mendous commerce between
Earth, Vulcan, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. But, little
of his fascinating character may be gleaned from the dry words of
history; and it is Hawk Carse the adventurer, he of the spitting
ray-gun and the phenomenal draw, of the reckless space ship
maneuverings, of the queer bangs of flaxen hair that from a certain
year hid his forehead, of the score of blood feuds and the one great
feud that jarred nations in its final terrible settling--it is with
that man we are concerned here.

A number of his exploits never recorded are still among the favorite
yarns spun by lonely outlanders in the scattered trading posts of the
planets, and among them is that of his final encounter with Judd the
Kite. It shows typically the cold deadliness, the prompt repaying of a
blood debt, the nerveless daring that were the outstanding qualities
of this almost legendary figure.

It began one crisp, early morning on Iapetus, and it ended on Iapetus,
with the streaks of ray-guns searing the air; and it explains why
there are two square mounds of soil on Iapetus, eighth satellite of
Saturn.

* * * * *

Carse pioneered Iapetus and considered its product his by right of
prior exploration. One or two men had landed there before he came to
the frontiers of space and reported the satellite habitable, possessed
of gravital force only slightly under Earth's, despite its
twelve-hundred-mile diameter, and of an atmosphere merely a trifle
rarer; but they had gone no further. They had noticed the forms of
certain strange animals flitting through the satellite's jungles, but
had not investigated. It was Carse who captured one of the creatures
and saw the commercial possibilities of the pointed seven-inch horn
that grew on its head, and who named it phanti, after the now extinct
Venusian bird-mammal.

There were great herds of them, and they constituted Iapetus' highest
form of life. The space trader cut off a few of their opalescent and
green-veined horns and sent them as samples to Earth; and, upon their
being valued highly, he two months later established his ranch on
Iapetus, and thus laid the foundation for the grim business that men
sometimes call the Exploit of the Hawk and the Kite.

No doubt Carse expected trouble over the ranch. To protect the
valuable twice-yearly harvest of horn from Ku Sui's several bands of
pirates, and other semi-piratical traders who roamed space, he