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diff --git a/29310.txt b/29310.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae0964d --- /dev/null +++ b/29310.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3504 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Affair of the Brains, by Anthony Gilmore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Affair of the Brains + +Author: Anthony Gilmore + +Release Date: July 4, 2009 [EBook #29310] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFFAIR OF THE BRAINS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding Stories, +March, 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + +[Illustration: "I do not know you for a liar.... I will enter."] + + + +The Affair of the Brains + +_A Complete Novelette_ + + + +By Anthony Gilmore + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Off to the Rendezvous_ + + + +[Illustration: Hawk Carse himself goes to keep Judd the Kite's +rendezvous with the sinister genius Ku Sui.] + +Though it is seldom nowadays that Earthmen hear mention of Hawk Carse, +there are still places in the universe where his name retains all its +old magic. These are the lonely outposts of the farthest planets, and +here when the outlanders gather to yarn the idle hours away their tales +conjure up from the past that raw, lusty period before the patrol-ships +came, and the slender adventurer, gray-eyed and with queer bangs of hair +obscuring his forehead, whose steely will, phenomenal ray-gun draw and +reckless space-ship maneuverings combined to make him the period's most +colorful figure. These qualities of his live again in the outlanders' +reminiscences and also of course his score of blood-feuds and the one +great feud that shook whole worlds in its final terrible settling--the +feud of Hawk Carse and Dr. Ku Sui. + +Again and again the paths of the adventurer and the sinister, brilliant +Eurasian crossed, and each crossing makes a rich tale. Time after time +Ku Sui, through his several bands of space-pirates, his individual +agents and his ambitious web of power insidiously weaving over the +universe, whipped his tentacles after the Hawk, and always the tentacles +coiled back, repulsed and bloody. An almost typical episode is in the +affair which followed what has been called the Exploit of the Hawk and +the Kite. + +It will be remembered--as related in "Hawk Carse"[1]--that Dr. Ku laid a +most ingenious trap for Carse on the latter's ranch on Iapetus, eighth +satellite of Saturn. Judd the Kite, pirate and scavenger, was the +Eurasian's tool in this plot, which started with a raid on the ranch. +The fracas which followed the Hawk's escape from the trap was bloody and +grim enough, and resulted in the erasure of Judd and all his men save +one; but the important thing to the following affair was that Judd's +ship, the Scorpion, fell into Carse's hands with one prisoner and the +ship's log, containing the space coordinates for a prearranged +assignation of Judd with Ku Sui. + + [1] See the November, 1931, issue of Astounding Stories. + +All other projects were postponed by the Hawk at this opportunity to +meet Dr. Ku face to face. The trail of the Eurasian was the guiding +trail of his life, and swiftly he moved along it. + +There was work to be done before he could set out. Three men had emerged +alive from the clash between the Hawk and the Kite: Carse himself, +Friday, his gigantic negro companion in adventure, and a bearded +half-caste called Sako, sole survivor of Judd's crew. Aided sullenly by +this man, they first cleaned up the ravaged ranch, burying the bodies +of the dead, repairing fences and generally bringing order out of +confusion. Then, under Carse's instructions, Friday and the captive +brigand tooled the adventurer's own ship, the _Star Devil_, well into +the near-by jungle, while the Hawk returned to the _Scorpion_. + +He went into her control cabin, opened her log book and once more +scanned what interested him there. The notation ran: + + "E.D. (Earth Date) 16 January, E.T. (Earth Time) 2:40 P.M. Meeting + ordered by Ku Sui, for purpose of delivering the skeleton and + clothing of Carse to him, at N.S. (New System) X-33.7; Y-241.3; + Z-92.8 on E.D. 24 January, E.T. 10:20 P.M. Note: the ship is to + stand by at complete stop, the radio's receiver open to Ku Sui's + private wave (D37, X1293, R3) for further instructions." + +He mulled over it, slowly stroking his flaxen bangs. It was a chance, +and a good one. Judd's ship would keep that rendezvous, but it would +sheathe the talons of the Hawk. This time a trap would be laid for Ku +Sui. + + * * * * * + +The plan was simple enough, on the face of it, but the Eurasian was a +master of cunning as well as a master of science, and high peril +attended any matching of wits with him. Carse closed the log, his face +bleak, his mind made up. A shuffle of feet brought his gaze up to the +port-lock entrance. + +Friday, stripped to shorts, a sweat-glistening ebony giant, stood there. +Shaking the drops of steaming perspiration from his face, he reported: + +"All finished, suh--got the _Star Devil_ in the jungle where you said to +hide her. An' now what? You still figurin' on keepin' that date with Dr. +Ku in this ship?" + +Carse nodded, absently. + +"Then where'll we pick up a crew, suh? Porno? It's the nearest port, I +reckon." + +"I'm not taking any crew, Eclipse." + +Friday gaped in surprise at his master, then found words: + +"No crew, suh? Against Ku Sui? We'll be throwin' our lives----" + +"I've lost enough men in the last two days," Carse cut in shortly. "And +this meeting with Dr. Ku is a highly personal affair. You and I and Sako +can run the ship; we've got to." One of the man's rare smiles relaxed +his face. "Of course," he murmured, "I'm risking your life, Eclipse. +Perhaps I'd better leave you somewhere?" + +"Say!" bellowed the negro indignantly. + +The Hawk's smile broadened at the spontaneous exclamation of loyalty. + +"Very well, then," he said. "Now send Sako to me, and prepare ship for +casting off." + +But as Friday went aft on a final thorough inspection of all mechanisms, +he muttered over and over, "Two of us--against Ku Sui! Two of us!" and +he was still very much disturbed when, after Carse had had a few crisp +words with the captive Sako, telling him that he would be free but +watched and that it would be wise if he confined himself to his duties, +the order came through to the engine room: + +"Break ground!" + +Gently the brigand ship _Scorpion_ stirred. Then, in response to the +delicate incline of her space-stick, she lifted sweetly from the crust +of Iapetus and at ever-increasing speed burned through the satellite's +atmosphere toward the limitless dark leagues beyond. + +The Hawk was on the trail! + + * * * * * + +Carse took the first watch himself. Except for occasional glances at the +banks of instruments, the screens and celestial charts, he spent his +time in deep thought, turning over in his mind the several variations of +situation his dangerous rendezvous might take. + +First, how would Ku Sui contact the _Scorpion_? Any of three ways, he +reasoned: come aboard from his own craft accompanied by some of his men; +stay behind and send some men over to receive the remains of the +Hawk--for either of which variations he was prepared; or, a third, and +more dangerous, direct that the remains of Carse be brought over to his +ship, without showing himself or any of his crew. + +Whatever variations their contacting took, there was another +consideration, Carse's celestial charts revealed, and that was the +proximity of the rendezvous to Jupiter's Satellite III, less than three +hundred thousand miles. Satellite III harbored Port o' Porno, main +refuge and home of the scavengers, the hi-jackers, and out-and-out +pirates of space, so many of whom were under Ku Sui's thumb. Several +brigand ships were sure to be somewhere in the vicinity, and one might +easily intrude, destroying the hairbreadth balance in Carse's favor.... + +There was peril on every side. The Hawk considered that it would be wise +to make provision against the odds proving too great. So, his gray eyes +reflective, he strode to the _Scorpion's_ radio panel and a moment later +was saying over and over in a toneless voice: + +"XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2...." + + * * * * * + +After a full two minutes there was still no answer from the loudspeaker. +He kept calling: "XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 +calling----" + +He broke off as words in English came softly from the loudspeaker: + +"XX-2 answering XX-1. Do you hear me?" + +"Yes. Give me protected connection. Highly important no outsider +overhears." + +"All right," the gentle voice answered. "Protected. Go ahead, old man." + +The Hawk relaxed and his face softened. "How are you, Eliot?" he asked +almost tenderly. + +"Just fine, Carse," came in the clear, cultured voice of Master +Scientist Eliot Leithgow, probably the greatest scientific mind in the +solar system, Ku Sui being the only possible exception. He spoke now +from his secret laboratory on Jupiter's Satellite III, near Porno, this +transcendent genius who, with Friday, was one of Carse's two trusted +comrades-in-arms. "I've been expecting you," he went on. "Has something +happened?" + +"I'm concerned with Ku Sui again," the Hawk told him swiftly. "Please +excuse me; I have to be brief. I can't take any chances of his hearing +any of this." He related the events of the last two days: Judd's attack +on the Iapetus ranch, the subsequent fight and outcome, and finally his +present position and intention of keeping the rendezvous. "The odds are +pretty heavily against me, M. S.," he went on. "It would be stupid not +to admit that I may not come out of this affair alive--and that's why +I'm calling. My affairs, of course, are in your hands. You know where my +storerooms and papers are. Sell my trading posts and ranches; Hartz of +Newark-on-Venus is the best man to deal through. But I'd advise you to +keep for yourself that information on the Pool of Radium. Look into it +sometime. I'm in Judd's ship, the _Scorpion_; our _Star Devil's_ on +Iapetus, hidden in the jungle near the ranch. That's all, I think." + +"Carse, I should be with you!" + +"No, M. S.--couldn't risk it. You're too valuable a man. But don't +worry, you know my luck. I'll very likely be down to see you after this +meeting, and perhaps with a visitor who will enable you once again to +return to an honorable position on Earth. Where will you be?" + +"In eight Earth days? Let's make it Porno, at the house you know. I'll +come in for some supplies and wait for you." + +"Good," the Hawk said shortly. "Good-by, M. S." + +He paused, his hand on the switch. There came a parting wish: + +"Good luck, old fellow. Get him! _Get him!_" + +The Master Scientist's voice trembled at the end. Through Ku Sui he had +lost honor, position, home--all good things a man on Earth may have; +through Ku Sui he, the gentlest of men, was regarded by Earthlings as a +black murderer and there was a price on his head. Hawk Carse did not +miss the trembling in his voice. As he switched off, the adventurer's +eyes went bleak as the loneliest deeps of space.... + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Coming of Ku Sui_ + + +Straight through the vast cold reaches that stretched between one mighty +planet and another the _Scorpion_ arrowed, Carse and Friday standing +watch and watch, Sako always on duty with the latter. Behind, Saturn's +rings melted smaller, and ahead a dusky speck grew against the vault of +space until the red belts and one great seething crimson spot that +marked it as Jupiter stood out plainly. By degrees, then, the ship's +course was altered as Carse checked his calculations and made minor +corrections in speed and direction. So they neared the rendezvous. And a +puzzled furrow grew on Friday's brow. + +What was bothering his master? Instead of becoming more impassive and +coldly emotionless as the distance shortened, he showed distinct signs +of worry. This might be natural in most men, but it was unusual in the +Hawk. Often the negro found him abstractedly smoothing his bangs of +hair, pacing the length of the control cabin, glancing, plainly worried, +at the visi-screen. What special thing was wrong? Friday wondered again +and again--and then, in a flash, he knew. + +"Why--how we goin' to _see_ Dr. Ku?" he burst out. "Didn't that Judd say +somethin'----" + +The Hawk nodded. "That's just the problem, Eclipse. For you'll remember +Judd said that Ku Sui 'comes out of darkness, out of empty space.' That +might mean invisibility or the Fourth Dimension--and God help us if he's +solved the problem of dimensional traveling. I don't know--but it's +something I can't well prepare against." He fell to musing again, +utterly lost in thought. + + * * * * * + +A day and a half later found Friday genuinely worried--an unusual state +for the always cheerful black. The laugh wrinkles of his face were +re-twisted into lines of anxiety which gave his face a most solemn and +lugubrious expression. From time to time he grasped the butt of his +ray-gun with a grip that would have pulped an orange; occasionally his +rolling brown eyes sought the gray ones of the Hawk, only to return as +by a magnet to the visi-screen, whose five adjoining squares mirrored +the whole sweep of space around them. + +Jupiter now filled one side of the forward observation window. It was a +vast, red-belted disk, an eye-thrilling spectacle at their distance, +roughly a million miles. Against it were poised two small pale globes, +the larger of which was Satellite III. Several hours before, when they +had been closer to the satellite, Carse had scrutinized it through the +electelscope and made out above its surface a silver dot which was a +space-ship. It was bound inward toward Port o' Porno, and might well +have been one of Ku Sui's. But the _Scorpion_, slowing down for her +rendezvous, had attracted no attention and had passed undisturbed. + +Now she hung motionless--that is, motionless with respect to the sun. +Only the whisper of the air-renewing machinery disturbed the tension in +her control cabin where the three men stood waiting, glancing back and +forth from the visi-screen to the Earth clock and its calendar +attachment. The date the clock showed was 24 January, the time, 10:21 P. +M. Dr. Ku Sui was one minute late. + +Sako, the captive, was sullen and restless, and made furtive glances at +the Hawk, who stood detached, arms hanging carelessly at his sides, gray +eyes half closed, giving in his attitude no hint of the strain the +others were feeling. But his attitude of being relaxed and off his guard +was deceptive--as Sako found out. Suddenly his left hand seemed to +disappear; there was a hiss, an arrowing streak of spitting orange +light; and Sako was gaping foolishly at the arm he had stealthily raised +to one of the radio switches. A smoking sear had appeared as if by magic +across it. + +Hawk Carse sheathed his gun. "I would advise you to try no more obvious +tricks," he said coldly. "Cutting in our microphone is too simple a way +to give warning to Dr. Ku Sui. Move away from there. And don't forget +your lines when Dr. Ku calls. You will never act a part before a more +critical and deadly audience." + +Sako mumbled something and rubbed his arm. A pitying smile came to +Friday's face as he comprehended what had happened. "You damned fool!" +he said. + + * * * * * + +It was 10:22 P.M. Still, in the visi-screen, no other ship. Nothing but +the giant planet, the smaller satellites poised against it, and the deep +star-spangled curtain of black space all around. + +They had carefully followed the instructions in the log. They were at +the exact place noted there: checked and double-checked. The radio +receiver was tuned to the wave-length given in the log. But of Ku Sui, +nothing. + +And yet, in a way, he was with them. His enigmatic personality, his +seldom-seen figure was very present in their minds, and with it were +overtones of all the diabolic cunning and suave ironic cruelty that men +always associated with him. "He comes out of darkness, out of empty +space...." Friday licked his lips. He was not built for mental strain: +his lips kept drying and his tongue was as leather. + +A little sputtering sound tingled the nerves of the three waiting men, +and as one their eyes went to the radio loudspeaker. A contact question +was being asked in the usual way: + +"Are you there, Judd? Are you there, Judd? Are you there, Judd?" + +The voice was not that of Ku Sui. It was a dead voice, toneless, +emotionless, mechanical. + +"Are you there, Judd?" it went on, over and over. + +"The mike switch, Friday," the Hawk said, and then was at Sako's side, +his ray-gun transfixing the man with its threatening angle. "Play your +part well," was the whisper from his lips. + +The switch went over with a click. Trembling, Sako faced the microphone. + +"This is Sako," he said. + +"Sako?" the dead voice asked. "I want Judd. Where is Judd?" + +"Judd is dead. The trap failed, and there was a fight on Iapetus. Judd +was killed by Carse, and most of the others. Only two of us are left, +but we have Carse and the negro, prisoners, alive. What are your +instructions?" + +A half minute went by, and the three men hardly breathed. + +"How do we know you are Sako?" said the voice at last. "Give the +recognition." + +"The insignia of Dr. Ku Sui?" + +"Yes. It is----" + +Carse's ray-gun prodded the stomach of the sweating Sako. + +"An asteroid," he said hastily, "in the center of a circle of the ten +planets." + +The unseen speaker was quiet. Evidently he was conferring with someone +else, probably Ku Sui. + +"All right," his toneless voice came back at last. "You will remain +motionless in your present position, keeping your radio receiver open +for further instructions. We are approaching and will be with you in +thirty minutes." + +Carse motioned to Friday to switch off the mike. Sako sank limply into a +chair, soaked with perspiration. + +"Now we must wait again," the Hawk murmured, crossing his arms and +scanning the visi-screen. + + * * * * * + +They had heard from Ku Sui, but that had not answered the old tormenting +question of how he would come. It was more puzzling than ever. The +visi-screen showed nothing, and it should have shown the Eurasian's +decelerating ship even at twice thirty minutes' time away. They looked +upon the same vista of Jupiter and his satellites, framed in eternal +blackness; there was no characteristic steely dot of an approaching ship +to give Carse the enemy's position and enable him to shape his plan of +reception definitely. + +Twenty minutes went by. The strain the Hawk was under showed only in his +pulling at the bangs of flaxen hair that covered his forehead as far as +the eyebrows. He had, from Judd's words, expected a mystery in Ku Sui's +approach. There was nothing to do but wait; he had made what few plans +and preparations he could in advance. + +Friday broke the tense silence in the control cabin. "He's _got_ to be +_somewhere_!" he exploded. "It isn't natural for the screen not to show +nothin'! Isn't there somethin' we can do?" + +The Hawk was surprisingly patient. "I'm afraid not," he said. "It's +invisibility he's using, or else the fourth dimension, as Judd said. But +we've got one good chance. He'll send more instructions by radio, and +surely, after that, his ship will appear----" + +A new voice, bland and unctuous, spoke in the control cabin from behind +the three men. + +"_Not necessarily, my honored friend Carse_," it said. "_You will +observe there is no need for a ship to appear._" + +Ku Sui had come. