Evans was impressed. "I'll keep a close watch for him going back, sir,"
he promised.
The Commander's warning rang in Evans' ears all the week that followed,
and he was forced during that week to admit that his superior's view
of the situation was correct. The Earth-Guard was suffering a distinct
loss of prestige. It seemed to Evans that wherever he went his blue
Earth-Guard uniform, once an envied garb, was greeted with titters and
derisive comments that made his ears burn.
The newspapers and teletheaters were exploiting the situation to the
utmost. If Evans watched a troupe of dancers he was met with the
spectacle of a nimble black-garbed figure, representing the Hawk,
eluding with ease the slowly-moving blue-garbed figures symbolic of
the Earth-Guard. If he was introduced to anyone by a joking friend it
was always with a jesting reference to his imminent capture of the
Hawk. Small boys called after him that the Hawk was coming, and then
delightedly ran away.
The Hawk, indeed, was coming to have far more of the public sympathy
than the Earth-Guard. It was true that he held up defenseless
passenger-craft between earth and moon, forcing them under the menace
of his guns to cast loose for him in their life-rockets whatever of
value they carried. All knew that he was an outlaw of the void, and
would meet swift death at the hands of a firing-squad were he captured.
But if he was a space-pirate, he was not one like the earlier
space-buccaneers whose atrocities had roused a fury that had swept
them out of existence. He was, if anything, a gentleman-corsair of the
void, and though few had ever looked on his face, it was rumored that
he was exceptionally handsome. It was small wonder that by the end of
his week of relief Evans' nerves were ragged and he was longing for the
peacefulness of the space patrol.
When on the last day of their relief he found Calden and Hartley at the
New York station, inspecting the great Earth-Guard rocket, preparatory
to its start back out into space, he found their nerves as raw on the
subject as his own. They too had felt the whips of the public laughter.
"You know," growled Hartley as he ran a practised eye over the looming
rocket's stern firing-tubes, "I'm just about praying that we meet up
with the Hawk this trip. I'm not thin-skinned--but when my little
daughter begins to ask daddy why he doesn't catch the Hawk, I'm getting
to the busting point!"
* * * * *
Evans and Calden laughed despite themselves. "Well, you may get your
wish, Hartley," Evans told him. "Remember, Seaworth will be with us,
and the Hawk wants him bad."
Hartley looked at him blankly. "You don't mean that he'd ever try
holding us up? _Us?_ An Earth-Guard rocket?"
Evans shrugged. "It's Commander Cain's idea, not mine. Here he comes
now, to see us off. Evidently going to give us a final warning."
And that proved in fact to be the white-haired Commander's purpose when
he reached them through the throngs of hurrying mechanics around the
giant ship. He drew Evans aside from the others.
"Don't forget what I told you, Evans," he warned. "Keep double-watches
in the lookout-cells at all times, and if the Hawk does appear, send
out a general radiophone alarm before you engage. Remember, it isn't a
question of personal glory, but a matter of catching him."
"I'll remember," Evans promised. "I guess we're set to go--here comes
Seaworth now."
The secret agent's eyes were shining as he strode across the station
to them. When he reached Evans and the commander he tapped the black
leather case he carried.
"Got it!" he exclaimed. "My tip was a straight one and I've got the
dope from beginning to end. You're ready to go?"
Evans nodded, and Commander Cain shook hands with him and with
Seaworth, as he turned away.
"Good luck to the both of you," he told them, "and if you've really got
anything that will enable you to nab the Hawk, I'll resign cheerfully
on the day he's taken and you can shoot dice between you for my job!"
Evans and Seaworth laughed together as the commander strode away. "The
old man's nutty about the Hawk these days," Evans commented.
"Well, if I can get back to the moon with the information I have
here," the other said, "it means the end for Mr. Hawk. I found the man
I was hunting for--he'd been one of the Hawk's crew and had left him
on account of some squabble over the division of loot. He was pretty
much afraid of his old chief still--I guess the Hawk's got a deadly
record as regards traitors--but he gave me all I wanted for a price. I
have the exact location of the Hawk's base in one of the lunar cities,
the names of the officials who've been harboring him and selling him
fuel--all that we need."
"Once back on the moon we can set a trap there that will spring on the
Hawk the first time he comes into his base. There's only one queer
thing about it all, and that is that the man who told me all this
disappeared on the very next day. No one has the slightest idea what
became of him, though some of the officials I talked with thought
he'd merely decamped with the price of his information. I don't know,
though--it may have been something else."
"The Hawk?" Evans questioned, and the other slowly nodded.
"I'm afraid so--his way with traitors is short and sweet. It only
worries me because if it was he, then he knows what I've learned and
knows I'm taking back that information with me."