Flash Gordon 3 - The Space Circus Read online

  “I think we’ve gotten clear of those little blue devils for now,” said the huge Mallox.

  Flash placed a hand under the girl’s elbow. “I’ll hold onto you till you’re sure of yourself.”

  Huk fluttered his huge wings. “I think I’ll fly ahead for another look around.”

  “Careful of their airships,” cautioned Jape.

  The hawkman went flapping up through the rain.

  “I wonder,” said Narla, “if we’ll ever get off this planet, Flash. Sometimes I think it’s hopeless.”

  “The blue men have ships for interplanetary travel,” said Flash. “We should be able to capture one with luck.”

  “You sound very confident,” she said. “I’d like to believe you. You’re certainly the kind of man I can believe in, but I feel very gloomy this morning. All I can see is the ‘right now’ of things.”

  “It may take us some time. We don’t, remember, know very much about Mesmo.”

  “Well, I suppose living in the forest or the jungle, or wherever it is we’re going to wind up, is better than being a prisoner,” she said. “And better than being . . . well, than being like poor Zumm.”

  “Wait,” called Booker. “Help me, will you?” He’d fallen, tripped over a twisting root.

  Sixy, sighing, halted and went back to give the black man a hand up. “Maybe it would be simpler if I hefted you, Booker.”

  “My ankle’s busted or sprained,” said the fallen Booker.

  Sixy bent down toward him. There was a droning humming sound and he froze where he stood.

  “It must be—” began Jape, two of his hands reaching for weapons. The droning came again and he never reached either one.

  Mallox roared, lumbered in the direction of the rifleman, but he was hit before he got there. Flash let go of Narla and threw himself to the ground. He rolled, did a backward somersault, and was behind the trunk of a huge oak before the stun rifle could fire again.

  CHAPTER 19

  In spite of the cold nervousness which filled him, Djorj smiled to himself. I’ll soon have them all, he thought, hunched in the brush a few yards from the spot where the stunned Sixy, Jape, and Mallox stood frozen. The blue man had only picked up their trail moments earlier.

  The blonde girl had fallen when Flash made his dive for concealment. She was struggling to her feet now and was crawling in the direction Flash had taken.

  Can’t let that one get away. Djorj squeezed the trigger again.

  Narla froze, still on all fours.

  What about the black one? He appears to be injured, unable to move, reflected the trapper. Yet he makes a good deal of noise.

  “Who is it out there?” Booker was shouting. “You don’t have to kill me. I give up. It was their idea to run away, not mine.”

  None of this meant anything to Djorj. I’d better stun him, just to be on the safe side.

  “Come on, we can make some kind of deal.”

  The rifle hummed once more.

  “That’s five of them,” tallied the blue man. “Imagine what money they’ll bring. I’m sure to be paid at least a hundred harlans for each one. In fact, I’ll insist on at least that much before I turn them over to anyone, militia or otherwise. That’ll mean at least five hundred. Perhaps it will come to even more. But I still have to catch the sixth one, the last one. He looks to be more cunning, more dangerous than the rest of the pack.

  Djorj stayed another moment in his hiding place, rain hitting down at him.

  The beast may be getting away even now, he thought. I have to start after him. He began to move, traveling as silently as when he had approached the group initially.

  Flash bellied along over the damp mossy ground, soundlessly. He eased behind the trunk of another tree, listening.

  Didn’t hear them coming at all, he thought. Don’t even know how many of them are out there.

  With his head close to the earth, hidden by thick underbrush, Flash could see part of the area where they’d been attacked. He saw the immobile Narla, the shock-still Jape.

  Nobody’s come near them yet.

  Flash heard something, caught his breath, and listened more intently. Only the sound of the rain clattering down on the leaves and branches came to him.

  But I heard something else, he thought again. Somebody stepped on a branch, not very far from me.

  With narrowed eyes, he scanned the forest around him. There was no sign of anyone—no sound of anyone. The rain kept falling.

  He sensed the presence of the trapper before he heard him or saw him. Flash threw himself to the side as the rifle hummed.

  He swung and fired his stungun.

  But the blue man was not where he had been, framed between two tree trunks.

  Flash ducked, then spun around behind a tree bole. That guy must be used to walking in these woods, Flash decided. He hardly makes a sound.

  He took three steps backward, slightly crouched, watchful. Then something caught him around the ankle. It bit into his flesh. With a violent snap, he was hoisted off the ground to dangle upside down several feet above the moss.

  Flash went swinging through the air, thwacking into a tree. His breath was knocked out of him. The stungun fell from his hand.

  The motion of the rope trap gradually decreased; his movement to and fro stopped, Flash hung head down and dazed.

  Djorj smiled once more. “Luck is indeed on my side today,” he murmured. “The beast has been caught in one of my own animal snares.”

  He was thirty feet from the dangling Flash, stun rifle in his hands and radio slung over his shoulder. He stood and watched the hanging man, not heeding the heavy rain.

  This one will be worth at least two hundred harlans, Djorj decided. He began to make his way nearer to his catch. Now to stun this one. He raised his rifle to his shoulder, took aim.

