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+Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tarrano the Conqueror
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21638]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARRANO THE CONQUEROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                TARRANO
+
+                             THE CONQUEROR
+
+                            BY RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY
+A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+CHICAGO
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE PAN AMERICAN
+UNION.
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+To Hugo Gernsback, scientist, author and publisher, whose constant
+efforts in behalf of scientific fiction have contributed so largely
+to its present popularity, this tale is gratefully dedicated.
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+_In "Tarrano the Conqueror" is presented a tale of the year 2430 A.D.--a
+time somewhat farther beyond our present-day era than we are beyond
+Columbus' discovery of America. My desire has been to create for you the
+impression that you have suddenly been plunged forward into that
+time--to give you the feeling Columbus might have had could he have read
+a novel of our present-day life.
+
+To this end I have conceived myself a writer of that future time,
+addressing his contemporary public. You are to imagine yourself reading
+a present day translation of my original text--a translation so free
+that a thousand little colloquialisms will have crept into it that could
+not possibly have their counterparts in the year 2430.
+
+Apart from the text, you will occasionally find brief explanatory
+footnotes. Conceive them as having been put there by the translator.
+
+If you find parts of this tale unusual or bizarre, please remember that
+we are living now in a comparatively ignorant day. The tale is not
+intended to be fantastic or full of new and strange ideas. I have used
+nothing but those developments of our present-day civilization to which
+we are all looking forward as logical probabilities--woven them into a
+picture of what life in America very probably will be five hundred years
+from now. To that extent, the tale itself is intended to be only a love
+story of adventure and romance--written, not for you, but for that
+future audience._
+
+RAY CUMMINGS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. The New Murders
+
+      II. Warning
+
+     III. Spy in the House
+
+      IV. To the North Pole
+
+       V. Outlawed Flight
+
+      VI. Man of Destiny
+
+     VII. Prisoners
+
+    VIII. Unknown Friend
+
+      IX. Paralyzed!
+
+       X. Georg Escapes
+
+      XI. Recaptured
+
+     XII. Tara
+
+    XIII. Love--and Hate
+
+     XIV. Defying Worlds
+
+      XV. Escape
+
+     XVI. Playground of Venus
+
+    XVII. Violet Beam of Death
+
+   XVIII. Passing of a Friend
+
+     XIX. Waters of Eternal Peace
+
+      XX. Unseen Menace
+
+     XXI. Love, Music--and a Warning
+
+    XXII. Revolution!
+
+   XXIII. First Retreat
+
+    XXIV. Attack on the Palace
+
+     XXV. Immortal Terror
+
+    XXVI. Black Cloud of Death
+
+   XXVII. Tarrano The Man
+
+  XXVIII. Thing in the Forest
+
+    XXIX. A Woman's Scream
+
+     XXX. The Monster
+
+    XXXI. Industriana
+
+   XXXII. Departure
+
+  XXXIII. First Assault
+
+   XXXIV. Invisible Assailants
+
+    XXXV. Attack on the Power House
+
+   XXXVI. City of Ice Besieged
+
+  XXXVII. Battle
+
+
+
+
+TARRANO THE CONQUEROR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_The New Murders_
+
+
+I was standing fairly close to the President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic
+when the first of the new murders was committed. The President fell
+almost at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my
+elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will.
+The Venus man did not make a move; he merely stood beside me in the
+press of the throng, seemingly as absorbed as all of us in what the
+President was saying.
+
+It was late afternoon. The sun was setting behind the cliffs across the
+river. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand people within
+sight of the President, listening raptly to his words. It was at Park
+Sixty, and I was standing on the Tenth Level.[1] The crowd packed all
+twelve of the levels; the park was black with people. The President
+stood on a balcony of the park tower. He was no more than a few hundred
+feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were
+the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the
+audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were
+scattering it throughout the city, I suppose five million people were
+listening to the voice of the President at that moment. He had just said
+that we must remain friendly with Venus; that in our enlightened age
+controversies were inevitable, but that they should be settled with
+sober thought--around the council table. This talk of war was
+ridiculous. He was denouncing the public news-broadcasters; moulders of
+public opinion, who every day--every hour--must offer a new sensation to
+their millions of subscribers.
+
+[Footnote 1: New York City, about where Yonkers now stands.]
+
+He had reached this point when without warning his body pitched forward.
+The balcony rail caught it; and it hung there inert. The slanting rays
+of the sun fell full upon the ruffled white shirt; white, but turning
+pink, then red, with the crimson stain welling out from beneath.
+
+For an instant the crowd was stunned into silence. Then a murmur arose,
+and swelled into shouts of horror. A surge of people swept me forward. I
+could not see clearly what was happening on the balcony. The form of the
+murdered President was hanging there against the rail; a score of
+government officials were rushing toward it; but the body, toppling over
+the low support, came hurtling downward into the crowd, quite near me;
+but I could not reach it--the throng was too dense.
+
+The shouts everywhere were deafening. I was shoved along the Tenth Level
+by the press of people coming up the stairway. Shouts, excited
+questions; the wail of children almost trampled under foot; the screams
+of women. And over it all, the electrically magnified voice of the
+traffic director-general in the peak of the main tower roaring his
+orders to the crowd.
+
+It was a panic until the traffic-directors descended upon us. We were
+pushed up on the moving sidewalks. North or south, whichever direction
+came handiest, we were herded upon the sidewalks and whirled away. With
+a hundred other spectators near me I was shoved to a sidewalk moving
+south along the Tenth Level. It was going some four miles an hour. But
+they would not let me stay there. From behind, the crowd was shoving;
+and from one parallel strip of moving pavement to the other I was pushed
+along--until at last I reached the seats of the forty mile an hour
+inside section.
+
+The scene at Park Sixty was far out of direct sight and hearing. The
+park there had already been cleared of spectators, I knew; and they were
+doubtless bearing the President's body away.
+
+"Murdered!" said a man beside me. "Murdered! Look there!"
+
+We were across the river, into Manhattan. The Tenth Level here runs
+about four hundred feet above the ground-street of the city. The man
+beside me was pointing to a steel tower we were passing. It was several
+hundreds yards away; on its side abreast of us was a forty-foot square
+news-mirror, brightly illumined. On all the stairways and balconies here
+a local crowd had gathered, watching the mirror. It was reporting the
+present scene at Park Sixty. As we sped past the tower I could see in
+the silver surface of the mirror the image of the now empty park from
+which we had been so summarily ejected. They were carrying off the
+President's body; a little group of officials bearing it away; red,
+broken, gruesome, with the dying rays of the sun still upon it. Carrying
+it slowly along to where an aero-car was waiting on the side landing
+stage.
+
+We were past the mirror in a moment.
+
+"Murdered," the man next to me repeated. "The President murdered."
+
+He seemed stunned, as indeed everyone was. Then he eyed me--my cap,
+which had on it the insignia of my calling.
+
+"You are one of them," he said bitterly. "The last word he said--the
+lurid news-gatherers."
+
+But I shook my head. "We are necessary. It was unfortunate that he
+should have said that."
+
+I had no opportunity to talk further. The man moved away toward the foot
+of a landing stage near us. A south-bound flyer had overtaken us and was
+landing. I boarded it also, and ten minutes later was in my office in
+South-Manhattan.
+
+I was at this time employed by one of the most enterprising
+news-organizations in Greater New York. There was pandemonium in there
+that evening. My supper came up in the pneumatic tube from the public
+cookery nearby, but I had hardly time to taste it.
+
+This, the evening of May 12, 2430, was for me--and for all the
+Earth--the most stirring evening of history. Events of inter-planetary
+importance tumbled over each other as they came to us through the air
+from the Official Information Stations. And we--myself and a thousand
+like me in our office--retold them for our twenty million subscribers
+throughout the Anglo-Saxon Nation.
+
+The President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic was murdered at 5:10. It was
+the first of the new murders. I say new murders, for not in two hundred
+years had the life of so high an official been wilfully taken. But it
+was only the first. At 6:15 word came from Tokyohama,[2] that the ruler
+of Allied Mongolia was dead--murdered under similar circumstances. And
+ten minutes later from Mombozo, Africa, the blacks reported their leader
+killed while asleep in his official residence.
+
+[Footnote 2: Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan.]
+
+The Earth momentarily was without leadership!
+
+I was struggling to get accounts of these successive disasters out over
+our audiophones. Above my desk, in a duplicating mirror from
+Headquarters, I could see that at the palace of Mombozo a throng of
+terrified blacks were gathered. It was night there--a blurred scene of
+flashing lights and frightened, milling people.
+
+Greys--next to me--had a mirror tuned to Tokyohama. The sun there was
+shining upon almost a similar scene of panic. Black and yellow men--on
+opposite sides of the Earth. And between them our white races in
+turmoil. Outside my own window I could hear the shouts of the crowd that
+jammed the Twentieth Level.
+
+Greys leaned toward me. "Seven o'clock, Jac. You've got the arrival of
+the Venus mail. Don't overlook it ... By the code, man, your hands are
+shaking! You're white as a ghost!"
+
+The Venus mail; I had forgotten it completely.
+
+"Greys, I wonder if it'll get in."
+
+He stared at me strangely. "You're thinking that, too. I told the
+British National Announcer it was a Venus plot. He laughed at me. Those
+Great Londoners can't see their fingers before them. He said, 'That's
+your lurid sense of newscasting.'"
+
+Venus plot! I remembered my impressions of the Venus man who was beside
+me when our President fell.
+
+Greys was back at his work. I swept the south shore of Eastern Island[3]
+with my finder, and picked up the image of the inter-planetary landing
+stage, at which the Venus mail was due to arrive. I could see the blaze
+of lights plainly; and with another, closer focus I caught the huge
+landing platform itself. It was empty.
+
+[Footnote 3: Now Long Island.]
+
+The station-master there answered my call. He had no word of the mail.
+
+"Try the lookout at Table Mountain," he advised me. "They may be coming
+down that way.... Sure I'll let you know.... What a night! They say that
+in Mediterrania--"
+
+But I cut off; it was no time to chat with him. Table Mountain,
+Capetown, had no word of the mail. Then I caught the Yukon Station. The
+mail flyer had come down on the North Polar side--was already crossing
+Hudson Bay.
+
+At 8:26 it landed on Eastern Island. A deluge of Venus despatches
+overwhelmed me. But the mail news, before I could even begin to handle
+my section of it, was far overshadowed. Venus, now at 8:44 was calling
+us by helio. The message came in the inter-planetary code, was decoded
+at National Headquarters, and from there flashed to us.
+
+The ruler of the Venus Central State was murdered! An almost incoherent
+message. The murder of the ruler, at a time co-incident with 6:30 in
+Greater New York. Then the words:
+
+_"City being attacked ... Tarrano, beware Tarrano ... You are in danger
+of ..."_
+
+In danger of what? The message broke off. The observers, behind their
+huge telescopes at the Potomac Headquarters, saw the helio-lights of the
+Venus Central State go dark suddenly. Our own station flashed its call,
+but there was no answer. Venus--evening star on that date--was sinking
+to the horizon. But our Observatory in Texas could see the planet
+clearly; and gave the same report.
+
+Communication was broken. The authorities of the Venus Central
+State--friendly to us in spite of the recent immigration
+controversy--had tried to warn us.
+
+Of what?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+_Warning_
+
+
+It must have been nearly nine o'clock when a personal message came for
+me. Not through the ordinary open airways, but in the National Length,
+and coded. It came to my desk by official messenger, decoded, printed
+and sealed.
+
+     _Jac Hallen, Inter-Allied News_. Come to me, North-east Island at
+     once, if they can spare you. Important. Answer.
+
+     Dr. Brende.
+
+Our Division Manager scanned the message curiously and told me I could
+go. I got off my answer. I did not dare call Dr. Brende openly, since he
+had used the code, but sent it the same way. I would be up at once.
+
+With a word of good-bye to Greys, I shoved aside my work, caught up a
+heavy jacket and cap and left the office. The levels outside our
+building were still jammed with an excited throng. I pushed my way
+through it, up to the entrance to the Staten Bridge. The waters of the
+harbor beneath me had a broad band of moonlight upon them, dim in the
+glare of the city lights. I glanced upward with satisfaction. A good
+night for air-traveling.
+
+My small personal air-car was on the stage near the bridge entrance. The
+attendant was there, staring at me as I dashed up in such haste. He
+handed me my key from the rack.
+
+"Going far, Jac? What a night! They'll be ordering them off if many more
+go up.... Going north?"
+
+"No," I said shortly.
+
+I was away, rising with my helicopters until the city was a yellow haze
+beneath me. I _was_ going north--to Dr. Brende's little private island
+off the coast of Maine. The lower lanes were pretty well crowded. I
+tried one of the north-bound at 8,000 feet; but the going was awkward.
+Then I went to 16,000.
+
+But Grille, the attendant back at the bridge, evidently had his finder
+on me, out of plain curiosity. He called me.
+
+"They'll chase you out of there," came his voice. "Nothing doing up
+there tonight. That's reserved. Didn't you know it?"
+
+I grinned at him. In the glow of my pitlight I hoped he could see my
+face and the grin.
+
+"They'll never catch me," I said. "I'm traveling fast tonight."
+
+"Chase you out," he persisted. "The patrol's keeping them low. General
+Orders, an hour ago. Didn't you know it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, you ought to. You ought to know everything in your business.
+Besides, the lights are up."
+
+They were indeed; I could see them in all the towers underneath me. I
+was flying north-east; and at the moment, with a following wind, I was
+doing something over three-fifty.
+
+"But they'll shut off your power," Grille warned. "You'll come down soon
+enough then."
+
+Which was also true enough. The evening local-express for Boston and
+beyond was overhauling me. And when the green beam of a traffic tower
+came up and picked me out, I decided I had better obey. Dutifully I
+descended until the beam, satisfied, swung away from me.
+
+At 8,000 feet, I went on. There was too much traffic for decent speed
+and the directors in every pilot bag and tower I passed seemed watching
+me closely. At the latitude of Boston, I swung out to sea, off the main
+arteries of travel. The early night mail for Eurasia,[4] with Great
+London its first stop, went by me far overhead. I could make out its
+green and purple lights, and the spreading silver beam that preceded it.
+
+[Footnote 4: Now Europe and Asia.]
+
+Alone in my pit, with the dull whir of my propellers alone breaking the
+silence of the night, I pondered the startling events of the past few
+hours. Above me the stars and planets gleamed in the deep purple of an
+almost cloudless sky. Venus had long since dropped below the horizon.
+But Mars was up there--approaching the zenith. I wondered what the
+Martian helio might be saying. I could have asked Greys back at the
+office. But Greys, I knew, would be too busy to bother with me.
+
+What could Dr. Brende want of me? I was glad he had sent for me--there
+was nowhere I would rather have gone this particular evening. And it
+would give me a chance to see Elza again.
+
+I could tell by the light-numerals below, that I was now over Maine. I
+did not need to consult my charts; I had been up this way many times,
+for, the Brendes--the doctor, his daughter Elza, and her twin brother
+Georg--I counted my best friends.
+
+I was over the sea, with the coast of Maine to my left. The traffic,
+since I left the line of Boston, had been far less. The patrols flashed
+by me at intervals, but they did not molest me.
+
+I descended presently, and located the small two-mile island which Dr.
+Brende owned and upon which he lived.
+
+It was 10:20 when I came down to find them waiting for me on the runway.
+
+The doctor held out both his hands. "Good enough, Jac. I got your
+code--we've been waiting for you."
+
+"It's crowded," I said. "Heavy up to Boston. And they wouldn't let me go
+high."
+
+He nodded. And then Elza put her cool little hand in mine.
+
+"We're glad to see you, Jac. Very glad."
+
+They took me to the house. Dr. Brende was a small, dark man of
+sixty-odd, smooth-shaven, a thin face, with a mop of iron-grey hair
+above it, and keen dark eyes beneath bushy white brows. He was usually
+kindly and gentle of manner--at times a little abstracted; at other
+times he could be more forceful and direct than anyone with whom I had
+ever had contact.
+
+At the house we were joined by the doctor's son, Georg. My best friend,
+I should say; certainly, for my part, I treasured his friendship very
+highly. He and Elza were twins--twenty-three years old at this time. I
+am two years older; and I had been a room-mate with Georg at the Common
+University of the Potomac.
+
+Our friendship had, if anything, grown closer since my promotion into
+the business world. Yet we were as unlike as two individuals could
+possibly be. I am dark-haired, slim, and of comparatively slight
+muscular strength. Restless--full of nervous energy--and, they tell me,
+somewhat short of temper. Georg was a blond, powerful young giant. A
+head taller than I--blue-eyed, from his mother, now dead--square-jawed,
+and a complexion pink and white. He was slow to anger. He seldom spoke
+impulsively; and usually with a slow, quiet drawl. Always he seemed
+looking at life and people with a half-humorous smile--looking at the
+human pageant with its foibles, follies and frailties--tolerantly. Yet
+there was nothing conceited about him. Quite the reverse. He was
+generally wholly deprecating in manner, as though he himself were of
+least importance. Until aroused. In our days of learning, I saw Georg
+once--just once--thoroughly angered.
+
+"... Came up promptly, didn't you?" Georg was saying. He was leading me
+to the house doorway, but I stopped him.
+
+"Let's go to the grove," I suggested. We turned down from the small
+viaduct, passed the house, and went into the heavy grove of trees
+nearby.
+
+"He's hungry," Elza declared. "Jac, did you eat at the office tonight?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"Did you really?"
+
+"Some," I admitted. In truth the run up here had brought me a thoroughly
+hearty appetite, which I just realized.
+
+"I was pretty busy, you know," I added. "Such a night--but don't you
+bother."
+
+But she had already scurried away toward the house. Dear little Elza! I
+wished then, for the hundredth time, that I was a man of wealth--or at
+least, not as poor as a tower timekeeper. True, I made fair money--but
+the urge to spend it recklessly dominated me. I decided in that moment,
+to reform for good; and lay by enough to justify asking a woman to be my
+wife.
+
+We reclined on a mossy bank in the grove of trees, so thick a grove that
+it hid the house from our sight.
+
+The doctor extinguished the glowing lights with which the tree-branches
+were dotted. We were in the semi-darkness of a beautiful, moonlit night.
+
+"Don't go to sleep, Jac!"
+
+I became aware that Georg and his father were smiling at me.
+
+I sat up, snapping my wits into alertness. "No. Of course not. I guess
+I'm tired. You've no idea what the office was like tonight. Roaring."
+
+"I can imagine," Georg said. "You were at Park Sixty when the President
+fell, weren't you?"
+
+"Yes. But I wasn't supposed to be. I wasn't assigned to that. How did
+you guess?"
+
+"Elza saw you. She had our finder on you--I couldn't push her away from
+it." His slow smile was quizzical.
+
+"On me? In all that crowd. She must have searched about very carefully
+to----"
+
+I stopped; I could feel my cheeks burning, and was glad of the dimness
+there under the trees.
+
+"She did," said Georg.
+
+"I sent for you, Jac," Dr. Brende interjected abstractedly,
+"because----"
+
+But Georg checked him. "Not now, father. Someone--anyone--might pick you
+up. Your words--or read your lips--there's light enough here to register
+on a finder."
+
+The doctor nodded. "He's afraid--you see, Jac, it's these Venus----"
+
+"Father--please. It's a long chance--but why take any? We can insulate
+in the house."
+
+The chance that someone who shouldn't be, was tuned to us as we sat
+there in that lonely grove! With the doctor's widespread reputation--his
+more than national prominence--it did not seem to me to be such a long
+chance either, on this, of all nights.
+
+"As you say, no use in putting private things into the public air," I
+remarked; and I felt then as though a thousand hostile eyes and ears
+were watching and listening. "We can talk of what everybody knows,"
+Georg commented. "The Martian Ruler of the Little People was
+assassinated an hour ago. You heard that coming up?"
+
+"No," I said; but I had imagined as much. "Did they say--"
+
+"They said nothing," Dr. Brende put in. "The flash of a dozen helioed
+words--no more."
+
+"It went dark, like Venus?"
+
+"No. Just discontinued. I judge they're excited up there--the Bureau
+disorganized perhaps--I don't know. That was the last we got at the
+house, just before you came down. There may be something in there
+now--you Inter-Allied people are pretty reliable."
+
+The ruler of the Venus Central State, the leading monarch of Mars, and
+our three chief executives of Earth--murdered almost simultaneously! It
+was incredible--any one of the murders would have been incredible--yet
+it was true.
+
+There had been times--in the Inter-Allied Office, particularly--when I
+had been insulated from aerial eavesdropping. But never had I felt the
+need of it more than now. A constraint fell over me; I seemed afraid to
+say anything. I think we all three felt very much like that; and it was
+a relief when Elza arrived with my dainty little meal.
+
+"Any word from Mars, Elza?" her father asked.
+
+She sat down beside me, helping me to the food.
+
+"I did not look," she answered.
+
+She did not look, because she was busy preparing my meal! Dear little
+Elza! And because of my accursed extravagance--my poverty--no word of
+love had ever passed between us!
+
+I thought I had never seen Elza so beautiful as this moment. A slim
+little thing, perfectly formed and matured, and inches shorter than I.
+Thick brown hair braided, and hanging below her waist. A face--pretty as
+her mother's must have been--yet intellectual as her father's.
+
+I had taken Elza to the great music festivals of the city, and counted
+her the best dressed girl in all the vast throng. Tonight she was
+dressed simply. A grey-blue, tubular sort of skirt, clinging close to
+the lines of her figure and split at the side for walking; a
+tight-fitting bodice, light in color (a man knows little of the
+technicalities of such things); throat bare, with a flaring rolled
+collar behind--a throat like a rose-petal with the moonlight on it; arms
+bare, save for the upper, triangular sleeves.
+
+It must suffice; I can only say she was adorable. Almost in silence I
+ate my meal, with her beside me.
+
+Georg went into the house once, to consult the news-tape. It was crowded
+with Earth events--excitement, confusion everywhere--inconsequential
+reports, they seemed, by comparison with what had gone before. But of
+helios from Mars, or Venus, there were none reported. Of Venus, the tape
+said nothing save that each of our westward stations was vainly calling
+in turn, as the planet dropped toward its horizon.
+
+I finished my meal--too leisurely for Georg and the doctor; and then we
+all went into the house, to the insulated room where at last we could
+talk openly.
+
+As we entered the main corridor, we heard the low voice of the
+Inter-Allied news-announcer, coming from the disc in a room nearby.
+
+_"And Venus----"_
+
+The words caught our attention. We hurried in, and stood by the
+Inter-Allied equipment. Georg picked up the pile of tape whereon the
+announcer's words were being printed. He ran back over it.
+
+"Another helio from Venus!" he exclaimed. "Ten minutes ago."
+
+And then I saw his lips go tight together. He made no move to hide the
+tape from Elza, but she was beside him and already reading it. Her
+fingers switched off the announcer's droning voice.
+
+_"Pacific Coastal Station,"_ Elza read. In the sudden silence of the
+room her voice was low, clear, and steady, though her hands were
+trembling. _"P.C.S. 10.42 Venus helio. 'Defeat! Beware Tarrano! Notify
+your Dr. Brende in Eurasia, danger.'"_
+
+We men stared at each other. But Elza went on reading.
+
+_"P.C.S. 10.44 Venus helio. 'Lost! No more! Smashing apparatus!' The
+Venus sending station went dark at 10.44.30. Hawaiian station will call
+later, but have little hope of re-establishing connection. Tokyohama
+10.46 Official, via Potomac National Headquarters. Excitement here
+continues. Levels crowded----"_
+
+Elza dropped the tape. "That's all of importance. Venus Central Station
+warning _you_, father."
+
+A buzz across the room called the doctor to his personal receiver. It
+was a message in code from Potomac National Headquarters. We watched the
+queer-looking characters printing on the tape. Very softly, in a voice
+hardly above a whisper, Georg decoded it.
+
+_"Dr. Brende, see P.C.S. 10.42, warning you, probably of Venus
+immigrants now here. Do you need guard? Or will you come to Washington
+at once for personal safety?"_
+
+"Father!" cried Elza.
+
+Georg burst out. "Enough of this. We cannot--dare not talk in here.
+Father, come----"
+
+We went out into the corridor again, across which was the small room
+insulated from all aerial vibrations. In the corridor a figure was
+standing--the one other member of the Brende household--the
+maid-servant, a girl about Elza's age. I knew her well, of course, but
+this evening I had forgotten her existence. She was standing in the
+corridor. Did I imagine it, or had she been gazing up at the mechanism
+ten feet above the floor--the mechanism controlling the insulated room?
+
+"You wish me, Miss Elza? I thought I heard you call."
+
+"No, Ahla, not 'til later."
+
+With a gesture of respect, the girl withdrew, passing from our sight
+down the incline which led to the lower part of the house.
+
+It was a very small incident, but in view of what was transpiring, it
+gave me a shock nevertheless.
+
+For Elza's maid was a Venus girl!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_Spy in the House_
+
+
+The insulated room was small, with a dome-shaped ceiling, no windows,
+and but one small, heavy door through which we entered, closing it
+carefully behind us.
+
+"At last," Dr. Brende exclaimed. "Now we can talk freely."
+
+But I was not satisfied. "That girl, Ahla--can you trust her?"
+
+They all looked at me in surprise. When one is close to danger,
+sometimes one recognizes it least; with Ahla in this household for over
+a year now, they could not imagine her an enemy.
+
+"I saw her looking up at the insulator," I added swiftly. "Out there in
+the corridor. Am I talking wild? Perhaps I am. But she seemed startled;
+and she was standing just under the insulator, wasn't she?"
+
+"But--" began Elza.
+
+"Wait," I exclaimed. "When I first saw the President fall, at Park
+Sixty, I felt that a Venus man had done it. These other murders--they're
+all the same. Done by Venus men of the Cold Country."
+
+"Ahla's country," Elza murmured.
+
+"Yes. Exactly. And the Venus Central State has been attacked and has
+fallen. An assassination on Mars, and three here on Earth--all
+simultaneously. It's one gigantic plot, I tell you--and the Cold Country
+of Venus is at the bottom of it."
+
+Georg jumped to his feet. "I'll see if the room has been tampered with."
+
+He was back presently. "The insulator is intact. I set the alarm bell.
+If she touches it--"
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In the cookery, where she should be. I told her we would eat in an
+hour. That ought to keep her busy."
+
+Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. "I think we are all a little
+overwrought--though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come
+here by me. Don't look so solemn, child."
+
+He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but
+his gesture checked me. "I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand
+these events, perhaps better than any of you. Let me go back two
+years--when I was in the Venus Central State."
+
+I nodded my remembrance; and he went on:
+
+"At that time the authorities there were greatly perturbed. They were
+menaced by rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold
+Country people into the Central State, for it is already overcrowded.
+You did not know that, did you?"
+
+"You mean the threatened rebellion?" I asked. "They were trying to keep
+it secret, but we heard rumors."
+
+"Just so. And Jac, I will tell you why they kept it secret. The Central
+State was encouraging emigration to the Earth. The Venus Cold Country is
+a poor place to live in--and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable
+people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Central State did not want
+them within its borders; and so it kept secret its troubles with
+them--and encouraged emigration to the Earth.
+
+"We--as you know--make no distinction between Venus people. We are
+friendly with the Central State, and the Cold Country is governed by
+it--or was until tonight. Thus, you see, we have been in the position of
+having to receive these renegade immigrants. Shut out from all the good
+land and decent climate of Venus, they began coming here.
+
+"But we did not want them, and of late we have been holding them off,
+cutting the quota allowed very materially. Last week, as you also know,
+in Triple Conference, our three races decided to allow at each Inferior
+Conjunction of the Earth and Venus, so small a quota that the Central
+State protested vigorously.
+
+"The controversy has been hot; but the Central State--trying to foist
+off its undesirables on us--knows it is in the wrong. And fundamentally,
+it is friendly to us--I think it has proven that in the last two hours."
+
+Again I would have spoken, but he went on at once.
+
+"I know you're familiar with most of this, Jac. But you news-gatherers
+sometimes reason in too lurid a fashion. Let me go on. Mars was drawn
+into the affair. To extricate ourselves, we offered to admit--under
+temporary guard--all Venus immigrants who would pass on at once--at the
+first astronomical opportunity--to Mars. This would have been very nice
+for us--but not for Mars."
+
+"They are hot-headed, in Mars," Georg commented.
+
+"Quite so," said the doctor. "But very direct and forceful,
+nevertheless. They met our suggestion with a law excluding Venus
+immigrants entirely. It was this, I think, that precipitated tonight's
+events--though of course they must have been brewing for a long time."
+
+"This Tarrano--" I began.
+
+"I heard of him when I was in Venus," said Dr. Brende. "He was at that
+time a lower official in the Cold Country. Evidently he has risen in his
+world.
+
+"I come now to conjecture--but I think it must be fairly close to truth.
+Tarrano, leading the Cold Country, has risen to open rebellion. His
+attack upon the Central State must have come suddenly--"
+
+"You mean, just this evening?" Elza asked.
+
+"No, of course not. But hoping to quell the rebellion, the Central State
+has suppressed news of it. At such a time--with this controversy going
+on--such reports would only injure the Central State's inter-planetary
+position. That's obvious, isn't it? Then tonight, when things were
+desperate, the Central State gave out its call. Tarrano has conquered
+Venus, I'm sure. And at the last, before destroying its helio, the
+Central State tried to warn us."
+
+"Of what?" I demanded. "And what about these murders?"
+
+"Done by emissaries of Tarrano, no doubt. For revenge, because of the
+Martian and Earth legislation--or for--"
+
+"I think we should not speculate too much," said Georg. "At least, not
+on that line. They warned you personally, father. We were so careful to
+keep everything secret--"
+
+Dr. Brende mopped his forehead. He was trying to appear calm--I knew he
+did not want unduly to alarm Elza; but I could see that he was laboring
+under great emotion nevertheless.
+
+"Things get out, Georg," he said. "We have been careful--yes. But two
+years ago, when I visited the Central State, I told them there what I
+hoped to accomplish. There were no grave inter-planetary problems
+then--I thought I had no need of great secrecy. And since then, though,
+we have been very careful--"
+
+Careful! With a Venus girl from the Cold Country living in their
+household! Truly, humans are a strange mixture of sagacity and folly!
+
+"The Central State has heard something concerning you," Georg said.
+"That could easily happen--prisoners captured from Tarrano's forces, for
+instance. With dispatches--or perhaps some intercepted aerial message."
+
+What was this secret they were discussing? I was the only one in the
+room who did not know it. And why had Dr. Brende sent for me tonight?
+
+I asked him both questions. His face went even more solemn than it had
+been before.
+
+"I sent for you, Jac, because in a measure I anticipated what has now
+befallen. Danger specifically to us Brendes, I mean. We count you as our
+friend--"
+
+How it warmed my heart to hear him say that; and to see the glance that
+Elza cast me!
+
+"--Our friend. I am an old man--you are young. Yet you are wise, too. We
+need you tonight."
+
+He raised his hand when I would have told him how glad I was to be with
+them.
+
+"You know something of my work," he said, as a statement, rather than a
+question. "I should say, mine and Georg's and Elza's, for they have both
+helped me materially."
+
+I knew that Dr. Brende had for years been one of the Earth's most
+eminent research physicians. It was he who discovered the light
+vibrations which had banished forever the dread germs of several of the
+major diseases. He did not practice; his work was research only.
+
+He went on: "Jac, I have found what for years I have been striving to
+find--a vibration of light, though it is invisible--which so far as I
+can determine, kills every bacillus harmful to man. There is nothing new
+in the idea--I have been working at it all my life. Sunlight! Altered
+and modified in several particulars, yet sunlight nevertheless. How
+strange that for countless centuries, man never realized the blessed
+boon of sunlight--the greatest enemy of all disease!
+
+"Each year, as you know, I have conquered some of what we call the major
+diseases. A few of them--cancer[5], for instance--persisted in eluding
+me. Its bacilli--you can easily recognize the tiny purplish, horned rods
+which cause what we popularly call cancer--just would not die. No form
+of light or other vibration I could devise, seemed to hurt them--unless
+I used a vibration harmful, even fatal, to the blood-contents itself: I
+killed the cancer--in the words of you news-gatherers--but I also killed
+the patient."
+
+[Footnote 5: A medical word, translated here as _cancer_, though
+possibly not that.]
+
+His eyes smiled at the jest, but his face remained intensely serious.
+
+"Then, Jac, I solved that problem--just a few months ago. And upon the
+heels of it I solved another, of infinitely more importance." He paused
+slightly. "I have learned how to kill, or at least arrest, the bacillus
+of old age. It is a bacillus, you know. We grow old because every day we
+live beyond the age of thirty--the bacillus of old age is attacking us.
+I call them the Brende-bacilli--these tiny, frayed discs that make us
+grow old. I have seen them--and killed them!"
+
+It dawned on me slowly, the import of what he was saying.
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"He means," said Georg, "that at present we cannot only banish
+disease--all disease--but we can keep your body from aging. Not
+permanently, doubtless--but with the span of life lengthened threefold
+at least. Only by violence now need you die prematurely."
+
+This then was the secret the existence of which Tarrano had learned. He
+had....
+
+But Dr. Brende was quietly voicing my thoughts.
+
+"It seems obvious, Jac, that this Tarrano at least suspects that I have
+made some such discovery as this. That he would withhold it from
+mankind, for the benefit of his own race, seems also obvious. That he is
+about to make an attempt to get it from me, I am convinced."
+
+I remembered the wording of the message of warning from the Central
+State. _"Your Dr. Brende, in Eurasia."_ I mentioned it.
+
+"Our main laboratory is there," Georg said. "In Northern
+Siberia--isolated from people so far as possible, and in a climate
+advantageous for the work."
+
+Elza spoke for the first time in many minutes.
+
+"We have guards there, Jac--eight of our assistants.... Father, I called
+Robins a while ago. He said everything was all right. But don't you
+think we should call him again?"
+
+The doctor had drifted into deep thought. "What? Oh, yes, Elza. I was
+thinking we should go there. My notes--descriptions of how to build a
+larger apparatus--larger than the small model I have installed there--my
+notes are all there, and I want them. And I don't think, at such a time,
+I should trust Robins to bring them."
+
+"What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an
+answer, you remember."
+
+"I'm going there to the Potomac--tell them that. Tell them we will come
+there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model."
+
+As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start
+to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet
+for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside.
+
+Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he
+opened it. I was close behind him.
+
+"What----"
+
+"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see--in case she _is_ doing
+something."
+
+He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him.
+
+The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the
+instrument room.
+
+We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the
+maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was
+talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside
+her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of
+cave--flickering lights--a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly
+armed.
+
+She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the
+mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and
+leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+_To the North Pole_
+
+
+"You stand back! You do not touch me!"
+
+The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white
+hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood
+tense--a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long
+grey stockings beneath.
+
+We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It
+was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry,
+she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns
+unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors,
+flinging everything to the floor.
+
+A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg caught
+her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them.
+
+"Ahla!" Elza cried in horror.
+
+I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this
+girl.
+
+Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the
+instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was
+coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.
+
+We were cut off from all communication with the world. It gave me a
+queer feeling--made the small island we were on seem so remote.
