calculations dealing with a laboratory! And, down in themargin of the first page, the revealing, all-important figure--5,576.34!
He had them--and before Ku Sui! Now, only to get away; out the frontdoor, and up--up from this trap he was in--up into clean and emptyspace, and then to Leithgow and Friday at Ban Wilson's!
But, as the Hawk turned to go, his eye took in a little slip on thedesk, a radio memo, with the name of Ku Sui at its top. Almost withoutvolition he glanced over it, hoping to discover useful informationabout Ku Sui's asteroid--and with the passing of those few extraseconds his chance for escaping out the door passed too.
Carse's back was partly toward the front door when a voice, hard anddeadly, spoke from it:
"Your hands up!"
* * * * *
The adventurer's nerves twanged; he wheeled; and even as he did soanother voice bit out from the rear door:
"Yes, up! One move and you're dead!"
And Hawk Carse found himself caught between ray-guns held unswervinglyon his body by a man at each door. He was not fool enough to try toshoot, even though his own gun was in his hand; his best speed wouldbe slow-motion in the hampering space-suit. He was fairlycaught--because for a few precious seconds he had let his mind slipfrom the all-important matter of escaping.
At a shout from someone, both doors filled with men, and thin facesappeared at the window-ports. Their ray-guns made an impregnable fencearound the netted Hawk.
And then a well-remembered voice, harsh as the man from whom it came,cut through the room.
"Apparently you're caught, Captain Carse!"
The cold gray eyes narrowed, scanned the room, the blocked doors, thebarricade of guns held by the grim men at doorways and window-ports.
"Yes," Hawk Carse murmured. "Apparently I am."
* * * * *
Lar Tantril, the Venusian chief, smiled. He was tall for one of hisrace, even taller than the prisoner he faced. Clad in tight-fitting,iron-gray mesh, he had the characteristic wiry body, thin legs andarms of his kind. Spiky short-cropped hair grew like steel sliversfrom the narrow dome of his long hatchet head, and the taut-stretchedskin of his face was burned a deep hard brown. He looked what he was:a bold and unscrupulous leader of his men.
"The gun in your belt," he said, "--drop it. Right on the floor.There--better. I like you not with a gun near your hand, Carse."
The Hawk regarded him frigidly.
"And now what?" he asked.
Lar Tantril continued smiling. His ray-gun did not move for an instantfrom the line it held on the metal and fabric giant. He said at atangent, quite pleasantly:
"Think fast, Captain Carse--think fast! Isn't that one of Dr. Ku's newsuits?--a little space-ship all your own? Why not plan a sudden sweepfor that door in an attempt to crash through my men and get free up inthe air--eh?"
"Why not?" said the Hawk.
"It might be possible," Tantril continued, "with your luck. _Unlesssomething went wrong with your helmet gravity-plates._"
At this the Venusian's gun moved. Deliberately it came up and aimed atthe crown of the adventurer's helmet. Tantril squeezed the trigger.
_Spang!_
A pencil-thin streak of orange stabbed between Venusian and Earthling;sparks hissed out where it struck the tip of the helmet; and for aninstant life and strength seemed to leave the grotesquely clad figure.Carse slumped down under a quick crushing weight. Weight! It bent himlow, and it was only with a great effort that he was able tostraighten again. For the suit's full load of metal and fabric wasupon him now, its enormous boots binding him to the ground since theirweight was unrelieved by the partial lift of the helmet plates. Aninch-wide, black-rimmed hole in the mechanism above the helmet toldwhat had happened.
Lar Tantril chortled, and his men, most of them only halfcomprehending what he had done, echoed him.
"But even yet you've got a chance," the Venusian went on. "There'sanother set of plates in the boot-soles, for attraction. If you got achance to stand on your head outside, you'd be gone! So--"
* * * * *
This time he lowered the gun, and carefully, accurately, he sent twospitting streams of orange through the soles of the great boots.
The danger Carse had feared had come to pass. His one weapon had beendestroyed. He was worse than helpless; he was in a cumbersome prison,all power of quick movement gone. He was a paralyzed giant, tied tothe soil, the ways of the air hopelessly closed. The slightest stepwould cost great effort.
