He was running toward the crater's edge.Creatures of Vibration
A Sequel to "Vagabonds of Space"
By Harl Vincent
| The Vagabonds of Space are cast into the hands of the vibration-maddened natives of Titan, satellite of Saturn. |
Carr Parker sat day-dreamingat the Nomad'scontrols. More than a weekof Earth time had passedsince the self-styled"vagabondsof space" had leftEuropa, and nowthey were fastapproaching thegreat ringed orb of Saturn with theintention of exploring her satellites.
Behind him, his Martian friend,Mado, was manipulatingthe mechanismof the rulden,that remarkableEuropan opticalinstrumentwhich Detis had installed in thevessel before they left. Mado wasutterly fascinated by the machine,having spent most of his timeduring the voyage searching thesurfaces of Saturn's moons forsigns of human habitation. Now, asthey headed directly for Titan, thesixth satellite, he was completelyabsorbed in an examination of theheavy cloud layer that covered it.
But Carr's thoughts were of hisbride, who still slumbered in theirstateroom amidships. In his bachelordays he never had imaginedhe could find such contentment ashad come with his marriage to Ora.He had fought shy of the fair sexon Earth. Somehow, the women heknew back home had bored him;angling for a man's money and position,most of them, and incapableof giving real love and companionshipin return for the luxuries theydemanded. He was resigned to hissingle state.
But all that was changed by thelittle blue-eyed girl he had met inPaladar. She was a different sort;worth a hundred of those othersand fulfilling to perfection theideal he had always set up. On herworld, Jupiter's satellite, Europa,he had neither wealth nor influence;he'd left these behind whenhe deserted Earth for a life ofvagabondage among the stars. But,to the daughter of Detis, this lackmeant less than nothing; his love,and hers, meant everything.
And, what a good sport she hadbeen! When they were threatenedby Rapaju and his minions;when they barely escaped beingswallowed up by that monster ofspace which Mado had likened tothe Sargasso Sea of Earth; whenshe herself proposed joining themin their rovings throughout theuniverse.
She was a companion of whomeven the phlegmatic Martian wasproud, she brought with her presenceon the Nomad a subtle somethingthat made of the coldly mechanicalspace-ship a thing of newbeauty and a place of cheerfulness—ahome. And, to think he hadwon her for his own. To think....
"Carr!" Mado's sharp exclamationstartled him from his pleasantthoughts. "Come here and take alook at this," the Martian demanded,his voice betraying an excitementunusual for him. "Somethingis wrong on this satellitewe're heading for."
Locking the controls in the automaticposition, Carr turned to joinhis friend at the viewing-disk ofthe rulden. Mado had found anopening in the heavy cloud layer,and before them was an unobstructedview of a rugged countrysidewhere huge boulders had beenscattered by the mighty hand ofcreation and where the sun shoneweakly on the rim of a yawningcrater in which sulphurous vaporscurled. They saw this strange landas from an altitude of a few hundredfeet, though the Nomad wasstill more than a million milesfrom the satellite.
"What's wrong about that?" Carrgrunted. "Excepting th