+
+Georg was shaking the girl, demanding with whom she had been talking and
+why. But she fell into sullen silence, and nothing we could do would
+make her break it. It infuriated me, that stubbornness; it was all I
+could do to keep from harming her in my efforts to make her talk.
+
+Georg, at last, pulled me away; he led the girl to a couch and sternly
+bade her sit there without moving. She seemed willing enough to do that;
+she still had not spoken, but her eyes were watching us closely.
+
+Dr. Brende was examining the smashed instruments. "Ruined. We cannot use
+them. Those messages--we must send them. I must talk to Robins----"
+
+We went into the corridor, out of earshot of the girl, but where we
+could watch her. That we were in immediate danger was obvious, and we
+all realized it. Ahla had told some of her people that we were here on
+the island; doubtless was planning to have them come here at once and
+seize us.
+
+How far away from us were they? I had seen in the mirror the interior of
+a cave-like room. Where was it? Might it not be near at hand--over on
+the mainland? Might not these enemies arrive on the island at any
+moment?
+
+Georg suggested that we send our messages from the aeros. We had my own
+car--and a larger car of the Brendes. More than ever now, Dr. Brende was
+worried over the safety of his Siberian laboratory; but from the aero we
+could talk to Robins.
+
+We went to the landing stage. I wanted to tie up Ahla, but as Georg
+said, she could do nothing now that the instrument room was out of
+commission. We admonished her sternly to stay where she was, and left
+the house.
+
+On the open landing stage my small aero was lying where I had left it;
+but a moment's glance showed us it was wrecked--its instruments and its
+driving mechanism demolished!
+
+There was no doubt about it now; Ahla had planned to keep us on the
+island while her people came and seized us. Fortunately the Brende car
+was well housed and barred. We saw that the gates had been tampered
+with, but with the limited time Ahla had to work in, she had been unable
+to force them. We swung them wide, and to our infinite relief found the
+car unharmed.
+
+At once Dr. Brende called Robins. But the laboratory did not answer!
+
+"It may be your sending apparatus," I suggested. "Send your message down
+to Headquarters--with their high power they'll get Robins quickly
+enough."
+
+He tried that--sending also his answer to the previous coded message
+Headquarters had sent him. It was now 11:45. We waited some eight
+minutes, during which time I rushed back to the house. Ahla was sitting
+obediently where I had left her.
+
+"You stay there," I told her. "If you move, I'll break every bone in
+your rotten little body."
+
+Back at the landing stage I found Dr. Brende in despair. Headquarters
+could not raise Robins. They had relayed the message to Wrangel and
+Spitzbergen Islands--but the stations there reported similarly. Dr.
+Brende's laboratory did not answer its call.
+
+This decided us. We had no wish to remain where we were. The Brende car,
+far larger than the small one of mine, was fully equipped and
+provisioned. We rolled it out, and in a moment were flying in the air.
+
+Dr. Brende's car was large, commodious, and smooth-riding. A pleasure to
+fly in such a car! Georg was at the controls. I sat close beside Elza in
+the semi-darkness, gazing down through the pit-rail window to where the
+island was dropping away beneath us. It was a perfect night; the moon
+had set; the stars and planets gleamed in an almost cloudless sky. Red
+Mars, I saw, very nearly over our heads.
+
+It was now midnight, and for the moment we chanced to have the air to
+ourselves. We rose to the 10,000-foot level, then headed directly North.
+It carried us inland; soon the sea was out of sight behind. Lights
+dotted the landscape--a town or city here and there, and occasionally a
+tower.
+
+Dr. Brende was poring over charts, illumined by a dim glow-light beside
+him. "Can we get power all the way, Georg?... Elza child, hadn't you
+better lie down? A long trip--you'll be tired out."
+
+"Call Royal Mountain[6]," Georg suggested. "Ask them about serving us
+power; I'll stay 10,000 or below. Under one thousand, when we get
+further north. Ask them if they can guarantee us power all the way."
+
+[Footnote 6: Now Montreal.]
+
+The station at Royal Mountain would guarantee us nothing on this night;
+they advised us to keep low. Their own power-sending station was working
+as usual. But this night--who could tell what General Orders might come?
+Everyone's nerves were frayed; this Director demanded gruffly to know
+who we were.
+
+"Tell him none of his business," I put in. My own nerves were frayed,
+too.
+
+"Quiet!" warned Georg. "He'll hear you--and it _is_ his business if he
+wants to make it so. Tell him we are the Inter-Allied News, father. That
+is true enough, and no use putting into the air that Dr. Brende is
+flying north."
+
+Royal Mountain let us through. We passed well to the east of it about
+12:45--too far away to sight its lights. The cross-traffic was somewhat
+heavier here. Beneath it, at 5,000 and 6,000 feet, a steady stream of
+cars was passing east and west.
+
+We were riding easily--little wind, almost none--and were doing 390
+miles an hour. You cannot bank or turn very well at such a speed; it is
+injurious to the human body. But our course was straight north. Dr.
+Brende showed it to me on his chart--north, following the 70th West
+Meridian. Compass corrections as we got further north--and astronomical
+readings, these would take us direct to the Pole. I could never fathom
+this air navigation; I flew by tower lights, and landmarks--but to Dr.
+Brende and Georg, the mathematics of it were simple.
+
+At two o'clock we had crossed the route of the Chicago-Great London Mail
+flyer. But we did not see the vessel. The temperature was growing
+steadily colder. The pit was inclosed, and I switched on the heaters.
+Elza had fallen asleep on the side couch, with my promise to awaken her
+at the first sign of dawn.
+
+At two-thirty, the Greater New York-East Indian Express overhauled us
+and passed overhead. It was flying almost north, bound for Bombay and
+Ceylon via Novaya Zemlya. It was in the 18,000-foot lane. The air up
+there was clear, but beneath us a fog obscured the land.
+
+At intervals all this time Dr. Brende had been trying to raise
+Robins--but there was still no answer. We did not discuss what might be
+the trouble. Of what use could such talk be?
+
+But it perturbed us, for imagination can picture almost anything. Georg
+even felt the strain of it, for he said almost gruffly:
+
+"Stop it, father. I don't think you should call attention to us so much.
+Get the meteorological reports from the Pole--we need them. If they tell
+us this weather will hold at 10,000 and below, we'll make good time."
+
+Soon after three o'clock we swept over Hudson Strait into Baffinland. We
+were down to 4,000 feet, but the fog still lay under us like a blanket.
+It clung low; we were well above it, in a cloudless night, with no wind
+save the rush of our forward flight.
+
+Then came the pink flush of dawn. True to my promise I awakened Elza.
+But there was nothing for her to see; the stars growing pale, pink
+spreading into orange, and then the sun. But the fog under us still lay
+thick.
+
+We were holding our speed very nearly at 380 an hour. By daylight--about
+five o'clock, after a light meal--we were over Baffin Bay. I had
+relieved Georg at the controls. The headlands of North Greenland lay
+before us. Then the fog lifted a little, broke away in places. The water
+became visible--drift and slush-ice of the Spring, with lines of open
+water here and there.
+
+And then the fog closed down again, lifting momentarily at six o'clock
+when we passed over the north-western tip of Greenland. The tower there
+gave us its routine signal, which we answered in kind. There was little
+traffic along here; a few local cars in the lowest lanes.
+
+Shortly after six, when we were above Grantland, another of the great
+trans-Arctic passenger liners went over us. The San Francisco Night
+line, for Mid-Eurasia and points South. It was crossing Greenland, from
+San Francisco, Vancouver, Edmonton, to the North Cape, the Russias, and
+African points south of Suez.
+
+At seven o'clock, with the sun circling the lower sky, the fog under us
+suddenly dissipated completely. We were over the Polar ocean. Masses of
+drift ice and slush, but for the most part surprisingly clear. At eight
+o'clock, flying low--no more than a thousand feet--we sighted the steel
+tower with foundations sunk into the ocean's depths which marks the top
+of our little Earth.
+
+We flashed by the tower in a moment, answering the director's signal
+perfunctorily. Southward now, on the 110th East Meridian, without
+deviating from the straight course we had held.
+
+It was truly a beautiful sight, this Polar ocean. Masses of ice,
+glittering in the morning sunlight. A fog-bank to the left; but
+everywhere else patches of green water and floes that gleamed like
+millions of precious stones as they flung back the light to us. Or
+again, a mass of low, solid ice, flushed pink in the morning light. And
+behind us, just above the horizon, a segment of purple sky where a storm
+was gathering--a deep purple which was mirrored in the placid patches of
+open water, and darkened the ice-floes to a solemn, sombre hue.
+
+Elza was entranced, though she had made many trans-Polar trips. But
+Georg, now again at the controls, kept his eyes on the instruments; and
+the doctor, trying vainly once more to talk with his laboratory, now so
+close ahead of us, sat in moody silence.
+
+It was 9:38 when we sighted, well off to the right, the rocky headland
+of Cape Chelusin[7]--the most northerly point of Eurasia. A long, low
+cliff of grey rock, ridged white with snow in its clefts. We swung
+toward it, at greatly decreased speed, and at an altitude of only a few
+hundred feet.
+
+[Footnote 7: Now Cape Chelyuskin, Laimur Peninsula, Siberia.]
+
+This was all a bleak, desolate region--curiously so--and I think, one of
+the very few so desolate on Earth. As we advanced, the Siberian coast
+spread out before us. Mountains behind, and a strip of rocky lowland
+along the sea. There were patches of snow--the mountains were white with
+it; but on the lowlands, for the most part the Spring sun had already
+melted it. The Spring was well advanced; there were many open channels
+in the water over which we were skimming--drift-ice, and slush-ice which
+soon would be gone.
+
+Cape Chelusin! It was here that Dr. Brende had placed his Arctic
+laboratory--as far from the haunts of man as he could find--a hundred
+miles from the nearest person, so he told me. And as I gazed about me I
+realized how isolated we were. Not a car in the whole circular panorama
+of sky; no sign of vessel on the water; no towns on the land.
+
+It was just after ten in the morning when we dropped silently to the
+small landing stage a hundred yards or so from the shore. We disembarked
+in the sunlight of what would have been a pleasant December morning in
+Greater New York; and I gazed about me curiously. A level lowland of
+crags with the white of snow in their hollows; a collection of broad,
+low buildings nearby, with a narrow steel viaduct running down to them
+from the landing stage. And behind everything, the frowning headland of
+the Cape.
+
+The buildings stood silent, without sign of life. There was no one in
+sight anywhere. No one out to greet us; I thought it a little strange
+but I said nothing.
+
+We started down the viaduct. Under us, in patches of soil, I could see
+the vivid colors of the little Arctic flowers already rearing their
+heads to the Spring sunlight. I called Elza's attention to them. A vague
+apprehension was within me; my heart was pounding unreasonably. But this
+was Dr. Brende's affair, not mine; and I wanted to hide my perturbation
+from Elza.
+
+The viaduct reached the ground; a path led on to the houses.
+
+Suddenly Dr. Brende called out:
+
+"Robins! Robins! Grantley! Where are you!"
+
+The words seemed to echo back faintly to us; but the buildings remained
+silent.
+
+"You'd better wait here with Elza," Georg said.
+
+"I'll go on--see what----"
+
+He checked his words, and started forward. But Dr. Brende was with him,
+and in doubt what to do I followed with Elza.
+
+We entered the nearest building, into a low, dim room, with doors on the
+sides. In the silence I seemed to hear my heart pounding my ribs. Elza's
+face was pale and perturbed, but she smiled very courageously at me.
+
+"Wait!" said Georg. "You wait here."
+
+He turned into a side door leading to another room, and in an instant
+was back with a face from which the color had departed.
+
+"They're not in there," he said unsteadily. "Elza--you go outside with
+father.... They must be around somewhere, Jac. Come, look."
+
+There was a rustle behind us. Arms came around me, pinning me. I heard
+Elza scream, saw Georg fighting two dark forms which had leaped upon
+him.
+
+I was flung to the ground, but I fought--three men, it seemed to be, who
+were upon me. Then Georg's voice:
+
+"Jac! Stop--they'll kill you."
+
+I yielded suddenly, and my assailants jerked me to my feet. A group of
+Venus men were surrounding us. Georg, his jacket torn to ribbons, was
+backed up against the wall with three or four Venus men holding him.
+
+And on the floor nearby Dr. Brende lay prone, with a crimson stain
+spreading on his white ruffled shirt, and Elza sobbing over him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+_Outlawed Flight_
+
+
+Dr. Brende was dead. We knew it in the moment that followed our sudden
+assault and capture. Elza knelt there sobbing. Then she stood up, her
+tears checked; and on her face a look of pathetic determination to
+repress her grief. Now that we had yielded, the Venus men, searching us
+for our weapons, cast us loose. We bent over Dr. Brende, Georg and I.
+Dead. No power in this universe could bring him back to us.
+
+Georg pressed his lips tightly together. His face, red from the exertion
+of his fight, went pale. But he showed no other emotion. And, as he
+leaned toward me, he whispered:
+
+"Got us, Jac! Say nothing. Don't put up any show of fight."
+
+Elza now was standing against the wall, a hand before her eyes. I went
+to her.
+
+"Elza, dear----"
+
+Her hand pressed mine.
+
+Our captors stood curiously watching us. There seemed to be at least ten
+of them--men as tall as myself, though not so tall as Georg. Swarthy,
+gray-skinned fellows--one or two of them squat, ape-like with their
+heavy shoulders and dangling arms. Men of the Venus Cold Country. They
+were talking together in their queer, soft language. One of them I took
+to be the leader. Argo was his name, I afterward learned. He was
+somewhat taller than the rest, and slim. A man perhaps thirty. Paler of
+skin than most of his companions--gray skin with a bronze cast. Dressed
+like the others in fur. But his heavy jacket was open, disclosing a
+ruffled white shirt, with a low black stock about his throat.
+
+A shifty-eyed fellow, this Argo. Smooth-shaven, with a mouth
+slack-lipped, and small black eyes. But his features were finely
+chiseled; and with that bronze cast to his skin, I guessed that he was
+from the Venus Central State. He seemed much perturbed that Dr. Brende
+was dead. Occasionally he burst into English as he rebuked one of the
+others for the killing.
+
+No more than a moment had passed. Georg joined Elza and me. We stood
+waiting. Georg whispered: "They killed Robins and his helpers. In
+there----" He gestured. "I saw them lying in there. If only I had--"
+
+Argo was standing before us. "This is a very pleasant surprise--" He
+spoke the careful English of the educated foreigner. His tone was
+ironical. "Very pleasant--"
+
+Abruptly he turned away again. But in that instant, his eyes had roved
+Elza in a way that turned me cold.
+
+They led us away, down a padded hallway into the instrument room. It was
+in full operation; our Inter-Allied news-tape was clicking; the low
+voice of the announcer droned through the silence. I started toward the
+tape, but Argo waved me away. He had volunteered us nothing, and again
+Georg advised silence.
+
+Argo had given his orders. Through a window I saw men carrying apparatus
+from the house. A small metal frame of sun-mirrors, prisms and vacuum
+tubes. Georg whispered: "Father's model."
+
+The man with it passed beyond my sight. Others came along, carrying the
+cylinders of books--Dr. Brende's notes--and a variety of other
+paraphernalia. Carrying it back from the shore toward the headlands of
+the Cape, where I realized now they had an aero secreted.
+
+Argo was at a mirror; he had a head-piece on; he was talking into a
+disc--talking in a private code. I could see the surface of the small
+mirror. A room, with windows. Through one of the windows, by daylight,
+palms and huge banana leaves were visible. A room seemingly in the
+tropics of our own hemisphere.
+
+Argo was triumphant--explaining, doubtless, that he had captured us.
+Mingled with his voice, the Inter-Allied announcer was saying:
+
+_"Greater-New York 10.32 Martian Helio, via Tokyohama: Little People
+Proclamation----"_
+
+A man standing near the tape switched off the droning voice. At the
+receiving table, every few seconds came the buzz of the laboratory's
+call. Wrangel Island again calling Robins; but no one paid any heed.
+Argo finished at the mirror. He glanced over the tape, smiling
+sardonically. Then, methodically, deliberately, he swept the instruments
+to the floor, jerked out the connections, turned out the
+current--wrecked it all with a few strokes. A moment later we were taken
+away.
+
+Outside, from back by the low reaches of the Cape, we saw an aero
+rising. They had loaded it with Dr. Brende's effects, and in it half of
+the men were departing. It rose vertically until we could see it only as
+a speck in the blue of the morning sky--a speck vanishing to the north
+over the Pole.
+
+With four or five of the men--all those remaining--Argo took us three to
+the Brende car. We did not pass Dr. Brende's body, lying there in the
+outer room. Elza and Georg gazed that way involuntarily; but they said
+nothing. The greatest grief is that which is hidden, and never once
+afterward did either of them show it by more than an affectionate word
+for that father whom they had loved so dearly.
+
+Soon we were back in the Brende car in which we had landed no more than
+an hour before. It was a standard Byctin model--evidently Argo and his
+men knew how to operate it perfectly. We were herded into the pit, and
+in a moment more were in the air.
+
+Argo seemed now rather anxious to make friends with us. He was in a high
+good humor. His eyes flashed at me sharply when I questioned him once or
+twice; but he offered us no indignities. To Elza he spoke commandingly,
+but with that deference to which every woman of birth and breeding is
+entitled from a man.
+
+We rose straight up and, at 18,000 feet, headed northward by a point or
+two west. We would pass the Pole on our right--too far to sight it with
+the naked eye, I realized; but I knew, too, that the Director there
+would see the distant image of us on his finder, even though we refused
+connection should he call us. And we had no right to be up here in the
+18,000-foot lane. They'd order us down--shut off our power, if
+necessary.
+
+We could not escape observation on this daylight flight. Heading this
+way, it would take us past the Pole and on southward, down the Western
+Hemisphere over the Americas. We could not refuse connection for long.
+We would be challenged, then brought down. Or, if Argo answered a call,
+some Director would examine our pit with his finder--would see Elza,
+Georg and me as prisoners. We could gesture surreptitiously to him....
+
+My thoughts ran on. Argo's soft, ironic voice brought me out of them.
+
+"We will answer the first call that comes," he said smilingly. "You
+understand? We are the Inter-Allied News on Official Dispatch." He was
+addressing me, his glance going to the insignia on my cap. "_You_ are of
+the Inter-Allied?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+I did not like his tone. "None of your--"
+
+"Quiet, Jac," Georg warned.
+
+"Jac Hallen," I amended.
+
+"Yes. Division 8, Manhattan," he read from my cap. "Well, when the first
+Director calls--from the Pole perhaps--you will tell him we are
+Inter-Allied Officials. He will see us here--I do not believe, the way
+we are sitting, that he will think anything is wrong. He will see us of
+Venus. There are Venus men employed by the Inter-Allied. Is it not so?"
+
+I had to admit that it was. He nodded. "You will fool the Directors, Jac
+Hallen. You understand? You will get the reports on weather today down
+the 67th Meridian West. And ask if we can have power to the Equator and
+below." His eyes flashed. "And if you attempt any trickery--you will
+die. You understand?"
+
+I did, indeed. And I knew that his plans were well laid--that I would be
+helpless to give us over without paying for it with my life--with the
+lives of Elza and Georg as well.
+
+From up here in the 18th lane, the Polar ocean lay a glittering white
+and purple expanse beneath us. Then, again, a fog rolled out down there
+like a blanket. We passed the Pole, a hundred miles or more to one side,
+and headed Southward. No challenge. Under us, occasional local cars
+swept by; but up here we were clear of traffic.
+
+Elza prepared our lunch, in the little electric galley forward of the
+observation pit. The Great London-East Indies Mail Flyer crossed us,
+coming along this same level. It was headed toward the Pole from the
+British Isles. Its pilot challenged us before it had come up over the
+horizon. A crusty fellow. His face in the mirror glared at me as I
+accepted connection. He ordered me down, Inter-Allied or no.
+
+Argo was at my elbow. His pencil-ray dug into my ribs. Had I made a
+false move it would have drilled me clean with its tiny burning light. I
+told the pilot we would descend. It placated him; but he saw Argo's
+face, mumbled something about damned foreigners--general orders probably
+coming tomorrow to clean out Venia--damned well rid of the traitors.
+Then he disconnected. Venia, Georg and I were sure, was where Argo was
+now taking us. But the rest of his comments I did not clearly understand
+until later.
+
+We descended, and the flyer came up over the horizon and passed us
+overhead. We were pointing southward now, had picked up the 67th West
+Meridian and were following it down. The Hays station[8] challenged us;
+but they were satisfied with my explanation. Argo had us up in speed
+around four hundred miles per hour. We went down Davis Strait, over
+Newfoundland, avoiding the congested cross-traffic of mid-afternoon in
+the lowest lanes, and out over the main Atlantic. Night closed down upon
+us. It was safer for Argo now. We flew without lights. Outlawed. Had
+they caught us at it, we would have been brought down, captured by the
+patrol and imprisoned. Yet Argo doubtless considered the chance of that
+less dangerous than a reliance upon my ability to trick the succeeding
+directors.
+
+[Footnote 8: Hayes Peninsula, Northwest Greenland, near the present site
+of Etah.]
+
+With darkness we ascended again to the upper mail lanes. Over the main
+Eastern Atlantic now, and out here this night, there was little local
+traffic. The mail and passenger liners went by at intervals--the
+spreading beams of their lurid headlights giving us warning enough so
+that we could dive down and avoid being caught in their light. I prayed
+that one of their lights might pick us up, but none did.
+
+North of Bermuda, a division of the North Atlantic patrol circled over
+us. The ocean was calm. Argo dropped us to the surface. We floated there
+like a derelict--dark, silent, save for the lapping of the water against
+our aluminite pontoons. The patrol's searching beams swept within a
+hundred feet of us--missed us by a miracle. And as the patrol passed on,
+we rose again to our course.
+
+Argo gave us one of the small cabins to ourselves that night. He was
+still deferential to Elza, but in his manner and in the glitter of those
+little black eyes, there was irony, and an open, though unexpressed,
+admiration for her beauty.
+
+We slept little. Georg and I--one or the other of us--was awake all
+night. We talked occasionally--not much, for speculation was of no
+avail. We wondered what could be transpiring abroad through all these
+hours. Hours of unprecedented turmoil on Earth, and on our neighboring
+worlds. We wondered how the Central State of Venus might be faring with
+the revolution. Would they ask aid of the Earth? This Tarrano--merely a
+name to us as yet, but a name already full of dread. Where was he? Had
+he been responsible for all this? Dr. Brende's secret was in his hands
+now, we were sure. What would he do next?
+
+About three o'clock in the morning--a fair, calm night--our power died
+abruptly. We were in the Caribbean Sea not far above the Northern coast
+of South America, at 15° North latitude, 67° West longitude. Our power
+died. Elza was fast asleep, but the sudden quiet brought Georg and me to
+alertness. We joined Argo in the pit. He was perturbed, and cursing. We
+dropped, gliding down, for there was no need of picking a landing with
+the emergency heliocopter batteries--glided down to the calm surface.
+For a moment we lay there, rocking--a dark blob on the water. I heard a
+sudden sharp swish. An under-surface freight vessel, plowing from
+Venezuelan ports to the West Indian Islands, came suddenly to the
+surface. Its headlight flashed on, but missed us. It sped past. I could
+see the sleek black outline of its wet back, and the lines of foam as it
+sheered the water. We lay rocking in its wake as it disappeared
+northward.
+
+Then, without warning, our power came on again. An inadvertent break
+perhaps; or maybe some local or general orders. We did not know. Argo
+was picking from the air occasional news, but he said nothing of it to
+us; and he was sending out nothing, of course.
+
+Dawn found us over the mountains. The Director at Caracas challenged us.
+Argo kept me by his side constantly now. Dutifully we answered every
+call. The local morning traffic was beginning to pick up; but we mingled
+with it, at 8,000 feet and more, to clear the mountains comfortably.
+
+Elza again cooked and, with Argo joining us, we had breakfast. Argo's
+good nature continued, as we successfully approached the end of our
+flight. But still he volunteered nothing to us. We asked him no
+questions. Elza was grave-faced, solemn. But she did not bother Georg
+and me with woman's fears. Bravely she kept her own counsel, anxious
+only to be of help to us.
+
+We passed over the Venezuelan Province, over the mountains and into
+Amazonia, headwaters of the great river--still on the 67th Meridian
+West. The jungles here were sparsely settled; there were, I knew, no
+more than a dozen standard cities of a million population, or over, in
+the whole region of Western Brazilana. As we advanced, I noticed an
+unusual number of the armed government flyers above us. Many were
+hovering, almost motionless, as though waiting for orders. But none of
+them molested us.
+
+Near the 10th parallel South latitude, we passed under a fleet of the
+white official vessels, with a division of the Brazilana patrol joined
+with them. A hundred vessels hovering up there in an east and west
+line--a line a hundred miles long it must have been.
+
+Hovering there, for what? We did not know; but Argo, leering up at them
+insolently, may have guessed. They challenged us, but let us through.
+
+"You are the last one in," this sub-director of the patrol told us. I
+could see him in our mirror as his gaze examined our pit--a dapper,
+jaunty fellow with the up-tilted mustache affected in Latina. "Last one
+in--you Inter-Allied are a nuisance."
+
+He was more particular than those directors we had passed before. My
+badge and my verbal explanation were not enough. He made me show him the
+Inter-Allied seal which I always carried, and I gave him the pass-code
+of the current week.
+
+"Last one in," he reiterated. "And you wouldn't get in now without those
+refugees with you. Venia's closed after noon of today. Didn't you know
+it?"
+
+"No," I said.
+
+"Well, it is. They shut off the power early this morning for all low
+vibrations--yours and under. Brought 'em all down for a general traffic
+inspection. Then changed their minds and threw it on again. But if
+you're coming out north again, you've got to get out by noon. And you go
+in at your own peril."
+
+He assumed that Argo and his men were Venus refugees going with me into
+Venia! I only vaguely understood what might be afoot, but I did not dare
+question him. Argo's side glance at me was menacing. I agreed with this
+director obediently and broke connection.
+
+We seemed now to have passed within the patrol line. There were no more
+official vessels to be seen. We clung low, and at 12° South, 60° 2O'
+West, at 10:16 that morning we descended in Venia, capital of the
+Central Latina Province, largest immigrant colony of the Western
+Hemisphere.[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Now Matto Grosso State, Brazil.]
+
+We landed on a stage of one of the upper crescent terraces. A crowd of
+Venus people surrounded us. Even in the turmoil of our debarkation, I
+wondered where the official landing director might be. None of the
+governing officials were in sight. The place was in confusion. Crowds
+were on the spider bridges; the terraces and the sloping steps were
+jammed. Milling, excited people. The foreign police, pompous Venus men
+in gaudy uniforms, were herding the people about.
+
+But none of our Earth officials! Where were they, who should have been
+in charge of all this confusion?
+
+My heart sank. Something drastic, sinister, had occurred. We had no time
+to guess what it might be. Argo drove us forward, with scant courtesy
+now, down in a vertical car, through a tunnel on foot to what they
+called here in Venia the Lower Plaza. We crossed it, and entered one of
+their queerly flat buildings at the ground level; entered through an
+archway, passed through several rooms and came at last into a room
+whirring with instruments.
+
+Argo said triumphantly, yet humbly: "Tarrano, Master--we are here."
+
+A man at a table of helio-sending instruments turned and faced us. We
+were in the presence of the dread Tarrano!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_Man of Destiny_
+
+
+Tarrano! He rose slowly to his feet, his gaze on us for an instant, then
+turning to Argo.
+
+"So! You took them? Well done, Argo!"
+
+His gesture dismissed his subordinate; Argo backed from the room. From a
+disc, an announcer was detailing dispatches. Tarrano frowned slightly.
+He advanced to us as we three stood together. I had heard Elza give a
+low, surprised cry as we entered. She stood with a hand upon my arm. I
+could feel her trembling, but her face now was impassive.
+
+Georg whispered to me: "This Tarrano----"
+
+But our captor's voice checked him. "Come this way, please." He
+signalled, and three men came forward. To them he issued short commands;
+they took their places at the instrument tables. Then he led us from the
+room through an arch, over a small trestle, into a tiny inner courtyard.
+A tropical garden, surrounded by blank circular walls of the building. A
+patch of blue sky showed above it. A garden secluded from prying eyes,
+with only a single spider bridge crossing overhead. Vivid flowers and
+foliage made it a bower. Brown bark paths laced it; a tiny fountain
+splashed in the center.
+
+Tarrano sat on the rim of the fountain; he gestured to a white stone
+bench where we three sat in a row, Elza between us. It made me feel like
+a child.
+
+"Your father is dead." He was addressing Elza; and then Georg. "That is
+unfortunate. He was a good man. I'm sorry."
+
+His voice was soft and musical. He sat there on the fountain rim, an
+elbow on his crossed knees, chin resting in his hand, his eyes studying
+us. A small, slight figure of a man, no more than thirty-five. Simply
+dressed; white trousers of the tropics, with a strip of narrow black
+down the leg-fronts; a girdle of gold; ruffled white shirt, with sleeves
+that flared a trifle, and a neck-piece of black. From his belt dangled a
+few instruments and several personal weapons--beautifully wrought,
+small--almost miniatures--yet deadly-looking for all that.
+
+He was bareheaded; black hair closely clipped. A face smooth-shaven.
+Thin, with a nose hawk-like, and black eyes and heavy brows. His mouth
+was thin-lipped, though smiling now, disclosing even, white teeth. Yet a
+cruel mouth, with the firm jaw of determination and power under it. The
+familiar gray Venus skin, but with that bronze cast of the people of the
+Central State.
+
+At first glance, not an unusual or particularly commanding figure. Yet
+the man's power of personality, the sheer dominant force of him,
+radiated like a tower code-beam. No one could be in his presence an
+instant without feeling it. A power that enwrapped you; made you feel
+like a child. Helpless. Anxious to placate a possible wrath that would
+be devastating; anxious--absurdly--for a smile. It was a radiation of
+genius, humbling every mediocre mortal it touched.
+
+I felt it--felt all this from the moment I came into his presence. Felt
+like a child, sitting there on that bench. Vaguely frightened; sullen,
+with childish resentment at my superior. And over it all, my man's
+mentality made me angry at myself for such emotions; angry at the
+consciousness of my own inferiority, forced upon me now more strongly
+than ever anything or any one had made me feel it before.
+
+Tarrano was smiling gently. "... killed your father. I would not have
+had it so. Yet--perhaps it was necessary. The Lady Elza----"
+
+I could feel Elza trembling again. Georg burst out: "What do you want of
+us? Who are you?"
+
+Tarrano's slim gray-brown hand came up.
+
+"The Lady Elza remembers me----" He seemed waiting with his gentle smile
+for her to speak.
+
+"They called you Taro then," she said. Her voice was the small, scared,
+diffident voice of a child.
+
+"Yes. Taro. A mere sub-officer of the Central State. But destined for
+bigger things than that, as you see. They did not like what they called
+my ambitious ways--and so they sent me to the Cold Country. That was
+soon after I had met you and your father, Lady Elza. You hardly remarked
+me then--I was so insignificant a personage. But you--I remembered
+you----"
+
+Still there was in his voice and on his face nothing but kindness and a
+queer whimsical look of reminiscence. He broke off at the buzz of a disc
+that hung from his belt by a golden chain. He jerked it loose from its
+snap, and to his ear clasped a small receiver. Like a mask his
+gentleness dropped from him. His voice rasped:
+
+"Yes?..." The receiver murmured into his ear. He said: "Connect
+him--I'll listen to what he has to say."
+
+A moment; then on the tiny mirror fastened to his wrist with a strap, I
+saw a face appear--a face known throughout our Earth--the face of the
+War-Director of Great London. Tarrano listened impassively. When the
+voice ceased, he said without an instant's hesitation: "No!"
+
+A decision irrevocable; the power almost of a deity seemed behind its
+finality. "No! I--will--not--do--it!" Careful, slow enunciation as
+though to make sure an inferior mentality could not mistake his words.
+And with a click, Tarrano broke connection. The mirror went dark; he
+hung his little disc and ear-piece back on his belt. Again he was
+smiling at us gently, the incident forgotten already--dismissed from his
+mind until the need to consider it should again arise.
+
+"I remember you, Lady Elza, very well." A vague wistfulness came into
+his voice. "I wish to speak with you alone--now--for a moment." He
+touched two of the metal buttons of his shirt-front together. A man
+appeared in the narrow tunnel-entrance to the garden. A small man, no
+more than four and a half feet tall; a trim, but powerfully made little
+figure, in the black and white linen uniform worn also by Tarrano. Yet
+more pretentiously dressed than his superior. A broad belt of dangling
+weapons; under it, a sash of red, encircling his waist and flowing down
+one side. Over his white ruffled shirt, a short sleeveless vest of black
+silk. A circular hat, with a vivid plume. A smooth-shaven face; black
+hair long to the base of the neck; a deep, red-brown complexion. A
+native of the Little People of Mars, here in the service of Tarrano. He
+stood stiff and respectful in the tunnel entrance.
+
+Tarrano said crisply: "Wolfgar, take these two men to the fourth tower.
+Make them comfortable."
+
+I met Georg's eyes. Leave Elza here alone with this man? Georg burst
+out: "My sister goes with me!"
+
+"So?" Tarrano's heavy brows went up inquiringly. A quizzical smile
+plucked at his lips. "You need have no fear. The Lady Elza----" He swung
+to her. "Not--afraid, are you?"
+
+"I--no," she stammered.
+
+"She'll come with us," I declared; but the stoutness of my words could
+not hide my fear. Tarrano was still smiling; but as I took a protecting
+step toward Elza, his smile died.
+
+"You--will go--with Wolfgar--both of you." That same slow finality. His
+face was impassive; but under his frowning bushy brows, his eyes
+transfixed me. It was as though with his paralyzing ray he had rooted me
+to the spot. And Georg beside me. Yet he had not moved from his careless
+attitude of ease on the fountain-rim; the little conical golden weapon
+dangled untouched at his belt.
+
+Elza was frightened. "Jac! You must do what he says. I'm--not afraid."
+
+Again Tarrano was smiling. "No--of course not." His gaze went to Georg.
+"You are her brother--your fear is very natural. So I give you my
+word--the honorable word of Tarrano--that she shall come to no harm."
+
+Elza murmured: "Go, Georg." Afraid for us, and doubtless she had good
+reason to be. It struck me then as queer that Tarrano should waste these
+words with us; but I realized, as did Elza and Georg, that we were
+treading very dangerous ground. Georg said, with a sudden dignity at
+which I marveled:
+
+"Your word is quite enough." He gestured to me. With a last glance at
+Elza, standing there frightened, but for our sakes striving not to show
+it, we let this Wolfgar lead us away.
+
+Elza later told us what occurred. With her father, she had been twice to
+the Venus Central State--the visit of two years ago Dr. Brende had
+mentioned to me, and a former one. It was upon this first trip Elza had
+met Tarrano. He was an under-officer then, in the Army of the Central
+State--his name then was Taro. She--herself no more than a slip of a
+girl at that time--remembered him as a queerly silent young
+man--insignificant in physique and manner. He had escorted her once to a
+Venus festival; in a strange, brooding, humble, yet dignified fashion,
+he had spoken of love. She had laughed, and soon forgot the incident.
