gold skin. In one mighty spring she was beside him. Before Johnny knew
what was happening, her great jaws opened--and closed around him. The
long sabre teeth barely touched his skin.
With no more effort than if she were carrying a feather, she leaped
through the air with Johnny in her mouth. When she landed Johnny's feet
thumped painfully against a rock. Where she was holding him about the
middle in her teeth, he was unharmed.
Johnny heard the roar of gunfire as the helicopter's motors were
switched on. Still carrying Johnny in her jaws, the mother leopard
screamed in pain. Johnny was tumbled to the ground, half dazed.
A very shaken Johnny watched the mother leopard run away a short
distance, then turn and spring back toward him. A second later she was
standing over Johnny, putting her body between him and the helicopter.
She roared her defiance at the machine. Johnny marveled at her courage.
She started to pick him up again.
The helicopter was getting into a position where it could hit the big
cat without hitting Johnny. In a few seconds the courageous animal
would be dead.
"Run, friend-pet!" he clicked loudly. "Run! They won't hurt me. Run!"
She looked down at him and growled in a questioning way. Her muscles
tensed, and, with a great spring, she was gone. The guns roared, but
the leopard's last bound carried her safely into the brush.
Before Johnny could get to his feet the 'copter was beside him. Two men
in armor and headglobes jumped out.
"Hurry," yelled the pilot from inside. "You just grazed the leopard."
One man grabbed Johnny by the heels, the other by his shoulders. With
one swing he was tossed heavily onto the floor of the 'copter. The two
men jumped in after him. The armored door clanged closed. The motors
roared and they were going straight up into the sky.
Johnny lay quietly on the floor for some moments; he was still dazed by
his fall--and by the sudden turn of events.
"That leopard was crazy," one of the men was saying. "I never saw one
come back like that, except for a cub!"
Johnny looked up into the face of the speaker. It was a thin, narrow
face with full red lips and small black eyes. Johnny didn't know him.
"That was a narrow squeak you had," the hunter said to Johnny, in a
high, nasal voice. "Two minutes later you'd have been leopard food. Are
you hurt?"
Johnny sat up slowly, moving his arms and legs.
"Uh uh," he said.
With a whine of the motors the 'copter went into a hover. It floated
over the spot where they had picked up Johnny.
"What in the name of all the moon devils were you doing out there like
that--stark naked and no armor?"
"Taking a bath." Johnny was too bewildered to make up an excuse.
The man raised his black eyes to heaven and looked at his companion.
"Crazy!" he muttered. "But, kid," he addressed Johnny, "what made--"
"Skip it!" the pilot said, in a low hard voice. The black-eyed man
stopped abruptly. Johnny decided the pilot must be the leader.
The man turned around and looked at Johnny. He was a large man,
slope-shouldered but powerful. His blond hair was slicked down against
his head. Two long red scars cut across a white heavy-jawed face. His
eyes were so pale they were almost white.
"Where's the bear?" he snapped.
Johnny was struck silent. They were after Baba!
"Come on, kid," the low voice came again, "where's the bear?"
"He ran away." Johnny blurted out the first thing he could think of.
"I've had an awful time. We got lost in the jungle and he ran away,
right at first. I lit fires to attract attention and keep off animals,
and the rains put them out and my matches got wet. I've had an awful
time, and...."
"You ain't seen nothing of the bear?" the scar-faced pilot cut in.
Johnny crossed his fingers carefully and looked the big man straight in
the eyes.
"Not since right at first!"
The pale eyes bored into his. Johnny's eyes dropped down.
"The kid's lying!" the big man said to the others, and turned back to
Johnny. "O.K., kid, let's have it straight now!"
But no matter how much they questioned him or how they threatened,
Johnny insisted he did not know where Baba was.
Finally Ed, the blond scar-faced leader, gave up. He turned to the
others. "You guys search the ground," he commanded, "while I call in to
the boss." He turned and dialed the radio telephone on the instrument
board of the 'copter.
"Hello," he said, "I want to speak to the boss." There was a pause.
"Hello," he said again. "We got the kid--found him where Stevenson
thought he saw the fire."
Johnny heard a voice coming back over the instrument. He thought he
recognized it, but he couldn't make out any words.
"No," the pilot spoke into the instrument, "the kid says the bear ran
away, but I think he's lying. We're going to search from the plane.
Can't send anybody down because of the leopards. One had the kid when
we found him." There was another pause. "No, not hurt. When we're
finished I'll drop him at the colony." There was a long pause. Johnny
caught the words, "if I know that bear," and then there was more he
couldn't catch.
