The Project Gutenberg eBook ofVenus BoyThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Venus BoyAuthor: Lee SuttonIllustrator: Richard FloetheRelease date: December 15, 2015 [eBook #50702]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENUS BOY ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Venus BoyAuthor: Lee SuttonIllustrator: Richard FloetheRelease date: December 15, 2015 [eBook #50702]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Title: Venus Boy
Author: Lee SuttonIllustrator: Richard Floethe
Author: Lee Sutton
Illustrator: Richard Floethe
Release date: December 15, 2015 [eBook #50702]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENUS BOY ***
Venus BoyBY LEE SUTTONIllustrated by Richard FloetheLOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., INC.NEW YORKCopyright, 1955, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc.Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-7882Printed in the U.S.A.All rights reserved[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover anyevidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]To Mildred and Blake"Everything that lives is Holy."OLD MARVA SAYING.
BY LEE SUTTON
Illustrated by Richard Floethe
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., INC.NEW YORK
Copyright, 1955, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-7882
Printed in the U.S.A.
All rights reserved
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover anyevidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
To Mildred and Blake
"Everything that lives is Holy."OLD MARVA SAYING.
If you ever make a trip to the green planet of Venus, the first thing you'll see will be the fifty-foot high statue of Venus' greatest hero. It stands on the very top of towering New Plymouth Rock at the edge of the old colony of New Plymouth. Even from the rocket cradle, anyone can tell that the statue is of a twelve-year-old boy smiling up at the Venusian jewel bear perched on his shoulder. Cut into the huge rock below the statue are the words,
"Virgil Dare (Johnny) WatsonAnd the Marva, Baba.May their Friendship Endure!"
Virgil Dare Watson, called Johnny by his friends, was the first human being born on Venus. He was named after Virginia Dare, the first pioneer child born in North America, and for a long time he was the only child on all Venus. And that would have been a lonely thing to be if it had not been for Baba. Baba, the bear, was not only Johnny's pet, but his best friend, too, and the only one who knew about his three secrets.
Because of these secrets, Johnny got himself, his jewel bear, Baba, and the whole colony of New Plymouth into desperate trouble. And because of these secrets, he also became a hero worthy of a statue—Venus' greatest hero.
IThe First Two Secrets1IIThe Treasure of Venus9IIIA Dangerous Target18IVThe Third Secret25VA Mystery Indeed!34VIInside New Plymouth45VIIThe Rhinosaur Stampede54VIIIOne Secret is Revealed!66IXThe Price of a Brother71XAlone in the Jungle81XIThe Friends are Separated97XIIThe Price of a Boy107XIIIOutwitting the Outlaws116XIVCaptured!129XVA City in the Trees140XVIThe Thunder of Rhinosaur Hooves155XVIITeachers Can't Play Hookey172Facts About Venus178
It was rocket day on Venus!—the day the yearly rocket from Earth arrived, and it was like Christmas, Fourth of July and your birthday all rolled into one!
In the windowless, one-room New Plymouth school, Johnny Watson, a stocky twelve-year-old, sat toward the back of the room, a big Venus geography propped up in front of him. Johnny was supposed to be studying. Every time Mrs. Hadley, the teacher, glanced his way, a page of the book slowly turned. The teacher was much too busy with the half dozen squirming, excited first graders to notice that a small black paw fastened to a furry blue arm was really turning the pages.
On Johnny's lap sat Baba, a perky-faced little blue bear with stand-up ears and bright blue eyes. To fool the teacher, the little bear, his eyes twinkling, flipped the pages one by one.
"We gotta do something quick, Baba!" Johnny whispered to his bouncing, jewel bear cub in a tight worried voice. "It's only two hours till school's out."
The little bear peered over at the clock on the wall. He lay a tiny black paw on his blue button nose and cocked his head as if he were trying to tell the time.
When school was out everyone would go to the rocket field. Johnny knew that above all, he and his bouncing bear must not be there! Why Johnny and Baba dared not go was one of Johnny's three secrets.
There was only one thing to do, Johnny thought. He would have to behave so badly that as punishment he would be forbidden to go.
"Nudge me when Mrs. Hadley turns around," Johnny whispered. "We're gonna get out of here!"
The little bear shoved his furry blue snout around the geography and peered from behind it. His bright eyes followed every move the teacher made.
The instant Mrs. Hadley turned to write on the blackboard Baba gave the boy a kick. Johnny slipped down on to his hands and knees in the aisle and Baba hopped upon his back. Rapidly and silently Johnny crawled toward the armor room. Behind him a little girl kindergartner began to giggle.
