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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30307 ***
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+    This etext was produced from Astounding Stories November 1931.
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                              Hawk Carse
+
+                        _A Complete Novelette_
+
+
+
+                          By Anthony Gilmore
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_The Swoop of the Hawk_
+
+[Illustration: _The Hawk stood there, both arms hanging easily at his
+sides._]
+
+[Sidenote: One of the spectacular exploits of Hawk Carse, greatest of
+space adventurers.]
+
+
+Hawk Carse came to the frontiers of space when Saturn was the frontier
+planet, which was years before the swift Patrol ships brought Earth's
+law and order to those vast regions. A casual glance at his slender
+figure made it seem impossible that he was to rise to be the greatest
+adventurer in space, that his name was to carry such deadly
+connotation in later years. But on closer inspection, a number of
+little things became evident: the steadiness of his light gray eyes;
+the marvelously strong-fingered hands; the wiry build of his
+splendidly proportioned body. Summing these things up and adding the
+brilliant resourcefulness of the man, the complete ignorance of fear,
+one could perhaps understand why even his blood enemy, the impassive
+Ku Sui, a man otherwise devoid of every human trait, could not face
+Carse unmoved in his moments of cold fury.
+
+His name, we know, enters most histories of the period 2117-2148 A.
+D., for he has at last been recognized as the one who probably did
+most--unofficially, and not with the authority of the Earth
+Government--to shape the raw frontiers of space, to push them outward
+and to lay the foundations of the present tremendous commerce between
+Earth, Vulcan, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. But, little
+of his fascinating character may be gleaned from the dry words of
+history; and it is Hawk Carse the adventurer, he of the spitting
+ray-gun and the phenomenal draw, of the reckless space ship
+maneuverings, of the queer bangs of flaxen hair that from a certain
+year hid his forehead, of the score of blood feuds and the one great
+feud that jarred nations in its final terrible settling--it is with
+that man we are concerned here.
+
+A number of his exploits never recorded are still among the favorite
+yarns spun by lonely outlanders in the scattered trading posts of the
+planets, and among them is that of his final encounter with Judd the
+Kite. It shows typically the cold deadliness, the prompt repaying of a
+blood debt, the nerveless daring that were the outstanding qualities
+of this almost legendary figure.
+
+It began one crisp, early morning on Iapetus, and it ended on Iapetus,
+with the streaks of ray-guns searing the air; and it explains why
+there are two square mounds of soil on Iapetus, eighth satellite of
+Saturn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse pioneered Iapetus and considered its product his by right of
+prior exploration. One or two men had landed there before he came to
+the frontiers of space and reported the satellite habitable, possessed
+of gravital force only slightly under Earth's, despite its
+twelve-hundred-mile diameter, and of an atmosphere merely a trifle
+rarer; but they had gone no further. They had noticed the forms of
+certain strange animals flitting through the satellite's jungles, but
+had not investigated. It was Carse who captured one of the creatures
+and saw the commercial possibilities of the pointed seven-inch horn
+that grew on its head, and who named it phanti, after the now extinct
+Venusian bird-mammal.
+
+There were great herds of them, and they constituted Iapetus' highest
+form of life. The space trader cut off a few of their opalescent and
+green-veined horns and sent them as samples to Earth; and, upon their
+being valued highly, he two months later established his ranch on
+Iapetus, and thus laid the foundation for the grim business that men
+sometimes call the Exploit of the Hawk and the Kite.
+
+No doubt Carse expected trouble over the ranch. To protect the
+valuable twice-yearly harvest of horn from Ku Sui's several bands of
+pirates, and other semi-piratical traders who roamed space, he built a
+formidable ranch-house with generators for powerful offensive rays and
+a strong defensive ray-web, and manned it with six competent men.
+Moreover, he came personally twice a year to transport the cargo of
+horn, and let it be known throughout the frontiers that the sign of
+the Hawk was on that portion of Iapetus, and that all who trespassed
+would have to answer to him. This should have been, ordinarily,
+enough. But there was always the sinister, brilliant Dr. Ku Sui,
+plotting against him and his belongings, and reckless others to whom
+the ranch might look like easy pickings. From these Carse had long
+anticipated a raid on Iapetus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now he was worried. Clad as usual in a faded blue tunic, open at
+the neck, soft blue trousers and old-fashioned rubber soled shoes, he
+showed it by pulling occasionally at the bangs of flaxen hair that had
+been trained to hang down his forehead to the thick, straw-colored
+eyebrows. In his new cruiser, the _Star Devil_, he was within an
+hour's time of Iapetus, which lay before the bow observation ports of
+the control cabin like a giant buff-tinted orange, dark-splotched by
+seas and jungles, on the third of his semi-annual voyages for the
+harvest of horn. Away to the left, scintillating and flaming in the
+blackness of space, whirled Saturn, his rings clear-cut and brilliant,
+his hard light filling the control cabin. Carse was staring unseeingly
+at the magnificent spectacle when the giant negro standing nearby at
+the space-stick rumbled:
+
+"Well, suh, Ah cain't think they's anything wrong--no, suh. They's
+nobody'd _dare_ touch that ranch! No, suh--not Hawk Carse's ranch."
+
+This was "Friday," the herculean black Earthling whom Carse had
+rescued years before from one of the Venusian slave-ships, and now a
+member of that strange trio of totally dissimilar comrades, the third
+of whom was Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow, now absent and at work in
+his secret laboratory. Friday thought the Hawk just about the greatest
+man in the Solar System, and many times already had he given proof of
+his devotion.
+
+Carse looked full at him. "You're a good mechanic, Eclipse," he said,
+"but in some ways very innocent. Crane hasn't replied to us for
+seventy minutes. He knows we're coming and he should be on duty. That
+cargo's valuable, and it's all ready and packed."
+
+"Hmff," Friday grunted. "But who you think'd dare try an' swipe it
+when we're so close? One o' Ku Sui's gang, maybe?"
+
+"Perhaps. I haven't heard anything of Ku Sui for some time, and he's
+never more dangerous than when he keeps silent," said the Hawk
+thoughtfully. "But Crane might be sick. Or his radio might have broken
+down temporarily. Still--"
+
+It was then that the third man in the cabin, Harkness, the navigator,
+straightened abruptly and put a sharp end to the trader's last word by
+calling out:
+
+"Radio, sir!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A red dot of light was winking on a switchboard. Friday watched the
+Hawk move in his quick, effortless way to it and pull a lever down,
+all in the same motion, and then the negro's neck muscles corded as he
+listened to the sounds that came, choking and barely intelligible,
+from a loudspeaker:
+
+"Carse--Hawk Carse--Crane speaking from the ranch. We're
+besieged--pirate ship--outnumbered--can't hold out much longer. We got
+most of the cargo inside here, but our generators--they're
+weakening--and I'm fading, I guess, and the others that're left are
+wounded. Carse--hurry--hurry...."
+
+Five words went back into the microphone before the receiver went
+dead.
+
+"I'm coming, Crane! Hold on!"
+
+Friday had seen the Hawk in such moments before, and he knew the
+sight; but the navigator, Harkness, had not been with Carse very long,
+and now he stood silent, motionless, while despite himself a shiver
+ran down his spine as he stared at the tight-pressed bloodless lips
+and the gray eyes, cold now as space. He started nervously when the
+Hawk turned and looked him in the eye.
+
+"I want speed," came his quiet, soft, deceptive voice. "I want that
+hour's running time sliced by a third. Streak through that
+atmosphere."
+
+"Yes, suh!" answered Friday.
+
+"And you"--to Harkness--"be very sure you get out every ounce she's
+got. Tell the engineer personally."
+
+"Full speed. Yes, sir," said the navigator, and felt relieved when
+Carse turned his eyes away. For the Hawk, as always when he learned
+that property had been ravaged and his friends shot down, seemed less
+human than the Indrots at the far end of the frigid deeps of space he
+roamed. His face was mask-like, graven, totally expressionless: blood
+had been shed, and for each ounce another had to be spilled to balance
+the scales. At a speaking tube that reached aft to the three other
+members of the crew, he whispered: "Fighting posts. Arm and be ready
+for action. Pirates are attacking ranch," and then went noiselessly to
+the forward electelscope. Meanwhile Friday kept his eyes strictly on
+the dials before him and held the space-stick rigid, while aft, in the
+ship's other compartments, three men strapped on ray-gun belts and
+wondered who was doomed to be caught in the swoop of the Hawk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse himself wondered that. The raider so far showed as a newcomer to
+the frontiers of space; he was one who as yet had never faced the
+Hawk, one to whom the tales that were told of him seemed laughable, to
+whom the rich consignment of horn looked like a gift. Certainly such
+an open attack did not resemble Ku Sui's subtle methods, or those of
+his several henchmen, pirates of space all; they, rather, struck
+behind his back, and then only when the infamous Eurasian had prepared
+what seemed an escape-proof trap.
+
+"Foolish to raid when I'm so close!" he murmured as he trained the
+electelscope and peered into its eye-piece. "Stupid! Unless...."
+
+Friday, at the space-stick, mopped the trickles of sweat from his brow
+and with a vast sigh shifted his bulk. The job of speeding into an
+atmospheric pressure was always ticklish, and it was with some relief
+that he reported "Into th' atmosphere, suh," according to routine. He
+waited for the usual acknowledgment, and when it did not come repeated
+his observation in a louder voice. Two full minutes of silence passed.
+Then, finally, Hawk Carse turned from the electelscope, and even the
+negro shivered at sight of the deadly mask that was his face.
+
+For the ranch-house in its clearing had dimly appeared in the
+electelscope just as Friday had spoken.
+
+Carse spoke.
+
+"More speed, if it burns us up," came his almost whispered words. "I
+want much more speed."
+
+Harkness gulped. "Yes, sir," he said, and, moistening his lips, he
+returned to the engine-room. The frigid gray eyes swung back to the
+sight that was revealed on Iapetus.
+
+The long, lean shape of a rakish space ship was resting on the soil
+some three hundred yards from the ranch-house, and between were the
+hazy figures of six men, busily dragging as many boxes towards their
+craft. The boxes contained the whole half-year's harvest of phanti
+horns, and had obviously been looted from the house. The resistance
+had been overcome; the pirate raid had succeeded. The trim,
+gray-painted ranch-house was lifeless....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Hawk switched off the electelscope. His colorless lips were
+compressed very tightly. "I'll take the helm," he said curtly to
+Friday. "Turn on the defensive web, and prepare all ray batteries."
+
+"Yes, suh!" The negro's big, yellow-palmed hands worked dexterously
+among the instruments to his right; then, amidships, grew a shrill
+whine which keened upward in pitch. A few sparks raced by the _Star
+Devil's_ after ports, quickly to disappear after they left the almost
+invisible envelope of delicate bluish light that entirely wrapped her
+hull.
+
+She was making dangerous speed. The wind screamed as she streaked
+through the satellite's atmosphere, and the great friction of her
+passage raised her outer shell to a perilous glow. The altitude
+dial's finger almost jumped from forty thousand to thirty-five.
+
+"Ready for bow-ray salvo."
+
+"Aye, sir!" replied Harkness, and a moment later repeated crisply:
+"All ready for bow-ray salvo, sir!" His voice showed no sign of the
+fear within him--fear that the _Star Devil's_ outer hull would reach
+the melting point--but his lips fell apart and his face lost its
+discipline when the Hawk next spoke and acted.
+
+"Steady," came the low whisper to his ears--and he saw the controlling
+space-stick being shoved down as far as it would go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+_Pursuit_
+
+
+That was the Hawk's method, and it had given him the name which he had
+made famous. It was characteristic of the man that he preferred to
+strike at an enemy ship in a wild, breath-taking swoop, even as the
+fierce hawk plummets from high heaven to sink its talons deep into the
+flesh of its more sluggish prey. Nerves were uncomfortable things to
+have on such occasions, and Harkness had them, and accordingly he felt
+his heart hammer and something tight seemed to bind his throat. He
+tried to assume the unshakable calmness of the motionless figure at
+the stick, but could not, for his body was only flesh and blood--and
+Hawk Carse was tempered, frosty, steel. Through staring eyes the
+navigator watched the surface of Iapetus rushing into the bow ports,
+watched it spread accelerating outward, until he could plainly see the
+pirate ship lying there, and the nearby figures of men tugging at the
+heavy boxes of horns.