"That's a smart idea," the scar-faced man said. "We'll do just what you
said. O.K. Be seeing you!" The pilot turned back to the other two, who
had binoculars trained down into the jungle.
"See anything, Barney?"
"Not a thing, Ed!" the black-eyed man replied.
"You, Shorty?"
The other man shook his head. "Not even a bird."
For over an hour they searched. While they were searching, Ed, the
pilot, put in another call and told someone else what had happened. He
hinted that even if they didn't find the bear, there was still a way
they might get their hands on him.
Johnny sat with his fists clenched. He knew they would shoot if Baba
showed himself.
After an hour went by and the 'copter had gone over every foot of the
surrounding territory, the men had to give up because they were running
low on fuel.
As they went higher up, Johnny peered out. The 'copter veered Venus
east--away from the colony. At that moment Johnny's heart sank. The
hunters weren't taking him home! Baba would have seen the 'copter come
and go. The little bear would think anyone finding Johnny would take
him back to the settlement. Johnny knew just what the little bear would
do. He would go back to the settlement looking for Johnny!
Johnny had succeeded in keeping those hunters from getting Baba; now
the colonists would get him. Or would they? Suddenly Johnny knew whose
voice that had been on the radio telephone. The voice was that of the
trader, Willard Harkness!
CHAPTER TWELVE
_The Price of a Boy_
They were in the air over two hours, traveling at maximum speed, before
they arrived at their destination. This turned out to be a small cabin,
surrounded by the usual high wall, with a space inside the wall for a
helicopter and a tank. It was a hunters' hideout entirely hidden from
view by diamond-wood trees. The pilot had had to work his way through
branches and then fly for a time between the trunks of the great trees
before hovering in for a landing. A man was standing in the yard
waiting for them when they landed.
As soon as Ed shut off the 'copter's motor, the man who was waiting for
them yelled, "No arrow-birds that I can see. Tell the kid to run for
it." The man had been informed about him by the helicopter's radio.
"O.K., kid, scoot!" Ed jabbed Johnny in the ribs.
Johnny scooted. The lodge door slammed behind him and he opened the
inner door. The large central room was surprisingly neat. The floor was
bare but polished. Some hunting trophies were on the windowless walls.
Chained on a perch in one corner of the room, a miserable little
scarlet ape sat huddled up, with its chin upon its knees. When it saw
Johnny it screamed and chattered. Johnny walked toward it, about to
click a greeting.
"Better watch out!" A red head was thrust from the door of another
room. "Ed's monkey is meaner than he is." It was Rick Saunders.
"Glad to see you safe!" The big redhaired man grinned easily, and waved.
"Hullo," Johnny said. He didn't smile. If Rick were here, it meant only
one thing. These were the same men who had stolen the colony's marva
claws! He all but glared at Rick Saunders standing in the inner doorway.
"You don't seem too happy about being rescued," Rick said with a laugh.
"I wasn't rescued. I...." Johnny stopped. He knew he shouldn't have
said that.
Rick's eyebrows went up. "It seems I heard something about a leopard."
"Well, I guess I was rescued--sorta," Johnny admitted lamely.
"I guess you were!" Rick paused, looking at Johnny. "You sure don't
sound very friendly."
"I don't like thieves and traitors," Johnny said defiantly.
"Wait a minute!" Rick began.
At that moment the four hunters entered the room, cutting off the rest
of Rick's sentence. The scarred-faced leader spoke to Rick.
"You know you're not allowed in here. Get out!" His voice was low and
threatening. Rick turned to go.
"Hold it," called Barney, the narrow-faced hunter. "Carry this in to
the kitchen." He dropped a haunch of antelope on the floor.
His face set and calm, Rick walked slowly past Johnny and hoisted the
meat to his shoulder.
"Any other orders?" he asked quietly.
"Yep!" Ed said. "Take the kid with you. Rustle him up clothes of some
kind. Then you can put him to work helping you."
"Come on, Johnny." Rick put his hand on Johnny's shoulder and started
for the door. Johnny followed him, shrugging off the friendly hand.
The kitchen was even neater than the main room. As soon as they entered
the room, Rick tossed the haunch of antelope into the sink. He turned,
faced Johnny, and grasped the boy's shoulders with his big freckled
hands. He seemed angry.
"What's this thieves-and-traitors business mean?" he demanded.
"First you pretended to be on our side," Johnny answered, "and then
you let the rhinosaurs get in so's those hunters could steal our marva
claws."
"So that's what you think," Rick said. He regarded Johnny gravely.