+But Tarrano had not forgotten. The daughter of the great Dr. Brende had
+fired his youthful imagination. Who knows what dreams even then--born of
+the genius as yet merely latent--were within him? He had never crossed
+Elza's mind from that time, until today she saw and recognized him.
+
+When they were alone, still without moving from his seat, he signed her
+to come to him, to sit on the carpet of grass at his feet. She was
+frightened, but she would not show it. He made no move to touch her; he
+gazed down to meet her upturned, fascinated stare, still with his
+gentle, whimsical smile.
+
+"Queer that I should meet you again, Lady Elza. Yet, I must admit, it
+comes not by chance, for I contrived it. My prisoner! Dr. Brende's
+daughter, held captive by little Taro!"
+
+It seemed to amuse him, this whimsical reminiscence of those days when
+he was struggling unknown. "I want to confess something to you, Lady
+Elza. You were so far above me then--daughter of the famous Dr. Brende.
+Yet, as you remember, I aspired to you. And now--I have not changed. I
+never change. I still--aspire to you."
+
+He said it very softly, slowly. She flushed; but for that moment fear of
+him dropped from her.
+
+"Oh," she said. "I--I thank you for such a compliment----"
+
+"A compliment? Yes, I suppose it is that now. You wondered, didn't you,
+why I was so lenient with your brother and that Jac Hallen when they
+would have refused me obedience? That is not my way--to be lenient." He
+said it with a sudden snap of crispness, but his eyes were twinkling.
+"It was because of you, Lady Elza."
+
+"Me?" she murmured.
+
+"You--of course. Because I--want you to like me." His fingers
+involuntarily touched a stray lock of her hair as she sat there at his
+feet, but when she moved her head away he withdrew his hand. His slow
+voice went on:
+
+"Back in those other days, Lady Elza, the little Taro had strange
+dreams. A power within him--he could feel it--here----" His gaze was far
+away; his fist struck his breast. "He could feel it--the urge to fulfill
+his destiny--feel it within him, and no one else knew it was there.
+
+"Then--you came. A shy, rather pretty little girl, he realizes now, is
+all you were. But then--you seemed a goddess. A new dream arose--a dream
+of you ... I frighten you, child?" His tone was contrite. "I do not mean
+to do that. I am too hasty. Queer, isn't it, that I can make men,
+nations, worlds, obey me--but I have to bide my time with a fragile
+little woman?"
+
+His mood changed; he stirred. "I could bend you to my will--break
+you--like that!" His lean fingers snapped. Then his hand dropped, and
+again he relaxed. "But of what use?... Your respect? I have it now.
+Respect and fear come to me from everyone. It is something more than
+that I want from you."
+
+She would have spoken, but his gesture stopped her. "Queer that I should
+want it? Yes, I think perhaps it is. The little Taro was very queer,
+perhaps very impressionable. He knew he had nations and worlds to
+conquer--a destiny to fulfill. Not alone because of you, little Elza. I
+would not make you think that. But for you to share. The great Tarrano,
+master of the universe, and his Lady Elza! Worlds for you to toy with,
+like gems on a thread adorning your white throat----"
+
+He must have swayed her, the sheer power of him. Impulsively she touched
+his knee. "I am not worth----"
+
+His face clouded with a frown. "I would not try to buy your love----"
+
+"Oh," she said. "No, I did not mean----"
+
+"I would not try to buy you. I want to share with you--these worlds--as
+your due. To make myself master of everything, so that you will look to
+me and say, 'He is the greatest of all men--I love him'.... Soon I will
+be the greatest of all men throughout the ages. And very gentle always,
+with you, Lady Elza----"
+
+A buzz came from the disc at his belt. He answered the call--listened to
+a voice.
+
+"So? Bring him here." He disconnected. "...very gentle with you, my
+Elza----"
+
+His voice drifted away. He seemed waiting; and Elza, her head whirling
+with the confusion of it all, sat silent. A moment; then Argo appeared,
+driving a half-nude man before him. A native official of Venia, stripped
+of his uniform. Argo flung him down in the garden path, where he
+cowered, his face ashen, his eyes wild, lips mumbling with terror.
+
+Tarrano barely moved. "So? You tell me he was asleep at the mirrors,
+Argo?"
+
+"Master, I could not help it! Since first you made your move in Greater
+New York at Park Sixty, I have sat there. Two nights and a day----"
+
+"And you fell asleep without asking for a relief?"
+
+"Master, I----"
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"Yes. I did not realize I was sleeping----"
+
+A gesture to Argo, and the man was flung closer to Tarrano's feet. Elza
+shrank away.
+
+"Left a mirror unattended. So?... The wire, Argo." He took the length
+of wire, gleaming white-hot, as the leering, gloating Argo turned the
+current into it--Tarrano took it, lashed it upon the poor wretch's naked
+back and legs. Welts arose, and the stench of burning flesh. A measured
+score of the passionless strokes made him writhe and scream in agony.
+
+It turned Elza sick and faint. Shuddering, she crouched there, hiding
+her face until the punishment was over and the half-unconscious culprit
+was carried away.
+
+"Very gentle with you, my Elza...."
+
+She looked up to find Tarrano smiling at her; looked up and stared, and
+wondered what might be her fate with such a man as this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+_Prisoners_
+
+
+From the garden where Tarrano was talking with Elza, the Mars man
+Wolfgar led us to the tower in which we were to be imprisoned. Quite
+evidently it had been placed in readiness for us. A tower of several
+rooms, comfortably equipped. As we crossed the lower bridge and reached
+the main doorway, Wolfgar unsealed a black fuse-box which stood there,
+and pulled the relief-switch. The current, barring passage through every
+door and window of the tower, was thrown off. We entered. My mind was
+alert. This man of the Little People could not again turn on that
+current without going outside. Once it was on, like an invisible wall it
+would prevent our escape. But now--could not Georg and I with our
+superior strength overpower this smaller man?
+
+I caught Georg's glance as our captor led us into the lower room--an
+apartment cut into the half-segment of a circle. Georg, at my elbow,
+whispered: "No use! Where could we go? Could not get out of the
+city----"
+
+The hearing of the Little People is sharp. Wolfgar turned his head and
+smiled. "You will be quite secure here--do not think of escape." His
+bronzed fingers toyed with a cone at his belt. "Do not think of it."
+
+Soon he left us, with the parting words: "You may use the upper circle
+of balcony. The current rises only from its rail." He smiled and left
+us. A pleasant smile; I felt myself liking this jailer of ours.
+
+We took a turn of the tower. There were three bedrooms; a cookery, with
+food and equipment wherein evidently it was intended that Elza could
+prepare our meals; and two bath-apartments, one of them fairly
+luxurious, with a pool almost large enough for a little swimming; tubes
+of scent for the water and the usual temperature rods.
+
+"Well," I remarked. "Obviously we are to be comfortable." I was trying
+to be cheerful, but my heart was heavy with foreboding nevertheless.
+"How long do you suppose they'll keep us here, Georg? And what----"
+
+His impatient gesture stopped me. His mind was on Elza--alone down there
+in the garden with Tarrano--as was mine, though I had not wanted to
+speak of her.
+
+There was an instrument room, up the circular incline in the peak of the
+tower! We heard the hum of it; and when we went up there, the first
+thing we saw was a mirror tuned in readiness for us to view the garden
+we had just left. This strange Tarrano, giving Georg the visible proof
+that he would keep his word and not harm Elza. We could see in this
+mirror the image of the scene down there--Elza and Tarrano talking. But
+could not hear the words--those were denied us. We saw the culprit
+brought in; the punishment with the white-hot wire-lash, and a few
+moments later Elza was with us.
+
+During the hours which followed, we made no attempt to escape. Such an
+effort would have been absurd. The current controls were outside, beyond
+our reach. Visibly, we were free, with open, unbarred arches and
+casements. But to pass through one of them, the barring current struck
+you like a wall, with darting sparks when it was touched. As Wolfgar had
+said, we had access to the upper balcony; the waist-high rail there,
+with its needle-points of electrodes, sent up a visible stream of the
+Nth Electrons--a dull glow by daylight; at night a riot of colors and
+snapping sparks.
+
+Through this barrage an inner vista of the city was visible; towers,
+arcades, landing-stages and spider bridges a hundred feet or so above
+us; the lower levels beneath, and through a canyon of walls we could
+just make out a corner of the ground-plaza, with its trees and beds of
+flowers.
+
+A queerly flat little city--tropical with banana trees and vivid foliage
+in every corner plot of the viaducts. At night it was beautiful with its
+romantic spreading lights of soft rose and violet tubes, and there was a
+fair patch of open sky above us--a deep purple at night, star-strewn.
+
+Under other circumstances our imprisonment would not have been irksome.
+But these hours, most critical of any in the history of the nations of
+Earth, Venus and Mars, unfolded their momentous events while we were
+forced there to helpless idleness. All sending apparatus of our
+instrument room was permanently disconnected. But the news came in to us
+from a hundred sources--rolled out for us in the announcer's droning
+words; printed for permanent record upon the tapes and visible images of
+it all constantly were flashing upon the mirrors.
+
+We spent hours in that instrument room--one or the other of us was
+almost always there. Save that we were ourselves isolated from
+communication, we were in touch with everything. A whim of this Tarrano;
+perhaps a strain of vanity that Elza should see and hear of these
+events.
+
+So much had occurred already during those hours of our trip over the
+Polar ocean and back that we scarce could fathom it. But gradually we
+pieced it together. Underlying it all, Tarrano's dream of universal
+conquest was plain. In the Venus Cold Country he had started his
+wide-flung plans. Years of planning, with plans maturing slowly,
+secretly, and bursting now like a spreading ray-bomb upon the three
+worlds at once.
+
+In Venus, the Cold Country had conquered its governing Central State.
+Tarrano's army there was in full control. The helio station in the Great
+City was now reinstated. The Tarrano officials had already set up their
+new government. With notification to the Earth and Mars that they
+demanded recognition, they were sending the usual routine helio
+dispatches and reports, quite as though nothing had occurred. The mails
+would proceed as before, they announced; the one due to leave this
+afternoon for the Earth was off on time.
+
+It was all very clever propaganda for our Earth public consumption.
+Tarrano--who was visiting our Earth at present, they said--had been
+chosen Master of Venus. His government desired Earth's official
+recognition, and asked for our proclamation of friendliness in answer to
+their own. The present Ambassadors of the Venus Central State to the
+Earth--there were three of them, one each in Great London, Tokyohama and
+Mombozo--this new government requested that we send them back to the
+Great City as prisoners of the Tarrano forces. Other Ambassadors,
+representing the new government, would be sent to the Earth.
+
+All this occurred during the first few hours of our imprisonment in the
+tower. And during the day previous, at 7 P.M. this night--70° West
+Meridian Time--the governments of our Earth met in Triple Conference in
+Great London. Three rulers pro tem--White, Yellow and Black--to replace
+the three who had been assassinated. The responsibility for the
+assassinations was placed by the Council upon Tarrano. But this--from
+his headquarters here in Venia--he blandly refused to accept, denying
+all knowledge of the murders. Venia was the principal Venus immigrant
+colony of Earth's Western Hemisphere. It had already been closed by our
+Earth Council; its inhabitants interned as possible alien enemies,
+pending diplomatic developments. This was the meaning of that line of
+official vessels lying there to the north on guard. No one could leave
+Venia, and for a day Venus refugees had been ordered into it from
+everywhere.
+
+At 8:40 this evening came from Great London our ultimatum to Tarrano. A
+duplicate of it went to the Great City of Venus via the Hawaiian
+Station. The Earth would not recognize the Tarrano government of Venus.
+We would hold to our treaty of friendship with the Central State. We
+would remain neutral for a time. But Tarrano himself we declared an
+outlaw. His presence was required in Washington to stand trial for the
+assassinations, and the delivery in Washington of Dr. Brende's notes and
+model was demanded.
+
+The ultimatum carried a day of grace; the alternate was a declaration of
+war by the Earth, and our immediate attack upon Venia. It was the same
+proposition which our War Director had previously made unofficially to
+Tarrano while he was there in the garden with Elza and which Tarrano so
+summarily had rejected.
+
+The ultimatum came to us in the tower as we sat listening to the
+announcer's measured tones. Elza exclaimed:
+
+"But why do they wait? Father's model must be here. Tarrano, the leader
+of all this--is here. Within the hour those vessels of war could sweep
+in here--capture Tarrano--recover father's model----"
+
+Georg interrupted quietly: "No one knows if the model is here. That
+other car from the laboratory--we don't know where it went. The
+plundered laboratory has been found, of course. No station up there is
+near enough to have eavesdropped upon our capture, but the whole thing
+must have come out by now. But that aero with the model may have met an
+inter-planetary vessel--the model may be on the way to Venus by now."
+
+"Georg," I exclaimed, "do _you_ know the workings of that model? Could
+you build another without the notes?"
+
+He nodded solemnly. "Yes. And they know that, in Washington. I could
+build another. But they know by now, that I, too, am in Tarrano's
+hands----"
+
+"And he will kill you, of course, to destroy that knowledge and keep the
+secret for himself----" I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake; but I
+thought it, and I realized that Georg was thinking it also.
+
+Dr. Brende's secret of longevity was the crux of all this turmoil--the
+lever by which Tarrano was raising himself. Scores of facts amid the
+tumultuous news of these hours showed us that. For months, throughout
+Venus, Tarrano had spread the insidious propaganda that he alone had the
+secret of immortality--that when he was made ruler, he would use it for
+the benefit of his followers.
+
+Converts to Tarrano's cause were everywhere. In the Central State many
+welcomed the coming of his army. And now from the Great City his
+propaganda was being sent to the Earth. Murmurs from our own Earth
+public were beginning to be heard. The ignorant lower classes seemed
+ready to swallow anything. A new beneficent ruler who guaranteed
+everlasting life! Throughout the ages people have flocked to that same
+standard!
+
+In Mars, much the same was transpiring. At almost her closest point to
+the Earth these days, Red Mars sent us constant helios from the midnight
+sky. The Little People had appointed a new ruler to take the place of
+him who had been assassinated. The Council there put the assassination
+to unknown causes. Tarrano was held blameless. The Little People
+declared themselves neutral. But they gave prompt official recognition
+to the Tarrano government of Venus. And everywhere throughout Mars the
+public was stirred by the thought of everlasting life.
+
+"Fools!" muttered Georg. "That Little People government--they'll have a
+revolution of their own to fight at this rate. Can't you see what
+Tarrano is doing? Working everywhere with propaganda--working on the
+public--the gullible public ready always to swallow anything----"
+
+On Earth, lay the crisis. Our own governments only had taken a firm
+stand. What could Tarrano do with this ultimatum? Either he must yield
+himself and the Brende secret, or a war in which he would be immediately
+overwhelmed here in Venia would follow.
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock that first night. Elza had gone to the
+balcony. We heard her call us softly, but with obvious tenseness. Out
+there we found her pointing excitedly. A few hundred feet away and
+somewhat below us was a tower similar to our own. In one of its oblong
+casements a glow of rose-light showed. And within the glow was the
+full-length figure of a girl. We could see her plainly, though a small
+image at that distance with the naked eye, and our personal vision
+instruments had been taken from us. A slender, imperial figure--a young
+girl seemingly about Elza's age. Dressed in a shimmering blue kirtle,
+short after the Venus fashion, with long grey stockings beneath. A girl
+with flowing waves of pure white hair to her waist--a girl of the Venus
+Central State. She seemed, like ourselves, a prisoner. An aura or
+barrage was around her tower. She stood there, back in the tower room,
+full in the rose-light as though surreptitiously trying to attract our
+attention.
+
+As we gathered on our balcony, behind the glow of our own barrage, she
+gestured to us vehemently. And then, with one white arm, she began to
+semaphore. One arm, and then with both. Georg and I recognized it--the
+Secondary Code of the Anglo-Saxon Army. We murmured the letters aloud as
+she gave them:
+
+"_I am----_" Abruptly she stopped. A violent gesture, and she
+disappeared; her rose-glow went out; her tower casement was dark. On a
+lower spider bridge Tarrano had appeared. He was crossing it on foot
+toward our tower, his small erect form advancing hastelessly, with the
+figure of Argo behind him.
+
+He reached our lower entrance, cut off the barrage there, and entered.
+Argo replaced the barrage, lingered an instant, gazing upward at us with
+his habitual leer. Then he retraced his steps across the bridge and
+disappeared.
+
+A moment more, and in our lounging apartment Tarrano faced us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+_Unknown Friend_
+
+
+"Sit down." Tarrano motioned us to feather hassocks and stretched
+himself indolently upon our pillowed divan. With an elbow and hand
+supporting his head he regarded us with his sombre black eyes, his face
+impassive, an inscrutable smile playing about his thin lips.
+
+"I wish to speak with you three. The Lady Elza----" His glance went to
+her briefly, then to Georg. "She has told you, perhaps, what I had to
+say to her?"
+
+"Yes," said Georg shortly.
+
+Elza had indeed told us. And with sinking heart I had listened, for it
+did not seem to me that any maiden could resist so dominant a man as
+this. But I had made no comment, nor had Georg. Elza had seemed
+unwilling to discuss it, had flushed when her brother's eyes had keenly
+searched her face.
+
+And she flushed now, but Tarrano dismissed the subject with a gesture.
+"That--is between her and me.... You have been following the general
+news, I assume? I provided you with it." He rolled a little cylinder of
+the arrant-leaf, and lighted it.
+
+"Yes," said Georg.
+
+Georg was waiting for our captor to lay his cards before us. Tarrano
+knew it; his smile broadened. "I shall not mince words, Georg Brende.
+Between men, that is not necessary. And we are isolated here--no one
+beyond Venia can listen. As you know, I am already Master of Venus. In
+Mars--that will shortly come. They will hand themselves over to me--or I
+shall conquer them." He shrugged. "It is quite immaterial." He added
+contemptuously: "People are fools--almost everyone--it is no great feat
+to dominate them."
+
+"You'll find our Earth leaders are not fools," Georg said quietly.
+
+Tarrano's heavy brows went up. "So?" He chuckled. "That remains to be
+seen. Well, you heard the ultimatum they sent me? What do you think of
+it?"
+
+"I think you'd best obey it," I burst out impulsively.
+
+"I was not speaking to you." He did not change the level intonation of
+his voice, nor even look my way. "You are to die tomorrow, Jac
+Hallen----"
+
+Elza gave a low cry; instantly his gaze swung to her. "So? That strikes
+at _you_, Lady Elza?"
+
+She flushed even deeper than before, and the flush, with her instinctive
+look to me that accompanied it, made my heart leap. Tarrano's face had
+darkened. "You would not have me put him to death, Lady Elza?"
+
+She was struggling to guard from him her emotions; struggling to match
+her woman's wit against him.
+
+"I--why no," she stammered.
+
+"No? Because he is--your friend?"
+
+"Yes. I--I would not let you do that."
+
+"Not let me?" Incredulous amusement swept over his face.
+
+"No. I would not--let you do that." Her gaze now held level with his. A
+strength came to her voice. Georg and I watched her--and watched
+Tarrano--fascinated. She repeated once more: "No. I would not let you."
+
+"How could you stop me?"
+
+"I would--tell you not to do it."
+
+"So?" Admiration leaped into his eyes to mingle with the amusement
+there. "You would tell me not to do it?"
+
+"Yes." She did not flinch before him.
+
+"And you think then--I would spare him?"
+
+"Yes. I know you would."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because--if you did a thing like that--I should--hate you."
+
+"Hate----"
+
+"Yes. Hate you--always."
+
+He turned suddenly away from her, sitting up with a snap of alertness.
+"Enough of this." Did he realize he was defeated in this passage with a
+girl? Was he trying to cover from us the knowledge of his defeat? And
+then again the bigness of him made itself manifest. He acknowledged
+soberly:
+
+"You have bested me, Lady Elza. And you've made me realize that
+I--Tarrano--have almost lowered myself to admit this Jac Hallen my
+rival." He laughed harshly. "Not so! A rival? Pah! He shall live if you
+wish it--live close by you and me--as an insect might live on a twig by
+the rim of the eagle's nest.... Enough!... I was asking you, Georg
+Brende, of this ultimatum. Should I yield to it?" He had suppressed his
+other emotions; he was amusing himself with us again.
+
+"Yes," said Georg.
+
+"But I have already refused--today in the garden. Would you have me
+change? I am not one lightly to change a decision already reached."
+
+"You'll have to."
+
+"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Of one thing I am sure. I cannot let them declare
+war against me just now. I have no defense, here in Venia. Scarce the
+armament for my handful of men. Your vessels of war would sweep down
+here and overpower me in a breath--trap me here helpless----"
+
+"Of course," said Georg.
+
+"And so I must not let them do that. They want me to come to Washington
+with the Brende model--deliver it over to them. Yet--that does not
+appeal to me. Tomorrow I shall have to bargain with them further. I
+could not deliver to them the Brende model." He was chuckling at his own
+phrasing. "No--no, I could not do that."
+
+"Why?" demanded Georg. "Isn't the model here?"
+
+"It is--where it is," said Tarrano. He became more serious. "You,
+Georg--you could build one of those models?"
+
+Georg did not answer.
+
+"You could, of course," Tarrano insisted. "My spy, Ahla--you remember
+her, the Lady Elza's maid for so long? She is here in Venia; she tells
+me of your knowledge and skill with your father's apparatus. So you see,
+I realize I have two to guard--the model itself, and you, who know its
+secret."
+
+He now became more openly alert and earnest than I had ever seen him.
+The light from the tube along the side wall edged his lean, serious face
+with its silver glow. "I've a proposition for you, Georg Brende. Between
+men, such things can be put bruskly. Your sister--her personal decision
+will take time. I would not force it. But meanwhile--I do not like to
+hold you and her as captives."
+
+The shadow of a smile crossed Georg's face. "We shall be glad to have
+you set us free."
+
+Tarrano remained grave. "You are a humorist. And a clever young fellow,
+Georg Brende. You--as Elza's brother--and as your father's son with your
+medical knowledge--you can be of great use to me. Suppose I offer you a
+place by my side always? To share with me--and with the Lady Elza--these
+conquests.... Wait! It is not the part of wisdom to decide until you
+have all the facts. I shall confide in you one of my plans. The publics
+of Venus, Mars and the Earth--they think this everlasting life, as they
+call it, is to be shared with them."
+
+His chuckle was the rasp of a file on a block of adamant. "Shared
+with them! That is the bait I dangle before their noses. In reality,
+I shall share it only with the Lady Elza. And with you--her brother,
+and the mate you some day will take for yourself. Indeed, I have
+a maiden already at hand, picked out for you.... But that can come
+later.... Everlasting life? Nonsense! Your father's discovery cannot
+confer that. But we shall live two centuries or more. Four of us. To
+see the generations come and go--frail mortals, while we live on to
+conquer and to rule the worlds.... Come, what do you say?"
+
+"I say no."
+
+Tarrano showed no emotion, save perhaps a flicker of admiration. "You
+are decisive. You have many good qualities, Georg Brende. I wonder if
+you have any good reasons?"
+
+"Because you are an enemy of my world," Georg declared, with more heat
+than he had yet displayed.
+
+"Ah! Patriotism! A good lure for the ignorant masses, that thing they
+call patriotism. For rulers, a good mask with which to hide their
+unscrupulous schemes. That's all it is, Georg Brende. Cannot you give me
+a better reason? You think perhaps I am not sincere? You think I would
+not share longevity with you--that I would play you false?"
+
+"No," Georg declared. "But my father's work was for the people. I'm not
+talking patriotism--only humanitarianism. The strife, suffering in our
+worlds--you would avoid it yourself--and gloat while others bore it.
+You----"
+
+"Youth!" Tarrano interrupted. "Altruism! It is very pretty in
+theory--but quite nonsensical. Man lifts himself--the individual must
+look out for himself--not for others. Each man to his destiny--and the
+weak go down and the strong go up. It is the way of all life--animal and
+human. It always has been--and it always will be. The way of the
+universe. You are very young, Georg Brende."
+
+"Perhaps," Georg said, and fell silent.
+
+Tarrano abruptly rose to his feet. "Calm thought is better than
+argument. You have imagination--you can picture what I offer. Think it
+over. And if youth is your trouble----" His eyes were twinkling. "I
+shall have to wait until you grow up. We have a long road to
+travel--empires cannot be built in a day."
+
+He paused before Elza with a grave, dignified bow. "Goodnight, Lady
+Elza."
+
+"Goodnight," she said.
+
+He left us. We stood listening to his footsteps as he quietly descended
+the tower incline. At his summons, the barrage was lifted. He went out.
+From the balcony we saw him cross the spider bridge, with Argo at his
+heels. As they vanished into the yawning mouth of an arcade beyond the
+bridge, again came that rose-glow in the other tower. We saw again the
+girl with flowing white hair standing there. And now she was waving us
+back.
+
+"She wants us inside, where we can't be seen," Georg murmured. We drew
+back into the room, standing where we still could see the girl. I
+wondered then--and we had discussed it several times these last
+hours--if the interior of our tower were under observation by some
+distant guard. We felt that probably it was, visibly and audibly; and we
+had been very careful of what we said aloud.
+
+But now, if we were watched, we could not help it; we would have to take
+the chance. The figure of the girl showed plainly down there through the
+other casement. And again, with slow-moving white arms she began to
+semaphore. A queer application of the Secondary Code, which always is
+used officially with coral-light beams over considerable distances. But
+it sufficed in this emergency. Slowly she spelled out the letters,
+words, phrases.
+
+_"I am Princess Maida----"_
+
+Georg whispered to us: "Hereditary ruler of the Central State----"
+
+I nodded. "Watch, Georg----"
+
+_"Prisoner----"_ came next: _"Like yourselves, and we must escape."_
+
+She paused a moment, letting her arms drop to her sides, shaking the
+glorious waves of her white hair with a toss of her head. Then, at a
+gesture from Georg that he understood, she began again:
+
+_"Escape tonight----"_
+
+I half expected that any moment Tarrano or one of his men would burst in
+to stop this. But the signals continued.
+
+_"I am sending you a friend--tonight--soon--he will come to you. With
+plans for our escape. A good friend----"_
+
+Her tower abruptly went dark. Cautiously I gazed down from our balcony.
+Argo had appeared on the spider bridge; he was pacing back and forth.
+Did he suspect anything? We could not tell, but it seemed not. It was
+the midnight hour; a brilliant white flash swept the city to mark it.
+
+In a low corner of the balcony, behind the glow of our barrage, we
+crouched together, whispering excitedly. But cautiously, for we
+knew that the microphonic ears of a jailor might be upon us. The
+Princess Maida--here in Tarrano's hands! She was sending us a
+friend--tonight--soon; a friend who would help us all to escape.
+
+"By the code!" Georg exclaimed. "If we could get to Washington--if I
+could be there now in this crisis--with my knowledge of the Brende
+light----"
+
+Far above our personal safety, our lives, lay the importance of Georg's
+knowledge. With the Brende secret--through him--in the hands of the
+Earth Council, Tarrano's greatest lever to power would be broken. Our
+Earth public would sway back to patriotic loyalty. The Little People of
+Mars unquestionably would remain friendly with us, with the Brende light
+to be developed on Earth and shared with them. They would see Tarrano
+perhaps, for what he was--a dangerous, unscrupulous enemy.... If only
+Georg could escape....
+
+An hour went by with murmured thoughts like these. A friend coming to
+help us? How could he reach us? And how help us to escape?
+
+We crouched there, waiting. Argo--obviously on night guard--still paced
+the bridge. The city was comparatively dark and silent; yet even so,
+there seemed more activity than we felt was normal. Occasional beams
+flashed across the narrow segment of our sky. The crescent terraces,
+visible through a shallow canyon of buildings to the left, were a blaze
+of colored lights with the dark figures of people thronging them. The
+mingled hum of instruments was in the night air; sometimes the snap of
+an aerial; and the steady, clicking whir of the night escalators on the
+city street levels and inclines.
+
+It seemed hours that we waited. The green flash of the second hour past
+midnight bathed the city in its split-second lurid glare. Elza had
+fallen asleep, beside us on the feathered hassock of our balcony corner.
+But Georg and I were fully alert--waiting for this unknown friend. Georg
+had smoked innumerable arrant-leaf cylinders. Through the insulated
+tube, from a public cookery occasional hot dishes were passing our
+dining room for us to take if we wished. But we had touched none of
+them. From the food stock on hand, Elza had cooked our two simple meals.
+But now, with Elza asleep, Georg left me and returned in a moment with
+steaming cups of taro. We drank it silently, still waiting. Argo still
+paced the bridge on guard. Presently we saw the figure of Wolfgar join
+him. The two spoke together a moment; then Argo disappeared; Wolfgar
+paced back and forth on guard in his place.
+
+At 2:30 the Inter-Allied announcer--for half an hour past quite
+silent--brought us to our feet, his monotone droning from the disc in
+our instrument room:
+
+_"Greater New York, Inter-Allied Unofficial 2:27 A. M. Tarrano replies
+to the Earth Council Ultimatum...."_
+
+Our start woke up Elza. Together we rushed into the instrument room.
+
+_"With many hours yet before the Earth Council Ultimatum expires, it is
+unofficially reported that Tarrano has sent his note in answer. Its
+text, we are reliably informed, is now in the hands of our Governments
+at Great London, Greater New York, Tokyohama and Mombozo. Helios of it
+also have been sent to Tarrano's own government of Venus and to the
+Little People of Mars. We have as yet no further details...."_
+
+A buzz came as he ended, with only the click of the tape continuing as
+it printed his words. A period of silence, then again his voice:
+
+_"Official 2:32 A. M. Inter-Allied News: Tarrano rejects Ultimatum. His
+note to Earth Council complete defiance. Official text follows...."_
+
+We listened, dumb with amazement and awe. Tarrano's note was indeed,
+complete defiance. He would not yield up the Brende light. Nor would he
+deliver himself in Washington for trial. In the suave, courteous
+language of diplomacy, he deplored the unreasonable attitude of the
+Earth leaders. Ironically, he suggested that they declare war. He would
+be overwhelmed in Venia, of course. He had no means of defending himself
+against their aggression. But at the first flash of hostile rays, the
+Brende model would be destroyed forever. And Georg Brende--the only
+living person who had the knowledge to replace the model--would die
+instantly. The Brende secret would be lost irrevocably. It was
+unfortunate that humanity on Earth, Venus and Mars, should be denied
+their chance for immortality. Unfortunate that the Earth leaders were so
+headstrong. They were enemies, in reality, of their own people--and
+enemies of the peoples of Venus and Mars. But if the Earth Council
+wished war with Tarrano--then war let it be.
+
+"A bluff," I exclaimed. "He would lose everything himself. It's
+suicide--"
+
+"Not suicide," Georg said soberly. "Propaganda. Can't you see it? He
+knows the Earth Council will make no move until the ultimatum time has
+expired. Hours yet. And in those hours, he is working upon the publics
+of the three worlds."
+
+The announcer was silent again. Below us, in our tower, we heard a
+footstep. The barrage had been lifted to admit someone, then thrown on
+again. Measured footsteps were coming up our incline. We stood
+motionless, breathless. A moment; then into the room came Wolfgar. He
+did not speak. Advancing close to us as we stood transfixed, he jerked
+an instrument from his belt. It whirred and hummed in his hand. The room
+around us went black--a barrage of blackness and silence, with ourselves
+and Wolfgar in a pale glow standing within it as in a cylinder. The
+isolation-barrage. I had never been within one before, though upon
+drastic occasion they were in official use.
+
+Wolfgar said swiftly: "We cannot be seen or heard. I have been in charge
+of the mirror observing you--I have thrown it out of use. The Princess
+Maida--"
+
+"You are--the friend?" Georg whispered tensely. Elza was trembling and I
+put my arm about her.
+
+Wolfgar's face lightened with a brief smile; then went intensely
+serious. "Yes. A spy, trusted by Tarrano for years--but my heart is with
+the Princess Maida. We must escape--all of us--now, or it will be too
+late."
+
+He stopped abruptly, and a look of consternation came to him. The black
+silence enveloping us had without warning begun to crackle. The metal
+cone in Wolfgar's hand glowed red with interference-heat--but he clung
+to it, though it burned him. Sparks were snapping in the blackness
+around us. Our isolation was dissolving. Someone--something--was
+breaking it down, struggling to get at us!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+_Paralyzed!_
+
+
+The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving.
+Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage,
+struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me,
+Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was
+glowing red in his hand from intense heat.
+
+Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his
+words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:
+
+"We're trapped! _You_, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape."
+
+The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a
+weapon into Georg's hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.
+
+"Princess Maida ... she ... in that other tower ... you, so much more
+important than the rest of us...." Phrases I heard; but only phrases,
+for in those few seconds I stood dumbly confused, fascinated by watching
+the blackness in which we had enveloped ourselves now breaking into
+lurid, angry sparks.
+
+A distant corner of the room became visible; outlines of the wall-beams;
+the growing glare of a wall-light in a tube over there. And through the
+brightening gloom--the figure of a lone man standing. Tarrano!
+
+I heard Georg mutter: "Jac! Make a show of fight! Hold him! But
+careful--careful of Elza!"
+
+Behind me there came an electrical flash; the pungent smell of burning
+cloth. Georg was no longer beside us!
+
+Elza was still clinging to me in fright. I shook her off. Wolfgar flung
+his smoking, useless cylinder to the floor. The blackness at once sprang
+into light; the sparks died. Tarrano was standing in the room, quietly,
+before us. Standing with a grim, cynical smile, regarding us.
+
+But only for an instant did he stand quiet. Across the room, creeping
+for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw
+him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the
+interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at
+another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg.
+
+Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped
+toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me. Elza screamed. Tarrano's
+hand was leaving his belt. I reached him; flung out my fist for his
+face.
+
+But in that instant the weapon in Tarrano's hand was brought upon me. My
+paralyzed muscles made my arm and fist go wide. My blow missed him; he
+stepped aside; and like a man drunk with baro-wine, I stumbled past him,
+halted, swayed and struggled to keep my footing.
+
+Wolfgar had felt it also; he was reeling near me, holding himself from
+falling with difficulty. I was unarmed; but there were weapons hanging
+from Wolfgar's belt. His numbed fingers were groping for them. But the
+effort was too great. The blood, driven back from his arms, left them
+powerless; they fell dangling to his sides.
+
+A few seconds; but we had occupied Tarrano during them. Georg was
+through the balcony doorway and beyond our sight. Elza was standing
+motionless, too frightened to move. I felt myself growing numb, weighted
+to the floor as though my feet had taken root. My arms were hanging like
+wood; fingers tingling, then growing cold, dead to sensation. And a
+numbness creeping up my legs; and spreading inward from my arms and
+shoulders. In a few moments more, I knew the numbness would reach my
+heart.
+
+Tarrano had not moved, save that single step side-wise to avoid my
+onslaught. As I stood there now with my face like fire and my brain
+whirling with the blood congested in it, I heard his quiet voice:
+
+"Do not fear, Lady Elza. This Jac Hallen--as I promised you--is quite
+safe with me."
+
+His gesture waved her aside, that she should not come within those
+deadly vibrations he was flinging at us. And I saw his other hand lift a
+tiny mouthpiece from his belt; heard his voice say into it: "Argo? Argo!
+That Georg Brende----"
+
+He stopped; a look of annoyance came over his face. Argo did not answer!