+
+His eyes were on those figures when they broke. First they teetered
+hesitantly a moment, glancing wildly around and up at the vision of
+death that was coming like a silver comet from the skies, and then
+they melted apart. Three scrambled towards the rim of jungle foliage
+close at hand, while their fellows leaped in the other direction,
+trying to make an open port in their craft. Harkness saw them tumble
+headlong through it and slam it shut. Then a web of blue streaks
+appeared around the ship, and softened until her hull was bathed is
+ghostly bluish light.
+
+"Their defensive ray-web's on, sir!" he managed to gasp. Carse, though
+close, might not have heard, so intently was he watching. The altitude
+dial's pointer reached for one thousand and slid past. Harkness's face
+was pale and drawn; his tight-gripped fingers and clenched teeth
+showed that he expected to crash into the ground in a molten,
+shapeless tomb of steel. But Friday was grinning, his teeth a slash of
+white.
+
+"Stand by bow projectors," sounded the Hawk's clipped voice. The negro
+extended his hands and rumbled:
+
+"Ready, suh."
+
+"Fire."
+
+"Fire!" Friday roared.
+
+His rich laugh rang out and he whirled the wheels over. With a hissing
+as of a hundred snakes, the rays struck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Well aimed, the bolt speared straight and true. The distance was
+short, and it came from generators that were perhaps not equaled in
+space; no ordinary ship's defensive web could resist its vicious
+thrust. From the streak of silver that represented the Hawk's swoop, a
+stream of orange cut a swathe through the air ahead, holding
+accurately on the brigand ship. For just a tick of time there was a
+turmoil of color as offensive ray met defensive web; then the air
+cleared again--and the pirate was unmarked!
+
+By rights she should have been split in two; and, though his face did
+not show it, it must have been surprising to Carse that she wasn't.
+With one flick of the wrist he wrenched the _Star Devil_ out of her
+plunge and sent her scudding, a hundred feet up, over the jungle rim.
+Friday was gaping. Harkness, still numb from the dive, foolishly
+staring; and then the brigand bared her fangs in return.
+
+Orange light winked from her stern, and the Hawk's ship was bathed in
+a streak of color. But the bolt caromed harmlessly off the side of the
+arcing _Star Devil_! and the next instant the pirate's lean bulk
+swayed, lifted a little and zoomed up into the heavens, abandoning the
+boxes of horn without further fight.
+
+"Runnin' foh it! Scared stiff!" muttered Friday, unholy joy in his
+gleaming eyes. He looked at the figure at the stick. "Follow 'em now,
+suh, an' wear out their projectors?"
+
+Carse thoughtfully smoothed his bangs with his free hand. "Plenty of
+time for that," he said patiently. "Some of the men on the ranch may
+still be alive: we must care for them. I'm going to land. Tell the
+engineer to keep watch through the electelscope on that ship. I'll
+start overtaking it shortly."
+
+"Funny our rays didn't ha'm 'em," Friday ruminated aloud. "Ain't no
+ordinary craft, that. No, suh, they's more in this heah business than
+hits yo' eyes!"
+
+"Now you're getting cynical, Eclipse," the Hawk said dryly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A quarter-mile-square block of land had been fenced off as a corral
+for the ninety-head herd of bull phantis Carse kept on Iapetus. These
+creatures resembled mostly the old ostrich of Earth, but grew no
+feathers. The neck, however was shorter than the ostrich's; the
+leathery skin of a drab gray color; the powerful hind feet, on which
+they stood erect, prehensile and armed with short stabbing spurs; the
+forearms short and used for plucking the delicate shoots and young
+leaves on which they lived. There was a dim flicker of rudimentary
+intelligence inside the bullet heads; they recognized men as their
+enemies, and hated them. And therefore they necessitated careful
+handling, for, even without the valuable head-horns, their
+sharp-spurred feet could rip a human being into shreds in seconds.
+
+They were clustered now behind the wire corral-fence, electrified to
+prevent them from breaking through. They bellowed angrily and shoved
+each other about as their wicked little blood-shot eyes caught sight
+of the _Star Devil_ as she came dropping gently down.
+
+At the electelscope of the descending craft was the ship's engineer.
+He had just centered the instrument on the fleeing pirate craft that
+by now was leaving the satellite's atmosphere, and the image was large
+on the screen above the bow windows, where he kept a steady eye on it.
+The inner door of the port-lock swung open, the outer door down, and
+Carse walked through, followed by Friday and Harkness.
+
+An ugly scene lay spread out before them in the glaring daylight. The
+trader had only gone a few paces when he paused and looked down at an
+outsprawled thing that had once been a man. Stooping, he very gently
+turned the mess of charred flesh over and peered at what was left of
+the face. There were small, burnt holes in it, and the flesh
+surrounding them looked as though it had been suspended for some time
+over a slow fire....
+
+Carse rose and stared into space.
+
+"Ruthers, a guard," he said softly, as if speaking to himself. He
+walked on.
+
+Another heap of flesh was pitched before the front wall of the
+ranch-house. The man it had been a little while before had evidently
+been running for the door when the deadly rays had got him. His
+ray-gun was lying a few feet away. Again Carse stooped and again very
+gently pulled the ragged thing over.
+
+"By God!" stammered Harkness suddenly, staring, his face white,
+"that--that's Jack O'Fallon--old Jack O'Fallon! Why, we went to
+navigation school together! We--"
+
+"Yes," said the Hawk, "O'Fallon, overseer." He stepped into the house.
+Friday, impassive and grim, pulled Harkness away from the distorted
+body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three more were tumbled together behind a splintered table in the main
+room. The rays had done their work well. Three were welded, it seemed,
+into one.... It was some time before the Hawk's frigid whisper came.
+
+"Martin ... Olafson ... and this--Antil ... Antil was the only
+Venusian I ever liked...."
+
+The chairs and tables in the room were overturned, most of them bore
+the seared scars of ray-guns, which showed plainly enough that there
+had been a desperate last minute hand-to-hand struggle there, after
+the defensive ray-web had failed and the pirates rushed the building.
+The radio alcove was choked with seared, cracked wreckage. Crane, the
+operator, still sat in his seat, but he was slumped over forward, and
+his head and chest were pitted with slanting ray holes. One hand had
+been reaching for a dial. The other was twisted and charred.
+
+"And Crane, the last," said Hawk Carse, and for some moments he stood
+there, his face cold and unmoving save for the tiny twitching of the
+left eyelid. Utter silence rested over the bitter three--a silence
+broken only by the occasional roar of an angry phanti bull outside in
+the enclosure.
+
+Finally Carse took a deep breath and turned to Friday.
+
+"You'll see to their burying," he ordered quietly. "Get the power ray
+from the ship and burn out two big pits on that knoll off the corner
+of the corral."
+
+Friday looked at him in puzzlement. "Two, suh?" he repeated. "Why two?
+Why not put 'em all in one?"
+
+"You will put all my men in one. I'll need the other later.... You,"
+he went on, to Harkness, "get the cargo of horns aboard. We can't
+leave it out there, for three of those pirates fled into the jungle. I
+haven't time to find them, and they'd come out and bury the horns if
+we left them. I'll be with you soon. We take off in ten minutes."
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the navigator, and he and the negro went out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For a little while Carse stayed in the cubby. As he softly stroked the
+flaxen bangs of hair over his brow, he visualized what had happened
+inside that house of death, piecing a number of things together and
+forming a whole. On the surface it seemed plain enough, and yet there
+were one or two points.... His face showed a trace of puzzlement. He
+shook his head slightly; then he stooped and picked up the radio
+operator's body with an ease that might have seemed surprising from
+such a slender man, and walked out of the house.
+
+Beyond one corner of the corral, upon a slight rise in the ground,
+Friday was melting out the second grave with the ship's great portable
+ray-gun. Carse laid Crane's body gently down in the first grave, then
+went to where Harkness, with the _Star Devil's_ radio-man and cook,
+was loading the cargo of horns aboard. The trader opened several of
+the boxes, glanced at the upper layers to inspect the quality, and,
+satisfied, closed them again. All the boxes were trundled soon into
+the craft's open port and aft to her cargo hold.
+
+The engineer on watch at the electelscope and visi-screen felt a hand
+on his shoulder and looked around to find his captain standing by him.
+He pointed up at the screen: on it, the brigand ship was a mere four
+inches in size, and bearing straight out on an unwavering course. "I
+reckoned their speed to be about ten thousand an hour, a minute ago,
+sir," he reported. "Now about five thousand miles away."
+
+"How soon," Carse asked, "do you think we could overhaul them?"
+
+The other grinned. "If you're in a hurry, sir, about two hours and a
+half."
+
+"I am in a hurry. I want all the speed you can muster."
+
+"Yes, sir. Might be able to get it down, to two."
+
+The Hawk nodded. "Try. Return to your post."
+
+Outside, through the port, he saw Friday smoothing over the grave, the
+burying finished, and he beckoned him in. At that second Harkness
+reported the cargo all fastened down. Carse snapped out his orders.
+
+"Harkness," he said shortly, "you and Friday with me in the control
+cabin. Sparks, you can get an hour's sleep, but leave the radio
+receiver open. Cook, an hour's rest if you want it--and I think you'd
+better want it. There's war ahead. Close port!"
+
+The inner and outer doors nestled snugly, one after the other, into
+place with a hiss; the rows of gravity plates in the ship's belly
+angled ever so slightly. She quivered, then, in a surge of power,
+lifted straight up and poised; then, answering the touch of
+space-stick and accelerator, she went streaking through the atmosphere
+on the trail of the distant craft that had left its mark of blood on
+Iapetus and provoked the vengeance of the Hawk....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_Death Rides the Star Devil_
+
+
+Usually, when pursuing an enemy, Hawk Carse was impassive and grim,
+apparently emotionless, icy. But now he seemed somehow disturbed.
+
+He fidgeted around, glancing occasionally at the visi-screen to make
+sure his quarry was not changing course, now watching Friday juggle
+through the skin of atmosphere into outer space, and now standing
+apart, silent and solitary, brooding.
+
+There was something about the affair he didn't like. Something that
+was deeply hidden, that could not be grasped clearly; that might, on
+the other hand, be pure imagination. And yet, why--
+
+Why, for instance, had the brigands taken to their heels with just the
+barest semblance of fight? Why, with their defensive ray-web proof for
+some time at least against his offensive rays, had they left without
+more of a struggle for the horn? Why were they so willing to flee,
+knowing as they must that he, the Hawk, would follow? Did they not
+know he had--thanks to Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow--the fastest
+ship in space, and would inevitably overtake them?
+
+Were they Ku Sui's men? It seemed so, certainly, from the great
+strength of their defensive ray-web. No other ships that he knew of in
+space save Ku Sui's possessed such power. But--it wasn't the brilliant
+Eurasian's customary style. It was too simple for him.
+
+Carse stroked his bangs. The factors were all mixed up. He didn't like
+it.
+
+Iapetus' atmosphere was left behind; in minutes the light blue wash of
+her sky changed to the hard, frigid blackness of lifeless space. The
+_Star Devil's_ lighting tubes glowed softly, though Saturn's rays,
+coming through the wide bow windows, still lit every object in the
+control cabin with hard and dazzling brilliancy. Inside, light and
+color, life and action; outside, the eternal, sable void, sprinkled
+with its millions of sparkling motes of worlds. And ahead--shown now
+on the visa-screen only by the light dots of its ports--was the
+brigand craft.
+
+The _Star Devil_ was smoothly building up the speed that would
+eventually bring her up to the craft of the enemy. Carse's Earth-watch
+told him that an hour and a half had passed. A vague anxiety oppressed
+him, but he shook it off with the thought that soon the time for
+accounting would arrive. Only forty minutes more; probably less. His
+fears--foolish. He was getting too suspicious....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then came the voice.
+
+It pierced through the control cabin from the loudspeaker cone above
+the radio switchboard. It was rough and mocking. It said:
+
+"Hawk Carse? Hawk Carse? You hear me?" Many times it repeated this.
+"Yes? You hear me, Hawk Carse? I've a joke I want you to hear--a very
+funny joke. You'll enjoy it!" There interrupted the staccato sounds of
+an irrepressible amusement.
