"That would have meant capture of us all by Dark's pirates," said the captain grimly. "You two are a danger to us all, while you live. I'm going to remove that danger. As master of a space-ship, I have legal right to order summary execution of any space-pirates I capture. I'm going to order that now."
"You're going to kill them?" exclaimed Gloria. "Oh, no—you can't!"
"It's absolutely necessary, before they betray us to the pirates, Miss Loring," defended the captain. "They'd be sentenced to death by the courts if we took them back to Mars, anyway. But we daren't take a chance on keeping them prisoned that long."
"But just to shoot them down!" said Gloria horrifiedly. "I won't stand for that!"
Murdock took her by the arm. "It's space law, Gloria," he told her earnestly. "You'd better go back into the ship."
Kenniston stood silent in the moons-light, for he realized from the finality of Walls' voice that appeals would be utterly useless. There was no use trying again to explain why he'd been willing to betray them all to save Ricky. Even if they listened, they wouldn't understand.
He felt tired, crushed, old. He'd gone a long way in the last dozen years, but every mile of it had only led toward this ending. He was going to die here under the hurtling meteor-moons of Vesta, and that meant that Ricky and Ricky's dream were going to die soon too.
"I told you you were a fool to throw away that gun," Holk Or was muttering.
"YOU two march over there to the edge of the clearing," Captain Walls ordered grimly, gesturing with his gun. "Anything you want to say first, Kenniston?"
"Nothing that you would listen to or understand, you people," Kenniston answered dully. "No, I've got nothing to say."
A crackling voice came out of the dark jungle at that moment.
"I have something to say! Drop those guns, every man of you, and get your hands up!"
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 underworld 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
