_Three Figures in the Dawn_
The fourth night after the Hawk had met his friends at Ban Wilson's
was sunless and Jupiter-less, nor was there the slightest breath of
wind; and in the humid, dank jungle surrounding on three sides the
isuan ranch of the Venusian Lar Tantril the sounds of night-prowling
animals burst full and loud, making an almost continuous babel of
varied and savage noise.
In the midst of this dark inferno, Tantril's ranch was an island of
stillness. Within the high guarding fence, the long low buildings lay
quiet and were [illegible] brushed periodically by the light from the
watch-beacon high overhead as it swept its shaft over the jungle
smother and then around over the black glassy surface of the Great
Briney 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 intervals
up above the circumference of the ranch; and though the buildings
below seemed deserted, in reality wide-awake men were stationed at
posts within them, waiting for the clang of the alarm which the
pressing 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 the
beasts tracking through the jungle outside its fence, and all its
defensive and offensive weapons were at the ready.
No one within the ranch knew it, but within two hundred yards lay the
foe Lar Tantril and his men feared most.
* * * * *
Regularly around the watch-beacon swept, slicing the blackness with an
oval white finger, the farthest edge of which reached a hundred and
fifty yards. Over the "western" lake--and its inky ripples sparkled
somehow ominously. Over the jungle's confusion--and trees, great
bushes, spiky vines and creeper-growths leaped into momentary
visibility, and then were again swallowed up in the tide of night.
Here a cutlas-beaked bird, spotlighted for an instant, froze into
surprised immobility with the pasty, bloated worm it had seized
twisting and dangling from its mouth, to flap squawking away as the
ray glided on: there the coils of a seekan, in ambush on a tree limb,
glittered crimson for the sudden moment of illumination; or a nameless
huge-eyed pantherlike creature was glimpsed as it clawed at a nest of
unfledged haris, while the frantic, screaming mother beat at it with
wings and claws....
But all this was usual and unalarming, merely the ordinary routine of
the jungle at night. Could the beacon have reached out another fifty
yards, the guards on their towers would have seen that which was not
usual--and would have summoned every weapon of the ranch beneath.
Or could the guards have heard, besides the cries and crashings and
yowls of the jungle folk, the man-made sounds which sped silently back
and forth across the ranch within their tight and secret radio
beams--then, too, the alarm would have clanged.
Had the beacon suddenly stretched its path outward another fifty
yards, it would have fallen upon a massive, leafy watrari tree, taller
than most: and the guards, looking close, might have caught in one
notch of the tree's many limbs a glint of metal: might have seen, had
the light held on that glint, a bloated monster of metal and fabric
braced there, hiding behind a screen of leaves.
This giant, not native to the jungle, was posted due "north" from the
ranch. Another waited to the "south," in a similarly large tree; and
another 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-suit
that he wore, and supremely aware of his consequent awkwardness,
watched the ranch's beacon sweeping past him thirty or more yards
away, and again sought relief from the tedium in conversation.
"Jupiter should be rising soon, Carse. It's the darkest hour--seems to
me 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 and
adjusted by Eliot Leithgow so as to reach only two other radios, the
words 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 then
once more, as he had been doing regularly all through the night,
raised to his eyes the instrument that hung by a cord from the
neckpiece of the suit. Through it he scanned slowly and methodically
the portion of black heaven that had been assigned to him. The
instrument would have resembled a bulky pair of electro-binoculars
with its twin tubes and eyepieces, had not there been, underneath the
tubes, a small, compact box which by Leithgow-magic revealed the
world through infra-red light by one tube, and ultra-violet the other.
"Nothing!" Ban muttered to himself, lowering the device. "And damn Ku
Sui for makin' these space-suits so infernally uncomfortable! Might as
well have made 'em space-ships, while he was at it!... Say, Carse," he
began again aloud into his microphone, "maybe Dr. Ku's come already. I
know my men said no one had arrived at the ranch in a suit like these
we've got on--but, hell, if his whole asteroid's invisible, why
couldn't he make his space-suit invisible, too?"
"I don't think he's done that. Otherwise he would have--" The
adventurer'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 now
faintly flushed, a flush which deepened quickly into glowing, riotous
crimson, causing long streamers to shoot out over the surface of the
Great Briney, tingling it, sparkling it. The light reached the jungle:
and when the first faint reflected rays filtered down through the
matted gloom of tree and vine and bush the creatures that had tracked
for prey all night looked to their lairs: and gradually, the tenor of
the jungle noises waned off into a few last screams and muttered
growls, and then died altogether into the heavy, brooding hush that
comes always with dawn over the jungles of Satellite III.
Jupiter thrust his flaming arch upwards over the horizon, and climbed
with his whole vast blood-blotched bulk into a sky turned suddenly
blue. Lake and jungle shimmered under the rapidly dissipating night
vapors. The ranch-beacon paled into unimportance. Day had come.
And now the three bloated figures of metal and fabric that were men
crouched closely back beneath the leaves of the trees that concealed
them, and waited tensely, not daring at first to move for fear of
discovery. Each one could see, through the intervening growth, the
watch-towers of the ranch; but Friday, from his post in the tree to
the "east," could see the area best, and it was Friday to whom Carse's
next words were addressed.
