Edmond Hamilton

“ The grim black rocket, whirling and dipping with a swiftness of maneuver astounding in a ship of its size, was endeavoring to bring the twisting little craft that evaded it into the line of its guns. As their own ship thundered down on the scene, Evans and Calden saw the one side of the Hawk's rocket stabbing forth a half-score slender jets of blue fire as its electric-guns blasted toward the smaller craft. But the latter had shot upward in time to avoid the fire, and in the next moment the Earth-Guard rocket was rushing down upon the ebon attacker. ”

“ When on the last day of their relief he found Calden and Hartley at the New York station, inspecting the great Earth-Guard rocket, preparatory to its start back out into space, he found their nerves as raw on the subject as his own. They too had felt the whips of the public laughter.
"You know," growled Hartley as he ran a practised eye over the looming rocket's stern firing-tubes, "I'm just about praying that we meet up with the Hawk this trip. I'm not thin-skinned—but when my little daughter begins to ask daddy why he doesn't catch the Hawk, I'm getting to the busting point!" ”

“ Evans stood still for a few moments gazing around him, bewildered a little as he invariably was by the sudden transition from the silence and gloom of the great void to this brilliant and hurried scene. Across the great station at its departure-side a huge cargo-rocket was taking off, its firing-tubes deafening the ears as it thundered up into the sunlight and vanished. Already a great, sleek passenger-craft was being slid into the ascension-framework just vacated, and as its warning-bell rang out, the last belated passengers were hurrying toward it with their porters and luggage. ”

“ The Hawk, indeed, was coming to have far more of the public sympathy than the Earth-Guard. It was true that he held up defenseless passenger-craft between earth and moon, forcing them under the menace of his guns to cast loose for him in their life-rockets whatever of value they carried. All knew that he was an outlaw of the void, and would meet swift death at the hands of a firing-squad were he captured. ”

“ I've got no business, really, telling even you about it, but it's about all wound up now, for if I get the information I'm after on earth it means we'll catch the Hawk in short order."
"Seems like catching the Hawk is work for the Earth-Guard rather than for any secret agents," growled the bulldog-visaged Hartley. "We're good enough to chase after all the common scum of space-pirates that are always bobbing up, but when it comes to nabbing the Hawk someone else wants the glory."
"The glory's been there for the Earth-Guard to take for some time," retorted Seaworth acidly. ”

“ But we've another thing to think of, too, Evans. If the Hawk wants this man Seaworth badly enough, he may not even stick at holding up an Earth-Guard ship to get him! I see you smile—you think it is incredible that even the Hawk should ever try taking an Earth-Guard—but remember that he has a reputation for doing things no pirate ever dared do before, and that in this case he has the best reason in the world for trying it. And if he ever took an Earth-Guard rocket—good-bye! ”

“ Evans, you must realize what a situation the Earth-Guard is in. You know and I know that the Hawk must have something new on his ship, whether a new fuel or a new firing-tube, that gives his ship a speed beyond anything else in space. You know as well as I do, too, that the Hawk is really the one outstanding space-pirate left and that in the last decades we've cleared up the others one by one. ”

“ Upon the moon's other side were great mines in which men, dwelling in air-tight cities and toiling in hermetically-tight metal suits, worked the rare metals and minerals in which earth's satellite abounded. And upon the moon's earthward side were other great air-tight cities, glass-roofed and luxurious, to which went each year hundreds of thousands of the earth's wealthy—there to spend their vacations—enjoying the wondrous celestial views, the astounding strength and youth given them by the moon's lesser gravity, and the chance to view the earth from the outside. ”

“ But if he was a space-pirate, he was not one like the earlier space-buccaneers whose atrocities had roused a fury that had swept them out of existence. He was, if anything, a gentleman-corsair of the void, and though few had ever looked on his face, it was rumored that he was exceptionally handsome. It was small wonder that by the end of his week of relief Evans' nerves were ragged and he was longing for the peacefulness of the space patrol. ”

“ So that there had grown gradually the commerce that kept endless streams of ships moving between earth and moon—great and luxurious passenger-craft laden with the wealthy and powerful of earth; and sleek private ships bound like the others for the luxurious lunar cities. Bulky and battered cargo-rockets had their own space-lanes, carrying metals and minerals to the earth, and returning with loads of supplies and tanks of the liquid rocket-fuel to the moon. ”

“ Gazing ahead through these he kept watch, while with fingers on the firing-levers of the rocket's tubes Calden kept them steady on their course. Minutes passed before Evans uttered a cry.
"They're just ahead!" he exclaimed. Then, into the tube—"All batteries ready, Hartley, and use the port guns when we bank."
"Lord, look at that fellow!" breathed Calden as he too stared ahead. "He sure can handle a rocket—the Hawk can't get his guns on him!" ”

“ Hartley's face went dull red, and Evans intervened in time. "No use scrapping over it," he told them. "Anything that Seaworth finds out will help us, and I for one don't give a continental who catches the Hawk so long as he's caught. Every time I go into a teletheater nowadays, all I hear is a lot of musty old cracks about the Hawk and the Earth-Guard, and I don't mind telling you I'm getting tired of it." ”

“ Evans pulled a speaking-tube toward him and shouted down into it over the roar of the rocket's explosions. "Hartley? Put full crews on all the electric-guns and have them stand ready for action. Yes. And tell them it's the Hawk we're after this time—it'll put them on their toes."
Calden grinned as a moment later a muffled cheer came up from the gun-rooms beneath. "They're on their toes, evidently," he commented. "They're as crazy to get their hands on the Hawk as you are." ”

“ Seaworth told them, grinning. "It may be just play to you lads in the Earth-Guard, but the Hawk nearly settled me twice and I hate to think what he'd do if he got me now."
"No danger," Evans told him as Seaworth followed the yawning Hartley down out of the pilot-house. "We'll have you safe and sound on the moon in a half day more, and if you can nab the Hawk there, it'll punish him for not showing up this trip." ”

“ As far as our knowledge goes the rocket seems to be the most feasible means of propulsion because it will reach its greatest efficiency in the vacuum of inter-stellar space.
If the conditions on other planets, including our moon, are not too prohibitive, it is doubtless true that these planets will be explored for whatever mineral wealth or possibilities of life they may contain. The resulting interplanetary commerce will call into being a host of problems, such as the protection of cargo and passenger shipments against natural and human agents that might wish to destroy them. ”