Teutoberg.
At the first splash of water in his face Teutoberg groaned and rolledover.
"Get up, you," Winford ordered harshly.
Teutoberg sat up groggily. The sight of the pistol and Winford's eyesbrought him out with a sudden shock.
"Get over to that air-lock phone and say just what I tell you to,"ordered Winford grimly. "One false word, and I'll ray you plenty."
Teutoberg staggered to his feet obediently and took the phone, for hehad read death in Winford's hard eyes.
"Hello, Jarvis?" he asked, his body rigid under the prod of Winford'spistol. "This is Teutoberg.... Yes, I talked a minute ago. I've changedmy plans, Jarvis. We've got to get the iridium out of the hold and intothe liner as soon as possible, or we'll be sighted by some other craft.Take all the men but ten and go back to the liner. Make ready there forthe cargo.... You'll have to clear some cabins; there is more than Ithought. There isn't much food aboard here, anyway, and it is better tolet the men go to mess right away and start transferring the cargoimmediately afterward."
Teutoberg hung up the phone.
"Is that satisfactory?" he asked sullenly.
"It will do," was Winford's terse reply. "Now when the men have goneback to the liner, order two of the remainder to bring up Jarl from thehold to the control room here."
* * * * *
Jarl was as impassive as usual when he entered the control room andbeheld Winford in charge there, although his two captors stared inamazement at Teutoberg, bloody and battered, seated against the side ofthe room with his hands upraised. Jarl calmly disarmed his two captorsand closed the door.
"Only eight of Teutoberg's men besides these remain on the _GoldenFleece_," Winford explained to Jarl. "Take care of them first, thenrelease the rest of our men from the hold. Tell Agar to take charge ofthe machinery as soon as possible, and have the gunners stand by forfurther orders."
"Awah," replied Jarl stoically, and left the control room.
He took care of the eight invaders in his very efficient Martianfashion, for he pistoled them with neatness and dispatch where theystood before the air-lock with the young commander and his remaining twomarines, waiting to thrust them out into space. Winford had notinstructed Jarl just how to take care of the situation, and the Martianattended to it in his own way. Commander 6666-A, with his arms boundbehind his back, stared in amazement as Jarl calmly stepped over thedead bodies and went on his way to release his fellow pirates from thehold.
Up in the control room the radio loud-speaker hummed to life.
"Teutoberg, Teutoberg, are you there?" cried an anxious voice. "ThreeInterplanetary battle spheres are approaching from the direction of theEarth! They are still two thousand miles away, but they are coming onfast! We're going to cut loose and run for it. If you're not back herein five minutes, you'll have to stay where you are!"
Winford cut in then for Teutoberg, who gulped painfully before speaking.
"Go right ahead," he said in a strained voice. "I'm staying here on the_Golden Fleece_. I'll--I'll see you later."
"Why didn't you say you'd meet them in the Hereafter?" suggested Winfordcoldly, as he cut out the microphone. "That's where you are going assoon as Jarl returns. He'll be glad to help you on your way, for hehasn't forgotten the aid you gave his brother-in-law in robbing him andsending him to Mercury."
Teutoberg made no answer.
Things were happening swiftly. Already the liner was lurching forwardfrantically with every propulsion ray flaming as she started her flightthrough space away from the avenging battle spheres. Red lights twinkledon the control board of the _Golden Fleece_. Agar, at the generatorsnow, threw in the power. The big freighter leaped ahead like agrayhound, soon reaching a speed that even the swift battle spherescould not equal, thanks to the engineering genius of the half-insaneAgar.
Winford glanced around. Teutoberg was already gone. Jarl had taken himdown to the air-lock. Winford tried to forget him. There were otherthings to think of. There were the details of taking the _Golden Fleece_out to Pluto near the frontiers of the Sun's domain--Pluto, thatstronghold of the space pirates where a man could sell an entire planetor any part of it, no questions asked, if he could produce it for thebuccaneer kings to bid on. The freighter and its cargo were as good assold already, and the money they would bring would be more than enoughto buy pardons and freedom for everyone in the crew.
* * * * *
There were many details to consider carefully, but instead Winford foundhimself thinking of Teutoberg down by the air-lock, stripped of hisclothing, ready for his last adventure with life. As much as Winfordhated the man, he was forced into an unwilling admiration for his doggedfight in the control room. A mere word in that telephone would save him.Winford shook his head irritably. The man deserved death. Yet again hesaw the set features, the final walk into the air-lock. Suddenly Winfordfound himself at the phone and heard himself giving the order that wouldsave Teutoberg's life. He sat down again, surprised at his own weakness.He was still musing when Jarl entered.
"You couldn't go through with it," observed the big Martian impassively."I was afraid you couldn't. It is as I have always said of youEarthlings. You think you want revenge, good old ancient vengeance; butwhen the moment comes and you sit in the high place and can have it, youweaken. Well, you won't have to execute Teutoberg now."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Winford.
"After I received your order and told Teutoberg he wasn't to go outthrough the lock after all, he grinned. It was an insult, that grin,just as though he knew all along you wouldn't have the nerve to killhim. And while I stood there asking myself if I should not go ahead andshove him out anyway, one of his men--one of the two we captured up herein this room--caught sight of that grin. He screamed something abouttreachery and Teutoberg betraying him to the pirates, and before I couldinterfere he drew a knife and stabbed Teutoberg to death right therebefore all of us. After that there was nothing to do but to heave hisbody into the air-lock and let it go on out into space."
Far back across the Void in a tiny space sphere which Winford had givenhim and his two marines to return to the distant battle sphere,Lieutenant Commander 6666-A saw through his telescope the white speck ofTeutoberg's body leave the side of the _Golden Fleece_ and wondered whatit was.
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