law, Gloria," he told herearnestly. "You'd better go back into the ship."
Kenniston stood silent in the moonslight, for he realized from thefinality of Walls' voice that appeals would be utterly useless. Therewas no use trying again to explain why he'd been willing to betraythem all to save Ricky. Even if they listened, they wouldn'tunderstand.
He felt tired, crushed, old. He'd gone a long way in the last dozenyears, but every mile of it had only led toward this ending. He wasgoing to die here under the hurtling meteor-moons of Vesta, and thatmeant that Ricky and Ricky's dream were going to die soon too.
"I _told_ you you were a fool to throw away that gun," Holk Or wasmuttering.
* * * * *
"You two march over there to the edge of the clearing," Captain Wallsordered grimly, gesturing with his gun. "Anything you want to sayfirst, Kenniston?"
"Nothing that you would listen to or understand, you people,"Kenniston answered dully. "No, I've got nothing to say."
A crackling voice came out of the dark jungle at that moment.
"_I_ have something to say! Drop those guns, every man of you, and getyour hands up!"
Walls spun around with an oath, levelling his atom-pistol. But out ofthe jungle crashed a streak of fire that hit the captain's arm andsent him reeling.
One of the girls screamed. Another of the _Sunsprite's_ crew had triedto aim his weapon and had been cut down by a second bolt of atomicfire that had hit his leg.
"I _don't_ want to kill you unless you force me to," came that crispvoice from the darkness. "You have ten seconds to drop the guns."
"That's the chief, Kenniston!" yelled Holk Or excitedly. "It's JohnDark himself!"
The dreaded name of the pirate, a synonym for cold ruthlessness,reinforced the threat from the darkness.
Murdock let his weapon fall and shouted, "Drop the atom-guns, men! Ifwe try to fight, the women will be hurt!"
The _Sunsprite's_ men dropped their atom-pistols. Instantly out intothe brilliant light from the jungle rushed a score of armed pirates.Martians, Earthmen, Venusians and others--this horde represented thecriminal under-world of every planet in the System.
In a moment they had those in the clearing completely disarmed andlined up against the ship. All except Holk Or, who was loudly greetinghis pirate comrades.
Kenniston saw John Dark coming across the moonslit clearing towardthem. The notorious pirate was a tall, bulky Earthman, but he walkedwith the lightfootedness of a cat in his moonshoes. His black hair wasbare, and in the silver light his black-browed, intelligent face wascoldly calm as his eyes searched the row of prisoners.
"So you finally got here, Kenniston. What about the repair-equipment?"he asked sharply.
Kenniston nodded toward the _Sunsprite_. "It's in the hold. We goteverything you listed."
"Good!" Dark approved. "We saw your ship crash-landing today, andstarted this way at once. We've been beating through the jungle,fighting off the damned Vestans, until we heard the uproar going onhere. What happened? Who are these people?"
Kenniston explained briefly how he had induced Gloria Loring's partyto come on a pretended treasure-hunt. He was careful to stress thewealth of the party, and John Dark reacted as he had expected.
"If they're that wealthy, their families can pay big ransoms. You'vedone very well, Kenniston."
"What about Ricky?" asked Kenniston tensely. "He's all right?"
"Sure he's all right--he's up at the camp," Dark answered.
Gloria said bitterly to Kenniston, "You can congratulate yourself.You've managed to save your brother."
John Dark addressed her. "Miss Loring, I presume you and yourcompanions are willing to pay ransom for your crew also? I never takeprisoners, unless they promise a good profit."
"Yes, of course we'll pay the ransom of the crew!" Gloria agreedhastily.
"Good!" said the pirate calmly. "You'll not find your captivity anymore irksome than necessary."
Mrs. Milsom, the dumpy chaperon, was goggling at the notorious piratein an extreme of terror. A sardonic gleam came into Dark's eyes as heglanced at her.
"You're a handsome wench," he told the plump dowager with mockadmiration. "I've half a mind to keep you and let the ransom go."