"Look at the horsie!" she yelled.
Johnny heard the teacher call, "Quiet, children!" The little girl giggled louder. But he hadn't been seen! He scurried into the armor room.
As Johnny jumped to his feet and grabbed for his suit of rhinosaur-hide armor, Baba leaped toward the wall and hooked his claws into the concrete. Then he scurried straight up the wall like a fly and snatched up Johnny's headglobe in his tiny black paws. While Johnny wriggled into the armor Baba fitted the headglobe over the boy's tow head.
Without waiting to zip up, Johnny started toward the door. Baba jumped from the headglobe shelf and landed on his shoulder with a smack. The boy's hand was scarcely on the latch when the teacher turned around, her mouth making an O of surprise. Quickly, Johnny jerked open the door and dashed through, slamming it closed. There was a space of a few feet and then another door. Holding the second door open, Johnny snapped tight his headglobe, while Baba's small fingers pushed and pulled at the zippers fastening the armor. Both of them scanned the sky.
No arrow-birds.
Johnny grabbed a stone from beside the step and wedged it in the outer door so it could not close. To keep out these murderous flying lizards, all buildings were windowless and had double doors. When one door was open the other automatically locked.
"Johnny, Johnny! You come right back in here!" a muffled voice called. Johnny sighed regretfully as he slipped out of the schoolhouse into the pearly green light of Venus.
Baba on his shoulder, he started out at a dead run through the collection of windowless buildings that made up colony headquarters. The two had barely made it to the foot of a tall heavily leafed tree when the door of the main headquarters building began to open.
"Up the meat tree!" Johnny yelled.
Baba leaped from Johnny's shoulder and rolled himself into a furry blue ball as he fell. The little bear smacked the ground with the sound of a bouncing basketball and bounced high into the air! At the top of his bounce his arms and legs shot out; he hooked his claws into the trunk half way up the meat tree. Baba wasn't called a bouncing bear for nothing!
Johnny jumped for the nearest branch. Weighed down by his arrow-bird armor, he was slow pulling himself up—too slow. Baba scurried down the trunk like a squirrel, his claws scattering bits of bark on Johnny. Hanging on with three paws he reached out and hooked his claws into Johnny's armor. One pull from that tiny but powerful arm and Johnny was sitting on the branch. From there up it was easy. The branches made a perfect ladder. Soon they were entirely surrounded by green shadowy leaves.
Johnny carefully pushed aside a green fruit the size of a cantaloup and looked out. Striding across the dusty road came a tall man in headglobe and black armor—Captain Thompson of the colony guard. The teacher must have phoned for help. The man's square face was set in anger as he kicked the rock away from the schoolhouse door. The teacher stepped out and Johnny could hear their angry voices.
After a moment Mrs. Hadley went back inside and the guard captain strode purposefully away toward Mayor Watson's office.
Sitting on a branch swinging his legs, Baba winked a shiny blue eye. He reached over and patted Johnny on the spot where the boy was likely to pay for his pranks.
"I think we've done it this time," Johnny whispered. "I hope it's not just another spanking." Johnny spoke with deep feeling. He had had three spankings in three days.
The little bear looked sadly down his blue muzzle and made an odd deep clicking noise in the back of his throat.
"Sure," Johnny said, as if answering the bear's clicks, "I want to go to the planet-fall, but we just can't."
The bear clicked again.
"I know," Johnny went on, "I know the earthies would give you chocolate. Besides I was going to have a job." Johnny's eyes began to shine with tears he wouldn't let come. For the first time he would have been working on the rocket field with the men instead of being on the sidelines watching with the women and little kids.
The little bear patted him on the shoulder and clicked in low tones.
"All right, I won't be sad if you won't." Johnny shook the tears away and tried to make a joke. "Gosh, Baba, you talk funny sinceyou know what." Johnny screwed up his face. "You're such a mushmouth now I can hardly understand what you say."
Baba stuck out his long blue tongue.
This was Johnny's first secret. His little bear could talk!
Baba's clicks were really the words of his own language. Although he couldn't make the sounds of the human voice, he could understand people perfectly. Johnny could both understand what the bear said and speak in the same clicking language.
This hadn't started out to be a secret at all. As a little boy, Johnny thought everyone knew that those clicks were Baba's words. When Baba came to live with him, the little bear cub already knew his own language, but Johnny was just learning to talk. He learned human words and click words at the same time, and thought everyone understood them. When he was almost five, Johnny discovered to his amazement that no one understood Baba but him. He then went proudly spreading the news that he and his bear could talk together. When the first person laughed, Johnny didn't mind. But when everybody laughed at him he began to get a little mad. The crowning insult was being spanked for lying.
