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beautiful-and as dangerous-looking-as a sword blade.
CHAPTER V
Secret Enemy
IN the queerly tense silence Thorn stared at Lana Cain. Then the silence was suddenly broken by the
shuffling entrance of a grotesque, four-legged creature that had followed the pirate girl into the room. It
stared at Thorn with blazing green eyes.
"It's a space dog, John! exclaimed Sual Av wonderingly.  You've heard of them."
"I've heard of them, Thorn muttered.  But this is the first one I've ever seen."
The space dog stood three feet high at the shoulder. Its body was of dusty, mineraline gray flesh that had
an inorganic look. Its four legs ended in heavy digging paws, and its mouth was furnished with great
grindingtusks. It had no nostrils, for the creature was not an air-breathing animal.
It was, in fact, one of a unique species. The early explorers who first visited the asteroid Ceres had been
amazed to find these creatures living on that airless little world. They were the product of an evolution
working without atmosphere, creatures able to assimilate the inorganic elements they dug from the
ground, and consume them by a chemical process other than oxidization. They had dim telepathic powers
by which their rudimentary minds communed.
"Ool will not hurt you, said Lana Cain crisply to Thorn.
She glanced at the blazing-eyed creature, and it lay down at her feet as it received her telepathic
command.
"Stilicho, you brought these three men here? the girl asked the old Martian.  Who are they?"
"Yes, who are they? squeaked Jenk Cheerly, the obese, beady-eyed Uranian.  What's all the mystery
about them?"
Stilicho Keene's rheumy eyes glistened, and his wrinkled face quivered with excitement as he answered.
"Why, they're just three lads I picked off a wreck coming back, and fetched along to Turkoon, he
quavered. The old man paused to enjoy his coming triumph, then added,  Maybe you've heard of these
three boys. They're called the Three Planeteers."
"The Three Planeteers!"
Brun Abo, the squat Jovian, uttered that startled cry. He and everyone else in the room stared at John
Thorn and Sual Av and Gunner Welk in rigidly frozen amazement.
The beady eyes of Jenk Cheerly, the fat Uranian, were wide with astonishment. Kinnel King, the
Earthman, stiffened. And Lana Cain's dark blue eyes narrowed incredulously as she stared at Thorn's
dark face.
"It's them, all right, muttered the Jovian in a moment.  I've seen their pictures on reward notices."
"Those pictures on the notices were poor likenesses, said Sual Av, a grin on his froglike face.  They
hardly did me justice, as you can see for yourselves."
"What do you Planeteers want here, if you are the Planeteers? demanded Jenk Cheerly suspiciously.
Gunner Welk stiffened at the fat green pirate's question.
"We're not in the custom of asking anybody's leave for our coming and goings, Uranian! he flared.
"Not even the Planeteers can talk to me like that! squeaked Jenk Cheerly furiously, his hand dropping to
his side.
"Draw that atom-pistol, and I'll shove it down your fat throat, warned the towering Mercurian
ominously.
"Quiet, Gunner, snapped John Thorn.  I'll do the talking."
"Let them fight! urged old Stilicho Keene with quavering eagerness, a ghoulish avidity in his rheumy eyes
as he leaned forward.  There's nothing to warm the blood like the sight of two good men in a stand-up
fight."
"There'll be no fighting here! flared Lana Cain.  You all know my rules! If any of you doesn't like them
he can get out of Turkoon and out of the Zone!"
The girl's voice cracked like a silver whip, and her dark blue eyes were stormy now with little lightnings.
The space dog, Ool, had sprung to his feet, his great green eyes blazing.
Thorn sensed the electric force in this girl which had kept her the acknowledged leader of the wild
Companions of Space. The others in the room were stricken to sullen silence by it.
Lana's stormy eyes swung back to Thorn.
"Jenk's question was a fair one, John Thorn, she declared.  What are you Planeteers doing here? You
never came into the Zone before you always worked by yourselves."
Thorn shrugged.  We didn't come here by choice. Perhaps you heard of the trouble we got into at
Earth?"
"We heard of your attempt to kidnap the Chairman there, Lana nodded curtly.  Go on."
"We bungled the job and had to run for it with half the Earth Navy on our tail, Thorn continued coolly.
 We tried to lose them in a swarm and got wrecked. The old Martian there picked us up and brought us
here to Turkoon. It's not a place we'd have picked voluntarily. Lana stiffened, and asked dangerously,
 You don't think much then of we Companions and our ways?"
"Not much, Thorn answered coolly.  I've no doubt your followers are good fighters, but they look like
rather an undisciplined rabble."
Thorn was playing his part to the hilt. He knew well that for the famous Planeteers to seem too friendly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]