Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Comet, July, 1941. Extensive research did not reveal any evidence that the U. S. Copyrighton this publication was renewed. 

[Illustration: _In silence Negu Mah and Sliss stood silent gazingat the moon drenched field. _]

The Indulgence of Negu Mah

by ROBERT ARTHUR

In his garden, Negu Mah, the Callisto uranium merchant, sat sipping aplatinum mug of molkai with his guest, Sliss the Venusian. 

Nanlo, his wife, pushing before her the small serving cart with itsplatinum molkai decanter, paused for an instant as she entered theshell of pure vitrite which covered the garden, giving it the illusionof out-of-doorness. 

Negu Mah sat at his ease, his broad, merry, half-Oriental facegood-humored, his features given a ruddy tinge by the light of risingJupiter, the edge of whose sphere was beginning to dominate thehorizon. Sliss, the intelligent amphibian, squatted across from him inthe portable tub of water which he carried with him whenever absentfrom the swamps of his native Venus. 

The amphibian's popping eyes turned toward her, the wide frog-facesplit in a smile of appreciation as Nanlo approached. She refilledtheir mugs deftly and withdrew. But before she reentered the house shecould not resist hesitating to glance toward rising Jupiter and theslim shaft of the rocketship silhouetted now against its surface. 

The ship was the cargo rocket Vulcan, newest and swiftest of Negu Mah'sfreighter fleet. Fully fueled and provisioned, storage space jammedwith refrigerated foods that in space the cold of the encompassing voidwould keep perfectly for generations were it necessary, she would takeoff in the morning from the close-by landing port for Jupiter's othersatellites, then go on to the Saturnian system, returning finally withfull holds of uranium for Negu Mah's refineries on Callisto. 

She was a beautiful craft, the Vulcan, and one man could manage her, though her normal crew was seven. She had cost a great sum. But NeguMah was wealthy. 

Nanlo's face, sylph-like in its beauty, hardened. Negu Mah was wealthyindeed. Had he not bought her, and had she not cost him more, muchmore, than the Vulcan?

But no, it was not quite accurate to say that Negu Mah had bought her. However, since time immemorial beautiful daughters had been, if notsold, yet urged into marriages to wealthy men for the benefit of theirimpoverished families. And though science had made great strides, conquering the realms of the telescope and invading those below thelevel of the microscope, finding cures for almost every disease theflesh of man was heir to, there was one ailment it had not yetconquered--poverty. 

Nanlo's father had been a rocket port attendant. Once he had been apilot, but a crash had crippled him for life. Thereafter, his wages hadbeen quite insufficient to sustain him, his brood of half a dozenchildren, and their hard-working mother. 

But Nanlo, growing up, had developed into a mature beauty that rivaledthe exotic loveliness of the wild orchids of Io. And in debarking atthe rocket port on a business trip to earth, because hurricanes hadforced him to land far south of New York, Negu Mah had seen her. 

Thereafter--But that is a story as ancient as history too. 

It was a truth Nanlo conveniently overlooked now that she had not beenunwilling to be Negu Mah's bride. It was true she had driven a sharpbargain with him--her father's debts paid, and sufficient more to easeher parents' life and educate her brothers and sisters. Plus a marriagesettlement for herself, and a sum in escrow in the Earth Union bank, should she ever divorce him for cruelty or mistreatment. But that hadbeen only innate shrewdness. She would still have married him had herefused her demands for her family. For his wealth fascinated her, andthe prospect of being a virtual queen, even of a distant outpost colonysuch as that on Callisto, appealed to her. 

And she had thought that she was taking little risk, for if she weredissatisfied, the law these days was very lenient toward unhappymarital relationships. It required only definite proof of misconduct, mistreatment, or oppression of any kind to win freedom from an unwantedpartner. Nanlo had been confident that after a year or two she would beable to shake free of the bonds uniting her to Negu Mah and take flightfor herself into a world made vastly more pleasant by the marriagesettlement remaining to her. 

