Davidson feared he had, and her dead body had been borne aloft through the heavens for many, many hours, with no winged creatures to attack or destroy it. But if Hal-Al had killed this girl at the time of shooting at the pig-serpent headed fellow he had done so wholly unintentionally and perhaps she had died instantly. There had been neither suffering nor guilt.
Davidson considered the uniqueness of the situation. This dead girl of a race that perhaps had never learned to ascend even a moment into the air—that perhaps had never seen a flying creature—now circling about through the heavens hour after hour in the bright sunlight!
They recalled where they had first seen the plane appear and, reaching the plateau, continued in that direction. The little corporal advised his companions to advance cautiously as the presence of the girl on the plane might signify that there were other such girls on the plateau seeking to accomplish the same daring act of boarding the H-T, if such had been the case with the girl aboard.
"Look here, corporal," suggested Hal-Al, turning to the latter. "We'd better string out in a line, one about two or three miles ahead, one half way between, and one here. In this way we'll have three chances of boarding the plane, to only one chance if we stay together. For she mayn't take the ground where we happen to be bunched, but some distance ahead-or behind. The two men ahead can each have a radiocycle and speed back to the end man and join him, if there's nothing doing ahead."
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Within the great shed, reclining tier on tier, lay many hundreds of young women, all seemingly asleep.
(Illustrated by Paul)
Bailee grinned. "That suggestion is better than the suggestor. I'll go on ahead, with Hal in the middle, and you, corporal, will be the tight little knot at the end of this long string of hope."
"You will—last Thursday!" retorted Hal-Al. "I'm the one who will go ahead! Didn't I shoot the girl, and shouldn't I see her first, to apologize?"
"You won't make love to her till she has a look at me?" demanded Bailee.
Hal-Al agreed and they shook hands on the agreement, when Bailee grinned. "Maybe the corporal wants to be first."
Davidson smiled and consented to give way to the others and be the last man to attempt to board the plane, on condition that he should retain the binoculars, and that they wouldn't fight over the girl, if she was alive, nor make love to her until she had seen him also.
"That's fair enough!" nodded Hal-Al. "We'll leave it to the girl."
"It's all luck with women, anyway," said Bailee. "But I'm a damn lucky fellow!"
A Dangerous Chance
As it would be about twenty hours before the plane could reappear, they decided to look the plateau over. They found it to be about five miles square, with few trees, and those rather low and of such fragile texture that they scarcely bore climbing. The whole surface of the plateau was covered with a high scarlet grass, as soft and smooth as fine fur, and for the first time they were positive that the vegetation of the planet, or at least that hemisphere, was kept alive and fresh not by rain but by a slight and continual dew.