After that, Johnny decided if telling grownups that Baba could talk only got him licked and laughed at, it might as well be a secret. Besides, it was fun keeping it secret.
After a few minutes of waiting, Baba scurried along a branch and hung by his black claws while he thrust his blue button nose through the twigs and leaves. Johnny followed along another branch.
"Looks clear," Baba clicked. "Let's go!"
"Wait a minute." A quick movement in the distance caught Johnny's eye. Four men came out of a long grey building marked Hunters Hotel.
Johnny was instantly alert. Colonists always kept a sharp eye on such men. These were the dangerous marva hunters, whose only law was an ato-tube gun.
Johnny swung to a branch where he could see better.
"What's up?" Baba clicked.
"Hunters!" clicked Johnny. "They're watching the guard change at the old stockade."
"Oh."
The two looked at each other. Both knew what was in the stockade, locked away in the big safe. Marva teeth and claws. Jewel claws and teeth from grown-up bears just like the cub Baba!
"Come on, Baba." Johnny shinnied back to a place where branches forked from the trunk of the meat tree. "We'd better check your nails 'fore we go down."
After making sure no arrow-birds were feeding on the meat fruit, he undid one of his armor zippers and pulled a bottle of black liquid and a small brush from an inside pocket. Baba plopped down on his lap.
"Smile," Johnny commanded.
Baba pulled back his lips, showing black teeth. Johnny looked at them carefully, grunted, and then picked up one of the little bear's paws. All the nails seemed perfectly black, but on the tip of one of them there sparkled a point of bright blue.
"Dang it, we gotta find something better than this nail polish. A little climbing and it's all scraped off." Johnny scowled and dipped the little brush in the bottle of black liquid. Carefully he painted the tip of the claw. Looking over the little bear's paws he found four more claws that showed blue. He painted them, too.
"Now don't climb down when we go, Baba! When the polish is dry, jump."
The little bear nodded.
This was Johnny's second secret. Everyone thought Baba still had his valueless black baby claws and teeth. But, under the coating of black nail polish, each of Baba's claws was really a precious blue jewel.
Johnny Watson owned a million dollar pet!
Yes, a million dollars, maybe even more, and all for one little bear!
Johnny sighed shakily at the thought and hugged his bear to him.
"What's the matter, Johnny?" Baba clicked, waving his claws to dry them, like a lady getting ready for a party.
"You know," Johnny said, "I was just wishing for the good old days when you had your baby black nails and your pretty squeaky voice, and we didn't have to be afraid of anything."
"I'm sorry," Baba clicked. "I couldn't help it. I just grew." Baba looked so sorrowfully down his nose that Johnny laughed, swung the little bear up above his head and sat him down on a branch.
"You're a silly," Johnny said. "I know you couldn't help it. I was just wishing."
Most of all he was wishing that bouncing bears didn't have jewels for claws at all. But he knew that was a silly wish, too.
Grabbing a branch, Johnny swung himself back to a spot where he could see the hunters. As he watched, more were arriving. About a mile away a battered hunting tank came lumbering through the sliding doors of the fifty-foot high concrete wall surrounding the colony. Outside those walls, Johnny knew, lay the murderous animal life of the jungle planet.
Every living thing on Venus attacked men. Not just the huge rhinosaurs and the horned river snakes, but even tiny scarlet apes and pigmy antelope. Johnny knew the colonists and hunters would never have come to such a savage place at all without the lure of tremendous wealth to be made from bouncing bears' claws.
Harder than diamonds and just as clear, these magical jewels shone soft blue in the night and were blindingly bright in the sun. But that wasn't the only reason claws were valuable. A tiny piece of claw, or even of the duller teeth, melted in thousands of tons of plastic, made that plastic tough enough to be used for the hulls of rocket ships. Men called it marvaplast.
With such a treasure beckoning, man could not stay away from Venus. Rockets came hurtling across space filled with hunters. Traders followed. After the traders came the colonists, led by Johnny's father and mother.
Johnny sighed again.
"Don't be so sad," Baba clicked. "We've been real lucky so far."
"I suppose so." Johnny had to admit they'd both been lucky. Baba had been lucky not to be killed as his mother and brother had been. And Johnny had been lucky to get Baba at all. If there had been any other way of raising the bear until his black baby claws turned blue, Johnny never would have gotten him. All other young marva that had been captured had died. They refused to eat or drink. They simply squatted down and whimpered piteously until they died of what seemed to be loneliness and heartbreak.
