CHAPTER 5
"Wow!" exclaimed Roger.
"Jumping Jupiter!" commented Tom.
"Blast my jets!" roared Astro.
Rex Sinclair smiled as he maneuvered the sleek black space yacht in atight circle a thousand feet above the Titan crystal roof of hisluxurious home in the heart of the wild Venusian jungle.
"She's built out of Venusian teak," said Sinclair. "Everything but theroof. I wanted to keep the feeling of the jungle around me, so I usedthe trees right out of the jungle there." He pointed to the sea of densetropical growth that surrounded the house and cleared land.
The ship nosed up for a thousand yards and then eased back, smoothlybraked, to a concrete ramp a thousand yards from the house. Thetouchdown was as gentle as a falling leaf, and when Sinclair opened theair lock, a tall man in worn but clean fatigues was waiting for them.
"Howdy, Mr. Sinclair," he called, a smile on his lined, weather-beatenface. "Have a good trip?"
"Fine trip, George," replied Sinclair, climbing out of the ship. "I wantyou to meet some friends of mine. Space Cadets Tom Corbett, RogerManning, and Astro. They're going to stay with us during their summerleave while they hunt for tyranno. Boys, this is my foreman, GeorgeHill."
The boys shook hands with the thick-set, muscular man, who smiledbroadly. "Glad to meet you, boys. Always wanted to talk to someone fromthe Academy. Wanted to go there myself but couldn't pass the physical.Bad eyes."
Reaching into the ship, he began lifting out their equipment. "You chapsgo on up to the house now," he said. "I'll take care of your gear."
With Sinclair leading the way, the boys slowly walked up a flagstonepath toward the house, and they had their first chance to see a Venusianplantation home at close range.
The Sinclair house stood in the middle of a clearing more than fivethousand yards square. At the edges, like a solid wall of greenvegetation, the Venusian jungle rose more than two hundred feet. It wasnoon and the heat was stifling. They were twenty-six million milescloser to the sun, and on the equator of the misty planet. While Astro,George, and Sinclair didn't seem to mind the temperature, Tom and Rogerwere finding it unbearable.
"Can you imagine what it'll be like in the house with that crystalroof!" whispered Roger.
"I'll bet," replied Tom. "But as soon as the sun drops out of thezenith, it should cool off some."
When the group stepped up onto the porch, two house servants met themand took their gear. Then Sinclair and the foreman ushered the cadetsinside. They were surprised to feel a distinct drop in temperature.
"Your cooling unit must be pretty large, Mr. Sinclair," commented Tom,looking up at the crystal roof where the sun was clearly visible.
Sinclair smiled. "That's special crystal, mined on Titan at a depth often thousand feet. It's tinted, and shuts out the heat and glare of thesun."
George then left to lay out their gear for their first hunt the nextmorning, and Sinclair took them on a tour of the house. They walkedthrough long corridors looking into all the rooms, eventually winding upin the kitchen, and the three boys marveled at the simplicity yetabsolute perfection of the place. Every modern convenience was at handfor the occupant's comfort. When the sun had dropped a little, they allput on sunglasses with glareproof eye shields and walked around theplantation. Sinclair showed them his prize-winning stock and the vastfields of crops. Aside from the main house, there were only four otherbuildings in the clearing. They visited the smallest, a cowshed.
"Where do your field hands live, Mr. Sinclair?" asked Tom, as theywalked through the modern, spotless, milking room.
"I don't have any," replied the planter. "Do most of the work withmachinery, and George and the houseboys do what has to be done by hand."
As they left the shed and started back toward the main house they cameabreast of a small wooden structure. Thinking they were headed there,Roger started to open the door.
"Close that door!" snapped Sinclair. Roger jerked back. Astro and Tomlooked at the planter, startled by the sharpness in his voice.
Sinclair smiled and explained, "We keep some experiments on differentkinds of plants in there at special low temperatures. You might have letin hot air and ruined something."
"I'm sorry, sir," said Roger. "I didn't know."
"Forget it," replied the planter. "Well, let's get back to the house.We're having an early dinner. You boys have to get started at fouro'clock in the morning."