But now she had been married, and had lived on Callisto, for a fullfive years, and her tolerance of Negu Mah had long since turned tobitter hate. Not because he was a bad husband, but because he was toogood a one!

 * * * * *

There was an ironic humor in the situation, but Nanlo was not disposedto recognize it. Lenient as the law was, yet it required some groundsbefore it could free her. And she had no grounds whatever. Negu Mah wasat all times the model of courtesy and consideration toward her. Hegranted every reasonable wish and some that were unreasonable--althoughwhen he refused one of the latter, it was with a firmness asunshakeable as a rock. 

Their home was as fine as any on earth. She had more than adequate helpin taking care of it. She had ample time for any pursuits thatinterested her. But she used it only to become more and more bitteragainst Negu Mah because she could find no excuse to divorce him. 

So great had her bitterness become that, if she could have gotten offCallisto in any way, she would have deserted him. This would have meantforfeiting her marriage settlement and the sum that was in escrow. Itwould also have left her father in debt to Negu Mah for all that NeguMah had given him. But Nanlo's passionate rebellion had reached such astate of ferment in her breast that she would have accepted all this tostrike a blow at the plump, smiling man who now sat drinking molkai intheir garden with their guest from Venus. 

The answer to that was--Negu Mah would not let her leave Callisto. Thejourney to earth, he logically argued, was still one containing a largeelement of danger. There was no reason for her to visit any otherplanet, and law and custom required that she look after their homewhile he himself was away on business. 

In this he was unshakeable. There was a stern and unyielding side tohim, inherited perhaps from his Eastern ancestors, that left Nanloshaken and frightened when it appeared. She had seen it the one timeshe had seriously gone into a tantrum in an effort to make him let hertake a trip to earth. It had so startled and terrified her that she hadnever used those tactics again. 

But now, as she wheeled away the molkai decanter and left Negu Mah andSliss to themselves, joy and exultation was singing in her. Doubly. Forshe was going to run away from Negu Mah, run away with the man sheloved, and in their flight they were going to steal the Vulcan. ThusNegu Mah would be doubly punished. He would be hurt in his pride and inhis pocketbook. And all through the Jupiter and Saturn systems, wherehis wealth, his position, and his beautiful wife were openly envied, hewould be laughed at and derided. 

Humming lightly under her breath, Nanlo put the molkai decanter away ina little pantry and hurried on to her own apartment. Molkai was apowerful, though non-habit-forming drink. Under its influence onebecame talkative, but disinclined to movement. Sliss and her husbandwould remain as they were for hours, leaving her free to do as shewould. The servants were asleep in another part of the building, andthere was no one to note as she changed her clothes swiftly for alight, warm travelling suit, caught up two small bags, one holding herpersonal things, the other her jewels, and let herself out through herown private entrance into the darkness of the rear gardens. 

Where in the shadows the tall, blonde young engineer, Hugh Neils, waswaiting for her. .. . 

 * * * * *

Negu Mah, when his beautiful wife had left the garden, sighed and putto one side his mug of molkai. 

"Sliss, my friend, " he said to the Venusian, who was regarding him withlarge, unblinking pop-eyes, "I am troubled in my mind. Tonight I mustdispense justice. Justice to myself and justice to another. To be justis often to be terribly cruel. "

Sliss blinked, once, a film moving horizontally across his large eyesand retracting, to show that he understood. Due to the difficulty ofusing his artificial speech mechanism, he refrained from speaking untilspeech was necessary. 

"My wife, Nanlo, " Negu Mah said heavily, "is unhappy. I have done allthat is in my power to make her happy, but I have failed. She has madesome requests that I have denied, namely, to be permitted freedom tovisit earth. That I denied because I knew the paths she intended totread would not have led her to happiness either, and I hoped that inthe end, here she would find contentment. I have hoped in vain. Tonightshe intends to take matters into her own hands. "

Sliss blinked again, politely, to indicate that he was interested ifNegu Mah cared to tell him more. Negu Mah rose. 