"No, no!" shrieked the terrified woman.
Dark burst into a roar of laughter. "All right, my shrinking beauty,we'll accept ransom for you."
He turned and shot efficient orders to his subordinates, who by nowhad gathered behind him.
"Get that stuff out of the hold, rig up power-sledges, and startfreighting it up to the camp. You'll have to cut a path through thejungle--use atom-blasters to burn one out."
One of the pirates, a hard-faced Martian, said uneasily, "That willmake a racket that'll bring every Vestan on the asteroid down on us."
"You can keep the Vestans off if you keep your eyes open," Darkretorted. "Get to work, now! We've got to get the stuff up there andrepair the _Falcon_ at once. I'll take these prisoners up to camp."
Kenniston was grouped with the other prisoners. With a strong escortof armed pirates guarding them, and Dark and Holk Or ahead, theystarted through the jungle toward the pirate camp.
CHAPTER VI
Asteroid Horror
The pirate encampment was a big clearing hacked from the jungle a milewest of the little lake. In this space lay the long, looming blackmass of the most dreaded corsair ship ever to sail the void. The_Falcon_ had been righted to even keel, but its crippled conditionwas evident in the fused, wrecked condition of its tail rocket-tubes.
The whole camp was enclosed and protected by a shimmering blue dome ofelectric force. This emanated from a heavy copper cable thatcompletely encircled the clearing, and which drew its power frominsulated cables that led into the ship to generators driven by thefew cyclotrons still functioning. This protective electric wall hadbeen set up at John Dark's orders to keep out the dreaded Vestans.
John Dark raised his voice as he and his men with their prisonersapproached the shimmering wall of the camp.
"Kin Ibo! Drop the wall for us!"
They saw the hard-looking Martian who was Dark's second-in-commanddive into the ship to turn off the power of the electric barrier. Itdied, and Dark's party entered the clearing. Then the electric wallsprang into being again behind them.
Kenniston looked swiftly around. There were a score more of the motleypirates here in the camp. Also, near the side of the looming black_Falcon_, were the small, rough log huts that Dark's men hadconstructed.
Dark's black eyes were triumphant as he told his Martian lieutenant,"Kenniston and Holk Or brought back the equipment all right, and alsobrought some people who'll bring big ransom. Their wrecked ship is afew miles south. You go down there with half the men here and help theothers bring up the equipment."
Kin Ibo, looking a little apprehensively out at the jungle, obeyed.Dark motioned Kenniston and the other captives toward one of the hutsby the big ship.
"That hut will be your quarters until we get the _Falcon_ repaired,"declared the pirate leader. "Any of you who try to leave it will beshot at sight. I hope you'll not be foolish enough to attempt escape."
"That's right, folks, you wouldn't have a chance," Holk Or told themearnestly. "Even if you could get out through the electric wall, theVestans would get you. They're thick in the jungle around here."
They silently entered the hut. Its broad open windows admitted enoughof the dazzling moonslight to brighten its interior.
A dark, eager-looking young Earthman sprang up as they entered, andrushed to pump Kenniston's hand.
"Lance, you got back safely!" he exclaimed. "Thank the Lord--I've beenworrying myself almost crazy about you."
"How about you, Ricky?" Kenniston asked his young brother anxiously."You're all right?"
Ricky Kenniston nodded quickly. "Sure, I'm okay. But things haven'tbeen so good here, Lance. The Vestans have got a half-dozen pirateswho ventured outside the wall in the last few days. These creaturesliterally h
aunt the jungles around here now--I think they've beendrawn here from all over the asteroid."
Ricky looked wonderingly at Gloria and the others who were enteringthe hut. "Lance, who are all these people? Are they prisoners of Darktoo?"
"Yes, we're prisoners," Hugh Murdock told him bitterly, with a savageglance at Kenniston. "We're prisoners because your brother sacrificedus all to get back here and save _your_ neck."
"Lance, you didn't do that?" Ricky exclaimed in distress.
"I had to, Ricky," Kenniston protested.