"Four o'clock!" exclaimed Roger.
"Why?" asked Tom.
"We have to go deep into the thicket," Astro explained, using the localterm for the jungle, "so that at high noon we can make camp and take abreak. You can't move out there at noon. It gets so hot you'd fall onyour face after fifteen minutes of fighting the creepers."
"Everything stops at noon," added Sinclair. "Even the tyrannosaurus. Youhave to do your traveling in the cool of the day, early and late. Sixhours or so will take you far enough away from the plantation to findtracks, if there are any."
"Tell me, Mr. Sinclair," asked Roger suddenly, "is this the wholeplantation?" He spread his hands in a wide arc, taking in the clearingto the edge of the jungle.
Sinclair grinned. "Roger, it'd take a man two weeks to go from onecorner of my property to another. This is just where I live. Three yearsago I had five hundred square miles under cultivation."
Back in the house, they found George setting the table on the porch andhis wife busy in the kitchen. Mrs. Hill was a stout woman, with apleasant face and a ready smile. With very little ceremony, the cadets,Sinclair, George, and his wife sat down to eat. The food was simplefare, but the sure touch of Mrs. Hill's cooking and the free use ofdelicate Venusian jungle spices added exotic flavor, new but immenselysatisfying to the three hungry boys, a satisfaction they demonstrated bycleaning their plates quickly and coming back for second helpings.Astro, of course, was not happy until he had polished off his fourthround. Mrs. Hill beamed with pleasure at their unspoken compliment toher cooking.
After the meal, Mrs. Hill stacked the dishes and put them into a smallcarrier concealed in the wall. Pressing a button, near the opening, sheexplained, "That dingus takes them to the sink, washes them, dries them,and puts everything in its right place. That's the kind of modern livingI like!"
As the sun dropped behind the wall of the jungle and the sky darkened,they all relaxed. Sinclair and George smoked contentedly, Mrs. Hillbrought out some needle point, and the three cadets rested incomfortable contour chairs. They chatted idly, stopping only to listento the wild calls of birds and animals out in the jungle as George, orSinclair, identified them all. George told of his experiences ontyrannosaurus hunts, and Astro described his method of hunting as a boy.
"I was a big kid," he explained. "And since the only way of earning aliving was by working, I found I could combine business with pleasure. Iused to hitch rides over the belt and parachute in to hunt for babytyrannos." He grinned and added, "When I think back, I wonder how I everstayed in one piece."
"Land sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Hill. "It's a wonder you weren't eatenalive! Those tyrannos are horrible things."
"I was almost a meal once," confessed Astro sheepishly, and at theurging of the others he described the incident that had cured him ofhunting alone in the jungles of Venus with only a low-powered shockblaster.
"If I didn't get it at the base of the brain where the nerve centersaren't so well protected with the first shot, I was in trouble," hesaid. "I took a lot of chances, but was careful not to tangle with amama or papa tyrannosaurus. I'd stalk the young ones. I'd wait for himto feed and then let him have it. If I was lucky, I'd get him with oneshot, but most of the time I'd just stun him and have to finish him offwith a second blast. Then I'd skin him, take the hams and shoulders, andget out of there fast before the wild dogs got wind of the blood. I'dusually hunt pretty close to a settlement where I could get the meatfrozen. After that, I'd just have to call a couple of the bigrestaurants in Venusport and get the best price. I used to make as muchas fifty credits on on
e kill."
"How would you get the meat to Venusport?" asked Roger, who, for all hisbraggadocio, was awed by his unit mate's calm bravery and skill as ahunter.
"The restaurant that bought it would send a jet boat out for it and I'dride back with it. After a while the restaurant owners got to know meand would give me regular orders. I was trying to fill a special orderon that last hunt."
"What happened?" asked Tom, equally impressed with Astro's life as a boyhunter.