"My friend, " he said, "if you will come with me, I will show you what Imean. "

Sliss grasped the edge of his tub with webbed hands and swung hiswebbed, yellow-skinned feet free from the water which kept thesensitive membranes from drying, and at the same time supplied his bodytissues with liquid. Falling upon all fours, like a great, misshapenpet, he waddled awkwardly after his host. 

Negu Mah led him to an elevator within the house. This took them to ahigher floor, and there they followed a corridor to the rear of thebuilding. Here Negu Mah, without showing a light, opened a door, and insilence they moved out upon a small balcony overlooking the reargardens, which were shrouded in darkness because rising Jupiter was onthe opposite side of the building. 

They had stood there only a moment when below them a door opened, and asmall figure slipped through. Another figure appeared from beneath theshadows of a cluster of slender, purple neklo trees and moved forwardto greet the first. They met in the center of a tiny open space, wherea fountain spurting through holes in crystal made a sweet murmuringmusic. And to the two watchers rose whispered words--"Nanlo! Nanlo, mydarling!" "Hugh! Oh, Hugh, my love, hold me close and tell me thateverything is ready for us to leave!"

 * * * * *

Hugh Neils' arms held her close, and his lips were hot on hers. That hewas here as they had planned meant that he had succeeded in the otherplans they had agreed upon. Exultation soared higher in Nanlo's breast. 

"Then we can go? Go now?" she asked eagerly, as Hugh Neils releasedher. "The crew is asleep? You were able to arrange it?"

The young engineer looked down at her, his thin face a pale blur in thedarkness. 

"In five minutes, just five minutes, Nanlo, my own, " he whispered. "Ileft the guard half an hour ago, drinking molkai into which I put asleeping powder. Give him five more minutes to fall asleep, then we cango to the ship unseen, unchecked. Until then, we can wait here in thegarden. "

He led her toward the trilling fountain and they sat down upon a benchbefore it, of rare Callisto crystal. They still were in darkness, butthe flame-like Jupiter light touched the tops of the neklo trees abovethem with a ruddy light which brought faint glimmerings from theradioactive leaves. 

Hugh Neils was a recent college graduate whom Negu Mah had hired as anassistant supervisor in the refining mills on Callisto, where theprecious uranium 235 was separated from the ordinary metal. It was nota desirable job, but the best Hugh Neils could get. His college recordof reckless scrapes and entanglements with women had been against him. Indeed, this position had only come to him because his home was in thesame section as Nanlo's, and Negu Mah had thought that perhaps hiscompany on occasion would help alleviate Nanlo's restlessness. 

It had--but to an extent Negu Mah had not foreseen. 

"In less than a quarter of an hour, Nanlo my darling, " Hugh Neilswhispered now, "we'll be gone from here, and you'll belong only to me. We'll leave this infernal barren satellite to spin itself dizzy outhere in no place. We'll leave that humpty-dumpty husband of yours andhis hypocritical good-nature to whistle for his wife and his ship. Wewon't care. We'll be together, always together from now on, and he'llnever see us again. "

Nanlo leaned against his shoulder, the prospect that he painted seemedvery sweet to her. 

"You're sure you can manage the ship alone?" she asked. "But of course, I can help, a little anyway. You can teach me. "

"Of course, " Hugh Neils answered confidently, and bent to kiss heragain. "I've been studying her for a week, asking questions, makingfriends with the crew. I can handle her one-handed. We'll take off andcircle Jupiter first. They may think we landed on the other side, inthe Outlaw Crevice. Or they may figure that we went on to Saturn, andwill hide somewhere in the system there. 

"But we won't do either, and they won't know where to look for us. Instead of turning back on the other side of Jupiter, we'll make atangential angle out into space. We'll hold it for a month, forsafety's sake. We could hold for fifty years, or a hundred, if weneeded to. There's fuel and provisions, meant for the mines, enough tolast that long. 

"At the end of the month, we'll swing back, cut into the path of thesun, and pick up Mars as she comes in from behind Sol. 

