CHAPTER II
_Pursuit_
That was the Hawk's method, and it had given him the name which he hadmade famous. It was characteristic of the man that he preferred tostrike at an enemy ship in a wild, breath-taking swoop, even as thefierce hawk plummets from high heaven to sink its talons deep into theflesh of its more sluggish prey. Nerves were uncomfortable things tohave on such occasions, and Harkness had them, and accordingly he felthis heart hammer and something tight seemed to bind his throat. Hetried to assume the unshakable calmness of the motionless figure atthe stick, but could not, for his body was only flesh and blood--andHawk Carse was tempered, frosty, steel. Through staring eyes thenavigator watched the surface of Iapetus rushing into the bow ports,watched it spread accelerating outward, until he could plainly see thepirate ship lying there, and the nearby figures of men tugging at theheavy boxes of horns.
His eyes were on those figures when they broke. First they teeteredhesitantly a moment, glancing wildly around and up at the vision ofdeath that was coming like a silver comet from the skies, and thenthey melted apart. Three scrambled towards the rim of jungle foliageclose at hand, while their fellows leaped in the other direction,trying to make an open port in their craft. Harkness saw them tumbleheadlong through it and slam it shut. Then a web of blue streaksappeared around the ship, and softened until her hull was bathed isghostly bluish light.
"Their defensive ray-web's on, sir!" he managed to gasp. Carse, thoughclose, might not have heard, so intently was he watching. The altitudedial's pointer reached for one thousand and slid past. Harkness's facewas pale and drawn; his tight-gripped fingers and clenched teethshowed that he expected to crash into the ground in a molten,shapeless tomb of steel. But Friday was grinning, his teeth a slash ofwhite.
"Stand by bow projectors," sounded the Hawk's clipped voice. The negroextended his hands and rumbled:
"Ready, suh."
"Fire."
"Fire!" Friday roared.
His rich laugh rang out and he whirled the wheels over. With a hissingas of a hundred snakes, the rays struck.
* * * * *
Well aimed, the bolt speared straight and true. The distance wasshort, and it came from generators that were perhaps not equaled inspace; no ordinary ship's defensive web could resist its viciousthrust. From the streak of silver that represented the Hawk's swoop, astream of orange cut a swathe through the air ahead, holdingaccurately on the brigand ship. For just a tick of time there was aturmoil of color as offensive ray met defensive web; then the aircleared again--and the pirate was unmarked!
By rights she should have been split in two; and, though his face didnot show it, it must have been surprising to Carse that she wasn't.With one flick of the wrist he wrenched the _Star Devil_ out of herplunge and sent her scudding, a hundred feet up, over the jungle rim.Friday was gaping. Harkness, still numb from the dive, foolishlystaring; and then the brigand bared her fangs in return.
Orange light winked from her stern, and the Hawk's ship was bathed ina streak of color. But the bolt caromed harmlessly off the side of thearcing _Star Devil_! and the next instant the pirate's lean bulkswayed, lifted a little and zoomed up into the heavens, abandoning theboxes of horn without further fight.
"Runnin' foh it! Scared stiff!" muttered Friday, unholy joy in hisgleaming eyes. He looked at the figure at the stick. "Follow 'em now,suh, an' wear out their projectors?"
Carse thoughtfully smoothed his bangs with his free hand. "Plenty oftime for that," he said patiently. "Some of the men on the ranch maystill be alive: we must care for them. I'm going to land. Tell theengineer to keep watch through the electelscope on that ship. I'llstart overtaking it shortly."
"Funny our rays didn't ha'm 'em," Friday ruminated aloud. "Ain't noordinary craft, that. No, suh, they's more in this heah business thanhits yo' eyes!"
"Now you're getting cynical, Eclipse," the Hawk said dryly.
* * * * *
A quarter-mile-square block of land had been fenced off as a corralfor the ninety-head herd of bull phantis Carse kept on Iapetus. Thesecreatures resembled mostly the old ostrich of Earth, but grew nofeathers. The neck, however was shorter than the ostrich's; theleathery skin of a drab gray color; the powerful hind feet, on whichthey stood erect, prehensile and armed with short stabbing spurs; theforearms short and used for plucking the delicate shoots and youngleaves on which they lived. There was a dim flicker of rudimentaryintelligence inside the bullet heads; they recognized men as theirenemies, and hated them. And therefore they necessitated carefulhandling, for, even without the valuable head-horns, theirsharp-spurred feet could rip a human being into shreds in seconds.
They were clustered now behind the wire corral-fence, electrified toprevent them from breaking through. They bellowed angrily and shovedeach other about as their wicked little blood-shot eyes caught sightof the _Star Devil_ as she came dropping gently down.
At the electelscope of the descending craft was the ship's engineer.He had just centered the instrument on the fleeing pirate craft thatby now was leaving the satellite's atmosphere, and the image was largeon the screen above the bow windows, where he kept a steady eye on it.The inner door of the port-lock swung open, the outer door down, andCarse walked through, followed by Friday and Harkness.
