"Can you take very good pictures from the plane?" asked Rubin. "Does it allow a steady enough basis for photography?"
"In my story," said Peterborough, "I've got a computer guiding the plane, allowing for wind movements, and keeping it perfectly steady. That's one of the places where the science fiction comes in."
"Still, the Moon's shadow eventually leaves the Earth's surface altogether, doesn't it?"
"Yes, the eclipse track covers a fixed portion of the Earth's surface, and it has an overall starting point and an overall ending point."
"Exactly," said Rubin. "Now Murderer is confident that his photographs taken from the stratosphere are going to include the best views of an eclipse ever seen, but he doesn't count on Victim's having a spaceship. Don't worry, there's no need to leave Earth very far. It's just that the spaceship follows the Moon's shadow after it leaves the Earth. Victim has a still longer chance to take photographs, a steadier base, and no atmospheric interference whatever. Murderer is hoist on his own petard for he sees that poor simp, Victim, do exactly what he does but go him one better. He snaps and becomes a killer."
Gonzalo waved both arms in the air in excitement. "Wait! Wait! We can do even better than that. Listen, what about that annular eclipse you mentioned a while ago? You said the shadow doesn't reach the Earth."
"It doesn't reach the surface. That's right."
"How high off the surface is it?"
"That depends. Under extreme conditions, the end point of the shadow could miss the Earth by hundreds of miles."
"Yes," said Gonzalo, "but could that end point miss Earth by, say, ten miles?"
"Oh, sure."
"Would it still be annular, and no good?"
"That's right," said Peterborough. "The Moon would come just barely short of covering the Sun. There would be just the thinnest sliver of Sun around the Moon, and that would give enough light to spoil things. If you took photographs, you'd miss the prominences, the flares, and the corona."
"But what if you went ten miles up into the atmosphere?" said Gonzalo. "Then you'd see it total, wouldn't you?"
"If you were in the right spot, yes."
"There it is, then. One of those annular eclipses comes along, and Murderer thinks he'll pull a fast one. He gets into his stratoplane, goes ten miles up to get into the point of the shadow or just over it, and follows it along. He's going to make a total eclipse out of an annular one-and Victim, the usual loser, does the same thing, except he uses a spaceship and follows it out into space and gets better pictures. What can get old Murderer more torn up than having him play his ace-and getting trumped."
Avalon nodded his head. "Good, Mario. That is an improvement."
Rubin looked as if he had unexpectedly bitten into a lemon. "I hate to say it, Mario-"
"You don't have to say it, Manny," said Gonzalo. "I see it all over you.-There you are, kid. Write the story."
Peterborough said, with a sigh, "Yes, I suppose that is the best that can be done."
"You don't sound overjoyed," said Gonzalo.
"I was hoping for something more-uh-outrageous, but I don't think it exists. If none of you could think up anything-"
"May I interrupt, sir?" said Henry.
"Huh? Oh-no, I don't want any more coffee, waiter," said Peterborough, absently.
"No, sir. I mean, concerning the eclipse."
Trumbull said, "Henry's a member of the club, Martin. He broke the tie on the matter of the discussion. Remember?''
Peterborough put a hand to his forehead. "Oh, sure. Ask away-uh-Henry.''
"Actually, sir, would the photographs be that much better in a vacuum than in the thin air of the stratosphere? Would the difference in quality be enough to result in murder, unless Murderer was a close approach to a homicidal maniac?"
"That's the thing," said Peterborough, nodding. "That's what bothers me. That's why I keep saying I need a motive. These differences in quality of photos aren't big enough."
"Let us consider, then," said Henry, "Mr. Rubin's dictum that in telling a story one should look backward."
"I know the ending," said Peterborough. "I have the backward look."
"I mean it in another sense-that of deliberately looking in the other direction, the unaccustomed direction. In an eclipse, we always look at the Moon-just the Moon in a Lunar eclipse, and the Moon covering the Sun in a Solar eclipse-and that's what we take photographs of. What if we take a backward look at the Earth?"
"What's to see on Earth, Henry?" asked Gonzalo.
"When the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, it is always in the full phase and it is usually completely darkened. What happens to the Earth when it moves into the Moon's shadow? It certainly doesn't darken completely."
"No," said Peterborough emphatically. "The Moon's shadow is thinner and shorter than the Earth's, and the Earth itself is larger than the Moon. Even when Earth passes as deeply as it can into the Moon's shadow, only a tiny bit of the Earth is darkened, a little dot of darkness that makes up, at most, about 1/600 of the Earth's circle of light."
' 'Could you see it from the Moon?'' asked Henry.
"If you knew where to look and especially if you had a good pair of binoculars. You would see it start small, move west to east across the face of the Earth, getting bigger, then smaller, and then vanish. Interesting, but certainly not spectacular."
"Not from the Moon, sir," said Henry. "Now suppose we reverse the positions of the characters. It is Victim who has the airplane and who can get a photograph from the stratosphere. It is Murderer who intends to trump his opponent's ace by taking a better photograph from space-a marginally better photograph. Suppose, though, that Victim, against all expectations, from his airplane over-trumps Murderer in his spaceship."
Avalon said, "How can he do that, Henry?"
"Victim, in his plane, suddenly realizes he needn't look at the Moon. He looks backward at the ground and sees the Moon's shadow, racing toward him. The Moon's shadow is just a dark dot when seen from the Moon; it's just the coming of temporary night as seen from the Earth's surface-but from a plane in the stratosphere, it is a racing circle of darkness moving at 1440 miles an hour, swallowing up the land and sea-and clouds, for that matter-as it goes. The plane can move ahead of it, and it is no longer necessary to take single snapshots. A movie camera can produce the most dramatic film. In this way, Murderer, having fully expected to outdo Victim, finds that Victim has captured world attention even though he had only an airplane to Murderer's spaceship."
Gonzalo broke into loud applause, and Trumbull said, "Right on!" Even Rubin smiled and nodded.
As for Peterborough, he fired up at once saying, "Sure! And the approaching shadow would have a thin red rim, for at the moment the shadow overtakes you, the red prominences cast their light unmasked by the Sun's white light. That's it, Henry! The backward look does it!-If I write this one properly, I don't care even if it doesn't sell.-I won't care even" (his voice shook) "if-uh-she doesn't like it and doesn't go out with me. The story is more important!"
Henry smiled gently and said, "I'm glad to hear that, sir. A writer should always have a proper sense of priorities."