The Five Gold Bands Read Online Free PDF

in the known universe—displaying his picture and the caption—
WANTED— for interplanetary crime!
Paddy Blackthorn, Earther. Dangerous!
Height, six feet; weight, one hundred eighty pounds. Age, approximately thirty. Red-brown hair, hazel eyes, broken nose.
    “And then,” grumbled Paddy, “there’ll be my fingerprints, my tongueprint, my psychograph. They’ll describe the hairs of my head and they’ll write at the bottom, ‘Catch this fiend and name your own reward.’ I’m cursed with the luck of the devil himself. There’s no haven for me on Earth, no place for me but the Thieves’ Cluster—and then how long?”
    He rummaged through the chart index, found the proper code, punched the buttons and in front of him, projected by a series of lenses, appeared the sphere of space surrounding the Thieves’ Cluster.
    At the edge a blue gleam of light indicated his own position with a white arrow indicating the vector of his position and course. Paddy sighted, gingerly changed course until the vector pointed at the Thieves’ Cluster.
    He turned on the space-wave. It was staccato with coded messages. Let ’em rave, thought Paddy. Once in the Thieves’ Cluster, not even the Sons of Langtry could drag him forth. Of course they might send agents in to assassinate him. But would they? He was the only man alive who knew, if not the secret of space-drive, the whereabouts of the secret.

IV
    The Thieves’ Cluster was a group of eight suns in the Perseian Limbo which had picked up a jostling swarm of dark stars, planets, planetoids, asteroids, meteorites, and general debris. Here was end-haven for the lost men of all worlds. Among the hundred thousand satellites a man could dodge a low-boat like a rabbit ducking a dog in a mile of blackberry thicket.
    If he cared nothing for the life of the settled planets, if he had money to pay for his stores, if he could protect himself, then he could live his life among the jostling little worlds with small fear of civilized justice.
    There was no law in the Thieves’ Cluster except at Eleanor on the central planet Spade-Ace. Here a government of sorts existed—an order of men forced to cooperate by fear and despair, a society of the antisocial. The executive committee of the government was the Blue-nose Gang, after Blue-nose Pete, mayor of Eleanor.
    At Eleanor the strictest law in the universe was enforced. If a man could win to the Eleanor space-field he could sleep in an alley with his loot on his chest and when he awoke his gold would be there. The apparatus was clumsy and harsh but if a man violated the law of Eleanor the Gang would have his life.
    Paddy slipped through the crush of flaming suns and bright worlds without hindrance, fell against the swampy side of Spade-Ace, leveled off, flew screaming a few miles above the reed-covered morass. A ridge of black rock rose at the horizon. He crossed it and below him was Eleanor, a spatter of white and brown at the base of the mountain.
    He dropped to the field beside the alteration docks, where a Badau double-monitor lay half-dismantled.
    He jumped out of the domed boat, ran across the field to the line of ships at the boundary. At a hydrant he flung himself down, turned on the water, drank, drank, drank.
    An Earther lounging nearby, a tall dark man with narrow yellow eyes, watched him curiously. “Run out of water, Red?”
    Paddy pulled himself to his feet, ran his wet hands across his face.
    “Faith, I’ve eaten shrimp preserved in sweet syrup now it’s four days and vile fare it is, believe me, after the third bite.”
    “Sounds rough,” said the tall dark man. He nodded at,the boat. “Nice rig you’re flying. Planning to sell or holding on to her?”
    Paddy leaned against the hangar. “Perhaps you’d spare a cigarette? Thanks.” He blow out a great puff of smoke. “Now as to the ship, as I am without funds, I think she’ll have to be sold. What might a boat like that bring?”
    The Earther squinted reflectively.