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Wave of a Handkerchief_ + + +He stood smiling in the door-frame leading aft to the rear entrance +port. There was all grace in his posture, in the easy angle at which one +arm rested against the side bulkhead, in the casual way in which he held +the ray-gun that bored straight at Carse. Height and strength he had, +and a perfectly proportioned figure. Beauty, too, of face, with skin of +clearest saffron, soft, sensitive mouth and ascetic cheeks. His hair was +fine and black, and swept straightly back from the high narrow forehead +where lived his tremendous intelligence. + +It was his eyes that gave him away, his eyes of rare green that from a +distance looked black. Slanting, veiled, unreadable beneath the lowered +silky lashes, there was the soul of a tiger in their sinister depths. It +was his eyes that his victims remembered.... + +"So you have arrived, Dr. Ku," whispered Hawk Carse, and for a second he +too smiled, with eyes as bleak and hard as frosty chilled steel. Their +glances met and held--the cold, hard, honest rapier; the subtle perfumed +poison. The other men in the cabin were forgotten; the feeling was +between these two. Strikingly contrasted they stood there: Carse, in +rough blue denim trousers, faded work-shirt, open at the neck, +old-fashioned rubber shoes and battered skipper's cap askew on his +flaxen hair; Ku Sui, suavely impeccable in high-collared green silk +blouse, full-length trousers of the same material, and red slippers, to +match the wide sash which revealed the slender lines of his waist. A +perfume hung about the man, the indescribable odor of tsin-tsin flowers +from the humid jungles of Venus. + +"You see I meet you halfway, my friend," the Eurasian said with delicate +mock courtesy. "A surpassing pleasure I have anticipated for a long +time. _No, no!_ I see that already I shall have to ask you a small +favor. A thousand pardons: it's my deplorable ability to read your mind +that requires me to ask it. Your so justly famed speed on the draw might +possibly overcome this advantage"--he raised his ray-gun slightly--"and, +though I know you would not kill me--save in the direst emergency, since +you wish to take me a living prisoner--I would find it most distressing +to have to carry for the rest of my life a flaw on my body. So, may I +request you to withdraw your ray-guns with two fingertips and put them +on the floor? Observe--your fingertips. Will you be so kind?" + + * * * * * + +The Hawk looked at him for a minute. Then silently he obeyed. He knew +that the Eurasian would have no compunctions about shooting him down in +cold blood; but, on the other hand, even as the man had said, he could +not kill Ku Sui, but had to capture him, in order to take him to Earth +to confess to crimes now blamed on Eliot Leithgow. "Do as he says, +Friday," he instructed the still staring negro; and, like a man in a +trance, Friday obeyed. + +"Thank you," the Eurasian said. "It was a most friendly thing to do." He +paused. "I suppose you are wondering how I arrived here, and why you did +not see me come. Well, I shall certainly tell you, in return for your +favor. But first--ah, friend Carse--your gesture! A reminder, I assume." + +Slowly the Hawk was stroking the bangs of hair which had been trained to +obscure his forehead. There was no emotion on his chilly face as he +answered, no slightest sign of feeling unless it were a slight trembling +of the left eyelid--significant enough to those who could read it. + +"Yes," he whispered, "a reminder. I do not like to wear my hair like +this, Ku Sui, and I want you to know that I've not forgotten; that, +though I'm now in your power, there'll be a day----" + +"But you wouldn't threaten your host!" the other said with mock +surprise. "And surely you wouldn't threaten me, of all men. Must I point +out how useless it has always been for you to match yourself, merely a +skilful gunman, against me, against a brain?" + +"Usually," the cold whisper came back, "the brain has failed in the +traps it has laid for the gunman." + +"Only because of the mistakes of its agents. Unfortunately for you, the +brain is dealing with you directly this time, my friend. It's quite a +different matter. But this small talk--although you honor----" + +"Of course you intend to kill me," said the Hawk. "But when?" + +Dr. Ku gestured deprecatingly. "You insist on introducing these +unpleasant topics! But to relieve your mind, I've not yet decided how I +can entertain you most suitably. I have come primarily to ask you one +trifling thing." + +"And that is?" + +"The whereabouts of Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow." + + * * * * * + +Hawk Carse smiled. "Your conceit lends you an extraordinary optimism, +Dr. Ku." + +"Not unfounded, I am sure. I desire very much to meet our old friend +Leithgow again: his is the only other brain in this universe at all +comparable to mine. And did I tell you that I always get what I desire? +Well, will you give me this information? Of course, there are ways...." + +For a moment he waited. + +The Hawk only looked at him. + +"Always in character," the Eurasian said regretfully. "Very well." He +turned his head and took in Friday and Sako, standing near-by. "You are +Sako?" he asked the latter. "It is most unfortunate that you had to +deceive me a little while ago. We shall have to see what to do about it. +Later. For the present, move farther back, out of the way. So. You, +black one, next to my friend Carse: we must be moving along. So." + +Ku Sui surveyed then with inscrutable eyes. Gracefully, he drew close. + +Carse missed not a move. He watched the Eurasian draw, from one of the +long sleeves of his blouse, a square of lustrous black silk. + +"This bears my personal insignia, you see," he murmured. "You will +remember it." And he languidly waved it just under their eyes. + +Friday stared at it; Carse too, wonderingly. He saw embroidered in +yellow on the black a familiar insignia composed of an asteroid in the +circle of ten planets. And then alarm lit his brain and he grimaced. +There was a strange odor in his nostrils and it came from the square of +silk. + +"Characteristic, Dr. Ku," he said. "Quite characteristic." + +The Eurasian smiled. An expression of stupid amazement came over +Friday's face. The design of asteroid and planets wavered into a blur as +the Hawk fought unconsciousness; a short, harsh sound came from his +lips; he lurched uncertainly. The negro crumpled up and stretched out on +the deck. Carse's desire to sleep grew overpowering. Once more, as from +a distance, he glimpsed Ku Sui's smile. He tried to back to the wall; +made it; then a heavy thump suggested to his dimming mind that he had +collapsed to the deck. He was asleep at once.... + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Soil_ + + +Hawk Carse awoke with a slight feeling of nausea, and the smell of the +drug faint in his nostrils. He found he was lying on the floor of a +large, square cell whose walls and ceiling were of some burnished brown +metal and which was bare of any kind of furnishing. In one wall was a +tightly closed door, also of metal and studded by the knob of a lock. +Barred slits, high in opposite walls, gave ventilation; a single tube +set in the ceiling provided illumination. + +He was not bound. He sat up and regarded the outflung figure of Friday, +lying to one side. "Something in his look seemed to reach the giant +negro, for, as he watched, the man's eyelids flickered, and a sigh +escaped his full lips. He stared up at Carse, recognition, followed by +gladness, flooding his eyes. The Hawk smiled also. There were close +bonds between these two. + +"Lord, I'm sure thankful to be with you, suh!" said the negro with +relief. His eyes rolled as he took in the cabinlike cell. "Hmff--nice +homey little place," he remarked. "Where do you reckon we are, suh?" + +"I think we're at last at that place we have searched so long for--Ku +Sui's headquarters, his own spaceship." + +It will be remembered by those who have read their history that the +Eurasian's actual base of operations was for a long time the greatest of +the mysteries that enveloped him. Half a dozen times had the Hawk and +his comrade in arms, Eliot Leithgow, hunted for it with all their +separate skill of adventurer and scientist, and, although they had twice +found the man himself, always they had failed to find his actual +retreat. + +For those who are unacquainted with the histories of that raw period a +hundred years ago, it will be impossible to understand the spell of fear +which accompanied mention of Dr. Ku throughout the universe--a fear +engendered chiefly by the man's unpredictable comings and goings, thanks +to his secret hiding place. Those who were as close to him as henchmen +could be--which was not very close--only added to the general mystery of +the whereabouts of the base by their sincerely offered but utterly +contradictory notions and data. One thing all agreed on: the outlaw's +lair was a place most frightening. + +Therefore it can be understood why, on hearing the Hawk's opinion, +Friday's face fell somewhat. + +"Guess that means we're finished, suh," he opined moodily. + + * * * * * + +Carse had walked to the lone door and found, as he of course expected, +that it was tightly locked. He responded crisply: + +"It's not like you to talk that way, Eclipse. We're far from that. We +have succeeded in the first step--if, as I suspect, this cell is part of +Dr. Ku's real headquarters--and surely before he decides to eliminate us +we will be able to learn something of the nature of his space-ship; +perhaps how it can be attacked and conquered." + +Conversation always cheered the naturally social Friday; he seldom had +the opportunity for it with his usually curt master. He objected: + +"But what good'll that do us, suh, if we take what we've learned to +where it won't help anybody, least of all us? An' what chance we got +against Ku Sui now, when we're prisoners? Why, he's a magician; it ain't +natural, what he does. Lands in our ship plop right out of empty space! +Puts us out with a wave of his handkerchief!" With final misery in his +voice he added: "We're sunk, suh. This time we surely are." + +Carse smiled at his emotional friend. "All you need is a good fight, +Eclipse. It's thinking that disintegrates your morale; you should never +try to think. Why--there was an anesthetic on that handkerchief! Simple +enough; I might have expected it. As for his getting into our ship, he +entered from behind, through the after port-lock, while we were looking +for his ship on the visi-screen. I don't understand yet why we could not +see his craft. It's too much to suppose he could make it invisible. +Paint, perhaps, or camouflage. He might have a way of preventing, from a +distance, the registering of his ship on our screen. Oh, he's dangerous, +clever, deep--but somewhere, there'll be a loophole. Somewhere. There +always is." His tone changed, and he snapped: "Now be quiet. I want to +think." + + * * * * * + +His face stiffened into a cold, calm mask, but behind his gray eyes lay +anything but calmness. Ku Sui's easy assumption that the information as +to Eliot Leithgow's whereabouts would be forthcoming from his lips, +puzzled him, brought real anxiety. Torture would probably not be able to +force his tongue to betray his friend, but there were perhaps other +means. Of these he had a vague and ominous apprehension. Dr. Ku was +preeminently a specialist in the human brain; he had implied his will to +have that information. Suppose he should use something it was impossible +to fight against? + +And he alone, Hawk Carse, brought the responsibility. He had asked +Leithgow where he would be, and he remembered well the place agreed +upon. He dared not lose the battle of wits he knew was coming!... + +His eyes shot to the door. It was opening. In a moment Ku Sui stood +revealed there, and behind him, in the corridor, were three other +figures, their yellow coolie faces strangely dumb and lifeless above the +tasteful gray smocks which extended a little below their belted waists. +Each bore embroidered on his chest the planetary insignia of Ku Sui in +yellow, and each was armed with two ray-guns. + +"I must ask forgiveness, my friend, for these retainers who accompany +me," the Eurasian began suavely. "Please don't let them disturb you, +however; they are more robots than men, obeying only my words. A little +adjustment of the brain, you understand. I have brought them only for +your protection; for you would find it would result most unpleasantly to +make a break for freedom." + +"Of course, _you're_ not the one who wants protection!" sneered Friday, +with devastating sarcasm. "Or else you'd 'a' brought a whole army!" + +But the negro paled a little when the Oriental's green tiger eyes caught +him full. It was with a physical shock--such was the power of the +man--that he received the soft-spoken reply: + +"Yours is a most subtle and entertaining wit, black one; I am overcome +with the honor and pleasure of having you for my guest. But perhaps--may +I suggest?--that you save your humor for a more suitable occasion. I +would like to make the last few hours of your visit as pleasant as +possible." + + * * * * * + +He turned to Hawk Carse. "I have thought that an inspection of this, my +home in space, would intrigue you more than anything else my poor +hospitality affords. May I do you the honor, my friend?" + +"You are too good to me," the Hawk replied frostily. "I will duplicate +your kindness some day." + +The Eurasian bowed. "After you," he said, and waited until Friday and +the Hawk passed first through the door. Close after them came the three +automatons of yellow men. + +The passageway was square, plain and bare, and spaced at intervals by +other closed doors. "Storerooms in this wing," the Eurasian explained as +they progressed. He stopped in front of one of the doors and pressed a +button beside it. It slid noiselessly open, revealing, not another room, +but a short metal spider ladder. Up this they climbed, one of the guards +going first in the half darkness; then a trap-door above opened to douse +them with warm ruddy light. They stepped out. + +And the scene that met them took them completely off guard. Friday +gasped, and Carse so far lost his habitual poise as to stare in wonder. + +Soil! And a great glassy dome! + + * * * * * + +Not a space-ship, this realm of Ku Sui. Soil--soil with a whole +settlement built upon it! Hard, grayish soil, and on it several +buildings of the familiar burnished metal. And overhead, cupping the +entire outlay, arched a great hemisphere of what resembled glass, ribbed +with silvery supporting beams and struts: an enormous bowl, turned down, +and on its other side the glorious vista of space. + +Straight above hung the red-belted disk of Jupiter, with the pale globes +of Satellites II and III wheeling close, _and all of them were of the +same relative size they had appeared when last seen from the Scorpion!