  An immense flapping sounded above him. The agitated air swirled drops of rain all around him. Then something hit him across the back of the neck.

  He fell forward, losing consciousness. His last thought before blacking out was, Now I’ll never get the money.

  CHAPTER 20

  “The thing to do,” insisted the giant Mallox, “is to throttle him.” He swept a huge hand in the direction of the blue man.

  “No,” said Flash.

  “He’ll tell the others,” said the strongman. “We can’t even be sure he’s not sending them some kind of message right now, sending it from his head to theirs.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Jape. With all four of his hands he was tinkering with the radio Djorj had been carrying.

  “We’ve wasted enough time,” said the hawkman. “Let’s not waste any more in arguing.”

  It had been Huk, returning from his reconnoitering flight, who dropped out of the sky to fell the trapper before he could use the stun rifle on Flash.

  Now, several hours later, the effects of the stunning had worn off for all of them.

  “I still got something wrong with me from getting shot like that,” said Booker. “I feel all upside down inside.”

  “Flash was really upside down from what I hear,” said Sixy.

  During these exchanges Djorj looked anxiously, hope mixed with fear, from face to face. All this howling did not convey anything to him. But the giant reaching for his throat had been easy enough to understand; the big creature wanted to kill him.

  Flash and Huk had tied the trapper to the trunk of a tree with rope cut from the trap which had snared Flash. Flash had tried to communicate with Djorj during the time they were waiting for the others to become unstunned. The blue man did not understand. Although he sensed that Flash, unlike the giant just now, meant him no harm.

  “We must get going,” Flash said.

  “I say it isn’t safe,” repeated Mallox, “leaving this little blue devil alive. He’ll tell them he’s seen us.”

  “He’s not to be harmed,” said Flash. He then walked to Narla’s side. “You up to continuing?”

  “You don’t have to wor
ry about me anymore,” the girl told him, her face expressionless and her voice even.

  “I left you alone when the attack came because I can move faster by myself,” said Flash, realizing why the girl was angry. “I wanted to get a chance to find out who was firing on us and try to outfox them.”

  “I don’t care about an apology.”

  “I’m not offering an apology, only an explanation.”

  “We’re ready,” said Huk. “As I told you earlier, Flash, we’re about fifteen miles from the edge of the jungle. I doubt we can reach it before nightfall, but we can get close.”

  “Fifteen miles?” said Booker. “I can’t walk any fifteen miles in the shape I’m in.”

  Flash went over to the bound trapper. “We have to leave you here,” he said, pointing at the ropes. “But you should be able to work yourself free in a few hours. Or maybe someone will find you.”

  In another minute, with Mallox muttering about the folly of allowing the blue man to remain alive, they resumed their trek.

  The dusk was filled with enormous scarlet-and-gold butterflies. The rain had ceased as the day began to wane. The butterflies drifted silently through the treetops high above.

  “Still about five miles to go,” the hawkman told Flash.

  “We should be able to keep on for another hour at least before we stop for the night,” decided Flash.

  Back at the tail end of the line, Booker said, “When are we going to call a halt? Seems like we must have come fifty miles by now.”

  “Why don’t you stop by yourself and rest up?” suggested Sixy. “You can catch up with us later.”

  “Are you joking? I’m not about to try making my way through this wilderness by myself,” said Booker. “I’d get lost for sure.”

  “That possibility had occurred to me.”

  Jape came trotting up to Flash’s side. “I think I’ve got this thing figured out.” He was holding the blue man’s radio in two of his hands, the earphones over his ears.

  “So they do communicate by means other than telepathy?” asked Flash.

  Removing the earphones, Jape fell in step with Flash. “The whole process isn’t exactly telepathy at all,” he said. “After listening to this radio for a while I began to hear something. It makes sense, because if the people of Mesmo are completely telepathic they’d have no need of earphones at all.”

  “You heard something!” said Flash. “What?”

  “A human voice,” replied Jape. “So I turned the volume up as high as it will go. Here, listen.”

  Flash took the proffered earphone and held it to his ear. “You’re right, Jape, that’s a human voice. Sort of a low muffled growling, though.”

  “Here’s what I’ve concluded,” said the four-armed physicist. “The language of the blue men is what you might call ‘ear-mitted.’ That is, they talk by way of their ears.”

  “Their ears?” said Huk.

  “It’s not that unusual a thing,” continued Jape. “That’s why they all wear earphones. To help transmit and pick up messages. You see, it’s a much less raucous way of communicating than ours. Which explains why they think of us as rough beasts.”

  “Then they aren’t using extrasensory powers at all?” said the hawkman.

  “I’m not sure of that,” said Jape. “They may be able to communicate telepathically, but only at close range.” He shrugged with all his shoulders. “We may never know, since I don’t think I’m going to have an opportunity for much detailed study.”

  “Let’s hope not,” said Huk. “I want to stay as far from the blue men as we can.”

  “What you’re listening to on the earphones,” said Flash, “is there any way you can translate it?”

  “I’m only guessing at this point,” answered Jape. “The language sounds fairly close to that spoken on the planet of Yasmin. This could mean Mesmo was colonized from there centuries ago. I know a little Yasminian, and if I stick with this radio a few hours longer it’s just possible I can pick up this Mesmo version of the language well enough to understand what they’re saying to each other.”