+
+Carse froze. His fingers by habit fluttered over his ray-gun butt as
+he wheeled and looked into the loudspeaker. Friday, at the
+space-stick, stared at him; Harkness's face was puzzled as he peered
+at the loudspeaker and then turned and gazed at his captain.
+
+"But where," he asked, "--where does the voice come from? Who is it?"
+
+As if thinking aloud, Carse whispered:
+
+"From that ship ahead. I half expected ... I know it well, that voice.
+Very well. It's the voice of ... of ... I can't quite place it.... In
+a minute.... The voice of--"
+
+The chuckling ceased, and again the voice spoke.
+
+"Yes--a very funny joke! I can't share it all with you, Carse, because
+you'd spoil it. But do you remember, some years ago, five men--and
+another who lay before them? Do you remember how this last man said:
+'Each one of you will die for what you've done to me?' That man didn't
+wear bangs over his forehead then. Remember? Well, I'm one of the five
+the mighty Hawk Carse swore he would kill!"
+
+Again the voice broke into a chuckle.
+
+But it ended suddenly. The tone it changed into was entirely
+different, was cruel with a taunting sneer.
+
+"Bah! The avenging Hawk! The mighty Hawk! Well, in minutes, you'll be
+dead. You'll be dead! The mighty Sparrow Carse will be dead!"
+
+A brief eternity went by. Carse remembered, and the glint in his gray
+eyes grew colder.
+
+"Judd the Kite," he whispered.
+
+Friday's lips formed the words.
+
+And even Harkness, new to the frontiers of space, knew the name and
+echoed it haltingly.
+
+"Judd the Kite...."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of all the henchmen Dr. Ku Sui had gathered about him and banded
+against Earth, and against Carse, and against all peaceful traders and
+merchant-ships, Judd was perhaps the most cruel and relentless.
+
+The Kite he was called--though only behind his back--yet it might
+better have been Vulture. Big and gross, with thick unstable lips and
+stubby, hairy fingers, more than once he and his motley gang of
+hi-jackers had painted a crimson splash across the far corners of the
+frontiers, and daubed it to the tortured groans of the crews of honest
+trading ships. Often they had plunged on isolated trading posts and
+left their factors wallowing in their life blood. And more....
+
+There are things that cannot be set down in print, that the carefully
+edited history books only hint at, and into this class fell many of
+the Kite's deeds. He was a master of the Venusian tortures. He and his
+band during the unspeakable debauches which always followed a
+successful raid would amuse themselves by practising certain of these
+tortures on the day's captives; and his victims, both men and women,
+would see and feel indescribable things, and Death would be kept most
+carefully away until the last ounce of life and pain had been squeezed
+quite dry.
+
+"Judd the Kite," Carse repeated in a hardly audible whisper. "Judd the
+Kite ... one of the five...." Slowly his left hand rose and smoothed
+his long bangs of flaxen hair. "I have been looking for him."
+
+"Will you reply to him, sir?" asked Harkness.
+
+"What use? His trap--Ku Sui's trap, of course--has already been set."
+His brain raced. "What could it be?" he whispered slowly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Friday was scratching his woolly hair, his smooth face puzzled, when
+Carse, with the crisp decisiveness that always came to him when in
+action, looked up at the visi-screen. The brigand was still clinging
+to a straight course, and being overhauled rapidly. Another thirty
+minutes and they would be within striking distance. He said tersely:
+
+"Set up the defensive web. Spiral and zig-zag the ship all you dare,
+altering the period of the swing each time. Harkness, you and I are
+going to make an inspection tour. General alarm if Judd's course
+changes, Friday."
+
+"Yes, suh." The negro, frowning, gave his undivided attention to his
+instruments as the Hawk and Harkness went aft into the next
+compartment, the engine room.
+
+It looked quite normal. The great dynamos were humming smoothly; the
+air-renewing machine was functioning steadily; the gauge hands all
+slept or quivered in their usual places. Nothing uneven in the slight
+vibration of the ship; nothing that might possibly forbode trouble. Up
+on his perch, the engineer peered down curiously and asked:
+
+"Anything wrong, sir?"
+
+"Not yet," Carse answered shortly. "You're sure everything is regular
+here?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. But check every vital spot at once--and quickly. Then keep
+alert."
+
+They passed on into the following compartment, the mess-room and
+sleeping quarters for the crew. Solid, rhythmical snores were issuing
+from the cook's open mouth as he lay sprawled out on his bunk; the
+smell of coffee hovered in the air; the cabin was quiet and
+comfortable with an atmosphere of sleep and rest. The radio-man,
+reading in his bunk, looked over and, seeing it was Carse, sat up.
+
+"Notice anything wrong?" he was asked.
+
+"Wrong? What--Why, no, sir. You want me for duty?"
+
+"Yes. Stay here and keep your eyes open for signs of trouble. I'm
+expecting some. General alarm if the slightest thing happens." And
+Carse went noiselessly into the last division of the ship.
+
+This was the cargo hold. The boxes of phanti horns were neatly stacked
+in precise rows; the dim tube burning overhead showed nothing that
+gave the smallest cause for alarm. The Hawk's narrowed eyes swept
+walls, deck and ceiling in a search for signs of strain or buckling,
+but found none.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then he let himself down into the ship's belly, in the three-foot-high
+space between the deck and the bottom outer hull. He found the three
+rows of delicately adjusted gravity plates in good order. Harkness
+joined him.
+
+Their hand-flashes scanned every inch of the narrow compartment as
+they made the under-deck passage from stem to bow and up through the
+forward trap-door into the control cabin. They found nothing abnormal.
+The water and fuel tanks, built in the space between the inner and
+outer shells above the living quarters, also yielded nothing; likewise
+the storeroom.
+
+Nothing. Nothing at all. The whole ship was in excellent condition.
+Everything was working as it should. Carse went forward again with
+Harness; turned and faced him with puzzled eyes.
+
+"I can't understand it," he said. "Why that threat, when everything
+seems all right? How can Judd reach me to kill me? And in minutes?"
+
+The navigator shook his head. "It's beyond me, sir."
+
+The Hawk shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we'll see. It might be
+something altogether new. You report to the engine-room and keep on
+watch there. Any sound or sign, give the general alarm."
+
+"Yes, sir," he said, and left.
+
+"He talkin' foolish, that Judd," grumbled Friday, seeing that the
+search had been fruitless. "He think maybe he can bust through our
+ray-web? Hmff!"
+
+His master said nothing. He was standing motionless in the center of
+the cabin, waiting--waiting for he knew not what.
+
+Then it came.
+
+A preparatory sputter from the loudspeaker that spun Friday around.
+Hawk looked up, tensed. Again sounded the hard, sneering voice of Judd
+the Kite.
+
+"We're ready now, Carse: there was a little delay. I'll give you, say,
+five seconds. Yes--one for each of the five men you did _not_ kill.
+Shall I count them off? All right. You have till the fifth.
+
+"One."
+
+Friday's big eyes rolled nervously; he wiped a drop of sweat from his
+brow and cursed.
+
+"Two."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He glanced at the Hawk, and tried himself to assume the unshakable
+steely calm of the great adventurer. But his fists would clench and
+unclench as he stared up at the visi-screen. No change! The brigand
+was running straight ahead as ever, apparently fleeing.
+
+"Three."
+
+The negro's breath came more quickly; the tendons of his neck stood
+sharply out, and his powerful arms twitched nervously. "What's he
+goin' to do, suh? What's he goin' to do?" he asked hoarsely. "What's
+he goin' to do?"
+
+"Four."
+
+"Change course--a-starboard!" Carse rapped. The space-stick moved a
+little, all Friday dared, at their speed; the position dials swung;
+the dot of a fixed star that had been visible a moment before through
+the bow windows was now gone. Till the fifth, Judd had said.
+
+"Five!"
+
+The two men in the control cabin of the _Star Devil_ peered at each
+other. One of them licked his lips and wiped the sweat from his brow.
+But there was nothing. No sound, no change. No general alarm bell. No
+offensive ray spearing across the reaches of space; no slightest
+change in the brigand's course. He who had mopped the sweat away
+laughed loud and long in overwhelming relief.
+
+"All foolishment!" he gurgled. "That Judd, he crazy. Try to scare us,
+I guess--huh! Try to--"
+
+"_What's that?_" whispered Hawk Carse.
+
+A sudden faint rustle of noise, of movement, had breathed through the
+ship.
+
+At first it was hardly discernible; but it grew. It grew with
+paralyzing rapidity into a low but steady murmur, blended soon with
+voices raised in quick cries. There was one piercing, ragged shriek,
+and all the time an undertone of the indefinite, peculiar sound of
+something rustling, creeping, growing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then came the harsh jangle of the general alarm bell.
+
+"Space-suits!" Carse snapped. The alarm was the signal to put them on;
+it was a safeguard from a possible breach in the ship's walls. Against
+such an emergency they had drilled often, and all over the ship the
+crew would be springing rapidly into space-suits hanging ready.
+
+The space-stick automatically locked as Friday, eyes rolling, leaped
+with his master to the nearby locker. The shriek from aft had quickly
+died, the alarm bell had snapped off; but now there came a frantic
+rush of feet, and a man tumbled through into the control cabin, his
+face white, his eyes stark with horror, his breath coming in gasps and
+the sweat of fear on his brow.
+
+It was Harkness.
+
+He slammed the door tight shut behind him and stumbled to the suit
+locker; and as his fingers fumbled at his suit with the clumsiness of
+panic, he stammered:
+
+"The cargo--the boxes of horn--it came from aft! Fungus! Planted in
+the horn! It's filling the ship! Got all the others and grew--_grew_
+on them! Dead already. There--look, look!"
+
+Carse and Friday, grotesque giants in the bulky sheathings of stiff,
+many-plied fabric, turned as one and peered through their quartzite
+face shields to where the navigator's bulging eyes directed them.
+
+It was the door between control cabin and engine room--the door he had
+just slammed shut. At first nothing was visible; then they saw the van
+of the enemy that had swarmed through the ship.
+
+A thin line of bright yellow color had appeared along the under crack
+of the door. A second later the door was rimmed on all sides with it.
+It grew; reached out. Energy flowed through it: fingers of dusty
+yellow pronged out from the cracks where the door fitted, hung
+wavering for a moment, melted together, then slumped to the floor to
+more quickly continue the advance. It increased marvelously, in minor
+jerks of speed. It was delicate in texture, mold-like. The more there
+became, the faster it grew: in seconds shreds of it had darted out
+from the main mass and affixed themselves to the walls and ceiling of
+the cabin, there to accelerate the horrible filling process.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All this happened more quickly than it can be related. Within ten
+seconds most of the cabin was coated by the yellow stuff; grotesquely
+formed clumps and feathers hung from the ceiling; fern-like fingers
+kept spurting everywhere. Friday stepped back, before the advance, but
+not the Hawk. Useless to try and evade the stuff, he knew, and he was
+fairly positive that there was no immediate danger: the tough fabric
+of the suits should resist it. A pseudopod-like surge flicked to his
+leg; crept up; cloaked the suit in patches of yellow; thickened and
+enveloped him. But it could not pierce through.
+
+"Cap'n Carse! Look heah!"
+
+He turned to the alarmed voice, brushing light, feathery particles of
+yellow from his face shield, and found the bulky giant that was Friday
+a few steps behind him, and pointing mutely at Harkness.
+
+The young officer was slumped limply down against a wall, his legs
+sprawled and body twisted unnaturally. His suit was covered with the
+yellow, and he had fallen, silently, while they were watching the
+advance of the fungus and checking the fastenings of their suits.
+
+Carse reached him in three steps, stooped, brushed the fungus off the
+face-shield and peered through. Friday looked over his shoulder. The
+yellow enemy had laid its deadly fingers on Harkness's fine pale face.
+Sprouts of yellow trailed from the nostrils; the mouth was a clump of
+it; tendrils of spongy substance had climbed out the ears and were
+still threading rapidly over the head, even as the Hawk and Friday
+watched.
+
+"That's how the others died," the adventurer said slowly. "Harkness
+must have carried a bit of the stuff from aft. It was on him when he
+put on his suit. At least I hope so. If it can get into these
+suits...." He left the thought unfinished.
+
+"You mean, suh," asked Friday haltingly, "you mean that maybe--maybe
+it'll get in our suits too?"
+
+"Maybe," said Carse without emotion.