When Baba had been captured, Mrs. Watson brought him home, hoping to save his life. Two-year-old Virgil Dare, as Johnny was called then, was fascinated.
"Ba-ba," he had cried, trying to say bear, and had thrown his arms around it. Surprisingly, the little bear had stopped whimpering and had hugged Johnny back. A few minutes later it had eaten some diamond-wood nuts.
After a week, the colonists had decided that the little bear would live and he was taken away and put in a small diamond-wood cage for safe keeping. The little bear promptly refused to eat and almost died, whimpering over and over a sound that was just like "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny." It was the only sound he could make beside the clicking noise. He had to be sent back to the little boy. From then on Virgil Dare was called Johnny.
He and Baba went everywhere together, even to school. As the years went by they became closer than brothers and it was easier and easier to forget that the blue cub was really colony property.
Then, Baba's voice had deepened; the black nails had gradually loosened; and, all in one Venus night, during Baba's long sleep through five earth days of darkness, the new nails had come in. Johnny had a mixture of india ink and nail polish all ready. It had worked for two months now. But the polishdidchip off and the claws had to be painted over and over.
"Oh, Baba, why can't you be a sensible little bear and stay home where people can't see you," Johnny said.
"You know why, Johnny," Baba clicked. "You're my kikac." This was a word in the clicking language that meant friend, pet and brother, all in one. Baba said kikacs should never be parted.
That was the reason Johnny could not go to see the rocket come. If he went, Baba was sure to follow. Everyone, colonists and hunters, was going to be at the field, and if one of them caught sight of a flash of blue from Baba's claws, it would mean the end of Baba. The colonists liked the little bear but the colony was very poor. They wouldn't think long about killing him for his jewel claws. The hunters wouldn't think at all. They would steal him as quick as the flight of an arrow-bird.
It was a very dangerous situation. But if he could keep from going to the rocket field, Johnny had a plan. The plan depended on Johnny's third secret.
Draped over his branch, Johnny kept his eye on the hunters. They just seemed to be strolling about the settlement now—getting used to the fact that they were out of the dangerous jungle where they lived in concrete forts. When the door of the settlement headquarters opened again, Johnny pulled his head back in among the leaves.
A grey haired man with heavy eyebrows stepped out of the door. It was Jeb, the old hunter, one of the first men to come to Venus hunting marva. Now he was one of the colony guards, and a very good friend of Baba and Johnny.
When the old man came close enough for him to hear, Johnny crawled out where he could be seen, called down to him, and waved.
"Hi, Jeb—whatcha doing?"
The old man stopped in his tracks, looked carefully around him, then cocked an eye up into the tree. He frowned, his grey eyebrows making a V over his deep-set eyes. He shook his head in disapproval, but said nothing until he was directly under the tree.
"What I'm doin' isn't important," Jeb said in a gruff voice, looking up at Johnny. "But what areyoua-doin' up that tree when you're supposed to be doin' book work?"
"Aw," Johnny started, "I just...."
"You just made your paw boiling mad, that's what," Jeb interrupted, "locking the teacher in that way." He snorted.
"Did Dad say anything about keeping me away from the rocket landing?" Johnny demanded anxiously.
"Nup," answered Jeb. "Cap'n Thompson wanted him to, but he says no, that you worked real hard all year. But I'm warning you. You better get on inside that school house, unless you want a good tannin'. Your ma's out lookin' for you with fire in her eye." He started to walk away.
"Hey, wait a minute Jeb," Johnny called.
"Well?"
"I was watching those hunters. They're sure interested in the stockade. You better tell Cap'n Thompson."
"We know they're interested. I don't think they'll do anything. That old reprobate of a Trader Harkness'll keep 'em in line.You'dbetter watch out, though. I might tell Cap'n Thompson where he could find him a hooky-player." With a fierce snort the old man was on his way.
Johnny smiled. He knew Jeb would never tell where he was hiding, in spite of the gruff warnings. Jeb was a nice old fellow. He'd shot his marva years before, gone down to earth, spent his millions in a few wild years and returned to Venus dead broke. In twenty years hunting he had never made another kill. Marva were as hard to find as they were valuable.
"Guess you just weren't quite bad enough!" Baba clicked to Johnny. "My claws are dry. Let's go before your mother finds us."
Johnny crawled down to the little bear.
