“Now perhaps you’ll tell us what this means,” Kenniston said harshly, his mind racing. “Have you lost your senses?”
“I’ve just come to them, Kenniston,” rapped Murdock. “What fools we all were, not to guess that you two belong to Dark’s pirates!”
Kenniston’s lips tightened. It was clear now that Murdock had actually discovered something. From Holk Or came an angry roar.
“Devils of Pluto, I’m no pirate!” the big Jovian lied magnificently. “Whatever gave you this crazy idea?”
Murdock’s hard face did not relax. He waved the atom-pistol. “Go into the main cabin,” he ordered. “Walk ahead of me.”
Helplessly, Kenniston and Holk Or obeyed. His mind was desperate as he shouldered down the corridor. The throbbing of the rockets told him the Sunsprite was still forging through the void. They must be very near Vesta by now—and now this had to happen!
The others had been awakened by the uproar and streamed into the main cabin after Murdock and his two prisoners. Kenniston glimpsed Gloria, slim in a silken negligee, her dark eyes round with amazement.
“Hugh, have you gone crazy?” she exclaimed stupefiedly.
Murdock answered without looking toward her. “I’ve found out the truth, Gloria. These men belong to John Dark’s crew. They were taking us into a trap.”
“Holy smoke!” gasped Robbie Boone, his jaw sagging as the chubby youth stared at Kenniston and Holk Or. “They’re pirates?”
“I think you must be losing your mind!” Gloria stormed at Hugh Murdock. “This is ridiculous.”
Holk Or yawned elaborately. “Space-sickness hits people in queer ways, Miss Loring,” the Jovian told Gloria confidentially. “Some it just makes sick, but others it makes delirious.”
“I’m not delirious, and you two know it,” Murdock retorted grimly. He spoke to Gloria and the others, without taking his eyes or the muzzle of his pistol off his two captives.
“I thought from the first that this Kenniston’s story of finding the wreck of Dark’s ship on Vesta was a thin one,” Murdock declared. “And yesterday my suspicions were increased when I went down and looked over the cargo of equipment they brought. It’s not equipment to dig out a buried wreck. It’s equipment to repair a damaged ship—John Dark’s ship!
“Suspecting that, last ‘night’ I sent a telaudiogram to Patrol headquarters at Earth. I gave full descriptions of Kenniston and this Jovian and inquired if they had criminal records. An answer came through an hour ago. This fellow Holk Or has a record of criminal piracy as long as your arm, and was definitely known to be one of John Dark’s crew!”
There was an incredulous gasp from the others. Murdock still grimly watched Kenniston and the Jovian as he concluded.
“The Patrol hasn’t yet sent through Kenniston’s record, but it’s obvious enough that he’s one of Dark’s men too, and that his story that he and the Jovian are meteor-miners is a flat lie.”
“I can’t understand this,” muttered young Arthur Lanning, staring. “If they’re Dark’s men, why should they induce us to go to Vesta?”
“Can’t you see?” said Hugh Murdock. “John Dark’s ship did crash on Vesta after being wrecked—that must be true enough. But Dark and his pirates weren’t dead as the Patrol thought. They had to have machines and material to repair their ship. So Dark sent these two men to Mars for the materials. The two couldn’t get a ship there any other way, so they made use of our cruiser by selling us that treasure yarn!”
Kenniston winced. He knew now that he had underestimated Murdock, who had put together the evidence quickly when his suspicions were roused.
Gloria Loring, looking at Kenniston with wide dark eyes, saw the change in his expression. Into her white face came an incredulous loathing.
“Then it’s true,” she whispered. “You did that—you deliberately planned to lead us all into capture?”
“Aw, you’re all space-struck,” growled Holk Or, bluffing to the last.
Murdock spoke over his shoulder. “Call Captain Walls, Robbie.”
“No need to—here he comes now!” yelped the excited youth.
Captain Walls, entering the cabin in urgent haste, had eyes only for Kenniston in the first moment.
“Ah, there you are, Mr. Kenniston!” the captain exclaimed relievedly. “I was just coming for you. We’ve reached Vesta! I’ve ordered the pilot to slow down, for I want you to pilot us through the swarm—”
The captain’s voice trailed off. His eyes bulged as for the first time he perceived that Murdock was covering the two men with a gun.
“We’re not going in to Vesta, captain,” rapped Murdock. “John Dark and his pirates are on the asteroid—alive!”
Captain Walls’ plump face went waxy as he heard the name of the most dreaded corsair of the System.
“Dark—living?” he stuttered. “Good God, you must be joking!”
Mrs. Milsom, her dumpy figure shivering and her teeth chattering with terror, pointed a finger at Kenniston and the Jovian.
“They’re two of the pirates!” she shrilled. “They might have murdered us all in our beds! I knew this would happen when we left Earth—”
Kenniston’s mind was seething with despair as he stood there with hands upraised. His whole desperate plan was ruined at this last moment.
He wouldn’t let it be ruined! He would get this cargo of machines and materials to John Dark if it meant his life!
“Turn back at once toward Mars, captain,” Gloria was saying quietly to the stunned officer. Her face was still very pale.
Kenniston, standing tense, had had an idea. A desperate chance to make a break, in the face of Murdock’s atom-gun.
The captain had said that he had just ordered the pilot to slow down the Sunsprite. In a moment would come the shock of the braking rocket-tubes firing from the bows—
That shock came an instant after the wild expedient flashed across Kenniston’s mind. It was only a jarring vibration through the fabric of the ship, for the pilot knew his business.
It staggered them all on their feet, for just a moment. But Kenniston had been waiting for that moment. As Hugh Murdock moved his gun-arm involuntarily to balance himself, Kenniston lunged forward.
“The bridge, Holk!” he yelled as he hurled himself.
Kenniston’s shoulder hit the captain and sent him caroming into Murdock. The two men sprawled on the floor.
Holk Or, with instant understanding, already had the door of the cabin open. They plunged out into the corridor together.
“Our only chance is to make the bridge and grab the controls!” Kenniston cried as they raced down the corridor. “We can keep them long enough to land on Vesta—”
Hiss—flash! The crackling blast of the atom-gun tore into the lower steps of the ladder up which he and the Jovian frantically climbed. Murdock was running after them as he fired, and there were shouts of alarm.
Kenniston and Holk Or burst into the glassite-walled bridge. Bray, the pilot, turned for a startled moment from his rocket-throttles.
Beyond the pilot, the transparent front wall framed a square of black space in which bulked the monstrous sphere of the nearby asteroid.
The World with a Thousand Moons! It loomed up only a few hundred miles away, a big, pale-green sphere