andby the gods, we are going to bring them and this ship through safe andsound!"
A moment later he descended the stairs and led his men aft.
Teutoberg displayed a flash of generalship, for his first ten men whocame in through the air-lock were pistol experts. They rayed the marinesin their tracks and cleared the passage leading to the lock, before thedefenders could get organized. A few minutes later the invaders werespreading through the ship, hunting down and ruthlessly slaying themarines whom they outnumbered three to one. Scattered fights to thedeath took place on all the decks. Winford, snugly ensconced in his airtunnel, raged inwardly as the crackling of the rays and the agonizedscreams of the wounded and dying came to his ears.
The fighting seemed to be drawing nearer. He risked peeping out. Theyoung commander and half a dozen of his men covering themselves as bestthey might with the inadequate protector shields of the service,retreated to the foot of the stairs leading up to the control room. Asthe invaders prepared to mow them down a sudden hush fell on the men andthe invaders parted. A huge man stepped out before them. Winford suckedin his breath sharply as he recognized Teutoberg and saw him take a stepforward in the direction of the marines.
Teutoberg raised his hand toward Commander 6666-A and spoke.
"Will you surrender, or must my men obliterate you? I would say that youpirates have your backs to the wall. Surely life is sweet. Why notsurrender while you still have it?"
"We're not pirates!" declared the young commander hotly.
Teutoberg sneered.
"It will take more than a gold and gray uniform of the InterplanetaryCouncil military forces to convince me," he retorted. "Uniforms of anykind can be obtained anywhere in the Universe where there happens to bea competent tailor."
"The only pirates, excepting yourselves, aboard this ship are under lockand key," said the commander. "That's where you will be before thismatter is settled."
Teutoberg laughed. His manner changed suddenly.
"What a line of talk for a pirate," he commented affably. "Come,youngster, there is no need to sacrifice lives uselessly. Surrender,since you're outnumbered anyway, and let's discuss this thing on a sanebasis."
Commander 6666-A hesitated. Winford could scarcely refrain from shoutingtreachery. Then the marines lowered their shields and rays. Next instantthey went down under the charge of the invaders.
The young commander was chalky white when they dragged him bound andhelpless to his feet. A trickle of blood made a crimson line from thecorner of his mouth, and his eyes sparkled with helpless rage.
"You dirty snake!" he gasped. "You'll sniff gas for this!"
Teutoberg laughed scornfully.
"Take them back to the air-lock and shove them out naked one at a time,"he ordered curtly. "That's the way they would have treated us. Save theyoung bantam for the last. Now, where is this Evan Winford? I have anold score to settle with him."
Up in his air tunnel Winford nodded grimly to himself. Teutoberg's wordsonly added to the proof that he knew all along that the _Golden Fleece_was in the hands of the Interplanetary marines, for his request forWinford revealed that he had been following the helio reports of thecapture of the ship by the marines and the stories being broadcastthroughout the Universe of how Winford and Jarl and their piratecompanions were being taken with the ship to Mars for piracy andexecution.
Neither Commander 6666-A nor his men deigned to answer Teutoberg, butone of his own men had already discovered that Winford was locked in hisown stateroom, and he promptly indicated the door.
Teutoberg scowled, drew a pistol in either hand, and strode to the door.One of the men unlocked it, and he kicked it open. He waitedexpectantly, then advanced cautiously into the room. The sound of hisbaffled curses filled the passage. Winford grinned mirthlessly.
"Someone dies for this!" shouted Teutoberg, storming out into thepassage. "Where is he, I say? Bring me that Martian, Jarl! He'll know,if anyone does. Bring him, I say, and I'll torture the truth out of hisbig carcass!"
* * * * *
Winford's grin vanished. His eyes grew anxious as he waited, tense andbreathless, until Jarl, with his big hands lashed together behind hisback, was brought up from the hold.
"So we meet again, Jarl?" jeered Teutoberg, scowling blackly at him."Where is this master of yours, this Winford?"
