The Passing of Ku Sui Page 2

  CHAPTER II

  _Three Figures in the Dawn_

  The fourth night after the Hawk had met his friends at Ban Wilson'swas sunless and Jupiter-less, nor was there the slightest breath ofwind; and in the humid, dank jungle surrounding on three sides theisuan ranch of the Venusian Lar Tantril the sounds of night-prowlinganimals burst full and loud, making an almost continuous babel ofvaried and savage noise.

  In the midst of this dark inferno, Tantril's ranch was an island ofstillness. Within the high guarding fence, the long low buildings layquiet and were [illegible] brushed periodically by the light from thewatch-beacon high overhead as it swept its shaft over the junglesmother and then around over the black glassy surface of the GreatBriney Lake, bordering the ranch enclosure on the fourth side. And,vigilantly, the eyes of three Venusian guards followed the ray.

  They stood on the three lookout towers which reared at equal intervalsup above the circumference of the ranch; and though the buildingsbelow seemed deserted, in reality wide-awake men were stationed atposts within them, waiting for the clang of the alarm which thepressing of a button in any one of the lookout towers would effect.Lar Tantril's ranch was not asleep. It was as alert and wary as thebeasts tracking through the jungle outside its fence, and all itsdefensive and offensive weapons were at the ready.

  No one within the ranch knew it, but within two hundred yards lay thefoe Lar Tantril and his men feared most.

  * * * * *

  Regularly around the watch-beacon swept, slicing the blackness with anoval white finger, the farthest edge of which reached a hundred andfifty yards. Over the "western" lake--and its inky ripples sparkledsomehow ominously. Over the jungle's confusion--and trees, greatbushes, spiky vines and creeper-growths leaped into momentaryvisibility, and then were again swallowed up in the tide of night.Here a cutlas-beaked bird, spotlighted for an instant, froze intosurprised immobility with the pasty, bloated worm it had seizedtwisting and dangling from its mouth, to flap squawking away as theray glided on: there the coils of a seekan, in ambush on a tree limb,glittered crimson for the sudden moment of illumination; or a namelesshuge-eyed pantherlike creature was glimpsed as it clawed at a nest ofunfledged haris, while the frantic, screaming mother beat at it withwings and claws....

  But all this was usual and unalarming, merely the ordinary routine ofthe jungle at night. Could the beacon have reached out another fiftyyards, the guards on their towers would have seen that which was notusual--and would have summoned every weapon of the ranch beneath.

  Or could the guards have heard, besides the cries and crashings andyowls of the jungle folk, the man-made sounds which sped silently backand forth across the ranch within their tight and secret radiobeams--then, too, the alarm would have clanged.

  Had the beacon suddenly stretched its path outward another fiftyyards, it would have fallen upon a massive, leafy watrari tree, tallerthan most: and the guards, looking close, might have caught in onenotch of the tree's many limbs a glint of metal: might have seen, hadthe light held on that glint, a bloated monster of metal and fabricbraced there, hiding behind a screen of leaves.

  This giant, not native to the jungle, was posted due "north" from theranch. Another waited to the "south," in a similarly large tree; andanother to the "east."

  Hawk Carse and his friends were abroad again and waiting to strike.

  * * * * *

  Ban Wilson, hot, itching and uncomfortable inside the heavy space-suitthat he wore, and supremely aware of his consequent awkwardness,watched the ranch's beacon sweeping past him thirty or more yardsaway, and again sought relief from the tedium in conversation.

  "Jupiter should be rising soon, Carse. It's the darkest hour--seems tome he'll come now if he comes at all. What do you think?"

  He was the one posted in a watrari tree "south" of Tantril's ranch.Flung on the tight beam of his helmet-radio, which had been tuned andadjusted by Eliot Leithgow so as to reach only two other radios, thewords rang simultaneously in the receivers of Friday, who was "east"of the ranch, and Carse, who was "north."

  The Hawk responded curtly:

  "I don't know when he'll come; I suspect not before full morning."

  Ban Wilson grunted at receipt of this discouraging opinion, and thenonce more, as he had been doing regularly all through the night,raised to his eyes the instrument that hung by a cord from theneckpiece of the suit. Through it he scanned slowly and methodicallythe portion of black heaven that had been assigned to him. Theinstrument would have resembled a bulky pair of electro-binocularswith its twin tubes and eyepieces, had not there been, underneath thetubes, a small, compact box which by Leithgow-magic revealed theworld through infra-red light by one tube, and ultra-violet the other.