"We gotta think of something else bad to do. It's that or just plain refuse to go. But then they'd think something was funny, sure as shooting!"
"There's lots of ripe meat fruit in the tree," Baba clicked, and grinned. "Maybe you could drop one on Captain Thompson!"
"Oh boy!" Johnny exclaimed in excitement. Then he frowned. "Aw, he probably won't come by here again."
"Somebody will!" Baba said. "Let's keep an eye out."
The two of them posted themselves in different parts of the tree and watched for possible targets for ripe meat fruit. No one seemed to want to walk under the tree. Finally Johnny caught sight of a short fat bald-headed man and a tall redhaired man leaving the Hunters Hotel together. One was Trader Harkness, who all but ran the colony, and the other, his bodyguard, Rick Saunders. They seemed to be headed for the trading post and would have to pass directly under Johnny's tree to get there. Baba saw them at the same time.
"How about Trader Harkness?" the little bear clicked. "Do you think he'd be a good target?"
"A kind of dangerous one," Johnny clicked back, his heart racing. "But where's that meat fruit?"
There wasn't any question about his getting into enough trouble this time. He just hoped he wouldn't get into too much trouble!
Trader Harkness was a very important man, but Johnny didn't like him. He had started as a hunter and then had turned trader. By killing off most of his opposition, he had become the only important trader on Venus. If he hadn't wanted a walled settlement to protect his goods, the colony might have failed. A hunter would stop at nothing to get what he needed and the colony had had more than one of its tanks ambushed and stolen to hunt marva.
A red, ripe meat fruit was not hard to find. Johnny wrenched one from the branch and held it carefully by its long stem. The size of a small melon, green meat fruit must be cooked before eating. Once ripe, their thin skins are plump full of a sweet strong-smelling paste—a natural high protein baby food.
"There's plenty more," Johnny clicked softly. "Think we ought to get Rick, too?"
"He's too good a friend," Baba clicked back. "Besides he might not give me any more chocolate."
Johnny agreed with a laugh, and pushed leaves aside so he could see. He shivered. Below him came the most powerful man on Venus—a short, immensely fat man, who waddled forward rather than walked. On earth he would have been laughed at, but on Venus he was feared and respected. He liked that respect and demanded it.
Johnny swallowed hard. The man he was going to drop the fruit on had once been ambushed by five hunters—none of them had survived.
As the two men moved closer to Johnny's and Baba's meat tree, they appeared to be arguing about something. The trader glittered as he waddled forward. His armor was of the clearest, brightest marvaplast plastic, and his fingers were studded with marva jewel rings. They stopped just a few feet away from the tree. Johnny could tell the trader was angry. Though he was keeping himself under tight control, his heavy jaw was set and his little black eyes flashed under his smooth, hairless brow.
"I'll put it to you straight, Rick," the trader's heavy voice rumbled up to Johnny. "I couldn't stay in business a year if I did as you asked me to."
The redhaired bodyguard was flushed. "Well, then, I guess I'll have to do it," he said in a tight, defiant voice. "If you won't warn the colonists, I will."
Harkness' jaw tightened. "Better think it over, Rick." His voice was still controlled and level. He gripped Rick's shoulder with a pudgy, jeweled hand. "Remember, those hunters trusted me. They figure my bodyguard wouldn't do anything I told him not to. If you warn the colonists, I'll have to make it clear you were on your own." His voice held a threat.
"What do you mean?" Rick demanded, pushing the hand from his shoulder.
"The least I would do would be to fire you back to Earth," he said ominously.
Johnny drew in his breath. He knew how much Rick wanted to stay on Venus. The trader got his bodyguards by paying their way to Venus. He agreed to stake them for hunting if they did good work for a year. Otherwise they were sent back to Earth. It was said that men who crossed Trader Harkness never made it alive.
"I'm sorry, Trader," Rick said, "but I'll take my chances. If you don't like what I do, I'll join the colony."
"I should have guessed it," the trader said contemptuously, "when you began hanging around that worthless Jeb." The trader paused and then the threat in his voice was no longer veiled. "Believe me, Saunders, join that colony and you'll regret it." The heavy man turned slowly and moved toward his trading post.
Fascinated, Johnny had all but forgotten the meat fruit in his hand. The trader was almost past him when he remembered. With a little toss Johnny let go of the juicy fruit. For an instant he thought he had thrown too far, but the trader waddled forward just right.