_ + +Dr. Ku smiled unctuously at the puzzlement that showed on the faces of +his captives. + +"Have you noticed," he asked, "that you are still in the neighborhood of +the spot in space where we had our rendezvous? But this isn't another of +Jupiter's satellites. Ah, no. This is my own world--my own personally +controlled little world!" + +"Snakes of the Santo!" Friday gasped, the whites of his eyes showing all +around. "Then we must be on an asteroid!" + +They were. From the far side of the dome ahead of them the asteroid +stretched back hard and sharp in Jupiter's ruddy light against the +backdrop of black space. It was a craggy, uneven body, seemingly about +twenty miles in length, pinched in the middle and thus shaped roughly +like a peanut shell. One end had been leveled off to accommodate the +dome with its cradled buildings; outside the dome all was untouched. The +landscape was a gargantuan jumble of coarse, hard, sharp rocks which had +crystallized into a maze of hollows, crevices, long crazy splits and +jagged out-thrusting lumps of boulders. Without an atmosphere, with but +the feeblest of gravities and utterly without any form of life--save for +that within the dome built upon it--it was simply a typical small +asteroid, of which race only the largest are globe-shaped. + +"Once," the Eurasian went on softly as they took all this in, "this +world of mine circled with its thousands of fellows between Mars and +Jupiter. I picked it from the rest because of certain mineral qualities, +and had this air-containing dome constructed on it, and these buildings +inside the dome. Then, with batteries of gravity-plates inserted +precisely in the asteroid's center of gravity, I nullified the gravital +pull of Mars and Jupiter, wrenched it from its age-old orbit and swung +it free into space. An achievement that would command the respect even +of Eliot Leithgow, I think. So now you see, Carse; now you know. _This_ +is my secret base, _this_ my hidden laboratory. I take it always with +me, and I travel where I will." + +The Hawk nodded coldly his acceptance of the astounding fact; he was too +busy to make comment. He was observing the buildings, the nature of +them, the exits from the dome, how they could best be reached. + + * * * * * + +They stood on the roof of the largest and central building, a low metal +structure with four wings, crossing at right angles to make the figure +of a great plus mark. The hub was probably Dr. Ku's chief laboratory, +Carse conjectured. On each side stood other buildings, low, long, like +barracks, with figures of coolies moving in and out. Workshops, living +quarters, power-rooms, he supposed: power-rooms certainly, for a soft +hum filled the air. + +There were two great port-locks at ground level in the dome, one on each +side, each sizable enough to admit the largest space-ship and each +flanked by a smaller, man-sized lock. To reach them.... + +"And over there," Dr. Ku's voice broke in, "you see your borrowed ship, +the _Scorpion_. But please don't let it tempt you to cut short your +visit with me, my friend. It would avail you nothing even if you reached +her, for it requires a secret combination to open the port-locks, and my +servants' brains have been so altered that they are physically incapable +of divulging it to you. And of course I have offensive rays and other +devices hidden about--just in case. All rather hopeless, isn't it? But +surely interesting. + +"Let us go: I have more. Below, in my main laboratory in the center of +this building, there's something far more interesting, and it concerns +you, Carse, and me, and also Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow." He let +the words sink in. "Will you follow me?" + +And so they went below again, down the spider ladder into the corridor. +There was nothing else to do: the guards, ever watchful, pressed close +behind. But a tattoo of alarm was beating in Hawk Carse's brain. Eliot +Leithgow again--the hint of something ominous to be aimed at him, Carse, +for the extraction of information he alone possessed: the whereabouts of +his elderly friend the Master Scientist. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Color-Storm_ + + +The corridor was stopped by a heavy metal door. As the small party +approached, it swung inward in two halves, and a figure clad in a white +surgeon's smock emerged. He was a white man, tall, with highly +intelligent face but eyes strangely dull and lifeless, like those of the +coolie-guards. His gaze rested on Ku Sui, and the Eurasian asked him: + +"Is it ready?" + +"Yes, lord,"--tonelessly. + +"Through here, then, my friends." The door opened and closed behind them +as they stepped inside. "This is my main laboratory. And there, friend +Carse, is the object which is to concern us." + +With one glance the adventurer took in the laboratory. It was a great +room, a perfect circle in shape, with doors opening into the four wings +of the building. The walls were lined with strange, complicated +machines, whose purpose he could not even guess at; in one place there +was a table strewn with tangled shapes of wire, rows of odd-bulging +tubes and other apparatus; and conspicuous by one door was an ordinary +operating table, with light dome overhead. A tall wide screen placed a +few feet out from the wall hid something bulky from view. Carse noted +all these things; then his gaze went back to the object in the middle of +the floor which Ku Sui had indicated. + +It was, primarily, a chair, within a suspended framework of steely bars, +themselves the foundation for a network of fine-drawn colored wires. +Shimmering, like the gossamer threads of a spider's spinning, they wove +upward, around and over the chair, so that he who sat there would be +completely surrounded by the gleaming mesh. + +Within the whole hung a plain square boxlike device, attached to the +chair and so placed that it would be directly in front of the eyes of +anyone sitting there. Ropes were reeved through pulleys in the ceiling, +for raising the wire-ball device to permit entrance. And standing ready +around it, were four men in surgeons' smocks--white men with intelligent +faces and dull, lifeless eyes. + + * * * * * + +The Hawk knew the answer to the question he curtly asked. "Its purpose, +Dr. Ku?" + +"That," came the suave reply, "it will be your pleasure to discover for +yourself. I can promise you some novel sensations. Nothing harmful, +though, however much they may tire you. Now!" He gave a sign; one of his +assistants touched a switch. The wire ball rose, leaving the central +seat free for entrance. "All is ready. May I ask you to enter?" + +Hawk Carse faced his old foe. There was stillness in the laboratory then +as his bleak gray eyes met and held for long seconds Ku Sui's enigmatic +green-black ones. + +"If I don't?" + +For answer the Eurasian gestured apologetically to his guards. + +"I see," Carse whispered. There was nothing to be done. Three coolies, +each with ray-guns at the ready; four white assistants.... No hope. No +chance for anything. He looked at the negro. "Don't move, Friday," he +warned him. "They'll only shoot; it can do no good. Eight to two are big +odds when the two are unarmed." + +He turned and faced the Eurasian, holding him with his eyes. "Ku Sui," +he said, clipping the words, "you have said that this would not +permanently harm me, and, although I know you for the most deadly, +vicious egomaniac in the solar system, I am believing you. I do not know +you for a liar.... I will enter." + +The faint smile on the Oriental's face did not alter one bit at this. +Carse stepped to the metal seat and sat down. + + * * * * * + +The web of shimmering wires descended, cupping him completely. Through +them he saw Ku Sui go to a switchboard adjoining and study the +indicators, finally placing one hand on a black-knobbed switch and with +the other drawing from some recess a little cone, trailing a wire, like +a microphone. A breathless silence hung over the laboratory. The +white-clad figures stood like statues, dumb, unfeeling, emotionless. The +watching negro trembled, his mouth half open, his brow already bedewed +with perspiration. But the only sign of strain or tension that showed in +the slender flaxen-haired man sitting in the wire ball in the center of +the laboratory, came when he licked his dry lips. + +Then Dr. Ku Sui pulled the switch down, and there surged out a +low-throated murmur of power. And immediately the ball of wire came to +life. The fine, crisscrossing wires disappeared, and in their stead was +color, every color in the spectrum. Like waves rhythmically rising and +falling, the tinted brilliances dissolved back and forth through each +other; and the reflected light, caroming off the surfaces of the +instruments and tables and walls, so filled the laboratory that the +group of men surrounding the fire-ball were like resplendent figures out +of another universe. + +Ku Sui pressed a button, and the side of the boxlike device nearest Hawk +Carse's eyes assumed transparency and started to glow. Beautiful colors +began to float over its face, colors never still but constantly weaving +and clouding into an infinity of combinations and designs. Eyes staring +wide, as if unable to close them to the brilliant kaleidoscopic +procession, the adventurer looked on. + + * * * * * + +Friday knew that his master at that moment was impotent to move, even to +shut his eyes, and, with a wild notion that he was being electrocuted, +he made a rash rush to destroy the device and free him. He learned +discretion when two ray-streaks pronged before him and forced him back; +and thereafter he was given the undivided attention of two guards. + +From the outside, through the ball of color, Carse was a ghostlike +figure. Rigid and quivering, he sat in the chair and watched the +color-maelstrom. His face was contorted; his cheek muscles stood out +weltlike in his sweat-glistening skin; his eyes, which he could not +close, throbbed with agony. But yet he was conscious; yet he still could +will. + +He defended his secret as best he could. Obviously this machine was +being used to force from his mind the knowledge of Eliot Leithgow's +whereabouts, and therefore he attempted to seal his mind. He fastened it +on something definite--on Iapetus, satellite of Saturn, and his ranch +there--and barred every other thought from his head. Mechanically he +repeated to himself: "Iapetus, Iapetus--my ranch on Iapetus--Iapetus, +Iapetus." Hundreds of times.... Hours.... Days.... + +The blinding waves of color rioted about him, submerged him, fatigued +him. He had a strong impulse to sleep, but he resisted it. + +Days seemed to pass.... Years.... Eons. All this.... Continued without +change.... To the end of the world.... + +Dimly he knew that the color-storm was working on him; sensed danger +when a great drowsiness stole over him; but he fought it off, his brain +beating out hundreds of times more: "Iapetus, Iapetus--I have a ranch +there--Iapetus, Iapetus...." + +Then came excruciating pain! + + * * * * * + +An electric shock suddenly speared him. His nerves seemed to curl up, +and for a second his mind was thoroughly disorganized before it again +took up the drone about Iapetus. Recovery ... dullness ... a kind of +peace--and again the shock leaped through him. It was followed by a +question from afar off: + +"_Where is Eliot Leithgow?_" + +Somehow the question meant a great deal and should not be answered.... + +Again the stab of agony. Again the voice: + +"_Where is Eliot Leithgow?_" + +Again the shock, and again the voice. Alternating, over and over. He +could brace himself against the shock, but the voice could in no way be +avoided. It was everywhere about him, over, around, under him; he began +to see it. Desperately he forced his brain on the path it must not +leave. He had forgotten years ago why, but knew there must be some good +reason. + +"Iapetus, Iapetus--I have a ranch there--Iapetus, Iapetus--_Where is +Eliot Leithgow?_--Iapetus, Iapetus--I have a ranch there--_Where is +Eliot Leithgow_--I have a ranch there--a ranch there--Iapetus, a +ranch--_Where is Eliot Leithgow?_--_Where is Eliot Leithgow?_--_Where is +Eliot Leithgow?_" ... + +After two hours and ten minutes the Hawk crumpled. + +He was quite delirious at the time. The combined effect of the pain, the +physical and nervous exhaustion of the shocks and light, the endlessly +repeated question, his own close concentration on his Iapetus +ranch--these were too much for any human body to stand against. He lost +his grip on his mind, lost the fine control that had never been lost +before, the control about which he was so vain. And the lump of flesh +that was Hawk Carse gave the information that was tearing wildly at its +prison. + +A stammering voice came from the heart of the color-sphere: + +"Port o' Porno, Satellite III--Port o' Porno, Satellite III--Port o' +Porno Sat----" + +Dr. Ku Sui interrupted him; leaned forward. + +"The house is number----?" + +"574--574--574----" + +"Ah!" breathed the Eurasian. "Port o' Porno! So near!" + +Ku Sui returned the switch and pressed one of the buttons. The pool of +colors faded; the laboratory returned to comparative dimness. The +machine in its center seemed but a great web of wire. + +Slumped in the seat within it was a slender figure, his flaxen head +bowed over on his chest, his eyes closed, and sweat still trickling down +his unconscious brow. + +And lying on the floor was another unconscious figure. + +Friday had fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Port o' Porno_ + + +The pirate port of Porno is of course dead now, replaced by the clean +lawfulness of Port Midway, but a hundred years ago, in the days before +the patrol-ships came, she roared her bawdy song through the farthest +reaches of the solar system. For crack merchant ships and dingy space +trading tramps alike, she was haven; drink and drugs, women and +diversions unspeakable lured to her space ports the cream and scum, +adventures and riffraff of half a dozen worlds. Sailors and pirates paid +off at her and stayed as long as their wages lasted in the Street of the +Sailors; not a few remained permanently, their bodies flung to the +beasts of the savage jungle that rimmed the port. There only the cunning +and strong could live. Ray-guns were the surest law. Modern scientific +progress stood side by side with murderous lawlessness as old as man +himself. + +The hell town had grown with the strides of a giant, rising rapidly from +a muddy street of _tio_ shacks to a small cosmetropolis. She was +essentially a place of contrasts. Two of the big Earth companies had +modern space-ship hangars there, well-lighted, well-equipped, but under +their very noses was a festering welter of dark, rutted byways extending +all the way to the comparative orderliness of the short, narrow Street +of the Merchants, itself flanked by the drunken bedlam of the Street of +the Sailors. It can be understood why these men who flew, who needed a +whole solar system for elbow room, disdained setting to order the measly +few acres of dirt they stopped at, but it is a mystery why, when used to +living through vast leagues of space, they endured such narrow streets +and cluttered houses. Probably, tired from their long cramped cruises, +impatient for their fling, they just didn't care a whoop. + +The whole jumble that was this famous space port rested in the heart of +Satellite III's primeval jungle. + + * * * * * + +Tall electric-wired fences girdled Port o' Porno to keep the jungle +back. It was equivalent to a death sentence to pass unarmed outside +them; the monstrous shapes that lived and fought in the jungle's swampy +gloom saw to that. Hideous nightmare shapes they were, some reptilian +and comparable only to the giants that roamed Earth in her prehistoric +ages. Eating, fighting, breeding in the humid gloominess of the +vegetation shrouded swamps, their bellows and roars sometimes at night +thundered right through Porno, a reminder of Nature yet untamed. +Occasionally, in the berserk ecstasy of the mating season, they hurled +their house-high bodies at the guarding fences; and then there was panic +in the town, and many lives ripped out before a barrage of rays drove +the monsters back. + +They were not the only inhabitants native to Satellite III. Deep +underground, seldom seen by men, lived a race of man-mole creatures, +half human in intelligence, blind from their unlit habitat, but larger +than a man and stronger; fiercer, too, when cornered. Their numbers no +one knew, but their bored tunnels, it had been found, constituted a +lower layer of life over the whole satellite. + +Probably more vicious than these native "Three's" of Porno were the +visiting bipeds, man himself, who thronged the _kantrans_--which may be +defined as dives for the purveying of all entertainments. In them were a +score of snares for the buccaneer with money in his pocket and dope in +his blood. The open doors on the Street of the Sailors were all +loud-speakers of drunken oaths and laughter, pierced now and then by a +scream or cry as someone in the sweating press of bodies inside knew +rage or fear. + + * * * * * + +One interplanetarily notorious kantran made a feature of swinging its +attractions aloft in gilded cages, where all of them, young and old, +pale and painted, giant and dwarf, ogled the arrested passers-by and +invited sampling of their wares. + +Of all kinds and conditions of men were these passers-by. Earthling +sailors, white, negro, Chinese and Eurasian, most of them in the drab +blue of space-ship crews, but each with a ray-gun strapped to his waist; +short, thin-faced Venusians, shifty-eyed, cunning, with the planet's +universal weapon, the skewer-blade, sheathed at their sides; tall, +sweaty Martians, powerful brutes, wearing the air-rarifying mask that +was necessary for them in Satellite III's Earthlike atmosphere. Business +men and sight-seers, except the most bold, were apt to stay in their +houses after their first visit to the Street of the Sailors. Each face +on the street or in the kantrans that lined it bore the mark of drink, +or the contemptuous, insolent expression bred by Porno's favorite drug, +isuan. + +Around Porno was the constant threat of savage life; below it were +half-human savagery and mystery; above, in the very shadow of their +mighty engines of space, were the most vicious animals of all--degraded +men. + +This was the Port o' Porno of a hundred years ago. + +This was the Port o' Porno where Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow for +very good reasons had told Hawk Carse he would meet him. 574. The house +of his friend. + + * * * * * + +Night descended suddenly on the outlaw space-port that day the elderly +exile waited in vain for his comrade in arms Hawk Carse to show up. + +There were six hours when the blasting heat received by Satellite III +from near-lying Jupiter would be gone, and in its place a warm, cloying +tropical darkness, heavy with the odors of town and exotic products and +the damp, lush vegetation of the impinging jungle. The night would be +given over to carousing; for these six hours the Street of the