He showed his teeth aggravatingly.
“Sounds fishy but you are going to put that down in writing. You are going to sign a written agreement that she shall not be harmed or insulted, and you are going to agree that we can go along to see that you keep your word. With me is my chum, Billy Sand, and the guard you put over us. These two are also going with you. I will add, in justice to the guard, that we knocked him down and took his gun away from him, making him a prisoner.”
“Really, my dear fellow, I am seriously afflicted with writer’s cramp.” Toplinsky spoke politely. “I cannot put such an agreement in writing. It would be very painful to me to have to write it.”
“We may never leave this store room alive,” Epworth said threateningly, and it was evident that he meant what he said, “but as sure as fate if you do not put that agreement in writing I shall shoot you. One explosion will be all that will be necessary.”
The giant did not seem to be frightened. Quite the contrary. He replied very quietly.
“Quite a marksman, eh?” Toplinsky’s smile was sneeringly cold and mocking. “Do you know what will happen if I am killed? I hope I may not seem pedantic if I modestly explain. I am the only person aboard the Aerolite who can pilot it back to the earth, or to the moon. If you shoot me, all on board will be lost in space. It is hardly necessary to inform you that the moon does not stand still. It is moving now in three ways. First it is rotating once every sixteen hours on its axis; second it is moving around the world once every twenty-eight days; third it is traveling through space in a giant circle with the earth around the sun, making the circle once in three hundred and sixty-five days. Off-hand I would suggest that these three statements alone, especially numbers two and three, present to you, an expert air navigator, something of a problem in the way of making the moon a landing spot.”
He paused and grinned broadly, seeing a look of dismay appear on the American’s face.
“Yes,” he continued pleasantly and in an academic manner, “the moon moves 0633 miles each second—double the velocity of a cannon ball, and add to this the encircling movement of one thousand miles an hour around the sun, we have a decided mathematical calculation in navigation—especially as our little ship is at present only making six hundred miles an hour. Perhaps, a little later on we may get up to eight hundred. But, my dear fellow, do I see you, even at a speed of eight hundred miles an hour, overtaking the moon? I pause for a scientific response.”
Epworth was obviously upset, and his hand trembled on the trigger.
“Toplinsky, it is all I can do to keep from killing you this instant.”