papers from this room_! _The papers, ifnot already in Ku Sui's hands_, _should be at Tantril's ranch_.
Carse's deduction was followed by a swift decision. He had to raid LarTantril's ranch.
He knew the place fairly well. Once, even, he had attacked it, in his_Star Devil_, seeking to wipe out his debt against Tantril; but he hadbeen driven off by the ranch's mighty offensive rays.
It was impregnable, Tantril was fond of boasting. Situated on thebrink of the Great Briney, its other three sides were flanked bythick, swampy jungle, in which the isuan grew and was gathered byTantril's Venusian workers. Ranch? More a fort than a ranch, with itselectrified, steel-spiked fence; its three watch-towers, lookoutsalways posted there against the threat of hijackers or enemies; itspowerful ray-batteries and miscellany of smaller weapons. A lessvulnerable place for the keeping of Eliot Leithgow's papers couldhardly have been found in all the frontiers of the solar system.
He, Carse, had raided it in a modern fighting space-ship, and failed.Now, with nothing but a space-suit and a ray-gun, he had to raid itagain--and succeed!
* * * * *
The adventurer did not leave immediately. He thought it wise to makewhat preparations he could. His important weapon was the space-suit;therefore, he took it off and studied and inspected its severalintricate mechanisms as well as he could in the carefully guardedlight of his flash.
It was motivated, he saw, by dual sets of gravity-plates, in separatespace-tight compartments. One set was located in the extremely thicksoles of the heavy boots; the other rested on the top of the helmet.He saw why this was. The gravity-plates for repulsion were those inthe helmet; for attraction, those in the boot-soles. This kept thewearer of the suit always in an upright, head-up position.
The logical plan of attack had grown in Carse's mind: down and up!Down to the papers, then up and away before the men on the ranch knewwhat was happening: he could suppose that they, like all others on thesatellite, had no knowledge of a self-propulsive space-suit. Thesuccess of his raid depended entirely on keeping the two gravitymechanisms intact. If they were destroyed, or failed to function, hewould be locked to the ground in a prison of metal and fabric: clampeddown, literally, by a terrific dead weight! The suit was extremelyheavy, particularly the boots, and Carse learned that the wearer wasable to walk in it only because a portion of the helmet's repulsiveforce was continually working to approximate a normal body gravity.
A chance to succeed--if the two vital points were kept intact! If theyfailed, he would have to slip out of the imprisoning suit and use hisquick wits and deadly ray-gun in clearing a path to Ban Wilson, hisnearest friend, whose ranch, fourteen miles from Tantril's stronghold,was where Eliot Leithgow and Friday would be awaiting him.
It was characteristic of Hawk Carse that he never even consideredcalling on Wilson's resources of men and weapons to help him. A Hawkhe was: wiry, fierce-clawed, bold against odds and danger, mostcapable and deadly when striking alone....
* * * * *
After scanning the whole project, Carse attended to other needs. Heate some of the akalot fruit spilled over the floor of the adjoiningroom; opened a can of water and drank deeply; limbered his muscleswell; even rested for five minutes. Then he was ready to leave.
He soon was again in the cold space-suit, fastening on the helmet. Heleft the face-plate open. The left mitten he hinged back, so as to beable to grip the ray-gun in his bare hand. Then, a looming giantshadow in the darkness, he shuffled to the rear window-port.
Carse steadied himself on the sill. The night-bedlam from the Streetof the Sailors, punctuated by far, hungry bellows from swamp monsters,sounded in his ears. Enemies, human and animal, ringed him in Kurgo'shouse: but up above lay a clean, cold highway, an open highway,stretching straight to the heart of the danger which was hisdestination. He turned the mitten-switch over to quick repulsion andleaped up to the waiting heavens.
* * * * *
On the ground was a world of night: a mile up showed a great circle ofblack, one edge of which was marked by a faint, eery glow fromfurther-setting Jupiter.
