CHAPTER VII
_The Coming of Leithgow_
Hawk Carse awoke to the touch of a hand on his brow. He came very slowlyto full consciousness. His pain was great.
His whole body was sore: every joint, every muscle in it ached; hisbrain was feverish, pumping turmoil. When he at length opened his eyeshe found Friday's face bent close down, tender anxiety written largeover it.
"You all right, suh? How do you feel now?"
A harsh sound came from the Hawk's throat. He pressed a hand to histhrobbing temple and tried to collect his senses. Sitting up helped; heglanced around. They were back in the same cell, and they were alone.Then, shortly, he asked:
"Did I tell him?"
"About Mr. M. S., suh?"
"Of course, I can't quite remember--a bit blurred----"
"I guess you did, suh," Friday answered mournfully. "I didn't hear you,but Ku Sui said you told him where Master Leithgow is. But dog-gone--youcouldn't help it!"
Carse forgot his pain as his brain straightened these words out intotheir overwhelming consequence, and something of its old familiar mold,hard and graven, emotionless, came back to his face. His eyes were bleakas he murmured:
"I couldn't help it--no. I really don't think it was possible. But Icould have refused to get into the machine. I thought I could resist it.I took that risk, and failed." He stopped short. His body twitched withuncontrolled emotion, and in decency the negro turned his back on hismaster's anguish. A broken whisper reached him: "I have betrayedLeithgow."
* * * * *
For a short while neither man moved, or made any sound. Friday was alittle afraid; he guessed what must be going on in Carse's mind, and hadno idea what to expect. But the Hawk's next move was quite disciplined;he was himself again.
He got up and stretched his body, to limber its muscles. "How long havewe been here?" he asked.
"Don't know suh; I was unconscious when they brought me here myself. ButI guess not less'n six or eight hours."
"Unconscious?" asked the Hawk, surprised. "You fought, and they knockedyou out?"
The big negro looked sheepish and scratched his woolly head.
"Well, no suh," he explained. "I was aimin' to butt in some, but theywouldn't let me."
"Then how did you get unconscious?"
Friday fidgeted. He was acutely embarrassed. "Don't know, suh, Dog-gone,I just can't figure it, unless I fainted."
"Oh." The Hawk smiled. "Fainted. Well so did I, I guess. I suppose," hewent on seriously, "you couldn't tell whether the asteroid moved or not.I mean toward Satellite III."
Friday scratched his head again.
"I guess I can't, suh," he replied. "I haven't felt any movement."
"The door is locked?"
"Oh, yes, suh. Tight."
"Very well. Now please be silent. I want to think."
He went over and leaned against the far wall of the cell. His right handrose to the bangs of flaxen hair and with a slow regular movement beganto smooth them. Lost in thought he stood there, thinking through thesituation in which he found himself.
He had expected, of course, to subject himself to great risk in keepingthe rendezvous with Dr. Ku Sui, but he had never thought he would beendangering Eliot Leithgow also. It was torture to know he had put thegentle old scientist into the Eurasian's web.
That was it: if he could not somehow shear through that web, he mustdestroy Leithgow himself, and follow on after. The scientist wouldprefer it so. For whatever Dr. Ku's exact reason for wanting the MasterScientist was, it was an ugly one: that it was worse than quick death,he knew full well.
Shear through the web. How? Where was the weak strand in Ku Sui'scunningly laid plot? The Hawk visualized all he could of the asteroid'smechanical details, and surveyed them painstakingly. Two greatport-locks flanked by little ones; secret opening combinations--not muchhope in that avenue. Judd's ship, resting above: could he reach it, andraise it and douse the buildings with its rays? No; Dr. Ku had spoken ofdefense rays--they would certainly be far more powerful than the_Scorpion's_. Then, somewhere there were the mighty gravity-platesbatteries which motivated the asteroid and held it controlled in space.The dynamos. Two men, working swiftly, might wreak an unholy amount ofdamage in little time; in the resulting confusion anything might happen.If!
* * * * *
Into the depths of his concentration came the odor of tsin-tsin flowers,followed by the familiar, silkie voice of his arch-enemy.
"I see you are deep in thought, my friend. I trust it indicates yourcomplete recovery."
Dr. Ku Sui stood smiling in the doorway, his same bodyguard of threearmed men behind him. His sardonic words brought no reply. He went on:
"I hope so. I have arranged, thanks to your kindness, a meeting with anold, dear friend of yours. An illustrious friend: he already honors myestablishment with his presence. I have come to ask you to join us."
The Hawk's gray eyes turned frigid: a lesser man would have blanched atthe threat implied in his answer.
"God help you, Ku Sui."
The Eurasian turned it aside. "Always," he said, "God helps those whohelp themselves. But come with me, if you'll be so kind. We are expectedin the laboratory."
This exchange passed quickly. Friday was still grasping at itsunderlying meanings as they again filed down the short straight outsidecorridor. It brought a perverse satisfaction to see the coolie guardsbearing their ray-guns unsheathed and ready. Ku Sui's general attitudedid not fool him. He knew that the man's suave mockery and flowerycourtesy were camouflage for a very real fear of the quick wits andbrilliant, pointed action of his famous master, the Hawk.
Carse walked steadily enough, but every step he took beat in his mindlike the accents of a dirge. For he had betrayed into the hands of theEurasian his most loved and loyal friend. Betrayed him! Despicablyegotistical he had been in submitting to the chair, in not making onelast wild break for freedom at that time. He had thought he could beatKu Sui at his own game. Ku Sui, of all men!
* * * * *
Unseen hands opened from the other side the metal laboratory door, theypassed through and the close-fitting halves closed behind them. Ku Suiwent to the main switchboard and Carse glanced rapidly around. Leithgowwas not there. The wire-ball device was gone, but otherwise the detailsof the room were unchanged, even to the four white-clad assistants whosefine heads had eyes so lifeless and faces so expressionless. Emphasized,now, somehow, was the tall screen that hid something on one side of theroom, and an intuition told the Hawk that what lay behind the screen wasin some way connected with their fate.
He waited stolidly for what he knew was coming.
"Now," Dr. Ku murmured. He smiled at his two prisoners and pressed oneof the switchboard's array of buttons. A door opposite them swung open.
"Believe me, this is a pleasure," he said.
Flanked by two impressive slant-eyed guards, a frail figure in a rubberapron stood revealed.
Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow blinked as he looked about thelaboratory. Helpless, pitifully alone he looked, with his small,slightly stooped body, his tragedy-aged, deeply-lined face. The blueveins showed under the transparent skin of his forehead; his light-blueeyes, set deep under snow-white eyebrows, darted from side to side,dazed by the light and perhaps still confused by the events which hadsnatched him so suddenly from his accustomed round and struck him withsuch numbing force. His years and frailty were obviously fitted ratherto some seat of science in a university on Earth than the raw conditionsof the frontiers of space.
Hawk Carse found words, but could not control his voice.
"This is the first time I've ever been sorry to see you, M. S.," he saidsimply.
The Affair of the Brains Page 7