+
+They waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+_The Hawk Prepares a Surprise_
+
+
+Hawk Carse's icy poise in times of emotional stress never failed to
+amaze friends and enemies alike. Most of them swore he had no nerves,
+and that in that way he was not human. This estimate, of course, is
+foolish; Carse was perhaps too human, as was proved by the
+all-consuming object of his life. It was rather, probably, an inward
+vanity that made him stand composed as a statue while death was
+gnawing near; that had, once, led him actually to file his nails when
+apparently trapped and hotly besieged, with the wicked hiss of
+ray-guns all around.
+
+And so he stood within his suit now--calm, quite collected, his face
+graven, while the yellow tendrils carpeted the whole cabin, penetrated
+between the twin banks of instruments on each side and clouded the bow
+windows, visi-screen and positionals until the two living men aboard
+that ship of death were completely shut off from outside vision.
+Friday, his large white eyes never for a moment still, and waiting as
+the Hawk was waiting to find whether or not their suits, too, harbored
+the fungus, could quite easily have been scared into a state of panic;
+but the sight of the steely figure near him eased his nerves and
+brought a vague kind of reassurance.
+
+Minutes went by. Presently the Hawk said softly into his microphone:
+
+"We're safe, now, I think. You'd better go aft and see what state the
+ship's in. Come right back." And as Friday left, wading through the
+clinging growth, the trader went to the eye-piece of the electelscope.
+
+He brushed the puffy covering of yellow silt away and adjusted the
+instrument's controls as best he could, centering it on where Judd's
+craft had last been. Then he peered through--and saw that which made
+him start.
+
+The _Star Devil_ was rolling round and round, like a ball!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse looked out on a star-studded panorama that was sweeping crazily
+by. Now the cloudy globe of Iapetus, which had just before lain far
+behind, came swinging into view, sliding rapidly from the bottom of
+his field of view to the top, and so out of sight again, to quickly
+give place to the flaming, ringed sphere of Saturn, which in turn
+passed away and left the star-spangled blackness of space. Then
+Iapetus once more. He snapped the electelscope off abruptly, and
+turned from it to see Friday come clumping back.
+
+"Swept everything clean, suh," the negro reported gloomily. "That
+fungus's thick; cain't even see the men's bodies, it's so deep. It's
+that way, all over."
+
+"It's down in the gravity propulsion plates too," Carse said shortly.
+"Their adjustment's been ruined by it, and we're out of control,
+turning over and over. I couldn't possibly see Judd. Well, we've got
+to go down to the plates and try and clean them."
+
+It was a weird scene that faced him in the engine room. The complex
+instruments and machinery were draped with straggling ferns of yellow;
+up above, a solid clump some ten feet thick hung on the platform where
+the engineer usually stood--a living tomb. The usual purr of the
+mechanisms was muffled and hushed. So fecund was the fungus that the
+path Friday had cleared in his passage aft was already filled, and
+Carse had to clear a new one. The growth was deep there, but still
+deeper in the next compartment.
+
+It was practically a solid mass of yellow, for in it their invader had
+found food. It had fed well on the lockers of supplies and devoured
+all but the bones and clothing of the two men whom it had
+caught--radio-operator and cook. Carse fought on through this tough,
+clinging sea and came at last to the cargo hold, where, in the deck,
+was the man-hole that gave passage down to the 'tween-decks
+compartment where the rows of gravity propulsion plates were located.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Friday raised the cover with a wrench: then, preceded by the rays of
+their hand-flashes, they climbed down and wormed forward as best they
+could in their hampering suits, to the plates. They found they had
+lost their customary glitter beneath powdery coatings of yellow,
+sufficient to disturb their faint electric currents and
+microscopically adjusted angles. On hands and knees--for the
+compartment, though as wide as the ship's inner shell, was only three
+feet in height--the Hawk stopped and said:
+
+"We might be able to get some use out of these plates if we can keep
+the fungus brushed off. It's thin: let's try it."
+
+But the yellow growth's vitality baulked them. Sweating from their
+awkward exertions inside the hot space-suits, they again and again
+brushed clean the plates with pieces of waste--only to see the
+feathery particles regather as quickly as they were cleared away.
+There wasn't more than an inch of the fungus, but that inch stuck.
+There was no removing it.
+
+"No use, boss," gasped the negro, pausing breathless. "Cain't do it.
+Nothin' to do, I guess, but wait an' see what de Kite does. He'll sure
+want this ship and the horn."
+
+"I know," his captain answered slowly. "He'll want this ship, for it's
+the fastest in space--but I can't understand how he'll board us. I'm
+going up and see what I can find out. You stay here. Try cleaning the
+plates again."
+
+Up through the man-hole he went, and forward to the control cabin.
+And, as before, the electelscope's eye-piece held a surprise for him.
+
+Somehow, the _Star Devil's_ speed of wild tumbling had lessened. A
+moment later the reason appeared. As her bow dipped down and down,
+there slid across the field of view, about a mile away, the lighted
+ports of another ship; and, from this other ship's nose there winked a
+spot of green, the beginning of a ray-stream which stabbed across the
+gulf to impinge on the _Star Devil's_ bow. Carse could feel his craft
+steady as it struck. It was a gravital ray, with strong magnetic
+properties, which Judd was using to stop her turnings so he and his
+men could board!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again and again the beam flashed across the Hawk's field of view, and
+he knew it was raying its mark neatly each time her bow swung abeam,
+for soon she was hardly turning at all. Then Judd evidently was
+satisfied. The port-lights of his ship veered aside; drew to a
+position abreast of the other. The two cold gray eyes that watched saw
+the outer port-lock door of the pirate open, revealing six figures,
+clad in space-suits and connected by a rope, that stepped out, pushed,
+and came floating towards the _Star Devil_.
+
+Swiftly Carse moved. For many reasons it was useless, he rapidly
+decided, to try and surprise them as they boarded; there was a better
+and surer way. And, as always, he attended to every little
+detail--details that to others might have seemed trivial--of this
+preferred way.
+
+With quick, strong fingers he removed the fungus-choked body of
+Harkness from its space-suit, and threw the suit into a nearby locker.
+From another locker he selected a loop of yellow-encrusted rope.
+Holding this over one arm, he made his way back rapidly to the aft
+man-hole, closed it carefully behind him and crept forward to the
+anxious negro who was still futilely dusting the plates. He told what
+he had seen, but nothing else.
+
+Friday noted the rope, and he twisted his whole body to get a sight of
+Carse's gray eyes, through the face-shield.
+
+"What we do, then, suh?" he asked. "Try an surprise 'em?"
+
+"Can't do that; we'd still be helpless, without a way to remove this
+fungus. They probably know how to do it, and we've got to give them a
+chance."
+
+Puzzlement pricked the negro. "Then what you goin' to do with that
+rope?"
+
+"You'll soon see," snapped Hawk Carse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They waited.
+
+It was hot and stuffy down in the belly of the ship, and also utterly
+black, for the trader had flicked off his hand-flash. Friday was
+unhappily possessed of an active curiosity; he wanted terribly to go
+on with his questions and ask Carse what his plan was; but he did not
+dare, for he knew very well from past experience that the Hawk was
+impatient of detailing his schemes in advance. So he sat in silence,
+and sweated, and stared gloomily into the darkness, thinking uneasy
+thoughts.
+
+True, he thought, Judd the Kite did not know that Carse and he were
+still alive; on the contrary, he was probably convinced that they were
+dead; but what good did that do? Surely it would have been better to
+have surprised the brigands when boarding, but Captain Carse was
+against that. And they were hopelessly outnumbered.
+
+Friday remembered a tale told him once by a survivor of a trading ship
+Judd the Kite had destroyed. It wasn't a nice tale. The Kite, so the
+report ran, was diabolically ingenious with a long peeling knife, and
+could improvise with it for hours. Friday pursued the tack of thought, and
+then suddenly began to sweat in earnest. He recalled--horrible!--that Judd
+possessed a special dislike for colored gentlemen!...
+
+"Oh, Lawd!" he groaned, unconsciously--to have a cold voice ring in
+his earphones.
+
+"Quiet!" it snapped. "They're entering."
+
+The negro threw a switch on his helmet so he could catch outside
+noises. His body tensed. From above, unmistakably, had come the hiss
+of the inner port-lock door opening. And again, moments later, the
+hiss echoed. Twice! The lock could hold three men at a time. That
+probably meant that all six had boarded. Friday turned in the darkness
+and peered at Carse.
+
+The adventurer without warning flicked on his hand-flash. The beam
+fell on the parallel planes of the yellow-covered gravity plates. The
+negro, every nerve in him jumping from impatience and suspense, gazed
+at them, and suddenly straightened. The mold-like fungus which had
+prevented them from getting the ship into control was slowly melting
+away. It was dwindling into fine dust!
+
+"Gas," came a soft whisper to him. "As I expected, Judd's cleaning it
+out with some sort of gas. But the plates won't work yet--not until
+they're polished bright." Unthinking, Friday raised his hand to his
+helmet fastenings. "Keep your face-shield shut!" he was ordered
+crisply. "The gas would be as fatal as the fungus."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Silence rested tensely over the two men, to be broken at last by the
+clump of feet proceeding aft on the deck above.
+
+Carse switched off the light. His voice was but faintly audible.
+
+"Coming down to clean off the dust. He'll have a flash. Hide behind
+the truss-work at your side, and when he gets here seize him by the
+neck. I'll be with you right away. I want no noise."
+
+Friday saw a great light, and grinned in the confidence it brought
+him. Of course! That explained the rope. The plan was so simple it had
+escaped him. Already he felt cheerful. It was only mental worries, and
+never physical hazards, that unsettled him. He angled around the
+truss-work and shrank into as small a space as possible--which wasn't
+very small, as he still wore his bulky, clumsy suit.
+
+The clump-clump of feet had died: now there came the sound of the
+man-hole aft being raised. A white beam pronged down into the
+darkness, felt around and flicked off. Boots clanged on the connecting
+ladder; reached the bottom. The light appeared again, lower now, and
+came slowly forward. Limned faintly against the reflected light was
+the outline of a crouching man's body.
+
+He went to hands and knees and progressed carefully, his flash darting
+to left and right. Suddenly, in a certain light, the two who awaited
+his coming saw a swarthy, black-stubbled face in profile. He wore no
+space-suit! That meant, Friday reflected, that the brigands had
+cleared the ship of the gas in some way. It meant that they could get
+out of their own suits.
+
+But they could not possibly do so at the moment. They heard the nearby
+pirate's breathing, a harsh oath as he stubbed a toe. The negro
+tightened his giant arms and held himself ready, his eyes steady on
+the black outline which signified his quarry. Then the pirate was
+close enough.
+
+It was over in seconds. Rounding the truss, Friday caught the man in
+the armored crook of his arm. A startled croak preluded the thump of
+two bodies on the hull; there was the tinkle of a falling hand-flash
+and a slight squirming which was quickly stopped by a belting punch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then Carse was there in the darkness, looping his rope around the
+pirate's arms and legs--a difficult job when wearing a bulky
+space-suit in such cramped quarters. He used a bunch of waste for a
+gag and then hauled the captive to a girder farther forward and bound
+him sitting to it. By the time he had finished, Friday was out of his
+space-suit and asking:
+
+"Shall I rub him out, suh? Best make sure of him."
+
+"Never in cold blood," said the Hawk acidly. "You should know that
+well enough by now!
+
+"Now, there should be five left above, and I think they'll send
+another down. We must get him, too. Get back where you were."
+
+He took off his space-suit also: then, after minutes of silence, they
+heard voices upraised in argument coming from the control cabin. Once
+more came the sound of feet overhead; another flash bit down through
+the man-hole, and another man wriggled into the compartment. He was
+obviously uneasy and suspicious. He called:
+
+"Jake! Hey, Jake! You there? Where the hell are you?"
+
+Mumbling oaths, he advanced, his light ray weaving over every inch
+before him.
+
+"What you doing, Jake? Where are you?"
+
+Friday gathered his muscles, unhampered now by the restricting suit.
+But light must have been reflected by the round whites of his eyes,
+for the pirate suddenly stopped and called in sharp alarm:
+
+"What's that? What's that there? You, Jake? Hey! I'll ray you--"
+
+And that was all he said. Friday was too far away to reach him in
+time, but the Hawk was closer; he approached behind the brigand,
+crouched on silent cat's feet. Two powerful arms reached out and
+tightened in a strangle hold--and two minutes later the second man was
+bound and gagged.
