* * * *
Their two radioactive allies, Nison and the Martian, led the way out of the barren mountains. They saw none of the glowing horde, which had split in all directions to search furiously for the takers of the radite.
Lann, suffering from exhaustion and nervous reaction, could hardly walk. Yet he trudged valiantly with the last of his strength as they hastened over the dim desert.
'Joan, if we get the radite away from Cheerly now, will it be in time to save the Alliance?' he panted.
'Yes. Hasna Trask will not launch her attack until she hears from Cheerly that the radite has been secured,' Thorn told him. 'If we get the stuff back to Earth's moon, and if Philippa Blaine's weapon really works!'
She stopped, that goading doubt torturing her mind, that chilling, unvoiced fear that Blaine's mysterious invention might prove a failure.
The huge black top of the domed meteorite-mountain loomed slowly out of the shimmering blue mists, bulking darkly against the starry sky. They pressed toward its base, and were starting to climb up its rough asterium side, when a sound reached their ears. The roar of a ship's rockets tubes!
'Look!' Sua Av yelled frantically, pointing upward. ‘The Gargol.'
The Saturnian cruiser was blasting off, rising from where it had been parked beside the Venture, with a reverberating roar of tubes. It shot up at dizzying speed, and disappeared in the dark
'God, Cheerly has got away in it, somehow,' Gunda cried hoarsely.
They scrambled frantically on up the mountain, driven by overmastering fear. When they came to where the Venture lay, they stopped, aghast.
A fight had taken place here. A half-dozen space-suited pirates lay in a scorched, dead heap. Other women in suits were running out from the Venture.
Out of that little crowd sprang a gray beast with blazing green eyes, that limped on a scorched leg as it bounded frantically toward Lann and nuzzled against him. After the space dog came Stilicha Keene, her wrinkled face recognizable through her glassite helmet.
'You brought the lad back!' she cried, joy lighting her faded eyes. Then as her face fell on the glowing forms of Clyme Nison and Chana Ora she gasped, 'But who—'
'What happened here? Who was in the Gargol when it took off?' Thorn cried fiercely.
'Cheerly—and that there radite!' groaned the old pirate. 'She fooled us, neat. She and her woman came up here a half-hour ago, dragging the radite on their sledge. They were wearing suits like yours, ray-proofed and with even the helmets coated, so we couldn't see their faces plain enough. And Cheerly imitated your voice so that I thought she was you, Joan Thorn!
'She said that she and Sua Av had brought the radite back, and that Gunda was following with Lann. We never suspected her, she imitated your voice so well, and we couldn't even recognize her fat figure in that shapeless suit. She took the radite into the Gargol, saying we'd use the Saturnian ship to return to Earth in. She even went into the Venture for a few minutes, I suppose to see if you'd any papers or secrets worth stealing.'
She fell silent.
'Go on, woman!' Thorn cried. 'How did she get away with the Gargol, when you had its crew under guard?'
'She did it easy,' groaned the old woman. 'She and her woman, posing as you and Sua Av, went into the Gargol. We didn't follow, never suspecting. And Cheerly and her woman blasted down our guards in there, set free her Saturnian crew, and took off, with a blast of their guns that killed six of our women!'
'And now she's on her way back to Saturn with the radite!' Gunda cried. 'We've got to catch her!'
'We'll catch her. The Venture can overhaul her!' Thorn cried. 'Into the ship, all of you! We're blasting off!'
They tumbled into the Venture, leaving the two radioactive women standing staring. Inside the craft, its doors closed, the Planeteers and Lann and Stilicha climbed to the control-room. The old pirate yelled urgently into the interphone.
'Power chambers on!' she ordered.
They heard the clash of the injectors below, and then the rising roar of the power chambers.
A terrific explosion shook the ship next moment. They were all thrown from their feet, and heard cries of pain and terror from below.
'Good God, something's let go!' Gunda yelled,
Thorn led as they hastily climbed down to the stern compartment that housed the four big power-chambers.
The compartment was a wreck. The power-chambers had exploded with frightful force, killing three pirate engineers.
'That damned Cheerly must have done this when she came into the Venture!' a wounded, staggering engineer gasped. 'The power-chamber safety was jammed—deliberately jammed!'
'Cheerly's won again, curse her!' Gunda yelled wildly. 'It'll take us days to rebuild these power-chambers, if we can do it at all. And by that time she'll be half-way back to Saturn!'