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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] At one of the tables sat Lana Cain, her smooth hair gleaming like dull gold in the firelight, her hand absently patting the neck of the great gray beast crouched beneath her Ool, the space dog. John Thorn sat beside her, his dark face inscrutable and his black eyes watchful. Sual Av was feasting heartily farther down the table, joking and laughing with the other pirate captains, while Gunner Welk ate in brooding silence. "They are like children, the Companions, the girl said to Thorn over the din of voices and clatter of bottles. Already they have forgotten that they nearly met death in that trap today, in their rejoicing over the loot we got." Thorn shrugged. I can't say that I blame them. An outlaw has to take his fun when he can he never knows whether he'll see the next day or not." Lana's blue eyes, dark in the ruddy firelight, studied Thorn's lean face thoughtfully. "But you Planeteers are not like most outlaws, John Thorn, she said. There is something different about you something purposeful, I don't know what." Thorn sensed faint danger, but he smiled as he fingered a goblet of wonderful pink Martian glass. "The only real purpose we Planeteers have is to hunt excitement, I guess, he told her. We've done a lot of damn fool things, without much reason." "Thorn, why do you not stay here with me, with the Companions? Lana asked, impulsively grasping his hand. Her blue eyes eager on his, she added earnestly, I have great plans, and with you Planeteers helping " She was interrupted by a sudden uproar in a fierce voice along the table. Thorn jumped up. Old Stilicho Keene was standing, his rheumy eyes glaring with rage, his thin, bony hands trembling with passion as he faced the obese green Uranian, Jenk Cheerly. "Say that again, shrilled the old pirate to the Uranian, and I'll blow your lying head off your pig's body!" Jenk Cheerly's small eyes glittered with hate as he rose to face the enraged old Martian. "I do say it again! squeaked the obese Uranian. I say it was your fault that we nearly got trapped by those League cruisers today! You said you spied out the freighters and tankers before they blasted from Jupiter. If you did, you would have been sure to see those tankers were disguised battle-cruisers. So you didn't do it. Or you knew about the trap, and led us right into it!" Old Stilicho seemed to suffocate with his own passion. His bony figure was quivering, his wrinkled face livid. "You're accusing me of treachery! he shrilled. Me, Stilicho Keene, that's rocketed with the Companions for fifty years! By space, Uranian, no man can " The old pirate's clawlike hand was darting toward the atom-pistol at his belt. Jenk Cheerly's fat hand flew toward his own weapon. But Lana Cain sprang in between them. Her eyes were flaming with wrath. "If you draw, I'll blast you both down she flared. You know our rule no quarreling among ourselves!" "But, lass, you heard what he accused me of! shrilled the old pirate, outraged. I tell you, when I saw those tankers as they sailed from Jupiter, they were tankers, nothing else." "Isn't it likely that real tankers did sail with the freighters, John Thorn said quietly, to deceive any spies who might be watching them take off, and that the tankers were replaced by the disguised battle-cruisers at some secret rendezvous in space?" Kinnel King, the handsome middle-aged Earthman captain, nodded quickly. That must be the explanation." "That may be so, grumbled Jenk Cheerly in his squeaky voice, but I still say there was something queer about it. We should have got all the cargoes of those freighters, instead of just part of them." Stilicho Keene stiffened again, but Lana hastily intervened to calm the old pirate. "You've forgotten to initiate the Planeteers into the Companions, Stilicho, she reminded. The Eight Goblets!" The old man's face slowly cleared, and he turned around to Thorn and Sual Av and Gunner Welk. "That's right, he cackled. You boys ain't real pirates till you've drunk the Eight Goblets. Eli, Companions?" A roaring shout of laughter rose from the fierce-faced corsairs and their women gathered at the firelit tables. "Yes, the Goblets! The Eight Goblets for the Planeteers!" "What the devil is this? growled Gunner Welk suspiciously. If they try any of their tricks on me " Under cover of the roar of laughing voices, Thorn spoke in a rapid, low voice to his two comrades, as they three stood close together behind the tables. They were momentarily unwatched, for all the mirthfully shouting pirates were watching old Stilicho as he supervised the preparations for the coming ceremony. "I'm going to try my plan of searching Lana's papers tonight! Thorn told his comrades swiftly. If she ever wrote down what her father told her about Erebus, she'd surely still have it." "John, it'll be deadly dangerous! warned Gunner Welk in a taut undertone. Remember, someone here knows what we're after." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |