On the Trail of the Space Pirates_ A Tom Corbett Space Cadet Adventure - Carey Rockwell [414]
"I think we'd better check this, Sergeant," said Strong firmly. "Come on."
Strong started forward, then stopped, as a particularly heavy cloud of the deadly gas swirled around them. The two spacemen clung together blinded by the dense methane ammonia that would kill them in thirty seconds should their oxygen masks fail. In a moment the foggy death thinned out again and they continued toward the warehouse and the sleek black ship behind it.
* * * * *
Tom Corbett and Astro heard the roaring blast of the ship's exhaust. They saw Brett and Miles haul the instruments out of the cavern. They saw; they could hear; but they could not move. For nearly three hours they had remained alone in the cavern, frozen in the exact position they were in when Quent Miles had blasted them with his paralo-ray gun. And then Brett and Miles were standing before them again, Miles covering them with his paralo-ray gun.
"Why should we break our backs loading the ship?" sneered Miles. "Let them carry it out for us."
"Look!" Strong cried. "It's Brett's ship!"
"All right, release them," agreed Brett. "But get that stuff loaded in a hurry. Walters is either getting suspicious or he's pulling a bluff. We can't take any more chances."
Miles flipped on the neutralizer switch of the paralo ray and leveled it at Tom. "We'll take the little fella first," he said. "If he acts up, we'll just leave the other fella the way he is."
He fired at Tom, and the young cadet began to shudder violently. His teeth chattered and he found it difficult to focus his eyes as his nervous system tried to shake off the effects of the ray. He crumpled to a heap on the balcony floor and gasped for breath.
"He won't be much use to you for a while." Brett laughed. "Look at him flopping around like a fish out of water."
"Get up!" snarled Miles at Tom, quickly flipping the ray gun back to positive charge. "Come on. You're not that bad off. Get up." He leaned over and prodded the cadet with the gun. "If you don't get up, I'll freeze you again," he threatened.
Tom struggled to his feet. "I'll get you for this, Miles," he gasped weakly, his teeth still chattering.
"Never mind the hot air!" snarled Brett. "Go down there and start hauling up those boxes."
Tom turned helplessly and stumbled down the stairs to the floor of the cavern.
"Now for the big fellow," said Miles. He fired the neutralizer charge and Astro started to quiver at the shock of the release. But he clamped his teeth together and made a quick lunge for Miles, reaching for the spaceman's throat. Expecting the attack, Miles stepped aside quickly and brought the gun down sharply on the big cadet's head. Astro dropped to the floor, half-stunned. The black-clad spaceman leveled the ray gun and sneered, "Try that again, you overgrown punk, and I'll drop you on your head."
Astro shook his head and stumbled to his feet. He glared at Miles, spun away, and walked down the stairs shakily.
Miles and Brett stood on the balcony and watched the two cadets working on the cavern floor. "Hurry it up there!" shouted Miles. "We haven't got all day."
Brett took his ray gun from his belt and stepped forward. "I'll handle Corbett," he said. "You take care of the big one."
"Right," replied Miles. "But stay well in back of them and keep your gun on them all the time."
"How long do you think it'll take to get the ship loaded?" asked Brett.
"Couple of hours. But what are you going to do about Walters if he's wise?" Miles shrugged his shoulders.
"Simple," said Brett. "We take the stuff we've got, haul it to the hide-out, dump it, and return to Atom City. Then we just sit tight and wait until the situation clears up here on Titan."
"What about that investigation?" asked Miles, keeping his eyes on the cadets, who were now staggering back to the stairs, each carrying a heavy lead box containing the precious