The Impossible Pirate

by George O. Smith

"You—!"

"Careful. I dislike profanity. I prefer this chase, Lieutenant Jeffries. I'd have taken only what I needed, but you gave me new life. Now I'm stealing for the fun of it—and to watch you combing space for a ship that—impossibly—can not be! Would you like to join me, lieutenant?"

Jeffries snarled, and the ship rang with the sound of Black Morgan's raucous laughter.

That, of course, hit the headlines. And the next time Black Morgan came, he said: "Ex-Lieutenant Jeffries! Pleased to meet you! Ensign Jeffries, I'd promote you, not reduce you in rank. Join me?"

And again that laughter.

It haunted the policeman's sleep. Jeffries set up trap after trap to locate the source of the pirate's information. For it was obvious that Black Morgan was following him around from planet to planet for the sole purpose of taunting him. When Jeffries sat in a restaurant, he wondered whether the man at the next table was Black Morgan in plain clothing, for the pirate wore fancy dress and a mask for his depredations. He watched men with him in hotel and on the street; in streetcar and drugstore. And when he took to space again, Black Morgan would be there to taunt him.

Using his own spacecraft, Jeffries paced the space lines ships, and found that keeping track of one was impossible. Even taking off at the same instant and following their course, known to him, he lost them after a few hours. He tried to put himself in the pirate's shoes, but lacked the ability to contact any spacecraft in the depths of space.

Here the taunts were not direct. After landing, he was informed again and again that Black Morgan had done this or had said that for his benefit.

He became known as a curse. No ship would take off with him even near—and often they took him to Venus when a ship was running to Mars with a valuable cargo. Black Morgan, he discovered, was not multiple. The pirate either hit his ship or the moneyed one, but never both.

But he was a marked man, hounded by the pirate. Eventually he became known regardless of his appearance, and he was denied passage, or even the knowledge of course, since his presence was asking for piracy—unless there was value going elsewhere. But aside from twice when they actually did send Jeffries with the valuables, thus fooling Black Morgan, the space lines decided that not having him at all was safer and cheaper in the long run.