Sailors +came to life. It was a time to keep strictly in hiding. + +In the middle of that night, when the pleasures of Porno were in full +stride, there emerged suddenly, from one of the dark, crooked byways +that angled off the Street of the Sailors, a squad of five men whose +disciplined pace and regular formation were in marked contrast to the +confusion around them. They were slant-eyed men, with smooth saffron +faces, and strongly built, and they were armed, each one, with both a +ray-gun and a two-foot black, pointed tube. But it was not their +numbers, formation or weapons that caused the carousing crowd to fall +silent and hastily get out of their path. It was, rather, the insignia +embroidered on the breasts of the gray smocks they wore. The insignia +represented an asteroid in a circle of the ten planets, and the Street +of Sailors knew that sign and dreaded it. + +The squad pressed along rapidly. A still-comely woman, new to Porno, +plucked smirking at the leader's sleeve; but his pace did not slacken, +and she fell back, puzzled and afraid because of her feeling of +something lifeless, dumb, machinelike in the man. Ahead, an +isuan-maddened Earthling fell foul of a Venusian; a circle cleared in +the mob, a ray-gun spat and missed, and the Venusian closed, the gleam +of a skewer-blade playing around him. This was combat; this was +interesting; but none of the squad's five men gave the fight a glance, +or even turned his head when, as they passed, the butchered Earthling +coughed out his life. + + * * * * * + +So they passed, and soon they were gone down another black-throated +byway. + +They padded noiselessly along in the darkness to turn again presently, +pausing finally before a low, steel-walled house, typical of the +strongholds of prudent merchants of the port. No lights were visible +within it; all seemed asleep. + +Silence filled the narrow street, and unrelieved darkness. Occasionally +a desultory breeze brought sounds of a burst of revelry from the Street +of the Sailors; once the ports of an outbound space-ship flashed +overhead for an instant. But there was mainly silence and darkness, and +in it the five men, parleying close together in toneless whispers. + +After a little they separated. On cat's feet four of them stole around +the sides of the house. The fifth, drawing the black, pointed tube from +his slash, crept up to the front entrance-port and held the tip to it. +Blue light sparkled fantastically, revealing his impassive face, +outlining his crouching body. Then, quite suddenly, the port appeared to +melt inward, and he disappeared into the blackness of the interior. + +Presently there came a stir of movement, a whisper, a rustle from +inside. A challenge, shouts volleying forth, a scream, another, and the +peculiar rattling sound that comes from a dying man's throat. Then again +silence. + +Five shadows melted from the front entrance-port. They were carrying +something black and still and heavy between them. + +The errand was done.... + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_The Coming of Leithgow_ + + +Hawk Carse awoke to the touch of a hand on his brow. He came very slowly +to full consciousness. His pain was great. + +His whole body was sore: every joint, every muscle in it ached; his +brain was feverish, pumping turmoil. When he at length opened his eyes +he found Friday's face bent close down, tender anxiety written large +over it. + +"You all right, suh? How do you feel now?" + +A harsh sound came from the Hawk's throat. He pressed a hand to his +throbbing temple and tried to collect his senses. Sitting up helped; he +glanced around. They were back in the same cell, and they were alone. +Then, shortly, he asked: + +"Did I tell him?" + +"About Mr. M. S., suh?" + +"Of course, I can't quite remember--a bit blurred----" + +"I guess you did, suh," Friday answered mournfully. "I didn't hear you, +but Ku Sui said you told him where Master Leithgow is. But dog-gone--you +couldn't help it!" + +Carse forgot his pain as his brain straightened these words out into +their overwhelming consequence, and something of its old familiar mold, +hard and graven, emotionless, came back to his face. His eyes were bleak +as he murmured: + +"I couldn't help it--no. I really don't think it was possible. But I +could have refused to get into the machine. I thought I could resist it. +I took that risk, and failed." He stopped short. His body twitched with +uncontrolled emotion, and in decency the negro turned his back on his +master's anguish. A broken whisper reached him: "I have betrayed +Leithgow." + + * * * * * + +For a short while neither man moved, or made any sound. Friday was a +little afraid; he guessed what must be going on in Carse's mind, and had +no idea what to expect. But the Hawk's next move was quite disciplined; +he was himself again. + +He got up and stretched his body, to limber its muscles. "How long have +we been here?" he asked. + +"Don't know suh; I was unconscious when they brought me here myself. But +I guess not less'n six or eight hours." + +"Unconscious?" asked the Hawk, surprised. "You fought, and they knocked +you out?" + +The big negro looked sheepish and scratched his woolly head. + +"Well, no suh," he explained. "I was aimin' to butt in some, but they +wouldn't let me." + +"Then how did you get unconscious?" + +Friday fidgeted. He was acutely embarrassed. "Don't know, suh, Dog-gone, +I just can't figure it, unless I fainted." + +"Oh." The Hawk smiled. "Fainted. Well so did I, I guess. I suppose," he +went on seriously, "you couldn't tell whether the asteroid moved or not. +I mean toward Satellite III." + +Friday scratched his head again. + +"I guess I can't, suh," he replied. "I haven't felt any movement." + +"The door is locked?" + +"Oh, yes, suh. Tight." + +"Very well. Now please be silent. I want to think." + +He went over and leaned against the far wall of the cell. His right hand +rose to the bangs of flaxen hair and with a slow regular movement began +to smooth them. Lost in thought he stood there, thinking through the +situation in which he found himself. + +He had expected, of course, to subject himself to great risk in keeping +the rendezvous with Dr. Ku Sui, but he had never thought he would be +endangering Eliot Leithgow also. It was torture to know he had put the +gentle old scientist into the Eurasian's web. + +That was it: if he could not somehow shear through that web, he must +destroy Leithgow himself, and follow on after. The scientist would +prefer it so. For whatever Dr. Ku's exact reason for wanting the Master +Scientist was, it was an ugly one: that it was worse than quick death, +he knew full well. + +Shear through the web. How? Where was the weak strand in Ku Sui's +cunningly laid plot? The Hawk visualized all he could of the asteroid's +mechanical details, and surveyed them painstakingly. Two great +port-locks flanked by little ones; secret opening combinations--not much +hope in that avenue. Judd's ship, resting above: could he reach it, and +raise it and douse the buildings with its rays? No; Dr. Ku had spoken of +defense rays--they would certainly be far more powerful than the +_Scorpion's_. Then, somewhere there were the mighty gravity-plates +batteries which motivated the asteroid and held it controlled in space. +The dynamos. Two men, working swiftly, might wreak an unholy amount of +damage in little time; in the resulting confusion anything might happen. +If! + + * * * * * + +Into the depths of his concentration came the odor of tsin-tsin flowers, +followed by the familiar, silkie voice of his arch-enemy. + +"I see you are deep in thought, my friend. I trust it indicates your +complete recovery." + +Dr. Ku Sui stood smiling in the doorway, his same bodyguard of three +armed men behind him. His sardonic words brought no reply. He went on: + +"I hope so. I have arranged, thanks to your kindness, a meeting with an +old, dear friend of yours. An illustrious friend: he already honors my +establishment with his presence. I have come to ask you to join us." + +The Hawk's gray eyes turned frigid: a lesser man would have blanched at +the threat implied in his answer. + +"God help you, Ku Sui." + +The Eurasian turned it aside. "Always," he said, "God helps those who +help themselves. But come with me, if you'll be so kind. We are expected +in the laboratory." + +This exchange passed quickly. Friday was still grasping at its +underlying meanings as they again filed down the short straight outside +corridor. It brought a perverse satisfaction to see the coolie guards +bearing their ray-guns unsheathed and ready. Ku Sui's general attitude +did not fool him. He knew that the man's suave mockery and flowery +courtesy were camouflage for a very real fear of the quick wits and +brilliant, pointed action of his famous master, the Hawk. + +Carse walked steadily enough, but every step he took beat in his mind +like the accents of a dirge. For he had betrayed into the hands of the +Eurasian his most loved and loyal friend. Betrayed him! Despicably +egotistical he had been in submitting to the chair, in not making one +last wild break for freedom at that time. He had thought he could beat +Ku Sui at his own game. Ku Sui, of all men! + + * * * * * + +Unseen hands opened from the other side the metal laboratory door, they +passed through and the close-fitting halves closed behind them. Ku Sui +went to the main switchboard and Carse glanced rapidly around. Leithgow +was not there. The wire-ball device was gone, but otherwise the details +of the room were unchanged, even to the four white-clad assistants whose +fine heads had eyes so lifeless and faces so expressionless. Emphasized, +now, somehow, was the tall screen that hid something on one side of the +room, and an intuition told the Hawk that what lay behind the screen was +in some way connected with their fate. + +He waited stolidly for what he knew was coming. + +"Now," Dr. Ku murmured. He smiled at his two prisoners and pressed one +of the switchboard's array of buttons. A door opposite them swung open. + +"Believe me, this is a pleasure," he said. + +Flanked by two impressive slant-eyed guards, a frail figure in a rubber +apron stood revealed. + +Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow blinked as he looked about the +laboratory. Helpless, pitifully alone he looked, with his small, +slightly stooped body, his tragedy-aged, deeply-lined face. The blue +veins showed under the transparent skin of his forehead; his light-blue +eyes, set deep under snow-white eyebrows, darted from side to side, +dazed by the light and perhaps still confused by the events which had +snatched him so suddenly from his accustomed round and struck him with +such numbing force. His years and frailty were obviously fitted rather +to some seat of science in a university on Earth than the raw conditions +of the frontiers of space. + +Hawk Carse found words, but could not control his voice. + +"This is the first time I've ever been sorry to see you, M. S.," he said +simply. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Dr. Ku Shows His Claws_ + + +The scientist brushed back his thinning white hair with a trembling +hand. He knew that voice. He walked over and put his hands on his +friend's shoulders. + +"Carse!" he exclaimed. "Thank God, you're alive!" + +"And you," said the Hawk. + +Ku Sui interrupted. + +"I am most glad, honored Master Scientist," he said in the flowery +Oriental fashion that he affected in his irony, "to welcome you here. +For me it is a memorable occasion. Your presence graces my home, and, +however unworthily, distinguishes me, rewarding as it does aspirations +which I have long held. I am humbly confident that great achievements +will result from your visit----" + +Quickly Eliot Leithgow turned and looked squarely at him. There was no +bending of spirit in the frail old man. "Yes," he said, "my visit. Your +sickening verbal genuflections beautifully evade the details--the house +of my friend raided at night; he, himself, unarmed, shot down in cold +blood; his house gutted! You are admirably consistent, Dr. Ku. A +brilliant stroke, typical of your best!" + +Five faint lines appeared across the Eurasian's high, narrow brow. +"What?" he exclaimed. "Is this true? My servitors must be reprimanded +severely; and meanwhile I beg you not to hold their impetuousness +against me." + + * * * * * + +Carse could stand it no longer. This suave mockery and the pathetic +figure of his friend; the mention of raid and murder---- + +"It's all my fault," he blurted out. "I told him where you were. I +thought----" + +"Oh, no!" Dr. Ku broke in, pleasantly protesting. "Captain Carse is +gallant, but the responsibility's not his. I have a little machine--a +trifle, but most ingenious at extracting secrets which persons attempt +to hold from me. The Captain couldn't help himself, you see----" + +"It was not necessary to tell me that," said Leithgow. + +"Of course," the Eurasian agreed and for the first time seriously; "but +let me suggest that the end justifies the means. And that brings me to +my point. Master Scientist, now you may know that I have for some time +been working toward a mighty end. This end is now in sight, with you +here, the final achievement can be attained. An achievement----" He +paused, and the ecstasy of the inspired fanatic came to his eyes. Never +before had the three men standing there so seen him. "I will explain." + +His eyes changed, and imperiously he gave an order to his assistants. "A +chair for Master Leithgow, and one for Carse. Place them there." Then, +"Be seated," he invited them with a return of his usual seeming +courtesy. "I'm sure you must be tired." + +Slowly Eliot Leithgow lowered himself into the metal seat. Friday, +ignored, shifted his weight from one foot to the other. The Hawk did not +sit down until with old habit he had sized up the whole layout of +laboratory, assistants and chances. The two chairs faced toward ward the +high screen; to each side stood the five coolie-guards; mechanically +alert as always; the four Caucasian assistants made a group of strange +statues to the right. + +Ku Sui took position, standing before the screen. Seldom did the cold, +hard iron of the man show through the velvet of his manner as now. + +"Yes," he said, "I will talk to you for a while; give you broad outline +of my purpose. And when I have finished you will know why I have wanted +you here so badly, Master Leithgow." + + * * * * * + +He began, and, as never before, he hid nothing of his monstrous +ambition, his extraordinary preparations. With mounting fear his +captives listened to his well-modulated voice as it proceeded logically +from point to point. He had fine feeling for the dramatic, knew well the +value of climax and pause; but his use of them was here unconscious, for +he spoke straight from his dark and feline heart. + +For the first time in the Affair of the Brains, the tiger was showing +his claws. + +"For a long time," Ku Sui said, "we four gathered here have fought each +other. All over space our conflict has ranged, from Earth to beyond +Saturn. I suppose there never have been more bitter enemies; I know +there has never been a greater issue. I said we four, but I should have +said we _two_, Master Leithgow. Captain Carse has commanded a certain +respect from me, the respect one must show for courage, fine physical +coordination and a remarkable instinct and capacity for +self-preservation--but, after all, he is primarily only like the black +here, Friday, and a much less splendid animal. It is a _brain_ that +receives my respect! A brain! Genius! I do not fear Carse: he is only an +adventurer; but your brain, Master Leithgow, I respect. + +"For, naturally, brains will determine the future of these planets +around us. The man with the most profound and extensive scientific +knowledge united to the greatest audacity--remember, audacity!