A ship that returned again, perhaps, while he was unconscious following the explosion, and then began mysteriously nudging them into a course that led to this rock. He shook his head impatiently. It was a disturbing thought, but it made no sense, no sense at all.
No more sense than Joyce’s little gray men.
Tom led the way, with Joyce at his heels, and Ben bringing up the rear. They reached the great promontory of rock just as the sun slid into view from behind the rock, throwing long black shadows across the valley below them. Here the surface was strewn with giant boulders; Tom picked his way with care as Joyce pointed the way, and Ben’s grip tightened on the tangle-gun at ready in his hand. As they started down Ben felt his tension increase a hundredfold; it seemed as if his whole body were vibrating, and his skin prickled as he peered down at the valley floor for signs of life.
Soon they were clambering down into a ravine, and Joyce stopped, staring up at a rock with a crack running down its surface. In the crack a large quartz crystal was tightly wedged. “This is the place,” the girl said. “And over there is where I saw the first one.”
They followed her finger, peering around them as if they expected the rocks themselves to leap into the air. There was no movement, no suggestion of life. Joyce scrambled around the rock. “Yes, this is the place! That crevice over there was where the others disappeared, or was it this one?” She stopped in confusion. “Well, it was somewhere over there,” she said angrily. “I was too scared to see straight. It doesn’t matter, anyway. They were here, that’s all that matters.” The sun had swung high in the sky and was descending rapidly again toward the far horizon. Tom Barron gave an embarrassed cough. “Look, Ben, I think we’d better get back to the ship before it’s dark again, don’t you?”
“But I tell you I saw them!” Joyce burst out. “You both think I’m crazy, but I’m not.”
“I think we’ve looked far enough,” Tom said.
But Ben Trefon shook his head. “Let’s see where that crevice goes before we go back,” he said.
Something was still bothering him; the closer he had come to this place, the greater his tension had been growing. Now it seemed as though his body were trembling uncontrollably. His feet were actually unsteady as he started to scramble across the floor of the ravine toward the cleft in the rock, and his heart seemed to be pounding a thousand times a minute.
And then, quite suddenly, he realized that it was not his heart pounding, and not his body that was vibrating. He stopped suddenly and pressed his glove over the capsule in his belt.
There was no doubt about it. The capsule was emitting a vibration so powerful it was shaking his body with an insistent pulsating beat. The beat was so intense that the capsule almost felt alive at his side.
Tom Barron stopped behind him. “Ben, we’d better go back.”
“Not yet.” Ben was scrambling forward now, staring at the cleft that loomed up ahead. Step by step the vibration in the capsule intensified as he stumbled in the rocky path.
Then, without warning, a tiny gray creature was standing in his path. Ben stopped short. Joyce had not been imagining things; the creature was barely three feet tall, with a wrinkled silvery-gray skin that made it look like a little old man. Its head was tilted to one side as if it were listening intently, and it stood perfectly motionless as Ben stared.
Tom caught up with him, and Ben heard a swift intake of breath. A stone rattled under Ben’s foot.
Abruptly the creature turned sharply toward him, and Ben saw his eyes, luminous eyes of a pale iridescent blue.
For a moment Ben thought the creature was blind, for the eyes had no pupils nor whites. Then he saw little flecks of gold shimmering in the pale blue, and he knew that the creature could see him. But the horror and ugliness Joyce had described had been the product of her own mind, for this tiny creature was far from ugly. Rather, there was an other-worldly beauty about him as he solemnly regarded his discoverers. He reminded Ben of something, something he had read of, or heard of, years before. But it was Tom who found the right word.
“Why, he looks like an elf!” he breathed.
Ben nodded. “Joyce was right, but there’s nothing horrible about him.” The same instant the creature moved closer. To Ben’s amazement, it spoke to him. There were no audible words, no sound at all, yet somehow Ben heard a soft, musical voice speaking directly into his ear.
“The belt,” the voice said. “Who has it?”
“I do,” Ben blurted out.
The creature fixed its great eyes on him. “Then step forward, please.” Cautiously, Ben took a step ahead. The creature moved close, extended a hand to Ben’s waist. Ben felt the gentlest touch, and the creature stepped back again. “Yes, you wear the belt of power. We have been waiting for you, and your companions as well. You are called Benjamin in the mighty House of Trefon, is that not so?”
Ben nodded. “But how did you know?”
“We knew your father well,” the strange voice said. “We knew him long ago when he wore the belt.
And now that it is in your hands, the time has come for you to use it, if it is not too late. We have waited a long time for you.”
“But why? Who are you?”
“Who can say?” the voice replied softly in Ben’s ear, and somehow the creature seemed to be smiling.
“I am one who has been, and gone, and come again. You saw my ship once, when it was not intended.
But come, we must not talk here. Your friends also may come, if they come in peace.” The creature turned as if to go, but Ben didn’t move. “I want to know who you are,” he said. “And I want to know what you want with us, before we go anywhere.”
The tiny creature looked at him. “We want peace,” the voice said in Ben’s ear. “Would your father have given you the belt of power if he had not wanted us to find you? We have followed you across space for days. Could we not have destroyed you at any time if we had wanted to? With a crippled ship, were you not at our mercy here if we had evil plans? Will you men of Earth never learn to cast doubt and suspicion aside?”
“I’m not a man of Earth,” Ben said doggedly. “I’m a Spacer, and it is hard to cast doubt and suspicion aside.”
A peal of musical laughter sounded in Ben’s ears. “Not a man of Earth? Indeed! And can you live in space without the protection of your suit? Without oxygen to breathe? Without heat, without moisture?”
“No,” Ben said.
The laughter came again. “I thought not. You must carry Earth with you wherever you go, yet you claim to be a man of space! Come with me now and you will learn the difference between men of Earth like yourself and men of space.”
The creature turned and started down the rubble-strewn path. Ben looked at Tom and Joyce for a moment, then started after the creature. The Barrons followed single file. It was difficult going; the creature was nimble and his pace was swift. But presently they encircled another great spur of rock and saw a crude stairway hewn down the rock wall into a cavern. Above them a huge black cliff seemed to rise smooth and gleaming. It was only then that Ben realized that the cavern was a metal hatchway, and that the gleaming cliff was the hull of a ship so huge it seemed to extend from horizon to horizon.
It was the phantom ship they had encountered before. Now it was visible and at rest, yet even now the outlines were slightly indistinct. Their elfin guide was making his way down to the hatchway, and moments later Ben and his companions were inside the ship.
Slowly the hatch clanged shut behind them.