er of science, and high peril
attended any matching of wits with him. Carse closed the log, his face
bleak, his mind made up. A shuffle of feet brought his gaze up to the
port-lock entrance.

Friday, stripped to shorts, a sweat-glistening ebony giant, stood there.
Shaking the drops of steaming perspiration from his face, he reported:

"All finished, suh--got the _Star Devil_ in the jungle where you said to
hide her. An' now what? You still figurin' on keepin' that date with Dr.
Ku in this ship?"

Carse nodded, absently.

"Then where'll we pick up a crew, suh? Porno? It's the nearest port, I
reckon."

"I'm not taking any crew, Eclipse."

Friday gaped in surprise at his master, then found words:

"No crew, suh? Against Ku Sui? We'll be throwin' our lives----"

"I've lost enough men in the last two days," Carse cut in shortly. "And
this meeting with Dr. Ku is a highly personal affair. You and I and Sako
can run the ship; we've got to." One of the man's rare smiles relaxed
his face. "Of course," he murmured, "I'm risking your life, Eclipse.
Perhaps I'd better leave you somewhere?"

"Say!" bellowed the negro indignantly.

The Hawk's smile broadened at the spontaneous exclamation of loyalty.

"Very well, then," he said. "Now send Sako to me, and prepare ship for
casting off."

But as Friday went aft on a final thorough inspection of all mechanisms,
he muttered over and over, "Two of us--against Ku Sui! Two of us!" and
he was still very much disturbed when, after Carse had had a few crisp
words with the captive Sako, telling him that he would be free but
watched and that it would be wise if he confined himself to his duties,
the order came through to the engine room:

"Break ground!"

Gently the brigand ship _Scorpion_ stirred. Then, in response to the
delicate incline of her space-stick, she lifted sweetly from the crust
of Iapetus and at ever-increasing speed burned through the satellite's
atmosphere toward the limitless dark leagues beyond.

The Hawk was on the trail!

* * * * *

Carse took the first watch himself. Except for occasional glances at the
banks of instruments, the screens and celestial charts, he spent his
time in deep thought, turning over in his mind the several variations of
situation his dangerous rendezvous might take.

First, how would Ku Sui contact the _Scorpion_? Any of three ways, he
reasoned: come aboard from his own craft accompanied by