--can rule +them every one!" + +He paused and looked into the eyes of the Master Scientist. Pointedly he +said: + +"You, Master Leithgow, have the brains but not the audacity. I have the +audacity _and_ the brains--now that you are here." + + * * * * * + +Cold prickles of fear chased down Carse's and the scientist's spine at +this obscure threat. Some of their reaction must have shown in their +faces, for the Eurasian permitted himself a brief, triumphant smile and +added: + +"You shall know just what I mean in but a few minutes. Right now, in +this very laboratory, the fate of the planets is being decided!" + +Hawk Carse licked his dry lips. + +"Big words!" he said. + +"Easily proved, Captain Carse, as you'll see. What can restrain the man +who can instantly command Earth's master-minds of scientific knowledge, +the man who has both a considerable brain of his own to call on and the +mightiest brains in existence, all coordinated for perfect, instant +effectiveness. Why, with these brains working for him, he can become +omnipotent; there can be but feeble resistance to his steps toward +universal power! Only chance, unpredictable chance, always at work, +always powerful, can defeat him--and my audacity allows me to disregard +what I cannot anticipate." + +"You talk riddles," answered Leithgow. "You do not explain your intended +means. What you imply you can do with brains is utterly impossible." + +"Impossible? Ever a foolish word, Master. You know that the brain has +always been my special study. As much as ten years ago, I was +universally recognized as the greatest expert in my specialty. But I +tell you that my knowledge of the subject was as nothing then to what it +is now. I have been very busy these last ten years. Look!" + +With a graceful sweep of a hand he indicated the four coolie-guards and +his four white-smocked assistants. + +"These men of mine," he continued, "do they appear normal, would you +say? Or, rather, mechanicalized; lacking in certain things and thereby +gaining enormously in the values which can make them perfect servitors? +I have removed from their minds certain superficial qualities of +thought. The four men in white were, a few years ago, highly skilled +surgeons, three of them brain specialists and noted for exceptional +intellects and bold, pioneering thinking. I needed them and took them, +diverting them from their natural state, in which they would have +resisted me and refused my commands. Certain complicated adjustments on +their brains--and now their brains are mine, all their separate skill at +my command alone!" + + * * * * * + +Leithgow sat back suddenly, astonishment and horror on his face. His +lips parted as if to speak, then closed tightly together again. At last +he uttered one word. + +"Murderer!" + +Dr. Ku smiled. "In a sense, yes. But let me go on. + +"The reshaping of these mentalities and of the mentalities of all my +coolies, were achievements, and valuable ones; but I wanted more. I +wanted much more. I wanted the great, important part of all Earth's +scientific knowledge at my fingertips, under my control. I wanted the +exceptional brains of Earth, the brains of rare genius, the brains that +lived like lonely stars, infinitely removed from the common herd. And +more than that, I wanted them _always_; I wanted them _ageless_. For I +had to seal my power!" + +The Eurasian's words were coming more rapidly now, though the man's +thoughts and tone were still under control; and Carse, sitting there +silently, felt that the climax was being reached; that soon something +unthinkable, something of dread, would be revealed. The voice went on: + +"These brains I wanted were not many--only six in all. Most of them you +knew, Master Leithgow, these men who constituted the cream of Earth's +scientific ability. Professor Estapp, the good-looking young American; +Dr. Swanson, the Swede; Master Scientist Cram--the great English genius +Cram, already legendary, the only other of that rank beside yourself; +Professor Geinst, the hunchbacked, mysterious German; and Dr. +Norman--Dr. Sir Charles Esme Norman, to give him his English title. I +wanted these men, and I got them! All except you, the sixth!" + + * * * * * + +Again Dr. Ku Sui smiled in triumph. To Eliot Leithgow his smile was +unspeakable. + +"Yes," the elderly scientist cried out, "you got them, you murderer!" + +"Oh, no, no, Master Leithgow, you are mistaken. I did not kill them. Why +should I be stupid as to do that? To these men I wanted so badly? No, +no. Because these five scientists disappeared from Earth suddenly, +without trace, without hint of the manner of their going, the stupid +Earthlings believe they were killed! Stupid Earthlings! Abducted, of +course; but why assume they were killed? And why, of all people, decide +that Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow had something to do with their +disappearance? I confess to having planted that evidence pointing to +you, but if they had the sense of a turnip they would know that you were +incapable of squashing a flea, let alone destroying five eminent +brothers in science! You, jealous, guilty of five _crimes passionel! +Pour le science!_ Credulous Earthlings! Incredible Earthlings! And here +are you, a hunted man with a price on your head! + +"So for ten years you have thought I murdered those five men? No, no. +They were very much alive for eight years and very troublesome +prisoners. It took me eight years to solve the problem I had set myself. + +"You will meet them in a minute--the better part of them. You'll see for +yourself that they are very usefully alive. For I succeeded completely +with them. _I have sealed my power!_" + +His silk pajamalike clothing rustled loud in the strained silence as he +turned to the screen behind him. For some obscure reason the perfume +about him, flowers of tsin-tsin, seemed to grow in their nostrils. + +"Observe!" he said, and lifted it aside. An assistant threw a switch on +a nearby panel. The unnatural quiet in the laboratory was resumed. + +"The ultimate concentration of scientific knowledge and genius! The +gateway to all power!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_The Brain Speaks_ + + +A case lay revealed. + +At first, while it was unlit, it seemed nothing more than that: a case +like those glass-sided and glass-topped ones found in museums, a case +perhaps three feet high, three feet deep and five feet in width. Under +this glass upper part of the case was an enclosed section a little more +than a foot in depth. The whole structure was supported at each corner +by short strong metal legs. And that was all. + +But, second by second, as the captives took in these details, a change +came over the interior. No doubt it was the result of the increasing +action of some electrical current loosed by the throwing of the switch; +the whole insides of the glass case little by little lightened, until it +became apparent it was full of a strange liquid that seemed of itself to +have the property of glowing with soft light. As this light increased, a +row of five shadowy bulks the size of footballs began to take form +between what looked, from where the men sat, like a forest of fibers of +silk. + +In a few more seconds a miracle of complicated wiring came into +visibility. The silk fibers were seen to be wires, threads of silver +gossamer that interconnected the five emerging bulks in a maze of +ordered complexity. Thousands interlaced the interior; hundreds were +gathered in each of five close bunches that sprouted from the floor of +the case and then spread, fanwise, to various groupings of delicate +liquid-immersed instruments. + +In several seconds more Eliot Leithgow and Hawk Carse were staring with +horror at what the now brilliantly glowing liquid revealed the five +shapes to be. As one man they rose, went to the cabinet and gazed with +terrible fascination. + +"Brains!" exclaimed Leithgow. "Human brains! But not alive--surely not +alive!" + +"But yes," contradicted the triumphant Eurasian. "Alive." + + * * * * * + +Five human brains lay all immersed in the glowing case, each resting in +a shallow metal pan. There were pulsings in narrow gray tubes which led +into their under-sides--theatrical evidence that the brains held +imprisoned there were, as the Eurasian had said, alive--most strangely, +unnaturally and horribly alive. Stark and cruelly naked they lay there, +pulsing with life that should not have been. + +"Yes, alive!" repeated Ku Sui. "And never to die while their needs are +attended!" + +One of his long artistic fingers tapped the glass before the central +brain, which was set somewhat lower than the others. "This," he said, +"is the master brain. It controls and coordinates the thoughts of the +others, avoiding the useless, pursuing the relevant and retaining the +valuable. It is by far the most important of the five, and is, of course +the superior intellect. It is the keystone of my gateway to all power." + +Eliot Leithgow's face was deathly white, but, as one in the grip of some +devilish hypnotic fascination, he could not tear his eyes away from the +revolting, amazing achievement of his brilliant enemy. The Eurasian with +the cruelty of a cat picked that awful moment to add: + +"This master brain is all that was best of Master Scientist Cram." + +The frail old man took this statement like a blow. + +"Oh, dear heaven--not Raymond Cram! Not Cram, the physicist, brought to +this! Why, I knew him when----" + +Ku Sui smiled and interrupted. "But you speak of him as if he were dead! +He's not. He's very much alive, as you shall see. Possibly even +happy--who knows? There is no good---- _Keep back, Carse!_" + + * * * * * + +His tiger's eyes had not missed the adventurer's slight crouch in +preparation for a shove which might have toppled the case and ended the +abominable servitude of its gruesome tenants. The Hawk was caught before +he had well started; and had he not stopped his gathering muscles he +would have been dead from the coolie-guards' rays by the time he touched +the near side of the case. + +He took his failure without comment; only stepped back, folded his arms +and burned his enemy with the frigid glare of his eyes. The Eurasian +continued as if nothing had happened, addressing himself chiefly to +Leithgow. + +"The others, too, you once knew; you are even charged with their murder. +Let me introduce you once more to your old colleagues and friends. +There, at the right, is the brain you once compared notes with in the +person of Professor Estapp. Next to him is Dr. Swanson. To the left of +Master Scientist Cram, is Professor Geinst, and this last is Dr. Sir +Charles Esme Norman. Now think what this group represents! + +"Estapp, Chemistry and Bio-Chemistry; Swanson, Psychology; Geinst, +Astronomy; Norman, Mathematics. And Cram, the master brain, of course, +Physics and Electricity, although his encyclopedic knowledge encompassed +every major subject, well fitting his brain for the position it holds. +All this, gathered here in one! The five outstanding intellects of +Earth, here gathered in one priceless instrument! Here are my advisors; +here my trusty, never-tiring assistants. I can have their help toward +the solution of any problem; obtain from their individual and combined +intelligences even those rare intuitions which I have found almost +always precede brilliant discoveries. + +"For they not only retain all they ever knew of science, but they can +_develop_, even as brains in bodies can develop. Their knowledge does +not become outmoded, if they are kept informed of the latest currents of +scientific thought. From old knowledge and new they build their +structures of logic once my command sets them on. Wills of their own +they have none. + +"I have not succeeded in all my secondary alterations, however. For one +thing, I have been unable to deprive them altogether of the memory of +what they formerly were; but it is a subdued memory, to them doubtless +like a dream, familiar yet puzzling. Because of this I imagine they hate +me--heartily!--yet they lack the will, the egocentricity which would +enable them to refuse to answer my questions and do my work. + +"Frankly, without them this whole structure"--his hands swept out +widely--"my whole asteroidal kingdom, would have been impossible. Most +of my problems in constructing it were solved here. And in the future +other problems, far greater, will be solved here!" + + * * * * * + +Hawk Carse by now understood very well Dr. Ku Sui's purpose in bringing +M. S. Leithgow to his laboratory, and was already goading his brain in +search of a way out. Death was by all means preferable to what the +Eurasian intended--death self-inflicted, and death that mutilated the +brain--but there were no present chances that his searching mind could +see. + +If Leithgow suspected what was in store, his face gave no sign of it. He +only said: + +"Dr. Ku, of all the things you have ever done, this is the most +heartless and most vile. I would have thought there was a limit in you +somewhere, but this--this thing--this horrible life you have condemned +these five men to----" + +He could not continue. The Eurasian only smiled, and replied, with his +always seeming courtesy: + +"Your opinion is natural Master: I could expect no other. But when great +ends are to be gained, he who would gain them must strip himself of +those disturbing atavistic things we call the tender emotions. The +pathway to power is not for those who wince at the sight of blood, who +weep at the need for death. I hope, for special reasons, that you'll +make an effort to understand this before we come to the phase which will +follow my demonstration.... + +"Now, please allow me to show you my coordinated brains in useful +operation. Will you be seated again? You, too, Captain Carse." + + * * * * * + +It was Ku Sui's show: there was nothing for the two men but to obey. But +they felt, both of them, a great unnaturalness in being seated for the +demonstration to come. + +"Thank you," the Eurasian said, and went to the panel flanking the case. +There, he turned and remarked: "Before we begin, I must ask you to +remember that the opinions of my brains may always be accepted as the +probable truth, and always, absolutely, are they honest and without +prejudice." He threw a small knife switch and again turned. Nothing +seemed to happen. + +"I have contrived, of course, an artificial way of communicating with my +helpers. This inset grille here contains both microphone and +speaker--ear and mouth. + +"The ear picks up my words and transmits them to every brain. If I have +asked a question, it is individually considered and the respective +answers sent to the master brain; they are there coordinated and the +result spoken to me by means of the mechanical mouth. When the opinions +of the individual brains do not agree, the answer is in the form of a +poll, often with brief mention of points pro and con. Sometimes their +meditations take considerable time; but simple questions always bring a +prompt and unanimous answer. Shall we try them now?" + +The man's spectators did not answer; even the Hawk was for once in his +life too overcome by conflicting feelings of horror and dread, and +compelling morbid fascination. Dr. Ku paused dramatically, a slight +smile on his enigmatic lips; then turned his head and spoke into the +grille. + +"Do you hear me?" he asked, easily and confidently. + +The silence in the laboratory was for one brief moment almost +overpowering. Then, from the grille, came a thin metallic voice. +Inhuman, artificial, it sounded in the tense strain of the silent room, +voice from the living dead that it was. + +"_I do_," were its words. + +"Strange," mused the Eurasian, half aloud, "that their collective answer +is always given as 'I.' What obscure telescoping of egotisms can be the +cause of that...." + +He dropped the mood of wonder at once. "Tell me," he said, looking +deliberately at Leithgow: "Would the brain of Master Scientist Eliot +Leithgow be more valuable in the position of the master brain than +Cram's?" + +A horrible eternity passed. Again came the inhuman voice: + +"_I have answered that question before. Yes._" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Ku broke the stunned silence that followed this verdict. + +"Don't forget that several ray-guns are centered on you, Carse," he +remarked casually. "Others, black, are on you. Earthlings would no doubt +consider your emotions very creditable; I only suggest that you keep +them under control." + +But the Hawk had given no slightest intimation that he might attempt +anything. He sat quietly, a little tensely, his face an icy mask, only +the freezing shock of his steady gray eyes betraying his emotion as they +bore straight into those of the Eurasian. No man could meet such eyes +for long, and even the tiger ones of Ku Sui the all-powerful went aside +at the icy murder that showed there. + +Friday still stood in back of the chairs where were seated his two +friends. He was scared to death from the thing he had seen. His face was +a sickly, ashy gray, and his eyes large round rolling white marbles; but +at the slightest sign of a break he would have metamorphosed into a +demon of destruction, however hopeless the try, with ray-guns covering +him at all times. Such was his love and loyalty for his famous master. + +Eliot Leithgow was a man resigned. His head sank down on his chest. Dr. +Ku's next words, though aimed at him, did not seem to penetrate his +consciousness. + +"You see, Master Leithgow, I have no choice. My purposes are +all-important; they always come first; they demand this substitution. +Were your intellect of lesser stature, I would have no interest in you +whatever. But as it is...." He shrugged. + +Hawk Carse stood up. + +The Eurasian's voice fell away. The ensuing silence gave an icy, +clear-cut sharpness to the whisper that then cut through it from thin +lips that barely moved: + +"God help you, Ku Sui, if you do it. _God help you._" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Ku Sui smiled deprecatingly and again shrugged. + +"I have told you before that God helps those who help themselves. I have +always had splendid results from helping myself." + +For a moment he looked away as he considered something in his mind. Then +to his veiled eyes came the old mocking irony, and he said: + +"I think perhaps you'd like to observe the operations, my friend, and +I'm going to allow you to. Not here--no. I could never have you +interrupting; the series of operations is of infinite delicacy and will +require weeks. But I can make other arrangements; I can give you as good +as ringside seats for each performance. A small visi-screen might be +attached to one wall of your cell to enable you to see every detail of +what transpires here." His tone suddenly stiffened. "_I wouldn't, +Carse!