+
+Carse loosened his ray-gun in its holster.
+
+"Now we attack," he whispered. "Four to two are fair odds, I think.
+You go aft and wait by the man-hole; wait till you hear me call. Don't
+be seen--wait. And when I call, come at once."
+
+"Yes, suh. You goin' forward 'tween the hulls?"
+
+A curt nod answered him.
+
+"Then up through that--"
+
+"Don't ask so many questions!" the Hawk rasped crisply.
+
+They separated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+_The Hawk and the Kite_
+
+
+In the deck of the control cabin, between a bank of instruments and
+the starboard wall, was another man-hole that gave entrance from the
+'tween hulls compartment to the cabin.
+
+Only two men besides Carse knew of its existence. The adventurer for
+good reasons of his own had it built in; and so cunningly was its
+cover fitted on that its outlines were not visible.
+
+Beneath it, now, on the three-rung ladder that led up from the lower
+shell, Hawk Carse waited.
+
+He could hear quite clearly the angry, snarling voice of Judd the
+Kite, haranguing his men.
+
+"Rinker, you go down and see what's wrong. Just because Jake and Sako
+don't come back right away, you guys seem to think the ship's haunted!
+Haunted! By Betelguese! A sweet bunch of white-livered cowards I've
+got for a crew--"
+
+"Ah, lay off!" growled a deep, sullen voice. "I ain't scared, but this
+looks fishy to me. Something's wrong down there 'tween the hulls--damn
+wrong, I tell you. We only found four skeletons, an' four, ain't the
+full crew for a ship like this. There oughta to be a couple more
+somewhere. Carse, blast him! he's got nine lives. How do we know he
+was one of the four?"
+
+Another spoke up, as Rinker evidently hesitated. "I say we all go down
+and investigate together."
+
+"Stow it!" thundered Judd. "They didn't get their space-suits out, did
+they? Why, they hadn't a chance to escape--none of 'em. They were
+killed, every one, quick! And four's plenty to work this ship. Carse
+is dead, see, dead! This was one trick he didn't know--one time he
+couldn't worm out. He was clever, all right, but he couldn't quite
+stack up against me. I swore I'd get him and I did. He's dead!"
+
+"Judd," said a low, clear voice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Kite whirled around. He stared. The hand-flash he was holding
+dropped to the deck with a clang. His hands went limp, and his voice
+was suddenly weak and dazed.
+
+"My God--Carse! Hawk Carse!"
+
+"Yes," a whisper answered. "Hawk Carse. And not dead."
+
+It was a scene that might have puzzled a newcomer to the frontiers of
+space. Certainly there seemed to be nothing menacing about the slender
+figure that stood by the now open man-hole, both arms hanging easily
+at his sides; the advantage, on the contrary, appeared to be all with
+the men whom he confronted. All but one was big, and each was fully
+armed with a brace of ray-guns and knives.
+
+But, though there were four guns to one, they made no attempt to draw.
+For it was the Hawk they faced, the fastest, most accurate shot in all
+those millions of leagues of space, and in his two icy eyes was a
+menace that filled the control cabin with fine-drawn silence.
+
+At last Judd the Kite opened his lips and wetted them.
+
+"Where did you come from?" he stammered.
+
+"No matter," came the answer from the thinly smiling mouth. "Friday!"
+
+"Yes, suh!" boomed the big black's distant voice.
+
+Judd's three men turned their heads and saw Carse's famous satellite
+step into the control cabin, a ray-gun in each capacious hand. He was
+all flashing white teeth, so wide was his grin.
+
+"Well, well!" he chuckled. "Ain't this the pleasure! Certainly am
+pleased to meet old friends like this--yes, suh! Jus' drop in?"
+
+But the Kite's head had not turned; he seemed not to hear Friday's
+words; his eyes were held fascinated by Carse's. The attention of
+everyone came back to the two leaders.
+
+"Ku Sui is in back of this?" asked the Hawk.
+
+Judd licked his lips again. He had to spar for time: to divert for a
+while the vengeance he knew possessed the other's mind, so that he
+might find some chance, some loop-hole.
+
+"That's right," he began eagerly, "it was Ku Sui. I had to do this,
+Carse: I hadn't any choice. He's got something on me: I had to go
+through with it. Had to!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Hawk's eyes were glacial; the ghost of a smile hovered once more
+around the corners of his lips.
+
+"Go on," he said. "What was that fungus?"
+
+"I don't know. Ku Sui developed it in his laboratory. He just gave me
+a sealed cartridge of the spores with instructions to raid your ranch,
+as you saw, and plant them in a drilled-out phanti horn. There was a
+simple mechanism in the cartridge that allowed us to release the
+spores by a radio wave from our ship. When I wanted them to grow I
+simply--"
+
+"I see. A clever scheme," Carse said. "Quite up to Ku Sui's standard.
+The idea of those three men running for the jungle when I came down on
+Iapetus was to insure my taking the horn cargo aboard, of course. The
+raid was only incidental to your scheme to get me. And Crane, the
+radio operator, was dead when I received that S.O.S. It was faked, to
+bring me quickly for your schedule."
+
+Judd stared at him. "How in hell did you know that? Damn you, Carse,
+you're--"
+
+"Where," interrupted the adventurer coldly, "is Ku Sui?"
+
+The pirate's eyes shifted nervously. "I don't know," he muttered.
+
+"Where," came the steady question again, "is Ku Sui?"
+
+The other licked his lips. His fingers clenched, unclenched, gripped
+tight. "I don't know!" he protested. His eyes widened as he saw the
+Hawk's left hand stir slightly, and he started as he heard the
+whip-like word:
+
+"Talk!"
+
+"Carse. I swear it! No one knows where he is. When he wants to see me
+personally, he comes out of darkness--out of empty space. I don't know
+whether it's done by invisibility or the fourth dimension, but one
+moment his ship's not there; the next it is; I don't know where his
+base is; and if he knew I'd told you what I have, he'd--"
+
+"How do you arrange your meetings, then?"
+
+"They're always in a different place. The next is in seven days. I
+don't remember the figures: they're in the log of my ship."
+
+Carse nodded. "All right. I believe you. And now--there are a few
+accounts to be settled."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the few minutes the Hawk had questioned Judd, the brigand crew
+in the cabin had stood silent, their breath bated, their eyes watching
+fascinated. But now they started, and shifted uneasily. They suspected
+what was coming. The inexorable, seemingly inhuman adventurer went on
+emotionlessly:
+
+"Six of my men were killed on Iapetus, treacherously, without a
+chance. Four more were slaughtered by the fungus. That's ten. Back up
+to your men, Judd."
+
+Judd knew all too well what that order portended. He could not move.
+His cunning eyes protruded with fear as they shifted down and riveted
+on the shabby holster that hung on Carse's left side. His breath came
+unevenly, in short, ragged gasps through parted lips.
+
+"Back, Judd!"
+
+The stinging, icy force of the voice jolted him back despite his will.
+One short retreating step after another he took, until at length he
+was standing with his three men against the side wall of the cabin,
+the dividing line between it and the engine room. Friday's guns were
+still covering the pirates.
+
+"You goin' to shoot us down in cold blood?" one of them asked
+hoarsely.
+
+The Hawk surveyed the speaker until the man shivered. Beneath their
+coldness, his gray eyes were faintly contemptuous.
+
+"No--I leave that for yellow-streaked hi-jacking rats such as you. I'm
+going to give you a chance: more than a chance. Friday," he called.
+
+"Yes, suh?"
+
+"Do you want to come in on this?"
+
+Without the slightest hesitation the negro answered, grinning:
+
+"Yes, suh!"
+
+"I thought you would. Come here alongside me, then sheathe your guns."
+
+Friday did so. He stood in position beside his master, just in front
+of the opening that led below. The four brigands were some fifteen
+feet away. The two groups faced each other squarely.
+
+"Good," whispered Carse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They stood there, four men to two, deadly enemies; yet not one hand
+moved toward a ray-gun. Again, an outsider would have marveled why
+Judd, the numbers on his side did not draw and fire; why he waited;
+why his face was pale, his eyes nervous. But he knew too well what the
+least sign of a draw on his part would entail; he preferred to wait,
+to receive the advantage of the cold vanity in Carse which demanded,
+in gun-play, that the odds of numbers be against him. Perhaps this
+time that vanity would lead the Hawk a little too far. Perhaps even
+yet a loop-hole for strategy might appear.
+
+So the Kite waited, but fear was strong within him.
+
+"A little earlier," the Hawk's frigid voice went on, "there was some
+counting. To the number five. Remember, Judd? Well, since you managed
+so poorly before, perhaps you'll count again."
+
+"You mean to count to five?"
+
+"Yes. And on the fifth count, we draw and fire."
+
+Judd's eyes narrowed, shifted, while thoughts clashed and meshed in
+his brain. Hawk Carse smiled icily.
+
+"Is that clear?" he asked.
+
+Judd said after a while:
+
+"All right."
+
+Friday noted one of the pirates: a brawny, black-browed giant almost
+as large as himself, and decided to go for him when the time came. He
+whispered this to Carse; then, keeping his gaze on the man, he stood
+ready.
+
+"Begin, I'm waiting," reminded Hawk Carse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Kite crouched, drew a deep breath--but before his lips could form
+the first count there was a quick, sharp stir of movement from the
+brigand to his right; Carse's left hand seemed to vanish; a hiss
+followed, a streak of wicked blue light. Friday grunted, not yet quite
+realizing what had happened; Judd, gaped at Carse's lowering weapon,
+then turned his eyes to the right--and choked out an oath.
+
+The brawny giant by his side was standing, but his face was creased
+and puzzled. One hand was at a holster; the other grasped a
+gun--unfired. Accurate to an inch, between his eyebrows there had
+appeared is if by magic a neatly seared, round hole.
+
+His knees crumpled. His gun clanged to the deck. His head bowed; he
+bent; he pitched forward, sprawled face downward. Then he quivered and
+lay still. A burnt odor was in the air....
+
+"I'm still waiting, Judd," came an ironic whisper.
+
+"My God!" stammered one of the pirate chief's two remaining men. "He's
+a devil. Fast as light!"
+
+Judd's eyes had returned to the Hawk, and they still showed some of
+his reaction of surprise to what had happened, when a peculiar thing
+occurred. For a split second his gaze shot past Carse, took in
+something, then switched back again. And when he had done so his face
+showed a faint but unmistakable feeling of relief.
+
+This was old stuff to the Hawk, but he could not afford to take
+chances. Instantly he rapped:
+
+"Look behind. Friday! Quick!"
+
+The negro jerked his head around. He was too late. He had a glimpse of
+a man standing in the man-hole behind--a glimpse of a short steel bar
+that flashed to Carse's head in a vicious arc, and again to his own.
+He was rocked by pain is blackness came across his vision; and
+together, white man and black crumpled to the deck....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_Back to Iapetus_
+
+
+An indefinite time later Carse awoke to a trip-hammer of pain thudding
+through his head. He groaned a little, and tried to turn over in an
+effort to ease it. He found he could not. Then his eyes opened and he
+blinked up.
+
+He found himself lying on the deck of the control cabin, near the
+after wall, and bound hand and foot with tightly strapped rope. Over
+him, looking down, was Judd the Kite, hands on his hips, a gloating
+smile on his coarse lips, and in his eyes a look of taunting, exultant
+triumph. He drew back his foot and kicked the netted Hawk in the ribs.
+The trader made no sound; his pale face did not change, except to set
+a trifle more rigidly.
+
+"Pretty easy the way my men got you, Carse," said Judd. "Seems to me
+you're just a damned fool with a big rep you don't deserve. You're
+too careless. You ought to know by now not to leave bound men in reach
+of high-powered cable. It cuts as good as an electric knife. Does your
+head hurt where you were hit?" Deliberately, still smiling, he rapped
+his foot brutally against Carse's head.
+
+The trader said nothing. He glanced around, to get the situation
+clearly. Friday, he saw, was in the control cabin too, lying stretched
+out and bound as he was, but evidently still unconscious from the
+ugly, bloody welt on his head. One of Judd's men was at the ship's
+space-stick, another stood by her dials, occasionally glancing back at
+the prisoners and grinning; the two remaining pirates were apparently
+aft. The body of the one whom Carse had killed had been removed.
