Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories November 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
The Hawk stood there, both arms hanging easily at hissides.
Hawk Carse
A Complete Novelette
By Anthony Gilmore
CHAPTER I
The Swoop of the Hawk
One of the spectacular exploits of Hawk Carse, greatest ofspace adventurers.
awk Carse came to the frontiers of space when Saturn was the frontierplanet, which was years before the swift Patrol ships brought Earth'slaw and order to those vast regions. A casual glance at his slenderfigure made it seem impossible that he was to rise to be the greatestadventurer in space, that his name was to carry such deadlyconnotation in later years. But on closer inspection, a number oflittle things became evident: the steadiness of his light gray eyes;the marvelously strong-fingered hands; the wiry build of hissplendidly proportioned body. Summing these things up and adding thebrilliant resourcefulness of the man, the complete ignorance of fear,one could perhaps understand why even his blood enemy, the impassiveKu Sui, a man otherwise devoid of every human trait, could not faceCarse unmoved in his moments of cold fury.
His name, we know, enters most histories of the period 2117-2148 A.D., for he has at last been recognized as the one who probably didmost—unofficially, and not with the authority of the EarthGovernment—to shape the raw frontiers of space, to push them outwardand to lay the foundations of the present tremendous commerce betweenEarth, Vulcan, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. But, littleof his fascinating character may be gleaned from the dry words ofhistory; and it is Hawk Carse the adventurer, he of the spittingray-gun and the phenomenal draw, of the reckless space shipmaneuverings, of the queer bangs of flaxen hair that from a certainyear hid his forehead, of the score of blood feuds and the one greatfeud that jarred nations in its final terrible settling—it is withthat man we are concerned here.
A number of his exploits never recorded are still among the favoriteyarns spun by lonely outlanders in the scattered trading posts of theplanets, and among them is that of his final encounter with Judd theKite. It shows typically the cold deadliness, the prompt repaying of ablood debt, the nerveless daring that were the outstanding qualitiesof this almost legendary figure.
It began one crisp, early morning on Iapetus, and it ended on Iapetus,with the streaks of ray-guns searing the air; and it explains whythere are two square mounds of soil on Iapetus, eighth satellite ofSaturn.
arse pioneered Iapetus and considered its product his by right