_" + +The Hawk relaxed from the brink on which he had wavered. A sudden mad +rush--what else remained? What else? For an instant he had lost his +head--one of the several times in his whole life. Just for an instant he +had forgotten his phenomenal patience under torture, his own axiom that +in every tight place there was a way out. + +"That's much safer," said Ku Sui. "Perhaps you and the black had better +return to your cell." + +Certain little muscles in the Hawk's face were trembling as he turned to +go, and his feet would not work well. The ray-guns of the coolie-guards +covered his every move. Friday followed just behind. + +As the adventurer came to the door he stopped and turned, and his eyes +went back to those of the frail, elderly scientist. + +The doomed man met the gray eyes and their agony with a smile. + +"It's all right, old comrade," he said. "Just remember to destroy this +hellish device, if you ever possibly can. My love to Sandra; and to her, +and my dear ones on Earth, anything but the truth.... Farewell." + +Carse's fingernails bit each one into his palms. He hesitated; tried, +but could not speak. + +"All right, Carse--you may go." + +The feelingless guards nudged white man and black out, and the door +swung solidly closed behind them.... + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_In the Visi-Screen_ + + +There were those among the few claiming to have any insight into the +real Hawk Carse who declared that a month went out of his life for every +minute he spent in the cell then. The story, of course, came trickling +out through various unreliable sources; we who delve in the lore of the +great adventurer have to thank for our authorities Sewell, the great +historian of that generation--who personally traveled several million +miles to get what meager facts the Hawk would divulge concerning his +life and career--equally with Friday, who shared this particular +adventure with him. Friday's emotional eyes no doubt colored his memory +of the scenes he passed through, and it is likely that the facts lost +nothing in the simple dramatic way he would relate them. + +But certainly the black was as fearful of his master during that period +in the cell as he was of what he saw acted out on the screen. + +We can picture him telling of the ordeal, his big eyes rolling and his +deep rich voice trembling with the memories stamped forever in his +brain; and picture too the men who, at one time or another, listened to +him, fascinated, their mouths agape and a tickling down the length of +their spines. It was probably only Friday's genius as a narrator which +later caused some of his listeners to swear that new lines were grooved +in Carse's face and a few flaxen hairs silvered by the minutes he spent +watching Eliot Leithgow strapped down on that operating table, close to +the beautiful surgeon fingers of Dr. Ku Sui. + +But whether or not that period of torture really pierced through his +iron emotional guard and set its mark on him permanently by aging him, +it is impossible to say. However, there were deep things in Hawk Carse, +and the deepest among them were the ties binding him to his friends; +there was also that certain cold vanity; and considering these it is +probable that he came very close indeed to the brink of some frightening +emotional abyss, before which he had few shreds of mind and +body-discipline left.... + + * * * * * + +He reentered the cell like a ghost; he stood very still, his hands +slowly clenching and unclenching behind his back, and his pale face +inclined low, so that the chin rested on his chest. So he stood for some +minutes, Friday not daring to disturb him, until the single door that +gave entrance clicked in its lock and opened again. At this he raised +his head. Five men came in, all coolies, three of whom had ray-guns +which they kept scrupulously on the white man and black while the other +two rigged up an apparatus well up on one of the cell walls. They +remained wholly unaffected the several times their dull eyes met those +of the Hawk. Perhaps, being mechanicalized humans, practically robots, +they got no reaction from the icy gray eyes in his strained white face. + +The device they attached was some two square feet of faintly gleaming +screen, rimmed by metal and with little behind it other than two small +enclosed tubes, a cuplike projector with wires looping several terminals +on its exterior, and a length of black, rubberized cable, which last was +passed through one of the five-inch ventilating slits high in the wall. +Carse regarded it with his hard stare until the door clicked behind the +coolies and they were once more alone. Then his head returned to its +bowed position, and Friday approached the apparatus and began to examine +it with the curiosity of the born mechanic he was. + +"Let it be, Friday," the Hawk ordered tonelessly. + +A dozen minutes passed in silence. + +The silence was outward: there was no quiet in the adventurer's head. He +could not stop the sharp remorseless voice which kept sounding in his +brain. Its pitiless words flailed him unceasingly with their stinging +taunts. "You--you whom they call the Hawk," it would say; "you, the +infallible one--you, so recklessly, egotistically confident--you have +brought this to pass! Not only have you allowed yourself to be trapped, +but Eliot Leithgow! He is out there now; and soon his brain will be +condemned forever to that which you have seen! The brain that trusted +you! And you have brought this to pass! Yours the blame, the +never-failing Hawk! All yours--yours--yours!" + +A voice reached him from far away. A soft negro voice which said, +timidly: + +"They're beginning, suh. Captain Carse? On the screen, suh; they're +beginning." + +That was worse. The real ordeal was approaching. True, he might have +thrown himself on the coolie-guards who had just left--but his death +would not have helped old M. S. + +Friday spoke again, and this time his words leaped roaring into Carse's +ears. He raised his head and looked. + +The tubes behind the screen were crackling, and the screen itself had +come to life. He was looking at the laboratory. But the place was +changed. + + * * * * * + +What had before been a wide circular room, with complicated machines and +unnamed scientific apparatus following only its walls, so as to leave +the center of its floor empty and free from obstructions, was now a +place of deep shadow pierced by a broad cone of blinding white light +which shafted down from some source overhead and threw into brilliant +emphasis only the center of the room. + +The light struck straight down upon an operating table. At its head +stood a squat metal cylinder sprouting a long flexible tube which ended +in a cone--no doubt the anesthetizing apparatus. A stepped-back tier of +white metal drawers flanked one side of the table, upon its various +upper surfaces an array of gleaming surgeon's tools. In neat squads they +lay there: long thin knives with straight and curved cutting edges; +handled wires, curved into hooks and eccentric corkscrew shapes; +scalpels of different sizes; forceps, clasps, retractors, odd metal +claws, circular saw-blades and a variety of other unclassified +instruments. Sterilizers were convenient to one side, a thin wraith of +steam drifting up from them into the source of the light. + +Four men worked within the brilliant shaft of illumination--four +white-clad figures, hands gloved and faces swathed in surgeons' masks. +Only their lifeless eyes were visible, concentrated on their tasks of +preparation. Steam rose in increased mists as one figure lifted back the +lid of a sterilizer and dropped in some gleaming instruments. The cloud +swirled around his masked face and body with devilish infernolike +effect. + +All this in deadest silence. From the darkness came another figure, tall +and commanding, a shape whose black silk garments struck a new note in +the dazzling whiteness of the scene. He was pulling on operating gloves. +His slanted eyes showed keen and watchful through the eyeholes of the +mask he already wore, as he surveyed the preparations. Ominous Ku Sui +looked, among his white-clad assistants. + +The Eurasian seemed to give an order, and a white figure turned and +glanced off into the surrounding darkness, raising one hand. A door +showed in faint outline as it opened. Through the door two shadows +moved, wheeling something long and flat between them. + +They came into the light, two coolies, and wheeled their conveyance +alongside the operating table. Then they turned into the darkness and +were gone. + +"Oh!" gasped Friday. "They've shaved off his head!" + + * * * * * + +The frail form of Eliot Leithgow, clad to the neck in loose white +garments, showed clearly as he was lifted to the operating table. As +Friday said, his hair was all gone--shaved off close--stunning +verification of what was to happen. Awfully alone and helpless he +looked, yet his face was calm and he lay there composed, watching his +soulless inquisitors with keen blue eyes. But his expression altered +when Dr. Ku appeared over him and felt and prodded his naked head. + +"I can't stand this!" + +It was a whisper of agony in the silence of the cell where the two men +stood watching, a cry from the fiber of the Hawk's innermost self. The +path he left across the frontiers of space was primarily a lonely one; +but Friday and Eliot Leithgow and two or three others were friends and +very precious to him, and they received all the emotion in his tough, +hard soul. Especially Leithgow--old, alone, dishonored on Earth, frail +and nearing the end of the long years--he needed protection. He had +trusted Carse. + +Trusted him! And now this! + +Ku Sui's fingers were prodding Leithgow's head like that of any dumb +animal chosen as subject for experimentation. Prodding.... Feeling.... + +"I can't stand it!" the Hawk whispered again. + +The mask on his face, that famous self-imposed mask that hid all +emotion, had broken. Lines were there, deep with agony; tiny drops of +sweat stood out all over. He saw Ku Sui pick up something and adjust it +to his grip while looking down at the man who lay, now strapped on the +table. He saw him nod curtly to an assistant; saw the anesthetic +cylinder wheeled up a little closer, and the dials on it set to +quivering.... + +His hands came up and covered his eyes. But only for a moment. He would +not be able to keep his sight away. That was the exquisite torture the +Eurasian had counted on: he well knew as he had arranged it that the +adventurer would not be able to hold his eyes from the screen. Carse had +to look! + +He took away his hands and raised his eyes. + +The screen was blank! + + * * * * * + +Friday looked up with a grin from where he was kneeling before the knob +on the door of the cell. Carse saw that the knob was of metal, centered +in an inset square of some dull fibrous composition. + +"This door has an electric lock, suh," the negro explained rapidly. "And +things worked by electricity can often be short-circuited!" + +Quickly and silently he had disconnected from the television projector +the wire which led back through the ventilating slit in the wall, and +now was holding its end with one hand while with the other he twisted +out the screw which held in the knob. "Anyway, won't hurt to try," he +said, removing the screw and laying it on the floor. In another second +the knob lay beside it, and he was squinting into the hole where it had +fitted. + +"Be quick!" Carse whispered. + +Friday did not answer. He was guessing at the location of the mechanism +within, and trying to summon up all the knowledge he had of such things. +After a moment he bent one of the live ends of the wire he was holding +into a gentle curve and felt his way down within the lock with it, +carefully keeping the other end clear of all contacts. + +Seconds went by as his fingers delicately worked--seconds that told +terribly on Hawk Carse. For the screen was blank and lifeless, and there +was no way of knowing how far the work in the laboratory had meanwhile +progressed. In his mind remained each detail of the scene as he had +viewed it last: the strapped-down figure, the approaching anesthetic +cylinder, the knives lying in readiness.... How was he to know if one of +those instruments were not already tinged with scarlet? + +"Oh, be quick!" he cried again. + +"If I can touch a live part of the lock's circuit," grunted Friday, +absorbed, "there ought--to--be--trouble." + + * * * * * + +Suddenly currents clashed with a sputtering hiss, and a shower of sparks +shot out of the knob-hole and were instantly gone. Short-circuited! It +remained to be seen whether it had destroyed the mechanism of the lock. +Friday dropped the hot, burned-through wire he was holding and reached +for the knob, but the Hawk had leaped into life and was ahead of him. + +In a moment the knob was in the door and its holding screw part-way in. +Gently the Hawk tried the knob. It turned! + +But they did not leave the cell--then. Ku Sui's voice was echoing +through the room, more than a trace of irritation in its tone: + +"Hawk Carse, you are beginning to annoy me--you and your too-clever +black satellite." + +Carse's eyes flashed to the ceiling. A small disklike object, almost +unnoticeable, lay flat against it in one place. + +"Yes," continued Ku Sui, "I can talk to you, hear you and see you. I +believe you have succeeded in destroying the lock. So open it and glance +into the corridor--and escape, if you still want to. I rather wish you'd +try, for I'm extremely busy and must not be disturbed again." + +Graven-faced, without comment Carse turned the knob and opened the door +an inch. He peeped through, Friday doing so also over his head--peeped +right into the muzzles of four ray-guns, held by an equal number of +coolie-guards waiting there. + +"So that's it," Friday said, dejectedly. "He saw me workin' on the lock +an' sent those guards here at once. Or else had them there all the +time." + + * * * * * + +The Hawk closed the door and considered what to do. Ku Sui's voice +returned. + +"Yes," it sounded metallically, "I've an assistant posted here who's +watching every move you make. Don't, therefore, hope to surprise me by +anything you may do. + +"Now I am going to resume work. Reconnect the screen: I've had the +burned-out fuse replaced. If you won't, I'll have it done for you--and +have you so bound that you'll be forced to look at it. + +"Don't tamper with any of my hearing and seeing mechanisms again, +please. If you do, I will be forced to have you destroyed within five +minutes. + +"But--if you'd like to leave your cell, you have my full permission. You +should find it easy, now that the lock is broken." + +The voice said no more. Carse ordered Friday harshly: + +"Reconnect the screen." + +The negro hastened to obey. His master's gray eyes again fastened on the +screen. Fiercely, for a moment, he smoothed his bangs. + +The laboratory flashed into clear outline again. There was the shaft of +white light; the operating table, full under it; the anesthetic +cylinder, the banks of instruments, the sterilizers with their wisps of +steam curling ceaselessly up. There were the efficient white-clad +assistant-surgeons, their dull eyes showing through the holes in their +masks. And there was the black figure of Ku Sui, an ironic smile on his +lips, and before him the resigned and helpless form of Eliot Leithgow. + +The Eurasian gestured. An assistant found the pulse in Leithgow's wrist, +and another bent over him in such fashion that the prisoners could not +see what he was doing. Ku Sui too bent over, something in his hands. The +prelude to living death had begun.... + + * * * * * + +At that moment Hawk Carse was a different man, recovered from the +weakness that had made him cry out at his friend's imminent destruction +a short time before. The old characteristic fierceness and recklessness +had come back to him; he had decided on action--on probable death. "I've +been too cautious!" he exclaimed violently in his thoughts. + +"Friday!" he whispered sharply to the negro, going close. + +"Yes, suh?" + +"Four men outside--a sudden charge through that door when I nod. We'll +die, too, by God! Willing?" + +Friday was held by the man's iron will to succeed or die. Without +hesitation he whispered back: + +"Yes, suh!" + +Their whispers had been low. Dr. Ku Sui had not been warned, for the +screen still showed him bending over his victim. + +"You'll open the door; you're nearest. I'll go through first," the Hawk +murmured, and smiled at the loyalty behind the promptness of his man's +grin of understanding. + +Then both smiles faded. The muscles of the negro's huge body bunched in +readiness for the signal as tensely he watched the flaxen-haired head +close to him. + +Suddenly it nodded. + +The door swung wide and white man and black went charging out. + +And immediately there burst in their ears the furious clanging of a +general alarm bell, sounding throughout the whole building! