The Skylark of Space - E. E. Smith (e book reading free txt) 📗

gently bathed away the clotted blood that had been forced through the skin.

“Massage it a little with the arnica as I move the arm,” he directed coolly, and she did so, pityingly. He did not wince and made no sign of pain, but she saw beads of perspiration appear upon his face, and wondered at his fortitude.

“That’s fine,” he said gratefully as she finished, and a peculiar expression came over his face. “It feels one hundred percent better already. But why do you do it? I should think you would feel like crowning me with that basin instead of playing nurse.”

“Efficiency,” she replied with a smile. “I’m taking a leaf out of your own book. You are our chief engineer, you know, and it won’t do to have you laid up.”

“That’s a logical explanation, but it doesn’t go far enough,” he rejoined, still studying her intently. She did not reply, but turned to Perkins.

“How are you, Mr. Perkins? Do you require medical attention?”

“No,” growled Perkins from the seat in which he had crouched immediately after eating. “Keep away from me, or I’ll cut your heart out!”

“Shut up!” snapped DuQuesne. “Remember what I said?”

“I haven’t done anything,” snarled the other.

“I said I would throw you out if you made another break,” DuQuesne informed him evenly, “and I meant it. If you can’t talk decently, keep still. Understand that you are to keep off Miss Vaneman, words and actions. I am in charge of her, and I will put up with no interference whatever. This is your last warning.”

“How about Spencer, then?”

“I have nothing to say about her, she’s not mine,” responded DuQuesne with a shrug.

An evil light appeared in Perkins’ eyes and he took out a wicked-looking knife and began to strop it carefully upon the leather of the seat, glaring at his victim the while.

“Well, I have something to say⁠ ⁠…” blazed Dorothy, but she was silenced by a gesture from Margaret, who calmly took the pistol from her pocket, jerked the slide back, throwing a cartridge into the chamber, and held the weapon up on one finger, admiring it from all sides.

“Don’t worry about his knife. He has been sharpening it for my benefit for the last month. He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

At this unexpected show of resistance, Perkins stared at her for an instant, then glanced at his coat.

“Yes, this was yours, once. You needn’t bother about picking up your coat, they’re both gone. You might be tempted to throw that knife, so drop it on the floor and kick it over to me before I count three.

“One.” The heavy pistol steadied into line with his chest and her finger tightened on the trigger.

“Two.” He obeyed and she picked up the knife. He turned to DuQuesne, who had watched the scene unmoved, a faint smile upon his saturnine face.

“Doctor!” he cried, shaking with fear. “Why don’t you shoot her or take that gun away from her? Surely you don’t want to see me murdered?”

“Why not?” replied DuQuesne calmly. “It is nothing to me whether she kills you or you kill her. You brought it on yourself by your own carelessness. Any man with brains doesn’t leave guns lying around within reach of prisoners, and a blind man could have seen Miss Vaneman getting your hardware.”

“You saw her take them and didn’t warn me?” croaked Perkins.

“Why should I warn you? If you can’t take care of your own prisoner she earns her liberty, as far as I am concerned. I never did like your style, Perkins, especially your methods of handling⁠—or rather mishandling⁠—women. You could have made her give up the stuff she recovered from that ass Brookings inside of an hour, and wouldn’t have had to kill her afterward, either.”

“How?” sneered the other. “If you are so good at that kind of thing, why didn’t you try it on Seaton and Crane?”

“There are seven different methods to use on a woman like Miss Spencer, each of which will produce the desired result. The reason I did not try them on either Seaton or Crane is that they would have failed. Your method of indirect action is probably the only one that will succeed. That is why I adopted it.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” shrieked Perkins. “Are you going to sit there and lecture all day?”

“I am going to do nothing whatever,” answered the scientist coldly. “If you had any brains you would see that you are in no danger. Miss Spencer will undoubtedly kill you if you attack her⁠—not otherwise. That is an Anglo-Saxon weakness.”

“Did you see me take the pistols?” queried Dorothy.

“Certainly. I’m not blind. You have one of them in your right coat pocket now.”

“Then why didn’t you, or don’t you, try to take it away from me?” she asked in wonder.

“If I had objected to your having them, you would never have got them. If I didn’t want you to have a gun now, I would take it away from you. You know that, don’t you?” and his black eyes stared into her violet ones with such calm certainty of his ability that she felt her heart sink.

“Yes,” she admitted finally, “I believe you could⁠—that is, unless I were angry enough to shoot you.”

“That wouldn’t help you. I can shoot faster and straighter than you can, and would shoot it out of your hand. However, I have no objection to your having the gun, since it is no part of my plan to offer you any further indignity of any kind. Even if you had the necessary coldness of nerve or cruelty of disposition⁠—of which I have one, Perkins the other, and you neither⁠—you wouldn’t shoot me now, because you can’t get back to the earth without me. After we get back I will take the guns away from both of you if I think it desirable. In the meantime, play with them all you please.”

“Has Perkins any more knives or guns or things in his room?” demanded Dorothy.

“How should I know?”