FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  
ly at the small bundle, wrapped like a mummy in a dark metallic screen-cloth. A patch of black silk rested over her face. * * * * * Four cabin stewards carried her. And beside her walked George Prince. A long black robe covered him, but his head was bare. And suddenly he reminded me of the ancient play-character of Hamlet. His black, wavy hair; his finely chiseled, pallid face, set now in a stern, patrician cast. And staring, I realized that however much of a villain this man not yet thirty might be, at this instant, walking beside the body of his dead sister, he was stricken with grief. He loved that sister with whom he had lived since childhood; and to see him now, with his set white face, no one could doubt it. The little procession stopped in a patch of starlight by the port. They rested the body on a bank of chairs. The black-robed Chaplain, roused from his bed and still trembling from excitement of this sudden, inexplicable death on board, said a brief, solemn little prayer. An appeal: That the Almighty Ruler of all these blazing worlds might guard the soul of this gentle girl whose mortal remains were now to be returned to Him. Ah, if ever God seemed hovering close, it was now at this instant, on this starlit deck floating in the black void of space. Then Carter for just a moment removed the black shroud from her face. I saw her brother gaze silently; saw him stoop and implant a kiss--and turn away. I did not want to look, but I found myself moving slowly forward. * * * * * She lay, so beautiful. Her face, white and calm and peaceful in death. My sight blurred. Words seemed to echo: "A little son, cast in the gentle image of his mother...." "Easy, Gregg!" Snap was whispering to me. He had his arm around me. "Come on away!" They tied the shroud over her face. I did not see them as they put her body in the tube, sent it through the exhaust-chamber, and dropped it. But a moment later I saw it--a small black oblong bundle--hovering beside us. It was perhaps a hundred feet away, circling us. Held by the Planetara's bulk, it had momentarily become our satellite. It swung around us like a moon. Gruesome satellite, by nature's laws forever to follow us. Then from another tube at the bow, Blackstone operated a small Zed-co-ray projector. Its dull light caught the floating bundle, neutralizing its metallic wrappings. It swung off at
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
bundle
 

instant

 

floating

 

sister

 
metallic
 

hovering

 
rested
 

shroud

 
gentle
 
moment

satellite

 

mother

 

peaceful

 

blurred

 

brother

 
silently
 
implant
 

removed

 

Carter

 
beautiful

forward

 

slowly

 

moving

 

chamber

 

follow

 

Blackstone

 

operated

 

forever

 
Gruesome
 
nature

neutralizing

 
wrappings
 

caught

 

projector

 

momentarily

 

whispering

 

exhaust

 
dropped
 

circling

 
Planetara

hundred

 

oblong

 

patrician

 
staring
 
realized
 

pallid

 

chiseled

 

finely

 

villain

 

stricken