+Dimly to my fading senses came the triumphant thought, the realization
+that Argo outside, upon whom Tarrano depended to seize Georg--had
+failed.
+
+Action had come to Tarrano. He snapped off his weapon. Released from it,
+Wolfgar and I wilted to the floor--lay inert. The returning blood in my
+limbs made them prick as with a million needles. To my sight and
+hearing, the room was whirling and roaring. I felt Tarrano bending
+swiftly over me; felt the forcible insertion of a branched metal tube in
+my nostrils; a hand over my mouth. I struggled to hold my
+breath--failed. Then inhaled with a gasp, a pungent, sickening-sweet
+gas. Roaring, clanging gongs sounded in my ears--roaring and clattering
+louder, then fading into silence. A wild, tumbling phantasmagoria of
+dreams. Then complete unconsciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+_Georg Escapes_
+
+
+I come now to recount events at which I was not present, and the details
+of which I did not learn until later. Fronted by Tarrano, in those few
+seconds of confusion, Georg made his decision to escape even at the cost
+of leaving Elza and me. He murmured his hurried good-bye. The moment had
+arrived. He could see Tarrano dimly through the sparks. He leaped
+backward, through that wall of electrical disturbance which surrounded
+us. The sparks tore at him; burned his clothing and flesh; the shock of
+it gripped his heart. But he went through; crept for the balcony. It was
+dark out there. He would have rushed for Tarrano instead of the balcony,
+but as he came through the sparks he had seen that the barrier
+surrounding our tower was momentarily lifted. Argo had cut it off to
+admit Tarrano a few moments before. He had not yet replaced
+it--absorbed, doubtless, in watching in his finder what Tarrano was
+doing with us. He must have seen Georg reach the balcony; and jumped
+then to replace the barrier. But too late. Georg was over the balcony
+rail with a leap. The insulated tubes were there--upright gleaming tubes
+of metal extending downward to the platform below. Tubes smooth, and as
+thick as a woman's waist.
+
+Georg slid down them. The barrage, above him on the balcony, had been
+replaced. He saw below him the figure of Argo come running out. A weapon
+in each hand. The burning pencil-ray swung at Georg, but missed him as
+he came down. Had it struck, it would have drilled him clean with its
+tiny hole of fire. Then Argo must have realized that Georg should be
+taken alive. He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrations
+which Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me.
+
+Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; and
+as he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe.
+But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a last
+effort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo. They went down together.
+
+Argo lay inert. The impact had knocked him senseless, and had struck his
+weapon from his hand. Georg sat up, and for a moment chafed his
+tingling, prickling arms and legs. He was bruised and shaken by the
+fall, but uninjured.
+
+Within our tower, Tarrano was still occupied with us. Georg leaped to
+his feet. He left Argo lying there--ran over the spider-bridge; down a
+spiral metal stairway, across another bridge, and came upon the small
+park-like platform which stood at the bottom of the other tower. He had
+passed within sight of a few pedestrians. One of them shouted at him;
+another had tried mildly to stop him. A crowd on a distant terrace saw
+him. A few of their personal flashes were turned his way. Murmurs arose.
+Someone at the head of one of the escalators, in a panic pulled an
+alarm-switch. It flared green into the sky, flashing its warning.
+
+The interior-guards--seated at their instrument tables in the lower
+rooms of the official buildings--had seen Georg in their finders. The
+alarm was spreading. Lights were appearing everywhere.... The murmurs of
+gathering people ... excited crowds ... an absurd woman leaning down
+over a far-away parapet and screaming ... an ignorant, flustered
+street-guard on a nearby upper terrace swinging his pencil-ray down at
+Georg.... Fortunately it fell short.
+
+For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult around
+him--stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein the
+Princess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles of
+doors and casements, all open--but barred by the glow of the electrical
+barrage surrounding it.
+
+Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.
+Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to use
+it. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. He
+hesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But he
+knew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerial
+mast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare of
+white.
+
+His finger pressed the trigger. A soundless flash of purple enveloped
+the tower. Sparks mounted into the air--a cloud of vivid electrical
+sparks; but mingled with them in a moment were sparks also of burning
+wood and fibre. Smoke began to roll upward; the purple flash was gone,
+and dull red took its place. The hum and angry buzz of outraged
+electricity was stilled. Flames appeared at all the tower casements--red
+flames, then yellow with their greater heat.
+
+The trim and interior of the tower was burning. The protons Georg had
+flung at it with his weapon had broken the electrical barrage. The
+interference heat had burned out the connections and fired everything
+combustible within the tower. A terrific heat. It began to melt and burn
+the _blenite_.[10] The upper portion of the tower walls began to
+crumble. Huge blocks of stone were shifting, tottering; and they began
+to fall through the glare of mounting flames and the thick black smoke.
+
+[Footnote 10: A cement or mortar used in stone constructions--evidently
+partially combustible.]
+
+Georg had tossed away his now useless weapon--emptied of its charge. He
+was crouching in the shadow of a parapet. The city was now in turmoil.
+Alarm lights everywhere. The shrilling of sirens; roaring of megaphoned
+commands ... women screaming hysterically....
+
+A chaos, out of which, for a few moments, Georg knew no order could
+come. But his heart was in his mouth. The Princess Maida, within that
+burning building....
+
+He had located the tiny postern gate at the bottom of the tower where
+Wolfgar had told him she would appear. The barrage was gone; and in a
+moment she came--a white figure appearing there amid the smoke that was
+rolling out.
+
+He rushed to her. A figure wholly encased in white _itan_[11] fabric
+with head-mask, and tubes from its generator to supply her with air.
+Wolfgar had smuggled the equipment in to her for just this emergency.
+She stood awkwardly beside Georg--a grotesque figure hampered by the
+heavy costume. Its crescent panes of _itanoid_ begoggled her.
+
+[Footnote 11: A universal insulating fabric, as rubber insulates
+electricity and asbestos bars heat.]
+
+Behind him, Georg could hear people advancing. A guard picked them out
+with a white flash. The mounting flames of the tower bathed everything
+in red. A block of stone fell near at hand, crashing through the
+metallic platform upon which they were standing. Broken, it sagged
+beneath their feet.
+
+Georg tore at the girl's head-piece, lifted it off. Her face was pale,
+frightened, yet she seemed calm. Her glorious white hair tumbled down in
+waves over her shoulders.
+
+"Wolfgar--he----" She choked a little in the smoke that swirled around
+them. Georg cut in: "He sent me--Georg Brende. Don't talk now--get this
+off."
+
+He pulled the heavy costume from her. She emerged from it--slim and
+beautiful in the shimmering blue kirtle, with long grey stockings
+beneath.
+
+A spider incline was nearby. But a dozen guards were coming up it at a
+run. With the girl's hand in his, Georg turned the other way. People
+were closing in all around them--an excited crowd held back by the heat
+of the burning tower, the smoke and the falling blocks of stone. Someone
+swung a pencil-ray wildly. It seared Georg like a branding-iron on the
+flesh of his arm as it swung past. He pulled Maida toward the head of an
+escalator a dozen feet away. Its steps were coming upward from the plaza
+at the ground level. Half way up, the first of an up-coming throng were
+mounting it.
+
+But Georg again turned aside. He found Maida quick of wit to catch his
+plans; and agile of body to follow him. They climbed down the metal
+frame-work of the escalator sides; down under it to where the inverted
+steps were passing downward on the endless belts. Maida slid into one of
+them, with Georg after her, his arms holding her in place.
+
+They huddled there. No one had seen them enter. Smoothly the escalator
+drew them downward. Above them in a moment the tramp of feet sounded
+close above their heads as the crowd rushed upward.
+
+They approached the bottom, slid out upon a swinging bridge which
+chanced at the moment to be empty of people. Down it at a run; into the
+palm-lined plaza at the bottom of the city.
+
+Down here it was comparatively dim and silent. The alarm lights of the
+plaza section had not yet come on; the excitement was concentrated upon
+the burning tower above. The crowd, rushing up there, left the plaza
+momentarily deserted. Georg and Maida crossed it at a run, scurried like
+frightened rabbits through a tunnel arcade, down a lower cross-street,
+and came at last unmolested to the outskirts of the city.
+
+The buildings here were almost all at the ground level. Georg and Maida
+ran onward, hardly noticed, for everyone was gazing upward at the
+distant, burning tower. Georg was heading for where Wolfgar had an aero
+secreted. A mile or more. They reached the spot--but the aero was not
+there. They were in the open country now--Venia is small.
+Plantations--an agricultural region. Most of the houses were deserted,
+the occupants having fled into the city as refugees when threats and
+orders came from Washington the day before. Georg and Maida came upon a
+little conical house; it lay silent, heavy-shadowed in the starlight
+with the glow of the city edging its side and circular roof. Beside it
+was an incline with a helicopter standing up there on a private landing
+stage.... Georg and Maida rushed up the incline.
+
+A small helicopter; its dangling basket was barely large enough for
+two--a basket with a tiny safety 'plane fastened to its outrigger.
+
+In a moment Georg and the girl had boarded the helicopter. She was
+silent; she had hardly said a word throughout it all.... The helicopter
+mounted straight up; its whirling propellers above sent a rush of air
+downward.
+
+"These batteries," said Georg. "The guards in Venia can't stop us. An
+aero--even if we had it--I doubt if we could get power for it. They've
+shut off general power by now, I'm sure."
+
+She nodded. "Yes--no doubt."
+
+As they mounted upward, the city dwindled beneath them--dwindled to an
+area of red and green and purple lights. It was silent up here in the
+starlight; a calm, windless night--cloudless, save for a gray bank which
+obscured the moon.
+
+Ten thousand feet up. Then fifteen. The city was a tiny patch of blended
+colors. Light rockets occasionally mounted now. But their glare fell
+short. Georg's mind was busy with his plans. Had the helicopter been
+seen? It seemed not. No rocket-light had reached it; and there was no
+sign of pursuit from below.
+
+Maida crouched beside him. He felt her hand timidly upon his arm; felt
+her shy, sidelong glance upon him. And suddenly he was conscious of her
+beauty. His heart leaped, and as he turned to her, she smiled--a smile
+of eager trust which lighted her face like a torch of faith in the spire
+of a house of worship.
+
+"You are planning?" she said. "You know what it is we must do?"
+
+He said: "I think so. The _volan_[12] out there is large enough for two.
+You'll trust yourself to it with me? You're not afraid, are you?"
+
+[Footnote 12: A small winged board without power, used for emergency
+descents by volplaning down from disabled aeros.]
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "What you say we must do, we will do."
+
+"We must go higher, Maida. Then, you see...."
+
+He told her his plans. And mounting up there into the silent canopy of
+stars, his fingers wound themselves into the soft strands of her hair
+which lay upon him; and his heart beat fast with the nearness of
+her.... Told her his plans, and she acquiesced.
+
+Twenty thousand feet. The cold was upon them. Shivering himself, he
+wrapped her in a fur which the basket contained. At 25,000, they took to
+the _vol plan_. It was a padded board a dozen feet long and half as
+wide. Released, it shot downward; a hundred feet or more, with the
+heavens whirling soundlessly. Then Georg got the wings open; the descent
+was checked; the stars righted themselves above, and once again the
+earth was beneath.
+
+They had strapped themselves to the board, and now Georg undid the
+thongs. Together they lay prone, side by side, with the narrow,
+double-banked wings beneath the line of their shoulders, and the
+rudder-tail behind them. Flexible 'planes and tail, responding to
+Georg's grip on the controls.
+
+Fluttering, uncertain at first, like a huge bird of quivering wings,
+they began their incline descent. A spiral, then Georg opened it to a
+straight glide northward--rushing downward and onward through the
+starlight, in a wind of their own making which fluttered the light
+fabric of Maida's robe and tossed her waves of hair about her.
+
+A long, silent glide, with only the rush of wind. It seemed hours, while
+the girl did not speak and Georg anxiously searched the sky ahead.
+Underneath them, the dark forests were slipping past; but inexorably
+coming upward. They were down to 5,000 feet; then Georg saw at last what
+he had hoped, prayed for, but almost despaired of. A beam of light to
+the northward--the spreading beam of an oncoming patrol. It was high
+overhead; but it came forward fast. A sweeping, keenly searching beam,
+and finally it struck them. Clung to them.
+
+And presently the big patrol vessel was almost above them. It hung
+there, a dark winged shape dotted with colored lights. A signal flash--a
+sharp command to Georg, but, of course, he could not answer. Then the
+Director's finder picked him out. The _volan_ was fluttering, spiralling
+slowly as Georg struggled to hold his place.
+
+And then the patrol launched its tender. It came darting down like a
+wasp. A moment more, and Georg and Maida were taken aboard it. The
+_volan_ fluttered to the forest unguided and was lost in the black
+treetops, now no more than a thousand feet below.
+
+Surrounded by amazed officials, Maida and Georg entered the patrol
+vessel. Georg Brende, escaped safely from Tarrano! The Brende secret
+released from Tarrano's control! The Director flashed the news to
+Washington and to Great London. Orders came back. A score of other
+vessels of this Patrol-Division came dashing up--a convoy which soon was
+speeding northward to Washington with its precious messenger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_Recaptured_
+
+
+In Washington during those next few days, events of the Earth, Venus and
+Mars swirled and raged around Georg as though he were engulfed in the
+Iguazu or Niagara. Passive himself at first--a spectator merely; yet he
+was the keystone of the Earth Council's strength. The Brende secret was
+desired by the publics of all three worlds. Even greater than its real
+value as a medical discovery, it swayed the popular mind.
+
+Tarrano possessed the Brende secret. The only model, and Dr. Brende's
+notes were in his hands. Washington had ordered him to give them up, and
+he had refused. But now the status was changed. Georg held the secret
+also--and Georg was in Washington. It left the Earth Council free to
+deal with Tarrano.
+
+During those days Georg was housed in official apartments, with Maida
+very often near him. Inactive, they were much together, discussing their
+respective worlds. The Princess Maida was hereditary ruler of the Venus
+Central State--the only living heir to the throne. When Tarrano's forces
+threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by
+spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the
+tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had
+been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to
+Tarrano.
+
+In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by
+a Council. The public loved her--but a majority of it had gone astray
+when she disappeared--lured by Tarrano's glowing promises.
+
+Maida told Georg all this with a sweet, gentle sadness that was
+pathetic. And with an earnest, patriotic fervor--the love of her country
+and her people for whom she would give her life.
+
+She added: "If only I could get back there, Georg--I could make them
+realize the right course. I could win them again. Tarrano will play them
+false--_you_ know it, and so do I."
+
+Pathetic earnestness in this girl still no more than seventeen! And
+Georg, sitting beside her, gazing into her solemn, beautiful face, felt
+that indeed she could win them, with those limpid blue eyes and her
+words which rang with sincerity and truth.
+
+They sat generally in an unofficial instrument room adjoining the
+government offices. A room high in a spire above the upper levels of the
+city. And around them rolled the momentous events of which they were the
+center.
+
+The time limit of the Earth Council's ultimatum to Tarrano expired.
+Already Tarrano had answered it with defiance. But on the stroke of its
+expiration, came another note from him. Georg read it from the tape to
+Maida:
+
+_"To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject----"_
+
+A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not
+see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand
+that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he
+did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to
+recall it. He had already recalled it, in fact. He assured the Council
+that it was now on its way back, direct to Washington. He had done this
+because he felt that the Earth leaders were making a mistake--a grave
+mistake in the interests of their own people. Georg Brende was in
+Washington--that was true. But Georg Brende was a silly, conceited young
+man, flattered by his prominence in the public eye, his head turned by
+his own importance. Dr. Brende had been a genius. The son was a mere
+upstart, pretending to a scientific knowledge he did not have.
+
+"Trickery!" exclaimed Georg. "But he knows the people may believe it.
+Some of them undoubtedly will."
+
+"And you cannot thwart your public," Maida said. "Even your Earth
+Council, secure in its power, cannot do that."
+
+"Exactly," Georg rejoined. He was indignant, as well he might have been.
+"Tarrano is trying to avoid being attacked. Time--any delay--is what he
+wants."
+
+The note went on. Tarrano--seeking only the welfare of the people--could
+not stand by and see the Earth Council wreck its public. Tarrano had
+reconsidered his former note. The Brende model was vital, and since the
+Earth Council demanded the model (for the benefit of its people) the
+people should have it. In a few days it would be in Washington. Tarrano
+himself would not come to Washington. His doing that could not help the
+public welfare, and he was but human. The Earth Council had made itself
+his enemy; he could not be expected to trust his life in enemy hands.
+
+The note closed with the suggestion that the Council withdraw its patrol
+from Venia. This talk of war was childish. Withdraw the patrol, and
+Tarrano himself might go back to Venus. He would wait a day for answer
+to this request; and if it were not granted--if the patrol were not
+entirely removed--then the Brende model would be destroyed. And if the
+publics of three worlds wished to depend upon a conceited, ignorant
+young man like Georg Brende for the everlasting life, they were welcome
+to do so.
+
+A clever piece of trickery, and it was awkward to deal with. One had
+only to watch its effect upon the public to realize how insidious it
+was. Tarrano had told us--in the tower in Venia: "I shall have to
+bargain with them." And chuckled as he said it.
+
+A series of notes from the Earth Council and back again, followed during
+the next few days. But the patrol was not withdrawn; nor was war
+declared. The Earth Council knew that Tarrano had not ordered the model
+back--nor would he destroy it. Yet if the Earth forces were to overwhelm
+Tarrano, and the model were lost, a revolution upon Earth could easily
+take place before Georg could convince the people that he was able to
+build them another model.
+
+This delay--while Tarrano was held virtually a prisoner in Venia--was
+decided upon at the instigation of Georg himself. He--Georg--would
+address the publics of the three worlds. With Maida beside him to
+influence her own public in Venus, they would convince everyone that
+Georg had the secret--and that he alone would use it for the public
+good.
+
+Youthful plans! Youthful enthusiasm! The belief that they could win
+confidence to their cause by the very truthfulness in their hearts! The
+belief that right makes might--which Tarrano would have told them was
+untrue!
+
+Yet it was a good plan, and the Earth Council approved it, since it
+could do no harm to try. And it perhaps would have been successful but
+for one thing, of which even at that moment I--in Venia--was aware.
+Tarrano's trickery was not all on the surface. He had written into that
+note--by a code of diabolically ingenious wording--a secret message to
+his own spies in Washington. Commands for them to obey. A dozen of his
+spies were in the Earth government's most trusted, highest service--and
+some of them were there in Washington, close around Georg and Maida as
+they made their altruistic plan.
+
+The attempt was to be made from the high-power sending station in the
+mountains of West North America.[13] Our observatory was there; and the
+only one of its kind on the Earth. It was equipped to send a radio voice
+audibly to every part of the Earth; and by helio, also to Mars and
+Venus, there to be re-transformed from light to sound and heard
+throughout those other worlds. And moving images of the speakers, seen
+on the finders all over the Earth, Venus and Mars simultaneously. The
+power, the generating equipment was at this station; and no matter where
+in the sky Venus or Mars might be, from the Mountain Station the
+vibrations of mingled light and sound were relayed elsewhere on Earth to
+other stations from which the helios could be flashed direct.
+
+[Footnote 13: The Rocky Mountains, in the United States or possibly
+Alberta.]
+
+To Skylan, as the Mountain Station was popularly called, Georg and Maida
+were taken in official aero under heavy convoy. Yet, even then, at their
+very elbows, spies of Tarrano must have been lurking.
+
+The official flyer landed them on the broad stage amid deep, soft snow.
+It was night--a brief trip from the late afternoon, through dinner and
+they were there. A night of clear shining stars--brilliant gems in deep
+purple. Clear, crisp, rarefied air; a tumbling expanse of white, with
+the stars stretched over it like a close-hung canopy.
+
+They were ushered into the low, rambling building. The attempt was to be
+made at once. Mars was mounting the eastern sky; and to the west, Venus
+was setting. Both visible from direct helios at that moment--Red Mars,
+from this mountain top, glowing like the tip of an arrant-cylinder up
+there.
+
+In the brief time since the party had left Washington, the worlds had
+been notified. The eyes and ears of the millions of three planets were
+waiting to see and hear this Georg Brende and this Princess Maida.
+
+The sending room was small, circular, and crowded with apparatus. And
+above its dome, opened to the sky, wherein the intensified helios shaded
+so that no ray of them might blind the operators, were sputtering as
+though eager to be away with their messages.
+
+With a dozen officials around him, Georg prepared to enter the sending
+room. He had parted from Maida a few moments before, when she had left
+him to be shown to her apartment by the women attendants.
+
+As she moved away, on impulse he had stopped her. "We shall succeed,
+Maida."
+
+Her hand touched his arm. A brave smile, a nod, and she had passed on,
+leaving him standing there gazing after her with pounding heart.
+Pounding, not with excitement at the task before him in that sending
+room; pounding with the sudden knowledge that the welfare of this frail
+little woman meant more to him than the safety of all these worlds.
+
+At last Georg stood in the sending room. The officials sat grouped
+around him. Maida had not yet arrived from her apartment. There was a
+small platform, upon which she and Georg were to stand together. He took
+his place upon it, waiting for her.
+
+Before him was the sending disc; it glowed red as they turned the
+current into it. Then they illumined the mirrors; a circle of them, each
+with its image of Georg upon the platform. The white lights above him
+flashed on, beating down upon him with their hot, dazzling glare. The
+reflected beams from the mirrors, struck upward into the dome overhead.
+The helios up there were humming and sputtering loudly.
+
+Beyond the circle of intense white light in which Georg was standing,
+the spectators sat in gloom behind the mirrors. Maida had not come. The
+Skylan Director, impatient ordered a woman to go for her.
+
+Then, suddenly, Georg said to this Director:
+
+"I--these lights--this heat. It makes me feel faint--standing here."
+
+Georg had stumbled from the platform. Between two of the mirrors, shaded
+from the glare, the perturbed Director met him. Moisture beaded Georg's
+forehead.
+
+"I'll--be quite all right in a moment. I'm going over there." He smiled
+weakly. A dozen feet away there was an opened outer casement. It looked
+down twenty feet, perhaps, to the deep snow that covered the station's
+grounds. The Director started with Georg; but Georg pushed him violently
+away.
+
+"No! No! You let me alone!" His accents were those of a spoiled child.
+The Director hesitated, and Georg, with a hand to his forehead, wavered
+toward the casement. The Director saw him standing there; saw him sway,
+then fall or jump forward, and disappear.
+
+They rushed outside. The snow was trampled all about with heavy
+footprints, but Georg had vanished. From the women's apartment, the
+attendant came back. The Princess Maida could not be found!
+
+And in those moments of confusion, from outside across the starlit snow,
+an aero was rising. Silent, black--and no one saw it as it winged away
+into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+_Tara_
+
+
+I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano
+dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us.
+Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano--there in the tower
+room--rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and
+found Elza bending over me.
+
+I sat up, dizzily, with the room reeling.
+
+"Jac! Jac, dear----" She made me lie back, until I could feel the blood
+returning to my clammy face; and the room steadied, and the clanging of
+the gongs in my ears died away.
+
+"I--why, I'm--all right," I gasped. And I lay there, clinging to her
+hand. Dear little Elza! In that moment of relief that I had come to my
+senses, she could not hide the love which even now was unspoken between
+us. Tarrano! I lay there weak and faint; but with the pressure of Elza's
+hand, I did not fear that this Tarrano could win her from me.
+
+Wolfgar was standing across the room from us. He came forward.
+
+"You did not die," he said; and smiled. "I told her you would not die."
+
+It was now morning. Wolfgar and Elza told me I had been unconscious some
+hours. We were still imprisoned as before in the tower. Georg had
+escaped with Maida, they said; or at least, they hoped so. And they
+described the burning of the other tower. The city had been in a
+turmoil. It still was; I could hear now the shouts of the crowd outside.
+And turning as I lay there, through the casement I could see the
+blackened, still smoking ruins of Maida's tower; the broken iron
+terrace; the spider bridge melted away, hanging loose and dangling like
+an aimless pendulum.
+
+The latest news, Elza and Wolfgar could not give me. The instrument room
+of our tower had been disconnected by Tarrano when he left some hours
+before. As they said it, we heard a familiar buzz; then the drone of an
+announcer's voice. Tarrano's guard had doubtless observed my recovery
+and had had orders to throw current into our instruments. Strange man,
+this Tarrano! He wished the news spread before us again. Confident of
+his own dominance over every crisis, he wanted Elza and me to hear it as
+it came from the discs.
+
+We went to the instrument room. I found myself weak, but quite
+uninjured. Elza left us there, and went to prepare food which I needed
+to strengthen me.
+
+The public events of those hours and days following, I have recounted as
+Georg saw them and took part in them in Washington. We observed them,
+here in the tower, with alternate hopes and fears. Our life of
+imprisonment went on much as before. Occasionally, Tarrano visited us,
+always making us sit like children before him, while at his ease he
+reclined on our divan.
+
+But he would never give us much real information; the man always was an
+enigma.
+
+"Your friend Georg has a wonderful plan," he announced to us ironically
+early one evening. He smiled his caustic smile. "You have seen the
+tape?"
+
+"Yes," I said. It was Georg's plan to address with Maida, the publics of
+Earth, Venus and Mars.
+
+Tarrano nodded. "He and the Princess are going to convince everyone that
+I am an impostor."
+
+I did not answer that; and abruptly he chuckled. "That would be
+unfortunate for me--if they could do that. Do you think they'll be able
+to?"
+
+"I hope so," I said.
+
+He laughed openly. "Of course. But they will not. That long note of mine
+to your government--you read it, naturally. But you didn't read in it my
+secret instructions to my agents in Washington, did you? Well, they were
+there in it--my commands--the letters ending its words made another
+message."
+
+He was amused at our discomfiture. "Simple enough? Yet really an
+intricate code in itself. It made the phrasing of the main note a little
+difficult to compose, that was all." He sat up with his accustomed snap
+of alertness, and his face turned grim. "Georg will never address his
+audience. Nor the Princess--she will never appear before those sending
+mirrors. I have seen to that." Again he was chuckling. "No, no, I could
+not let them do a thing like that. They might turn people against me."
+
+Elza began indignantly: "You--you are----"
+
+His gesture checked her. "Your brother is quite safe, Lady Elza. And the
+Princess Maida also. Indeed, they are on the point of falling in love
+with each other. Natural! And perfectly right. It is as I would have
+it."
+
+His strong brown fingers were rubbing each other with his satisfaction.
+"Curious, Lady Elza--how fortunate I am in all my plans."
+
+"I don't think you are," I said. "Our government has you a prisoner
+here. They didn't withdraw the patrol as you demanded, did they?"
+
+He frowned a trifle. "No. That was too bad. I rather hoped they would.
+It would have been a stupid thing for them to do--but still, I almost
+thought they'd do it."
+
+I shook my head. "What they will do is sweep down here and overwhelm
+you."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He shifted himself to a more comfortable position. "They are playing for
+time--so that when I fail to produce the model as I agreed, then the
+public will realize I am not to be trusted."
+
+"Exactly," I said.
+
+"Well, I am playing for time, also."
+
+He seemed so willing to discuss the thing that I grew bolder.
+
+"What have you to gain by playing for time?" I demanded.
+
+He stared. "You would question me, Jac Hallen? How absurd!" He looked at
+Elza, as though to share with her his amazement at my temerity.
+
+Wolfgar said suddenly to Tarrano: "You will gain nothing."
+
+Tarrano's face went impassive. I understood him better now; that cold,
+inscrutable look often concealed his strongest emotions. He said evenly:
+
+"I should prefer you not to address me, Wolfgar. A traitor such as
+you--the sound of your voice offends me."
+
+It struck me then as very strange--as it had for days before--that
+Tarrano should have failed to punish Wolfgar. I would have expected
+death; least of all, that Tarrano would have allowed Wolfgar to live
+here in the tower, in comparative ease and comfort. Tarrano's words now
+answered my unspoken questions. He was not looking at Wolfgar, but at
+Elza.
+
+"You, Wolfgar--deserve death. You know why I cannot kill you? Why I let
+you stay here in the tower?" A faint, almost wistful smile parted his
+thin lips; he did not take his eyes from Elza.
+
+"I am greatly handicapped, Wolfgar. The Lady Elza here would not like to
+have me put you to death. She would not even care to have me mistreat
+you. She is very tender hearted." He raised a deprecating hand. "Ah,
+Lady Elza, does that surprise you? You never told me I must be lenient
+with this traitor? Of course not."
+
+"I----" Elza began, but he stopped her.
+
+"You see, Lady Elza, I have already learned to obey you." He was smiling
+very gently. "Learned to obey even your unspoken commands."
+
+I wondered how much of this attitude might be sincere, and how much
+calculated trickery. Could Elza, indeed, control him?
+
+She must have had much the same thought, for she said with a forced
+smile: "You give me a great deal of power. If you--wish to obey me,
+you'll set us free--send us all to Washington."
+
+That amused him. "Ah, but I cannot do that."
+
+She gained confidence. "You are willing to be very gracious in things
+which do not inconvenience you, Tarrano. It is not very impressive."
+
+He looked hurt. "You misinterpret. I will do for you anything I can. But
+you must remember, Lady Elza, that my judgment is better than yours. I
+would not let you lead us into disaster. You are a gentle little woman.
+Your instincts are toward humane treatment of everyone--toward mercy
+rather than justice. In all such things, I shall be guided by you.
+Justice--tempered with mercy. A union very, very beautiful, Lady
+Elza ... But, you see, beyond that--you are wrong. I am a man, and in
+the big things I must dominate. It is I who guide, and you who follow.
+You see that, don't you?"
+
+The sincerity in his voice was unmistakable. And my heart sank as I
+watched Elza. Her gaze fell, and a flush mantled her cheeks. Tarrano
+added quietly: "We shall have no difficulty, you and I, Lady Elza. Each
+of us a place, and a duty. A destiny together...."
+
+He broke off and rose quickly to his feet. "Enough. I have been weak to
+say so much as this."
+
+He turned to leave us, and I became aware of a woman's figure standing
+in the shadows of the archway across the room. She started forward as
+Tarrano glanced her way. A Venus woman of the Cold Country. Yet,
+obviously, one of good birth and breeding. A woman of perhaps 30 years,
+beautiful in the Venus cast; dressed in the conventional bodice
+breast-plates and short skirt, with grey stockings and sandals.
+
+Within the room, she regarded Tarrano silently. There was about her a
+quiet dignity; she stood with her tall, slim figure drawn to its full
+height. Her pure white hair was coiled upon her head, with a rich metal
+ornament to fasten it. And from it, a mantle of shimmering blue fabric
+hung down her back.
+
+Tarrano said: "What are you doing up here? I told you to wait below."
+
+Her face showed no emotion. But there was a glitter to her eyes, a glow
+in their grey depths like _alumite_ in the hydro-flame of a torch.
+
+She said slowly: "Master, I think it would be very correct if you would
+let me stay here and serve the Lady Elza. I told you that before, but
+you would not listen."
+
+Tarrano, with sudden decision, swung toward Elza. "This is the Elta[14]
+Tara. She was concerned that I should allow you to dwell here alone with
+this Jac Hallen, and this traitor from Mars." His tone conveyed infinite
+contempt for us.
+
+[Footnote 14: Elta--a term or title denoting rank by birth.]
+
+The woman said quickly: "The Lady Elza would be glad of my
+companionship." She shot a swift glance to Elza. What it was meant to
+convey, I could not have said. Perhaps Elza understood it, or thought
+she did. She spoke up.
+
+"I would like to have you very much, indeed." She added to Tarrano, and
+there was on her face a look of feminine guile:
+
+"You, of course, could not refuse me so small a favor? After all your
+protestations----"
+
+He gestured impatiently. "Very well." And he added to Tara: "You will
+serve the Lady Elza as she directs."
+
+He stalked away into the darkened passage. In the gloom there, he
+stopped and again faced us; the light from a small blue tube in there
+illumined him dimly. He was smiling ironically.
+
+"I shall maintain the instruments for you. The mirrors will show you
+Georg and Maida. They are just about arriving at the Mountain Station.
+Watch them! You will see how far they progress with their wonderful
+speeches."
+
+He left us. We heard his measured tread as he stalked down the tower
+incline. The barrage about the tower was lifted momentarily as he went
+out. Then it came on again, with its glow beyond our casements, and its
+low electrical whine.
+
+I was just turning back to the room when a sound behind me made me face
+sharply about. My heart leaped into my throat. The woman Tara had
+produced from about her person a weapon of some kind. She thought she
+was unobserved, but from the angle at which I stood, I saw her. A
+gleaming metal object was in her hand. And then she launched it--a small
+flat disc of metal, thin, and with its circular edge keen as a
+knife-blade.
+
+Whirling with a very soft hum hardly audible, it left her hand and
+floated upward across the room. Circling the casements up near the
+ceiling, and then heading downward straight for Elza! And I saw, too,
+that the woman was guiding it by a tiny radio-control.
+
+The thing was so unexpected that I stood gaping. But only for an
+instant. I saw the deadly whirling knife-disc sailing for Elza.... It
+would strike her ... shear her white throat....
+
+With a shout of horror and anger, I leaped for the woman. But Wolfgar,
+too, had seen the disc and he went into action quicker than I. The divan
+was beside him. He snatched up a pillow; flung it upward at the disc.
+The soft pillow struck the disc; together, entangled, they fell
+harmlessly to the floor.
+
+I was upon the woman, snatching the handle of the control-wire from her
+hand, wrenching its connection loose from her robe. Under my onslaught,
+she fell; and I kneeled beside her, gripping her while she tore at me
+and screamed with hysterical, murderous frenzy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+_Love--and Hate_
+
+
+I did not harm this Tara, though I was sorely tempted to; and after a
+moment we quieted her. She was crying and laughing by turns; but when we
+seated her on the divan she controlled herself and fell into a sullen
+silence. Elza, pale and frightened at her escape, faced the woman, and
+waved Wolfgar and me aside. Strange little Elza! Resolute, she stood
+there, and would brook no interference with her purpose. Wolfgar and I
+withdrew a pace or two and stood watching them.
+
+Tara's breast was heaving with her pent emotion. She sat drooping on the
+divan, her face buried in her hands.
+
+Elza said gently: "Why did you do that, Tara?"
+
+There was no answer; only the woman's catching breath as she struggled
+with her sobs. Across the background of my consciousness came the
+thought that Tarrano or one of his guards would doubtless momentarily
+appear to investigate all this turmoil. And I was vaguely conscious also
+that from our instrument room the sounds of an unusual activity were
+coming. But I did not heed them. Elza was insisting:
+
+"Why did you do that, Tara? Why should you want to harm me?"
+
+Tara looked up. "You have stolen the man I love."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes. Tarrano----"
+
+She broke off, set her lips firmly together as though to repress further
+words; and her fine grey eyes, filled with unbidden tears, were
+smoldering to their depths with hate.
+
+Impulsively Elza sank to the floor beside the woman. But Tara drew away.
+
+Elza said: "Tarrano--he is a wonderful man, Tara. A genius--the greatest
+figure of these three worlds...."
+
+My heart sank to hear her say it!
+
+"... a genius, Tara. You should be proud to love him...."
+
+"You----" The woman's writhing fingers seemed about to reach for Elza. I
+took a sudden step forward, then relaxed. Elza added quickly:
+
+"But I would not steal Tarrano from you. Don't you realize that?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"But it's true."
