Walls spun around with an oath, levelling his atom-pistol. But out of the jungle crashed a streak of fire that hit the captain's arm and sent him reeling.
One of the girls screamed. Another of the Sunsprite's crew had tried to aim his weapon and had been cut down by a second bolt of atomic fire that had hit his leg.
"I don't want to kill you unless you force me to," came that crisp voice from the darkness. "You have ten seconds to drop the guns."
"That's the chief, Kenniston!" yelled Holk Or excitedly. "It's John Dark himself!"
The dreaded name of the pirate, a synonym for cold ruthlessness, reinforced the threat from the darkness.
Murdock let his weapon fall and shouted, "Drop the atom-guns, men! If we try to fight, the women will be hurt!"
The Sunsprite's men dropped their atom-pistols. Instantly out into the brilliant light from the jungle rushed a score of armed pirates. Martians, Earthmen, Venusians and others—this horde represented the criminal under-world of every planet in the System.
In a moment they had those in the clearing completely disarmed and lined up against the ship. All except Holk Or, who was loudly greeting his pirate comrades.
Kenniston saw John Dark coming across the moonslit clearing toward them. The notorious pirate was a tall, bulky Earthman, but he walked with the lightfootedness of a cat in his moonshoes. His black hair was bare, and in the silver light his black-browed, intelligent face was coldly calm as his eyes searched the row of prisoners.
"So you finally got here, Kenniston. What about the repair-equipment?" he asked sharply.
Kenniston nodded toward the Sunsprite. "It's in the hold. We got everything you listed."
"Good!" Dark approved. "We saw your ship crash-landing today, and started this way at once. We've been beating through the jungle, fighting off the damned Vestans, until we heard the uproar going on here. What happened? Who are these people?"
Kenniston explained briefly how he had induced Gloria Loring's party to come on a pretended treasure-hunt. He was careful to stress the wealth of the party, and John Dark reacted as he had expected.
"If they're that wealthy, their families can pay big ransoms. You've done very well, Kenniston."
"What about Ricky?" asked Kenniston tensely. "He's all right?"
"Sure he's all right—he's up at the camp," Dark answered.
Gloria said bitterly to Kenniston, "You can congratulate yourself. You've managed to save your brother."
John Dark addressed her. "Miss Loring, I presume you and your companions are willing to pay ransom for your crew also? I never take prisoners, unless they promise a good profit."
"Yes, of course we'll pay the ransom of the crew!" Gloria agreed hastily.
"Good!" said the pirate calmly. "You'll not find your captivity any more irksome than necessary."
Mrs. Milsom, the dumpy chaperon, was goggling at the notorious pirate in an extreme of terror. A sardonic gleam came into Dark's eyes as he glanced at her.
"You're a handsome wench," he told the plump dowager with mock admiration. "I've half a mind to keep you and let the ransom go."
"No, no!" shrieked the terrified woman.
Dark burst into a roar of laughter. "All right, my shrinking beauty, we'll accept ransom for you."
He turned and shot efficient orders to his subordinates, who by now had gathered behind him.
"Get that stuff out of the hold, rig up power-sledges, and start freighting it up to the camp. You'll have to cut a path through the jungle—use atom-blasters to burn one out."
One of the pirates, a hard-faced Martian, said uneasily, "That will make a racket that'll bring every Vestan on the asteroid down on us."
"You can keep the Vestans off if you keep your eyes open," Dark retorted. "Get to work, now! We've got to get the stuff up there and repair the Falcon at once. I'll take these prisoners up to camp."
Kenniston was grouped with the other prisoners. With a strong escort of armed pirates guarding them, and Dark and Holk Or ahead, they started through the jungle toward the pirate camp.
CHAPTER VI
Asteroid Horror
The pirate encampment was a big clearing hacked from the jungle a mile west of the little lake. In this space lay the long, looming black mass of the most dreaded corsair ship ever to sail the void. The Falcon had been righted to even keel, but its crippled condition was evident in the fused, wrecked condition of its tail rocket-tubes.
The whole camp was enclosed and protected by a shimmering blue dome of electric force. This emanated from a heavy copper cable that completely encircled the clearing, and which drew its power from insulated cables that led into the ship to generators driven by the few cyclotrons still functioning. This protective electric wall had been set up at John Dark's orders to keep out the dreaded Vestans.
John Dark raised his voice as he and his men with their prisoners approached the shimmering wall of the camp.
"Kin Ibo! Drop the wall for us!"
They saw the hard-looking Martian who was Dark's second-in-command dive into the ship to turn off the power of the electric barrier. It died, and Dark's party entered the clearing. Then the electric wall sprang into being again behind them.
Kenniston looked swiftly around. There were a score more of the motley pirates here in the camp. Also, near the side of the looming black Falcon, were the small, rough log huts that Dark's men had constructed.
Dark's black eyes were triumphant as he told his Martian lieutenant, "Kenniston and Holk Or brought back the equipment all right, and also brought some people who'll bring big ransom. Their wrecked ship is a few miles south. You go down there with half the men here and help the others bring up the equipment."
Kin Ibo, looking a little apprehensively out at the jungle, obeyed. Dark motioned Kenniston and the other captives toward one of the huts by the big ship.
"That hut will be your quarters until we get the Falcon repaired," declared the pirate leader. "Any of you who try to leave it will be shot at sight. I hope you'll not be foolish enough to attempt escape."
"That's right, folks, you wouldn't have a chance," Holk Or told them earnestly. "Even if you could get out through the electric wall, the Vestans would get you. They're thick in the jungle around here."
They silently entered the hut. Its broad open windows admitted enough of the dazzling moonslight to brighten its interior.
A dark, eager-looking young Earthman sprang up as they entered, and rushed to pump Kenniston's hand.
"Lance, you got back safely!" he exclaimed. "Thank the Lord—I've been worrying myself almost crazy about you."
"How about you, Ricky?" Kenniston asked his young brother anxiously. "You're all right?"
Ricky Kenniston nodded quickly. "Sure, I'm okay. But things haven't been so good here, Lance. The Vestans have got a half-dozen pirates who ventured outside the wall in the last few days. These creatures literally haunt the jungles around here now—I think they've been drawn here from all over the asteroid."
Ricky looked wonderingly at Gloria and the others who were entering the hut. "Lance, who are all these people? Are they prisoners of Dark too?"
"Yes, we're prisoners," Hugh Murdock told him bitterly, with a savage glance at Kenniston. "We're prisoners because your brother sacrificed us all to get back here and save your neck."
"Lance, you didn't do that?" Ricky exclaimed in distress.
"I had to, Ricky," Kenniston protested. "It meant your life if I didn't."
"Of course," Murdock agreed ironically. "What importance are we, compared to saving your young brother's life?"
Kenniston spoke slowly, to Murdock and Gloria and the others. "It wasn't merely Ricky's life at stake that made me sacrifice you all. It was more than that. I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn't listen."