"On Mars, we can sell the Vulcan. There's an outfit in the EquatorZone, in the mountains west of the Great Canal, that will buy her andno questions asked. I learned about them from a fraternity brotherwhile I was in college. He'd run into some hard luck, they gave him ajob, and he was making money hand over fist. They're asteroid miners. The work they do is illegal, but it's perfectly justified morally. Whatright have men with more money than they know what to do with to owneverything in the Solar System? How can a young fellow get a start anymore, when corporations and rich old fogies own everything?

"Maybe I'll join up with this outfit. After we've sold the ship I'llsee. How does that sound to you?"

"Wonderful, Hugh, " Nanlo whispered. "But I don't care about that. All Iwant is for us to be together. Always. You and me, and our love, together for eternity. That's all I want. "

"That's all I want, too, darling Nanlo, " Hugh Neils told her passionately, and kissed her. "Together, forever. Just you and me. "

Nanlo sighed, with luxuriant happiness, and peered at his radiumitewrist watch. 

"The five minutes are up, " she murmured. "Can't we go now?"

Hugh Neils nodded. 

"We've waited plenty long enough, " he decided. "The guard will beasleep by now. The crew were that way when I left them, in thedormitory. I saw that they had plenty of spiked molkai at dinner. Pretended it was my birthday celebration. And the ship's all ready andwaiting for the take-off. All we have to do is lock the port and closethe rising switch. "

The two on the bench by the fountain rose, and for a long minute werelocked in an embrace. Then they turned toward the dark-shadowed treesand disappeared beneath them, in the direction of the nearby spaceport. 

 * * * * *

Negu Mah silently turned back into the house. Sliss shuffled after him. The uranium merchant led the way back to the vitrite covered garden andthere, a little wearily, resumed his seat and picked up his mug again. Sliss climbed back into his tub of water, sighed gratefully at thecomfort it gave him, and then turned his pop-eyes toward his host. Heblinked once, inquiringly, and Negu Mah understood that the intelligentamphibian was asking if he intended to do nothing to stop the pair whowere running away. 

Negu Mah sipped pensively at his drink. 

"If she had only told me, " he murmured. "If she had only come to me andsaid she desired her freedom. If they had only both come together andfaced me, saying that though it meant giving up all they had, theywanted only each other! I would have been generous. I would have beenindulgent. But they did not. They had not the courage. They were afraidof me. And they hated me. "

Negu Mah was silent for a moment. Both he and his guest stared towardthe graceful shaft of the Vulcan, now fully silhouetted against thewhole tremendous bulk of Jupiter, sitting like a titanic scarlet eggupon the horizon of Callisto. The Jupiter light flooded the vitritegarden, gave the plants there, chosen with an eye to this, strange, exotic, glowing colors, flushed Negu Mah and Sliss with a rubyradiance. 

Towards that dark, waiting craft the two they had watched were even nowstealing, tense with the weight of their daring and their crime. In amoment they would reach her, enter her, actuate machinery that wasmiraculous in its complex simplicity, and be gone then on the wings itgave them into the concealing embrace of universal space. 

"You see, my friend Sliss, " Negu Mah said finally, "Nanlo is beautiful, but there is nothing within. Her beauty deceived me. I thought thatwhere such loveliness existed, there must be a soul to animate it. Iwas wrong. She is like an imitation gem--beautiful on the surface, paste within. Yet the mistake was mine, and I did not blame her. Iindulged her, and still hoped that something real would bloom withinher. "

He drained the molkai in his mug, one great gulp, and slumped back. 

"The young man, too, Hugh Neils. I thought he would be a companion forher. But he too is weak. Yet they say they love each other. Theyswear--we heard them--that they want only each other and their love forall time. "

Sliss blinked, twice, and Negu Mah nodded. 

"Yes, " he said. "If they carry out their plans as we heard them, thatfeeling will soon go. The sale of the Vulcan, even as stolen property, would give them many credits. After that--luxury, self-indulgence. Andtheir natures are too weak to withstand the ravages of such things. SoI have been troubled to know what to do. 