"I had just about finished hunting in a section near a little settlementon the other side of Venus," began the big cadet, "but I thought theremight be one more five-hundred-pound baby around, so I dropped in."Astro paused and grinned. "I didn't find a baby, I found his mother! Shemust have weighed twenty-five or thirty tons. Biggest tyranno I've everseen. She spotted me the same time I saw her and I didn't even stop tofire. I never could have dented her hide. I started running and she cameafter me. I made it to a cave and went as far back inside as I could.She stuck her head in after me, and by the craters of Luna, she was onlyabout three feet away, with me backed up against a wall. She tried toget farther in, opened her mouth, and snapped and roared like twentyrocket cruisers going off at once."
"_She tried to get farther into the cave._"]
Tom gulped and Roger's eyes widened.
"I figured there was only one thing to do," continued Astro. "Use theblaster, even though it couldn't do much damage. I let her have oneright in the eye!" Astro shook his head and laughed. "You should haveseen her pull her head out of that cave! I couldn't sleep for monthsafter that. I used to dream that she was sticking her head in my window,always getting closer."
"Did the blaster do any damage at all?" asked Sinclair.
"Oh, yes, sir," said Astro. "I was close enough for the heat charge fromthe muzzle to get her on the side of the head. Nothing fatal, but she'sprobably still out there in the jungle more ugly than ever with half aface."
The group fell silent, each thinking of how he would have reacted undersimilar conditions; each silently thankful that it hadn't happened tohim. Finally Mrs. Hill rose and said good night, and George excusedhimself to take a last look at the stock. Remembering their early callfor the next morning, the cadets said good night to Sinclair and retiredto their comfortable rooms. In bed at last, each boy stretched fulllength on his bed and in no time was sound asleep.
It was still dark, an hour and a half before the sun would burst overthe top of the jungle, when Sinclair went to the cadets' room to rousethem. He found them already up and dressed in their jungle garb. Eachboy was wearing skin-tight trousers and jerseys made of double strengthspace-suit cloth and colored a dark moldy green. A hunter dressed inthis manner and standing still could not be seen at twenty paces. Thesnug fit of the suit was protection against thorns and snags that couldfind no hold on the hard, smooth-surfaced material.
After a hearty breakfast the three cadets collected their gear, theparalo-ray pistols, the shock rifles, and the small shoulder packs ofsynthetic food and camping equipment. Each boy also carried a two-footjungle knife with a compass inlaid in the handle. A helmet of clearplastic with a small mesh-covered opening in the face covered each boy'shead. Dressed as they were, they could walk through the worst part ofthe jungles and not get so much as a scratch.
"Well," commented Sinclair, looking them over, "I guess you boys haveeverything. I'd hate to be the tyranno that crosses your path!"
The boys grinned. "Thanks for everything, sir," said Tom. "You've been alot of help."
"Think nothing of it, Tom. Just bring back a pair of tyranno scalps!"
"Where are Mr. and Mrs. Hill?" asked Astro. "We'd like to say good-by tothem."
"They left before you got up," replied Sinclair. "They're taking a fewdays off for a visit to Venusport."
The boys pulled on their jungle boots. Knee-length and paper-thin, theywere nonetheless unpenetrable even if the boys should step on one of theneedle-sharp ground thorns.
They waved a last good-by to their host, standing on the steps of thebig house, and moved across the clearing to the edge of the jungle wall.
As the cadets approached the thick tangle of vines, the calls andrustling noises from the many crawling things hidden in the forbiddingthicket slowly died down. They walked along the edge of the tangle ofjungle creepers until they found an opening and stepped through.
_They were completely surrounded by the jungle_]
After walking only ten feet they were completely surrounded by thejungle and could not even see the clearing they had just left. It wasdark, the network of vines, the thick tree trunks and rank growingvegetation shutting out the sun, leaving the interior of the junglestrangely plunged in gloom. Astro moved ahead, followed by Roger, withTom bringing up the rear. They followed the path they had entered, asfar as it went, and then began cutting their way through the underbrush,stopping only to cut notches in the trees to mark their passage.
Their long-bladed knives slicing through vines and brush easily, Tom,Roger, and Astro hacked their way deeper and deeper into the mysteriousand suffocating green world.