Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 12.djvu/30

30 mured. "You were a boy then, but you're all man now. We're proud of you!"

"Proud!" Dane replied bitterly. "I've failed miserably. But you, Dad. They left you to die on an asteroid with a week's supply of oxygen"

"The Cabots have a guardian angel," Cabot chuckled. "Dane, meet Kris. He saved my life, and I understand he did you the same favor a short time ago."

The golden man came from the ring of onlookers. Smiling, he put his hand out in the gesture of welcome Samuel Cabot had taught the Ionians. He wore the scintillating uniform of gold scales he had worn in the cavern. The weird translucency of his skin still gave Dane a slight shudder. But the hand the Earthman took was warm and strong.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you," Dane grinned.

"It wasn't necessary," Kris shrugged. "Fortunately for all of us, I was in the cavern when you and Anson arrived, examining the antiquated rocket ships to see if they could be converted. I didn't find the answer to that, but I should say that my trip was far from wasted."

A girl's voice said petulantly.

"Kris! Are you going to keep our guest to yourself?"

Dane turned, to look into the eyes of the girl who had stood beside his father in the dream. In that moment, Brooke was far, far from his thoughts. Here was beauty to rival that of any Earthwoman.

Kris laughed.

"One would think you'd been waiting for this fellow, Margo! Careful you don't send me into one of my jealous rages! Dane, this is Margo—my fiancee, and princess of Io."

More eagerly than he had intended, Dane clasped her slim fingers in his hand. He murmured something, and kept on staring. Margo's beauty was of a quieter type than Brooke Loring's. Brooke's beauty drove men to all kinds of vainglorious escapades. Margo's would have made the same men seek her love in less showy, but more profitable, ways.

Her cool, gray eyes met Dane's and her grave lips were smiling. Blond hair was combed from a creamy forehead across which she wore a thin band of gold. Suddenly, spots of color showed in her cheeks and her glance wavered. It was that ruddy glow beneath her skin that made Dane notice that her body was not transparent, as was Kris'. And, looking about, he discovered that only a half-dozen of the men present possessed that weird characteristic.

ANE turned back to his father.

"A friend of yours sent his greetings," he said, frowning. "Do you remember Tom Benchley?"

"Tom and I graduated from Cornell together," Cabot told him. "For the last ten years, he has been one of the four men on Earth upon whom I could rely. It was Tom, then, who furnished you with the ship?"

Dane nodded. Briefly, he related the tragic last hours he had spent upon Earth.

"I've got Benchley to thank for my being here at all," he finished.

Disappointment darkened Sam Cabot's face.

"So old Tom is dead. He was a fine, courageous worker—one of the finest. Tom has known of our colony here on Io for many years. He and each of the other two had one of these little cruisers. They were to keep them safely hidden, yet always ready for a getaway, should they be forced to flee."

"But Benchley chose to save me instead of himself," Dane said glumly.