"I don't care," he said. "I got the whole Earth Settlements, Inc., back of me!" He snorted. "These Martians won't dare--"
"Look," said Elma.
He looked out onto the dead sea bottom. He dropped his broom. He picked it up and his mouth was open, a little free drop of saliva flew on the air, and he was suddenly shivering.
"Elma, Elma, Elma!" he said.
"Here they come," said Elma.
Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue ghosts, like blue smoke.
"Sand ships! But there aren't any more, Elma, no more sand ships."
"Those seem to be sand ships," she said.
"But the authorities confiscated all of them! They broke them up, sold some at auction! I'm the only one in this whole damn territory's got one and knows how to run one."
"Not any more," she said, nodding at the sea.
"Come on, let's get out of here!"
"Why?" she asked slowly, fascinated with the Martian vessels.
"They'll kill me! Get in our truck, quick!"
Elma didn't move.
He had to drag her around back of the stand where the two machines stood, his truck, which he had used steadily until a month ago, and the old Martian sand ship which he had bid for at auction, smiling, and which, during the last three weeks, he had used to carry supplies back and forth over the glassy sea floor. He looked at his truck now and remembered. The engine was out on the ground; he had been puttering with it for two days.
"The truck don't seem to be in running condition," said Elma.
"The sand ship. Get in!"
"And let you drive me in a sand ship? Oh no."
"Get in! I can do it!"
He shoved her in, jumped in behind her, and flapped the tiller, let the cobalt sail up to take the evening wind.
The stars were bright and the blue Martian ships were skimming across the whispering sands. At first his own ship would not move, then he remembered the sand anchor and yanked it in.
"There!"
The wind hurled the sand ship keening over the dead sea bottom, over long-buried crystals, past upended pillars, past deserted docks of marble and brass, past dead white chess cities, past purple foothills, into distance. The figures of the Martian ships receded and then began to pace Sam's ship.
"Guess I showed them, by God!" cried Sam. "I'll report to the Rocket Corporation. They'll give me protection! I'm pretty quick."
"They could have stopped you if they wanted," Elma said tiredly. "They just didn't bother."
He laughed. "Come off it. Why should they let me get off? No, they weren't quick enough, is all."
"Weren't they?" Elma nodded behind him.
He did not turn. He felt a cold wind blowing. He was afraid to turn. He felt something in the seat behind him, something as frail as your breath on a cold morning something as blue as hickory-wood smoke at t
wilight, something like old white lace, something like a snowfall, something like the icy rime of winter on the brittle sedge.
There was a sound as of a thin plate of glass broken--laughter. Then silence. He turned.