“I went back to the Blue Unicorn, Jay.
It was on a little rocky island off New Chicago.
The wildest place—and the richest—hi all the System.
But it was a woman that brought me there, Jay.”
He sighed, and his colorless eyes looked far away into the shadowy cavern of raw metal.
“Ah, Jay, such a woman as you wouldn’t find in all the whole System today—not unless you picked out the android Luroa.
Ah, no other could be so beautiful or so quick or so brave.
Her name was Ethyra Coran.”
He gulped, and his thin voice trembled.
“The three of us loved her, Jay.
Ah, so, every man on Venus was mad with her beauty—but we three were better men than the rest.
We knew the matter lay between us.
And, for her precious sake, we had to pretend a sort of friendship.
“Amo Brelekko was just off the Jovian liners.
He wasn’t using that name, then.
Or the name he had used on the liners—for one ruined man had killed himself, and another had been murdered.
He was made of money.
Young as he was, he already had a skill—none but I could ever win from him at cards.
He had a voice, then—and not that ghastly whisper.
And the same gaudy dress and glitter of jewels he wears today.
He had a gentle, flattering way with women—aye, Jay, many a poor lass had given him her soul, and perished for it.
“Caspar Hannas had come from none knew where.
He was known as Pedro the Shark.
There were a thousand whispers about his past, but he wore a different face then—and none who had seen it cared to ask the truth.
From wherever he came, he had brought a fortune with him, and he found more at the Blue Unicorn.
Money and blood —ah, Jay, I’ve seen sights I can’t forget!
“Caspar Hannas was a man precious few lasses would have dared to refuse, but Ethyra Coran had a courage to match her beauty and her wit. Ah, so, and precious few men would have cared to be the rival of Pedro the Shark.
But that was in the old days, Jay, when old Giles was still a man.”
The old man’s eyes chanced to fall again upon the monstrous robot on the floor, and he started back apprehensively, as if he had not seen it before.
“Ah, the hideous machine!
I could make a long story, Jay.
Aye, a story of cunning and passion and death that would freeze your heart.
For the Shark and the Eel were ruthless, cunning beasts, and I—you know that Giles was ever honest and straightforward, Jay, and simple as a precious child—I had to grapple for their fearful weapons, to hold my own.
To make the story short, Jay—” He paused, and a happy smile crossed his round yellow face.
“I got the girl—aye, and a mortal lovely prize she was!” His smile twisted into a triumphant grin.
“As for Hannas and Brelekko, why each of them, Jay—through a neat little device of my own—blamed his defeat upon the other.
Ah, and then they became enemies indeed.
The quickness and the craft of Brelekko matched the brutish strength and the ruthless courage of Hannas, however, and each failed to destroy the other.”
“And you think they are still enemies?” the grave Commander asked.
“Deathly enemies,” insisted Giles Habibula.
“How could they be friends?
When Brelekko must be madly jealous of all the wealth and power Hannas has found in the New Moon. When Hannas—aye, and justly—must hate Brelekko for knowing his past and his tricks, for hanging on him like a leech, and winning at his tables.
“Ah, so, Jay, hi either of them you have brains enough—and mortal evil, too—to make your Basilisk.”
“Possibly.” Jay Kalam frowned doubtfully. “Though there’s not a shred of evidence against any man except Chan Derron.
We’ll see them again, below.”
When Hal Samdu had returned, with a guard of Legionnaires, to take charge of the robot for his crew of scientists, they went down again to the luxurious quarters that Caspar Hannas had placed at their disposal.
The Commander sent for Amo Brelekko.
Yellow and almost skeletal, strutting in his gaudy silks, great jewels glittering, the gambler made a fantastic figure. The insolence of his swagger, Jay Kalam thought, must have been put on to cover a deep unease.
His dark eyes shot an insanely malicious look at Giles Habibula.
“Brelekko,” asked the grave Commander, “as a clever man, on the spot from the beginning, intimately acquainted with the persons involved—what is your opinion about the Basilisk?”