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Trapped in the Laboratory_ + + +In his carefully welded plot-chain, Ku Sui left one weak link, though he +was not aware of it at the time. For it would not appear save by the +testing of it, and he had not expected it to be tested. Carse acted +recklessly; perhaps, if cold reason be applied to his move, senselessly. +Dr. Ku had not thought he would dare make the break he did. But the +adventurer did dare, and the loophole, the weak link, was exposed. + +The Eurasian had a paranoic's vanity, and with it a lust accumulated +over years to exact the most terrible vengeance he could from the +adventurer who had frustrated his schemes time and time again. His +arrangement for subtly forcing Carse to watch the operation was part of +his vengeance; but he planned more. He wanted his old foe, broken by the +living death of Eliot Leithgow, to die slowly later; wanted to crumple +that will of steel utterly; wanted to watch and pleasantly mock him +during the slow death agonies he had contrived for him. Therefore--and +here lay the weak link--Dr. Ku left orders for Carse to be kept alive. + +If he had not instructed his coolie-guards to wound, and not kill, in +case of a break for freedom, Carse and Friday could never possibly have +gained the corridor alive. The four waiting ray-guns would have burned +out their lives within three seconds. But, as it was, the barrage of +shots from the ray-guns was directed at their legs, with the intention +of bringing them down--and their legs were moving very rapidly. And so, +reckoning up the caliber of the two comrades, their wild fighting start, +their fatalistic resolve to get as many as possible of the enemy before +they died, the result of that first hectic scramble in the corridor was +more or less inevitable. + + * * * * * + +With a savage war-whoop that rose, ear-shattering, above the clanging of +the alarm bell, Friday flung his two hundred and twenty pounds of brawn +and muscle after Carse into the thick of the guards, taking no more +notice of the spitting streaks of orange light that laced past his legs +than if they had been squirts from a water-pistol. The guards had been +bunched well together, but they scattered like ten-pins when Carse, +followed by the living thunderbolt of fighting negro, crashed into them. +In that first charge three of them were knocked flat, their guns either +dropping or twisting loose from their hands. + +Immediately recovering, the Hawk darted at the fourth with the speed of +a striking cobra; his wiry hands closed around the yellow throat: and +two seconds later that coolie was no longer connected with the +proceedings, a whacking head-thump being his passport into +insensibility. Again Friday's exultant war-whoop bellowed out over the +scene. + +Carse pushed to his feet, his deadly fighting smile on his face, a +ray-gun in his hand. He stooped and picked up another. + +"Get to the Master!" roared Friday, an ebon god of war between two +futilely attacking bodies. "I'm--followin'!" + +In those red seconds, ultimate success was still too impossible a thing +to even hope for. But they would at least try, then die like the men +they were. + +Hawk Carse sped on down the corridor, a deadly, smoothly-functioning +fighting machine. And after him a few seconds later came leaping the +negro, a whooping giant with a ray-gun in each hand and the light of +battle flashing in his eyes. As his personal contribution to the fight +he was leaving in the rear three sprawled bodies, two knocked cold and +the third with a broken neck. + +Their triumph had so far been a matter of but sixty seconds. The jangle +of the alarm bell continued ominously. It summoned resistance, +well-trained resistance; the defenses of the asteroid awoke to action. +Doors spacing the corridor behind now began to open, releasing dozens of +Orientals. Nor had these men heard Ku Sui's orders. They would shoot to +kill! + + * * * * * + +Three peering faces suddenly were in Hawk Carse's line of vision ahead: +three ray-guns were settling on him. His famous left hand, the gun-hand +that was known and dreaded throughout space, moved with the eye-blinding +speed that was necessary; his trigger finger bent only three times, but +each of the pencil-thin streaks of orange that spat forth brought down a +man, and he had struck without slackening his stride for an instant. + +Twice more his ray-gun spoke, and then the goal, the entrance to the +central laboratory, was just ahead. Carse glanced back. + +"Yes, suh!" a fierce voice yelled out to him. "Coming!" + +Friday was bringing up the rear as fast as he could. He came sideways in +a zigzag course ducking and whirling constantly, and in between firing +promptly at any portions of enemy anatomies that dared project into the +line of the corridor. The Hawk covered the last few yards of his +retreat, and then they were together at the laboratory. + +"The knob!" Carse ordered, spraying the corridor in general warning. + +Friday tried it, but the door was locked. He hurled himself against it, +but it did not budge. + +How to get through? On the other side of the door was Leithgow, and +probably Ku Sui; on this side they were trapped in a blind end. They +could never make it back down that gauntlet and live, and anything like +concerted action on the part of the yellows would do for them where they +were. + +That concerted action came at once. Seventy feet behind, a heavy +shot-projector was pushed out on its little rollers from one of the +doors. A hand reached out and whirled it so that its muzzle bore +straight down the corridor at them. Carse shot at the hand, but the +target was too small even for his fine eye, and he missed; Friday +silenced an emboldened orange spot of light that was spitting streaks at +them. + +Hopeless! It looked like the end. Hawk Carse's face was in its old, +emotionless mold as he waited, his gun sharp on the spot where the hand +must reappear if they would fire the deadly projector. He had to get +that hand--and any others that took its place. An almost impossible +shot. He couldn't rush it and get it too. Not in time. + +A moment passed. The hand flashed out; Carse shot and again missed. Then +a narrow cone was along the corridor, a blinding orange streak. +Instantly, with a rasp of thunder, it was gone, and the air was +stifling. + +The Hawk was untouched; Friday, too, he saw. The bolt had been taken by +the door--and one of the door's two halves was ajar! + + * * * * * + +At once Hawk Carse acted. "Inside!" he yelled, then was through, the +negro right behind. Carse's eyes swept the laboratory. It was a place of +shadows, the sole light being a faint gleam from a tiny bulb-tipped +surgical tool which glimmered weirdly from the bank of instruments +waiting by the operating table. Carse saw no one. + +"Hold the door!" he ordered. "I don't think it'll lock!" + +Friday obeyed. He found the inner bolt melted and the lock inoperative; +and, placing his forearms on either side of the middle crack of the +door, he stood bracing it. + +A furious pounding shook the door. A heavy pressure bent it inward. + +"Quick!" the big black gasped. "Somethin' to wedge it!" + +"A minute, Friday," the Hawk answered. "Hold it!" + +He was already dragging a metal table there; and, upended under the +knob, making an angle with the floor, it held stoutly closed the door, +now thumping and quivering with blows given it from outside. The panting +negro fell back from the door exhausted, but rose to help his master at +the need for placing additional barricades. + +That finished, the Hawk wheeled, and at once, pantherlike, ray-guns at +the ready, stalked the room. There was no sign of the enemy. He +approached the operating table. + +A great relief flooded his grim face as he sighted Eliot Leithgow lying +there, apparently untouched and still conscious. The elderly scientist +was strapped down tight, but he was smiling. + +"I knew you'd come, Carse, if you could," he said simply. + +There was no time for visiting. "Where's Ku Sui?" the adventurer asked. + +"Gone," Leithgow answered. "I heard a door open and close--which one I +couldn't see. He went as soon as that bell began to ring. The +assistants, too." + +Through the shouts and batterings at the barricaded door came a new +sound--from another direction. Like a streak the Hawk was at one of the +three other doors, throwing its inside hand bolt; and by the time he had +shot over the second, Friday had taken the cue and secured the remaining +one. + +The negro let out a vast breath. "Umph!" he said. "I'll tell the +universe that was close!" + + * * * * * + +Hawk Carse said nothing. With eyes ever-watchful for sign of a trick or +a trap in the apparently deserted laboratory, he quickly unbuckled the +bands that held Leithgow to the operating table. Friday lifted the +scientist to the floor, where he stretched weakly. + +The adventurer smiled faintly, then his eyes went cold and serious. +Crisply he said: + +"We came, yes--but now I think we're trapped. There'll be men outside +each of these four doors. The bolts may hold them a while, but +eventually they'll get through. We must look for further weapons. If +only there were better light! Friday," he ordered, "look for a switch. +_Ah!_" + +With a thud and a booming reverberation a systematic battering had begun +on the metal door through which they had entered. It quivered visibly +and rang as the powerful blows from the other side bludgeoned into it, +and evenly spaced, shrewdly delivered at the vital middle point. +_Whrang, whrang_--even strokes, ringing throughout the barred +laboratory--_whrang ... whrang_.... + +And then a similar piece settled into clanging routine on another door; +then on the remaining two. The bolts holding them jumped with each +deafening thud. Friday scowled, forgot to search farther for the switch, +took a few short, indecisive steps, and then stood still again, looking +questioningly at his master. The Hawk stood silent also, smoothing the +bangs of flaxen hair above one temple, his face knit in concentration. + +He had been afraid they would use the great projector on the door, and +had been somewhat cheered by the reflection that they dared not, for +fear of destroying the contents of the laboratory, especially the +irreplaceable brains. But this was worse; Ku Sui was without question +directing their efforts now. And that being the case, he could expect to +see one door after another battered down--and then a concerted, +four-point rush which would end everything.... + + * * * * * + +Eliot Leithgow said the extraordinary thing that pointed a way out. "May +I suggest," he said mildly, "that we try to get Dr. Ku Sui's brains to +help us?" + +"What do you mean?" + +The older man smiled, a little sadly. "Those brains--they once were +friends of mine. It's possible they'll answer our questions. It won't +hurt to try. We'll ask them how it might be possible to get out." + +Hawk Carse cried: "Eliot, you've got it! There is a chance!" + +But the negro shivered. The brains stood for magic, for ghosts--for +awful, unknown things he wanted nothing to do with. + +Carse shoved back the screen concealing the infamous device. + +"We know where this switch is, at least. If only the current's not been +turned off!" + +"Probably not," the Master Scientist said, out of his own technical +thought-train. + +Friday hung back, loath to be concerned. He looked askance at the thing, +his open mouth a small round circle. + +The Hawk was at the switch, but his hand hesitated. In spite of the +emergency at the doors, in spite of his innate promptness of action, he +hesitated. This thing he was about to do--this awful human mechanism +before him--they were so weird and unnatural.... + +Then he heard a faint click inside the laboratory--in a place where no +one should be. Instinctively he whirled and crouched--and an orange ray +streaked over his head with its wicked spit of death. At once his own +ray-gun was up and answering to the spot where the other bolt had +started, and then he was flat on the floor and ceiling toward the wall +opposite. + + * * * * * + +A high wide panel in the wall had slid open, with only the faint noise +Carse had heard to mark its movement. For just a few seconds it stayed +open. The Hawk covered the last few feet in a desperate rush, but he +reached it too late. It clicked shut in his face, and there was no hold +for his hands when he tried to force it back. + +Only a voice showed that someone was on the other side. In familiar, +suave tones it said: + +"Carse, I still will take you and Leithgow--alive. It would of course be +idle to ask you to surrender, but that's not necessary, for you're +trapped and can't possibly last another five minutes. I intrude only to +warn you away from my synchronized brains. I will destroy without +compunction anyone who meddles with them." + +Dr. Ku's voice dropped away; the last words seemed to have come from +below. Apparently he was descending by a stairway or hidden elevator. + +"Without compunction!" Leithgow echoed with a bitter smile. + +Carse ordered Friday curtly to watch the panel, then returned to +Leithgow. + +"Eliot," he said, "we've got to be quick." + +And with his words the delicate, overstrained filament in the tiny +instrument bulb gave out, and the laboratory was plunged into ultimate +blackness.... + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_Out Under the Dome_ + + +Within the well of darkness rang the metallic reverberations from the +battering on the four doors all around. The fluid nothingness was a +place of fear. Its nerve-shattering, mind-confusing bedlam might have +come from the fantastic anvils of some giant, malevolent blacksmith. + +The Hawk's curt voice cut through imperatively: + +"Keep your heads. We'll have a light in a second. Light of a sort." + +He threw the switch by the side of the chamber of brains. + +Seconds passed, and where was darkness grew a faint glow. The switch had +operated; the current, probably from the device's own batteries, was +there! Quickly and steadily the liquid within the case took on its +self-originating glow, until the midnight laboratory was faintly washed +with the delicate rosy light. The wires emerged in their complexity as +before, and then the brains, all gruesome and naked in their cradles of +unnatural life. + +Around the internally-lit case were the three besieged Earthlings, half +in blackness, the light from the front making ghastly shadows on their +faces. Acolites at some sorcerer's rite they looked, with the long inky +patches that left them to dissolve formlessly against the far walls of +the room. + +Grotesque in the operating garments he wore, his bald head shining in +the eery light, Eliot Leithgow approached the microphone Dr. Ku had used +to communicate with his pathetic subjects. He looked down at the brains, +at the wires which threaded the pans they lay in, at the narrow gray +tubes that pulsed with blood--or whatever might be the fluid used in its +stead. All mechanical was the apparatus--all of metal and other +cunningly fashioned man-made materials--all but the brains.... + + * * * * * + +To the old Master Scientist there came a vision of five human figures, +rising specterlike from the case they were entombed in; straight, proud +young figures, two of them; two others old, like himself, and the fifth +a gnarled hunchback. Very different were they, each from each other, but +each face had its mark of genius; and each face, to Eliot Leithgow, was +warm and smiling, for these five men were friends.... + +So he saw them in vision.... + +"Another switch has to be thrown to talk with them, Carse," he said. The +Hawk indicated one inquiringly. Leithgow nodded. "Yes. That was it." The +switch went over. + +He steadied himself and said into the speaking grille: + +"I am Eliot Leithgow--Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow. Once you knew me. +Professors Geinst, Estapp and Norman, Dr. Swanson and Master Scientist +Cram--do you remember me? Do you remember how once we worked together; +how, long ago on our Earth, we were friends? Do you remember your old +colleague, Leithgow?" + +He stopped, deeply shaken. In seconds his mind sped back through the +years to those five men as he had last seen them--and to two women he +had met, calm-faced as their husband-scientists.... God forbid those +women should ever learn of this! + +Carse watched his old comrade closely, fearful of the strain this was on +him. + +Then came a cold, thin, mechanical voice. + +_"Yes, Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow. I remember you well."_ + +The scientist strove to keep level his voice as he continued: + +"Two friends and I are trapped here. Dr. Ku Sui desires my brain. He +wishes to add it to----" He stammered, halted; then burst out: "If it +would help you in any way, I'd give it gladly! But it couldn't, I know; +it would only aid his power-mad schemes. So my friends and I must +escape. And we can see now no way! + +"You can hear that noise? It's very loud; men are outside each door, +battering at them, and soon they must break through. How can we escape? +Do you know of a way, out of your knowledge of conditions here? Will you +tell me, old colleagues?" + +He waited. + + * * * * * + +Fifty feet away from this scene, and missing almost all of it, was +Friday. From his post at the panel he kept throwing fearful looks at the +nearest door, which was shuddering and clanging and threatening any +moment to be wrenched off its hinges. A good thing--he was +thinking--that the doors were of stout metal. When one did go he would +get five or six of the soulless devils before they brought him down. + +Carse waited tensely for the response--if one there was to be. His ears +were throbbing in unison with the regular crash of rams on metal, but +his eyes never left the convoluted mounds of intelligent matter so +fantastically featured by the internal radiance of the life-giving +liquid. Impossible, it seemed, that thoughts were stirring inside those +gruesome things.... + +"Please hurry!" he said in a low voice; and Leithgow repeated +desperately: + +"How can we escape? Please be quick!" + +Then the miracle of mechanism and matter functioned and again gave forth +the cold voice of the living dead. + +"_It is my disposition to help you, Eliot Leithgow. On a shelf under one +of the tables in this room you will find a portable heat-ray. Melt a +hole in the ceiling and go out through the roof._" + +"Then what can we do?" + +"_In lockers behind the table there are space-suits, hanging ready for +emergencies. Don them and leave through one of the asteroid's +port-locks._" + +"Ask if the ports are sealed," Carse interjected instantly. + +Leithgow asked the question. + +"_Yes_," replied the unhuman voice. "_But twice four to the right will +open any of them._" + + * * * * * + +The Master Scientist wiped his brow. Though trembling under the strain +of conversing with this machine on which his life depended, he did not +overlook a single point. + +"But the asteroid's gravital pull would hold us close to it," he said. +"Is there a way of breaking free from it?" + +"_You'll find the space-suits are equipped with small generators and +gravity-plates which I helped Ku Sui develop. The switch and main +control are in the left-hand glove._" + +"Thank you! Oh, thank you! You give us a chance!" exclaimed old +Leithgow. + +He turned and looked for the Hawk, and found him already in the lockers +and pulling out three space-suits. The clumsy, heavy cone of a portable +heat-ray lay on the table ready to hand. + +They had little time to waste. The torrid temperature of a new smell of +burned metal around the door they had just entered told them as well as +words that the large projector in the corridor was at last being used to +bore a way in. + +With surprising strength in one so slender, Carse lifted the ray and +pointed it at an angle toward the middle of the ceiling. He pressed the +control button, and a blinding stream of violet radiance splashed +against the metal above. It hissed and sputtered where it touched; +molten drops fell sizzling and splattering to the floor; then suddenly +there was a flood of ruddy illumination, and the Hawk dropped the +heat-ray, stepped forward and looked up. + + * * * * * + +Up through a neatly melted round hole, up at the great glasslike dome +which arched over the whole settlement--up, past it, into the vast face +of Jupiter, hanging out there oppressively near! + +Friday, champing for action, left his post by the panel and dragged a +long low cabinet to position under the hole. On top of it he placed the +operating table, and, after he had tripped the table's small wheels, +another table on top of that. + +"You first, Eclipse!" his master rapped out as he finished. "I'll pass +the suits to you; then swing Leithgow up." + +The negro answered by acting. Swiftly he climbed the rude pile, and +reached for the edge of the hole. It was still searingly hot, and he +gasped with hurt as his palms and fingers clenched over it, but he did +not let go. Levering himself rapidly up, he got a leg through and then +his body. A second later he peered back in and lowered his hands down. + +"No one up here yet!" he reported. "All right for the suits!" + +Carse passed the three bulky suits to him, and also two extra ray-guns +he had found in the locker. + +"Now, Eliot--up!" + +With the Hawk's help, Leithgow clambered onto the cabinet. He was just +mounting the operating table when, from behind, came a thin, metallic +voice: + +"_Master Leithgow--Eliot Leithgow--please, a favor?