+
+"No! No! You have stolen him! With your queer Earth beauty--that colored
+hair of yours--those rounded limbs--you've bewitched him! I can see it.
+You can't lie to me! I made him angry once and he admitted it."
+
+"No, I tell you!"
+
+"I say yes. You've stolen him from me. He loves you--and he mocks and
+laughs at me----"
+
+"Tara, wait. I do not love Tarrano, I tell you. I would not have
+him----" How my heart leaped to hear her say it so convincingly. She
+added:
+
+"He loves me, perhaps--but I can't help that. He has me prisoner here. I
+am forced----"
+
+"You lie! You are playing to win him! What girl would refuse? You say
+yourself he is the greatest man of the ages. You lie when you tell me
+you do not want him!"
+
+Elza had taken the woman by the shoulders. "Tara, listen--you _must_
+listen! Are you mated with Tarrano?"
+
+"No! But years ago he promised me. I took his name then, as we do in the
+Cold Country. They still call me Tara! Years I have waited, true to my
+promise--with even my name of maidenhood relinquished. _His_ name--Tara!
+And now he tosses me aside--because _you_, only an Earth woman, have
+bewitched him."
+
+"I didn't want to bewitch him, Tara." Elza's voice was very gentle; and
+a whimsical smile was plucking at her lips. "You think I want him
+because he is a genius--the greatest man of our time?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Is that why _you_ want him?"
+
+"No, I love him."
+
+"You loved him before he was very great, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes. Back in the Cold Country. When he was only a boy--and I was no
+more than a girl half grown. I love him for himself, I tell you----"
+
+Elza interrupted; and her voice risen to greater firmness, held a
+quality of earnest pleading.
+
+"Wait, Tara! You love Tarrano for himself--because you are a woman
+capable of love. It is the man you love--not his deeds, or his fame or
+his destiny. Isn't that so?"
+
+"Yes. I----"
+
+"Then won't you give me credit for being a woman with instincts as fine
+as your own? The love of a good woman goes unbidden. You can't win it by
+conquering worlds and flinging them at her feet. Tarrano thinks you can.
+He thinks to dazzle me with his feats of prowess. He wants to buy my
+love with thrones for me to grace as queen. He thinks my awe and fear of
+him are love. He thinks a woman's love is born of respect, and
+admiration, and promises of wealth. But you and I, Tara--we know it
+isn't. We know it's born of a glance--born in poverty and
+sickness--adversity--every ill circumstance--born without reason--for no
+reason at all. Just born! And if anything else gives it birth--it is not
+a true woman's love. You and I know that, Tara. Don't you see?"
+
+Tara was sobbing unrestrainedly now, and Elza, with arms around her,
+went on:
+
+"You should be proud to love Tarrano. If I loved him, I would be proud
+of him, too. But I do not----"
+
+A step sounded near at hand. Tarrano stood in the archway, with arms
+folded, regarding us sardonically.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+_Defying Worlds_
+
+
+"So?" Tarrano eyed us, evidently in no hurry to speak further, seemingly
+amused at our confusion. Had he heard much of what the two women had
+said? All of it, or most of it, doubtless, with his instruments as he
+approached. But, even with the knowledge of Elza's vehement appraisal of
+him, he seemed now quite imperturbable. His gaze touched me and Wolfgar,
+then returned to the women.
+
+"So? It would seem, Tara, that your plan to wait upon the Lady Elza was
+not very successful." He dropped the irony, adding crisply: "Tara, come
+here!"
+
+She rose to her feet obediently, and stood facing him. Humble, fearful,
+yet a trifle defiant. For a moment he frowned upon her thoughtfully;
+then he said to Elza:
+
+"Your policy of mercy is very embarrassing, Lady Elza." He made a
+deprecating gesture, and again his eyes were twinkling. "This woman
+threatened your life. My guards were lax--though I must admit they had
+good excuse, with the other tasks which I thrust upon them.... Your life
+was threatened--you escaped by the merest chance of fortune. You know,
+of course, what justice would bid me do to this would-be murderess?"
+
+Elza was on her feet, standing beside Tara. She did not answer.
+
+Tarrano now was smiling. "I must let her go unpunished? Embarrassing,
+this merciful policy to which you have committed me! Yet--your will is
+my law as you know--though I feel that some day it will involve us in
+disaster.... You, Tara, will not be punished, much as you deserve it."
+He paused, then said as an afterthought: "You, Jac Hallen, I thank you
+for what you tried to do in thwarting the attack. You acted in very
+clumsy fashion--but, at least, you doubtless did your best." Gravely he
+turned to Wolfgar. "I shall not forget, Wolfgar, that, in an emergency,
+you saved the life of Lady Elza.... Enough! These are busy moments. You
+chose an awkward time to raise this turmoil. Come with me--all of you."
+
+He summoned Argo and two other guards. Unceremoniously, and with more
+haste than I had ever seen in Tarrano, he led us from the building. A
+hint of his purpose came to me, as he bade Elza gather up her few
+personal belongings, and gave them to a guard to carry.
+
+In a group, he herded us across the spider bridge. It was early evening,
+but night had fully fallen. The city was ablaze with its colored lights.
+We crossed the bridge, passed through a tunnel-arcade, and came out to a
+platform which was at the base of a skeleton tower. Its naked girders
+rose some seven hundred feet above us. The highest structure in the
+city. A waiting lifting-car was there. We entered, and it shot us
+upward.
+
+At the top, the narrowed structure was enclosed into a single room some
+thirty feet square. A many-windowed room, with a small metal balcony
+surrounding it outside. Immediately above the room, at the very peak of
+the tower, was a single, powerful light-beam; its silver searching ray
+swept the cloudless, starry sky in a slow circle.
+
+The room was crowded with instruments. Unlighted, save by the reflected
+glow of its many image-mirrors, all of which seemed in full operation. A
+dozen intent men sat at the tables; a silent room, but for the hum and
+click of the instruments.
+
+Tarrano said softly: "We have been very busy while you below were
+engaged with your petty hates."
+
+He seated himself at a table apart, upon which was a single mirror, and
+he gathered us around him. The mirror was dark. He called:
+
+"Rax--let me see Mars--you have them by relay? The Hill City?"
+
+The mirror flashed on. From an aperture overhead, a tiny beam of the
+blue helio-transformer came down to it. In the mirror I saw an image of
+the familiar Hill City. A terraced slope, dotted with the cubical
+buildings, spires and tunnel mouths. An empty channel[15] curved down
+across the landscape from the north.
+
+[Footnote 15: Canal, as it now is thought to be.]
+
+A distant scene, empty and lifeless save for black puffs which rose in
+the air above the city.
+
+Tarrano called impatiently: "Closer, Rax!"
+
+The image dissolved, blurred; turned red, violet, then white. We seemed
+now upon a height close above the city. It was seething with confusion.
+Fighting going on in the streets. Animals and men, fighting; a crowd of
+the Little People thronging a public square, with beasts of war charging
+them.
+
+The Hairless Men; I had heard of them, with their animals trained to
+fight, while they--the humans--lurked behind. A mysterious, almost
+grewsome race, to us who live on Earth--these hairless dwellers of the
+underground Mars. Dead-white of skin; sleek and hairless; heavily
+muscled from the work of their world; and almost blind from living in
+the dark.
+
+They were swarming now into the Hill City of the ruling Little People.
+The beasts, at their commands, were running wild through the
+streets ... dripping jaws, tearing at the women ... the children....
+
+I felt Elza turn away, shuddering.
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "The revolt. It came, of course, as I planned. This
+Little People government--it was annoying ... Colley!"
+
+"Master?"
+
+"Send the message, Colley. Fling it audibly over Mars! Tell the rulers
+of the Little People that if they send up the green bomb of
+surrender--Tarrano will spare them further bloodshed. Tell them that I
+am not giving the Brende secret to Earth. In a moment I shall defy the
+Earth Council. Promise them that the Brende secret is going to Mars.
+Assure them they will have everlasting life for everyone.... Wohl!"
+
+"Master?"
+
+"Give me the Cave Station."
+
+The mirror went dark. Then it turned a dazzling yellow. A cavern in the
+interior of Mars. A dark scene of wavering yellow torches. Around a
+table of instruments sat a score of hairless men. Tarrano snatched up a
+mouthpiece--murmured slowly into it. I could see the leader of the
+hairless men nod after a time, as the message reached him. And I saw him
+turn away to issue swift orders as Tarrano had commanded.
+
+Tarrano said brusquely: "Enough!... Wohl!"
+
+The mirror went dark. A voice called: "Master, the green bomb has gone
+up from the Hill City! Do you wish to see?"
+
+"No.... Give me Venus. Olgan! Are they quiet on Venus?"
+
+"Yes, Master."
+
+"Congratulate them that we have conquered the Little People. Tell them
+Mars is ours now! Tell them I am coming to Venus at once--with the
+Brende model...."
+
+"Master, you wish to see Venus? I have direct communication----"
+
+Another voice interrupted. "The Earth Council, Master! They demand an
+explanation of why you say the Brende model is going to Mars. You have
+promised it to Earth. They demand----"
+
+Tarrano rasped: "Tell them to wait ... I don't want Venus,
+Olgan.... Megar! Give me the Earth Mountain Station."
+
+He turned to me, and his voice dropped again to that characteristic
+sardonic drawl:
+
+"We must see how your friend Georg Brende is faring."
+
+The mirror showed Georg, standing irresolute on the platform before the
+sending discs.
+
+Tarrano called: "The Princess Maida--can't you locate her?"
+
+The scene blurred momentarily, then showed us the outside of the
+Station. A white expanse of snow, with purple starlit sky above. From a
+side door of the building, as we watched, the figures of two women
+appeared. A woman leading Maida. As they came out, with Maida all
+unsuspecting, from the shadows a group of men pounced upon them--dragged
+Maida away.
+
+Tarrano laughed. "Enough!... Show me Georg Brende again.... Hurry!"
+
+We saw Georg waver and leap through the window, fall into the snow,
+where, from the shadows of the building, other men rushed out upon
+him ... hurried him away after the captive Maida....
+
+Tarrano's laugh was grim and triumphant. "Ha! We win there, also!
+Enough! Nunz? Nunz--now you can give me the Earth Council! Where is it
+sitting? Washington, or Great London?"
+
+"Washington, Master."
+
+"Very well.... No, never mind connecting me. You speak for me. Tell them
+I've changed my mind. The Brende model is not coming to Washington. Tell
+them Georg Brende is lost to them, also. Tell them I declare war!
+_Tarrano the Conqueror_ declares war on the Earth! Tell them that, with
+my compliments. Tell them to come down here and overwhelm me--it ought
+to be very easy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+_Escape_
+
+
+That _Tarrano_ should thus defy the Earth, when by every law of rational
+circumstance the move seemed to spell only his own disaster, was
+characteristic of the man. He stood there in the instrument room at the
+peak of the skeleton tower in Venia and rasped out to the Earth Council
+his defiance. Silence followed--silence unbroken save by the hiss and
+click of the instruments as the message was sent.
+
+And then Tarrano ordered thrown upon himself the lights and sending
+mirrors so that his own image might be available to all of the public
+and Earth officials who cared to look upon it. Within the circle of
+mirrors he stood drawn to his full height; his eyes flashing, heavy
+brows lowered, and a sardonic smile--almost a leer--pulling at his thin
+lips. The embodiment of defiance. Yet to those who knew him well--as I
+was beginning to know him--there was in his eyes a gleam of irony, as
+though even in this situation he saw humor. A game, with worlds and
+nations as his pawns--a game wherein, though he had apparently lost,
+with the confidence of his genius he knew that the hidden move he was
+about to make would extricate him.
+
+"Enough," he rasped.
+
+The mirrors went dark. He turned away; and still without appearance of
+haste he drew Wolfgar, Elza and me to the balcony. Together we stood
+gazing over the lights of the city below us.
+
+A cloudless, starry sky. Empty of air-craft; but to the north just below
+the horizon, we knew that the line of war vessels was hovering. Even
+now, doubtless, they had their orders to descend upon us. Tarrano seemed
+waiting, and I suppose we stood there half an hour. Occasionally he
+would sight an instrument toward the north; and by the orders he gave at
+intervals I knew that preparations for action on his part were under
+way.
+
+Half an hour. Then abruptly from below the northern horizon lights came
+up--spreading colored beams. The Earth war vessels! A line of them as
+far as we could see from left to right, mounting up into the sky as they
+winged their way toward us--a line spreading out in a broad arc. And
+then, behind us, I saw others appear. We were surrounded.
+
+It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring sight, that vast ring of approaching
+colored lights. Red, green and purple--slowly moving eyes. Light-rockets
+sometimes mounting above them, to burst with a soundless glare of white
+light in the sky; and underneath, the spreading white search-beams,
+sweeping down to the dark forest that lay all about us.
+
+Soon, in the white glare of the bombs, we could distinguish the actual
+shapes of the vessels. Still Tarrano did not move from his place by the
+balcony rail. He stood there, with a hand contemplatively under his
+chin, as though absorbed by an interest in the scene purely impersonal.
+Was he going to give himself up? Stand there inactive while these armed
+forces of the most powerful world in the Solar System swept down upon
+him?
+
+Abruptly he snapped his instrument back to his belt. He had not used it
+since the hostile lights had appeared. Previously, I knew, he had been
+watching those lights, with the curved ray of the instrument when the
+lights themselves had been below the horizon.
+
+He turned now to me. "They are here, Jac Hallen. Almost here. And I am
+at their mercy." His tone was ironic; then it hardened into grimness. He
+was addressing me, but I knew it was for Elza's benefit he spoke.
+
+"I came here to Earth, Jac Hallen, for certain things. I find them now
+accomplished. I belong here no longer." He laughed. "I would not force
+myself into a war prematurely. That would be very unwise. I think--we
+shall have to avoid this--engagement. I am--slightly outnumbered."
+
+He called an order, quite calmly over his shoulder. I suppose, at that
+moment, the Earth war vessels were no more than five miles away. The
+whole sky was a kaleidoscope of darting lights. In answer to his order,
+from the peak of our tower a light bomb mounted--a vertical ray of green
+light. The bomb of surrender!
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "That should halt them. Come! We must start."
+
+He held a brief colloquy with a Venus man who appeared beside him. The
+man nodded and hastened back into the instrument room. The green light
+of our bomb had died away. The lights in the sky began fading--the whole
+sky fading, turning to blackness! I became aware that Tarrano had thrown
+around our tower a temporary isolation barrage. For a few moments--while
+the current he had at his command could hold it--we could not be seen on
+the image finders of the advancing vessels.
+
+Tarrano repeated: "That should hold them--I have surrendered! They
+should be triumphant. And outside our barrage, our men will bargain with
+them. Ten minutes! We should be able to hold them off that long at
+least. Come, Lady Elza. We must start now."
+
+With a scant ceremony in sharp contrast to his courteous words to Elza,
+he hurried us off. Three of us--Elza, Wolfgar and myself, with one
+attendant who still carried Elza's personal belongings. Hurried us into
+the vertical car which had brought us up into the tower. It descended
+now, down the iron skeleton shaft. Outside the girders I could see only
+the blackness of the barrage, with faint snapping sparks.
+
+Silently we descended. It seemed very far down. And suddenly I realized
+that we were going lower than the ground level. The barrage sparks had
+vanished. The blackness now was a normal darkness; and in it I could see
+slipping upward the smooth black sides of the vertical shaft into which
+we were dropping. And the sulphuric smell of the barrage was gone. The
+air now smelt of earth--the heavy, close air of underground.
+
+I do not know how far down we went. A thousand feet perhaps. The thing
+surprised me. Yet in those moments my mind encompassed it; and many of
+Tarrano's motives which I had not reasoned out before now seemed plain.
+He had come from Venus to the Earth, possibly several months ago. Had
+come directly here to Venia and set up his headquarters. His purpose on
+Earth--as he had just told me--did not lie with warfare. While he was
+here his forces had conquered the Great City of Venus, and just now, the
+Hill City of Mars. He controlled Venus and Mars--but he was still far
+from ready to attack the Earth.
+
+He had come to the Earth in person for several important purposes. For
+one--he desired the Brende model and Dr. Brende's notes. He had them
+now; they were, in reality, at this present moment in the Great City of
+Venus. Also, with the Brende secret--to control it absolutely--he had to
+have Georg Brende. Well, as I was soon to realize, Georg was now his
+captive. And the Princess Maida? His purpose in holding her was
+two-fold. She had, now as always in the Venus Central State, a
+tremendous sentimental sway upon her people. Tarrano had abducted her,
+forcibly to remove her from the scene of action, so that during her
+unexplained absence his propaganda would have more influence. He had
+brought her here to Earth; and now his plan was to have Georg Brende and
+her fall in love with each other. He still hoped to win Georg to his
+cause, by giving him the Princess Maida, if for no other reason. And
+with Maida married to Georg--and Georg in Tarrano's service--Maida
+herself would turn her influence in Venus to consolidate her people to
+Tarrano.
+
+These, in part, were Tarrano's present plans and motives. They were
+working out well. And--as he had said--the Earth did not concern him now
+as a battle-ground. Later ... But even with this sudden insight which
+seemed to come to me, I was inadequate to grasp what later he was to
+attempt.
+
+While thus occupied with my thoughts, we were steadily descending into
+the ground under Venia--dropping out of sight while above us, perhaps by
+now, the eager warcraft of Earth were overwhelming the city. Tarrano had
+not spoken; but when at last our little car bumped gently at the bottom,
+he said smilingly: "We are here, Lady Elza."
+
+We left the car, and passed into a dim-lighted cavern. I saw a lateral
+black tunnel-mouth yawning nearby, with a shining rail at its top and
+bottom, one above the other. And between the rails was a metal vehicle.
+A long, narrow car; yet with its turtle-back and its propelling gas-tube
+at the rear, with a rudder on each side of the tube, I realized that it
+was designed also for sub-sea travel. A small affair. Ten feet at its
+greatest width, and fifty or sixty feet long.
+
+There was nothing startling in this evidence of underground and sub-sea
+transportation. But that it should be here in primitive Venia surprised
+me. Then I realized that Tarrano had been here perhaps many months.
+Quietly, secretly he had constructed this underground road. For his
+escape, I could not doubt it. Indeed, I did not doubt but that the man
+had anticipated practically every event which had occurred.
+
+We found in the car, or boat if you will, a variety of attendants and
+personal belongings. Tara was there; I saw her sitting alone on one of
+the distant rings of seats. And Argo was among us--and others whom I had
+learned to know by sight and name. It was the party and equipment which
+Tarrano had probably originally brought with him from Venus. We, the
+last arrivals in the car, took our places. The doors slid closed. The
+car vibrated slightly; purred with its forward motors. We were started.
+
+It was not a long trip. How far we went I have no means of knowing. But
+after a time, by the changed motion and sounds, I realized that we were
+traversing water. Then above us after another interval, they opened a
+hatchway. The pure fresh air of night streamed in upon us. Every light
+in the boat had been extinguished. At Tarrano's command I followed him
+up the small spider incline and through the hatchway. We stood on a
+little circular space of the turtle-deck, well aft--an observation space
+enclosed by a low metal rail. A few feet below us dark glossy water was
+slipping past.
+
+At a lazy hasteless pace, we were passing along what I saw to be a broad
+river. The Riola Amazonia[16] I afterward learned it to be. Heavy banks
+of luxurious foliage, dark and silent. Inundated in places. And after a
+few moments we slackened, turned sharply into one of the inundated coves
+and nosed slowly amid a tangle of the jungle bank.
+
+[Footnote 16: Evidently the upper Amazon.]
+
+And then I saw, hidden here in the recesses of this pathless forest, a
+small inter-planetary flyer, painted a hazy grey-blue. Around and over
+it the vegetation had been carefully, cunningly trained. A few cautious
+lights illumined it now; but without them, and even in daylight, I knew
+that from above it could never be seen.
+
+Our party entered it--a small but surprisingly luxurious vessel. The
+foliage from above it was cut away by ready workmen; and in half an hour
+more we were rising from the forest. Straight up, into that cloudless
+sky. The land dropped away beneath us; visually concave at first as the
+circular horizon seemed to rise with us. The sky overhead fortunately
+was empty--nothing in sight to bar our outward flight. And we carried no
+lights.
+
+In a moment or two, so swiftly did we gather velocity, the lights of
+Venia--a distant patch of them--were visible. Then, further away, I
+presently saw the grey expanse of open sea. And as we mounted, the
+simulated concavity of the Earth turned convex. I had never seen it
+thus--had never been so far above its surface before. A huge grey ball
+down there which was our Earth. Outlines of sea and land. Then
+continents and oceans, enveloped by patches of cloud area. A
+grey ball, changing to a glowing, vaguely dull red; then silver.
+Dwindling--gleaming brighter silver on one side where the sunlight
+struck it.
+
+We were in the realms of outer, inter-planetary space!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+_Playground of Venus_
+
+
+After a trip uneventful--save that to me, taking it for the first time,
+it was an experience never to be forgotten in a lifetime--we landed at
+the Great City of Venus. We had sent no messages during the trip, and
+with our grey-blue color, I think we escaped telescopic and even radio
+observation by the Earth. Into our vessel's small instrument room, where
+Tarrano spent most of his time, reports of the news occasionally drifted
+in. But his connection--small and inadequate--was often broken. Nor did
+Tarrano this time seem interested in having Wolfgar, Elza and me learn
+the news. Yet it was not unfavorable to him. I gathered that the Earth
+formally had accepted his declaration of war. Relations with Venus--and
+with Mars also, had been discontinued. The mails no longer left. The
+helios were stopped. But, so far as I could learn, the Earth was
+undertaking no offensive action. For the present, certainly.
+
+Soon we were beyond reach of all messages save helios, which were not in
+operation. And in another day news began reaching us from Venus. But
+from this Tarrano barred us.
+
+I saw Venus, as we dropped upon it, first as a tremendous lovely
+crescent of silver beneath us. A crescent first, and, as hours passed,
+the darkened area took shape. A ball hanging there in space. Growing
+almost momentarily larger. Soon we could distinguish cloud areas. Then
+the land--the water. A ball filling half our lower segment of sky. Then
+all of it.
+
+We reached the Venus atmosphere, passed through cloud masses, and out
+again into the brilliant sunshine. Below us, glowing with the glory of
+mid-day, lay the Venus Central State. Rolling hills with distant
+mountain peaks, the highest of them far-away, glittering white with the
+sunlight on their snow-caps.
+
+A land of warmth and beauty. Dazzling green, with a luxuriant
+vegetation, tropical yet strange.
+
+As we dropped lower, I sat alone, gazing downward. We were passing over
+the land now, at an altitude of no more than twenty thousand feet. A
+vivid land. Vivid sunlight; inky shadows; a green to everything--a
+solid, brilliant green. Amid it, spots of other colors; splashes of
+yellow; patches of scarlet as though some huge field were massed with
+scarlet blossoms. And trailing silver threads--rivers and streams. Or
+again glittering silver lakes nestling in the hills.
+
+A fairyland of beauty. Yet as I gazed, it seemed not the fairyland of a
+child. Not childish, but mature; for I could not miss in its aspect, a
+warmth, a quality of sensuousness. A land of dalliance and pleasure of
+the senses. And I realized then why the Venus people derived all their
+advancement of science and industry from Earthly and Martian sources. A
+hand of luxury and physical ease. People, not primitive--but decadent.
+
+I became aware of Wolfgar at my elbow. "It is very beautiful, eh, Jac
+Hallen?"
+
+"Beautiful--yes. You've been here before, Wolfgar?"
+
+He nodded. "Oh yes. Soon we will reach the Great City. That too is
+strange and beautiful."
+
+Elza saw us together and joined us. The Great City presently came into
+distant view. Wolfgar, with that gentle voice and smile characteristic
+of him began to describe to us what we should see. Abruptly Elza said:
+
+"I have never really thanked you, Wolfgar. You saved my life--there when
+Tara attacked me."
+
+He gestured. "Your thanks are more than such a service deserves."
+
+As though the subject had suggested Georg and Maida to him, he added,
+"I am wondering where Georg Brende and the Princess Maida may be."
+
+I fancied then that I saw a quality of wistfulness in his eyes. A gentle
+little fellow, this Mars man. Queer and brooding, with strange thoughts
+not to be fathomed. He added as though to himself: "I have often
+wondered--" Then stopped.
+
+Elza and I had discussed it. We felt sure that Georg and Maida had been
+taken to Venus. They could have had only a few hours' start of
+ourselves. Yet this vessel we were in was unusually slow. We felt
+convinced that they had already arrived on Venus--had been there perhaps
+already for a day.
+
+We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; but
+soon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of the
+Central State.
+
+It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded by
+gently sloping hillsides. The bowl was entirely filled by water--a broad
+flat lake of silver which from this height showed us its pearly bottom.
+On the water--seen from above--the houses seemed floating--clusters of
+lily pads on a placid shining pool. They were, in reality, flat cubical
+buildings solidly built of rectangular blocks of stone, standing just
+above the water level on solid stone foundations. Always green and
+white--stones like blocks of smooth, polished marble, set in green and
+white patterns. Balconies and cornices of what might have been gleaming,
+beaten copper. Flat roofs, edged with scarlet flowers.
+
+Some of the buildings were low and small. Others of several stories,
+pretentious and ornate. One very large, like a palace, standing alone on
+its verdant island.
+
+The houses were mostly gathered in clusters of various shapes and sizes.
+Yet a semblance of order prevailed. Winding streets of open water lay
+between the groups. There were trellised walks and arching spider
+bridges, sometimes over the streets, sometimes joining one house to
+another.
+
+Here and there I saw lagoons of open water, dotted with small green
+islands like parks--islands on which the vegetation grew far higher and
+more luxuriant than any even in the tropics of our Earth. Vegetation
+always under careful training and control. Profuse with flowers, vivid
+and gigantic. The houses too, were roofed with gardens--sometimes
+with pergolas and trellises of the aerial scarlet blossoms.
+Occasionally--these latter details I observed as we descended close upon
+the city--I saw houses with a tiny swimming pool on the roof--a private
+pool hidden in masses of colored flowers.
+
+A playground--the playground of Venus. It seemed very
+backward--uncivilized. And then Wolfgar pointed out the surrounding
+hillsides. On them, cleared of their vegetation, our modern civilization
+stood gaunt and efficient. Towers, aerials, landing stages, aerial
+trams, factories, tall stacks over the dynamo houses belching thick
+black smoke, which artificial wind-generators carefully blew away from
+the city.
+
+In the midst of their hillside ring of necessary modernity, the people
+of the Great City had kept their playground inviolate. Work, science,
+industry--all necessary. But the real business of life was pleasure.
+Art, music, beauty.... And I am not far from thinking that unless
+abused, their formula is better than ours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+_Violet Beam of Death_
+
+
+We landed on a stage at the summit of one of the nearer hillsides. Our
+coming--unheralded since we had carried no sending instruments--created
+a furor. The workers rested to watch us as we disembarked. It was not so
+different a scene, here on the hill, than might have occurred on Earth.
+We took a moving platform, down the hill, to the water's edge. A barge
+was awaiting us--a broad flat vessel with gaudy trappings. A score of
+attendants lined its sides, each with a pole to thrust it through the
+shallow water. And on its high-raised stern, beneath a canopy was a
+couch upon which Tarrano reclined, with us of his party at his feet.
+
+A royal barge, queerly ancient, barbaric--reminding me of the flat,
+motionless pictures of Earth's early history. Yet it was a symbol here
+on Venus, not of barbarism, but of decadence.
+
+We started off. I may have given a false idea of the size of the Great
+City. Its lake, indeed, was fully fifteen miles or more in diameter.
+Half a million people lived on or close around that placid stretch of
+water.
+
+The news of Tarrano's arrival had instantly spread. Graceful boats, all
+propelled by hand, thronged our course. From them, and from every
+house-window, balcony and roof-top, a waving multitude cheered the
+coming of the Master. The new Master, to whom so recently they had given
+their allegiance--the Master who in return was to endow them with life
+everlasting.
+
+It was a gay, holiday throng--cheering us, tossing flower-petals down
+upon us as we passed majestically beneath the bridges. Yet among these
+gaudily dressed women and men with the luster of wealth and ease upon
+them, others mingled. Others of a lower class, poorly dressed, with the
+badge of servitude upon them, enthralled in a social peonage which I did
+not yet understand.
+
+"_Slaans_," Wolfgar called them. A term half of derision, half contempt.
+And Wolfgar pointed one out to me. A huge grey, surly-looking fellow
+passing in a one-man shell or boat of tree-fibre. He gazed up at us as
+he went by--a furtive glance of cold, sullen fury. Unmistakable. And I
+saw it again on others of his kind--men, women, even children who gazed
+at us with big, round eyes. A dumb, sullen resentment, with a
+smouldering fury beneath it.
+
+During the trip, which may have taken an hour, I remarked something
+also, which did not at the time seem significant but very soon I was to
+recall it and understand its import. Argo, of course, was still with us.
+As we embarked upon the barge, a man evidently an official of the Great
+City had paid his humble respects to Tarrano and then withdrawn to a
+further part of the vessel, drawing Argo with him. I saw the two in
+close conversation. The official evidently was telling Argo something of
+importance. I could see Argo growing indignant and then his eyes
+gleaming, a leer upon his cruel lips.
+
+During the trip Tarrano sat calm, half reclining on his couch--sat
+watching with his keen expressionless eyes the applause of the
+multitude. It was, I think, and I believe he felt it also, the height of
+his career up to that time--this triumphant entry into the greatest city
+of Venus. He did not speak, just sat watching and listening, with a half
+smile of triumph pulling at his mouth. Yet I know too, that those keen
+eyes of his did not miss the sullen glances of the _slaans_.
+
+The weather, as always in the Venus Central State, was warm--a luxurious
+tropic warmth. And now I felt--as I had seen from above--the languorous,
+sensuous quality of it all. Music, mingled with the ripple of girlish
+laughter and cheers, came from the houses as we passed. Soft, fragrant
+flower-petals deluged us. The very air was laden heavy with exotic
+perfumes from the flowers which were everywhere.
+
+We arrived at last at what appeared to be a palace--a broad, low
+building of polished stone, on an island of its own. It was the building
+I had noticed when first we saw the Great City from above. Gardens were
+about the building, and on its roof. Flowers lined its many balconies.
+
+We drew up to a stone landing-place.
+
+"The palace of the Princess Maida," Wolfgar whispered.
+
+But I had no time to question him. Attendants appeared. A queer mixture.
+Incongruous men of science, armed with belts of instruments. They
+greeted Tarrano humbly; escorted him away.
+
+Other attendants. Natives of the city, in the flowing, bright-colored
+robes we had seen everywhere. A group of them--laughing young
+girls--descended upon us.
+
+"The Princess Maida bids you welcome."
+
+They hurried us into the building. I was surprised. Tarrano had
+seemingly ignored us. It was quite as though we were honored guests,
+arriving in the Central State when Maida was its ruler.
+
+Led by the girls, we passed upward into the building past splashing
+fountains, cascades of perfumed water with tubes of silver light
+gleaming in its midst; and were thrust at last into a room.
+
+The girls withdrew. Across the floor-polished stone, with heavy woven
+rugs upon it--Georg and the Princess Maida advanced upon us.
+
+Our greetings were brief. I could have talked to them both for a day,
+questioning them; and they, no doubt, had as much to ask of us. But they
+were solemn, grave and anxious.
+
+"Not now, Jac," Georg said to check me. "Elza dear--I have been so
+worried over you."
+
+"But----" I demanded.
+
+"Jac--the situation here--our own cause--the safety of our Earth
+itself--this Tarrano--"
+
+But Maida stopped him. "The very air has ears. Not now." Her glance
+turned to Wolfgar; her slim hands went out to greet him. "Wolfgar, my
+friend. It is good to see you here."
+
+Wolfgar knelt before her, gazed for one instant into her eyes, and then
+with head bowed, brushed the hem of her robe to his face.
+
+She laughed gently. "Stand up, Wolfgar. I would not be the Princess
+Maida to you now. Only--your friend. Your grateful friend."
+
+There was a sudden soundless flash. From across the room a beam of
+violet flame darted at us. It struck just between Maida and Wolfgar, as
+he rose from his knee. Both of them involuntarily stepped backward,
+apart from each other. And between them, breast high, the flame hung
+level across the room. Maida was on one side of it; all the rest of us,
+on the other.
+
+I turned. At the door, Argo had appeared. From a black object in his
+hand, the beam was streaming. He rested the black thing on a wall ledge
+so that the beam hung level.
+
+"Stand where you are, all of you." He started toward Maida, behind the
+beam from the rest of us.
+
+Georg made as though to leap forward, but Wolfgar restrained him. "Wait!
+You don't understand--that's death!"
+
+I saw now that the violet light had encircled us. Only Maida and Argo
+were outside it. He was approaching her, with a cylinder in his hand.
+The ray from it struck her without power of movement or speech. Her
+eyes, terrified, turned to us. Again Georg would have leaped, but
+Wolfgar shouted, "Wait! That's death! Don't you understand?"
+
+Argo was leering. "Death? Yes! If you touch that violet light! Death, of
+course. But you won't touch it! You will stand and watch--stand silently
+for you know that if you shout, the vibrations will bring the beam upon
+you. You won't move--you'll stand and watch me kill your Princess
+Maida--not quickly--she is too beautiful for that. You, Georg
+Brende--you, Wolfgar, traitor from Mars. You shall see your Princess
+Maida die--this would-be traitoress to my Master Tarrano!"
+
+With all the strength of his puny body Wolfgar flung Georg
+backward--safely away from the deadly violet beam. And then, without
+warning, without a cry which would endanger us, the little Mars man
+sprang headlong, into and through the violet beam of death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+_Passing of a Friend_
+
+
+Wolfgar was not dead; but when we picked him up it was obvious that he
+was dying. The violet beam vanished as his body struck it--vanished with
+a hiss and splutter, and a puff of sulphuric smoke that mingled with the
+smell of burning garments and flesh.
+
+Georg and I leaped forward. Argo was standing transfixed by surprise at
+what Wolfgar had done; and as the beam died, Georg was upon him.
+
+"One moment!"
+
+The quiet, commanding voice of Tarrano. He must have come quickly, when
+informed by the finders of Argo's treachery. Yet he stood now at the
+arcade entrance, drawn to his full height, frowning with lowered brows,
+but wholly without appearance of haste.
+
+"One moment--stand aside, all of you."
+
+Argo cowered. The rest of us moved aside. Elza came toward me, and I put
+my arm around her. Poor little Elza! She was shivering with fright.
+
+Tarrano seemed not to need information as to what had transpired. His
+eyes, roving over us, saw the lifeless, seared body of Wolfgar lying on
+the floor.
+
+"Too bad," he said. Then his gaze swung to Argo.
+
+"Master----"
+
+"Silence!"
+
+There was on Tarrano's face and in his voice an expression, a tone quite
+new to me. A quiet grimness. More than that. A quality of deadliness--of
+inexorable deadliness which could well have chilled the stoutest heart
+that fronted it.
+
+"Come here, Argo." Tarrano stood quite motionless. "Argo!"
+
+"Master! Master, you----"
+
+"Come!"
+
+Argo was on the floor. Shaking with terror--for he, probably better than
+any of us, understood what was coming--dragged himself to Tarrano's
+feet.
