CHAPTER 17
"Spaceman's luck, sir," said Tom, shaking Captain Strong's hand.
Silently the other two cadets in turn gripped their skipper's handtightly.
"Thanks, boys," said Strong. "If we're going to get that space crawler,we have to trap him. And the best bait I know is a twenty-million-creditpay roll."
"But won't you take at least one man with you, sir?" pleaded Tom."Sitting up there in space in a decoy ship waiting for Coxine islike--" Tom paused. "Well, you won't have much of a chance, sir, ifCoxine opens fire before asking questions."
"That's the risk I've got to take, Tom," said Strong. "It took a lot oftalking to get Commander Walters' permission to try this. But we've gotto force Coxine to come out far enough from the asteroid belt to catchhim before he can run back in and lose himself again." The young captainsmiled wanly and added, "Don't think that your job is unimportant!"
Tom, Roger, and Astro nodded. On their return from the unsuccessfulattempt to capture Coxine, they had been suddenly faced with the routineduty of transporting a twenty-million-credit pay roll from Atom City tothe satellite of Titan for the crystal miners.
Thinking one sure way to catch any rat was to use a lure, Tom suggestedthat the Titan armored freighter be used as a decoy to capture thepirate, and the cadets could carry the pay roll in the _Polaris_.
Commander Walters had considered the plan, and then realizing thatCoxine might fire on the freighter before seizing it, disapproved ofplacing a full crew aboard the lightly armed ship. Instead, he wouldsend only one man. Strong had volunteered for the assignment and hadpersuaded the commander to allow him to man the decoy ship.
Now, the two ships, the _Polaris_ and the armed freighter stood side byside at the Academy spaceport, and the three cadets and their commandingofficer waited for the signal to blast off.
"You have your course for your trip out to Titan, Tom?" asked Strong.
"Yes, sir," replied Tom. "We're to blast off later to-night and take acourse through the asteroid belt, traveling on the plane of theecliptic. As soon as we get through, we are to proceed under fullemergency thrust to our destination."
Strong nodded his head, satisfied.
"Do you think Coxine will come out after you, sir?" asked Roger.
"We've tried to make sure that he will, Roger," replied Strong. "It'spretty common knowledge that the Titan pay-roll ship leaves every month,and that it travels a different route each time. Sometimes it goesthrough the asteroid belt on the plane of the ecliptic and sometimes itgoes over. We believe Coxine knows this, and with the thinly guisedmessages we've sent to Titan, we're hoping he'll try for it."
"But how will you get him, sir?" asked Astro, puzzled. "I mean, with noarmor on the freighter to speak of, and no crew aboard, how can you nailhim before he gets you?"
"Hyperdrive," replied the captain laconically.
"Hyperdrive?" echoed Tom quizzically.
"I'm going to take the decoy ship through the asteroid belt too, butthrough a different area, closer to the part we think Coxine isoperating in. Seven full squadrons have blasted off ahead of me andtaken up positions in that area. When and if Coxine attacks, I'll alertthe waiting ships, who'll come in on hyperdrive. By the time Coxinespots them on his radar, they'll be on top of him."
"Then," ventured Tom, "you're staking your life on the ships arrivingbefore Coxine can attack."
"That's right, Tom," said Strong. "If our plan works, we catch Coxine.If it doesn't, at least we know that the Titan pay roll is safe. That'swhy your job is as important as mine."
They were interrupted by the ground-crew chief who reported the decoyship ready to blast off.
Strong nodded and the three cadets gripped their captain's hand again.Turning, he climbed into the freighter and five minutes later the SolarGuard officer blasted off from the Academy spaceport while Tom, Roger,and Astro watched from the traffic-control tower.
"Come on," said Tom. "It'll be two hours before we can blast off. Wemight as well get some sleep. We'll need it."
Reluctantly, Roger and Astro followed their unit-mate from the traffictower, their eyes full of concern for their skipper. Each was grimlyaware that they might never see their skipper alive again.
* * * * *
"Now shut your traps!" roared Bull Coxine. "The next crawler that openshis mouth gets taken apart!" He stood on top of a table and faced hiscrew of pirates who were sitting about swilling large cups of rocketjuice.
The room in which the giant pirate spaceman had gathered his men was oneof many in a building constructed since their arrival from the prisonasteroid. Hidden from even the closest inspection by the smaller bodiescircling around the main asteroid, Coxine had expanded the small hutused by Wallace and Simms into a huge rambling building containingarmories, machine shops, and storage rooms packed with everything he andhis murderous crew might need.
Now with a string of successful raids behind them and their personalpocketbooks bulging with stolen credits and valuables, the crew ofpirates waited attentively while their cruel but brilliant leaderoutlined the most daring plan of all.
"Now listen," roared Coxine. "There's a few things I want to say beforewe start on the plans of the next strike!"