+
+Through the port bow window, far out, he noticed a small spot, half
+black and half brilliant with the reflected light of Saturn: that
+would be the other space ship, the Kite's, on the same course as they.
+And ahead was the large-looming sphere of Iapetus. The pirate was
+returning, then, to the ranch, probably to pick up his three men, and
+perhaps to leave a small crew to work it.
+
+"Yes. I'm afraid this is the end of the Sparrow Hawk!" Judd sneered
+the name and laughed harshly. "A lot of people will be glad to hear
+it. There'll be a big reward for me, too, from Ku Sui. Head still
+bad?" And again he swung his leg and drove its heavy shoe into his
+captive's head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse's lips compressed till they were colorless. He looked steadily
+at Judd's eyes and asked:
+
+"What are you going to do with Friday and me?"
+
+"Well," grinned the pirate, "I can't tell you definitely, but it's
+sure to be interesting. It'd suit me best if I could teach you a few
+little tricks with a peeling knife--the Venusians have some very neat
+ones, you know--and then perhaps burn you full of holes. Little holes,
+done with a mild needle-ray. But unfortunately I can't kill you
+personally, for Ku Sui will want to do that himself. You're worth a
+hell of a lot of money alive."
+
+"I go to Ku Sui, then?"
+
+"That's right. I'll hand you over when I have my rendezvous with him,
+seven days from now. Clever man, Ku Sui! Half Chinese, you know. He'll
+be tickled to get you alive."
+
+A muscle in the Hawk's cheek quivered. Then he asked:
+
+"And Friday?"
+
+Judd laughed. "Oh, I don't much care; he's not worth anything. I'll
+throw him in with you for good measure, probably. How's the head?"
+Once more the foot swung.
+
+Carse's gray eyes were as frigid as the snow caps of Mars. The left
+eyelid was twitching a little; otherwise his pale face was as if
+graven from stone.
+
+"Judd," he whispered, so softly that his voice was almost inaudible.
+"I shall kill you very soon. I shall make it a point to. Very soon.
+Judd...."
+
+The Kite stared at the pallid gray eyes. His lips parted slightly. And
+then he remembered that his captive was bound, helpless. He spat.
+
+"Bah!" he snarled. "Just your old stuff, Carse. It's all over with you
+now. You'll be screaming to me to kill you when Ku Sui begins to touch
+you up!" He guffawed, again kicked the man at his feet, and turned
+away.
+
+Hawk Carse watched him walk to the forward end of the cabin; and,
+after a little while, he sighed. He could be patient. He was still
+alive, and he would stay alive, he felt. A chance would come--he did
+not know how or when; it perhaps would not be soon; it might not come
+until he had been delivered to Ku Sui, but it would arrive. And
+then....
+
+Then there would be a reckoning!
+
+The deceptively mild gray eyes of the Hawk were veiled by their lids.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Night had settled over the ranch by the time the _Star Devil_ and
+Judd's accompanying ship were in the satellite's atmosphere. It was
+the rare, deep, moonless night of Iapetus, when the only light came
+from the far, cold, distant stars that hung faintly twinkling in the
+great void above. Occasionally, the tiny world was lit clearly at
+night by the rays of Saturn, reflected from one of the eight other
+satellites; and occasionally, too, there was no night, the central sun
+of the solar universe sending its distance-weakened shafts of fire to
+light one side of the globe while ringed Saturn gilded the other.
+
+But this season was the one of dark, full-bodied nights; and it was
+into the hush of their blackness that the _Star Devil_ and her
+attendant brigand ship glided.
+
+Below, on the surface of the Satellite, glowed the pin-prick of a
+camp-fire. When the ships were some fifteen thousand feet up, Judd's
+orders caused long light-rays to shaft out from the _Star Devil_ and
+finger the ground. They rested on the ranch house and then passed on
+to douse with white the figures of three men standing by the fire.
+Through the electelscope the pirate chief saw them wave their arms in
+greeting.
+
+Ten minutes later the two ships nestled down close together a hundred
+yards or more from the ranch clearing, and Judd said to his mate,
+standing next to him:
+
+"We'll have a little celebration to-night. Break out a few cases of
+alkite and send three of the boys to the ranch's storeroom after meat
+for the cook to barbecue."
+
+"What you goin' to do with them two?" the other asked.
+
+"Carse and the nig? Keep them here in the control cabin; I'll detail a
+couple of men to guard them. I'm taking no chances: they must be in
+sight every minute. Carse is too damned dangerous." He peered back at
+the captives. The trader's eyes were shut; Friday still appeared
+unconscious from the brutal blow on his head. "Asleep. Well, they'd
+better sleep--while they have eyelid's to close!" Judd said mockingly,
+and his mate laughed in appreciation of his wit.
+
+But neither the Hawk or Friday was asleep. Nor was the negro
+unconscious. Carse had ascertained this some time before by cautious
+signals.
+
+A little stir had come within him when he heard Judd say there would
+be a celebration, for a celebration, to these men, meant a debauch and
+relaxed discipline, and relaxed discipline meant--a chance. First,
+however, there were the tight bonds of rope; they were expertly tied,
+and strong. But the Hawk was not particularly concerned about them.
+
+He had dismissed them as a problem after a few minutes of
+consideration, and his mind ran farther ahead, planning coldly,
+mechanically, the payment of his blood debts....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All in all, Judd was to blame for what happened that night on Iapetus.
+He was an old hand and a capable one, and certainly he should have
+known that extraordinary measures had to be adopted when Hawk Carse
+became his prisoner. By rights, he should have killed Friday
+immediately, and steered straight for his rendezvous with Ku Sui,
+keeping his eye on Carse all the time. He would have had to loaf on
+his way to the rendezvous, of course, for it needed but five days to
+get there, and he had seven; and he would also have had to pick up his
+three marooned men later. But that was what he should have done.
+
+Yet, when one regards the personal angles, it is necessary to divide
+Judd's responsibility for succeeding events. He felt like having a
+celebration, and certainly he and his men had earned one. He had
+captured the man who had stood, more than anyone else, in his and in
+Ku Sui's way for years; the man who had quashed any number of their
+outlaw schemes, and who had given more trouble to them than all the
+forces of law and order on Earth and the patrol ships in space. More,
+he had captured him alive, and that meant a much fatter reward from Ku
+Sui. He possessed the valuable cargo of phanti horn; he had taken a
+brand new ship, alone worth millions, besides being the fastest in
+space. Judd was naturally elated; he had two nights and a day to
+spare; he felt expansive, and ordered a celebration.
+
+Such decisions--trivial when seen from the eminence of a hundred
+years--have directed the tide of history more than once.
+
+There were thirteen men left of Judd's crew, including the three
+posted on Iapetus; these three and the six who manned the pirate's own
+craft came running to the _Star Devil_ and piled into her open
+port-lock. They milled around in the control cabin, shouting in high
+spirits, swearing, throwing clumsy jests at the two silent figures on
+the deck; and Judd joined with them. There was much loot to be split,
+and the Hawk was snared at last! Their chief stilled them for a moment
+and said:
+
+"Well, I guess we deserve a little jamboree. I'm breaking out some
+alkite and meat; make a big fire outside and dig some barbecue pits.
+Go ahead--out of here! But wait: you, Sharkey, and you, Keyger."
+
+These last two men, more husky and alert than most of their fellows,
+he detailed for guard duty ever Carse and Friday. They were much cast
+down at the job, but he premised them a larger slice of the loot for
+recompense, and then stalked out after the other men.
+
+The two guards stuck a brace of ray-guns in their belts and looked
+over the captives. Angry at missing the carousal, the man called
+Keyger kicked Friday, whose eyelids did not budge and whose body did
+not quiver, and then, more gingerly, kicked Carse and swore at
+him--but he turned somewhat hastily when the mild gray eyes slowly
+opened and stared up into his.
+
+Then the two guards pulled out chairs and placed them by the open
+port-lock, where they could command a view of the celebration. They
+drew one ray-gun each, laid them ready, close by, and sat down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+_Jamboree_
+
+
+Two hours later their eyes were taking in a fantastic, mad scene, one
+that in some ways might have occurred in the days when buccaneers
+roamed the Spanish Main of Earth.
+
+A little over a hundred yards away, straight before them, was the
+corral of the phantis: far behind it encroached the shadowy fringe of
+the jungle: to their right, closer to the corral than to the space
+ships, was the ranch house, lonely now and silent. But these objects
+were only the background for what had grown in front of the corral
+wire.
+
+It was the roaring mass of the monster fire that had been lit, a
+splash of fierce, leaping flames in the velvety cool of the night.
+Black shapes were clustered around it; bottles were raised and
+drained; and a frieze of shadows, staggered and jumped and danced
+around the ruddy pile of fire. The carousal was in full swing; a
+chorus of wild song rose noisily into the night; more cases were
+smashed open and more alkite drawn out. The carcases of three animals
+taken from the ranch's storehouse sizzled on the barbecue pits, to be
+ripped apart and the rich, dripping meat torn at, tooth and claw. Ever
+higher pierced the shrieks and oaths, till the calm night was
+distorted and crazy.
+
+Other heavier sounds accompanied the bedlam of human noise: deep
+snortings and roarings and the scraping of scores of horn-shod feet.
+Behind their wired electric fence was clustered the herd of phantis,
+staring with their evil, red-shot little eyes at the flames and the
+shapes of the hated men. The big bulls were bellowing, bucking their
+heads angrily, churning up the soft soil with their strong,
+dagger-spurred feet: the welter of noise and the sight of so many men
+had wrought them up into a vicious and dangerous state.
+
+Judd the Kite, a bottle in one hand and in the other a huge joint of
+meat which he was tearing at with his teeth, suddenly paused with
+mouth crammed full and stared over through the flickering light at the
+phanti corral. A cruel light gleamed in his eyes: he gulped down the
+meat and then turned to the shapes staggering around him. He yelled:
+
+"Hey, there--let's get out the nigger! A little entertainment,
+fellows! Bring him out; but don't touch Carse: he's Ku Sui's. Douse
+him with water if he's unconscious."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They yelled in drunken delight at his words, and half of them reeled
+off towards the _Star Devil_. Judd, lips up-curved in a smile, drew
+his ray-gun and set the lever over for the low-power, continuous
+ray-stream. These guns, unlike our present weapons, could shoot in two
+ways: they could spit about twenty high-power discharges, a fraction
+of a second each in duration and easily sufficient to burn a man's
+head through; or they could deliver a long-lasting low-power stream,
+just strong enough to sear and crisp a human skin. For the
+entertainment Judd had in mind he needed low power.
+
+The men sent to the _Star Devil_ shoved past the guards on watch near
+the port-lock and over to the prisoners. They found them lying, very
+close together near the after wall.
+
+"Gonna have some fun with the black, Judd's orders," they explained to
+the guards. "Still unconscious?"
+
+Certainly Friday looked unconscious, his eyes closed, his full lips
+slightly parted, showing the powerful white teeth.
+
+"I'll give him a shot of the ray," another brigand cut in. "That'll
+bring him to. Be ready to grab him."
+
+They got an unpleasant shock when the low-power stream flicked the
+negro's leg. With a gigantic bellow that rang throughout the ship,
+Friday resisted.
+
+It was like seeing a dead man come to life, and it startled them.
+Bound as he was, Friday made things unhealthy for his would-be
+captors; he shunted his legs up and down and squirmed mightily, and
+once his gleaming teeth snapped into an arm, bringing a howl of pain
+and several minutes of cursing. The unexpected resistance, once the
+surprise was over, infuriated the rum-sodden men. One of them yelled:
+"Sock him; Shorty!" A ray-gun's butt was slapped down on Friday's
+head; the negro rolled over, stunned. Then he was picked up without
+resistance and borne out into the night, where fantastic figures
+cavorted around the towering fire.
+
+"The black devil was faking all the time!" one of the guards said
+amazedly. "He wasn't unconscious. What in hell did he do that for?"
+
+"Dunno," snarled the other, rubbing a bruised leg. "Must have
+suspected what he's gonna get. Wish we was over there."
+
+"Well, we can watch from here," grumbled his companion, and returned
+to the seats by the port-lock.
