulders at the base of the cliffs.
“The gold had better be there,” said the gunman to Barron. “If those guys dig up a cellar and don’t find it, they’re going to put you under cement!”
“We shall see,” said Barron. He swung around towards his wife and shoved her so that she stumbled away and fell to the ground.
For a split second, the man with the gun turned towards Mrs Barron. In that split second there was a spurt of flame and the sound of a shot. The gunman screamed and dropped his weapon.
“Don’t move!” snapped Charles Barron. His arms were outstretched and he held a gun. “Ernestine,” he said, “would you pick up that man’s weapon?”
Mrs Barron already had the gun in her hand. She handed it to her husband as she got to her feet. The man who had threatened Charles Barron sank to his knees. He held his injured hand close to his chest and sobbed.
“Where’d you get that gun?” demanded the man with the torch as Barron searched him for a weapon.
“My father’s pistol,” said Barron. “I always keep it under my pillow. Your accomplices overlooked it when they looted my arsenal today.”
Barron raised his voice. “Pete!” he called. “Konrad!”
“Here, Mr Barron.” Pete started across the meadow with Konrad coming behind him.
“I think these must be the only two here,” said Charles Barron. “If there were others, they would have shown themselves by now.” He turned to his wife. “Ernestine, are you quite sure you will be able to climb that cliff?”
“As soon as I’ve bandaged this man’s hand,” said Mrs Barron. “You have a clean handkerchief, Charles. May I have it, please?”
Barron sniffed, but he handed over his handkerchief, and Mrs Barron knelt in the meadow and bandaged the gunman’s hand. As soon as she finished, Pete took the torch and went in search of the field telephone. When he found it, he yanked coils of wire from the instrument and bound the two men.
Mrs Barron took her husband’s torch and tucked it into her belt. Then she held out her hand to Konrad. “We’ll go up over the cliffs and walk out to the highway,” she said to him. “I hope you’re wearing comfortable shoes. We’ll get the police, and my husband and the boys will attend to things here. We won’t be back for at least two hours. Shall we go?”
Konrad nodded, and Mrs Barron began a careful ascent of the cliff. Konrad followed her cautiously in the dim moonlight, moving as she did, putting his feet in the places where she had put hers. Barron and Pete watched the two go up. It seemed to Pete that it was hours before they reached the top of the cliffs and disappeared into the wilderness above the ranch.
“There!” said Barron. “A remarkable woman, my wife!”
Leaving the ‘spacemen’ tied up on the meadow, Barron started towards the lower fields. “Come along, boy!” he said to Pete. “We don’t want to stand here all night. I’m sure there’s no end of excitement at the house!”
17
The Treasure Hunt
THE MAN WHO called himself Lieutenant Ferrante stood in the driveway near the ranch house. He pointed a rifle towards the sky and fired.
“Back to your homes!” he shouted. “Step on it! Move! Anybody who’s still outside two minutes from now gets his big toe shot off!”
The ranch workers who had come into the lane to stare at the blazing cliffs retreated. The doors of the cottages closed behind them, and locks turned.
Ferrante stamped into the ranch house. The staff was gathered in the kitchen, together with Jupiter and Bob. The man Bob had seen outside the tent–the man named Bones–was there with a rifle. He sat on a straight chair between the table and the door, his gun across his knees and his eyes alert.
Ferrante stared at Elsie Spratt and Mary Sedlack, who sat at the table, hands folded in front of them. Hank Detweiler leaned on the back of Elsie’s chair, and Aleman and Banales sat across from the women. They looked angry and tense. Jupe was at the head of the table with Bob beside him.
“Wasn’t there a third kid?” said Ferrante. He scowled at Jupe. “Where’s your pal?” he demanded.
“I don’t know,” said Jupe. “He went out a while ago and he hasn’t come back.”
The lieutenant looked hesitant, as if not certain whether to believe Jupe.
“The kid’s not here,” said Bones. “Al already looked upstairs. Want me to check the sheds?”
Ferrante made an impatient sound. “No,” he said. “It’s not important. He can’t get far. Just keep them covered.” He nodded towards the group at the table. “If the kid shows up, we’ll nail him, too.”
Ferrante went out. He paused for a moment in the drive to speak to a second armed man who stood guard there. Then he disappeared through the outside entrance to the cellar of the Barron house.
Jupiter Jones looked at his watch. It was almost half past ten. The cliffs had exploded into flames twenty minutes before, and Jupe knew it would not be reasonable to expect help before midnight. It would be a long, nerve-racking wait.