The big spaceman paused and glared at the men in front of him. "Eversince that space-crawling cadet pulled a fast one on me there's beentalk about voting for another leader!" He spat the word as if it hadleft a foul taste in his mouth. "Well, get this. There'll be no voting!I'm the boss of this outfit! Any man who thinks he can take over myjob," Coxine's voice dropped to a deadly whisper, "_just let him try!_"
Stony silence greeted the huge spaceman, a silence inspired by fear.
"Now!" roared Coxine, his coarse features changing from a scowl to abroad grin. "The strike!"
This was greeted with a roar of approval. The men demanded action aftera week of idleness on the asteroid.
"Wallace!" yelled Coxine.
"Yes, sir," answered the spaceman, stepping up to the table and facingCoxine.
"We'll take up a position in the asteroid belt, here!" He placed afinger on a map of the belt. "Simms!" roared the giant spaceman.
"Yes, sir!" the wizened space pirate stepped forward.
"You remember that rocket scout we blasted? The one that got our othership?"
"I sure do, sir."
"It's drifting around in orbit near asteroid seventeen. Take a crew ofmen and a few jet boats and go get her. Bring her back here and fix herup. Strip every pound of excess weight off her. I want a ship that'llfly faster than anything in the system and I want it in twenty-fourhours."
"Yes, sir," gulped Simms. "But then what'll I do with her?"
"After you've done what I've already told you to do," snapped Coxine,"I'll tell you more!"
Simms' face turned red, and he nodded curtly.
"Now as for the rest of you crawlers," said Coxine, facing the room fullof men. "Repair crews have been assigned for work on the rocket scoutand the rest of you will work on the _Avenger_ and prepare her for along flight. I want the three-inch blasters, every paralo-ray gun andrifle, the fuel tanks, food supplies, oxygen circulators, in facteverything checked, rechecked, and _double-checked_!"
Joe Brooks, who had become a favorite of Coxine's, rose and faced thepirate captain. "Where are we going to strike next, skipper?"
Coxine looked at the man with a half-smile playing on his lips. "Thisoperation will have two parts, Joe. The first--well--" his smiledbroadened--"the Titan pay-roll ship just blasted off from Space Academy.For the last ten years, the Titan pay-roll ship has been blasting offfrom Atom City. Now why do you think it would suddenly leave from SpaceAcademy, the home of the Solar Guard?"
The crowd of men murmured their bewilderment.
"I'll tell you why!" bawled Coxine. "Either they have that ship sopacked with blasters it would take a fleet to stop it, or it's a trap!"
"But if you think it's a trap," exclaimed Wallace, "you're not going tohit i
t, are you?"
"I said it _might_ be a trap!" snapped Coxine. "But it might not andwith twenty million credits to be had for the taking, I'm not going tolet her breeze through. I'm going to make sure it's a trap before I trysomething else!"
"But how?" persisted Wallace.
Coxine looked at his lieutenant coldly. He had indulged the man toolong. "I'll tell you when I get good and ready! Now all of you, get outof here and make sure everything, and I _mean everything_, is ready toraise ship at a moment's notice!"
The men got up and shuffled from the room. Coxine turned to his twolieutenants. "All right, Wallace, see that those crawlers do what I toldthem to do. And you, Simms, get after that rocket scout."
The two spacemen saluted their captain and turned away. Coxine watchedthem leave the room, already planning his next move, a move calculatedto be so surprising that the Solar Guard would be absolutely helpless.
Bull Coxine smiled and turned to study the charts of the asteroid belt.
* * * * *
Alone aboard the armored decoy ship, Captain Strong blasted steadily onhis course through the asteroid belt. The young Solar Guard officer wasaware that at any moment after reaching the celestial jungle of smallplanetoids he could be fired on without warning. And though the SolarGuard patrol ships, well hidden in the belt, would blast Coxine out ofexistence, it would still be too late for him.
Grim-faced, his hands gripping the controls, he rocketed through space,determined to put an end, once and for all, to the marauding pirate andold enemy, Bull Coxine.
* * * * *
When night fell over the Academy spaceport, Tom, Roger, and Astroclimbed silently into the giant rocket cruiser _Polaris_ and raised shipfor Titan. Their departure from Earth was routine, with no one butCommander Walters and Captain Strong knowing that stowed in the storagecompartment of the spaceship was twenty million credits, the pay rollfor the miners of Titan.
Once in space, the rocket ship was put on course and held there byautomatic pilot. The three cadets gathered in the messroom and sippedhot tea, staring moodily into their cups. Unable to break audio silence,lest they should betray their position, their first chance of hearingany news lay far ahead of them at Titan. They could only hope that thedecoy trap would succeed and that their skipper and friend would returnsafely. The only comment was Astro's grim prediction.
"If anything happens to Captain Strong," he paused and finished hissentence in a tense whisper, "I'll search the universe until I findCoxine. And when I do, I'll break him in two!"
On the Trail of the Space Pirates Page 17