"Does the rest of the colony think that, too?"
Johnny nodded.
"Take a good look at me, Johnny." Rick touched a cloth tied around his
middle like an apron. "I'm cook and housekeeper here, not one of the
gang. I wasn't pretending anything, and I didn't _let_ any rhinosaurs
inside. I came with these outlaws because they had their tank guns
leveled on me."
"But why did they do that?" Johnny demanded.
"Harkness' orders," Rick replied. "Remember his threat?"
"I sure do!" Johnny said. His eyes grew wide. "I was right," he went
on. "I _thought_ Mr. Harkness was the boss those hunters called."
"He sure is the boss," Rick said. "He's given out word he'll pay for
any information about you and Baba. Any information he gets he passes
on to this bunch. The gang has to work for him so he'll market their
stolen claws and arrange their passage to Earth. Why he's even offering
to pay double for Baba just to prevent the colony from getting him."
"Golly!" Johnny breathed. "He really must be sore at us." Johnny sat
down on a kitchen stool. It was cold against his bare bottom. He
looked up at Rick. "Gosh, I'm sorry, Rick. I mean about thinking you
were--well you know."
"That's all right, Johnny." Rick was smiling now. "I'll admit it did
look bad. Let's forget it and get you into some clothes. We have a meal
to fix."
Johnny jumped up. With a friend beside him things didn't seem quite as
bad. Helped by a pair of scissors, Rick soon had him into a pair of cut
down trousers and a baggy shirt. As soon as the clothes were on, the
two started preparing the meal.
As they worked, Johnny questioned Rick about what had happened to him.
Outside of beating him up once, the hunters hadn't treated him too
badly. He was being saved for Trader Harkness. They made Rick stay in
the kitchen and wouldn't let him into the main room except to clean
it up, and then kept a gun on him. The gang kept him from escaping
by a very simple means--they locked up the rhinosaur-hide armor in a
closet. Ed kept the closet keys, as well as the keys to the tank and
helicopter, fastened to his wrist. Rick had been watching carefully but
had not seen one chance to escape.
As Johnny served the meal to the outlaw hunters, he looked the room
over carefully. When the men weren't looking, he clicked a greeting to
the little scarlet ape. It immediately became quite excited. A plan for
escape began to shape itself in Johnny's mind. He said nothing to Rick,
however.
After the outlaws had eaten, Johnny and Rick had their meal. Rick
thought it strange, but Johnny couldn't bring himself to eat any of the
antelope; he remembered all too well the tiny antelope leader he had
held in his hand. When they were finished and had washed the dishes,
Johnny was all too glad for a blanket thrown on the kitchen floor--the
same kind of bed Rick had.
Johnny tried to push away his fears for Baba, but it was a long time
before he could get to sleep.
It seemed only minutes later when he was rudely awakened by a rough
blow on his shoulder. Actually it was ten hours later, as he could see
by the clock above the stove. Johnny reared up to see Ed standing over
him, a smile on his thin lips, his pale eyes jubilant.
"Get up and get your clothes on," he ordered. "We're going places."
Johnny jumped up and reached for the baggy clothes Rick had made him.
"Come on in when you're ready and don't waste any time about it," Ed
directed, and strode back into the other room. Johnny slipped on the
pants and was soon stuffing in the shirt tails of the oversized shirt.
Rick stood by the stove and watched, sympathy in his eyes.
"Baba," he said slowly, "arrived at the colony an hour ago. I was
listening at the door when the call came from Harkness. These guys are
planning--"
"Come on!" Ed stuck his head in through the door and cut Rick off. Numb
with worry, Johnny followed Ed into the main room.
"Better wrap him up in something," the outlaw called Barney said, his
narrow face twisted in a strange grin. "We can't let the arrow-birds
get him now."
Johnny stood while they strapped man-sized armor on him and put a
headglobe on his head. He followed Ed out of the door and into the
helicopter. The outlaw leader seated Johnny beside him, switched on
the motor, and they roared away.
"Where we going?" Johnny asked.
"You'll find out," Ed snapped. "Keep quiet till I tell you to talk!"
They flew on for almost an hour. Then Ed set the helicopter controls on
automatic hover and snapped the radio telephone on. He dialed a number.
Johnny saw that the number was that of Colony Headquarters.
"Hello." Ed made his voice high and nasal. "I have information
concerning Johnny Watson. Let me speak to his father."
The slick-haired blond man put his hand over the telephone mouthpiece.
He grabbed Johnny by the collar and stared directly into his eyes.
"Listen," he said, "when your father comes on, I want you to speak
to him. Tell him you were rescued by us and we've treated you O.K.