With a sickening plop the red fruit exploded on the top of Trader Harkness' shining headglobe. Dripping purple gobs splattered through the air slits, smearing the stone-bald head. A strong sweet smell floated up to Johnny. For a moment Harkness stood perfectly still in shocked amazement.
Then the tremendous man began to dance about in sheer rage and discomfort.
"Water!" he yelled, his rumbling voice rising to a shrill cry. "Get some water!" He was bouncing up and down in an odd way, his clenched fists hitting the air. All his dignity was gone.
Johnny stared open-mouthed, awed by his own daring. Rick Saunders stool still a second, and then broke into a guffaw.
"I tell you, get me some water!" Trader Harkness roared. Three or four hunters and Jeb, the old guard, came running up. They took one look and they, too, broke into laughter. Jeb was carrying a fire bucket.
"Never thought I'd ever get this chance, Will," Jeb cackled, and sloshed a bucket of water over Harkness. The water splashed on the bald head and washed the bits of fruit down the trader's neck and under his armor. The big man stood there dumb with anger.
Johnny's throat ached with the laughs he'd kept back. He glanced up to the branch where Baba sat. The little bear's fur was shivering with fun. His eyes opened wide, and with a whir of clicks meaning, "Watch me, Johnny," he leaped into space. He kicked up a flurry of dust as he bounced to the ground and up to his feet in front of the trader and the other men. By this time the crowd had grown to a dozen men.
Baba stopped a moment to make sure everyone was watching him. Then the round little bear began a dancing, bouncing waddle up and down. He clenched his forepaws into little fists and beat the air. His face was screwed up into a mighty frown. It was a perfect imitation of the trader. The men's laughter swelled to a roar.
"Rick!" Harkness' voice rumbled out, tight and cold with rage. "Shoot it!"
The laughter stopped suddenly, almost as if it had been switched off. It had been so long since anyone had made fun of the trader that the man had lost his head.
"I can't do that!" Rick's lean brown face was horrified. Then he became angry. "I wouldn't shoot a kid's pet!"
"Well, I will!" Moving with more speed than it seemed a large man could muster, the trader's hand snaked toward his holster.
Baba saw the joke had gone too far. He leaped into the air, came down with a bounce and shot up the tree beside Johnny before the trader could level the gun at him.
Johnny's mouth went dry. Already the trader was searching the tree for Baba, his pistol up, the safety switch off. The men stood in shocked silence.
"He's right beside me, Mr. Harkness!" Johnny shouted, and crawled into full view. "C'mon, Baba, get on my shoulder. He can't shootme." As Johnny came into full view, the trader's face grew angrier yet. "Baba didn't drop that meat fruit, Mr. Harkness," Johnny said firmly. "I did."
"Kid's got guts," one of the hunters muttered.
As Johnny slid down to the ground, he saw his mother pushing her way through the group of men. Her lips were tight together, her face white.
"You're going to get it," Baba clicked. "Here come your pa and Captain Thompson, too."
Mrs. Watson strode straight up to Trader Harkness, her eyes blazing.
"You ought to be ashamed!" she said to the man. Then she turned on Johnny. "And so had you, young man. No planet-fall for you!"
Johnny's heart leaped. He'd done it at last!
"Now, Mr. Harkness," Johnny's mother's voice was very low, "what Baba and Johnny did was very wrong. I apologize for them. And Johnny will certainly be punished. Nevertheless, I never want to hear of you or anyone else threatening Baba again. Is that clear?"
Taken aback, the trader nodded.
"That goes for the whole family, Mr. Harkness." Johnny's father stepped forward straight and tall and put his arm around his wife's shoulder. "Not to mention the colony," he went on. "We have a pretty big stake in that bear."
The fat, short trader seemed suddenly as cold as ice. His heavy jaw thrust out and his little black eyes looked straight at Johnny's father.
"Valuable or not, I don't have to put up with insults. Not from those two or any of you. If that's the kind of thanks I get for ten years of working with you, I'm through. You can fight your own battles now." He jerked his head around toward Rick. "C'mon!"
"I'm staying," the young man said.
"All right. Stay." The smooth bald head swiveled back to the Watson family. "I told this man I'd fire him back to Earth. But let him stay. After the hunters have picked your bones, I'll take care of him." He turned, and with heavy footsteps walked away. His slow waddle did not seem funny now. The hunters in the crowd stood for a moment, and then followed him.
Captain Thompson addressed Johnny's father. "That sounded like a declaration of war."
Johnny's father nodded grimly. "I think our colony is getting too big for him," he said slowly. "He's been looking for a way to break with us and Johnny gave him just the kind of excuse he needed."
