One Purple Hope! Read online

and sank to his waist. But it was thethought of tsith that drove him on, not Callisto. Kueelo stood by andwatched, a thin, knowing smile creasing his leathery lips.

  A sort of frenzy had come upon Joel Latham. He tore at the stubborndraanga-weed and brought it up dripping, tossing the long lengthsacross his shoulder. He knew of this stuff.

  When properly synthesized draanga-weed had a medicinal value on thevarious planets. Penger shipped it out four times a year, at a neatlittle profit.

  Latham moved on. A yellowish fog had come down, the dreaded igniisfatui. Unless one kept moving, decomposition of the blood set in,essential salts within the body were dissolved and cellular activityceased. Latham grinned wryly. He doubted if it could touch him! Therewas too much tsith within his alchemy. Nevertheless he moved andworked ceaselessly. He could see that caricature of a Martian standingback there watching.

  Then it happened; the thing happened which was to prove both a promiseand a despair. Joel Latham felt a hardness at his heel, an irritatinglump inside his neoprene boot.

  He moved back to higher ground, lifted his foot from the mire andremoved the boot. He shook something out into his hand. It was roundand hard and shiny, perhaps an inch in diameter. He held it aloftbetween thumb and forefinger. The filtering sunlight struck it andsent back lambent fires.

  Joel Latham stared and gasped, felt his senses reeling.

  "Purple!" he sobbed. "A purple Josmian!"

  * * * * *

  He was clambering back toward Kueelo. Forgetting the sweat in his eyesand the insufferable heat, he held the thing aloft.

  "Look at it!" he sobbed again. "Look at it shine! Look at the size!"

  Kueelo was indeed looking. His yellowish eyes bulged. "A Josmian," hewhispered. "We've struck it rich!"

  Joel Latham regarded the little caricature with astonishment.Something of sanity came back to Joel Latham. "We?" he said. "I foundit. It's mine. I never knew you until four days ago!"

  "But I stood by you," the Martian wailed. "Your friends deserted you,but I stood by. Aren't we partners?"

  Latham considered that. "No," he decided. "You stood by me as long asI had credit for tsith! Until my money and lucky piece and dis-gun andclothes were gone. Did you offer to help me out there?" he waved atthe swamp. "This Josmian is going to get me back to Callisto! Pengerought to give me plenty for it."

  What happened next was too swift for Latham's reeling senses. Aclaw-like hand darted out, and Kueelo snatched the Josmian; his otherhand swung around and caught Latham hard across the throat, sendinghim back into the swamp where he staggered for a moment and sat downabruptly.

  "Hey!" Latham protested. "Hey, look here--"

  But the Martian was scuttling away like a huge fiddler crab, theJosmian clutched in one scrawny fist.

  Joel Latham came slowly up out of the mud, shaking his head andgrinning stupidly. It was very unkind of Kueelo to treat him likethis. He watched the Martian's departing figure. He made no effort tofollow--not at once--not until a strange new emotion, part frustrationand part despair, rose up in his breast, and close upon that thedawning realization that he was being cheated of a last hope.

  Even then he didn't hurry. He followed Kueelo, swinging along in slowloping strides, but not gaining. He felt weak and sick. That jaggedneed for tsith was again sawing away at his entrails. His feet tangledin the outlying swamp grass, he plunged headlong and picked himselfup.

  Kueelo was heading for higher ground away from the compound. Kueelowas yelling as he ran. Latham wondered why the devil he was yelling.Then, some distance ahead, Latham could see a third man liftinghimself from the ground. The Jovian! Suddenly Latham remembered him.The Jovian had been with them last night too. Now Kueelo was tuggingat the man, yelling, showing him the Josmian.

  The Jovian hoisted his bulk erect, turned and waited for Latham,grinning broadly. The grin didn't fool Latham. All Jovians grinned.Some of them grinned while breaking a man's vertebrae. This was one ofthe big ones, Latham noticed, and he was ugly, with long reaching armsand wiry hair and a face that looked as if he'd slept in it.

  Latham stopped just short of him and reached out a hand. "I want theJosmian," said Joel Latham.

