Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories May 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Nothing there could withstand him.The Bluff of the Hawk
By Anthony Gilmore
Had not old John Sewell, the historian, recognized Hawk Carse for whathe was—a creator of new space-frontiers, pioneer of vast territoriesfor commerce, molder of history through his long feud with thepowerful Eurasian scientist, Ku Sui—the adventurer would doubtlesshave passed into oblivion like other long-forgotten spacemen. We haveSewell's industry to thank for our basic knowledge of Carse. His"Space-Frontiers of the Last Century" is a thorough work and theaccepted standard, but even it had of necessity to be compressed, andmany meaty episodes of the Hawk's life go almost unmentioned. Forinstance, Sewell gives a rough synopsis of "The Affair of the Brains,"but dismisses its aftermath entirely, in the following fashion (Vol.II, pp. 250-251):
"... there was only one way out: to smash the great domecovering one end of the asteroid and so release thelife-sustaining air inside. Captain Carse achieved this bysending the space-ship Scorpion crashing through the domeunmanned, and he, Friday and Eliot Leithgow were caught upin the out-rushing flood of air and catapulted into space,free of the dome and Dr. Ku Sui. Clad as they were in thelatter's self-propulsive space-suits, they were quitecapable of reaching Jupiter's Satellite III, only somethirty thousand miles away.
"Then speeding through space, Captain Carse discovered whyhe had never been able to find the asteroid-stronghold. Hecould not see it! Dr. Ku Sui had protected his lair bymaking it invisible! But Carse was at least confident thatby breaking the dome he had destroyed all life within in,including the coordinated brains.
"So ended The Affair of the Brains.[1]
"The three comrades reached Satellite III safely, where,after a few minor adventures, Captain Carse...."
[1] See the March, 1932, Issue of Astounding Stories.
Sewell's ruthless surgery is most evident in that last paragraph. Ofcourse his telescoping of the events was due to limited space; buthe did wish to draw a full-length, character-revealing portrait ofHawk Carse, and with "... reached Satellite III safely, where, after afew minor adventures, Captain Carse ..." learned old John Sewell slidover one of his greatest opportunities.
The resourcefulness of Hawk Carse! In these "few minor adventures" hehad but one weapon with which to joust against overwhelming odds on anapparently hopeless quest. This weapon was a space-suit—nothingmore—yet so brilliantly and daringly did he wield its uniqueadvantages that he penetrated seemingly impregnable barriers andachieved alone what another man would have required the ray-batteriesof a space-fleet to do.
But here is the story, heard first from Friday's lips and told andre-told down through the years on the lonely ranches of the outlyingplanets, of that one dark, savage night o