Page:Amazing Stories Volume 10 Number 13.djvu/84

82 tually saw was far worse than their direst expectations. Huddled together amid unspeakable filth, like pigs in the stock pens of a space-freighter, were several hundred miserable creatures who looked and behaved and smelled more like animals than like human beings. Most of the slaves were slumbering but their pain-seared faces and cramp-twisted bodies showed clearly that even in sleep they were suffering the torments of cold, hunger and disease.

In addition to being fetidly noisesome, the place was unpleasantly noisy. From all directions came moans and hisses and snorts which were more beastly than human. One snore in particular boomed forth with such cacophonous resonance that it seemed to stand out from all the others like a tuba solo in an orchestra of bagpipes.

Grasping Mayer's wrist, Lieutenant Sullivan whispered: "Listen to that snore, Dan."

"I can hear it without listening," Mayer replied as he clapped his heavily gloved hands over his ears.

"It sounds familiar," Sullivan insisted. "I'm sure I have heard that snore somewhere before."

"And you may be equally certain that there couldn't be another like it in the universe," Mayer assured him.

"That's just what I'm athinking," Sullivan agreed as he waded through the muck and straw, trying with difficulty to avoid stepping on the human rubbish which encumbered the filthy floor. At one of the recumbant figures he kneeled, bringing his eyes close to the sleeper's face in an effort to penetrate the semi-darkness.

Looking up at Mayer, Sullivan whispered: "It's he, A. Z."

"Who is it?" Dan asked softly.

"Captain Hawkins. He's a space marine. Disappeared from Ganymede about two months ago. Suspected of deserting, but all his friends, including myself, knew better. Looks like this is a break for us as well as for him." And he shook the sleeper roughly.

No response.

Bringing his mouth close to the man's ear, Sullivan commanded: "Wake up, Al! Wake up!"

Still the captain continued to snore.

Finally Sullivan clapped his right palm over the sleeper's mouth, while with his left hand he squeezed his nostrils, thus shutting off his breath.

With a noise which resembled the gurgle of a love-sick sea-lion, Captain Hawkins awoke and sat up.

"Sh-h-h" Lieutenant Sullivan cautioned him. "You know me, Al. I'm Jimmy Sullivan come to save you from this vile hole."

With the sort of inflections he might have used in a fashionable drawing room, Hawkins said: "Lieutenant James Sullivan! Fawncy meeting you here, of all places."

Thumping him affectionately on his rag-clad back, Sullivan exclaimed: "You're the same old Al, I see. Now listen to me closely and work fast, for there isn't a second to lose. Pick out four or five Earthmen whom you know you can trust. Wake them at once and bring them over to the northwest corner of the building—the one furthest from the door. I'll tell them what to do."

When they reached the indicated corner, Sullivan told Mayer to open the package which he had been carrying. Complying with this order, Dan discovered that the bundle contained twenty needle guns. Although these weapons were scarcely larger than a