invisibility.The ship is surrounded by a net of wires that create a field of forcewhich bend light rays around us. That explains why your men have nevercaught us. But to get back to our subject. I will tell you something.Do you know who I am?"
Quirl looked at him. Strom appeared to be at least sixty years old.But the fine, erect figure, the rugged features told nothing.
"Did you ever hear of Lieutenant Burroughs?" Strom asked casually.
"Burroughs--the man without a planet!" Quirl ejaculated. "Are youBurroughs, the traitor?" Immediately he regretted his heedlessness.Strom's face darkened in anger, and for a moment the pirate captaindid not reply. When he did he was a little calmer.
"Traitor they called me!" he exclaimed vehemently. "I a traitor--themost loyal man in the solar system guard. Surrounded by rottenness andintrigue--
"But you wouldn't know. You were but a lad learning to fly your firsttoy helics when that happened. Years later the Martian Cabal wasexposed, and the leading plotters--the traitors--were punished. Butthat was not till later, and the court's irreversible decree againstme had been carried out. I, the unsuspecting messenger, the loyal,eager dupe, was made the cat's-paw. I was put on an old, condemnedfreighter, with food and supplies supposed to last me a lifetime, butwith no power capsules and no means of steering the ship. I was setadrift in a derelict on a lonely orbit of exile around the sun--theman without a planet!
* * * * *
"Picture that, lad. That rusty, dead old cylinder, coursing around andaround the sun, and inside, sitting on his bales and boxes, a youngman like you. A young man in the pride and prime of his life,expiating the treason that had betrayed him. Day after day, throughthe thick ports, I saw the same changeless scene. And every two years,when I drew near the Earth, I watched the beautiful green ball of it,with what bitter longings! As I watched it dwindle away again intothe blackness of space, I thought of the fortunate, selfish, stupidand cruel beings who lived on it, and hated them. They had banishedme, an innocent man, to whirl forever and ever around the sun, in mysteel tomb!
"But that cruel judgment was never executed. Seven years ago this Gorefound me. He is an escaped convict, and he came in a little five-manrocket he had stolen. We loaded up all of the supplies the little shipwould hold, for Gore had no food, and escaped to Titan, landing on anisland on the side opposite to where the mines are.
"Gore wanted to become a pirate, and as he could get men, I consented.He scraped them up, fugitives from justice, every one of them. Webuilt this ship, and I invented the invisibility field of force--"
"Just a moment," Quirl interrupted, vastly interested. "I saw yourship through the ports that day."
"True. The presence of your ship in the field distorted it so muchthat it was ineffective. But at all other times--right now--we areutterly invisible. One of the I.F.P. patrols may pass within a mile ofus and never see us.
"As we raided the interplanetary commerce, I began to weed out thepeople we captured. Those that showed the highest intelligence, senseof justice and physical perfection I selected to be the nucleus of anew race, to be kept on Titan for a time and then to be transplantedto a new planet of one of the nearer solar systems.
"My principal trouble is with the crew. They can collect ransom onlyon those I reject, and there are constant clashes between me and Gore.It is now my intention to let them go their way, and to fit out a newship, with a new crew. I offer you the place of first mate."
"No!" Quirl replied crisply. "You say you understand the honor of theForce, and then offer me a job pirating with you. No, thanks!"
* * * * *
Strom, or Burroughs, made no attempt to conceal his disappointment.The recital of his wrongs had brought out the bitter lines of hisface, and the weariness of one who plays his game alone and can callno one friend.
"I should have known better," he said quietly. "There was none moreloyal to the I.F.P. than I--when I still belonged to it. Yet, Ithought if I laid all my cards before you--You realize what thismeans?"
"Yes," Quirl replied soberly. "It means you will never dare to let mebe ransomed nor to free me among your selected people. Itmeans--death!"
"Not death! I will parole you."
