His bound hands pressed the firing-levers in quick succession and as the great rocket lurched beneath their impetus it was turning in space, turning back toward the space-lane from which the Hawk had taken it! Evans grasped the black plug on the board and thrust it back into its socket. A small ventilating fan at the other side of the pilot-house that had ceased running when he had withdrawn the plug began spinning again. Evans laughed weakly.
He straightened. There was a flash of fire above and he saw that it was the tiny rocket of the Hawk, driving back over the great Earth-Guard craft. Evans knew that the Hawk, from afar, had seen that the ship had not exploded, and he was coming back. Evans realized that although the Hawk could not make contact with the great Earth-Guard rocket thundering at full speed through the void, with rocket-gun available, he could still blast the Earth-Guard ship to pieces. Evans saw the little rocket swooping down until it was just before and above him, and braced himself with tight-set teeth for the blast from its electric gun.
It did not come. Instead, as the Hawk's little rocket dipped low, there flashed from it the vari-colored lights of a signal. Red—yellow—red—purple—Evans read the signal automatically, uncomprehendingly for the moment. It was "Salute!" And then he understood. The Hawk, knowing himself tricked, had come back not to take revenge but to give that sportsmanlike hail to the man who had tricked him. Evans' bound hands touched the signal-studs, and from the great Earth-Guard rocket's nose in its turn flashed the same signal "Salute!" Salute of the Earth-Guard's captain to the Hawk, as they roared past each other in space! And then the Hawk was gone, his little ship hurtling away into the chartless void outside the space-lanes where his great black rocket waited. Evans slumped weakly against the control-board.
They found him there when they burst up into the pilot-house a half-hour later, Calden and Hartley and the others, babbling excitedly and uncomprehendingly. They had just returned to consciousness. They found Evans against the control-board with hands and feet still bound, keeping the great rocket steady on the space-lane to which he had brought it. When he turned toward them they saw with amazement that he was laughing.
"I was just thinking," he said, "of what old Cain will say when he finds out that he shook hands with the Hawk!"
The End