"You see, my friend from Venus, though I would have let Nanlo go hadshe asked me, my own honor is at stake when she seeks to deal me aninjury by slipping away in the night, and stealing from me the Vulcan. She is doing evil, and must be punished. The young man, too--indulgentas I am, I can not let him dishonor me thus without paying anypenalty. "

Sliss' eye membranes shut, questioningly. 

"Yet, " the uranium merchant went on, "I have a fondness for Nanlo. Iwill not prevent her from doing as she has chosen to do, for the intentwould still be there, and knowing it as I do, all between us is over. Ican not aid her to fulfill her plans, either, for that is to injure herand myself too. But there is another course. I have chosen that. "

He gestured with one plump hand toward the silhouetted ship. 

"I believe they have entered the Vulcan, " he announced. "I saw light asthe entrance port opened then. "

The amphibian's great, frog head nodded agreement. 

"So, " Negu Mah continued, "I have decided to exercise what indulgence Ican in the face of the injury they would do me. They shall have theirchance. "

He fell silent again. Sliss leaned forward in his tub. Both of themwatched intently. A flare of greenish light had sprung up beneath theblack pillar that was the Vulcan. For just an instant the freighterstood there, green radiance expanding around her. Then she leaped intothe sky. 

With her leap, she seemed to suck the radiance along. It became a greatcone of glowing light that, arrow-like, raced away upward. For a longinstant the black length of the ship, and the greenish fan of flame, were outlined against the scarlet background of Jupiter. Then thefreighter rocket, flinging herself upward at three gravities or better, passed the edge of the planet and vanished. 

Negu Mah sat very quiet for some moments. But at last he stirred again. Sliss' eyes turned toward him, immobile. 

"Sometimes love transforms the weak, " the uranium merchant said slowly. "Like fire giving temper to soft metal. Sometimes a mutual love willendure for all eternity, and the two who share it will gain from it asoul they did not have before. Nanlo and Hugh Neils have this chance. Both said they wanted only the other, and their love, for all eternity. To gain this, both were willing to cheat, to steal, to dishonor me andthemselves. 

"So, Sliss, my understanding friend, they have paid the price, theyshall have what they ask for. 

"As the man, Hugh Neils, said, there is fuel and food in the holds ofthe Vulcan to run the motors and last the lifetime of a man--or a manand a woman. Indeed, two lifetimes, or three, for I was aware of theirplans, and secretly I placed aboard the craft many additional supplies. Fuel, and food, and books, and tools. And one additional thing the twowho flee now there in space have not counted upon. 

"Into the controls of the Vulcan one of my engineers has placed a smalldevice. After two hundred hours, or when they are well beyond Jupiter, this device will swing the Vulcan straight toward Proxima Centauri, thenearest star. In that position the controls will lock. And for twentyyears, a generation, it will be impossible either to alter the courseof the Vulcan or to shut her blast motors off. 

"At the end of that time the last tank of reserve fuel will beexhausted, and they will cease automatically. Then once more the Vulcanmay be controlled by those aboard. They may switch the motors onto thetanks of fuel in the cargo holds, and continue onwards. If they werecelestial navigators, they might try to turn, and seek earth again. Butthey are not navigators, and the sun will be but a tiny spark in thelimitless darkness, one with a million others, not to be told apart. They will know that only Proxima Centauri in all space may the Vulcanhope to reach in their lifetime, or perhaps even in that of theirdescendants, for a message to that effect they will find presently. 

"So it may be that they will continue onward of their own choice. Ifthey make no choice, momentum will carry them onward, perhaps forever. 

"But in any case, Nanlo and Hugh Neils will have exactly what they haveasked for--each other, for all eternity. If truly that was what theywanted, a great destiny may be theirs. A lifetime of travel can bringthem to the stars. They or their descendants can be the first humans tobridge the gap of nothingness that has thus far daunted the stoutesthearts. "

As they watched, the green dart of light dwindled and was gone. Andquite invisible at last in the arms of outer darkness, the Vulcan spedits two passengers onward toward the stars.