"Yep," said Jeb. "But don't be too hard on Johnny. Maybe it's just as good it happened now when we got marva claws to buy us some extra fire power."
"You might not have those claws long enough to do any good," Rick Saunders cut in. "I was just going to warn you. Four hunters just asked Harkness in on a plan to rob the stockade. The trader turned 'em down, but...."
"Which four hunters?" Captain Thompson broke in.
A shadow passed over Rick's face. "I don't know which ones." He looked at Mr. Watson eagerly. "I want to help, though. I'm hoping you'll take me on as a guard."
"We can sure use you." Jeb stepped up and slapped the young man on the back.
Mr. Watson appeared to consider for a moment. He looked Rick up and down, and then glanced at Captain Thompson, who nodded.
"All right, Rick," he said. "You go on over to the guard barracks and Jeb'll check you out. When you're through, report to Captain Thompson."
Rick Saunders grinned. Old Jeb threw an arm around his shoulder and they walked off together.
When they were out of hearing Captain Thompson turned to Johnny's father. "I don't know if I like this," he said. "Harkness may have planted that man on us. I'm certainly not going to let him get anywhere near our claws. I'll keep an eye on Saunders personally."
"But, gosh," Johnny broke in, "I heard him arg...."
"I think, Johnny," said his father sternly, "you've said and done enough for one day. The trader is a proud man and by making a fool of him you've given the colony a deadly enemy." He turned back to Captain Thompson. "We'd better change our plans, Captain. It looks like we should double, maybe even triple the guard...."
Three hours later, boy and bear were trudging through the marshberry fields toward New Plymouth Rock. Johnny's bottom was still warm from his recent session with a strap. The boy was in full armor. A leather harness was strapped to the little bear's furry blue back.
The last 'copter had long since left for the rocket field and, except for guards, the settlement was nearly empty. Because of this Johnny had been forbidden to leave his house. A lone person without a gun was supposed to be just what the arrow-birds were looking for. But Johnny wasn't afraid. He had his third secret.
Johnny reached up and carefully picked one of the apple-sized marshberries for himself. It was a rich ripe yellow color.
"They are just right this year," Johnny said to Baba.
The little bear nodded gravely. Both he and Johnny had worked hard in those fields. Everyone did. Marshberries prevented a disease called colds that Johnny had never had, and were the only crop the colonists could send back to Earth. They had to be ripe for the yearly rocket or a year's work was wasted.
Johnny trudged on under the weight of his armor while Baba bounced along beside him. A mile away loomed New Plymouth Rock. The huge mesa-like rock made up one corner of the settlement's barrier against the animals. The thick concrete walls of the settlement, topped with live wires, were joined to the rock on two sides. On its summit, stood a stunted diamond-wood tree. This was Johnny's and Baba's destination.
Baba jumped high in the air, made himself into a ball and bounded on ahead.
"Hurry up!" he clicked.
"Hungry for nuts, eh?" Johnny asked.
"Crunchy ones," the little bear clicked back, turning a somersault in the air. "Come on, hurry!"
Johnny made a face at Baba. "Bear," he said, "you're certainly getting bossy lately."
Baba did another somersault, bounced, and landed on Johnny's shoulder with a thump, almost knocking the boy down. He put his nose in Johnny's ear.
"I'm a grown-up," he clicked in heavy tones. "Hear my beautiful new voice?"
Johnny hunched his shoulders hard, spilling Baba to the ground. Then he grabbed him by the harness, and stood up. While Baba squeaked piteously, Johnny swung him round and round. At the top of one of the swings he let go, tossing Baba high into the air.
"Help! Help!" clicked Baba, beating paws into the air, and screwing up his face. Just before he hit the ground he made himself into a ball. He hit with a smack and bounced higher than Johnny had thrown him. Both of them were laughing when he stopped bouncing.
"Gosh, I wish we could have done that for the Earthies!" Johnny said
The two fell silent, both thinking of the fun they were missing at the rocket field.
They were coming to the end of the marshberry fields. Before them were the great boulders surrounding New Plymouth Rock. Johnny had made the harness Baba was wearing for forays among the boulders—forbidden forays, for arrow-birds nested there. Baba, with his strong nails and bouncy body, could go straight up the face of rocks. He was small enough to ride on Johnny's shoulder, but he was powerful too. By hanging on to Baba's harness, Johnny could go straight up and over large boulders, armor and all.
"Let's go right by the nests," Baba clicked. "I want to be sure, right off."