  "Nothing!" Ban muttered to himself, lowering the device. "And damn KuSui for makin' these space-suits so infernally uncomfortable! Might aswell have made 'em space-ships, while he was at it!... Say, Carse," hebegan again aloud into his microphone, "maybe Dr. Ku's come already. Iknow my men said no one had arrived at the ranch in a suit like thesewe've got on--but, hell, if his whole asteroid's invisible, whycouldn't he make his space-suit invisible, too?"

  "I don't think he's done that. Otherwise he would have--" Theadventurer's level tone raised incisively. "Now, both of you, still!Conceal yourselves with great care--Jupiter's rising!"

  * * * * *

  The "western" horizon, a moment before indistinguishable, was nowfaintly flushed, a flush which deepened quickly into glowing, riotouscrimson, causing long streamers to shoot out over the surface of theGreat Briney, tingling it, sparkling it. The light reached the jungle:and when the first faint reflected rays filtered down through thematted gloom of tree and vine and bush the creatures that had trackedfor prey all night looked to their lairs: and gradually, the tenor ofthe jungle noises waned off into a few last screams and mutteredgrowls, and then died altogether into the heavy, brooding hush thatcomes always with dawn over the jungles of Satellite III.

  Jupiter thrust his flaming arch upwards over the horizon, and climbedwith his whole vast blood-blotched bulk into a sky turned suddenlyblue. Lake and jungle shimmered under the rapidly dissipating nightvapors. The ranch-beacon paled into unimportance. Day had come.

  And now the three bloated figures of metal and fabric that were mencrouched closely back beneath the leaves of the trees that concealedthem, and waited tensely, not daring at first to move for fear ofdiscovery. Each one could see, through the intervening growth, thewatch-towers of the ranch; but Friday, from his post in the tree tothe "east," could see the area best, and it was Friday to whom Carse'snext words were addressed.

  "Eclipse?" his terse voice asked. "Do the guards in the towers seem tonotice anything?"

  The big Negro strained cautiously for a better view.

  "No, suh, Cap'n Carse. Sure they can't see us at all. Just pacin'round on their towers, kind of fidgety."

  "Anyone else in sight?"

  "No, suh.... Oh, now there's somethin'. Two of the guards are lookingbelow, cupping their ears. Someone down there must be tellin' themsomethin'. Now they're lookin' up to the sky--the northern sky. Yes,suh! All three of 'em! They're expectin' someone, sure enough!"

  "Good. He must be coming. Use your glasses."

  * * * * *

  Then in all three trees the instruments that Eliot Leithgow had shapedwere raised, and the whole sweep of horizon and the glowing, clearblue dome of sky subjected to minute inspection through theirdetecting infra-red and ultra-violet. Ban Wilson, perhaps, stared mosteagerly, for he had never seen Ku Sui's asteroid, and despite himselfstill only half-believed that twenty craggy, twisted miles of rockcould be swung as its master willed in space, and brought down bodilyto Satellite III.

  But he saw nothing in the sky; nothing looming gigantically over anypart of the horizon; and he reported disgustedly:

  "Nothing doing anywhere. Carse."

  "Don't see
nothing either, suh," the Negro's deep voice added. Andboth of them heard the Hawk murmur:

  "Nor do I. But he must be--Ah! There! Careful! They're coming!"

  "Where? Where is it?" yapped Ban excitedly, jerking the instrument tohis eyes again.

  "Speak low. Not the asteroid. Three men."

  For a tense minute there was silence between them, until, in a low,crisp voice, the Hawk added:

  "Three men in space-suits like ours, coming from the "north" straightfor Tantril's. Ban, you may not be able to see them till they get tothe ranch, so you keep hunting for the asteroid with your glasses.Friday, you see them?"

  "Yes, suh! Three! One ahead of the others!"

  "Keep your eyes tight on them. No talking now from either of youunless it's important."

  The steely voice snapped off. And carefully, in his tree, Hawk Carsebrushed aside a fringe of leaves and concentrated on the three figuresthe dawn had brought.

  * * * * *

  Hard and sharp they glittered in the flood of ruddy light fromJupiter, great grotesque figures of metal and bulging fabric, withshining quarzite face-plates and the abnormally large helmets andboot-pieces which identified them as being of the enemy. At a levelfifty feet above the jungle's crown they came in fast, horizontaltransit, and there was much of beauty in the picture that theymade--sparkling shapes flying without sound or movement of limbagainst the blue sky, over the heaped colors of the jungle below. Oneflew slightly in the lead, and he, the watching Hawk felt positive,was Ku Sui, and the other two his servants--probably men whose brainshad been violated, dehumanized--mere machines in human form.

