The Three Planeteers

street.

The old man hesitated, then hobbled quickly over to the window of the little prison. He was buckling on his atom-pistols with trembling hands, and his wrinkled face was wild.

'What's happened?” Thorn demanded tensely.

'Lana — she's been kidnapped!” hissed the old Martian. “Jenk Cheerly did it some time last night.'

'Lana kidnapped?” Thorn yelled wildly, his brown face suddenly haggard. “How do you know Cheerly did?'

'This morning one of our men found our guards at the ship-field lying murdered!” babbled the raging old man. “And one of Cheerly's Uranian crew, too, fatally wounded and left for dead. The Uranian boasted about what Cheerly had done, before he died.

'He said that Cheerly was not any pirate at all, like he pretended, but a League spy — the head of Haskell Trask's secret service! He said Cheerly had planned the trap that nearly captured Lana in the attack on them freighters, and that when that failed, Cheerly had used another plan to kidnap Lana last night. He used you in his plan, John Thorn!'

'Cheerly used me to kidnap Lana?” Thorn gasped. “My God, man, what are you talking about?'

'Lana's soft on you,” spat old Stilicho. “She didn't want to see you blasted this morning, and Cheerly knew it. So, according to that dying Uranian, Cheerly told Lana that he'd help you Planeteers escape if she released you. He got Lana to start secretly with him to this brig to let you out, and once he had her alone like that, he and his men grabbed her. They blasted down the field-guards and took her in his ship. He's taking her to Saturn!'

The raging old pirate turned from the window. “We're going to follow Cheerly's ship. And God help that Uranian when we catch up with him!'

'Stilicho, wait—” Thorn cried wildly, but the old pirate was already hobbling urgently away in the mists.,

A few moments later came the thunderous roar of many ships taking off in the distance. As it died away, Thorn turned to his comrades, his face stricken.

'She was going to help us escape,” he said in a slow, choked voice. “Even after I'd tried to steal her secret, she was going to help us get away. And because of that, she's in the hands of Haskell Trask's spymaster now!'

His eyes were wild. “Think of what Trask and that fat fiend Cheerly will do to her to wring the secret out of her! And all because of me. She'd never have been kidnapped if she hadn't tried to help me!'

'It's not your fault, John,” rumbled Gunner Welk, his hard face showing his emotion. “Cheerly would have found one way or another to get hold of her, even if we'd never come here.'

'And Stilicho and Kinnel King and all the rest of those pirates are trailing him now,” Sual Av added quickly. “They'll catch him and bring the girl back all right.'

'I hope to heaven they do,” muttered the big Mercurian. “For if they fail, and Cheerly gets that girl to Saturn, it means that the League, and not the Alliance, will get that radite from Erebus.'

Thorn started violently. For the moment, in his first wild concern for Lana's safety, he had forgotten the larger issue.

'The last hope of the Alliance is gone if that happens!” he exclaimed. His fists clenched convulsively. “And we're locked up here! Isn't there something we can do?'

'Nothing but wait,” answered Gunner heavily.

* * *

The long hours of that day were a torture infinitely prolonged to John Thorn. Pacing the little room, peering tensely from the window, he waited in terrible suspense.

They were not brought any food or water. They had been completely forgotten for the time being in the greater catastrophe. They could see the street of Turkoon Town thronged with excited pirate women and men who had been left behind by the hasty expedition that had thundered forth in chase of Jenk Cheerly.

Night came, and more hours dragged past. Then from the distance came the thudding thunder of many ships landing.

'They're back!” Thorn cried tautly. “But did they rescue Lana?'

'We'll soon know,” muttered Sual Av.

They heard the pirate crews and captains trooping back into town, heard a loud uproar of voices. They waited tensely.

Then a thin, snow-haired figure approached their window in the starlight. It was old Stilicho, Keene, moving slowly.

'Did you bring Lana back?” Thorn cried.

The old man's cracked voice was unsteady and choking with emotion as, he answered.

'No, we didn't.” His accents became shrill and wild. “We were only a few hours behind Cheerly's ship. We could see it in our ‘scopes and were sure to overtake him. And then he was joined by a force of fifty League cruisers, as an escort.

'He must have had secret arrangements with them cruisers to be waiting for him, damn him!” Stilicho continued. “We only had twenty ships. I wanted to keep after them anyway, and fight it out, but Brun Abo and the rest said it would be suicide.'

Stilicho's old voice broke. “I guess they were right, maybe. Getting ourselves all killed wouldn't have saved Lana. Nothing can save her now — and I don't want to live any more, with the lass gone.'

Tremulous tears were glistening on the old Martian's starlit face. He wiped them with a quivering hand.

Thorn felt a cold, ghastly shock from what he had heard. Blind emotion surged in him. And then the instinct to fight back, to persevere, rose to dominate him.

'Are you going to give up Lana for dead?” he demanded fiercely of the old man outside. “Are you just going weep like a woman for her, or are you going to do something?'

'What can I do?” Stilicho quavered. “I'd give my life for the lass, but there's nobody can save her now. She's in Haskell Trask's dungeons on Saturn, by now, and a thousand men couldn't get her out of there.'

'A thousand men. Might not, but three men could!” Thorn flashed fiercely. “We three — we Planeteers!'

Stilicho stared hopelessly. “How could even you Planeteers hope to snatch her from the claws of Haskell Trask?'

'We've done things as seemingly impossible as that in the past, haven't we?” Thorn demanded. “Give us the chance, Stilicho, and we'll get her out of there or die trying!'

The old Martian's eyes widened. “If anybody could do it, you Planeteers could,” he muttered. He stared doubtfully at Thorn's starlit face. “But you Planeteers are only after the secret Lana knows, the same as Cheerly.'

'We want that secret, yes,” Thorn said tensely. “But the only way we can hope to get it is by rescuing Lana! Can't you see that? I'm hoping that if we save her, she'll tell us the secret. But whether she does or not, she'll have been saved, and that's all that you care for!'

And as Stilicho still hesitated, Thorn hissed a grim reminder.

'Think what Cheerly will do to Lana to wring the secret from her! Haskell Trask isn't above torture!'

The old man's figure quivered at that.

'She'll never tell them,” he muttered, “even though they kill her. I know Lana.'

Then the old pirate stiffened with decision, and he spoke rapidly to the tensely waiting three.

'I'm going to take the chance you Planeteers can save her. It looks like the only chance the lass has got. I'm going to release you, and we'll head out in my ship for Saturn, before Brun Abo and the rest find out what I've done.'

'Will the crew of your ship follow you?” Thorn asked quickly, his pulses pounding with excitement and hope.

'Hell, they'd sail straight into the sun if I laid the course!” exclaimed the old pirate. His cracked voice throbbed with eagerness as he continued. “I'll have to steal the wave key of this brig from the Council House to let you out. And I'll pass a whisper to my crew to gather in the Venture at once.'

The old Martian hastened away through the starlight. John Thorn swung round to his comrades.

'It's a fighting chance we've got now, at least!” he exclaimed.

'A pretty slim one,” said Gunner Welk somberly. “How in hell's name are we to get that girl away from Saturn in the teeth of all the League forces? An army couldn't do it.'