Loot of the Void
Page 1
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Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Loot of the Void
By Edwin K. Sloat
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Into the Trap-Door City of great spiders goes Penrun afterthe hidden plunder of the space-pirate Halkon.]
Dick Penrun glanced up incredulously.
"Why, that's impossible; you would have to be two hundred years old!"he exclaimed.
Lozzo nervously ran a hand through his white mop of hair.
"But it is true, Sirro," he assured his companion. "We Martianssometimes live three centuries. You should know that I am only ahundred and seventy-five, and I do not lie when I say I was a cabinboy under Captain Halkon."
_Down from the pinnacle of rock streaked a giganticspider._]
His voice sank to a whisper, and he glanced apprehensively about thebuffet of the _Western Star_ which was due now in three days at theMartian city of Nurm. Penrun's eyes followed his anxious glancescuriously. The buffet was partly filled with passengers, smoking,gossiping women, and men at cards, or throwing dice in the Martiangambling game of _diklo_, which was the universal fad of the moment.No place could have been safer, Penrun reflected. Doubtless the oldman's caution was a lifelong habit acquired in his youth, if he hadactually served under Halkon.
Before long the old codger would be saying that he knew the hidingplace of Halkon's treasure, about which there were probably morelegends and yarns than anything else in the Universe. A century hadelapsed since the death of the famous pirate who had preyed on theshipping of the Void with fearless, ruthless audacity and had piled upa fabulous treasure before that fatal day when the massed battlespheres of the Interplanetary Council trapped his ships out nearMercury and blew them to atoms there in the sun-beaten reaches ofspace. Some of the men had been captured; old Lozzo might have beenone of them. Penrun knew the history of Halkon from childhood, and fora very good reason.
The ancient Martian stirred uneasily. His piercing blue eyes turnedagain to Penrun's face.
"Every word I have said is true, Sirro," he repeated hurriedly. "Iboarded this ship at New York with the sole intention of dischargingmy sworn duty and giving a message to the grandson of Captain OrionHalkon, his first male descendant."
* * * * *
Penrun's eyes widened in startled amazement. He, himself, was thegrandson of the notorious Halkon, a fact that not more than half adozen people in the Universe knew--or so he had always believed. Hismother, Halkon's only daughter, good and upright woman that she was,had hidden that family skeleton far back in the closet and solemnlywarned Dick Penrun and his two sisters to keep it there. Yet this oldman, who had singled him out of the crowd in the buffet not thirtyminutes ago and drew him into conversation, knew the secret. Perhapshe really had been a cabin boy under Halkon!
"I have been serving out the hundred-year sentence for piracy thejudges imposed on me, a century in your own Earth prison of SingSing," muttered Lozzo. "I have just been released. Quick! My innergods tell me my vase of life is toppling. I swore to your grandfatherthat I would deliver the message. It is here. Guard well your ownlife, for this paper is a thing of evil!"
His hand rested nervously on the edge of the table. The ancient blueeyes swept the buffet with a lightning glance. Then he slid his handforward across the polished wood. Penrun glimpsed a bit of yellow,folded paper beneath it. Then something tweaked his hair. A deafeningexplosion filled the buffet. Lozzo stiffened, his mouth gaped in achoked scream, and he sprawled across the table, dead.
As he fell, a fat white hand darted over the table toward the oblongof folded, yellow paper lying unprotected on its surface. Penrunclutched at it frantically. The fat fingers closed on the paper andwere gone.
Penrun whirled about. The drapes of the doorway framed a heavy, pastyface with liquid black eyes. The slug gun was aiming again, this timeat Penrun. He hurled himself sideways out of his chair as it roared asecond time. The heavy slug buried itself in the corpse of the oldMartian on the table. The face in the doorway vanished.
* * * * *
The next instant Penrun was through the door and racing down the longpromenade deck under the glow of the electric lights, for thequartering sun was shining on the opposite side of the ship. Far downthe deck ahead fled the slayer.
The killer paused long enough to drop an emergency bulkhead gate. Fiveminutes later when Penrun and the other passengers succeeded inraising it, he had disappeared. One of the emergency space-suitsbeside the air-lock was missing. Penrun sprang to a nearby port-hole.
Far back in space he saw the tiny figure shining in the sunlight,while the long flame of his Sextle rocket-pistol showed that he waschecking his forward momentum as rapidly as possible. Unquestionablyhe would be picked up by some craft now trailing the liner, for themurder and theft of the paper must have been carefully planned. Penrunturned from the port-hole thoughtfully.
The liner was in an uproar. News of the murder had spread likewild-fire. Women were screaming hysterically and men shouting as theyrushed about in terror, believing that the ship was in the hands ofpirates. A squad of sailors passed on the double to take charge of thebuffet. There would be an inquest shortly. Penrun started for hisstateroom. He wanted to be alone a few minutes before the inquest tookplace.
His room was on the deck above. The sight of the empty passagerelieved him, but he was surprised to discover that he had not lockedthe door when he left an hour ago. He stepped into the room.
Instantly his hands shot upward. Something was prodding him in theback.
"One move or a sound, and I shoot," warned a sharp whisper. "Stand asyou are till I find what I want."
His billfold was opened and dropped with an exclamation ofdisappointment. The searcher hurried. Penrun calmly noted that thefingers seemed to fumble and were not at all deft at this sort ofwork. He glanced down, and smiled grimly. A woman! He jerked his bodyaway from the prodding pistol, gripped the slender hand that was aboutto plunge into his coat pocket, and whirled round, catching theintruder in his arms.
Big, terrified dark eyes stared up at him out of a pale, heart-shapedface. Then with a sob the girl wrenched free, ran out of the door andwas gone.
* * * * *
He did not follow, but instead carefully locked the door and placed achair against it. Things had been moving too rapidly for him to feelsure he was safe even now. Opening his left hand, he gazed down at abit of crumpled yellow paper he was holding there. That much he hadsaved of the message from his long dead grandfather when the murderergrabbed the folded paper from the buffet table and fled.
It proved to be the bottom third of a sheet of heavy paper, and on itwas drawn a piece of a map, showing a large semi-circle, which mighthave been a lake, and leading off from it were what might be a numberof crooked canals. At the end of one of these was an "X" and the word"Here."
Below the sketch were some words that had not been torn off. He readthem with growing amazement. "... aves of Titan. I swear this to be thetrue and correct place of concealment of ... may he who comes to possessit do much good and penance, for it is drenched in blood and ... CaptainOrion Halkon."
Penrun sat for a long time in thought. Titan, the sixth moon ofSaturn! Nightmare of killing heat, iron cold, and monstrous spiders!How many men had died trying to explore it! And who knew it betterthan Penrun himself, t
he only one who had ever escaped from thathellish cavern of the Living Dead? Old Halkon had hidden his treasurewell indeed.
Penrun had never found the Caves. Legend described them as the onesafe place on the satellite where a man might live without danger ofbeing attacked by the spiders because the Caves were too cold forthem.
Penrun doubted if there was any place that would be safe from themonstrous insects.
At any rate old Halkon had hidden his treasure there, and that part ofthe map that Penrun had thought was a lake was apparently the maincavern, and the canals, side passages. Old Halkon believed that he hadhidden his treasure well, but he could not foresee just how well. Twothirds of the map, showing the location of the entrance to the Caves,had been taken by the murderer of the Martian, Lozzo. The remainingthird, which showed the location of the treasure inside the Caves, wasin Penrun's possession.
The murderer could find the Caves, but not the treasure inside; andPenrun could find the treasure inside, but not the