+
+They both sat down, their backs half turned to the figure still lying
+on the deck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse had said nothing, made no protest, had not even moved when
+Friday struggled in fierce resistance. He could have done much more,
+but it would have been useless. Long before, he had seen the negro's
+opening eyes and signaled him to feign unconsciousness thus deflecting
+attention and making him appear harmless. He had also broached his
+plan for escape to Friday. He had not, however, reckoned on Judd's
+desire to torture: he would, he now saw, have to act with his greatest
+speed to save his mate from as much pain as possible.
+
+And he began to act.
+
+The control cabin was streaked with patches of shadow and light, made
+vague by pools of darkness thrown by the banks of instruments. Only
+one lighting tube was dimly burning. In this indefinite half-light the
+Hawk set about stalking his prey.
+
+With eyes narrowed and steady on the two guards who were completely
+absorbed in the happenings outside, he drew his hands from beneath
+him. They were no longer bound. The rope knotted around them had been
+gnawed through strand by strand--sliced by the strong white teeth of a
+negro....
+
+Cautiously, without a whisper of sound, Carse reached towards the
+bonds on his legs. The lean fingers worked rapidly. Quickly the knots,
+yielded and the rope was unwound. The legs were free. For a moment
+Hawk Carse, ever with careful calculation of time, stretched his
+cramped muscles, limbering them for action.
+
+A mutter came from the port-lock. He froze. But it was only:
+
+"Look at 'im! This is goin' to be good! Judd gets some damn clever
+ideas!"
+
+They were utterly wrapped up in the scene outside, and unconscious of
+the low blot that moved with steely purpose behind them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Hawk got to hands and knees; moved forward, the ghost of a shadow.
+The two men who were his quarry were sitting close together, hunched a
+little forward in their eagerness not to miss a single detail. Their
+heads were not a foot apart. Each wore a ray-gun and had another lying
+on the deck at his side.
+
+Carse came near to their backs. He paused, imperceptibly tensed,
+judged the distance carefully. Then in a sudden, snake-like movement,
+he sprang.
+
+A forearm of steel clamped around the back of each guard's head and
+jerked it sharply into the other's. There was a quick crack; then,
+dazed, only half-conscious, the two men toppled off their seats and
+fell to the deck.
+
+"Quiet!" warned an icy whisper. They stared, gaping, then staggered up
+to their feet.
+
+A ray-gun that just before had been lying on the deck was leveled
+steadily at them, held in the hand of a gray-eyed man whose fine
+features were as if graven from stone and on whose wrists were deep
+blue lines that showed where ropes had pressed. The guards' faces
+whitened as realization came. One of them choked:
+
+"It's him!"
+
+"Yes," whispered the Hawk dryly. He took a few steps backward, eyes
+not moving. "Go to that locker," he said to the shorter of the men,
+indicating with a curt nod the place where space suits were stowed.
+"First draw your gun and lay it on that table. Hurry!"
+
+The man hastily complied. Anything else was unthinkable; meant quick
+and lonely and useless death. Shouts and laughter and drunken shrieks
+were echoing from outside. No one would have ears for him.
+
+When he had stepped into the locker, Carse closed and sealed the door.
+
+"What you goin' to do with me?" croaked the remaining guard. He was
+big and burly and he towered inches over the figure facing him, but
+his lips were trembling and his eyes wild with fear.
+
+"You," whispered the Hawk frigidly, "kicked me when I was bound." He
+sheathed his ray-gun in his holster, then spoke again. "Go for your
+gun."
+
+The pirate trembled all over. His mouth fell open, and his eyes stuck
+on Carse's shabby holster. He seemed half hypnotized.
+
+"Draw."
+
+The other's swarthy brow beaded with sudden-starting sweat. His hands
+hung limp, twitching at the finger-tips. He watched death stare him in
+the face.
+
+"Damn you, Carse!" he burst out and suddenly went for his ray.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse deliberately let him get the gun out. Not until then did his
+left hand move. But even with such a head-start, so bewildering was
+the adventurer's speed that only one streak of orange light made a
+flash in the cabin, and that streak was the Hawk's. The brigand
+quivered, his face still contorted with his last desperate emotion;
+then he fell slowly forward and thudded into the deck. His body
+twitched a little, and in a spasm rolled over. Square between the eyes
+was a crisp, smooth-burned hole.
+
+Hawk Carse gave the body not a glance, but sheathed his ray-gun,
+picked up the three others, stuck them in his belt, and glided to the
+port-lock. There, he peered outside.
+
+His face hardened.
+
+Blobs of flame that flared from wood torches were clustered about the
+nearest side of the phanti corral. A dark blur of figures were ringed
+in a half-circle, and from it came yells of delight and almost
+hysterical laughter. The Hawk's eyes were chilling to look at when he
+saw, through gaps in the circle of black shapes, the figure of a huge
+negro, standing with his back almost touching the wire fence of the
+corral. The actions of Friday gave the clue to what was happening.
+
+He was caught in a broad ray of orange light, and in it he shuddered
+and hopped grotesquely from one leg to the other in an agony of pain,
+his lips drawn back taut over the gleaming teeth, his face flexed and
+the whites of his eyes showing as the eyeballs rolled. The glow that
+in part hung around him streamed from a ray-gun that was held in the
+right hand of Judd the Kite. Heat! Friday was being slowly crisped
+alive; seared on his feet in a furnace of heat: and the men who ringed
+him were yelling advice at him between their laughter. Carse strained
+his ears. In a jumble, he caught:
+
+"Jump over"--"Nah, he'd have to climb"--"Climb! The juice's
+cut!"--"Into the corral!"--"Climb over, you black buzzard"--"Hoowee!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About a foot behind Friday was the wire fence, behind which the
+phantis, their snouts converged towards the pirates, their red-shot
+eyes glaring, their powerful hind feet clawing at the ground, were
+bellowing in wild and ferocious excitement. Sudden, awful death waited
+on the other side of the fence; slow death by burning on this side.
+Yet Friday still hoped, still had faith in his master, for he did not
+put a quick end to his living death by rushing the devilish circle or
+clambering over into the thick of the sharp stabbing spurs.
+
+Carse's brain moved with the swiftness of light. He could not rush the
+group: the odds were too great, and besides, Judd's gun was already
+out. Nor could he dive at them with the _Star Devil_ itself, or ray
+them from above: that would mean Friday's death too. It would have to
+be something else--and in a moment he had it. Carefully he examined
+all variations and checked the scheme back: it promised to be the
+final move, engendering the final meeting, and there must be no slip.
+
+First, the Hawk slipped shadow-like to the entrance port of the other
+space ship, lying a few hundred feet away, shrouded in darkness. He
+had to know if anyone were aboard.
+
+Gruffly he called inside:
+
+"Judd! Hey, Judd! You there?"
+
+There was no answer. Again he called, but the gloomy interior's
+silence was not broken. Satisfied that it was empty, he doubled back
+with noiseless speed, skirted round the _Star Devil_ and arrived like
+a wind-carried wraith at the rear wall of the ranch house.
+
+A short leap and his hands closed on the copper drain. The muscles of
+his wiry arms flexed, and the lean figure raised himself foot by foot
+to the eaves, where a pull and press up brought him over the edge.
+Stooping, he padded to the side which faced on the clearing and the
+corral.
+
+And then the ray-gun was drawn from its holster.
+
+For seconds the cold gray eyes reckoned the shooting distance and the
+angle. The weapon came up and rested at arm's length. The first finger
+of the deadly left hand began to squeeze back.
+
+A pencil-thin streak of orange light speared the air!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+_Stampede_
+
+
+Judd the Kite was enjoying himself hugely. His bestial sense of humor
+was tickled. It was very funny, the contortions of the negro in the
+orange ray-stream!
+
+"Climb over!" he suggested, amid roars of laughter from the circle of
+men. "Climb over, why don't you? I've turned off the current. There's
+no electricity in the fence. You won't be hurt. Why don't you climb
+over?"
+
+Friday did not, could not answer. His lips were sucked tight together
+now in wordless agony; the cheek muscles, strained taut, stood out
+like welts of flesh; the huge body, bathed always in that steady glow
+of orange, was slightly livid in patches. He hopped mechanically,
+changing from one aching leg to the other; his eyes were closed half
+the time, his whole being one dumb agony. He did not know when it
+would end, but he still had faith.
+
+Overhead, the flames of four tarred wood torches bobbed and reeled as
+the men who held them reeled; seemed to shake in the gusts of laughter
+and yells and oaths that came ceaselessly from the onlookers. And in
+this distorted light the half-shadowed snouts and bodies of the
+phantis, clustered behind their nine-foot-high fence, looked indeed
+diabolical. The fence was high, for the creatures possessed surprising
+jumping powers; it was composed of eight strands of wire, running
+parallel a foot apart from each other, with inter-crossing supports.
+The electric current, now turned off, always kept the phantis from
+crashing through.
+
+Judd smiled more widely. "I guess I'll increase the power," his coarse
+lips pronounced. "We'll see how you can duck a strong thin beam. I'll
+give you about five minutes to climb over. After that you'll be burned
+down slowly to a cinder. Now--will you climb? See--I'm moving the
+lever over. Watch, now, and feel--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suddenly his voice broke off short. There had been a hiss--a
+_spang_--a slight whip of sound. He glanced around swiftly. No, his
+men had not noticed it. They were still laughing, roaring, swaying in
+drunken merriment. The Kite's lips curved upward again. He continued:
+
+"Feel the heat increase. It's stronger, now, and--"
+
+Again the _spang_, the whip, the streak of something swift. The men
+noticed his expression and quieted somewhat. Judd was looking around
+him, and even as he saw what it was there came a cry from a pirate
+nearby.
+
+"Look! The fence!"
+
+Judd's eyes widened; his lips slackened and lost their smile. The
+noise, the laughs, the shouts, screams and oaths died into the night;
+frightened silence fell over the group, and all that was left were the
+concerted bellowings and snortings from the enraged herd of beasts
+just beyond.
+
+All--except for another _spang_ that sounded as a streak of orange
+light arrowed from somewhere through the flickering torchlight. And
+with its coming the third parallel strand of the corral-fence whipped
+apart with a little singing swish, shot neatly through, as were the
+two below it. Ten feet of fence on each side slumped visibly.
+
+"Someone's shooting it through!" came a scared whisper. Yet still the
+brigands, held fascinated by fear and puzzlement, stared at the fence
+and at the surging crowd of stampede-crazy animals beyond.
+
+Another _spang_, another streak of light! With deadly accuracy the
+shot clove the fourth strand. The lower half of a whole section of
+fence was gone. Behind it the bucking, red-eyed phantis inched
+forward, still afraid of the electric shock they thought was somewhere
+there, but drawn to the opening by their hatred of the two-legged
+creatures so near. Closer, closer! Then the befuddled pirates found
+their senses. Even as the fifth arrow of light came from the invisible
+marksman and snapped the fifth strand, a concerted cry of fear of the
+advancing beasts went up from the crowd of men.
+
+"Run! Run! They're coming! They're coming out!"
+
+They turned, panic-stricken; the torches fell flaring to the ground,
+to lie there in pools of flame; the brigands ran for the nearest
+shelter, the dark bulk of the ranch house close by. They ran, fear
+tingling their spines, in their ears the sound of the maddened
+phantis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From his vantage point on the roof of the ranch house, the Hawk
+confirmed his quick decision that this was the only way.
+
+Rapidly, as was his custom, he had reckoned the problem out minutely
+and carefully; had considered and checked every possibility. He had
+to shoot the fence, not the brigands. For he couldn't hope to get more
+than a couple of them: a pirate toppling over dead would jar the
+others into instant action; they would scatter in the darkness,
+leaving the odds too great. And leaving, besides, small chance of
+wiping out every one of the pirates.
+
+As for Friday, he had to take his chance. There was, this way, a good
+chance, if he used his brain. For, to the left, as close as the ranch
+house to the corral, were the grave-pits he himself had dug some hours
+before, and one was still empty, waiting to be filled. It offered
+shelter, a good chance--if he used his brain. He, Carse, would do all
+he could to protect him from the stampeding beasts while he ran.
+
+Some of the pirates would be snared by the rush of phantis. Four or
+five would probably reach the ranch house. That was what he wanted.