+
+"Stand up!"
+
+"Master, have mercy----"
+
+"Stand up! Are you a man?"
+
+Argo's legs would barely support him, but he struggled to get himself
+erect. With a wrench, Tarrano tore the robe from Argo's chest.
+
+"Master! Master! Have mercy!"
+
+In Tarrano's hand I saw a needle-like piece of steel. A dagger, yet it
+was more like a needle.
+
+"Master--Oh----"
+
+Tarrano had stabbed it gently into the man's chest. A mere prick into
+the flesh, and a tiny drop of blood oozed out.
+
+For a moment Argo stood swaying. Eyes white-rimmed with mortal terror as
+he stupidly looked down at the drop of blood. A moment, then the
+injected poison took effect. He tottered, flung his arms above his head
+and fell. Lay writhing an instant; then twitching; and then quite still.
+
+Tarrano turned away, his face impassive. "Unfortunate. He was a good man
+in many ways--I shall be sorry to lose his services." He saw me with my
+arm around Elza, and he frowned.
+
+"So?"
+
+Instinctively, involuntarily--and I hated myself for it--I dropped my
+arm.
+
+Georg exclaimed: "Wolfgar--he----"
+
+Tarrano turned from me. "He is not dead--but he will die. There is
+nothing we can do. I'm very sorry--very sorry indeed."
+
+A sincere regret was in his tone. We lifted Wolfgar up, carried him to a
+depression in the floor by the wall--a shallow, couch-like bowl
+half-filled with down.
+
+On the floor we gathered, seated on cushions; and presently Wolfgar
+regained consciousness. His face was not burned. It lighted with a dazed
+smile; and his eyes, searching us, picked out Maida.
+
+"You are safe--I'm--so glad."
+
+His voice was low and labored; and at once his eyes closed again as
+though the effort of speaking were too great.
+
+Maida was sitting near me at Wolfgar's head, bending over him. She had
+recovered from her terror of Argo; and as she leaned down, gazing at the
+dying Wolfgar, I think I have never seen so gentle, so compassionate an
+expression upon the face of any woman.
+
+Elza whispered: "There must be something we can do. The men of
+medicine--the lights--the healing lights! Georg! Cannot you use
+father's----"
+
+They were only an overwrought girl's excited ideas, of course. Wolfgar's
+lungs were seared; even as Elza spoke, he coughed, and blood welled from
+his mouth--blood which Georg quickly wiped away.
+
+Tarrano was on his feet behind us, with folded arms; and as he looked
+down, I saw on his face also--the face which a few moments before had
+been grim with deadly menace--a look now of gentle compassion very much
+like Maida's.
+
+"No use," he said softly. "We can do nothing. He will die."
+
+Again Wolfgar's eyes opened. "Die--of course." He tried to raise one of
+his burned hands, but dropped it back. "Die? Yes--of course. In just a
+moment...." His eyes, already dulled, swung about. "Who is that--crying?
+There's no need--to cry."
+
+It was little Elza beside me, struggling to suppress her sobs.
+
+Wolfgar's slow, labored voice demanded: "That isn't--my Princess Maida
+crying--is it? I don't want--her to cry----"
+
+"No," said Georg gently. "Maida is here--right here by you. She isn't
+crying."
+
+His gaze found Maida's face. "Oh, yes--I can see you--Princess Maida.
+You're not crying--that's good. There's nothing to--cry about."
+
+He seemed for a moment to gather a little strength; he moved his head
+and saw Tarrano standing there behind us.
+
+"Master?" He used the old term with a whimsical smile. "I--called you
+that--for a long time, didn't I? You have a right to consider me a
+traitor----"
+
+"A spy," said Tarrano very gently. "Not a traitor. That you would have
+been had you served me--a traitor to your Princess."
+
+Wolfgar's head tried to nod; relief was on his face. "I'm--glad you
+understand. I would not want to die--having you think harshly of me----"
+
+"You are a man--I honor you." Abruptly Tarrano turned away and strode
+across the room. And always since I have wondered if he left that scene
+of death because of the emotion he could not hide.
+
+Georg said: "You should not talk, Wolfgar."
+
+"But I--want to talk. I have--only a few minutes. Just these--last few
+minutes--I want to talk to my--Princess Maida. You'll--excuse us--the
+Princess Maida and me--won't you? Just for these last--few minutes?"
+
+We withdrew beyond his fading sight.
+
+"My--Princess Maida----"
+
+His voice still reached us. She leaned closer over him. Her tears were
+falling now, but as she spoke she strove for calmness.
+
+"Wolfgar----"
+
+His eyes were glazing, but they dung to her. "Princess----"
+
+"No," she said. "Just Maida--your friend. The woman you have given your
+life for." Her voice almost broke. "Oh, Wolfgar! Never shall I forget
+that. To give your life----"
+
+"It is--a great honor." The gesture he made to check her words of thanks
+exhausted him. His eyes closed; for a moment he seemed not to breathe.
+As Maida leaned down in alarm, her beautiful white hair tumbled forward
+over her shoulders. A lock of it brushed Wolfgar. He could not lift his
+hands, but they groped for the tresses, found them and clung. Her white
+waves of hair, with his fingers, shriveled, burned black, entwined in
+them.
+
+Again his eyelids came up. "You won't leave me--Princess Maida. Not for
+these--last few minutes?"
+
+"No," she half whispered.
+
+"You--cannot--if you would." His whimsical smile returned. "You see? I
+am--holding you."
+
+For a moment he was silent. His eyes stayed open, staring dully at her.
+His face and lips were drained now of their blood.
+
+"You're--still there?"
+
+"Yes, Wolfgar."
+
+"Yes--of course I know you are. But I--cannot see you very well--now.
+You look--so far away."
+
+She put her face down quite close to him. Her eyes were brimming with
+tears.
+
+"Oh--yes," he said. "That's better--much better. Now I can--see
+you--very plainly. I was thinking--I wanted to--tell you something.
+It--wouldn't be right to tell you--except that I'll soon--be gone where
+it won't make any difference."
+
+He gathered all his last remaining strength. "I--love you--Princess
+Maida."
+
+She forced a gentle smile through her tears. "Yes, Wolfgar."
+
+"I mean," he persisted, "not as my Princess--just as--a woman.
+The--woman I've always loved. That's been my secret. You see? It
+would--always have been--my secret--the little Mars man Wolfgar--in love
+with his Princess Maida. You--don't think it too impertinent of me--do
+you? I mean--confessing it now--just at--the end?"
+
+"No," she whispered. "No, Wolfgar."
+
+"Thank you--very much." His breath exhaled with a faint sigh. "Thank
+you--very much. I wanted to tell you that--before I--go. And--if you
+wouldn't mind--I want to--call you--just Maida."
+
+"Just Maida, Wolfgar. Yes, of course, I want you to call me that." Her
+voice was broken. She brushed away her tears that he might not notice
+them.
+
+"Yes," he agreed. His staring eyes were trying to see her. "My Maida.
+You're--very beautiful--my Maida. I--wonder--you see, I'm taking
+advantage of you--I wonder if you'd say you--love me? I'd be so
+happy--just to hear you say it."
+
+As I sat there behind them, I prayed then that she might say it.
+
+"I love you, Wolfgar."
+
+"Oh," he whispered. "You _did_ say it! My Maida says that she loves me!"
+Happiness transfigured his livid face. But his smile was whimsical
+still. "You're--very kind to me. Please--say it again."
+
+"I love you, Wolfgar."
+
+"Yes--that's how I always dreamed it would sound.
+I--love--you--Wolfgar."
+
+His voice trailed away; a film was settling over his staring eyes. Then
+again his lips moved. "Maida says--'I love you, Wolfgar' ... I'm--so
+happy...."
+
+Quite suddenly she realized that he was gone. Her pent-up emotion came
+with a sob.
+
+"Wolfgar! My friend--my wonderful, loyal friend--don't die, Wolfgar!
+Don't die!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+_Waters of Eternal Peace_
+
+
+Little Wolfgar was gone. It seemed at first very strange, unreal. It lay
+a shadow of grief upon our spirits, for many hours a deeper shadow than
+all those grave events impending upon which hung the fate of three
+worlds.
+
+Tarrano ordered for Wolfgar a public burial of ceremony and honor in the
+waters of eternal peace--ordered it for that same evening. Once again
+Tarrano demonstrated the strangeness of his nature. His arrival to take
+possession of Venus had been made the occasion of a great festival. "The
+Water Festival," they called it, which was held only at times of
+universal public rejoicing. It was planned now to do honor to
+Tarrano--planned for this same evening. But he postponed it a night;
+tonight was for Wolfgar.
+
+We were still captives in Tarrano's hands, as we had been on Earth in
+Venia. Yet here in the Great City of Venus a curious situation arose.
+Tarrano himself explained it to us that afternoon. An embarrassing
+situation for him, he termed it.
+
+"Very embarrassing," he said, with eyes that smiled at us quizzically.
+"Just for your ears alone, you understand, I am willing to admit that I
+must handle these Great City people very carefully. You, Princess
+Maida--you are greatly beloved of your people."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+He nodded. "For that reason they would not like to know you are
+virtually a captive. And you, Georg Brende--really, they are beginning
+to look on you as a savior--to save them from disease and death. It is
+rather unflattering to me----"
+
+He broke off, then with sudden decision added:
+
+"Soon you two will realize that to join me will be your best course. And
+best for all the worlds, for it will bring to them all peace and health
+and happiness.... No, I ask no decision from you now. Nor from you, Lady
+Elza." His gaze softened as he regarded her--softened almost to a
+quantity of wistfulness. "_You_ know, Lady Elza, for what I am striving.
+I may--indeed I shall--conquer the worlds. But you hold in the palm of
+your little white hand, my real reward.... Enough!"
+
+And then he offered us a sort of pseudo-liberty. We might all come and
+go about the Great City at will. Apparently--to the public eye--allied
+to Tarrano. The Princess Maida--as before--hereditary honored ruler;
+with Tarrano guiding the business affairs of State, as on Earth our
+Presidents and their Councils rule the legendary Kings and Queens. The
+one ruling in fact; the other, an affair of pretty sentiment.
+
+It was this condition which Tarrano now desired to bring about. With
+Georg already beloved for his medical knowledge; and flying rumors
+(started no doubt by Tarrano) that the handsome Earth man would some day
+marry their Princess.
+
+Myself--the irony of it!--I was appointed a sort of bodyguard to the
+Lady Elza--the little Earth girl whose presence in the Great City would
+help conciliate the Earth and bring about universal peace--with Venus in
+control.
+
+So ran the popular fancy, guided by Tarrano. We were given our
+pseudo-liberty, watched always by the unseen eyes of Tarrano's guards.
+And there was nothing we could do but accept our status. Tarrano was
+guiding his destiny cleverly. Yet underneath it all, unseen forces were
+at work. We sensed them. The _slaans_--submissive at their menial tasks,
+but everywhere with sullen, resentful glances. Perhaps Tarrano realized
+his danger; but I do not think that he, any more than the rest of us,
+realized what the Water Festival was to bring forth.
+
+That night--our first night on Venus--midway between the darkness of
+sunset and the dawn--we buried Wolfgar. The air was soft and warm, with
+a gentle breeze that riffled the placid waters of the lake. Overhead,
+the sky gleamed with a myriad stars--reddish stars, all of them like Red
+Mars himself as seen through the heavy Venus atmosphere. Largest of
+them, the Earth. My birthplace! Save Elza here with me on Venus, that
+tiny red spot in the heavens, red like the tip of a lighted
+arrant-cylinder, held all that was dear to me!
+
+The funeral cortege--a solemn line of panoplied boats, started from the
+palace. Boats hung with purple fabric. In single file they wended their
+way through the city streets. From every landing, balcony, window and
+roof-top, the people stared down at us. The street corners were hung
+with shaded tubes of light, shining down with spots of color to the
+water.
+
+As we passed, the people bowed their heads, hands to their foreheads,
+palms outward. The gesture of grief. From one building came a low
+musical chant.
+
+"Honor to Wolfgar! The man who gave his life for our Princess. Honor to
+Wolfgar!"
+
+We came to the edge of the city. The lake here narrowed to a river--a
+length of winding river opening to the pond which was the burial place
+of Eternal Peace. On Tarrano's barge, with Elza and Georg, we led the
+way. Maida was not with us. I asked Tarrano where she was, but solemnly
+he denied me.
+
+At the burial waters--on the sloping banks of which a silent throng had
+gathered--we landed. And following us, the other vessels of the cortege
+came along and stopped beside us. The pond was dotted with white markers
+for the graves. The whole scene unlighted, save for the stars, and the
+red and purple aural lights of the Venus heavens, which mounted the sky
+at this midnight hour. A great, glowing arc--the reflected glow from a
+myriad cluster of tiny moons and moon-dust, encircling Venus. The soft
+light from it flooded the water and the tombs with a flush of red and
+purple.
+
+As we lay there against the bank, with that silent throng breathlessly
+watching, from down the river came the last vessel of our cortege. It
+made a scene I shall never forget. The bier. Draped in purple. A single,
+half-naked _slaan_ propelling it with a sweep from its stern. The body
+of Wolfgar lying on its raised prow--his dead, white face, with peace
+upon it. Beside the body, the lone figure of Maida, kneeling at
+Wolfgar's head, with her white, braided hair falling down over her
+shoulders. Kneeling and staring, almost expressionless; but I knew that
+with her whole heart she was speeding the soul of Wolfgar to its eternal
+peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+_Unseen Menace_
+
+
+That day following the burial of Wolfgar, there was nothing of
+importance occurred. No news from the Earth could get in. I felt that
+the Earth might be planning an attack. Probably was, since war had been
+declared. Yet that of course was months away.
+
+Tarrano apparently was engaged in the pleasurable triumph of the coming
+Water Festival. All day he seemed engaged in planning it. But I knew
+that he was engaged secretly with far sterner things concerning the Cold
+Country, which lay a day's journey from us. But what they were, I did
+not know.
+
+The Water Festival was all we talked of. That afternoon, Tarrano
+describing it, said smilingly:
+
+"They say it is for me. But, Lady Elza--it is _I_ who plan it--for you.
+You have not seen the Red Woman." A gleam of amusement played upon his
+lips; but as he regarded Elza, I saw another look--of speculation, as
+though he were gauging her.
+
+"The Red Woman, Lady Elza. She will preside tonight. You will find
+her--very interesting. We will watch her together, you and I."
+
+I did not know then what he meant; but I remembered the words later, and
+understood only too well.
+
+Just after sundown, when I chanced to be in a small boat alone, near the
+palace, the first of two significant incidents occurred. From the
+shadows beneath a house, the head of a swimming man emerged. A _slaan_,
+and he gripped the sides of my boat as I drifted.
+
+"Wait, Earth man." He spoke in the quaint universal language, which I
+understood, though imperfectly.
+
+I gazed at him. A bullet-like head, with sullen, blazing eyes. He added:
+"We do not blame you--or your woman, Elza--or the Princess Maida. Have
+no fear, but guard yourself well tonight."
+
+Before I could speak he had sunk into the water, swimming beneath it. I
+could see the phosphorescence of his moving body as he swam away into
+the shadows beyond my line of vision.
+
+The other incident came a moment later. As I was gazing down into the
+water I saw a moving metal shape. A triangular metal head, as of a
+diver's cap. More than that, it turned upward; and behind its pane was a
+man's face. Unfamiliar to me--yet the face of an Anglo-Saxon man of
+Earth! Unmistakable! It stared at me a moment--no more than three or
+four feet below my boat. And then it moved away and vanished.
+
+I had no opportunity to speak alone with Elza, or Georg or Maida that
+entire evening. Always Tarrano was with us. We sat upon the palace
+balcony, we men smoking our arrant-cylinders. Tarrano talked and joked
+like a care-free youth. He was very courteous to Elza, with a holiday
+spirit upon him. But his eyes never relaxed; and often I could see him
+measuring her.
+
+The aural lights mounted the sky. The holiday spirit which was on
+Tarrano was spreading everywhere throughout the city. Boats gayly
+bedecked--in such contrast to the funeral cortege of poor Wolfgar just
+the night before--began passing the palace on their way to the festival
+waters. Men and laughing girls thronged them. All with red masks
+covering their faces. The men in grey tight-fitting garments, with
+conical caps and flowing plumes; the girls in bright-colored, flowing
+robes, and tresses dangling with flowers entwined in them.
+
+The balcony upon which we sat was close above the water level. The
+barges, of every size and kind, glided past. Sometimes the girls would
+shower us with flower petals. One small boat paused before us. A girl
+stood up to wave at me. Her hand, held up with the loose robe falling
+back from her slim white arm, offered me a huge scarlet blossom. The
+love offering. As I hesitated, her laughter rippled out. She tore the
+mask from her face. Her red mouth was smiling; her eyes, provocative,
+were dancing with mischief. She tossed the flower into my face as her
+escort, with a shout of mock anger, pulled her back to him.
+
+Their boats glided on.
+
+Other boats passed; some with girls gayly strumming instruments of
+music. One boat with a man strumming, and a girl on a small dais,
+dancing with a whirl of black veils. As they came opposite to us another
+man in the boat reached up and pushed the girl overboard. She fell into
+the water with a scream of laughter; came up like a mermaid and they
+pulled her aboard, the veils and her hair clinging to her.
+
+At last Tarrano signified that we must go. It was upon me then to make
+an effort to draw back, to keep Elza and Maida at the palace with Georg
+and me. My heart was heavy with foreboding. Amid all this laughter and
+music--pleasure of the senses reigning supreme here in the Great City
+tonight--I could not miss a sense of impending evil. The _slaans_
+propelling the boats were stolid and grim. Not for them, this dalliance.
+Not for their women, this music and laughter, these daring costumes to
+display their beauty. The _slaan_ women, drab with work, were slinking
+about unnoticed. Often I would see a boat of them slip by, furtively, in
+the shadows. Drab women, watching these beauties, resentful, sullen--and
+with what purpose smouldering in their hearts I could only guess.
+
+The very air--to me at least--seemed pregnant with impending evil. I
+know that Georg felt it too. Often I had caught his eye as he regarded
+me. Once he started to whisper to me aside, but like a flash, Tarrano
+with his microphonic ear, turned to interrupt us.
+
+I wanted to stay with Elza at the palace. Suddenly I was afraid of
+Tarrano, more afraid for Elza than I had ever been. And who, and what
+was this Red Woman? Maida knew, of course. Maida had been very solemn
+for hours; thoughtful, almost grim.
+
+And the _slaan_ in the water who said he did not blame us. He had warned
+us to guard ourselves. But how? There were no weapons. On this night of
+pleasure nothing would have been more incongruous.
+
+And that metal cap in the water with a man's face behind it? An Earth
+man of my own race! What did it mean?
+
+I was perturbed--frightened. But I did not demur when Tarrano led us to
+his flower-bedecked barge. Of what use?
+
+We were paired. Georg with Maida; Elza with Tarrano. And I? Tarrano told
+me curtly--and with a smile of ironic amusement--that when we reached
+the festival so handsome a man as I would have no trouble engaging the
+attention of some Venus maiden.
+
+On cushions in the barge we reclined while our _slaans_ poled us along
+the streets. Tarrano was feeding sweets to Elza as though they were gay
+young lovers. Poor little Elza! She was frightened. Her face was a
+trifle pale, her lips set. But she, too, knew that we were wholly in
+Tarrano's power, and she made the best of the situation. Sometimes she
+would laugh gayly; but I could not miss the note of fear in it.
+
+The progress of our barge was slow. Boats clustered around us, their
+occupants pelting us with flowers. A deluge spray of perfume was turned
+on us--a heavy, exotic scent, almost cloying. It lay redolent on our
+garments for hours.
+
+Presently Tarrano gave us masks. And long robes for Maida and Elza to
+cover the gay holiday dresses they were wearing.
+
+At the edge of the city a canal had been dug through the hillside. We
+passed slowly through it, under archways of dangling colored lights,
+around a sharp bend and came upon the Water Festival. And--with
+impending tragedy for the moment forgotten--I gazed for this first time
+at such a scene of pleasure and beauty as I had never even imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+_Love, Music--and a Warning_
+
+
+The Water Festival! As our barge rounded a bend in the canal, under the
+archways of dangling colored lights, the festival spread before us.
+Involuntarily I stood up to gaze. The canal opened into an artificial
+lake--a broad circular sheet of water some 800 _helans_[17] in diameter.
+Sloping hillsides enclosed the lake--hillsides which I saw were terraced
+with huge banks of seats in tiers one above the other.
+
+[Footnote 17: About 4,000 feet.]
+
+The seats were crowded with people. White ribbons of roads gave access
+from the neighboring countryside for land-surface vehicles, and there
+were stages for the accommodation of air-craft. The rural populace, and
+people from the nearby smaller cities, had gathered to view this
+national spectacle--a million or more of them probably, with their
+individual electrical telescopes for direct distant vision, and small
+pocket mirrors for that which otherwise would be hidden. A million
+people at least, seated here on these gigantic spreading tiers.
+
+The lake itself was thus the stage as it were, of a tremendous arena.
+Tiny artificial islands dotted the lake--a hundred of them. Islands,
+some no more than a few feet broad; some larger, and in the center of
+the lake, one quite large. All the islands were covered with luxuriant
+vegetation. The tiny ones were no more than shadowed nooks of leaves and
+flowers.
+
+Between the islands, crooked lanes of the placid water wended their way
+in and out, broadening into occasional lagoons. Bridges crossed the
+lanes; archways of lights spanned them at intervals.
+
+From this distance the whole scene was a riot of color and great red and
+purple auroral lights of Venus, which at this midnight hour rode the
+upper sky, tinged everything vividly. The archway lights were soft rose,
+silver and gold. Some of the tiny islands, from sources hidden were
+bathed in bright silver. Others darker, in deep purple and red; still
+others, quite unlighted, dim and shadowed, touched only by the reflected
+glow from those near them.
+
+From the main island lights were flashing into the sky; occasional color
+bombs mounted and burst, painting the heavens.
+
+A riot of color. And then as we approached, I became aware of sound and
+movement as well. Music from scores of unseen sources. Music from single
+isolated instruments floating softly over the water--lovers playing
+accompaniment to their pleading voices; or again, groups of voices--the
+curiously mellow voices of young girls--and, on an island apart, music
+from an aerial carrying strains from the public _concelan_.[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: Orchestra.]
+
+It was all music of a type unfamiliar to me of Earth. The
+intellectuality of our Earth music was missing. This music of Venus was
+built upon queer minor strains; unfinished cadences; a rhythm of the
+sort we of Earth could never encompass. I listened, and felt the appeal
+of my senses. The lavish, abandoned music of barbarism? I had almost
+thought it that. Yet it was not. Rather was it decadent. This whole
+scene; the color, the music, the heavy cloying scents with which the
+night air was redolent; the warm, sensuous abandonment, felt rather than
+made obvious--it was not barbarism, but decadence. And I realized then
+how close are the two extremes. A reversion to type, merely. And I knew,
+then, that from the pinnacle of civilization which we of Earth had
+reached, naught lay before us but this.
+
+Music everywhere throughout the festival. And movement. As we floated
+out of the canal, passing slowly along one of the broader waterways,
+boats and barges slipped past us. Barges crowded with revelers. And the
+small boats, generally with but a man and a girl--fugitive couples with
+the holiday spirit upon them, seeking the shadowed nooks of islands for
+their love-making.
+
+In one lagoon we came upon such a boat. The man in it--a gay youth in
+red and black motley, with the mask fallen from his laughing, perspiring
+face--was in its stern, manipulating it with a long, thin paddle. The
+girl was lying face down on cushions in its prow. She was facing
+forward, with her long white hair tumbling about her. Around the boat
+were clustered a number of other boats. Each was small, with only a man
+in it. A ring of boats, besieging the girl. Our barge paused to watch. A
+boat would dash forward, its occupant standing up to thrust it on. But
+the girl, swung to meet it by the efforts of her escort, would turn her
+cylinder of _alcholite_[19] upon the attacker. Befuddled, her adversary
+would retreat; or another, momentarily drunk, would fall into the water
+to be sobered.
+
+[Footnote 19: A scent or perfume, highly intoxicating.]
+
+All with gay shouts of laughter; until at last the couple were
+victorious and scurried away to their island.
+
+We passed on. There were mimic battles often on the islands. A hidden
+couple found out and dragged back. A lone man attacked and pelted with
+flowers by a band of marauding girls. A diving platform at one end of an
+oval lagoon. Girls mounting it to dive into the red-shimmering water,
+where waiting youths were swimming, and by their prowess in downing
+other contenders would seize upon the girls and carry them off to where
+a barge was loading its passengers for the main island.
+
+To this main island we came at last. It was heavily wooded, and indented
+with shallow, placid waterways. In one of them we landed; and amid a
+sudden quiet and awe at the presence of Tarrano, we went ashore. Georg
+walking with Maida; Tarrano forcing Elza to hold his arm; and I, beside
+Elza until Tarrano sternly bade me walk behind.
+
+We were masked, but the revelers knew us. Amid the throng with which the
+island was packed, we moved slowly forward toward a gay pavilion which
+was in the center of the grove. Music came from it--a broad, roofed-over
+pavilion with a dancing floor in the depression of its center space, and
+tiers of balconies above it.
+
+Within the pavilion, where the air was heavy with the smell of wine,
+arrant-smoke, intoxicating whiffs of surreptitiously used
+alcholite-cylinders and sensuous perfumes upon the garments of the
+women--in here, the throng pressed around us; the dancers stopped to
+gaze; the music momentarily hushed; the spectators on the
+balconies--girls reclining on cushions with young gallants seated beside
+them with trays of food and drink--all turned to crane down at us.
+
+"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"
+
+A girl shouted it. A murmur of applause swept about us.
+
+Abruptly Tarrano removed his mask. His face, which had been concealed,
+showed with the flush of pleasure and his lips were parted with a smile
+of gratification and triumph. But, as the red silk mask was doffed,
+another took its place--the mask of imperturbability--that grave,
+inscrutable look with which he always masked his real emotions.
+
+"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"
+
+Tarrano raised his hand; his quiet, calm voice carried throughout the
+silent room.
+
+"There is no Master here tonight. No Master--only the Mistress of Love.
+Let us honor her. Let _her_ rule us all--tonight."
+
+For just an instant his gaze seemed to linger upon Elza; then he gravely
+replaced his red mask. Applause swept the room; the music started again.
+The lights overhead began whirling their kaleidoscope of colors down
+upon the dancers.
+
+We took our places in a canopied enclosure upon the first balcony, some
+twenty feet above the dance floor. Tarrano refused the cushions; he
+placed Elza deferentially upon them, and spread food and drink and
+sweet-meats before her. Near them sat Georg and Maida. I would have sat
+between Elza and Georg, but Tarrano pulled me away from them.
+
+"You are wanted below." He said it very softly, for my ears alone; but
+through his mask I could see his eyes blazing at me.
+
+"They are diving into the pool outside--cannot you hear them, Jac
+Hallen?" Impatience came to his voice; in truth, I must have been
+staring at him witless. "Maidens out there, Jac Hallen, who are seeking
+handsome youths like yourself for escort. Must I speak plainly? You are
+not wanted here. Go!"
+
+"I----"
+
+"Another word will be your last." His voice was still almost
+emotionless, but I did not miss the gesture of his hand to his belt.
+"You had best obey, Jac Hallen."
+
+I was hardly so witless as not to realize the truth of his admonition. I
+turned away; and with all the laughter and movement around us, I think
+that Georg, Maida and Elza did not see me go.
+
+For the space of an hour or more, I stood alone on the lower floor of
+the pavilion, watching the balcony where Tarrano and the others sat.
+Stood there alone, feeling helpless and with my heart heavy with
+foreboding. Beneath my grey robe I was dressed in holiday fashion of the
+Great City--beribboned and gartered, with feathers at my scarlet
+shoulders for all the world like a male _nada_.[20] My red mask I kept
+on, and folded my cloak around me.
+
+[Footnote 20: A popinjay--fop.]
+
+The dance floor was crowded. I saw now that it was cut into small
+circles marked with black--circles in diameter about the length of a
+man. At intervals--perhaps five minutes apart--a signal in the music
+caused each of the dancing couples to select a circle and to dance
+wholly within it. And then one of the circles, by mechanical device, was
+raised into the air above all the others. The couple on it, thus
+prominent, danced at their best, to be judged by Tarrano for a prize.
+
+For an hour I stood there. I could see Elza plainly. She had removed her
+mask. Her face was flushed, her lips laughing. Once, in a chance
+silence, her shout of applause rang out. The quality of abandonment in
+it turned me cold. Did I see Tarrano's hand move back to his belt? Was
+he intoxicating her? Then I saw Maida make a gesture--wave something
+from beneath her cloak at Elza. A scent to sober her? It seemed so, for
+Elza looked confused; and I saw Maida flash her a look of warning.
+
+Abruptly, from an alcove near me, a group of girls rushed out. Their
+cloaks and white veils fell from them as they came my way--laughing as
+they ran for the doorway leading outside to the pool. I was in their way
+and they bumped into me; one of them gripped me. I tried to jerk loose,
+but she clung. A slim girl, enveloped in her long, white tresses. Her
+eyes laughed at me; her red mouth went up alluringly to my face.
+
+"I love you--_you_, Jac Hallen." Her arms wound about my neck as she
+clung. I was trying to cast her off when her fingers lifted a corner of
+my mask.
+
+"I was afraid you were _not_ Jac Hallen." Her whisper was relieved, and
+it had suddenly turned swift and vehement. "I am sister to Maida--my
+name, Alda. I am to warn you. When Tarrano dances with the Red
+Woman--when they go up on the raised circle--_you drop to the floor_!
+You understand? Keep down, or the rays might strike you! But be here,
+inside, and watch. And _afterward_, go quickly to join the Princess and
+your Elza. You understand?"
+
+She clung to me, with her slim, white body pressed against my cloak. To
+anyone watching us, she would have seemed merely making love. Her eyes
+were provocative; her lips mocking me. But she was whispering, _"Drop to
+the floor when Tarrano dances with the Red Woman--drop or the rays might
+strike you!"_
+
+Another girl was plucking at me from behind. Alda shouted: "You shall
+not have him!" and cast me off. But I heard her whisper, _"Come outside
+for a moment--then come back!"_--and then, aloud, she cried to the other
+girl, "You shall not have him! He is coming to watch me dive and swim! I
+am more beautiful than you--you could not win him from me!"
+
+I let them drag me out into the grove by the scented pool.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+_Revolution!_
+
+
+I realize that I am, by nature, not overly observant; and in those
+moments, when I stood out there beside the pool, I think I came most
+forcibly to appreciate how little I habitually observe that which is not
+readily apparent. An incident now occurred to bring it home to me; and,
+quite suddenly, a score of things which I had seen during the past two
+hours at the festival were made plain.
+
+Music, feasting, merry-making, love! In the midst of it all, an
+undercurrent of events was flowing. Unseen events--but I had partly seen
+some of them, and now, at last, I began to understand.
+
+In the main hall of the pavilion, midway to its roof, a line of mirrors
+was placed along the wall facing Tarrano. A hundred small mirrors, side
+by side. On them were moving images of what was taking place in
+different parts of the festival--so that Tarrano and the others might
+see the merry-making, not only in the pavilion, but elsewhere, as well.
+It was interesting to watch the mirrors--and sometimes amusing. The
+scene of a gay battle of boats in a nearby lagoon; the diving girls in
+the pools; a view from the sky above of the whole scene; another,
+looking upward at the color bombs bursting overhead; a bridge on which a
+dozen girls were besieged by as many men, who sought to climb upward
+from their boats underneath, flowers for missiles, and the alcholite
+fumes which held off the attackers, or, perchance, caused a girl to fall
+into the water, to be instantly captured.
+
+Other mirrors, eavesdropping upon the secluded islands, making public,
+for the amusement of the spectators in the pavilion, the furtive
+love-making of couples who fancied themselves alone.
+
+All this I had seen. And now I remembered that, occasionally, a mirror
+had gone dark, and then turned suddenly to a scene somewhere else. I
+understood now. Quiet incidents against Tarrano were in progress. The
+mirrors were being tampered with, that none of these events should be
+shown.
+
+There were, scattered throughout the festival, fully a hundred men of
+Tarrano's guard. Some of them I knew by their uniforms; others were
+concealed by red masks and robes like myself. When first we entered the
+pavilion, some twenty or thirty of them had been there with us. But many
+of them did not stay; and now I remembered that, one by one, I had seen
+them slip away, lured by the slim, white shapes of girls who came from
+the pool to beguile them.
+
+I realized now that these girls of the scented pool were very possibly
+all working for Maida. Most daring of all at the festival, these fifty
+girls who now disported themselves in the water at my feet. All
+beautiful, none beyond the first flush of earliest maturity. Slight,
+grey-white nymphs, laughing as they discarded their hampering veils,
+tossing their white hair as they plunged into the shimmering pool.
+Seemingly the most seductive, most abandoned of everyone.
+
+Yet, as I stood there, I saw three of them climb from the water and,
+with gay shouts, rush into the pavilion. Back in a moment; and with them
+a flushed man--one of Tarrano's guards--flushed and flattered at their
+attention. His hat was gone, his robe disheveled, as the girls fought
+for him. They stopped quite close to me; and I saw that one of them was
+Alda.
+
+"You shall not have him!" she shouted to her companions. "He is mine! He
+loves me--none of you!"
+
+From her thick hair I saw her draw a tiny cylinder, wave it in the man's
+face. And, with another laugh, she flung her arms around his neck and
+fell with him into the water. I watched the splash and the ripples where
+they went down. In a moment, the girl came up--_but the man did not_. In
+all the confusion of the crowded pool, it was not very obvious.
+
+A dozen, perhaps, of such incidents, which now, that I was alert to
+understand, were apparent. The mirrors might have shown some of
+them--but the mirrors always went dark just in time.
+
+Tarrano's guards were disappearing. And now I saw a _slaan_ skulking in
+the shadows of the shrubbery nearby. And I noticed, too, that this pool
+at my feet had a stream flowing outward from it--a waterway connecting
+it with the main lake. And I remembered the Earth man in sub-sea garb
+whom I had seen. Were there many Earth men down here in the water?
+
+_"When Tarrano dances with the Red Woman, you drop to the floor."_
+
+I remembered Alda's words and her admonition, "Be inside the pavilion."
+And presently I caught her glance as she was poised for a dive--and it
+seemed directing me to leave.
+
+Wrapped in my drab cloak, I went back inside. The merry-making had
+increased; the place was more crowded than ever. I had been there but a
+moment when a gong sounded. The music stopped. In the hush Tarrano, on
+the balcony, rose to his feet.
+
+"The tri-night hour[21] is here." He removed his mask; his face was
+grave, but a slight smile curved his thin lips. "Let us see ourselves
+now as we really are."
+
+[Footnote 21: Half-way between midnight and dawn.]
+
+He slipped his robe from his shoulders and stood in his festive costume.
+For so slight a man, I was surprised at the strength of him. Bands of
+gold-metal encircled his naked torso; a broad girdle of purple cloth
+hung from his waist. His bare limbs were lean and straight; sandals of
+red were on his feet. And a band about his forehead with a single
+feather in it.
