CHAPTER VI
_Back to Iapetus_
An indefinite time later Carse awoke to a trip-hammer of pain thuddingthrough his head. He groaned a little, and tried to turn over in aneffort to ease it. He found he could not. Then his eyes opened and heblinked up.
He found himself lying on the deck of the control cabin, near theafter wall, and bound hand and foot with tightly strapped rope. Overhim, looking down, was Judd the Kite, hands on his hips, a gloatingsmile on his coarse lips, and in his eyes a look of taunting, exultanttriumph. 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 seta trifle more rigidly.
"Pretty easy the way my men got you, Carse," said Judd. "Seems to meyou're just a damned fool with a big rep you don't deserve. You'retoo careless. You ought to know by now not to leave bound men in reachof high-powered cable. It cuts as good as an electric knife. Does yourhead hurt where you were hit?" Deliberately, still smiling, he rappedhis foot brutally against Carse's head.
The trader said nothing. He glanced around, to get the situationclearly. Friday, he saw, was in the control cabin too, lying stretchedout and bound as he was, but evidently still unconscious from theugly, bloody welt on his head. One of Judd's men was at the ship'sspace-stick, another stood by her dials, occasionally glancing back atthe prisoners and grinning; the two remaining pirates were apparentlyaft. The body of the one whom Carse had killed had been removed.
Through the port bow window, far out, he noticed a small spot, halfblack and half brilliant with the reflected light of Saturn: thatwould 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 wasreturning, then, to the ranch, probably to pick up his three men, andperhaps to leave a small crew to work it.
"Yes. I'm afraid this is the end of the Sparrow Hawk!" Judd sneeredthe name and laughed harshly. "A lot of people will be glad to hearit. There'll be a big reward for me, too, from Ku Sui. Head stillbad?" And again he swung his leg and drove its heavy shoe into hiscaptive's head.
* * * * *
Carse's lips compressed till they were colorless. He looked steadilyat 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'ssure to be interesting. It'd suit me best if I could teach you a fewlittle tricks with a peeling knife--the Venusians have some very neatones, you know--and then perhaps burn you full of holes. Little holes,done with a mild needle-ray. But unfortunately I can't kill youpersonally, for Ku Sui will want to do that himself. You're worth ahell 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'llbe 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'llthrow 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 lefteyelid was twitching a little; otherwise his pale face was as ifgraven 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. Andthen he remembered that his captive was bound, helpless. He spat.
"Bah!" he snarled. "Just your old stuff, Carse. It's all over with younow. You'll be screaming to me to kill you when Ku Sui begins to touchyou up!" He guffawed, again kicked the man at his feet, and turnedaway.
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 stillalive, and he would stay alive, he felt. A chance would come--he didnot know how or when; it perhaps would not be soon; it might not comeuntil he had been delivered to Ku Sui, but it would arrive. Andthen....
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_ andJudd's accompanying ship were in the satellite's atmosphere. It wasthe rare, deep, moonless night of Iapetus, when the only light camefrom the far, cold, distant stars that hung faintly twinkling in thegreat void above. Occasionally, the tiny world was lit clearly atnight by the rays of Saturn, reflected from one of the eight othersatellites; and occasionally, too, there was no night, the central sunof the solar universe sending its distance-weakened shafts of fire tolight one side of the globe while ringed Saturn gilded the other.
But this season was the one of dark, full-bodied nights; and it wasinto the hush of their blackness that the _Star Devil_ and herattendant brigand ship glided.
Below, on the surface of the Satellite, glowed the pin-prick of acamp-fire. When the ships were some fifteen thousand feet up, Judd'sorders caused long light-rays to shaft out from the _Star Devil_ andfinger the ground. They rested on the ranch house and then passed onto douse with white the figures of three men standing by the fire.Through the electelscope the pirate chief saw them wave their arms ingreeting.
Ten minutes later the two ships nestled down close together a hundredyards 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 ofalkite and send three of the boys to the ranch's storeroom after meatfor 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 acouple of men to guard them. I'm taking no chances: they must be insight every minute. Carse is too damned dangerous." He peered back atthe captives. The trader's eyes were shut; Friday still appearedunconscious from the brutal blow on his head. "Asleep. Well, they'dbetter 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 negrounconscious. Carse had ascertained this some time before by cautioussignals.
A little stir had come within him when he heard Judd say there wouldbe a celebration, for a celebration, to these men, meant a debauch andrelaxed 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 ofconsideration, 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 haveknown that extraordinary measures had to be adopted when Hawk Carsebecame his prisoner. By rights, he should have killed Fridayimmediately, and steered straight for his rendezvous with Ku Sui,keeping his eye on Carse all the time. He would have had to loaf onhis way to the rendezvous, of course, for it needed but five days toget there, and he had seven; and he would also have had to pick up histhree marooned men later. But that was what he should have done.
Yet, when one regards the personal angles, it is necessary to divideJudd's responsibility for succeeding events. He felt like having acelebration, and certainly he and his men had earned one. He hadcaptured the man who had stood, more than anyone else, in his and inKu Sui's way for years; the man who had quashed any number of theiroutlaw schemes, and who had given more trouble to them than all theforces 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 KuSui. He possessed the valuable cargo of phanti horn; he had taken abrand new ship, alone wor
th millions, besides being the fastest inspace. Judd was naturally elated; he had two nights and a day tospare; he felt expansive, and ordered a celebration.
Such decisions--trivial when seen from the eminence of a hundredyears--have directed the tide of history more than once.
There were thirteen men left of Judd's crew, including the threeposted on Iapetus; these three and the six who manned the pirate's owncraft came running to the _Star Devil_ and piled into her openport-lock. They milled around in the control cabin, shouting in highspirits, swearing, throwing clumsy jests at the two silent figures onthe 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 momentand said:
"Well, I guess we deserve a little jamboree. I'm breaking out somealkite 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 castdown at the job, but he premised them a larger slice of the loot forrecompense, and then stalked out after the other men.
The two guards stuck a brace of ray-guns in their belts and lookedover the captives. Angry at missing the carousal, the man calledKeyger kicked Friday, whose eyelids did not budge and whose body didnot quiver, and then, more gingerly, kicked Carse and swore athim--but he turned somewhat hastily when the mild gray eyes slowlyopened and stared up into his.
Then the two guards pulled out chairs and placed them by the openport-lock, where they could command a view of the celebration. Theydrew one ray-gun each, laid them ready, close by, and sat down.