Planet of Adventure Omnibus Read Free

over to the murderer. The youth snatched forth his own rapier,
flicked it and the flexible end slashed in to cut away the emblem from the man’s
hat. The youth picked it up, and pulling a knife from his boot hacked savagely
at the soft silver, then cast it down at the murderer’s feet with a spate of
bitter words. The murderer, cowed, picked up the emblem and moved sullenly off
to the side.
    From a great
distance came a throb of sound. The warriors set up a soft hooting, either as a
ceremonial response or in fear and mutual admonition, and quickly retreated
into the forest.
    Low in the
sky appeared an aircraft, which first hovered, then settled: a sky-raft fifty
feet long, twenty feet wide, controlled from an ornate belvedere at the stern.
Forward and aft great lanterns dangled from convolute standards; the bulwarks
were guarded by a squat balustrade. Leaning over the balustrade, pushing and
jostling, were two dozen passengers, in imminent danger, so it seemed, of
falling to the ground.
    Reith watched
in numb fascination as the craft landed beside the scout-boat. The passengers
jumped quickly off: individuals of two sorts, non-human and human, though this
distinction was not instantly obvious. The non-human creatures-Blue Chasch, as
Reith was to learn-walked on short heavy legs, moving with a stiff-legged
strut. The typical individual was massive and powerful, scaled like a pangolin
with blue pointed tablets. The torso was wedge-shaped, with exoskeletal
epaulettes of chitin curving over into a dorsal carapace. The skull rose to a bony
point; a heavy brow jutted over the ocular holes, glittering metallic eyes and
the complicated nasal orifice. The men were as similar to the Blue Chasch as
breeding, artifice and mannerism allowed. They were short, stocky, with
bandy-legs; their faces were blunt and almost chinless, with the features
compressed. They wore what appeared to be false craniums which rose to a point
and beetled over their foreheads; and their jerkins and trousers were worked
with scales.
    Chasch and
Chaschmen ran to the scout-boat, communicating in fluting glottal cries. Some
clambered up the hull, peered into the interior, others investigated the head
and torso of Paul Waunder, which they picked up and carried aboard the raft.
    From the
control belvedere came a bawled alarm. Blue Chasch and Chaschmen looked up into
the sky, then hurriedly pushed the raft under the trees and out of sight. Once
again the little clearing was deserted.
    Minutes
passed. Reith closed his eyes and considered the evil nightmare from which he
hoped to wake, secure aboard the Explorator .
     A
thudding of engines aroused him from torpor. Down from the sky sank still
another vehicle: an airship which, like the raft, had been built with small
regard for aerodynamic efficiency. There were three decks, a central rotunda,
balconies of black wood and copper, a scrolled prow, observation cupolas,
weapon ports, a vertical fin displaying a gold and black insignia. The ship
hovered while those on the decks gave the space-boat a fastidious inspection.
Some of these were not human, but tall attenuated creatures, hairless, pale as
parchment, with austere countenances, languid and elegant attitudes. Others,
apparently subordinates, were men, though they displayed the same attenuated
arms, legs and torso, the sheep-like mannerisms. Both races wore elaborate
costumes of ribbons, flounces, sashes. Later Reith would know the non-human
folk as Dirdir and their human subordinates as Dirdirmen. At the moment, dazed
by the immensity of his disaster, he noted the splendid Dirdir airship only
with disinterested wonder. The thought, however, seeped into his mind that
either these tall pale folk or their predecessors at the scene had destroyed
the Explorator IV , and both had evidently tracked the arrival of the
scout-boat.
    Dirdir and
Dirdirmen scrutinized the space-boat with keen interest. One of them called
attention to the print left by the Chasch raft, and the