  The Jovian came a step forward. "You leave Kueelo alone. Kueelo, he'smy friend."

  "I'm going to have that Josmian," said Joel Latham.

  The Jovian thrust out a huge fist with amazing speed. Latham caught atit and hung on grimly. The Jovian brought his other hand around in anarc that caught the Earthman across the face, sent him sprawling tenfeet away.

  "Josmian belongs to us, now. You leave us alone."

  Joel Latham sat there wiping blood from his face, watching the bestialpair as they headed around the compound and into the matted jungle.His last glimpse, just before darkness swallowed them up, was ofKueelo grinning gleefully back at him.

  Latham sighed. He stood up. The blow had shaken some of the resolveout of him. He turned east, northeast, east-by-north, like a compasson a binge. Then he saw Penger watching him from the outer gate of thecompound. Apparently Penger had seen it all.

  Latham turned and ran toward Jake Penger.

  "You saw them!" Latham wailed. "You saw it. They stole my Josmian!You've got to stop them!"

  * * * * *

  Penger planted his feet wide apart and surveyed the snivellingEarthman. Penger's dark face was hard-cut and impassive. He'd seenthese tsith hounds before. They came here and died here. He hated themall.

  Penger said, "They did what?"

  "The Josmian, the purple Josmian! I found it and they stole it fromme. You've got to help me, Penger!"

  Penger said, "You're crazy."

  "But I found it, I tell you! A big one. I'll sell it to you, Penger.I'll--"

  Penger said, "You're crazy with tsith. There hasn't been a Josmianfound in this swamp for ten years."

  "Penger, listen to me--"

  Penger said, "Forget it. You want tsith? You'll have tsith. But you'llwork and you'll work hard. You'll get the draanga-weed out."

  "Penger, I'm an Earthman! I'm asking you as one Earthman to another--"Latham stopped. He shivered. He looked into Penger's colorless eyesand what he saw made his soul curl up within him.

  "You're a what? An Earthman? You _were_ an Earthman! Now you're agrubby little specimen of the genus tsith! You're a miserable, whininglittle speck of matter wriggling toward the final transfixation! Inanother year you won't even be that. You'll be dead and forgotten.Don't come crawling to me talking about Earthmen!" The voice scrapedacross Latham's naked nerve-ends. Penger's eyes blazed, and in histrembling anger he almost raised a fist.

  Latham cringed away. From out of his forgotten past something came toLatham. He stared at the loom of jungle where Kueelo and the Jovianhad disappeared.

  "I've seen the day," he complained miserably, "when they wouldn't getaway with this!"

  "You've seen the day--period!"

  "I'm asking you once more, Penger. Help me! At least give me back thedis-gun."

  "The dis-gun? Now what would you want with the dis-gun? You'd onlycome trading it back to me. You bring in the draanga-weed, that's allI'm interested in! And if you work especially hard, there'll be sometsith--enough for your needs."

  Latham's eyes went fever-bright. His lips writhed back, a fit oftrembling took possession of his limbs. Almost, he succumbed to theimmediate vision of the tsith; almost, he forgot about the Josmian.But somewhere deep in his alchemy was a well of stubbornness he neverknew he possessed.

  He clutched at Penger's sleeve as the man turned away. He foundhimself screaming, "Then I'll go without the gun! I'm going to getthat Josmian, do you hear? You'll believe me then! You'll believe whenyou see it, Penger!"

  Penger shook him away. "Sure, sure. You bring me a Josmian. Then we'lltalk a deal."

  He wanted to ask for a drink, just one drink of tsith right now, butLatham had learned the essential fact that there could be nocompromising with this man. He reeled away. His bri
ef outburst hadleft him weak and trembling. Nevertheless, he went stumbling towardthe looming wall of jungle.

  He heard Penger's voice, a little annoyed: "Where are you going?"

  Latham stumbled on.

  "You fool, you don't know these jungles! You'll die in there! Youwon't last an hour!"

  Latham didn't look back. Penger didn't call again. Latham could almostimagine the man's shrug of indifference.

  Vision stopped five yards away. A soft glutinous muck, worse than theouter swamp, tugged at his ankles. Corrupt fungi-growth and giantspiked ferns reached far above