+
+Yet, for it all, he was no male _nada_, but every inch a man. Gravely
+smiling, as, with a gesture, he bade them all discard their masks and
+robes. From overhead the colored lights turned white. And in the glare,
+the robes and masks were dropped. Costumes grotesque, some of them;
+others symbolic; others merely beautiful. Vivid colors. Dancers daringly
+garbed, with whom the girls from the pool now mingled.
+
+A moment of breathless silence; then ripples of applause from the
+spectators. And then the music and the dancing went on.
+
+Barbaric costumes? Some frankly imitated the bygone ages of Venus, Mars
+and Earth. But the spirit that prompted them was decadence--nothing
+more.
+
+Presently, as I stood unmasked in my effeminate garb, holding myself
+aloof from the girls who would have carried me off to the dancing floor,
+I saw the roof of the pavilion roll back. The open sky spread above us.
+And from it came down an effulgence of silver light, from a source high
+overhead. It bathed us all in its soft radiance; and, simultaneously,
+the lights in the pavilion went out. A single golden shaft rested on
+Tarrano. Elza, Georg and Maida were still there. In the golden light I
+could see them quite plainly--could see that Elza was flushed with
+suppressed excitement. Not the alcholite fumes now. Georg, too, seemed
+very alert. And Maida. There was, indeed, a tenseness about them all--an
+air of vague expectancy which made my heart beat faster as I realized
+it.
+
+Was Tarrano totally unaware of what was about to happen? Was he unaware
+of this hidden, lurking menace to him, which now, to me, was so obvious?
+I could not believe that; yet, he was imperturbable, solemn as ever.
+
+A shaft of golden light upon Tarrano. The darkened chamber. The silver
+radiance coming down upon us in a shaft from the sky. A hush lay upon
+the room. The music had ceased; now it began again, very soft, ethereal.
+Everyone in the room was gazing upward. From high overhead in the silver
+shaft a shape appeared, slowly floating downward. A woman's figure. It
+came down, supported by what mechanical or scientific device I never
+knew. It seemed floating unsupported.
+
+Within the pavilion, suspended in mid-air, I saw that it was a woman in
+filmy red veils. Poised on tip-toe in the air. Arms outstretched, with
+the red veils hanging from them like wings. A woman fully matured. White
+hair piled in coils on her head, with a huge, scarlet blossom in it. A
+face, somewhat heavy of feature, powdered white; with glowing eyes, dark
+lidded; and a scarlet mouth. A face, an expression in the smouldering
+eyes, the full lips half parted--a face and an expression that seemed
+the very incarnation of all that is sensuous in humans. The Red Woman!
+The living symbol of all that lay beneath this festive merry-making.
+
+The Red Woman! For a moment she hovered there before us. A shaft of red
+light now came down from above. It caught her, bathed her in its lurid
+glow. On her face came a look of triumph, and a leer almost insolent, as
+slowly she began fluttering through the air toward Tarrano. He rose to
+meet her. Whispered something aside to Elza.
+
+Close before him, the Red Woman hovered. And now a circle-dais from the
+floor came up to her. She rested upon it; began a slow, sinuous dance;
+one by one loosening the veils; the red light deepening until it painted
+her body red in lieu of the draperies.
+
+No frivolous mockery here. Intense, smouldering eyes as she held her
+gaze on Tarrano's face and slowly raised her arms in invitation to him.
+At her gesture, he rose to his feet. Yet I knew he was not under her
+spell, for his lips were smiling, bantering.
+
+But he rose obediently, and stepped from the balcony to the upraised
+dais. Around his neck the Red Woman wound her arms--white arms stained
+red by the lurid light.
+
+A flash! I did not see from whence it came; but within me some
+subconscious impulse made me drop to the floor. The light from overhead
+was out. Momentary darkness. A woman's scream of terror. Then others.
+The sound of running feet; bodies falling. Panic in the crowd. Confusion
+everywhere.
+
+Then light from somewhere came on. People were tramping me. I fought
+them off, climbed to my feet. On the dais the Red Woman lay dead.
+Huddled in a heap, with a brand of black searing her forehead. _Slaans_
+were leaping about the room--huge, half-naked men--brandishing primitive
+knives. Flashing steel, buried in the backs of the fleeing merry-makers.
+Other figures--Earth men they seemed--gripping the _slaans_, staying
+their murderous fury.
+
+Tarrano? I did not see him at first. The air above the floor of the
+pavilion was full of snapping sparks--a battle of some unknown rays. The
+mirrors were shattered: glass from them was falling about me. Then, in
+the semi-gloom on the balcony, Tarrano's figure materialized. Invisible
+before, the hostile rays upon it now made it apparent. But Tarrano
+seemed proof against the rays. I could see he was unharmed; and as he
+stood there, no doubt using a curved, duplicating beam, the like of
+which I have seen used in warfare, the image of him seemed to shift.
+Then it doubled--two images, one here, one further down the balcony.
+Then still others--appearing and disappearing, always in different
+places, until no one could have said where the man himself really was. A
+dozen Tarranos, each enveloped in hostile sparks, each with his face
+grinning at us in mockery.
+
+Abruptly, I heard Georg's voice shout above the din: "Elza! Elza is
+gone!"
+
+The images of Tarrano faded. He, too, was gone.
+
+And then I saw Maida on the balcony, standing with upraised arms. Her
+voice rang out.
+
+"Down with Tarrano! Death to Tarrano!" And then her pleading command:
+
+"_Slaans_, no more bloodshed! Be loyal, _slaans_, to your Princess
+Maida!"
+
+And Georg calling: "Loyalty, everyone, to your Princess Maida. Loyalty!
+Loyalty!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+_First Retreat_
+
+
+I must recount now what Elza later told me, going back to those moments
+when Elza sat upon the balcony watching Tarrano and the Red Woman. The
+significance of what had been transpiring at the Water Festival was not
+clear to Elza; she did not know what was impending, but as she sat there
+with Tarrano beside her, a sense of danger oppressed her. Danger which
+lay like a weight upon her heart. Yet several times she found herself
+laughing--hilarious; and from Maida's warning glance, and the steadying
+odor which Maida wafted to her, she knew that Tarrano was using the
+alcholite fumes to intoxicate her.
+
+The Red Woman and Tarrano were upon the dais. There came a flash; then
+darkness. Elza went cold with terror. She sat stiff and silent, while
+around her surged that turmoil of confusion. The smell of chemicals was
+in the air; her skin prickled as with a million tiny needles where
+sparks now began to snap against it.
+
+How long she crouched there, or what was happening, Elza did not know.
+But presently she heard Tarrano's voice in her ear.
+
+"Come, Lady Elza, I must get you out of this." In the darkness his face
+glowed wraith-like. Then she felt his hand upon her arm.
+
+"Come, we must leave here. I would not have you endangered."
+
+With a haste and roughness that belied the calm solicitude of his words,
+he pulled her to her feet. There was light in the pavilion now. Elza saw
+dimly the turmoil of struggling figures; and then she saw the scene
+duplicated--saw it shift and sway in crazy fashion. Though she did not
+know it, she was looking out along the curved rays which Tarrano was
+sending from them. Sparks were snapping everywhere. A second image of
+Tarrano appeared to the left of her--she saw it in a mirror nearby--yet
+he was at her right, gripping her arm.
+
+"Hurry, Lady Elza."
+
+She found herself being dragged along the balcony; stumbling over a body
+lying there; feeling a surge of heat and electric disturbance beat
+against her face. Then Tarrano had her in his arms, carrying her. She
+heard him curse as a sudden wave of fire seemed to strike them--hostile
+rays bringing a numbness to muscles and brain. Tarrano was fumbling at
+his belt; and through a shower of sparks he stumbled onward with his
+burden.
+
+Elza's senses were fading. Vaguely she was conscious that Tarrano was
+carrying her down an incline to the ground. Grateful, cool air. Stars
+overhead. Trees; foliage; shimmering water. The screams and confusion of
+the pavilion growing fainter....
+
+When Elza regained consciousness, she was lying in the bottom of a
+little boat, Tarrano beside her.
+
+"So? You have awakened? We are quite safe, Lady Elza."
+
+She and Tarrano were alone in the boat. It was long and very narrow,
+with its sides no more than a foot above the water. Tarrano sat at its
+chemical mechanism. A boat familiar to us of Earth. A small
+chemical-electric generator. The explosion of water in a little tank,
+with the resultant gases ejected through a small pipe projecting under
+the surface at its stern. The boat swept forward smoothly, rapidly and
+almost silently, with a stream of the gas bubbles coming to the surface
+in its wake.
+
+"Quite safe, Lady Elza."
+
+She saw that Tarrano's face was blackened with grime. His garments were
+burned, and hers were also. He was disheveled, but his manner was as
+imperturbable as ever. He made her comfortable on the cushions in the
+boat; drew a robe closer around her against the rush of the night air.
+
+Elza was unhurt. She saw now, with clarifying senses, that they were
+plying along a narrow river. Banks of foliage on each side; the auroral
+lights in the sky; occasionally on the hillsides along the river, the
+dim outlines of a house.
+
+It was all a trifle unreal--like looking through a sunglass that was
+darkened--for around the boat hung always a vague pall of gloom. Tarrano
+spoke of it.
+
+"Our isolation barrage. It is very weak, but the best I can
+contrive. From these hills the naked eye, now at night could hardly
+penetrate it.... A precaution, for they will be searching for us
+perhaps.... Ah!..."
+
+A white search-ray sprang from a house at the top of a hill nearby. It
+leaped across the dark countryside, swept the water--which at that point
+had broadened into a lagoon--and landed upon the boat. It was a light
+strong enough to penetrate the barrage--the boat was disclosed to
+observers in the house. But Tarrano raised a small metal projector. A
+dull-red beam sprang from it and mingled with the other. A surge of
+sparks; then Tarrano's red beam conquered. It absorbed the white light.
+And Tarrano's beam was curved. It lay over the lake in a huge bow,
+bending far out to one side. Yet its other end fell upon the hostile
+house. The white search-ray from the house was submerged, bent outward
+with Tarrano's beam. From the house, the observer could only gaze along
+this curved light. He saw the image of the boat--not where the boat
+really was--but as though the ray were straight.
+
+Elza, staring with her heart in her throat, saw a ball of yellow fire
+mount from the house. It swung into the air in a slow, lazy parabola,
+came down and dropped into the lake. But it fell where the marksman saw
+the boat, a safe distance to one side. A ball of fire dropping into the
+water, exploding the water all around it for a distance of a dozen feet.
+Like a cascade, the water mounted.
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "A very bad marksman."
+
+Other bombs came. It turns me cold when I think how orders like this
+could have come from the Great City--these bombs which had they found
+their mark would have killed Tarrano, but at the expense of the life of
+Elza. They did not find their mark. Tarrano continually changed the
+curve of his beam. The image of the boat shifted. A few moments only;
+and riding the waves of the bomb-tossed water, they rounded a bend, back
+into the narrow river and were beyond range.
+
+Tarrano snapped off his ray. "Quite safe, Lady Elza. Do not be alarmed.
+I doubt if they will locate us again. They should be very busy now in
+the Great City. I'm surprised they could even think to notify this
+Station we have just passed."
+
+We were indeed very busy in the Great City during those hours, as you
+shall presently hear.
+
+Tarrano and Elza were not again disturbed. How far they went in the boat
+she does not know, but at last they landed in a sheltered cove. An air
+vehicle was there. Tarrano transferred Elza to it, and in a moment more
+they were aloft.
+
+The vehicle was little more than an oblong platform, with a low railing.
+A platform of a substance resembling _glascite-transparent_; and with a
+_glascite_ shield V-shaped in front to break the rush of wind and yet
+give vision. A mechanism, not of radio-power, but of gravity like the
+space-flyers. Such platforms had been, but were no longer in use on
+Earth. Elza had never seen one. It was a new experience for her, this
+flying with nothing above one, nothing to the side, or underneath save
+that transparent substance. To her it was like floating, and at times
+falling headlong through the air.
+
+They rose no more than a thousand feet at first, and then swept parallel
+with the ground. At a tremendous speed; even at this height the forests
+seemed moving backward as the ground moves beneath a surface vehicle.
+
+Dark, somber forests of luxuriant tropical vegetation. It was now
+nearing dawn; the auroral lights were dropping low in the sky; the great
+Venus Cross of Dawn was rising, its first two stars already above the
+line of hills to one side.
+
+Then the sky out there flushed red; a limb of the glorious Sun of Venus
+came up. A new day. And even though the air was warm, within Elza was
+ashiver.
+
+"It is very wonderful to me, my Elza, this being alone with you."
+
+He sat beside her, gazing at her with his calm, impenetrable eyes. It
+was near noon of that day following their escape from the Water
+Festival. They had flown possibly two thousand miles. The Sun had risen,
+but after a time--since their enormous speed and change of latitude had
+affected the angle at which they viewed it--the Sun now was hanging
+almost level, not far above the horizon.
+
+Beneath the platform--a mile below now--lay a tumbled waste of naked
+crags. The borders of the Cold Country! Tarrano's stronghold! The
+birthplace of his dreams of universal conquest.
+
+Elza was staring downward. A barren waste. Rocks bare of verdure. Grey,
+with red ore staining them. A desolation of empty rock, with grey flat
+shadows. And far ahead, the broken, serrated ranks of mountains with
+rocky peaks, white-hooded with the snow upon their summits. The Cold
+Country. Bleak; forbidding.
+
+This brittle air was cold; yet Elza and Tarrano were warm. Before the
+platform, a ray darted--a low-powered ray of a type that was to be so
+great a factor in the warfare into which we were all so soon to be
+plunged. It heated the air, so that the platform rushed always through a
+wind that was balmy.
+
+"What did you say?" Elza looked up to meet Tarrano's steady gaze.
+
+"I said it is wonderful to be thus alone with you, my Elza."
+
+"Oh." She looked away.
+
+He persisted; but his voice was gentle and earnest. "Soon we will be at
+my home, Lady Elza. And now--there are some things I would like to say
+while I have the opportunity.... You will listen?"
+
+"Yes," she said; and tried to keep from him the trembling within her.
+"I'll listen, of course."
+
+He nodded. "Thank you.... My Elza, you have heard me talk of conquering
+the world. My dream--my destiny. It will come to pass, of course. Yet--"
+A smile pulled at his lips. "Do you know, my Elza, what you and I are
+doing now?"
+
+She stared, and he did not wait for her to answer.
+
+"We're making my first retreat. I wonder if you can realize how I feel,
+having to admit that? Tarrano in retreat!... Our escape from Venia?
+Pouf! That was a jest. I was there on Earth merely to get you, and the
+Brende model. I had no thought of conquering the Earth just then. I
+accomplished my two purposes--and left.... It was not a retreat, merely
+a planned departure.
+
+"But this, my Elza, is very different. I did not wish to do what I am
+doing now. I had planned--I had thought, had actually hoped, that I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. You see, I tell you this,
+little girl, because--well I am a lonely man. I walk alone--and because
+I am human--it does me good to have someone to talk to. I had hoped I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. Last night--at the start of the
+Water Festival--I began to realize it was impossible. I should have
+enlisted the _Rhaals_--the men of science, Elza. But I had no time, and
+they are very aloof. I could have won them to me had I tried." He
+shrugged. "I must confess I was over-confident of my strength--the
+strength of my position. The _Rhaals_ stayed out of the affair--stayed
+in their own city, which has always been their policy. That was what I
+expected, but now I see I should have had their aid. I did--well what I
+did to guard against the unhappy outcome you witnessed--what I did was
+wrongly planned. You see, I take all the blame. I alone am responsible
+for my destiny. There are some who in defeat cry bitterly, 'Luck! That
+cursed luck was against me!' Not so! Leadership is not a matter of luck.
+Destiny is what you make it. You see?
+
+"And so now I am making my first retreat. A set-back, nothing more. I
+shall launch my forces from the City of Ice, instead of marshalling them
+from the Central State as I had planned. And Mars is still mine. I still
+control Mars, little Elza.... A set-back just now--and it bothers me. It
+hurts my pride--and as you know, my Elza, Tarrano is very proud."
+
+She had been listening to him, her fingers plucking idly at her robe. He
+bent closer to her; his voice turned tender. "I was thinking that
+perhaps--just perhaps you would scorn Tarrano in his triumphs, you might
+feel differently toward him now--in his first retreat. Do you?"
+
+She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm--sorry--from your viewpoint, I
+mean--that things are going wrong."
+
+He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want very
+much to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at your
+defeat."
+
+"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are too
+optimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slight
+set-back. A strategic retreat--and in a week I will have regained more
+than I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now--and always--be so
+gentle with you--why we are almost quarreling! That is not right. For
+the lives of a thousand of my servants, I would not have used that tone
+to you just now. Forgive me....
+
+"I was saying, my Elza--could not you feel more kindly to me now. A
+little hope from those gentle eyes of yours--a little word from those
+red lips--a word of hope for what some day might be for us--you and
+me--"
+
+She dared to try and turn the subject. "You mentioned the Brende
+model--where is it? Have you it in the Cold Country?"
+
+He frowned. "Yes. And I will use it--for you and me alone. You've always
+known that, haven't you? Just for you and me, my Elza." He took her
+hand. "Won't you try and love me--just a trifle?"
+
+She did not move. "I--don't know." Then she faced him squarely. "I do
+not love you, Tarrano." Something in his eyes--a quality of pleading; a
+wistful smile upon his lips--suddenly struck her as pathetic. Strange
+and queerly pathetic that such a man as he should be reduced to
+wistfulness. Emotion swept her. Not love. A feeling of sympathy; a
+womanly desire to lighten his sorrow; to sympathize and yet to withhold
+from him the happiness he sought.
+
+"I do not love you, Tarrano. But I do respect you. And I am sorry--"
+
+"Respect! I have told you I can command that from everyone. But
+love--your love--"
+
+"I would give it if I could, Tarrano."
+
+"You mean--you're trying to love me--and cannot?"
+
+"I mean--Oh, I don't know what I mean, save that I do not love you yet."
+
+He smiled. "I think you speak the truth when you say you do not know
+what you mean. Your love! If I had it, I should know that I would have
+it always. But--having it not--" He was very sincere, but his smile
+broadened. "Having it not, my Elza, there is no power in all the heavens
+that can tell me how to get it. It may be born in a moment from now--or
+never. Who can tell?"
+
+She was silent; and after a moment, he added: "Enough of this. I would
+ask you just one thing. You are not afraid of me, are you?"
+
+"No," she said; and at that moment she meant it.
+
+"I would not have you ever be afraid, Lady Elza. Love is not conceived
+by fear. And you must know I could never force my love upon you. For if
+I did--I should withhold forever the birth of this love of yours which
+is all I seek--this love I am trying to breathe into life.... Enough!"
+
+He did not mention the subject again. For hours--eating what meager
+stock of tabloid food with which their vehicle was provisioned--they
+flew onward. Rising now to top the line of jagged mountains. Over them
+the platform swept. In the crisp air the snow down there gleamed
+blue-white; the ice with an age-old look filled the valleys between the
+peaks.
+
+The arctic! It was nothing like the Polar regions of Earth. Stark
+desolation. A naked land seemingly upheaved by some gigantic cataclysm
+of nature, lying tumbled and broken where it had fallen in convulsive
+agony; and then congealed forever in a grip of ice.
+
+The Sun hung level as the vehicle advanced. In these latitudes it would
+swing side-wise in a slow, low arc, to dip again below the horizon and
+vanish. Here in the Cold Country it was morning of the Long Day. Summer!
+
+On over the crags and glaciers Tarrano guided their frail flying
+platform. Houses occasionally showed now--huts of ice, congealed
+dwellings, blue-white in the flat sunlight.
+
+And then at last, over the horizon came the ramparts of a city. The City
+of Ice! The size of it--the evidences of civilization here in this
+brittle land of deadly cold--made Elza gasp with wonderment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+_Attack on the Palace_
+
+
+I must take you back now to the Water Festival and the events in the
+Great City which followed it. _Slaans_ in murderous frenzy were plunging
+through the throng of erstwhile revelers. Maida could not quell them.
+The revolt which she had started against Tarrano seemed now a
+self-created monster to destroy us all.
+
+But there were Earth men among us. A hundred of them, no more. They had
+come from Washington that same day; had landed, I learned later,
+secretly near the Great City, sent with our Earth Council's plans to
+communicate with Maida. Beneath the water, coming individually, they had
+entered the festival; and helping Maida's girls (the diving girls whom I
+had encountered) they had made away with most of Tarrano's guards.
+
+In those first moments of frenzy, I got to the balcony--joined Maida and
+Georg. Elza was gone! My heart went cold, but in those hurried, frantic
+moments, grave disaster as it was, I did not dwell upon it.
+
+"We must get away--back to the palace!" Georg exclaimed as I joined
+them.
+
+The Earth men on the main floor were holding the _slaans_ partially in
+check. Bodies were lying in a welter--I shall not describe it. Then
+abruptly, upon a table a huge _slaan_ leaped--his garments blood-stained
+from his victims, a blade of dripping steel in his hands. He shouted
+above the tumult--words not in the universal language, but in the
+dialect of the _slaans_. His command carried throughout the building.
+Other _slaans_ took it up; we could hear it echoed outside as others
+shouted it over the waters.
+
+The bloodshed abruptly ceased. The _slaans_ leaped away from the Earth
+men, who were glad enough to let them go--rushed for the archways of the
+pavilion. Outside, we could hear the water splashing. Swimmers--and
+boats scurrying off. Then comparative silence. The scream of a _slaan_
+woman in the grove nearby, still desiring vengeance; the groans of the
+dying at our feet; the hiss and splutter of weapons discarded, with
+circuits still connected. And over it all, the great whine of a danger
+whistle, which some distant official had plugged.... A lull. And around
+us lay strewn stark tragedy where a few moments before had been festive
+merry-making. A crimson scene, with the body of the Red Woman lying like
+a symbol in its midst....
+
+Within an hour we were back at the palace. The whole city was seething.
+Boats and lights were everywhere. Control of everything seemed lost.
+Warning signals shrilled in crazy fashion. Public mirrors were dark, or
+turned to places and time wholly irrelevant.
+
+In the palace itself we soon secured a semblance of order. Maida's girls
+were here, with wet veils and long dank tresses clinging to their sleek
+bodies. Lips painted alluring red. But eyes which now were solemn and
+grim. Their demeanor alert and business-like. Unconscious of themselves
+they moved about the palace, executing Maida's orders.
+
+A dozen or so of Maida's personal retainers were here--and most of the
+Earth men. Keen-eyed young men of the Washington Headquarters Staff. One
+of them--Tomm Aften by name, a ruddy, blue-eyed fellow--was in command.
+He stayed close by Georg and me.
+
+The city was seething. But out of the chaos was coming a comparatively
+orderly menace. We could sense it at first; and then in a few brief
+minutes so swift that we had no time to prepare--the menace became
+obvious and was at hand.
+
+The _slaans_ had withdrawn from the festival for a greater, more
+organized effort. Their revolt against Tarrano in which Maida had
+joined, was bigger, more deep-rooted than a mere revolt. It was against
+Maida herself. Trickery of the downtrodden _slaans_ against the ruling
+class. Against the old order of government. Even against the _Rhaals_,
+who in their distant city were all-powerful, but who obeyed the laws and
+took no part in anything.
+
+Revolution! From down the waterways of streets which converged into the
+broad lagoon before the palace, boats began arriving. Boats crowded with
+_slaans_. Disheveled, unkempt men and women with primitive weapons of
+steel and wire brandished aloft. They surged into the lagoon. A
+murderous, frenzied mob--thoughtless of itself, suicidal to attack us,
+yet daring everything in its frenzy.
+
+Soon the lagoon was crowded--a chaos of pushing, shoving boats. Then the
+boats began landing, disgorging their occupants, wild-eyed _slaans_ each
+a potential murderer. The gardens of the palace were presently jammed
+with them. They did not at first come within our threshholds; they stood
+milling about under the palms, trampling the tropic flowers, screaming
+threats and epithets at us. But waiting--as a mob always does--for some
+leader to advance, that they might follow him upon us.
+
+We stood on the palace roof-top. I must confess that we were in a flurry
+for the moment. There were undoubtedly weapons at hand, but I at least
+did not have them, nor did I know where they were. Excusable flurry
+possibly for the thing had come so quickly, and most of us were
+strangers here of but a few hours.
+
+The roof had a low railing waist-high, but broad. We stood clustered
+behind it. In the garden beneath, the mob was shouting up at us. And,
+before I could stop her, Maida had leaped to the top of the rail. Georg
+and I clutched at her, then steadied her.
+
+_"Slaans--"_
+
+But they would not hear her. Shouts went up; a roar of threats. The
+press of additions to the mob landing from other boats, forced the front
+ranks forward. They were now on the palace steps, jammed there waving
+their weapons yet still hesitating to advance.
+
+"_Slaans_--my people--"
+
+Maida's frail voice was lost in the uproar. Then a missle was thrown
+upward--a portion of a broken generator--a heavy chunk of metal. It
+barely missed Maida, and fell with a thump to the roof behind us. Then
+came others--a rain of them about us. I tried to pull Maida back, but
+she fought me, her voice still calling out its appeal.
+
+With a bound, Georg was up on the rail beside her. Aften--the young
+Earth man--had quietly handed him a cylinder. Georg waved it at the mob.
+
+"_Slaans_--" His stronger voice caught their attention. A sudden hush
+fell.
+
+"_Slaans_--it is I, Georg Brende. Your Princess Maida rules you now only
+under me. A new ruler, _slaans_--the man of Earth--Georg Brende who must
+be obeyed--Georg Brende, soon to be husband of your Princess--"
+
+But they would not hear him out. The din from them submerged his voice.
+His lips snapped tight as abruptly he ceased talking; his brows lowered
+grimly and I saw his finger press upon the cylinder.
+
+Maida's voice screamed: "Georg! Have mercy! Do not kill them!"
+
+She spoke barely in time. His cylinder swept upward. The rays from it
+caught only the upper portions of the palms and the tree tops. The
+foliage withered, shriveled before that soundless, invisible blast.
+
+Not a blast of heat. The mob, surprised, then frightened, stared upward.
+The soft tropical foliage in a great wide swath was dead, with naked
+sticks of limbs. Black, then turning white. Not with heat--but cold. Ice
+was forming from the moisture in the humid air. And then the sudden
+condensation brought snow--a thick white fall of it sifting down into
+the palm-laden garden; falling gently, then swirling in a sudden wind
+which had begun.
+
+As though itself stiffened by the cold just overhead, the mob stood
+transfixed. Then a murmur of horror came. And I saw through the veil of
+whirling snow, that into some of the trees _slaans_ had climbed. Their
+bodies, frozen now, slid and fell--black plummets hurtling downward
+through the swirling snow-flakes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+_Immortal Terror_
+
+
+To Elza, approaching with Tarrano on the tiny flying platform the City
+of Ice, the place seemed truly like a child's dream of Fairyland. The
+rude snow huts of the Arctic of our Earth were all that she had ever
+conceived could be built of frozen water. Here, in the outskirts of the
+city, she saw indeed, quite similar huts. But further in--ornate
+buildings several stories high. She caught a vague glimpse of them only,
+as the platform flew above them and descended in the center of the city.
+
+They had passed over great outer encircling ramparts--a huge wall many
+_helans_ long--built entirely of ice blocks--fortifications like that
+fabled wall which in the dim history of our Earth had once encircled a
+portion of the domain of the Yellow Race.
+
+The platform came down before a central building--the Palace of Ice.
+Even in this dim daylight of the Cold Country summer, the great building
+gleamed and glittered resplendent. A building of many levels, storied
+and winged, with spider bridges and aerial arcades connecting the wings.
+Frescoed everywhere! ornate with carved design chipped in ice blocks
+hard as marble. Rolling terraces of snow and ice surrounded it--lawns of
+smooth white, with winding paths of ice. A many balconied building;
+towers, spires and minarets crowning it. All blue-white. Glittering.
+Seemingly fragile; from a distance, a toy--a sample of the ultra-skill
+of some master confectioner, as though the whole thing were a toy of
+sugar for children to admire. But at close range--solid; in the cold of
+this terrible region, as solid as though constructed of blocks of stone.
+
+With the flying platform landed, and its warming rays cut off,
+attendants rushed forward. Tarrano and Elza were wrapped in furs at
+once--heavy furs which covered them from head to foot.
+
+"Well! Well, Graten!" Tarrano greeted his subordinate smilingly. "Things
+are in condition here? You got my message?"
+
+"Yes, Master. All is in good fashion here. We welcome you."
+
+In his furs, with face almost hidden, Elza could not see what manner of
+man this was.
+
+They entered the palace. Frescoed; carved everywhere, within as without.
+The main doorway led into a palatial hall, carpeted with furs. It was
+warm. Tarrano discarded his fur, and helped Elza out of hers.
+
+"You like my home, Lady Elza?"
+
+"It's--beautiful," she answered.
+
+His smile showed amusement at the wonder and awe which stamped her
+expression. He added very gently:
+
+"I had in mind when I built it, the hope that you would be pleased."
+
+A comfortable interior warmth. Elza noticed little blurs of red light
+behind wire cages here and there. The warmth came from them; and a glow
+of pale white light from the tubes along the wall.
+
+A woman hurried to them. Tara! Elza recognized her at once. Tara,
+looking very pretty in a pale blue robe, with her hair done high upon
+her head. The woman who loved Tarrano; he had sent her on here to be rid
+of her, when he went to the Great City. She came forward. Pleasure was
+on her face at seeing Tarrano; but her glance as she turned it
+momentarily toward Elza, held again that smouldering jealousy.
+
+Tarrano was evidently in a mood of high good humor.
+
+"You welcome me prettily, Tara." She had flung her arms about him.
+"Tara, my dear is----"
+
+"Master--you come but in time. They are working the Brende instrument.
+Already they have----"
+
+"They? Who?" He frowned. His words were hard and cold as the ice-blocks
+around him.
+
+"Woolff. And the son of Cretar. Many of them--using it now!"
+
+Tarrano drew Elza with him. Tara led the way. Through glowing white
+hallways, an arcade; down steps and an incline--to burst at last through
+a tunnel-like passage into a room.
+
+"So? What is this, Cretar?"
+
+A room littered with apparatus. A dozen men were about. Men scantily
+dressed in this interior heat. Short, squat men of the Cold Country;
+flat-nosed, heavy faces; hair long to the base of the neck. In a corner
+stood the Brende instrument, fully erected. A light from it seemed
+penetrating the bared chest of a man who was at that moment standing in
+its curative rays.
+
+He whom Tarrano called Cretar, took a step forward.
+
+"Master, we----"
+
+"Making yourselves immortal?" The anger had left Tarrano's voice; irony
+was there instead.
+
+"Master----"
+
+"Have you done that?"
+
+"Master--yes! Yes! We did! Forgive us, Master."
+
+The man before the instrument had retreated from it. Elza saw now that
+all the men were shrinking back in terror. All save Cretar, who had
+fallen tremblingly to his knees. Yet Tarrano showed no anger. He
+laughed.
+
+"I would not hurt you, Cretar! Get up, man! I am not angry--not even
+annoyed. Why, your skin is turning orange. See the mottles!"
+
+On the flesh of all the men--save the one who had been checked in the
+act of using the instrument--a bright orange mottling was apparent.
+Cretar exclaimed:
+
+"The immunity to all diseases, master. It is itself a
+disease--harmless--and it combats every other." He laughed a little
+wildly. "We cannot get sick now. We cannot die--we are immortal. Come,
+Master--let us make you so!"
+
+Tarrano whispered: "You see, Lady Elza? The orange spots! These men of
+medicine here have used the Brende secret to its full. Immune from
+disease!"
+
+"Let us treat _you_, Master. This immortality----"
+
+On Cretar's face was a triumphant smile, but in his eyes lay a terror.
+The man who had not been treated stood against the wall watching with
+interest and curiosity. But the others! They crouched; wary; alert eyes
+like animals at bay.
+
+Tarrano laughed. "Treat me! Cretar, you know not with what you have been
+trifling. Immortal? You are indeed. Disease cannot touch you! You cannot
+die--save by violence!"
+
+He swung to Elza. "These men, Lady Elza--they are strong-muscled. In
+health now more perfect than any other humans. _You_ are frail--a frail
+little woman. And unarmed. I bid you--strike one of them!"
+
+She stared; but as she suddenly faced about, she caught in part his
+meaning. Before her Cretar shrank back, his face gone white, his teeth
+chattering.
+
+"What's that behind you?" Tarrano's voice simulated sudden alarm; he
+scuffled his feet on the floor. The men jumped with fright; nerves
+unstrung, they cowered.
+
+"What manner of men!" Tarrano's laugh was contemptuous. "Oh, Lady Elza,
+let this be a lesson to all of us! To cure disease is well. To prevent
+it--that too is good. But immortality--Dr. Brende never intended it,
+_you_ know he did not, Lady Elza--the belief that we have everlasting
+life here on this plane--the Creator never intended that. With all
+danger of death gone--save violence--these immortals here fear violence
+so greatly that they are men no longer!
+
+"Immortal terror! God forbid _I_ should ever feel it! Or you, Lady Elza.
+A lesson for us all, who would be so un-Godly as to seek and think we
+have found what only the Creator Himself can bestow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+_Black Cloud of Death_
+
+
+I must revert now to that time in the gardens of Maida's palace at the
+Great City when we stood upon its roof-top, threatened below by that mob
+of _slaans_. Georg stood with the cylinder in his hand, waving it. The
+palm foliage was freezing. Down through the swirling snow fell the
+frozen bodies of the _slaans_ who had climbed into the gigantic palm
+fronds. The thuds as the bodies struck the ground sounded horribly plain
+in the stillness. Georg was still waving his cylinder. Snow and ice were
+gathering everywhere. Incautiously he lowered the weapon; a brief,
+momentary chill--the congealing breath of the Arctic in this warm
+palm-laden garden--swept the horror-stricken crowd.
+
+"Georg, have mercy!"
+
+Maida's frightened, pleading words brought Georg to his senses. He
+snapped off the cylinder and dropped it behind him to the palace
+roof-top. He was trembling and white as he stood with his arm around
+Maida. Weapons so drastic as this one were seldom used. Indeed, it was
+law throughout both Venus and the Earth that no civilian should possess
+them. The power for wholesale death in his hand, and which without
+wholly meaning to, he had so nearly used to its full effect, had
+unnerved him.
+
+Without the ray, the wind soon died. The warmer air mounting, melted the
+ice; the snow ceased falling. But the swath of shriveled foliage
+remained--a hideous scar cut into the luxuriant tropical growth.
+
+The mob had forgotten its threats, its evil intent. Silent for a moment,
+it now burst into outcries. Motionless: then milling about, struggling
+aimlessly with itself--struggling to retreat. A panic of terror. The
+boats in the lagoon were retreating. The _slaans_ along the fringe of
+shore began hurriedly to embark. The groups huddled at the palace steps
+were trying to shove the others back. In a rout they tumbled into their
+boats and scurried away. Maida's voice, striving to reassure them, was
+unheard.
+
+And presently the scarred, trampled garden was empty and silent.
