Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Loot of the Void
By Edwin K. Sloat
Dick Penrun glanced up incredulously.
"Why, that's impossible; you would have to be two hundred years old!"he exclaimed.
Lozzo nervously ran a hand through his white mop of hair.
"But it is true, Sirro," he assured his companion. "We Martianssometimes live three centuries. You should know that I am only ahundred and seventy-five, and I do not lie when I say I was a cabinboy under Captain Halkon."
Down from the pinnacle of rock streaked a giganticspider.His voice sank to a whisper, and he glanced apprehensively about thebuffet of the Western Star which was due now in three days at theMartian city of Nurm. Penrun's eyes followed his anxious glancescuriously. The buffet was partly filled with passengers, smoking,gossiping women, and men at cards, or throwing dice in the Martiangambling game of diklo, which was the universal fad of the moment.No place could have been safer, Penrun reflected. Doubtless the oldman's caution was a lifelong habit acquired in his youth, if he hadactually served under Halkon.
Before long the old codger would be saying that he knew the hidingplace of Halkon's treasure, about which there were probably morelegends and yarns than anything else in the Universe. A century hadelapsed since the death of the famous pirate who had preyed on theshipping of the Void with fearless, ruthless audacity and had piled upa fabulous treasure before that fatal day when the massed battlespheres of the Interplanetary Council trapped his ships out nearMercury and blew them to atoms there in the sun-beaten reaches ofspace. Some of the men had been captured; old Lozzo might have beenone of them. Penrun knew the history of Halkon from childhood, and fora very good reason.
The ancient Martian stirred uneasily. His piercing blue eyes turnedagain to Penrun's face.
"Every word I have said is true, Sirro," he repeated hurriedly. "Iboarded this ship at New York with the sole intention of dischargingmy sworn duty and giving a message to the grandson of Captain OrionHalkon, his first male descendant."
Penrun's eyes widened in startled amazement. He, himself, was thegrandson of the notorious Halkon, a fact that not more than half adozen people in the Universe knew—or so he had always believed. Hismother, Halkon's only daughter, good and upright woman that she was,had hidden that family skeleton far back in the closet and solemnlywarned Dick Penrun and his two sisters to keep it there. Yet this oldman, who had singled him out of the crowd in the buffet not thirtyminutes ago and drew him into conversation, knew the secret. Perhapshe really had been a cabin boy under Halkon!
"I have been serving out the hundred-year sentence