HEALING RAYS IN SPACE
By J. HARVEY HAGGARD
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Comet March 41.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
CHAPTER I
STRANGE BARGAIN
The big library was of platinum-and-teakwood. There were two occupants, a monstrous man who wore expensive vitrilex, and a wisp of a girl in a wheel chair. One entire wall space was taken up by a chart of the solar system. Below the chart was the label: Marshall Space Lines, 1990 to 2055, First In Astral Commerce.
Spaceports, marked by red pins, dotted the entire chart. The large man was humming as he thrust other scarlet pins into Ceres, Pallas and Juno with such a savagery as one might use in thrusting swords.
"Feel better, dad?" The wisp of a girl was speaking. Misty locks of sheeny hair lay on the back of the invalid chair like starclouds on a summer night. A beautiful frame for a picture of lifeless, transparent features.
"I ought to! It took fifty years to scalp the Thallin Starways!" gloated Keith Randolph Marshall, looking proudly at the carmine clusters that marked new interspace commerce lanes. "You bet! Fifty years to skin old Rufus Thallin's hide! Why, every ship he owns is mine now.
"He's going to come and beg! I've got it figured out. He'll come today, before the foreclosure. He'll be on his knees and I'll like it. He'll want more time on his notes, the ones I bought from mortgage owners long ago. That's another little surprise for him. Right now my secretary is waiting down below, and will send him up."