+
+And that was what he got. His fifth shot fired, straight and true from
+the ray-gun of the most accurate marksman of space, the Hawk lowered
+the weapon and gazed at the scene resulting, a ghost of a smile on his
+lips.
+
+He saw the mob of creatures, in a bedlam of noise, sweep under the
+fence that had for so long kept them back. Bellowing their hatred,
+their cruel spurs eager for blood, they charged. Before them fled the
+thin fringe of men, Friday on one flank. A man went down with a
+scream; a half-grown horn knifed into him; he was trampled, gored,
+spurred, and left a bloody welter of death in seconds. Another,
+hearing the loud thud of feet just behind, turned with desperate eyes,
+dodged, tripped, shrieked and was caught and ripped. Another and
+another. In the dancing, flickering half-light of the flames of fire
+and torches, a hellish scene of devastation and death spun out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carse was shooting again, with the cold mechanical precision of a
+machine. There was Friday to be guarded. He was now separated from the
+other men--cut off and edging to one side--to the side where was the
+grave-pit! Dodging, wildly twisting and turning, he several times
+barely escaped three or four phantis that thundered after him. The
+leader took perhaps ten steps: then its body quivered and it tumbled
+over and flopped on the ground, a little wisp of smoke curling from
+its body. The other two went down in swift succession. But there were
+many, and even as Friday melted into the shadows, a group of several
+beasts detached themselves and roared after him. The deadly ray-gun on
+the roof wrought swift slaughter amongst them, but some got into the
+darkness beyond vision of the icy gray eyes.
+
+Carse lowered his weapon. His face was very hard and very set. Would
+they catch the negro? Tumble down on him if he made the pit? Well,
+there was no helping it....
+
+But the reckoning would soon be finished; the time was at hand. Cold
+as the deeps of space despite the awful havoc he had just created,
+totally without visible emotion, he drew the last unused ray-gun from
+his belt and put it in the shabby holster. One would be enough.
+
+Shadow-like, noiseless and swift, he moved towards the far end of the
+roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+_The Hawk Strikes_
+
+
+His face red, his breath coming in hoarse gasps, Judd the Kite
+stumbled through the house's door on the heels of four of his men. He
+swung rapidly and flung his weight against the door: locked and
+double-locked it. A second later fists pounded on the outer panel, and
+a voice, racked with fear and terror, screamed:
+
+"Let me in! Let me in! Oh, God, let me in! Judd!"
+
+Then there was the thud of drumming feet, and one awful shriek from
+the man who had found the door locked against him.
+
+But the Kite was not listening. A measure of courage returning to him
+with the building's protection, he snapped:
+
+"Get those other doors locked quick! And lights. Then search the
+house."
+
+The lighting tubes glowed, filling the room with soft radiance. Judd
+survey his position.
+
+He saw that it could have been far worse. But his men needed courage.
+
+The rapid change from orgy to deadly peril had sobered them
+completely. And they were frightened; nor was it fear of the beasts.
+They came treading silently back from their inspection of the house,
+reporting it empty; but their eyes kept shifting, their ray-guns ready
+in hand. Each one knew, deep within him, who had fired the shots that
+collapsed the fence. They had taken two captives; Friday had been
+under their eyes; there was only one other, and he was--the Hawk.
+
+Hawk Carse! The four men were nervous. More than a few lonely spots in
+the countless leagues of space had seen his vengeance: and they--they
+had killed his guards and his overseer, his radio-man, and, with the
+fungus, his ship's crew; they had tortured Friday. They were now marks
+for the fatal left hand: fugitives from gray, icy eyes. The Hawk was
+loose!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Judd saw the fear gnawing at their vitals. He felt it too. But there
+seemed no immediate danger, so, with a ray-gun in each hand, he
+summoned a blustering courage and said to the others, harshly:
+
+"Yes, it was that damned Carse! He must have got loose in some way.
+But pull yourselves together: we're safe here. He's somewhere
+outside."
+
+He reasoned it out for them.
+
+"He couldn't have done that shooting from the _Star Devil_; it's too
+far away. And he's not in it now or he'd be using it to try and find
+that black of his--if the black's still alive. No, he's not in the
+ship, and he's not in this house. He's somewhere outside, and he can't
+reach us here while the phantis have the place surrounded. We can
+shoot them down from the attic, and they'll soon beat it for the
+jungle. When that happens we'll rush to the ships, and before Carse
+knows what it's all about we'll be up and away and he'll be marooned.
+Then we'll get him later."
+
+His words brought a return of confidence. It was true, the others
+thought: the Hawk could not reach them as long as the phantis were
+around the house; and when they were driven away, the ships were near
+at hand and empty. All they had to do was get to the ships before
+Carse. The adventurer certainly was not then in one of the craft, or
+he would be wasting no time hunting for Friday--and raying their
+stronghold. No doubt he was up a tree somewhere; perhaps gored and
+dead.
+
+One of the men snickered, and Judd smiled at the sound. Their
+confidence in him was encouraging.
+
+"Get to the windows of the attic," he ordered. "Some of those crazy
+brutes are horning at the house. We've got to shoot them and get out
+of here, quick!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were two rooms in the attic; the large one, used as a storeroom
+for staple foods, had five windows, long, sloping affairs, three in
+front and one in each side wall. The second room was small and at the
+rear, and was used to store tools and spare technical apparatus. It
+had one little window, set high up, and connected with the larger room
+by a door set in the middle of the partition.
+
+Judd placed one of his pirates at each of the windows of the large
+room, taking himself the center one.
+
+Around the house milled dozens of animal bodies, snorting, bellowing
+and roaring, their little red eyes flashing, claws tearing the soil in
+futile rage at the men they knew to be safely within. A babel of
+brutish sounds rose from them. Two of the bulls fell foul of each
+other and fought in fury, to suddenly turn and hurl their weight
+against a ground floor door, quivering it. But their rashness was
+answered by a streak of light from an attic window, and as one toppled
+back, its body burnt through, the sights of the destroying ray-gun
+were already on its fellow.
+
+The huge fire the brigands had laid was dying, and night was seeping
+ever thickening darkness over the scene. Glinting very slightly in the
+starlight were the black shapes of the two silent space ships.
+
+Then Judd the Kite, as he aimed and shot and aimed and shot again, was
+suddenly struck by a disturbing idea. From where had Carse fired at
+the corral fence? What was the logical vantage point for him?
+
+A shiver trembled down his spine. He saw suddenly with terrible
+clearness where that vantage point was--and it had not been searched.
+The roof!
+
+He turned swiftly, his lips opening to give orders.
+
+And there, standing on the threshold of the door to the smaller
+adjoining room, stood the figure of a man whose eyes were cold with
+the absolute cold of space, and whose left hand held a steady-leveled
+ray-gun that pointed as straight as his eyes at Judd!
+
+"Hawk--Carse!"
+
+"Judd," said the quiet, icy voice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Kite went white as a sheet. His men turned slowly as one. One of
+them gasped at what he saw; another cursed; the other two simply
+stared with fear-flooded eyes; only one thing flamed in every
+mind--the never-failing vengeance of the Hawk.
+
+"Carse!" repeated Judd stupidly. "You--again!"
+
+"Yes," whispered the trader. "And for the last time. We settle now.
+There are a few debts--a few lives--a few blows and kicks--and a
+matter of some torture to be paid for. The accounts must be squared,
+Judd."
+
+And slowly he raised his right hand to the queer bangs of flaxen hair
+which hung down over his forehead. He stroked them gently. Judd's
+eyes, dry, hot, held fascinated on the hand. He shuddered.
+
+"It's not pleasant," came the whisper, "to always have to wear my hair
+like this. That's another debt--the largest of all--I have to settle.
+_Sheathe your guns!_"
+
+The voice cracked like a whip. They obeyed without sound, though they
+read death in the frigid gray eyes. As their guns went into holsters,
+Carse's followed suit; he stood then with both hands hanging at his
+sides. And he said, in the whisper that carried more weight to them
+than the trumpets of a host:
+
+"Once before we were interrupted. This time we won't be. This time we
+will see certainly for whom the number five brings death. Count,
+Judd."
+
+With a jerk, the Kite regained some control over himself. The odds
+were five to one. Five guns to one gun. Carse was a great shot, but
+such odds were surely too great. Perhaps--perhaps there might be a
+chance. He said in a strained voice to his men:
+
+"Shoot when I reach five."
+
+Then he swallowed and counted:
+
+"One."
+
+Aside from the tiny flickering of the left eyelid, the Hawk was
+graven, motionless, apparently without feeling. Judd, he knew, was
+just fairly fast; as for the others--
+
+"Two."
+
+--they were unknown quantities, except for one, the man called Jake.
+He had the reputation of possessing a lightning draw; his eyes were
+narrowed, his hands steady, and the body crouched, a sure sign of--
+
+"Three."
+
+--a gunman who knew his business, who was fast. His hip holsters were
+not really worn on the hips, but in front, very close together; that
+meant--
+
+"Four."
+
+--that he would probably draw both guns. So Judd must wait; the other
+three, being unknowns, disposed of in the order in which they were
+standing; but Jake must be--
+
+"Five!"
+
+--first!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One second there was nothing; the next, wicked pencils of orange light
+were snaking across the attic! And then two guns clanged on the floor,
+unfired, and the man called Jake staggered forward, crumpled and fell,
+a puzzled look on his face and accurately between his eyes a little
+round neat hole that had come as if by magic. Two others, similarly
+stricken, toppled down, their fingers still tensed on ray-gun
+triggers; the fourth pirate, his heart drilled, went back from the
+force of it and crashed into the wall, slithering down slowly into a
+limp heap. But Judd the Kite was still on his feet.
+
+His lips were twisted in a snarl; his hands seemed locked. His eyes
+met the two cold gray ones across the room--and then his coarse face
+contorted, and he croaked:
+
+"Damn you, Carse! Damn you--"
+
+His body spun around and flattened out on the floor with arms and legs
+flung wide. A tiny black hole was visible through his shirt. He had
+been last, and the Hawk had struck him less accurately than his
+fellows.
+
+The trader was unwounded. He stood there for several minutes,
+surveying what lay before him. He looked at each body in turn, and his
+eyes were calm and clear and mild, his face devoid of expression.
+Silence hung over the attic, for the bellowings and snortings of the
+beasts outside had died into faint murmurings as they straggled off
+for their jungle home. The single living man of the six who had lived
+and breathed there minutes before holstered his still warm ray-gun;
+and then the sound of a step on the stairs leading from the rooms
+below made him look up.
+
+A man stood in the doorway of the attic.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He was big and brawny; but, though his arms and bare torso were
+streaked with blood, and his trousers torn into shreds, and his legs
+crisscrossed with cuts, there was broad grin on his face--a grin that
+widened as his rolling white eyes took in what lay on the attic floor.
+
+Neither said anything for a moment. Then the Hawk smiled, and there
+was all friendliness and affection in his face.
+
+"You made the pit, Eclipse?" he asked, softly.
+
+Friday nodded, and chuckled. "Yes, suh! But only just. If Ah'd bin a
+leap an' a skip slower Ah'd bin a _tee-total_ eclipse!"
+
+Dancing lights of laughter came to the Hawk's eyes.
+
+"Still feeling chipper," he said, "--in spite of your burns. Well,
+good for you. But I guess you've had enough of Ku Sui for a little
+while!"
+
+The negro grunted indignantly. "You surely don't imply Ah'm _sca'ed_
+of that yellow Chink? Hell, no! Why--"
+
+Carse chuckled and cut him off.
+
+"I see. Well, then, drag these carrion out to your pit. And then--"
+
+There was something in the air, something big. Friday listened
+eagerly. "Yes, suh?" he reminded his master after a pause.
+
+"Judd," said Hawk Carse softly, "was to have had a rendezvous with Dr.
+Ku Sui in seven days. The place of the rendezvous is entered in the
+log of his ship. I've got the last of Judd's crew a captive on the
+_Star Devil_...."
+
+The adventurer paused a moment in thought, and when he resumed his
+words came clipped and decisive.
+
+"I myself am going to keep that rendezvous with Ku Sui. I want to see
+him very badly."
+
+Friday looked at the man's gray eyes, his icy graven face, the bangs
+of flaxen hair which obscured his forehead. He understood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hawk Carse, by Anthony Gilmore
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30307 ***