Dick winced. Then the tall man said:
“We can stop any war on Earth. I think we will. We’ve had enough of killing and cruelty. I think—”
“I’ve been talking to several people,” admitted Dick. “They are inclined to think as you do.”
“Surely,” said the tall man. “But for the time- being we’ll just tell ourselves we’re staying here until we free all the other slaves, and make sure there’s no interdimensional attack on Earth in case we want to go back. We’ll need somebody to buy things for us, and maybe to advise us from time to time. We’ll need somebody around who never was a slave. We’re apt to be pretty extreme.”
“To tell the truth,” said Dick, “I thought I’d go back with Maltby and arrange for buying the sort of stuff we need here, and—well—get married, and come back ...”
The tall man nodded.
That was the way it was. They returned the spidery device to its former storage-place in the villa. It would never again be used to rob Earth. They began to clean up the bloodstains. There were hundreds of things to be done. Dick, himself, had a list of literally thousands of items that would somehow, without creating curiosity, have to be bought for this Other World.
A cutter rowed them across to the Manhattan shore just at sundown. There was a doorway there which they would ultimately set up in a closet in the house Dick and Nancy would presently acquire for the benefit of the people in the Other World.
None of the brawny figures with them showed any sign of wanting to go back to New York with them. They were going up-river in the morning, to attack another villa. They grinned when Maltby went back to Earth. He had borrowed Sam Todd’s clothes; Sam was wearing a loincloth and a riot gun and enjoying it. Nancy went through. Kelly went through, with a parcel. Dick went through and they were in New York, in a narrow, smelly small alley only feet from a well-frequented street.
“Wedding present,” said Kelly. “I picked it up at the first slave pen we took. Thought you might like it.”
“What is it?” asked Nancy.
“A crux ansata,” said Dick. “On Earth it belongs to Maltby, but Kelly rates it as spoils of war. He’s right. It is. Maltby shan’t have it. I’ll turn it into a hand-mirror for you to look at yourself in.”
“Kelly,” said Nancy. “Don’t you want to stay for the wedding?”
“No,” said Kelly laconically. “I got a date up-river.”
Maltby went out of the alley into the street.
“See you next week,” said Dick.
“Okay,” said Kelly. “Good luck.”
He vanished in a pool of quicksilver. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say. Dick took Nancy’s hand and went out of the alley. He held up three fingers and whistled at a passing vehicle.
“Taxi!” said Dick.