_" + + * * * * * + +Leithgow turned and stared, then understood. It was the coordinated +brains. They had forgotten to return the switches. And now the cold +voice was speaking of its own accord; and somehow--though it might have +been imagination entirely--there seemed to be a tinge of loneliness to +the words that sounded from its speaker. + +Instantly Leithgow got down and hurried over to the grille. Seconds were +precious, but Carse and he were heavily obligated to the brains, and any +request in reason had to be fulfilled. + +"Yes. What can I possibly do?" + +The lower hinge of one side of the barricaded door gave, burned out, and +the door wrenched inward at a resumption of the battering. The other +hinge still held, but it was bending with each mighty blow. Outwardly +calm, Hawk Carse watched the weakening door, a gun in each hand. + +"_This_," said the toneless voice: "_Destroy me. Leave no slightest +trace. I live in hell, and have no way to move.... There are old +memories ... things that once were dear ... Earth ... my homes ... my +lives there.... Eliot Leithgow, destroy me. But promise, on your honor +as a Master Scientist, never to let a single word regarding my fate +reach those on Earth who knew me, loved me...._" + +Leithgow looked at the Hawk. The adventurer nodded. + +"I'll use the heat-ray," he said, with pity. + +He ran and picked it up. But he had taken only one step in return when +the second hinge of the yielding door wrenched free. An ear-piercing +screech rent the bedlam--and the door fell, half twisting, to lie in the +doorway. + +As if by a signal the crashing at the other doors stopped. In an +extraordinary silence a mob of gray-smocked bodies pressed forward. + +Orange streaks laced the dim laboratory. The Hawk shouted, "Up, Eliot! +For God's sake, up!" as, with deadly effect, he poured his two ray-guns +at the advancing men. + +For a second, shaken by the terrible barrage, they fell back, leaving +several sprawled bodies on the floor; but they came right back again. + +Leithgow got safely to the top of the pile and was snatched out to +temporary safety. Frantically Friday called down to his master; he +seemed on the point of jumping down into the fight himself. But Hawk +Carse had been party to a promise. + +He was behind the structure of furniture under the hole he had made in +the ceiling. With one gun he spat death at the coolies, while the other +he emptied at the case of brains. Two stabbing streams of orange angled +from him, one telling with awful effect on the men only two score feet +away, and the other absolutely useless. All over the still-glowing case +it spat its hits, but the glasslike substance resisted it completely, +and remained unscathed. + +Carse swore harshly. He hurled one empty gun at the case, turned with a +last salvo of shots at the coolies, and then was up on the pile and +leaping for Friday's hands. + +They caught and gripped his, swung him once--twice--and hauled him +swiftly out. But as the Hawk disappeared he shouted down the case: + +"I'll be back!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_The Final Mystery_ + + +On the roof, Carse quickly scanned their situation. They were standing +on the hub of the four-winged building. Far to the left was one set of +the dome's great and small port-locks; exactly opposite was the other. +Near the left hand ports; a little "north," lay the _Scorpion_. The +whole area enclosed was a flat plain of gray soil. + +Looming over the great transparent dome hung the flaming disk of +Jupiter, so oppressively near that it seemed about to crash onto the +asteroid. Its rays poured in a ruddy flood over the settlement, clearly +illuminating each detail; and comparatively close against the face of +the mighty planet they could see the whitish globe of Satellite III. It +offered the nearest haven. They might arrive famished, but in the +power-equipped space-suits which Friday was lugging they should be able +to span the gap. + +The Hawk nodded to the port-locks on the left. + +"That one," he snapped. "We'll have two chances, the _Scorpion_ and the +port, but the port's safest; we could never get the whole ship underway +and through the lock in time. To prevent pursuit, all we have to do is +leave the lock open after us." + +They hastened along the roof of the wing that ran that way. As yet there +was no outside pursuit; most of the settlement's guards seemed to have +been concentrated in the attack on the laboratory. But Carse knew it +would only be a matter of seconds before coolies would emerge from half +a dozen different points. He was trying to figure out which points they +were likely to be when there passed, perilously close, the spit of an +orange ray. He glanced back, to see the first of the crowd which had +broken into the laboratory come clambering up through the roof. Then, as +a second shot sizzled by, they arrived at the end of the wing. + + * * * * * + +Friday took the fifteen-foot drop without hesitation. Carse lowered +Leithgow to him and then swung down himself. They panted forward again, +over grayish, glittering soil. + +Some three hundred yards of open space lay between them and the +port-locks. Friday now led the way, weighted down under the heavy suits; +the scientist came next and then the Hawk, his sole remaining gun +replying at intervals to the ever-thickening barrage from behind. They +had covered perhaps a half of that distance when the negro's steps +suddenly faltered and he halted. + +"Look there!" he groaned. "Cuttin' us off! We'll never make it, suh!" + +Carse looked where he pointed, and saw a squad of half a dozen men +emerging from a building well to their left. They were running at full +speed for the lock, and, as Friday had said, it was obvious that they +would get there first. He glanced quickly around. Pursuit from the +laboratory in the rear was hot--and moreover three coolies were angling +sharply out on each side, to outflank them! In a minute they would be +surrounded! Unable to reach either the port or the ship! + +And then came the crowning piece of ill-luck. Suddenly the Hawk winced; +staggered; clapped a hand to his shoulder. A lucky shot from an enemy +gun had caught him. + +"You're hit!" cried Leithgow. + +"It's nothing...." + + * * * * * + +The slender adventurer stood very still, thinking. He was trapped. But +he was never more dangerous than when he was trapped. + +Leithgow timidly ventured a suggestion. + +"Why can't we put on our space-suits and rise up in the dome?" + +Crisply the answer came back: + +"Hard to maneuver laterally. Never get out ports. Sure death.... _I have +it!_" he ended. + +Tersely he gave the two men orders: + +"We've a bare chance--if I'm lucky. Now listen, and obey me exactly. Put +on your space-suits. Shut them tight. Lie flat. You, Friday, use your +ray-guns _and keep the guards from coming close_. Wait here. Do +absolutely nothing save keep them off. And keep your suits intact or +you're dead!" + +He grabbed one of the suits from Friday and crept toward the _Scorpion_ +on hands and knees. The three coolies from the pursuit at the rear had +already cut him off from the ship. Friday could not control his alarm at +this apparently crazy act. He called after: + +"But you can't get to the ship through those guards! And if you did, you +couldn't run it yourself--and pick us up!" + +Carse turned, his face white with cold passion. "When will you learn to +obey me implicitly?" he said harshly--and crept on. + +Old Leithgow trusted his friend a little more. "Get your suit on, +Friday," he said gently, and slipped into his own. The negro, ashamed, +followed his example; then both were flat on the ground, back to back, +sniping--Leithgow also--as best they could under such conditions at the +groups of men who now were bellying ever nearer from three directions. + +The Hawk's plan might well have appeared hair-brained to one who did not +know the man, and what he was capable of accomplishing under pressure. +The very first step in this plan required the destroying of the three +outflanking guards between him and the space-ship. + + * * * * * + +As so often in the great adventurer's career, he was lucky. The +unthinking have always admitted his luck, but never seen that he forced +it--forced it by doing the unexpected--attacking when he was attacked. +He was doing that now. The three coolie-guards in his way must have +known who he was, so their alarm at finding themselves, the attackers, +attacked, will account for their making a move of poor strategy. Instead +of scattering and defending the open entrance-port of the space-ship +from a short distance, they in their alarm made haste to get inside to +defend it from there. The interior was the best place to defend the +ship--if they had already been inside--for they could lie in the inner +darkness and sweep the open port when the Hawk entered. + +But to try to pass through the port--that was bad judgment. It was only +necessary for Carse to hold bead on it and fire when they passed in +line. + +This was the present "luck" of the adventurer. He might have sniped the +guards anyway, but he had it easier. From fifty yards away, prone and +carefully sighting, he took the three lives that had been so viciously, +so subversively altered by Ku Sui. + +A moment later, the way cleared, he was inside the ship--and his +space-suit lay on the ground outside. + + * * * * * + +Rapidly the three groups of guards closed in on Leithgow and Friday. The +two men made their advance as uncomfortable as possible, but they could +do no accurate shooting at such difficult targets as crawling men, from +within the cramped interiors of their cumbrous suits. Not even Friday, +who was a crack shot. They could not hold out long--nor did they expect +to. + +They had been too occupied to notice what had become of Carse. Within +their suits all was silence; they heard neither their friend's shots as +he struck down the three coolies nor their own. Quick glances at the +ship's open port revealed no one; nothing. Probably, they thought, the +Hawk was dead. Even if he were not, they would soon be. A matter of a +minute. Maybe two. Their suits were still intact, but they could not +remain so much longer. Ku Sui had this time ordered them destroyed. + +And now half a dozen coolies were leaving the ring tightening around +them and creeping to the _Scorpion_ as additional guards.... + +It was then, in those last few seconds, with death staring them in the +face, that Friday did a magnificent thing. It happened that Carse saw +him do it as the adventurer jumped out of the _Scorpion_ again and with +frantic speed slipped into the space-suit he had left waiting. Friday +stood straight up, a hundred feet from the enemy--a great bloated +monster in his padded suit--and charged. Leithgow and the Hawk heard, by +their suit helmet-radios, his battle yell of defiance, but the coolies +did not. All silent, apparently, he rushed them--slowly, because of his +hampering suit--his ray-gun spitting orange contempt--and other pencils +of fiery death passing him narrowly by. + +And then, while he still charged, the rays stopped stabbing past him, +and he saw the faces of the coolie-guards turn upward. So surprised was +the expression on their faces, that he turned and looked too--and saw +the _Scorpion_, her entrance ports still open, forty feet off the ground +and rising with swift acceleration. + +Faster and faster she rose; all ray-guns were silenced before her +astounding ascent. Higher and higher--faster and faster--till with a +stunning, ear-deafening crash she struck the great dome and was through. + +Then came chaos. + +A huge, jagged gash marked the ship's passage, and through this the air +inside the dome poured with cyclonic force, snatching into in maelstrom +everything unfastened within the dome and hurling it crazily into space. +For seconds the flood rushed out, a visible thing, gray from the soil +which it scooped up; and while its fury lasted every building on the +asteroid quivered and groaned from the terrific strain. + +And where, a moment before, men had stood--two white men and a black, +and a score of coolie-guards--there was now nothing save the flat rock +under the gaping hole. The upper soil had been ripped out and flung +forth like a concealing veil around the bodies that had gone with it.... + + * * * * * + +For an interval Hawk Carse knew nothing. He had ceased to live, it +seemed, and was soaring through Eternity. He never knew how much time +passed before his numbed senses began to return and he became aware of +weight and of a furious roaring in his head. + +He was moving forward at blinding speed. Something kept flashing before +him--a wide stream of ruddy orange light: his dazed brain could connect +it with nothing he had ever known. Soon the orange stream settled into +spasmodic bursts, pitch blackness filling the intervals; and when it +came more slowly he saw that it was in reality the vast flaming ball of +Jupiter, streaking across the line of vision as he tumbled over and +over, head over heels--free in space! + +The realization helped his return to alertness. As the wild tumbling +motion gradually ceased, and Jupiter tended to stay more and more under +his feet, he peered around through his face-plate. To one side he +glimpsed two grotesque, bulky figures, one half of them limned glaringly +against the blackness of space by the near-by planet's light. He saw +other figures, too, spread out in a scattered fringe--figures of men in +smocks, dead and bloated and white. + +They were the coolies, these last, and the other two were of course +Leithgow and Friday. But had they survived the outrush of air? Carse +felt in his left glove for the suit's gravity control lever; found it +and tentatively moved it. His acceleration slowly increased. He brought +the lever part-way back. Then, into the microphone encased inside the +helmet, he called: + +"Leithgow! Leithgow! Can you hear me? Friday!" + +The radio broadcast his words. Soon welcome answers came in Eliot +Leithgow's tired voice and the negro's emphatic bass. + +"Maneuver together," Carse instructed them. "We must lock arms and stay +close." + + * * * * * + +Slowly, clumsily, the three monstrous figures made toward each other, +and presently they were reunited in a close group. Carse pointed an arm +into the face of Jupiter where there hung poised a gleaming globe of +white, dappled with dark splotches. + +"Satellite III," he said, "--our goal. And we'll get there without +interruption now that Ku Sui, his laboratory, his coordinated brains, +are destroyed.... You are very quiet, Eliot. Aren't you happy at our +success?" + +"I am very tired," the old scientist said. "Oh, but we'll sleep and +feast and game when we get back to my hidden lab on Three--won't we!" + +"Chicken for me!" exclaimed Friday. "Even at twenty dollars a can!" + +"Your shoulder, Carse--how is it?" asked the Master Scientist +solicitously. "And how did you ever get out of that space-ship in time, +after you had given it such an acceleration?" + +There was a tired smile in the adventurer's voice when he replied: + +"My shoulder--a trifle. I have a dozen such burns. But my feet still +hurt from the twenty-foot drop I took out of the _Scorpion_. I had to +get out: the shock of the crash would have killed me. + +"But I've been looking for the asteroid," he went on--and interrupted +himself. "By the horn of the phanti!" he exclaimed in amazement. "Look, +Eliot! That explains it all!" + +His whole body was tilted back to allow him to look upward. Friday and +the Master Scientist followed his startled gaze, and they too gaped in +wonder. + +For there was nothing above or around them--no dwindling fragment of +rock--no sign of any asteroid: only the eternal stars. + +"Yes," said Eliot Leithgow slowly, "that explains it all...." + +"It explains what?" asked Friday, staring. "And where is the asteroid?" + +"It's up there," the Hawk replied. "Don't you see now, Eclipse, why no +one's ever found it; why we could hunt forever for it and hunt in vain? +Ku Sui made his whole asteroid invisible!" + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Affair of the Brains, by Anthony Gilmore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFFAIR OF THE BRAINS *** + +***** This file should be named 29310.txt or 29310.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/1/29310/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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