"You have protected yourself well, Lar Tantril," he said slowly.
Now Tantril laughed deeply and unrestrainedly. "Yes, and by MotherVenus," he cried, "it's good to see you this way, Carse, unarmed andin my power!" He turned to his circle of men and said: "Poor Hawk!Can't fly any more! I've put him in a cage! So thoughtful of him tobring his cage along with him so I could trap him inside it! His owncage!" He guffawed, shaking, and the others laughed loud.
Through it all Hawk Carse stood motionless, his face cold and graven,his slender body bent under the burden of the dead suit. He still heldin his right hand, limp by his side, the sheaf of papers and theirall-important figure--and the thumb and forefinger of his hand weremoving, so slowly as to be hardly noticeable, in what seemed to be alone sign of nervous tension.
"You know, Carse," Tantril observed after his laugh, "I've been halfexpecting you, though I don't see how you knew I was the one who tookthose papers you're holding. Dr. Ku radioed me, you see. I think youwere reading his message at the time I entered. Did you finish it?"
"No," said the Hawk.
"You'll find it interesting. Let me read it to you." And Tantril tookup the memo.
"From Ku Sui to Lar Tantril: Search House No. 574 in Port o' Pornoclosely for anything pertinent to Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow orgiving clue to his whereabouts. Keep what you obtain for me; I willcome to your ranch in five days. Watch for Hawk Carse, Eliot Leithgowand a Negro, arriving from space at Satellite III in self-propulsivespace-suits." There followed some details concerning the suits'mechanism; then: "Carse caused me certain trouble and came nearhurting my major inventions. I want him badly."
* * * * *
At this the adventurer's face tightened; his gray eyes went frosty.All he and Leithgow had deduced, then, was true. Dr. Ku had survivedthe crashing of the asteroid's dome. The mechanisms had alsosurvived--and certainly the coordinated brains--the brains he, HawkCarse, had promised to destroy! Now trapped, it seemed that promisecould never be fulfilled....
Yet even through this torturing thought of a promise unkept, theHawk's thumb and forefinger moved in their slight grinding motion onthe first sheet of the sheaf of papers....
Lar Tantril reached out his hand for the sheaf. "So, obeying Dr. Ku'sorders, I had the house searched and got these papers. They, must bevaluable, Carse, since you wanted them so badly. Ku Sui will bepleased. Hand them over."
With but the barest flick of gray eyes downward. Hawk Carse gave thesheaf to Tantril.
But his brief glance at the top-most sheet told him all he wanted toknow. Gradually, methodically, the motion of thumb and forefinger hadtotally effaced the revealing figure 5,576.34, the one clue to thelocation of Leithgow's laboratory. Enough! What he had set out to dowas finished. The chief task was achieved!
"And now, perhaps," Lar Tantril chuckled, "a little entertainment."
His men pricked up their ears. This language was more understandable.Entertainment meant playing with the prisoner--torture. And alkite,probably, and isuan. A night of revelry!
But Hawk Carse smiled thinly at this.
"Entertainment, Tantril?" his cold voice said. He paused, and thenadded slowly: "What a fool you are!"
* * * * *
Lar Tantril was not annoyed by the words. He only laughed and slappedhis thigh.
"Yes?" he mocked. "Truly, Captain Carse, you must be frightened, totry and anger me so I'll
shoot! Do you fear a skewer-blade so much? Wewould leave most of you for Ku Sui!"
Carse shook his head. "No, Lar Tantril, I don't want you to shoot me.I'm telling you you're a fool--because you think me one."
With a wave of his hands the Venusian protested: "No, no, not at all.You're infernally clever, Carse. I'll always be the first to admitit."
"Then do you think I'd attack your ranch alone?"
"You'd like me to believe you have friends hidden somewhere?" Tantrilasked, smiling tolerantly.
Carse's voice came back curtly. "Believe what you like, but learnthis: It's your boast that your ranch is impregnable, guarded on everyside and from every angle. I'm telling you it's