"Eclipse?" his terse voice asked. "Do the guards in the towers seem to
notice 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 looking
below, cupping their ears. Someone down there must be tellin' them
somethin'. 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 shaped
were raised, and the whole sweep of horizon and the glowing, clear
blue dome of sky subjected to minute inspection through their
detecting infra-red and ultra-violet. Ban Wilson, perhaps, stared most
eagerly, for he had never seen Ku Sui's asteroid, and despite himself
still only half-believed that twenty craggy, twisted miles of rock
could be swung as its master willed in space, and brought down bodily
to Satellite III.
But he saw nothing in the sky; nothing looming gigantically over any
part of the horizon; and he reported disgustedly:
"Nothing doing anywhere. Carse."
"Don't see nothing either, suh," the Negro's deep voice added. And
both 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 to
his 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" straight
for Tantril's. Ban, you may not be able to see them till they get to
the 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 you
unless it's important."
The steely voice snapped off. And carefully, in his tree, Hawk Carse
brushed aside a fringe of leaves and concentrated on the three figures
the dawn had brought.
* * * * *
Hard and sharp they glittered in the flood of ruddy light from
Jupiter, great grotesque figures of metal and bulging fabric, with
shining quarzite face-plates and the abnormally large helmets and
boot-pieces which identified them as being of the enemy. At a level
fifty feet above the jungle's crown they came in fast, horizontal
transit, and there was much of beauty in the picture that they
made--sparkling shapes flying without sound or movement of limb
against the blue sky, over the heaped colors of the jungle below. One
flew slightly in the lead, and he, the watching Hawk felt positive,
was Ku Sui, and the other two his servants--probably men whose brains
had 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 lips
compressed as his old enemy neared, and into his watching gray eyes
came the deadly cold emotionless look that was known and feared
throughout space, wherever outlaws walked or flew. Ku Sui--so close!
There, in that even-gliding figure, was the author of the infamy done
to Leithgow, of the crime to the brains that lived though their bodies
were dead; of the organized isuan trade. Go for him now? The thought
flashed temptingly through Carse's head, but he saw sense at once. Far
too dangerous, with the powerful, watching ranch so close. He could
not jeopardize the success of his promise to the brains.
And so Dr. Ku Sui passed, while two pairs of eyes from two leafy trees
watched closely every instant of his passing, and one man's hand
dropped 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, below
which they slanted.
Dr. Ku Sui had arrived at his assignation. But where was the asteroid?
* * * * *
Through his instrument, Carse sought horizon and heaven for the
massive 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' down
towards the center of the ranch."
"Good. That means Ku Sui's being received," said Carse; and then he
considered swiftly for a minute. Decided, he continued:
"Ban and Friday, you both wait where you are, keeping a steady
lookout. None of us can see the asteroid, but it must be somewhere
comparatively near, for Dr. Ku has no reason to bother with a long
journey in a space-suit. I think the asteroid's close down, hidden by
that distant ridge in the direction from which they came. I'm going to
find it. When I do, I'll tell you where to come meet me. Inform me at
once 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 side
facing away from the ranch. There, poising for a second, he
manipulated the lateral direction-rod on the suit's chest, and, still
very slowly, floated free from the shrouding leaves. Then, mindful of
the lookouts on the towers behind, he employed the tactics he had used
before, and kept constantly below the uneven crown of the jungle,
gliding at an easy rate through the leafy lanes created by the banked
tree-tops.
In that fashion, in the upthrust arms of the jungle, twisting,
turning, sometimes doubling, but following always a path the objective
of which was straight ahead, Hawk Carse soared soundlessly for miles.
He maneuvered his way with practised ease, and his speed increased as
the need for hiding his flight decreased.
He was familiar with the landmarks of the region, and it was towards
the most pronounced of them that he flew. Soon it was looming far
above him: a long, high ridge, rearing more than three miles above the
level of the Great Briney, and crowded with trees even taller and
sturdier than those of the lower jungle plains. Beyond it was the most
likely spot....
The Hawk paused at the base of the ridge. There had been no warning
from Ban or Friday, but, to make sure, he established radio
connection.
"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 the
guards, and they're taking things easy. Where are you, suh?"
"About ten miles from you, 'north' and a little 'east,' at the foot of
the ridge. I think I'll know something soon now. Stand by."
Then Carse moved forward again, slowly winding up between the trees to
the summit of the ridge.
At the top he stopped. His eyes took in a long, wide valley, of which
the ridge where he hung was the southernmost barrier. He knew at once
something was wrong. Through his opened face-plate he was aware of a
breathless hush that hovered over the valley, a hush which embraced
its fifty miles or more of jungle length, a hush which was rendered
actually visible in several places by the unmoving, limp-hanging
leaves of the trees. Below, in the valley, all the myriad life of the
jungle seemed to have frozen, and only occasionally was the pause of
life 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 to
his eyes. And the valley was suddenly changed, and the hush explained.
The miracle lay before him.