The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wind, by Charles Louis Fontenay

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Title: Wind

Author: Charles Louis Fontenay

Release Date: September 12, 2007 [EBook #22590]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WIND

By CHARLES L. FONTENAY

_When you have an engine with no fuel, and fuel
without an engine, and a life-and-death deadline
to meet, you have a problem indeed. Unless you are
a stubborn Dutchman--and Jan Van Artevelde was the
stubbornest Dutchman on Venus._

Jan Willem van Artevelde claimed descent from William of Orange. He had
no genealogy to prove it, but on Venus there was no one who could
disprove it, either.

Jan Willem van Artevelde smoked a clay pipe, which only a Dutchman can
do properly, because the clay bit grates on less stubborn teeth.

Jan needed all his Dutch stubbornness, and a good deal of pure physical
strength besides, to maneuver the roach-flat groundcar across the
tumbled terrain of Den Hoorn into the teeth of the howling gale that
swept from the west. The huge wheels twisted and jolted against the
rocks outside, and Jan bounced against his seat belt, wrestled the
steering wheel and puffed at his _pijp_. The mild aroma of
Heerenbaai-Tabak filled the airtight groundcar.

There came a new swaying that was not the roughness of the terrain.
Through the thick windshield Jan saw all the ground about him buckle and
heave for a second or two before it settled to rugged quiescence again.
This time he was really heaved about.

Jan mentioned this to the groundcar radio.

"That's the third time in half an hour," he commented. "The place tosses
like the IJsselmeer on a rough day."

"You just don't forget it _isn't_ the Zuider Zee," retorted Heemskerk
from the other end. "You sink there and you don't come up three times."

"Don't worry," said Jan. "I'll be back on time, with a broom at the
masthead."

"This I shall want to se