An ugly scene lay spread out before them in the glaring daylight. Thetrader had only gone a few paces when he paused and looked down at anoutsprawled thing that had once been a man. Stooping, he very gentlyturned the mess of charred flesh over and peered at what was left ofthe face. There were small, burnt holes in it, and the fleshsurrounding them looked as though it had been suspended for some timeover a slow fire....
Carse rose and stared into space.
"Ruthers, a guard," he said softly, as if speaking to himself. Hewalked on.
Another heap of flesh was pitched before the front wall of theranch-house. The man it had been a little while before had evidentlybeen running for the door when the deadly rays had got him. Hisray-gun was lying a few feet away. Again Carse stooped and again verygently pulled the ragged thing over.
"By God!" stammered Harkness suddenly, staring, his face white,"that--that's Jack O'Fallon--old Jack O'Fallon! Why, we went tonavigation school together! We--"
"Yes," said the Hawk, "O'Fallon, overseer." He stepped into the house.Friday, impassive and grim, pulled Harkness away from the distortedbody.
* * * * *
Three more were tumbled together behind a splintered table in the mainroom. The rays had done their work well. Three were welded, it seemed,into one.... It was some time before the Hawk's frigid whisper came.
"Martin ... Olafson ... and this--Antil ... Antil was the onlyVenusian I ever liked...."
The chairs and tables in the room were overturned, most of them borethe seared scars of ray-guns, which showed plainly enough that therehad been a desperate last minute hand-to-hand struggle there, afterthe defensive ray-web had failed and the pirates rushed the building.The radio alcove was choked with seared, cracked wreckage. Crane, theoperator, still sat in his seat, but he was slumped over forward, andhis head and chest were pitted with slanting ray holes. One hand hadbeen reaching for a dial. The other was twisted and charred.
"And Crane, the last," said Hawk Carse, and for some moments he stoodthere, his face cold and unmoving save for the tiny twitching of theleft eyelid. Utter silence rested over the bitter three--a silencebroken only by the occasional roar of an angry phanti bull outside inthe enclosure.
Finally Carse took a deep breath and turned to Friday.
"You'll see to their burying," he ordered quietly. "Get the power rayfrom the ship and burn out two big pits on that knoll off the cornerof the corral."
Friday looked at him in puzzlement. "Two, suh?" he repeated. "Why two?Why not put 'em all in one?"
"You will put all my men in one. I'll need the other later.... You,"he went on, to Harkness, "get the cargo of horns aboard. W
e can'tleave it out there, for three of those pirates fled into the jungle. Ihaven't time to find them, and they'd come out and bury the horns ifwe left them. I'll be with you soon. We take off in ten minutes."
"Yes, sir," answered the navigator, and he and the negro went out.
* * * * *
For a little while Carse stayed in the cubby. As he softly stroked theflaxen bangs of hair over his brow, he visualized what had happenedinside that house of death, piecing a number of things together andforming a whole. On the surface it seemed plain enough, and yet therewere one or two points.... His face showed a trace of puzzlement. Heshook his head slightly; then he stooped and picked up the radiooperator's body with an ease that might have seemed surprising fromsuch a slender man, and walked out of the house.
Beyond one corner of the corral, upon a slight rise in the ground,Friday was melting out the second grave with the ship's great portableray-gun. Carse laid Crane's body gently down in the first grave, thenwent to where Harkness, with the _Star Devil's_ radio-man and cook,was loading the cargo of horns aboard. The trader opened several ofthe boxes, glanced at the upper layers to inspect the quality, and,satisfied, closed them again. All the boxes were trundled soon intothe craft's open port and aft to her cargo hold.
The engineer on watch at the electelscope and visi-screen felt a handon his shoulder and looked around to find his captain standing by him.He pointed up at the screen: on it, the brigand ship was a mere fourinches in size, and bearing straight out on an unwavering course. "Ireckoned their speed to be about ten thousand an hour, a minute ago,sir," he reported. "Now about five thousand miles away."
"How soon," Carse asked, "do you think we could overhaul them?"
The other grinned. "If you're in a hurry, sir, about two hours and ahalf."
"I am in a hurry. I want all the speed you can muster."
"Yes, sir. Might be able to get it down, to two."
The Hawk nodded. "Try. Return to your post."
Outside, through the port, he saw Friday smoothing over the grave, theburying finished, and he beckoned him in. At that second Harknessreported the cargo all fastened down. Carse snapped out his orders.
"Harkness," he said shortly, "you and Friday with me in the controlcabin. Sparks, you can get an hour's sleep, but leave the radioreceiver open. Cook, an hour's rest if you want it--and I think you'dbetter want it. There's war ahead. Close port!"
The inner and outer doors nestled snugly, one after the other, intoplace with a hiss; the rows of gravity plates in the ship's bellyangled ever so slightly. She quivered, then, in a surge of power,lifted straight up and poised; then, answering the touch ofspace-stick and accelerator, she went streaking through the atmosphereon the trail of the distant craft that had left its mark of blood onIapetus and provoked the vengeance of the Hawk....