CHAPTER IX
_The Hawk Strikes_
His face red, his breath coming in hoarse gasps, Judd the Kitestumbled through the house's door on the heels of four of his men. Heswung rapidly and flung his weight against the door: locked anddouble-locked it. A second later fists pounded on the outer panel, anda 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 fromthe man who had found the door locked against him.
But the Kite was not listening. A measure of courage returning to himwith the building's protection, he snapped:
"Get those other doors locked quick! And lights. Then search thehouse."
The lighting tubes glowed, filling the room with soft radiance. Juddsurvey 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 themcompletely. 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 readyin hand. Each one knew, deep within him, who had fired the shots thatcollapsed the fence. They had taken two captives; Friday had beenunder 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 inthe countless leagues of space had seen his vengeance: and they--theyhad killed his guards and his overseer, his radio-man, and, with thefungus, his ship's crew; they had tortured Friday. They were now marksfor the fatal left hand: fugitives from gray, icy eyes. The Hawk wasloose!
* * * * *
Judd saw the fear gnawing at their vitals. He felt it too. But thereseemed no immediate danger, so, with a ray-gun in each hand, hesummoned 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 somewhereoutside."
He reasoned it out for them.
"He couldn't have done that shooting from the _Star Devil_; it's toofar away. And he's not in it now or he'd be using it to try and findthat black of his--if the black's still alive. No, he's not in theship, and he's not in this house. He's somewhere outside, and he can'treach us here while the phantis have the place surrounded. We canshoot them down from the attic, and they'll soon beat it for thejungle. When that happens we'll rush to the ships, and before Carseknows 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 othersthought: the Hawk could not reach them as long as the phantis werearound the house; and when they were driven away, the ships were nearat hand and empty. All they had to do was get to the ships beforeCarse. The adventurer certainly was not then in one of the craft, orhe would be wasting no time hunting for Friday--and raying theirstronghold. No doubt he was up a tree somewhere; perhaps gored anddead.
One of the men snickered, and Judd smiled at the sound. Theirconfidence in him was encouraging.
"Get to the windows of the attic," he ordered. "Some of those crazybrutes are horning at the house. We've got to shoot them and get outof here, quick!"
* * * * *
There were two rooms in the attic; the large one, used as a storeroomfor staple foods, had five windows, long, sloping affairs, three infront and one in each side wall. The second room was small and at therear, and was used to store tools and spare technical apparatus. Ithad one little window, set high up, and connected with the larger roomby a door set in the middle of the partition.
Judd placed one of his pirates at each of the windows of the largeroom, taking himself the center one.
Around the house milled dozens of animal bodies, snorting, bellowingand roaring, their little red eyes flashing, claws tearing the soil infutile rage at the men they knew to be safely within. A babel ofbrutish sounds rose from them. Two of the bulls fell foul of eachother and fought in fury, to suddenly turn and hurl their weightagainst a ground floor door, quivering it. But their rashness wasanswered by a streak of light from an attic window, and as one toppledback, its body burnt through, the sights of the destroying ray-gunwere already on its fellow.
The huge fire the brigands had laid was dying, and night was seepingever thickening darkness over the scene. Glinting very slightly in thestarlight were the black shapes of the two silent space ships.
Then Judd the Kite, as he aimed and shot and aimed and shot again, wassuddenly struck by a disturbing idea. From where had Carse fired atthe corral fence? What was the logical vantage point for him?
A shiver trembled down his spine. He saw suddenly with terribleclearness 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 smalleradjoining room, stood the figure of a man whose eyes were cold withthe absolute cold of space, and whose left hand held a steady-leveledray-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 ofthem gasped at what he saw; another cursed; the other two simplystared with fear-flooded eyes; only one thing flamed in everymind--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 amatter 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 hairwhich hung down over his forehead. He stroked them gently. Judd'seyes, dry, hot, held fascinated on the hand. He shuddered.
"It's not pleasant," came the whisper, "to always have to wear my hairlike 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 theyread death in the frigid gray eyes. As their guns went into holsters,Carse's followed suit; he stood then with both hands hanging at hissides. And he said, in the whisper that carried more weight to themthan the trumpets of a host:
"Once before we were interrupted. This time we won't be. This time wewill see certainly for whom the number five brings death. Count,Judd."
With a jerk, the Kite regained some control over himself. The oddswere five to one. Five guns to one gun. Carse was a great shot, butsuch odds were surely too great. Perhaps--perhaps there might be achance. 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 wasgraven, motionless, apparently without feeling. Judd, he knew, wasjust 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 werenarrowed, his hands steady, and the body crouched, a sure sign of--
"Three."
--a gunman who knew his business, who was fast. His hip holsters werenot really worn on the hips, but in front, very close together; thatmeant--
"Four."
--that he would probably draw both guns. So Judd must wait; the otherthree, being unknowns, disposed of in the order in which they werestanding; but Jake must be--
"Five!"
--first!
* * * * *
One second there was nothing; the next, wicked pencils of orange lightwere 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 accura
tely between his eyes a littleround neat hole that had come as if by magic. Two others, similarlystricken, toppled down, their fingers still tensed on ray-guntriggers; the fourth pirate, his heart drilled, went back from theforce of it and crashed into the wall, slithering down slowly into alimp heap. But Judd the Kite was still on his feet.
His lips were twisted in a snarl; his hands seemed locked. His eyesmet the two cold gray ones across the room--and then his coarse facecontorted, and he croaked:
"Damn you, Carse! Damn you--"
His body spun around and flattened out on the floor with arms and legsflung wide. A tiny black hole was visible through his shirt. He hadbeen last, and the Hawk had struck him less accurately than hisfellows.
The trader was unwounded. He stood there for several minutes,surveying what lay before him. He looked at each body in turn, and hiseyes were calm and clear and mild, his face devoid of expression.Silence hung over the attic, for the bellowings and snortings of thebeasts outside had died into faint murmurings as they straggled offfor their jungle home. The single living man of the six who had livedand breathed there minutes before holstered his still warm ray-gun;and then the sound of a step on the stairs leading from the roomsbelow 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 werestreaked with blood, and his trousers torn into shreds, and his legscrisscrossed with cuts, there was broad grin on his face--a grin thatwidened as his rolling white eyes took in what lay on the attic floor.
Neither said anything for a moment. Then the Hawk smiled, and therewas 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 aleap 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 littlewhile!"
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 listenedeagerly. "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 thelog 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 hiswords came clipped and decisive.
"I myself am going to keep that rendezvous with Ku Sui. I want to seehim very badly."
Friday looked at the man's gray eyes, his icy graven face, the bangsof flaxen hair which obscured his forehead. He understood.
* * * * *
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