Understand?"
Johnny nodded, his mouth dry.
"I'll tell him what happened," Johnny said. He didn't understand why Ed
was making such a fuss about it.
"Hello. Hello. This is Frederick Watson." Johnny was thrilled by the
sound of his father's voice over the telephone.
"Hello, Mr. Watson," Ed said in the fake voice. "We've found your boy
and here he is." Ed handed Johnny the telephone, his hand over the
mouthpiece again. "Remember!" he said in a threatening voice.
"Hello, dad!" Johnny said into the telephone. "I'm safe all right."
"Thank God!" his father's voice replied.
"I was rescued by these men and outside of making me wash dishes and
sleep on the floor, they've treated me fine. I'm--"
Ed took the telephone away from him in mid-sentence.
"But where are you, Johnny?" Johnny could still hear his father's voice.
"Right now," Ed said into the telephone, "Johnny's up in a 'copter. You
needn't try to get a direction finder on us. Rescuing this boy cost us
a lot and we gotta be sure you'll pay us for it."
"I offered a reward." Mr. Watson's voice was anxious.
"It ain't enough," Ed said. "We lost a tank and a 'copter getting him.
He was surrounded by rhinosaurs. We have the boy. You've got a live
marva. I figure it should be a trade. You bring the marva to the old
tank road by the river, and we'll bring the boy. Bring one tank, driven
by one man. That's all. Be there forty-eight hours from now. Do as I
say and the boy will be delivered on schedule."
"Hello, hello." Frederick Watson's voice was frantic. "I don't know if
the colony will--" Ed hung up and snapped off the radio.
"They will," he said.
Johnny's spirits had never been so low. Everything he touched seemed to
turn to disaster. The colony was all but ruined. In trying to protect
Baba he had caused the marshberries to be destroyed and had given these
outlaws a chance to steal the colony's marva claws. By running away
with Baba he hadn't saved the little bear at all. The outlaws, Trader
Harkness' outlaws, were going to get him.
Johnny would not only lose Baba, but the colony, too, would lose its
last chance for survival.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
_Outwitting the Outlaws_
The little red monkey screamed and chattered its hate as Johnny and Ed
stepped through the doorway of the cabin after their eventful flight.
Johnny had noted that the cabin door was the only exit.
As was usual on Venus, the exit was a double door. When the outer door
was open, the inner one could not be opened. It was just like the
school door. If Johnny could once get through the outer door and block
it open, it would be a while before the men could break the lock on
the inner door and get out. Getting out the first door would be the
problem--but not too big a problem. The outlaws didn't think that he
could go into the jungle without armor, so they did not watch him or
the door too carefully.
As soon as they were inside, Ed took off Johnny's oversized armor and
locked it away. He then winked at the other men and sat Johnny down in
front of him on a high stool.
"You know who I am?" Ed asked him.
"Sure," Johnny said. "You're Ed."
The big man cuffed him so hard he fell from the stool.
"Boy," he said, "you never saw me before." He frowned, making his
scarred face as evil as he could. "When you go back to that colony,
you're going to forget you ever saw us. Do you know why?"
From the floor Johnny shook his head.
"Because if you tell anybody our names or anything about us, you know
what we're going to do?" Ed asked.
Again Johnny shook his head.
"We'll catch you and take you out into the jungle and tie you to a
tree without any armor on, and leave you for the arrow-birds. You
understand?"
Johnny nodded his head. They thought they were scaring him.
They talked a little while longer, describing things they might do to
him if he told their names, and Johnny pretended to be afraid.
"All right," Ed said after the lecture. "Get back to the kitchen."
"Can I play with your monkey?" Johnny asked.
"Play with that monkey!" Ed's pale eyebrows went up. "He'd chew an ear
off you. I've been trying to tame him for a month--and he don't do
anything but bite. You leave him alone."
"He won't bite me," Johnny said. "I don't think he will." The monkey
would be a big help in escaping, if only they'd let Johnny get close to
him. "I'll just go get some sugar cubes from the kitchen."
"Let him, Ed. It'll teach the brat a lesson," the narrow-faced Barney
put in.
"O.K." Ed said. "Get bit, if you want to."
Johnny rushed through the open door into the kitchen. Rick was sitting
at the table with a book beside him.
"You got any candy, Rick?" Johnny asked. "Or maybe some sugar cubes?"
"You better not fool with that monk, Johnny," Rick said. "He's plenty
mean, like all the Venus creatures."