  “It would be helpful to know what they’re saying about us,” said Huk.

  “That’s important now,” agreed Jape, “but equally as important is the fact that if I can understand the language we’ll be able to find out a lot more about this planet.”

  “Such as the location of the spaceports,” said Flash.

  “Well,” said Huk, “you two can handle the long-range planning for the time being. I’m more concerned with seeing we get clear of any blue men who may be tracking us.”

  “We’ve been pretty careful,” said Flash. “I don’t think any more trappers are going to sneak up on us.”

  “You’ve decided that’s what that fellow was?” asked Jape.

  “I have a feeling that snare that caught me was one of his,” said Flash. “And he wasn’t dressed in the style of the blue men we encountered in the city.”

  “Yes, he had a woodsman’s look about him,” said Huk.

  Darkness gradually dropped down on them. The party continued on. When they stopped to make camp for the night, they were still two miles from the vast jungle.

  CHAPTER 21

  “The trees grow thick here,” said Huk, who was kneeling in front of the small campfire he’d started. “They should conceal the flames from anyone flying over.”

  “Don’t see why we need a fire at all,” said Booker as he chewed on a cake of the dry food they had salvaged from the wreck. “We got nothing to cook.”

  “A fire’s good for more than cooking,” said Flash. “It’ll keep curious animals at a safe distance.”

  “What kind of animals?” asked Booker. “I haven’t seen much around here except butterflies.”

  “Well, since the fellow who almost caught us had animal traps set,” replied Flash, “I figure there must be animals.”

  “Probably a few nocturnal types at least,” said Huk.

  “I noticed signs while we were traveling,” said Sixy. “Tracks on the ground, marks on the trunks and branches. Some kind of big cats, I’d say.”

  “How big?” asked the strong man.

  Sixy ripped open a food packet with his toes. “Oh, as big as the lions we worked with in the circus.”

  Mallox laughed. “There’s nothing to worry about then,” he said. “Cats that size, I can just snap their necks.”

  “We don’t all have that ability,” Sixy reminded him. “If one of those big cats comes along tonight while you’re asleep and—”

  “I don’t need any sleep.”

  “We’re all going to need rest,” said Huk.

  “What we’ll have to do,” said Flash, “is divide the night into shifts. We should keep at least two on watch all night.”

  “I need my sleep,” said Booker. “I’m still not recovered from the train wreck.”

  “You and Narla can have the last shift before morning,” said Huk. “That way you can sleep from now until then.”

  “How early you going to wake me up?”

  “I can take all the night shifts,” said Mallox. “Then everyone can sleep. There’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  Huk shook his head. “No, we have to divide the work, Mallox. And everyone has to do part of it. There’s no telling how long we may be together and it’s best to get a system worked out now.”

  The giant made a rumbling sound in his chest, letting his huge hands slap against his thighs. “Very well, I’ll go along with the system.”

  Flash, after the shifts were set up, went and sat beside Jape. “Making any progress?” he asked.

  “Yes,” answered the physicist. “The language they use here on Mesmo is definitely a variation on that spoken on Yasmin. I’m beginning to understand a few words here, a phrase there.”

  “Any reference to our train wreck?”

  “I believe they’ve been sending out a warning all day,” said Jape, patting the radio with one of his hands. “Something to the effect that several wi
ld animals have escaped from the crashed circus train.”

  “The wild animals being us?”

  “Yes, though as far as I can gather they aren’t advocating that we be shot on sight,” said Jape. “Some group—I think the right name would be militia—is apparently searching for us.”

  “Are they searching the forest we’ve just passed through?”

  “I can’t tell,” said Jape. “But by tomorrow I think I’ll be able to figure out most of what’s being said on here.” He smiled. “That is, if we don’t get captured before then.”

  The silence awakened Flash. It was a misty morning, the chill hour of dawn. Flash sat up from the bed he’d made of leaves.

  The campfire had died; a trickle of sooty smoke spiraled up from it.

  Flash looked to the place, some hundred feet from the camp, where Narla should have been standing watch. The girl was not there.

  Jumping up, he turned to where Booker ought to have been. The black man was nowhere in sight.

  “What is it?” asked Huk, coming awake.

  “Narla,” said Flash, “and Booker. They’re not here.”

  “I thought he looked too drowsy when I roused him to take over for me,” said Sixy, yawning and rubbing at his eyes.

  Flash moved quickly to the spot where Narla had been. He cupped his hands, calling her name.

  No answer came back to him out of the misty woods which surrounded them.

  “Better if I had stayed up all night.” Mallox stretched his enormous arms above his head. “Where have they gotten to?”

  Huk had been looking over the spot where Booker had kept watch. “There appear to be other prints here. What do you think, Sixy?”

  Squatting, Sixy said, “Yes, it was two men. Wait—no, three. There’s the heel print of a soft leather boot mixed in with the others.”

  “Looks like two more men grabbed Narla,” said Flash, after examining the ground.

  “How could they have come so close?” asked Jape.

  “For one thing,” said Sixy, “Booker may have gone back to sleep.”