The Sargasso of Space

try you and sentence you to death here without further formalities.'

Krell did not answer, but Kent intervened. 'There's hardly time for that now, sir,' he said. 'I'm as anxious to settle with Krell as anyone, but right now our main enemy is Jandron, and Krell hates Jandron worse than we do, if I'm not mistaken.'

'You're not,' said Krell grimly. 'All I want right now is to get within reach of Jandron.'

'There's small chance of any of us doing that,' Crain told them. 'There's not a single space-helmet on the Martian Queen.'

'You've searched?' Liggett asked.

'Every cubic inch of the ship,' Crain told him. 'No, Jandron's men made sure there were no helmets left here, and without helmets this ship is an inescapable prison.'

'Damn it, there must be some way out!' Kent exclaimed. 'Why, Jandron and his men must be starting to pump that fuel into the Pallas by now! They'll be sailing off as soon as they do it!'

Crain's face was sad. 'I'm afraid this is the end, Kent. Without helmets, the space between the Martian Queen and the Pallas is a greater barrier to us than a mile-thick wall of steel. In this ship we'll stay, until the air and food give out, and death releases us.'

'Damn it, I'm not thinking of myself!' Kent cried. 'I'm thinking of Marta! The Pallas will sail out of here with her in Jandron's power!'

'The girl!' Liggett exclaimed. 'If she could bring us over space-helmets from the Pallas we could get out of here!'

Kent was thoughtful. 'If we could talk to her—she must still have that suit-phone I gave her. Where's another?'

Crain quickly detached the compact suit-phone from inside the neck of his own space-suit, and Kent rapidly tuned it to the one he had given Marta Mallen. His heart leapt as her voice came instantly from it:

'Rance! Rance Kent—'

'Marta—this is Rance!' he cried.

He heard a sob of relief. 'I've been calling you for minutes! I was hoping that you'd remember to listen!

'Jandron and ten of the others have gone to that wreck in which you found the fuel,' she added swiftly. 'They unreeled a tube-line behind them as they went, and I can hear them pumping in the fuel now.'

'Are the others guarding you?' Kent asked quickly.

'They're down in the lower deck at the tanks and airlocks. They won't allow me down on that deck. I'm up here in the middle-deck, absolutely alone.

'Jandron told me that we'd start out of here as soon as the fuel was in,' she added, 'and he and the men were laughing about Krell.'

'Marta, could you in any way get space-helmets and get out to bring them over here to us?' Kent asked eagerly.

'There's a lot of space-suits and helmets here,' she answered, 'but I couldn't get out with them, Rance! I couldn't get to the airlocks with Jandron's seven or eight men down there guarding them!'

Kent felt despair; then as an idea suddenly flamed in him, he almost shouted into the instrument:

'Marta, unless you can get over here with helmets for us, we're all lost. I want you to put on a space-suit and helmet at once!'

There was a short silence, and then her voice came, a little muffled. 'I've got the suit and helmet on, Rance. I'm wearing the suit-phone inside it.'

'Good! Now, can you get up to the pilot-house? There's no one guarding it or the upper-deck? Hurry up there, then, at once.'

Crain and the rest were staring at Kent. 'Kent, what are you going to have her do?' Crain exclaimed. 'It'll do no good for her to start the Pallas: those guards will be up there in a minute!'

'I'm not going to have her start the Pallas,' said Kent grimly. 'Marta, you're in the pilot-house? Do you see the heavy little steel door in the wall beside the instrument-panel?'

'I'm at it, but it's locked with a combination-lock,' she said.

'The combination is 6–34–77–81,' Kent told her swiftly. 'Open it as quickly as you can.'

'Good God, Kent!' cried Crain. 'You're going to have her—?'

'Get out of there the only way she can!' Kent finished fiercely. 'You have the door open, Marta?'

'Yes; there are six or seven control-wheels inside.'

'Those wheels control the Pallas' exhaust-valves,' Kent told her. 'Each wheel opens the valves of one of the ship's decks or compartments and allows its air to escape into space. They're used for testing leaks in the different deck and compartment divisions. Marta, you must turn all those wheels as far as you can to the right.'

'But all the ship's air will rush out; the guards below have no suits on, and they'll be—' she was exclaiming. Kent interrupted.

'It's the only chance for you, for all of us. Turn them!'

There was a moment of silence, and Kent was going to repeat the order when her voice came, lower in tone, a little strange:

'I understand, Rance. I'm going to turn them.'

There was silence again, and Kent and the men grouped round him were tense. All were envisioning the same thing—the air rushing out of the Pallas' valves, and the unsuspecting guards in its lower deck smitten suddenly by an instantaneous death.

Then Marta's voice, almost a sob: 'I turned them, Rance. The air puffed out all around me.'

'Your space-suit is working all right?'

'Perfectly,' she said.

'Then go down and tie together as many space-helmets as you can manage, get out of the airlock, and try to get over here to the Martian Queen with them. Do you think you can do that, Marta?'

'I'm going to try,' she said steadily. 'But I'll have to pass those men in the lower-deck I just—killed. Don't be anxious if I don't talk for a little.'

Yet her voice came again almost immediately. 'Rance, the pumping has stopped! They must have pumped all the fuel into the Pallas!'

'Then Jandron and the rest will be coming back to the Pallas at once!' Kent cried. 'Hurry, Marta!'

The suit-phone was silent; and Kent and the rest, their faces closely pressed against the deck-windows, peered intently along the wreck-pack's edge. The Pallas was hidden from their view by the wrecks between, and there was no sign as yet of the girl.

Kent felt his heart beating rapidly. Crain and Liggett pressed beside him, the men around them; Krell's face was a mask as he too gazed. Kent was rapidly becoming convinced that some mischance had overtaken the girl when an exclamation came from Liggett. He pointed excitedly.

She was in sight, unrecognizable in space-suit and helmet, floating along the wreck-pack's edge toward them. A mass of the glassite space-helmets tied together was in her grasp. She climbed bravely over the stern of a projecting wreck and shot on toward the Martian Queen.

The airlock's door was open for her, and, when she was inside it, the outer door closed and air hissed into the lock. In a moment she was in among them, still clinging to the helmets. Kent grasped her swaying figure and removed her helmet.

'Marta, you're all right?' he cried. She nodded a little weakly.

'I'm all right. It was just that I had to go over those guards that were all frozen.... Terrible!'

'Get these helmets on!' Crain was crying. 'There's a dozen of them, and twelve of us can stop Jandron's men