Save for that far-off spectral hint of the giant occulted planet, HawkCarse sped in darkness. Through the open face-plate the night windbuffeted his emotionless, stone-set face: his suit whistled a song ofspeed as the gusts laced by it. Down and ahead his direction rodpointed, and with ever-gathering momentum he followed its leadingfinger. The lights of Porno dwindled to points; grew yet finer, thenwere gone. Several times a sparse cluster of other lights, lonely inthe black tide of III's surface, ran beneath him, signaling a ranch.The last of these melted into the ink behind, and there was a periodunrelieved by sign of man's presence below.
And then at last one bright solitary spot of light appeared, farahead. It was a danger signal to the Hawk. He had to descend at once.From then on, speed had to be forsaken for caution. Watchful eyes werebeneath that light, lying keen on the heavens; a whole intricateoffense and defense system surrounded it. It was the centralwatch-beacon of Lar Tantril's ranch.
Carse swooped low.
He came into the night-world of the surface. No faint-lit horizonshowed; there was only the darkness, and darker shadows peopling it.At the height of a mile there had been no signs of the satellite'snative life, but at an elevation scarcely above the treetops theflying man was brought all too close to the reality of the denizens ofthe gloomy jungle below. Out of the black smother came clues to thelife within it: sounds of monstrous bodies moving through theundergrowth and mud, recurring death-screams, howls and angrychatterings....
* * * * *
This below; there was more above. He was not the only living thingthat soared in the night. Swift fleeting batlike shapes would appearfrom nowhere for one sharp second, would beset him one after anotherin an almost constant stream, thinking his comparatively clumsy,bloated bulk easy prey, and then be gone. He snapped shut hisface-plate under their assault. Sometimes there came different, morepowerful wings, and he would duck in mechanical reaction, sensing thewings sweep past, often feeling them as, with sharp pecks and quickthudding blows, they sought to stun him. But the suit was stout; therepulsed attackers could only follow a little, glaring at him withfire-green malevolent eyes, then leave to seek smaller prey.
The watch-beacon began to wink more often through the ranks ofintervening trees as he neared the ranch. Carse was gliding so lowthat often branches raked and twisted him in his course. His lowtransit allowed one tree to loose great peril upon him.
The tree loomed a black giant in his path. Fifty feet away, he wasswerving to wind around it when he noticed its dark upper branchesa-tremble. He had only this for warning when, with chilling surprise,what appeared to be the entire top of the tree rose, severed itselfcompletely from the rest and soared right out to meet him.
A shape from a nightmare, it slid over the adventurer. He saw twogreen-glowing saucer-sized eyes; heard the wings rattling bonily asthey spread to full thirty feet; heard the monster's life-thirstyscream is it plunged. The stars were blotted out. It was upon him.
* * * * *
But even in the sudden confusion of the attack, Carse knew thecreature for what it was: a full-grown specimen of the giantcarnivorous lemak, a seldom-seen, dying species, too clumsy, too slow,too huge to survive. His ray-gun came around, but he was caught in afeathered maelstrom and knocked too violently around to use it.Without pause the lemak's claws raked his suit. Unable to rend thetough fabric, it resorted to another method. With a strength soenormous that it could overcome the force of the gravity-plates andhis forward momentum, the creature tossed him free. Dizzy, he hurtledupward. But he knew that the bird's purpose was to impale him on thelong steely spike of its beak as he came twisting down.
The lemak poised below, snout and spear-like beak raised. But itwaited in vain, for Carse did not come dropping down. A touch of thecontrol switch and he stayed at the new lev
el, collecting himself. Thelemak, puzzled and angry, wheeled up to see what had become of thevictim that did not descend, and found instead a searing needle ofheat which burnt through its broad right wing. Then, screaming withpain and in a frenzy to escape, it went with a rush into the fardarkness.
The Hawk dropped low again, hoping that his gun's quick flash had notbeen observed. He had not wished to wound the lemak mortally, for nomatter how accurate his shot the monster would take long to die, andscream and thrash as it did so. One short spit of orange waspreferable to a prolonged hullabaloo. But even that might havebetrayed him....
With elaborate caution, he reconnoitered Lar Tantril's ranch.
* * * * *
From above, the ranch clearing was a pool of faint light contained inblack leagues of jungle and the edge of the Great Briney. Slantingshadows and the dark bulks of buildings that were unlit rendered thedetails vague, but under prolonged scrutiny the appointments