Jarl's eyes met Teutoberg's impassively. All too well he knew the innatecruelty of this Earthman. Some explanation would have to be made tosatisfy him. Never a flicker of an eye-lash revealed what thatexplanation would be, but Jarl glanced stoically at the empty stateroom.
"He did it," he said calmly.
"Did what, you clod?" Teutoberg flung at him savagely.
"Ended his life as he swore he would."
"Suicide? Impossible! Where is the body?"
"He destroyed it together with his life by drinking disintegratorconcentrate. He carried a capsule of it when we escaped from Mercury,and I've heard him swear time and again that he would die before hewould permit himself to be taken back."
Teutoberg swallowed the story. There was nothing else to do, apparently.He raved and cursed. Once he raised his pistol to Jarl's heart andlowered it again.
"You'll take his place, Martian dog!" he snarled. "By proxy I shalltreat him as he deserves, and you shall be the proxy. Back to the holdwith you for the present!"
With that Teutoberg whirled about, strode up the stairs and vanished inthe control room.
Commander 6666-A and his men were dragged aft to the air-lock, leavingthe passage near Winford temporarily empty. He broke out the grating andwormed his way out of the air tunnel, dropping on the floor hands first.He sprang to his feet, and started grimly up the steps to the controlroom. Inside that room was Teutoberg, a bigger man than himself, andarmed, yet Winford, barehanded, cautiously opened the door and steppedinside.
* * * * *
Teutoberg was standing at one side of the room gazing in rapt attentionat the slaughter of the helpless marines. One by one he watched thememerge from the air-lock bloated and white in their nakedness with theirconvulsed limbs already growing rigid in the icy cold of space. Out inthe open space between the two ships they hung motionless a few minutes,then swiftly dissolved and vanished under the ray of a smalldisintegrator gun on the liner.
Teutoberg smiled crookedly.
The door clicked behind him. Teutoberg turned with a startled oath.Winford, foul with grime and his clothing torn to rags, stood there.Teutoberg's eyes widened. Both hands leaped downward for the holsteredpistols in his belt. At that instant Winford lunged for him.
One of Teutoberg's hands was now gripping a pistol. Winford struckfrenziedly, knocking it from Teutoberg's grasp. The weapon slid underthe chart table out of reach. Winford clutched Teutoberg's left handwhich held the still holstered pistol.
Suddenly he saw an advantage, and his heart leaped in exultation. Roundbehind Teutoberg he pivoted--a wrestling trick he had learned as a boy.For an instant they stood back to back. Then with a mighty effortWinford heaved upward relentlessly on his opponent's forearm.
Teutoberg screamed in pain as something snapped in his wrist. The pistoldropped from his nerveless fingers. Winford flicked it out of reachunder the table with his toe, but had no chance to reach for it, becauseTeutoberg had managed to work himself free.
With a bellow of animal rage and with arms flailing like wind-mills hecharged at Winford again. Winford met his rush with a rapid series ofblows and Teutoberg went down. But up he came, a wild light in his eyes.Again he went down, only to struggle gamely to his feet once more.
Winford was gasping for breath. It amazed him that Teutoberg couldendure so much punishment. His arm must be broken and he was terriblybattered, yet here he came staggering back for more. Winford now huncheddown and, like a crouching animal, advanced slowly toward his enemy.Suddenly he started a right almost from the deck straight forTeutoberg's chin. It connected. Teutoberg was lifted clear of the deckand
hurled unconscious against the side of the control room six feetaway.
Winford staggered to the communication board and his trembling fingersclutched the air-lock phone.
"Hello, hello!" he gasped. "Teutoberg speaking. Send no more marines outthrough the lock just now.... Yes, of course this is Teutoberg."
He hung the instrument back on its hook and clung dizzily to the edge ofthe table. At least the slaughter was halted for the time being.
* * * * *
He would have to act fast. He caught up the big water pitcher from theholder on the wall where it had miraculously escaped the fight, gulpeddeeply from it, and splattered water down his face and chest. Then hepicked up the two pistols from the deck, placed one in his belt andgripped the other firmly as he approached the unconscious
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