"He won't hurt me," Johnny said. He saw a box of sugar cubes in the
cupboard and grabbed it. "Monkeys just love sweets."
"No." Rick leaned over and a big freckled hand closed around Johnny's
small brown one. He took the box of sugar away. "I'm going to tell them
you got scared. Only two things will happen if you try playing with
that monk. You'll get bitten, and they'll get a big laugh."
"Please let me, Rick," Johnny said. He paused a minute and whispered,
"I've got an idea how I can get away."
"What!" Rick exploded. He closed the door and went on in a whisper,
"It's impossible. You haven't any armor. You don't have any weapons or
a tank. Don't be silly." He paused, and looked at Johnny. "Well, how
were you going to do it?"
"Simple," said Johnny. "First I make friends with the monkey. Then I'll
let him go and tell him to run around and jump on Ed and the rest.
While they are chasing him, I'll open the inside door. I'll let him out
first and dive through myself. I'll wedge open the outside door, and by
the time they get their armor on and break the lock on the inside door,
I'll be over the wall and gone." The words tumbled out of him.
Rick shook his head. "Johnny, that week in the jungle has gone straight
to your head. In the first place, how are you going to make friends
with the monkey? Then how are you going to _tell_ him anything? And how
are you going to get any armor?"
"Rick," Johnny said, "I don't need any armor."
"Oh, Johnny!" Rick exclaimed, exasperated.
"They just won't bother me." Johnny took a deep breath. "I can talk to
them, same as I can talk to the monkey!"
"What!"
"Now, listen, Rick," Johnny whispered earnestly, "I wasn't hurt when
I came here, was I? I'd been in the jungle six Earth days without any
armor."
Rick was looking at him with a strange expression.
"Do you remember," Johnny went on, "how I looked when you rescued me
from the rhinosaur?"
Rick nodded.
"Did I have any armor on then?"
Rick stared at Johnny for a few seconds.
"By golly!" His mouth was slightly open in amazement. "You didn't have
any armor on!"
"I wasn't hurt, was I?"
Rick shook his head slowly.
"No," he said, "but what about that leopard and the rhinosaur?"
"The leopard wasn't hurting me," Johnny said. "She was trying to
get me away before the men got me. She was my friend. As for the
rhinosaur--well, Baba and me hadn't learned for sure about them, yet."
"But how can you talk to them?" Rick asked in wonder.
Johnny knew he had no choice, he had to trust Rick completely.
"It was Baba," Johnny said. Then, very quickly, he explained about
Baba's clicks, and told Rick about his three secrets.
"Jeb said something about those clicks one time," Rick said
thoughtfully. "I never dreamed it could be true."
"It _is_ true, though," Johnny insisted.
Ed stuck his scarred face through the doorway.
"Well, kid, getting cold feet about the monk?"
"No, sir!" Johnny said. "Rick was just getting me some cube sugar."
"Well, hurry it up." Ed went back out.
"Johnny," Rick said, "you show me with that monk, and by the moons of
Saturn, I'll come with you, armor or no armor!"
Johnny was bewildered. This was something he hadn't counted on. He
wanted to explain that there was a chance even he, alone, could not
succeed without Baba. Just as Johnny started to speak, Ed appeared in
the doorway again.
"Well?" he said in his heavy voice.
Johnny took the sugar cubes from Rick and followed Ed into the main
room. As he always did, the monkey screamed and chattered at them as
they entered. The little animal was chained to its perch. A spring
catch too strong for its tiny fingers fastened the chain to its collar
and kept it from getting away. The outlaws began to gather around.
"You'll have to stay at the table, way over at the other end of the
room," Johnny said to the men. "He's scared of you." He pointed to the
table, which was as far as possible from the door leading outside.
"All right, all right." The four men seated themselves where Johnny
pointed, ready to watch the fun.
Johnny walked slowly up to the tiny monkey. As he did so, its little
red face twisted and it showed its razor-sharp fangs. It screamed at
him. Then it leaped out, only to be jerked back cruelly as it came to
the end of its chain. But it ran out as far as it could and clawed at
Johnny, its eyes red.
"Friend-pet, friend-pet," Johnny clicked very low in the back of his
throat. The animal stopped screaming and cocked his head at him. It
looked from one side to the other, as if looking for a marva behind
Johnny. Johnny repeated the phrase again and again, holding the sugar
out where the red monkey could see it and smell it.
Johnny didn't have any idea how much the little animal could
understand, but he went on clicking. "I'm your friend. We are going
to get away from these men." He repeated this many times. Then he
remembered that Rick was going to try, too. "You and I and the big man
in the other room are going to escape."