Quirl felt an overmastering surge of sympathy. He saw this pirate aslater historians have come to see him--a man of lofty and noblepurpose who was made the victim of shrewder, meaner minds in the mostdespicable interplanetary imbroglio ever to disgrace a solar system.The thought of his own fate, should he refuse the offer, did notdepress Quirl as much as the necessity of heaping more disappointmenton this deeply wronged "man without a planet."
"Captain," he said slowly, with deep regret. "You remember the I.F.P.oath?" And at the other's flush he hurried on. "Knowing that oath youknow what my answer must be. Put me in irons or kill me!"
"I know," Strom added wistfully. "Would you--if I could just once moreshake the clean hand of a brave man and a gentleman--"
Quirl's hand shot out and gripped the long, powerful fingers of thepirate captain.
* * * * *
Quirl was willing to compromise to the extent of not revealinganything to the other passengers, for the privilege of being kept inthe prison hold rather than in solitary confinement. Here he would beunder the vigilant eye of a guard, with possibly less chance ofeffecting an escape in some way, but he felt a great desire to be nearthe girl Lenore, and to know that she was safe and in good spirits.
They fastened him by means of a light chain and hoop that lockedaround his waist to a staple set in the floor near one wall. The otherprisoners regarded him as a hero, for since the day of the epic fightthe mate had kept away, and they had been treated with tolerabledecency. Quirl was able to cheer them up with predictions that themost of them would be eligible to ransom. But as he looked at the palebeauty of Lenore he felt grave misgivings, for he knew that a man ofStrom's discernment would want her for his projected Utopia withoutquestion.
She did not speak to him while the hero-worshipping crowd werefluttering about him to their heart's content. When they finally lefthim alone she came up to him silently, and sat on the floor besidehim.
"I want to thank you," she said quietly, clearly, "for what you didfor me and my brother, Mr.--"
"Finner. Quirl Finner. I have thought of you as Lenore, and wonderedhow you were. How long has it been since they took me out? You see--"he grinned, "I was asleep."
"Five days. At least, they turned off the lights five times for thesleeping periods."
"The man who fought for you--how is he?"
"My brother--is dead!"
Quirl looked away so that he should not see the quick tears springingto her eyes. But a few moments later he felt her cool hand on hisscarred forehead, and she was smiling bravely.
"Tragedies such as these, Quirl, were common in the lives of ourancestors. They were able to bear them, and we can bear them. All hislife my poor brother has lived as a gentleman, sheltered, protected byclass barriers. When he died of pneumonia caused by the jagged end ofa broken rib--so Dr. Stoddard says--I think he had a lively sense ofsatisfaction that he should end in such a way. If it had not been forme--"
* * * * *
She came to him often, after that, to sit quietly by his side, and tobring his food to him from the big community bowl which even the mostfastidious of the prisoners had come to look forward to. She told ofher life as the daughter of a capitalist who owned large mine holdingson Titan. It would be about time for the _Celestia_ to reach Titan,and her non-arrival would be causing anxiety to Lenore's fatherawaiting her there. The void would be swarming with I.F.P. patrols,but as the pirate ship was invisible nothing would be found but themysteriously looted and abandoned _Celestia_.
There was no longer any reason for concealing from her the fact thathe himself was a member of the I.F.P., and Quirl told Lenore of theadventurous life he and his companions had led. Of forays to far-awayand as yet undisci
plined Pluto, of tropical Venus and Mercury, wherethe rains never cease, of the hostile and almost unknown planet ofAryl, within the orbit of Mercury, where no man has ever seen a trueimage of the landscape because of the stupendous and never-endingmirages.
As time passed they were drawn together by the bonds of propinquityand mutual interest--this obscure police officer and the daughter ofone of the most powerful men in the solar system. But Quirl did notname his love, for always there was the grim present of theircaptivity, the ghastly uncertainty of the future.
The little "galley boy" Sorko seemed daily more frail. Apparently thefall he had sustained had done him some internal injury. Often theguard, with many a ribald comment, had to help him get his emptiedbowl back up the ladder.