  Straight in the three figures flew, without hesitation or swerving,closer and closer to the watching man in the tree. The Hawk's lipscompressed as his old enemy neared, and into his watching gray eyescame the deadly cold emotionless look that was known and fearedthroughout space, wherever outlaws walked or flew. Ku Sui--so close!There, in that even-gliding figure, was the author of the infamy doneto Leithgow, of the crime to the brains that lived though their bodieswere dead; of the organized isuan trade. Go for him now? The thoughtflashed temptingly through Carse's head, but he saw sense at once. Fartoo dangerous, with the powerful, watching ranch so close. He couldnot jeopardize the success of his promise to the brains.

  And so Dr. Ku Sui passed, while two pairs of eyes from two leafy treeswatched closely every instant of his passing, and one man's handdropped unconsciously to the butt of a raygun.

  Quickly, the Eurasian and his servitors were gone, their straight,steady flight obscured by the trees around Tantril's ranch, belowwhich they slanted.

  Dr. Ku Sui had arrived at his assignation. But where was the asteroid?

  * * * * *

  Through his instrument, Carse sought horizon and heaven for themassive body, but in vain. He spoke into his helmet-radio's mike.

  "Ban?"

  "Yes, Carse?"

  "See the asteroid anywhere?"

  "Nowhere, by Betelgeuse! I've looked till my eyes--"

  The Hawk cut him short. "All right. Stand by. Friday?"

  "Yes, suh?"

  "Can you see anything special?"

  "No, suh--only that the three platform guards keep lookin' downtowards the center of the ranch."

  "Good. That means Ku Sui's being received," said Carse; and then heconsidered swiftly for a minute. Decided, he continued:

  "Ban and Friday, you both wait where you are, keeping a steadylookout. None of us can see the asteroid, but it must be somewherecomparatively near, for Dr. Ku has no reason to bother with a longjourney in a space-suit. I think the asteroid's close down, hidden bythat distant ridge in the direction from which they came. I'm going tofind it. When I do, I'll tell you where to come meet me. Inform me atonce if Ku Sui leaves or if anything unusual happens. Understood?"

  The assenting voices rang back to him simultaneously.

  "Right!" he said; and slowly his great bulging figure lifted.

  * * * * *

  Cautiously, the adventurer made through the watrari tree to the sidefacing away from the ranch. There, poising for a second, hemanipulated the lateral direction-rod on the suit's chest, and, stillvery slowly, floated free from the shrouding leaves. Then, mindful ofthe lookouts on the towers behind, he employed the tactics he had usedbefore, and kept constantly below the uneven crown of the jungle,gliding at an easy rate through the leafy lanes created by the bankedtree-tops.

  In that fashion, in the upthrust arms of the jungle, twisting,turning, sometimes doubling, but following always a path the objectiveof which was straight ahead, Hawk Carse soared soundlessly for miles.He maneuvered his way with practised ease, and his speed increased asthe need for hiding his flight decreased.

  He was familiar with the landmarks of the region, and it was towardsthe most pronounced of them that he flew. Soon it was looming farabove him: a long, high ridge, rearing more than three miles above thelevel of the Great Briney, and crowded with trees even taller andsturdier than those of the lower jungle plains. Beyond it was the mostlikely spot....

  The Hawk paused at the base of the ridge. There had been no warningfrom Ban or Friday, but, to make sure, he established radioconnection.

  "Friday?" he asked into the microphone. "Any activity on the ranch?Any sign they're aware of our presence?"

  Clear and deep from miles behind, the Negro's voice answered:

  "No, suh. Dead still. I guess they're inside the buildings--except theguards, and they're taking things easy. Where are you, suh?"

  "About ten miles from you, 'north' and a little 'east,' at the foot ofthe ridge. I think I'll know something soon now. Stand by."

  Then Carse moved forward again, slowly winding up between the trees tothe summit of the ridge.

  At the top he stopped. His eyes took in a long, wide valley, of whichthe ridge where he hung was the southernmost barrier. He knew at oncesomething was wrong. Through his opened face-plate he was aware of abreathless hush that hovered over the valley, a hush which embracedits fifty miles or more of jungle length, a hush which was renderedactually visible in several places by the unmoving, limp-hangingleaves of the trees. Below, in the valley, all the myriad life of thejungle seemed to have frozen, and only occasionally was the pause oflife and sound disturbed by the faint, muffled cry of a bird.

  What had wrought the hush? Nothing showed to the naked eye.

  From the summit of the ridge, Hawk Carse lifted Leithgow's glasses tohis eyes. And the valley was suddenly changed, and the hush explained.The miracle lay before him.