Chapter VI: An Amazing Revelation

Three days later, Captain Verger recovered consciousness. His head heavily bandaged, he was lying on a cot in a small white-walled room. The sickening odor of ether was in the air. Bending over him, he was surprised to see the kindly features of Professor Anderson.

"Where am I? What happened?" he asked tritely.

"You're in the Interplanetary Mining Company's hospital on Ganymede," Anderson told him. "I suppose you recall what happened to you on Callisto."

"The last thing I remember is when that blasted devil of a slug-man bashed my head against the floor of the Goddard."

Anderson nodded and said, "Luckily for you, your skull turned out to be a thick one. Instead of being cracked wide open as any ordinary head would have been under the circumstances, your cranium was only dented. The doctor says you'll recover from the concussion, but it will be at least a month before you will be able to pilot a space-ship."

"And what about the others--LeDoux, Helen Green and the girls of the band?"

"All of them are safe and sound." Then Anderson told him about the courage and resourcefulness which Helen had displayed when she saved the Earth-People from the Callistonian guard.

"Mrs. Green sure is a swell girl," Verger murmured.

"You don't know the half of it," the Professor declared. "It was Helen who risked her life to give you first aid while we were taking off from Callisto. All the rest of us were strapped into our hammocks and seats to protect ourselves against the rapid acceleration. Doctor Williams told me that you owe your life to the way she took care of you both on the Goddard and here."

"Do you mean to say that Helen has been my nurse at this hospital?"

"That's right," Anderson smiled, "and I wouldn't be surprised if that was Helen coming down the corridor right now!"

As Helen Green entered the dimly lighted room, her beaming, radiant face and her lustrous, red hair reminded Verger of noon-day sunshine on dear old Earth.

Without making a sound, Anderson tiptoed out of the room, leaving Verger alone with his beautiful nurse.

Her first actions and words astonished the hardened bachelor. Kneeling at his bedside with bowed head, she whispered, "Thank heaven you are all right!"

For a moment or two, neither of them spoke. Then Verger reached out and reverently stroked the lustrous, red curls which were pressed against the counterpane just above his chest.

"You're a wonderful woman, Mrs. Green," he murmured. "The lucky chap who married you sure drew a prize."

She surprised him by saying, "My name is not Mrs. Green--and I am not married."

"Then how did you get into the band, which was supposed to be composed exclusively of exiles' wives?" he demanded.

"Oh, that was easy. You see, the real Mrs. Green is a friend of mine. She was selected to join the band and fly to her husband, who is one of the miners here. At the showdown, she lost her nerve. Apparently, she lacked the--the intestinal fortitude that it takes to embark on a space voyage. When I heard she was going to quit, I got her to let me take her place. So here I am."

"But I still don't understand," Verger said. "If you haven't a husband here, why did you go on a journey which you must have known would be full of discomfort and danger?"

She grinned and replied, "Oh, I don't know. I guess it must have been the gypsy in my soul."

"Haven't you ever been married?" he asked.

"Never," she smiled. "I'm one of those things that's commonly called a spinster."

"That reminds me of a gag I heard a long time ago," Verger rejoined. "It seems that a high school girl, when asked to define that word, said, 'A spinster is the wife of a bachelor'." Then he added, "I guess you know that I am a bachelor, don't you?"

Helen laughed and replied, "How could I help knowing that? Everyone tells me that you are an incurable woman-hater. And that's the truth, isn't it, Captain Verger?"

"All except the tense of the verb," he corrected her. "They should have told you that I _was_ a woman-hater until I met you--you plucky, red-headed angel, you!"

THE END