Biddy and the Silver Man (5)

    As Biddy climbed down from the tree, Davey kicked again and again at the starter. There was no sign of life in the battery. Biddy came to the car and Davey stared at her blankly. "Something happened to the car. Even the starter won't turn over."
    "Try—try again!"
    Davey pressed the pedal and finally gave up. "It's no use. The crate's letting us down when we need it most."
    "Then we've got to use Buck. We've got to get Joe to where he can get help."
    "But—but he's dead."
    "No! No! Joe can't die. We've got to take him back to the cave!"
    "Why there?"
    "I don't know. I just know that's where he'd want to go and we've got to get him there."
    "I suppose it's the best place. Nobody in Sage Bend would help him I'll bet. They're—"
    "We've got to get him on Buck."
    "You'll have to go alone. I can't walk fast enough."
    "You can ride Buck too. Pop says a burro is one of the strongest animals there is. And it isn't far. Hurry. You've got to help me."
    Somehow they pulled and tugged the body onto the back of the sleepy burro. Then Davey clambered on, balancing precariously on the animal's hips. Biddy took the reins and pulled Buck into movement and the strange cavalcade moved off across the desert.
    Half an hour later, Biddy cried, "There's the cave and some people are there. And they've got lights."
    Davey was craning his neck. "Look—look at that funny looking thing. It's—it's a ship of some kind."
    As they crawled slowly up the hill toward the rocks, they saw great activity. There were half a dozen young men moving from the strange ship into the cave and back again. As Buck came into the circle of light, two of the men came forward.
    They gave the body hanging limply over Buck's back their entire attention. They spoke to each other in some strange language and then the rest of the group were crowding about.
    "We found him hanging from a tree," Biddy said a little fearfully, but they paid no attention to her.
    They lifted the body from the burro and held it partially erect. After a short conference one of the men hurried to the ship and returned with a small tube that somewhat resembled a fire extinguisher. He pointed it at Joe's chest and pressed a button and a thin blue flame crackled as it seemed to penetrate the flesh.
    In a matter of seconds, Joe coughed, opened his eyes, and was standing without help. One of the men, frowning slightly, snapped a question in the strange language. He spoke at the same moment Biddy ran forward and cried, "Oh, Joe! You're all right. You aren't dead! We found you hanging there but I knew you were still alive. I just knew it!"
    Joe smiled at her and laid a hand on her head. He ignored the other men, giving Biddy his attention as he said, "I'm a lot harder to kill than you would imagine."
    Davey had struggled forward on his crutches. He said, "But how on earth could you have lived? That strangling rope around your neck—"
    "I suppose this is Davey," Joe said.
    "That's right," Biddy assured him. "We were out looking for you."
    "As a matter of fact, Davey, the rope didn't hurt me at all. It was something else. I was knocked out completely by the chaotic vibrations flowing from the crowd that hung me to that tree. I'd have come around soon."
    "You mean they—lynched you?"
    "If that's the term."
    The young man who had spoken would not be put off. He was respectful but insistent as he said, "We threw out the power block. It has been in effect for almost an hour. The time has come for you to speak and then we must take off."
    For some reason he had spoken in English and Joe answered in kind. "All right. Let's get it over with."
    Another of the young men said, "You don't seem very optimistic about it."
    Joe's face was grave. "I'm not. I've learned a few things since I set down here." He turned to Biddy and Davey. "Would you like to come inside?"
    He accompanied his pace to that of Davey and when they were inside he seated them near the shining box and then took his own seat in front of the control panel. And while the others stood back with their arms folded, he turned several dials and then spoke into a screened speaker in the machine.
    "People of the world—for the last hour your planet has not been functioning. All mechanical means of transportation has been at a standstill. Your electric currents from pole to pole have ceased their flow. Your homes have been dark. This inaction stems from a force-barrier we have thrown up around your planet. As a result, your generators have stopped producing electricity—"
    Wide-eyed, Davey whispered to Biddy. "That was why the jeep's motor died."
    Biddy's eyes were like saucers as she nodded—not understanding, but fascinated by Joe and his cold, grim manner. He went on. "This was done for two reasons—to demonstrate a small segment of our power, and to bring you to your receiving sets. They are no doubt all turned on as you wait for their silence to be broken."
    Joe rubbed an unconscious hand across his throat and paused for a moment. "I am breaking that silence now. I represent a council of planets beyond your solar system and I have been sent here to give you an ultimatum. We have watched you for a long time—watched with sympathy and complete good will as you struggled upward through your evolutionary periods. We liked much of what we saw, sympathizing with you in your mistakes and rejoicing with you in your successes.
