The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wealth of Echindul, by Noel Miller Loomis

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Title: The Wealth of Echindul

Author: Noel Miller Loomis

Release Date: February 19, 2010 [EBook #31326]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Planet Stories July 1952. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
this publication was renewed.

The WEALTH OF ECHINDUL

By NOEL LOOMIS

_Though he carried with him the loot of the ages, who in The
Pass--that legalized city of vice and corruption--would dare
risk his neck to help Russell, the Hard Luck Man of the
Swamps?_

* * * * *

He came up out of the Great Sea-Swamp of Venus like old Father
Neptune. He was covered with mud and slime. Seaweed hung from his
cheap diving-suit. Brine dripped from his arms that hung limp and
weary; it ran from his torso and made a dark trail in the sand.

[Illustration: _A flash of intuition hit Russell. He knew now how to
win this fight._]

Without even looking back, he stood for a moment as if fighting to
keep on his feet, while the brine made a small puddle in the green
sand. Finally he unscrewed the helmet and took it off. He turned
around slowly and looked back across the two hundred miles of deadly
swamp, at the flaming craters of the Red Lava Range from which he had
come.

With fingers that would hardly function from weariness he took off his
diving-suit and straightened up. His stooping shoulders were free of
that weight for the first time in forty days. He was a small man,
hardly over four feet tall, and not well formed. It seemed incredible
that he had crossed the Great Sea-Swamp on foot.

And as he looked back at the distant rim of green fire that marked the
mountains it seemed incredible to him too. A great sigh of relief and
gratefulness s