"O. K., worry bear, you lead the way." Johnny began to chant, "Grandpapa Baba sat in a corner, 'fraid that his shadow would burn in the fire."
Baba bounced over the smaller rocks in the way. Johnny, weighed down with headglobe and armor, made his way slowly over them and between them. Baba helped Johnny over one steep place and then stayed beside him. It was hard going and Johnny's clothes were drenched with sweat under his armor before they clambered down the last boulder and on to a little flat place. They were already high above the level of the settlement. On one side they were surrounded by high red boulders. On the other side loomed the sheer cliff of New Plymouth Rock.
Far above them, from many round holes in the rock, came strange squeaking sounds. Here were the arrow-bird nests! Johnny was deathly afraid. He'd seen what an arrow-bird could do when it shot itself at a man.
"Get ready, Baba," he whispered.
"Those are just babies up there," Baba clicked. "No danger yet!"
"Let's climb up and get rid of them!" Johnny suggested. "Then there won't be any here to...."
"No!" Baba interrupted.
"But why? I'd be protected by my armor and...."
"No!" Baba clicked more firmly. There was a stern but puzzled expression on the little bear's face. "The arrow-birds are my friend-pets, I must not hurt them." He used a word in the clicking language which meant both friend and pet. It was something like the word "kikac," which he called Johnny—"friend-pet-brother."
"All right," Johnny said, "but I don't understand."
"You mustn't harm them, either," Baba said. "Remember, I brought you here. Otherwise you wouldn't know where the nests were. Even if you just tell the grownups and they kill them—well, it would be wrong. I would have—"
Baba was interrupted by a high whistling, shrieking noise, and the whir of wings. So quick you couldn't have followed his motions, Johnny squatted down, curled his feet under him, thrust his hands and forearms into special armor pockets. Six strangely shaped creatures were diving straight at him.
Arrow-birds! A dirty greenish yellow, they were long and slender, over a foot long. One could not tell where their heads left off and their necks began. They were shaped like long arrow points. Their gossamer-thin wings were a blur of motion.
Johnny braced himself so that if they hit him he would not be knocked over. In a fraction of a second they dived within fifty feet of him.
"Go away friend-pets," Baba clicked, as loudly and as fast as he could. "Go away! Bother us not!" He repeated his cry in a kind of chant, so rapidly it was almost a trill.
The shrieking whistle changed to a low hum. The arrow-birds pulled out of their dive. They floated in mid-air, their wings awhir. One had almost reached Johnny and was hovering in the air only a couple of yards away. It bent its neck out of arrow position and looked straight at him. Its little purple eyes glittered against the yellow green skin of its head.
Then, like a flash, they were gone.
"Whew!" Johnny breathed. He took his hands out of his armor and stood up. He turned around just in time to see the flight of arrow-birds crawl into the holes in the rocks that were their nests. This was Johnny's third secret.
The arrow-birds obeyed Baba!
Right after Baba's voice had changed and his jewel claws had come in, the two had made this astonishing discovery. They had stumbled upon this nesting place, and the arrow-birds, frightened for their nests, had slashed down at Johnny for the first time in his life. But Baba had cried out desperately in his new deep clicks for them to go away—and they had. It was like magic.
Staring up at the sheer cliff, Johnny was excited, but afraid. Such a climb was too dangerous to do just for the fun of it, but Johnny thought he might have a way of saving Baba. Even when they were much younger the little bear had been willing to leave Johnny in order to climb for diamond-wood nuts fresh from the tree. It was the ideal place for Baba to hide. If Johnny could climb up with him they would be able to visit often-and Baba was so fond of fresh nuts he might be willing to use it for a hideout.
Johnny hadn't told Baba about his plan. If they could make it to the top he would tell the bear then.
The high shrieking whistle began again.
Johnny suddenly had an idea.
"Friend-pets, friend-pets, bother me not. Bother me not," Johnny clicked quickly, shaping deep clicks just like Baba's in the back of his throat.
As the birds half-pulled out of their dive, the little bear started to speak.
"No, let me keep trying," Johnny clicked. "Friend-pets, friend-pets, bother me not."
At this, the birds hovered about him making squeaking noises, their heads still in striking position.
"They're puzzled," Baba clicked. "They sense something's wrong. They expect to be shot at by people. I'll tell them to go and it will be all right. In a second they could kill you."
"I've still got my armor," said Johnny. "Maybe if I tell them to come here they'll trust me." Johnny spoke the last in English and the words sent the birds fluttering farther away. They seemed to be on the point of making another dive.