    "Then we saw your scientific development outstrip your moral advancement and your sense of responsibility. We watched you fight in caves with clubs and stones—with bows and arrows—with gun powder and atomic fission. And always we hoped your hostility would give way to common sense and mutual respect if not mutual love.
    "But this did not happen. Each new discovery you made was qualified through a single question: How many more will it kill at a time? You moved out into space with your man-made stations and we hoped that finally you would awaken and your hostilities fade into history."
    Joe's face was sad under its grimness as he paused to choose his words and tension rang through the cave. "But no—you ran true to your basic hateful pattern. You fought in your caves and on your seas and in your seas—on your land and under your land. And now you propose to carry your stupid useless wars out into space. I have come to tell you that this, you will not do.
    "Up to this point, you have endangered only yourselves but now the balance of the galaxy can be tipped by your madness and this we will not tolerate. I care not who is right or who is wrong in your disputes. I do not look upon you as a divided world, I look upon you as a single indivisible planet and looking thus—this I say to you."
    Joe took a deep breath and plunged grimly on. "If one of your space stations attacks the other for any reason whatsoever, both will be destroyed. And in this destruction your planet will also vanish. It will be obliterated completely as we have no intention of leaving a dangerous dead hulk floating through space. It and you and possibly your whole solar system will go at once because—no matter what your opinions on the subject are, let me tell you this—you are expendable—your planet is expendable—your solar system is expendable—and on the day after obliteration—you will not even be missed."
    Joe turned in his chair and Biddy thought he looked awfully tired. Then he said, "And now if you have any doubts go out, wherever you are, and look up into the blessed skies God gave you—" Biddy watched the sadness in Joe's eyes and heard him speak as though to children. "—the skies we will take away from you unless you grow up and behave yourselves."
    With that, he snapped off a switch with a quick movement and turned. He said, "Go outside and ready the ship for takeoff. You go with them, Biddy." He looked at Davey and added, "Leave the lad with me for a few minutes."
    Joe's instructions were not questioned and a few moments later she was outside with the young men gazing in wonder at the sky. Everything was lighted up like the Fourth of July. But bigger—much bigger. From every horizon giant lights of all colors were shooting up to meet overhead. All the colors of the rainbow and some Biddy had never seen. "It's—it's beautiful!" she gasped.
    One of the young men smiled without humor. "Let's hope a second display is never necessary." With that he hurried away with the others and there was great activity around the ship. Then Joe came out—just as the colors overhead were dying—and gave a signal and the men entered the cave. Pretty soon they came out and all the mechanism and the big shining box were floating along behind them—floating through the air—as they were pulled toward the ship by thin lines of metal rope.
    In no time Joe was walking with Biddy toward the loaded ship, holding her small hand in his. He stood by the port and said, "I think maybe things will be all right, child. I hope so, because there must be many like you and Davey. There must be sane reason left on this mad planet."
    "Are you going away, Joe?"
    "Yes, Biddy." He smiled and kissed her and said, "Tell Buck good-bye for me. Davey is in the cave." He entered the ship and the port closed and Biddy didn't see it take off at all. It just seemed to evaporate—to vanish. But then, her eyes were misty with tears and she thought she might have missed the take off. She turned and walked slowly toward the cave. Slowly because she knew of course that Davey would be all right....
    Davey Taber stood on two fine straight legs in the Parker living room looking out the window over a silent, subdued Sage Bend. He turned and said, "Dad will have to be very careful from now on. He will be in bed for a long time and then in a wheelchair, so I'm taking over the Circle-7."
    "I'm sorry about your father," Jane said. "I'm sorry for the people, for—" she glanced at Dan Parker seated beside her and no more words would come.
    "I want you to stay on, Mr. Parker. In fact I want you to take more responsibility. I'll need a wise experienced head and I'm afraid I'd be lost without you."
    "Wait a minute," Dan said quietly. "There are some things I have to tell you—some things you've got to know so you'll understand why I can't stay at the Circle-7."
    And while Davey listened in silence, Dan told the whole story of his fears and actions and weaknesses. He did not spare himself and the telling took quite a while. When he finished there was silence. And something more. Jane's hand had crept toward his and now she held it tight and smiled proudly as she looked into his eyes.
    Davey regarded them in silence for a few moments, then spoke quietly but without smiling. "That's all you have to say?"
    "That's all."
    "I asked because I want it over and done with—and forgotten here and now. I'll expect you at the ranch in the morning. I have other plans, too. We'll build you a house out there so you won't have to run back and forth. Dad should have done that long ago."
    Dan said, "But—"
    "But nothing." Davey smiled now—at Biddy. "I've got an ulterior motive. I want Biddy around all the time because we've got a lot of talking to do."
    Biddy smiled back. "About Joe."
    "That's right. About Joe."
    THE END