Page:Stirring Science Stories, February 1941.djvu/55

 gentlemen. It may seem irrelevant, but can you give me the date?"

The two stood still awaiting an answer, one which might be the explanation. But it fell on their ears like a dull thud. "The date's right," Mitchell whispered. "So the only answer is that they're nuts."

At this moment Staunton was murmuring to Burleigh. "I believe that these men are lunatics. You engage them in conversation while I notify a constable." He slipped away from the group and made his way rapidly into the house.

Meanwhile, Burleigh had arrived at the same conclusion and saw it might be dangerous to anger these foreigners any more. So he started to question them as to where they had been and what kind of ship they had.

This was more to the two spacemen's liking; Congreve felt at ease. He expanded, began to tell this man. everything. The heart of a man long-isolated from others is friendly, given the chance.

URLEIGH beckoned the two over nearer the house where beach chairs were set out on what was left of the lawn. They had been overturned by the impact of the ship; he set them up thinking that it might be safer to have the lunatics in a comfortable position. For himself, he chose a comfortable, upright chair from which he could rise swiftly if need be.

Papers and legal documents were forgotten for the moment as the two related of their voyage; told of the building of the ship, the shot into space, the veering of the rocket as they approached the sun. No sooner than they had escaped the Terrestrial zone of gravity did the rocket turn away from its course, thus ending their chances of landing on Luna as they'd planned. They told how they had managed to rocket the ship into the attraction of Mercury and land on that world, how they had spent weeks in the Mercurian Twilight Zone while they repaired ship, made explorations and calculations. And the grand day when the gleaming green star that was Earth finally came again into view.

Burleigh listened in fascination. Madmen these two were, but interesting madmen. They knew their astronomy and theory of space-travel (he recalled having read several authoritative texts on the subject and what the two said checked with the facts) and they refrained from melodramatics. A simple, straightforward tale for all the fantastic tenor of it.

"You know," Mitchell was saying, "we couldn't exactly measure time except by that. A year on Mercury is roughly 88 of our days, but, as it doesn't revolve, we couldn't tell when they had passed save when old green Earth swung on the horizon. There's no mistaking this planet, sir."

Burleigh nodded politely, halffriendly. almost regretting that the police would soon come and take these lunatics away; He wanted to hear a great deal more; perhaps he could write a thesis on the subject to be checked against reality if and when, some day, such a voyage were actually made.

"Yes," broke in Congreve, "it was good to set foot on Terra again, until—" then he stopped himself, realizing that he had brought attention back to the subject they had been trying to keep away from.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.