+
+The rebellion, checked thus at its start, was quelled. Throughout the
+city that night--for the _slaans_ to hear whether they would or no--the
+broadcast stations flung their stentorian tones to the people; a speech
+by Maida; her promise of better things to come for the _slaans_; the end
+of Tarrano's brief rule; a reorganization of past conditions. Maida
+herself had never been in control in the Central State. The luxury--the
+license-of the ruling class had been no fault of hers. She promised fair
+treatment now to the _slaans_. She was to marry Georg Brende, the Earth
+man.
+
+Maida did marry Georg. With the many stirring events--a time when
+disaster and death threatened us all--so soon to follow, I shall not
+pause to describe the wedding. A quaint, yet magnificent spectacle.
+Maida in her regal robe; Georg looking every inch a ruler. Their barge
+of white leading the procession--a barge of white flowers, its sides
+lined with maidens to fend off the deluge of blossoms with which the
+onlookers assailed the bridal couple. The arrival at the marriage
+island, where on an altar the quaintly garbed holy man immersed them;
+and the solemn men of law united them as one.
+
+It was a night of rejoicing throughout the Great City; and on every
+mirror in the Empire it was pictured for those who could not be present.
+
+A time of rejoicing. Yet then--as always those days--my heart was heavy.
+Elza was held by Tarrano. We knew he had taken her to the City of Ice.
+There was of course, no radio communication with the Cold Country. We
+had tried eavesdropping upon it, but to no avail. Tarrano's close-flung
+barrage checked every wave we could send against it.
+
+Time passed--a month or more. We were worried over Elza naturally. Yet
+the saving grace was that we knew Tarrano would treat her kindly; that
+for the present at least, she was in no danger.
+
+Georg and Maida took possession of the Central State. Their rule started
+auspiciously, for by a series of speeches--a reorganization of money
+payments--the _slaans_ seemed well satisfied. Loyal, and with a growing
+patriotism, an eagerness to help in the coming war with Tarrano.
+Georg--without actually saying so--made them believe that the only hope
+of everlasting life was the recovery from Tarrano of the Brende model.
+The model was in the City of Ice; it must be captured.
+
+As a matter of fact, to us of the government, the Brende model was not
+indispensable. The greatest factor was that the threat of Tarrano's
+universal conquest must be forever removed. Like a rocket-bomb, this man
+of genius had risen from obscurity--had all but conquered the three
+greatest worlds of the universe.
+
+I think that the height of Tarrano's power was reached that day on the
+eve of the Water Festival when he made his triumphant entry into the
+Great City. Venus was his at that moment; all of Venus. Mars was his;
+the Hairless Men--savages who had fallen readily to his wiles, had
+conquered the civilized, ruling Little People. And the Earth, over-run
+by his spies, deluged by his propaganda which, insidiously as rust will
+eat away a metal, was eating into the loyalty of our Earth-public--our
+own great Earth was in a dangerous position. The Earth Council realized
+it. The Almighty only could know how many of our officials, our men in
+trusted positions, were at heart loyal to Tarrano!
+
+The thing was obvious. The assassination of our three rulers--leaders of
+the white, yellow and black races--with which Tarrano's campaign in the
+open had begun--those assassinations could never have taken place had
+not our military organization been diseased.
+
+Facts like these were constantly coming to us now, here in the Great
+City. A brief time of physical inactivity. Yet underneath the calm, we
+realized there was a struggle going on everywhere; a struggle of
+sentiment, of propaganda, of public opinion.
+
+Warfare, with modern weapons by which a man single-handed might destroy
+a city--is no longer a matter of men. The citizen--unarmed--united in
+sentiment and desire with a million of his kind--becomes the real ruler.
+You cannot--because you have a weapon--destroy a million of your
+brothers.
+
+We realized this. And in the ultimate decision--the popular fancy
+almost--of our publics--lay our real success or downfall.
+
+Tarrano in the popular mind had a tremendous hold. Dispatches from Earth
+made it plain that upon every street level the people were discussing
+him. From the Great City daily we sent bulletins of our progress toward
+checking--destroying--the menace of him. But bulletins also were
+emanating from the City of Ice. We could not stop them. Cut off at every
+official Earth station--and with all unofficial stations unable to
+receive them--nevertheless at some secret station which could not be
+found, they were received. And from there, circulated throughout the
+Earth. The air was full of them. Mysteriously, scenes showing the great
+Tarrano appeared upon the official news-mirrors; a speech of Tarrano's
+was once officially broadcasted before its source could be located and
+stopped.
+
+Like a smothered fire smouldering, lacking only a breath of vital gas to
+explode it into flame, the sentiment for Tarrano spread about the Earth.
+
+Public opinion is fickle. It sways instinctively--not always, but
+often--to the winning side. Here in Venus we knew we must defeat
+Tarrano. Destroy him personally and thus put an end to it all forever,
+since his dominion hung wholly upon the genius of his own personality.
+
+Our spies, some of them, got to the City of Ice, and back. A few flying
+men were able to hover about the city, and with instruments peer down
+into it. We knew that Tarrano was mobilizing for a move upon the Earth,
+where with a war-like demonstration he hoped to be accepted, yielded to,
+without a severe struggle. But, within a month now, we learned he had
+abandoned that idea. He knew, of course, our own preparations to attack
+him; and he began concentrating everything upon his own defense in the
+City of Ice.
+
+His last stand. We officials knew it. And we knew he felt it also. And
+though on Earth our public felt differently, the Little People
+recognized it. A stirring, wonderful time--that day when on our mirrors
+was pictured the revolt of the Little People against the Tarrano rule of
+the Hairless Men. Grim scenes of tragedy; and over the carnage, the
+Little People triumphed. Tarrano's rule--with all the excesses of the
+Hairless Men who proved themselves mere rapacious plunderers in the name
+of warfare--was at an end on Mars.
+
+The effect on Earth of this Martian reversal was beneficial to us. A
+good omen. We on Venus, redoubled our efforts to attack successfully the
+City of Ice.
+
+Mars could send us no aid, though now in full sympathy with us. The
+planet was daily at a greater distance from us; and the Little People,
+not recovered from the effects of their own bloody strife, were in no
+position to help us.
+
+Nor did the Earth Council deem it wise to send men additional to those
+few we already had. The Earth was rapidly being left behind by the
+swifter flight of Venus through her orbit. The official season for the
+mail-flyers was closed. The opposition of the two planets was long since
+passed; millions of additional miles were adding to the space separating
+them.
+
+And the Earth Council was not sure of its men! Any one of them might
+secretly be in Tarrano's service--and do us infinitely more harm if
+brought to Venus, than if left at home.
+
+We seemed of solid strength in the Central State. For the first time in
+generations the _Rhaals_--the men of science from whom all the progress
+of civilization on Venus came--departed from their attitude of
+aloofness. Their work--always before industrial--now turned to the
+sterner demands of war.
+
+The Rhaal City[22] lay a brief flight from us. A grave sort of
+people, these _Rhaals_. Men of square-cut, sober-colored garments; women
+of sober grey flowing robes--white hair coiled upon their heads.
+Intelligent women, dignified of demeanor; many of them learned as were
+the men.
+
+[Footnote 22: An awkward, unpronounceable word which for the purposes of
+this narrative may be termed Industriana.]
+
+Their city, teeming now with the preparations for war, was intensely
+interesting to me. We spent most of our days in it, flying back at
+nightfall to Maida's palace. Yet I shall not describe it, nor our
+preparations, our days of activity--but hasten on to the first of the
+extraordinary incidents impending.
+
+It came--this first incident--through my thoughts of Elza. I was
+worried--more than worried, sometimes almost terrified about her. My
+instinct would have been to take a handful of men and dash to her
+rescue--which of course would have been absurd. I tried to reassure
+myself. Tarrano would treat her kindly. Soon, in full force, our army
+would descend upon the City of Ice, capture it, destroy Tarrano--rescue
+Elza.
+
+Rescue Elza! Ah, there lay the difficulty which I never dared
+contemplate in detail. How would we rescue her? Tarrano would treat her
+kindly, now during his own security. But if, at the last, he saw his own
+defeat, his death perhaps impending--would he treat her kindly then?
+
+I loved Elza very deeply. A new torture came from it now. Did she love
+me--or Tarrano? I remembered the gentleness of the man with her. His
+dignity, his power--his undoubted genius. And who, what was I? A mere
+news-gatherer. A man of no force, and little personality. A nonentity.
+Sometimes as in my jealousy I contemplated Elza with Tarrano now, I felt
+that he was everything a young girl would fancy. How could she help
+loving him?
+
+At night, when sleep would not come to me, I would lie tossing, thinking
+of it. Did Elza love me--or Tarrano? Once I had thought she loved me.
+But she had never said so.
+
+It was out of this constant thinking of Elza that the first of the
+incidents I have mentioned, arose. There came to me one night the
+feeling that Elza was near me. I awoke from half sleep to full
+wakefulness. In my bedroom, upon the low couch on which I lay, the aural
+lights of Venus spread their vivid tints. The palace was silent; I sat
+up, pressing my palms to my throbbing temples.
+
+_Elza was coming nearer to me!_
+
+I knew it. Not by any of my bodily senses. A knowledge, which suddenly I
+realized that I had. A moment, and then I was conscious of her voice! No
+sound; my ears heard nothing. Yet my brain was aware of familiar tones.
+I recognized them, as one can remember how a loved voice sounded when
+last it was heard.
+
+But this was no memory. A present actuality; it rang soundless in my
+brain. Elza's voice. Anxious! Frightened!
+
+At first only the confused _tone_ of it. Then the consciousness of
+words. Two reiterated words:
+
+_"Danger! Jac! Danger! Jac!"_
+
+I waited no longer, but rushed to Georg and Maida--beautiful Maida in
+her robe of sleep with her white hair tumbling about her. Georg half
+awake--yet almost at once he could understand me, and explain.
+
+Natural, instinctive telepathy! It had not occurred to me. I had never
+bothered to develop telepathy; and indeed with any degree of fluency--or
+even of surety of reception--the phenomenon is difficult to perfect.
+Yet, as I knew, with a loved one absent upon whom one's thoughts dwell
+constantly--in time of stress telepathy is occasionally automatically
+established.
+
+It was so in Georg and Maida's case, back there in the Mountain Station
+on Earth. Telepathy was the explanation of Georg's mysterious actions as
+he stood there before the sending mirrors, crossed the room in
+confusion, and like one in a dream leaped from the window to be seized
+by Tarrano's spies. Maida had been abducted a moment before. Georg's
+brain became aware of it. Her danger, the appeal she sent to him.
+
+So it now seemed to be from Elza to me. Georg, out of bed now beside me,
+urged me to greater efforts of concentration, that I might understand
+what message Elza was sending.
+
+_"Elza! Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"_
+
+I murmured the words to myself as with all my power, I thought them over
+and over, flinging out the thoughts like radio waves into the night.
+Mysterious vibrations! In an instant, from here--everywhere in the
+universe. Who knows their character? Their speed? The speed of light a
+laggard perhaps beside the flash of a thought! Waves of my thoughts,
+speeding through the night, with only one receiving station in all the
+universe! Would Elza's brain capture them?
+
+_"Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"_
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+It was very clear. The words rang in my head. But always only those two.
+And then at last--it may have been an hour later--other words:
+
+_"Death! The black cloud of death! You can see it coming! See it coming!
+Death! To you Jac! To all of you in the city!"_
+
+We rushed to the casement. The broad lagoon before the palace lay like a
+mirror tinted red and purple. Beyond it, palms and the outlines of
+houses lay dark against the star-strewn sky.
+
+But out there, over the city, in the distance a dark patch obscured the
+stars. We watched it breathless. A dark patch which soon took shape. A
+cloud! A black cloud--unnatural of aspect somehow--a rolling, low-lying
+black cloud. Growing larger; spreading out side-wise; sweeping toward
+the city on a wind which had not reached us.
+
+_"Jac! Jac dear! Danger! Death to all the city!"_
+
+Elza's words were still beating in my brain. Soundless words of terror
+and warning!
+
+_"Death, Jac! Death to all the city! The black cloud of death!"_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+_Tarrano the Man_
+
+
+"Wake up, Lady Elza."
+
+A silence. His hand touched her white shoulder. "Wake up, Lady Elza. It
+is I--Tarrano."
+
+Elza opened her eyes, struggling to confused wakefulness. The white
+walls of her sleeping room in Tarrano's palace of the City of Ice were
+stained with the dim red radiance of her night light. She opened her
+eyes to meet Tarrano's inscrutable face as he bent over her couch;
+became conscious of his low, insistent, "Wake up, Lady Elza;" and his
+fingers half caressing the filmy scarf that covered her shoulders.
+
+Terror flooded Elza; that time she had always feared, had come. Yet she
+had the presence of mind to smile, drawing away from him and sitting up,
+with the fur bed-covering pulled to her chin.
+
+"Tarrano? Why--"
+
+He straightened, and into his expression came apology.
+
+"I frightened you, Lady Elza? I'm sorry. I would not do that for all the
+worlds."
+
+Her terror receded. The old Tarrano over whom she still held sway. She
+summoned a look of haughty questioning.
+
+"You are bold, Tarrano--"
+
+His gesture was deprecating; he seated himself on the edge of her couch.
+She saw now that he was fully dressed and armed with a belt of many
+instruments.
+
+At this time Elza had been in the City of Ice for a considerable period.
+Irksome, worried days of semi-imprisonment; and through them, Tarrano's
+attitude toward her was unchanged. She saw little of him; he seemed very
+busy, though to what end, and what his activities, she could not learn.
+
+Within the palace, half as guard, half as maid-servant, Tara was
+generally Elza's only companion. And then, one evening when Tara's
+smouldering jealousy broke forth in Tarrano's presence and Elza uttered
+an involuntary cry of fear, Tara was summarily removed.
+
+Elza was left practically alone; until at length came this night when
+invading the privacy of her sleeping room, Tarrano awakened her. He sat
+now upon the edge of her couch.
+
+"I have a confession to make to you, Lady Elza." He smiled slightly. "As
+you know, there is no one else in our habitable universe to whom I would
+speak thus frankly."
+
+"I am honored, Tarrano. But here, at this hour of sleep--"
+
+He waved away the words. "I have asked your pardon for that. My
+confession--as once before, Lady Elza, I come to you most humbly,
+confessing that my affairs are not going as I would like. You do not
+know, of course, that Mars--"
+
+"I know nothing," she interrupted. "You have kept me from the
+news-mirrors, if indeed there are any here--"
+
+"Mars revolted against me," he went on imperturbably. "The Little People
+are again in control. Fools! They do not realize, those governors of
+Mars, that their public ultimately will demand this _Everlasting Life_
+of mine--the Brende secret--"
+
+She frowned. "No one knows better than you, Tarrano, that my father's
+secret does not bestow immortality. To cure disease, in a measure--"
+
+He checked her; his smile was ironical. "You and I know that, Lady Elza.
+We know that on this plane we would not want everlasting life if we
+could have it. But the public does not know that--let us not discuss it.
+I was telling you--confessing to you--I have lost Mars. Temporarily, of
+course. Meanwhile, I have been preparing to invade the Earth." His
+gesture was expansive. "I have been planning, from here in the Cold
+Country, to send armies to your Earth."
+
+He paused an instant. "I think now I shall wait until the next
+opposition--we are far from Earth now, but all in good time we shall be
+closer.... Strange is it not, that I should like to tell you my plans?"
+
+She did not answer; she watched his smile fading into a look of
+grimness. "In the Great City, here on Venus, they are getting ready to
+attack me. Did you know that?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"You supposed they were? Your brother, and that Jac Hallen?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you hoped they were, of course?"
+
+"Yes," she repeated.
+
+He frowned. "You are disconcertingly frank, Lady Elza. Well, let me tell
+you this--it would come to nothing. The _Rhaals_ are with them--all the
+resources of the Central State are to be thrown against me. Yet it will
+come to nothing."
+
+Her heart leaped. Tarrano was making his last stand. Beyond the logical
+sense of his words, she could see it in his eyes. He knew he was making
+his last stand. He knew too that she was now aware of it; and that
+behind the confidence of his words--that was the confession he was
+making.
+
+Tarrano's last stand! There seemed to her then something illogically
+pathetic in it all. This man of genius--so short a time ago all but the
+Emperor of three worlds. And now, with them slipping from his grasp,
+reduced to this last stronghold in the bleak fastnesses of the Cold
+Country, awaiting the inevitable attack upon him. Something pathetic....
+
+"I'm sorry, Tarrano."
+
+As though mirrored from her own expression, a wistful look had come to
+him. Her words drove it away.
+
+"Sorry? There is nothing to be sorry about. Their attack will come to
+nothing ... yet--" He stopped short, and then as though deciding to say
+what he had begun, he added:
+
+"Yet, Lady Elza, I am no fool to discard possibilities. I may be
+defeated." He laughed harshly. "To what depths has Tarrano fallen that
+he can voice such a possibility!"
+
+He leaned toward her and into his tone came a greater earnestness than
+she ever heard in it before.
+
+"Lady Elza, if they should be successful, they would not capture me--for
+I would die fighting. You understand that, don't you?"
+
+She met his eyes; the gleam in them held her. Forgetful of herself, she
+had allowed the fur to drop from her: she sat bolt upright, the dim red
+light tinting the scarf that lay like gossamer around her white
+shoulders. His hand came out and touched her arm, slipped up to her
+shoulder and rested there, but she did not feel it.
+
+"I will die fighting," he repeated. "You understand that?"
+
+"Yes," she breathed.
+
+"And you would be sorry?"
+
+"Oh--"
+
+"Would you?"
+
+"Yes, I--"
+
+He did not relax. His eyes burned her: but deep in them she saw that
+quality of wistfulness, of pleading.
+
+"You, my Elza, they would rescue--unless I killed you."
+
+She did not move, but within her was a shudder.
+
+"You know I would kill you, my Elza, rather than give you up?"
+
+"Yes," she murmured.
+
+"I--wonder. Sometimes I think I would." Suddenly he cast aside all
+restraint. "Oh, my Elza--that we should have to plan such things as
+these! You, sitting there--you are so beautiful! Your eyes--limpid pools
+with terror lurking in them when I would have them misty with love! My
+Elza--"
+
+The woman in her responded. A wave of color flooded her throat and face.
+But she drew away from him.
+
+"My Elza! Can you not tell me that even in defeat I may be victorious?
+It is you more than all else that I desire."
+
+Without warning his arms were around her, holding her fiercely to him,
+his face close to hers.
+
+"Elza! With you, defeat would be victory. And with you--now--if you
+would but say the word--together we will surmount every obstacle.--"
+
+He was kissing her, bending back her head, and his grip upon her
+shoulder was bruising the flesh. No longer Tarrano, Conqueror of the
+universe, just Tarrano the man. Terror surged within Elza's heart.
+
+"Tarrano!"
+
+"Elza dear--my Elza--"
+
+"Tarrano!" She fought with him. "Tarrano, do you dare--I tell you--"
+
+The frightened pleading of a woman at bay. And then abruptly he cast her
+off. His laugh was grim.
+
+"What a fool I am! Tarrano the weakling!" He leaped from the couch and
+began pacing the room. "Tarrano the weakling! To what depths has Tarrano
+fallen!"
+
+He stopped before her. "I ask your pardon, Lady Elza. This has been
+madness. Forget my words--all madness."
+
+His tone was crisp. "Human weakness to which I did not realize I was so
+prone made me talk like a fool. Desire you above the conquest of the
+universe? Absurd! Lies that men whisper into women's ears! All lies!"
+
+Was he telling the real truth now? Or was this a mood of recrimination?
+Bitterness that his love was scorned. Again his gaze held her, but in it
+now she could see nothing but a cruel inflexible purpose.
+
+"Tarrano in defeat! That is impossible, Lady Elza. You will very shortly
+realize that, for I am going to show you how, single-handed, I can make
+it impossible. Show you with your own eyes. It was my purpose in coming
+to waken you--my purpose, when your beauty led me into weakness
+incredible.... Get up, Lady Elza."
+
+She stared. With folded arms he stood emotionless regarding her.
+
+"Get up, I tell you. Put on those garments you wore when we arrived. We
+are going travelling again."
+
+He stood waiting; and beneath his gaze she shrank back, drawing the fur
+rug over her.
+
+A smile of contempt parted his lips. "You hesitate? You think I am still
+a weakling? You over-rate your beauty, Lady Elza.... Make haste, I
+command you. We must start very soon."
+
+She summoned her voice. "Start? Where? What are you--"
+
+"No questions, Lady Elza. Not now. Make haste--"
+
+He jerked from her the fur covering, flung it across the room, and with
+the same gesture turned away impersonally. Trembling, she rose from the
+couch and donned the garments he had indicated, while he stood brooding
+by the window, gazing through its transparent pane at the glistening
+frozen city which was all that remained of his empire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+_Thing in the Forest_
+
+
+"All in good time, Lady Elza, you will know where we are."
+
+Alone, unnoticed, they had departed from the City of Ice on a small
+flying platform similar to the one they had used before. The night had
+passed; day, with a new warmth to the sun, came again. Flying low, with
+Tarrano in a grim, moody silence, and Elza staring downward.
+
+The aural lights were overhead when at the last Tarrano brought the
+platform to rest. A thick, luxuriant forest. Huge trees with rope-like
+roots and heavy vines. Others with leaves like the ears of an elephant.
+And the ground hidden by almost impenetrable underbrush.
+
+They had landed in a tiny glade beside a dank marsh of water, where
+ferns shoulder high were embanked. It was dark, the stars and the tints
+of the auroral lights were barely distinguishable through the mass of
+foliage overhead. Elza gazed around her fearsomely. The air was heavy,
+oppressive. Redolent with the perfume of wild flowers and the smell of
+mouldering, steaming soil.
+
+"All in good time. Lady Elza," Tarrano repeated. "You will know where we
+are presently; we are closer to human habitation than you would think."
+
+Elza's heart pounded. As they were descending she had noticed a glow of
+light in the sky ahead. As though by intuition now, she seemed to
+realize that they were not far from the Great City. Her thoughts leaped
+to me--Jac Hallen--there in Maida's palace. Tarrano's grim, sinister
+purpose was as yet unknown to her. But she guessed that in it, danger
+impended for me--for all of us in the Great City.
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+Her thoughts instinctively reiterated the two words uppermost in her
+mind. And I think that it was just about then when they awakened me.
+
+Leaving the vehicle, Tarrano commanded Elza to follow him; and he began
+picking his way through the jungle. A light was in his hand; it
+penetrated but a short distance. A quivering beam of yellow light; then
+Elza saw that upon occasion, as Tarrano's finger slid a lever, the beam
+narrowed, intensified to a bright lavender. And now where it struck, the
+vegetation withered. Blackened, sometimes burst into tiny flame, and
+parted thus before them as they advanced.
+
+The jungle was silent; yet, as Elza listened, beneath the crackle of the
+burning twigs she could hear the tiny myriad voices of insect life.
+Startled voices as the heat of Tarrano's beam struck them. Rustling
+leaves; breaking twigs; things scurrying and sliding away, unseen in the
+darkness.
+
+Once or twice a crashing--some monster disturbed in his rest plunging
+away. Again, a slithering bulk of something, undulating its path through
+the thickets. All unseen. Save once. Looking upward, Elza caught a gleam
+of green eyes overhead. A triangle of three baleful spots of
+phosphorescent green. Her murmur of fright caused Tarrano to glance
+upward. His lavender, beam, grown suddenly larger, swung there with a
+hiss. Falling from above came a pink body. A bloated body, square, with
+squat, twisted legs; a thing larger than a man. A grotesque naked
+monstrosity almost in human form. A travesty--gruesome mockery of
+mankind. A face, three-eyed...
+
+The thing lay writhing in the underbrush, mouthing, mumbling and then
+screaming--the shrill scream of death agony. And the horrible smell of
+burning flesh as Tarrano's light played upon it...
+
+"Come away, Lady Elza. I'm sorry. I had hoped to avoid an affair such as
+this."
+
+Sickened, shuddering, Elza clung close to Tarrano as he led her onward.
+
+An hour or more; and now Elza could see in the distance the lights of
+the Great City.
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+The idea of thought-transference had come to her. With all the power of
+her mind she was thinking her warning to me, praying that it might reach
+me.
+
+"Single-handed, Lady Elza. You shall see now how, single-handed, I make
+impossible any attack upon Tarrano."
+
+In her abstraction Elza had almost forgotten herself and Tarrano; his
+voice reached her--his voice grim and with a gloating, sinister triumph
+in it. He was bending to the ground. Elza saw that they had come to an
+open space--an eminence rising above the forest. Underfoot was a stony
+soil; in places, bare black rock with an outcropping of red, like the
+cinnabar from which on Earth we melt the _Heavy-metal_.[23]
+
+[Footnote 23: Quicksilver.]
+
+Tarrano faced her. "Nature, my Lady Elza, is fair to my purpose. I knew
+I would find some such deposit as this." He turned his face to one side
+attentively, and darted his light--harmlessly yellow now--to where a
+lone tree showed its great leaves beginning to waver in a night breeze.
+
+"Nature is with us! See there, my Elza! A wind is coming--a wind from us
+to--them!"
+
+The breeze grew--a breeze blowing directly over the forest to where in
+the distance the lights of the Great City showed plainly. Tarrano added:
+
+"I had thought to create the wind." He tapped his belt. "Create the wind
+to carry our onslaught. But you see, it is unnecessary. Nature is kind,
+and far more efficacious than our man-made devices."
+
+_"Jac! Danger!"_ She stood there in the breeze, watching Tarrano--his
+purpose as yet no more than guessed--praying that I might receive her
+warning.
+
+Tarrano selected his spot--a tiny little cone of rock no bigger than his
+thumb. He beckoned Elza.
+
+"Stand close, and watch. You shall see how from the merest spark, a
+conflagration may ensue."
+
+The cylinder in his hand darted forth a needle-like shaft--a light of
+intense purple. It touched the tiny cone of rock, and he held it there.
+
+"A moment. Be patient, my Elza."
+
+The point of rock seemed presently to melt. Like a tiny volcano, at
+their feet, lava from it was flowing down. A little stream of melted
+rock, viscous, bubbling a trifle; red at the edges, white within, and
+with wisps of smoke curling up from it.
+
+Elza stared with the fascination of horror, for now tiny tongues of
+flame were licking about. Blue tongues, licking the air, vanishing into
+wisps of black smoke.
+
+Tarrano snapped off his ray. But the tongues of flame stayed alive.
+Spreading slowly, soundlessly, their heat now melting the ground.
+
+A breath of the smoke touched Elza's face. Pungent, acrid. It stopped
+her breathing. She choked, coughed heavily to expel it.
+
+"Come away, Lady Elza. Let us watch from a safer distance."
+
+He led her from the hillock, up the wind to where at the edge of the
+forest they stood gazing.
+
+The blue fire had spread over a distance of several feet. A sluggish,
+boiling, bubbling area of flame. Tongues now the height of a man. And
+from them, rolling upward, a heavy black cloud--deadly fumes thick,
+blacker than the night, spreading out, welling forward over the forest
+toward the Great City slumbering in its falsely peaceful security.
+
+At last Elza knew. Stood there, cold, shuddering, thinking with all the
+power of her mind and being:
+
+_"Death, Jac! Death to all the City! The black cloud of death!"_
+
+Oblivious to Tarrano she stood until at last the rocky eminence was one
+great mass of the surging blue fire. And the black cloud, compact as a
+thunder-head, rolled onward.
+
+_"You can see it coming! Death Jac! Death to all the City!"_
+
+A sudden madness descended upon Elza. She felt abruptly that her warning
+was futile, felt an overpowering desire to run. Run somewhere--anywhere,
+away from the lurid sight she was facing. Or run perhaps, to the Great
+City; to race with that black cloud of death; to run fast and far, and
+burst into our palace to warn us.
+
+Tarrano himself lost in triumphant contemplation of what he had done,
+for the moment was heedless of Elza's presence. With white face upon
+which the blue glare had settled like a mask of death, Elza turned
+silently from him. Forgetful of that horrible thing they had
+encountered--others of its kind which might be lurking about--she turned
+silently and plunged into the black depths of the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+_A Woman's Scream_
+
+
+"The black Cloud of Death!"
+
+We stood there at the casement of the palace, gazing with a growing
+terror at the visible evidence of the tragedy which threatened. A black
+cloud off there in the distance, spreading out, rolling inexorably
+toward us. And then came the wind, and with it a breath of the black
+monster--a choking, horrible suggestion of the death rolling already
+over the city.
+
+We must have been fascinated at the casement for some considerable time.
+Elza's thought messages had ceased. Abruptly I came to myself.
+
+"The Black Cloud of Death!" I turned to Georg and Maida. "Alarm the
+city! Arouse them all! Alarm--"
+
+Maida's face was white: she flung off Georg's arm which had been
+protectingly around her. "The siren--"
+
+Terrible moments, those that followed. Confusion; panic; death!
+
+The public siren in the tower by the lagoon entrance shrilled its
+warning. The danger lights blazed out. The city came to life. Lights
+sprang up everywhere. People--with the daze of sleep still upon
+them--appeared at the casements; on the roof-tops; on the canal steps
+they appeared, fumbling with their boats. Panic!
+
+A pandemonium. Aircraft, such as could so hastily be mustered, swept
+overhead. A glare of lights everywhere. The shrill voice of the siren
+stilled, to make audible the broadcast warnings--stentorian tones
+screaming: "The Black Cloud of Death! Escape from the city! Escape to
+Industriana!"
+
+Warning, advice, command! But over it all, the breath of the black cloud
+now lay heavy. The lights were dimmed by it. Everywhere--to every
+deepest recess of the city--to every inner room where to escape it many
+had fled--its deadly choking breath was penetrating.
+
+Within the palace was turmoil. We had an air-vehicle on a landing-stage
+nearby; but Georg and Maida would not leave at once. Rulers of the
+Central State, as a Director might stick to his crumbling Tower, they
+stayed now in the Great City. Encouraging the people. Maida's voice,
+futilely attempting to broadcast over the uproar. Georg commanding the
+official air-vessels to load with refugees; himself struggling to direct
+the jam of boats toward the embarking stages.
+
+We were in the instrument room of the palace. The air was pale-blue,
+though I had closed every casement. Ourselves, choking already; then
+gasping; and with no time or thought to procure a mask. The chemical
+room, from whence we might have secured apparatus to purify our air, had
+been abandoned before we thought to seek it out. I dashed into it, my
+breath held. Its casements were open; its air thick-blue with the fumes;
+its staff long since fled. I ran back to Georg and Maida, gasping, my
+lungs on fire, my head roaring.
+
+"No use! Abandoned!"
+
+The department of weather control where--had we been forewarned--we
+might have found means to divert the wind by another of our own
+creation--was deserted by its staff at the first alarm.
+
+"No use! Georg--Maida--let us go!"
+
+The mirrors all about us in the instrument room were going dark; the
+horrible scenes of death throughout the city which they pictured were
+vanishing. The public lights were going out; the broadcast voices were
+ceasing.
+
+The city now was out of control. But still the lagoon outside was
+packed with boats--overloaded boats.... Screams of terror, choked into
+silence ... boats with frenzied occupants leaping into the water to find
+a quicker, happier death ... a woman with a babe in her arms on a
+housetop across the lagoon--the infant already dead; the crazed mother
+flinging it down into the water, herself following with a long, gasping
+scream...
+
+At last Georg pulled at me--no longer could we speak--pulled at me, and
+with Maida between us, we fled. The air outside was worse. In the
+dimness, our landing stage seemed _belans_ away. The flagged area
+between us and the stage--a space of square-cut metal flagging,
+bordering the lagoon--was littered with bodies. Dead--or dying. People
+even now staggering from landed boats--staggering blindly, stumbling
+over bodies, falling and lying always where they had fallen.
+
+With our own senses fading, we groped our way forward. Soon we were
+separated. I saw Maida fall and Georg pick her up, but I was powerless
+to reach them.
+
+The landing stage seemed so far away. The dead and dying beneath my feet
+obstructed me as I staggered over them. A woman, reeling toward me,
+flung her arms about my neck with an iron grip of despair. I stared into
+her face, purple almost with its congested blood, her mouth gaping, her
+blood-shot eyes bulging; and even with the terror distorting them, I saw
+beneath it their look of despairing appeal...
+
+Her arms clinging to me desperately; but with a curse I flung her to the
+ground and reeled onward.
+
+Without knowing it, I had come to the brink of the water's edge. The
+flagging seemed to drop away. I fell. Dimly I heard the splash as I
+struck the water; and felt a grateful cooling sense as it closed over
+me.
+
+I am a strong, instinctive swimmer. I did not breathe, and when I rose
+to the surface, the single swift breath I took was purer than any I had
+had for half an hour past. My head cleared a little; swimming
+instinctively, and with cautious breaths, I found that I was able to go
+on.
+
+I know now that by some vagary of chance--of fate if you will--I had
+struck a surface area where breathable air still remained. I swam,
+striving to plan, to think where I might be swimming. Yet it was all a
+phantasmagoria, with only the strength of my muscles and the instinct to
+preserve my life remaining to direct me. Swimming endlessly ... swimming
+... taking a half-gasp of breath ... swimming ... trying to think ... or
+dreaming ... was it all a dream?...
+
+When I came to myself I was lying upon a bank of ferns in the outskirts
+of the city. It was still night; the black cloud of death had passed on;
+the air was pure. Like a man for days bereft of water, I lay and drank
+in the air, pure at last, as the Almighty distils it for us.
+
+Bodies were lying around me on the bank. A dark, silent house stood
+nearby; and a deserted boat. All darkness and silence--the brooding
+silence of death. I was still dazed. Maida--Georg; they seemed like
+people in a dream long faded. Industriana! They were going to the
+_Rhaal_ City of Industriana. _I_ had been trying to get there. I must
+get there now--join them. I climbed to my feet; the edge of a forest was
+nearby and with wavering steps I started toward it.
+
+Looking back on it now I realize that I was even then half crazed. In a
+daze I must have stumbled through the forest for hours. Unreasoning,
+with only that one idea--to get to Industriana; and in the background of
+my consciousness the vague belief that Elza would be there to greet me.
+Into the depths of the untrammeled forest with unguided steps I
+wandered.
+
+At last I found myself wondering if the dawn were coming; the tri-night
+hour was long since passed; the auroral lights as I could sometimes see
+them through the tangle of vegetation overhead, were low in the sky.
+Insects--and sometimes larger beings--leaped and slithered unseen before
+my advance. But I did not heed them. Eyes may have peered at me as I
+stumbled through the blackness of the undergrowth; but if they did, I
+did not notice them.
+
+And then at last I was brought abruptly to full rationality and
+consciousness. Stumbling through a tangle of low growth--a black thicket
+which tore at my garments and scratched my flesh--I was transfixed by a
+woman's scream. It came through the darkness from near at hand. A
+crashing of the underbrush, and a woman's scream of terror. It stopped
+my breath, turned me cold.
+
+Elza!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+_The Monster_
+
+
+I stood frozen with horror; but as my brain cleared--awake at last to
+full rationality and consciousness--beneath the horror came a surging
+joy of the knowledge that at last Elza was near me. The scream was
+repeated; inactive no longer, I dashed the thicket branches apart with
+my arms and plunged forward through the darkness.
+
+Ahead of me the thickets opened into a sort of clearing. I saw the sky,
+the stars--paling stars with the first flush of dawn overpowering them.
+I stood at the edge of an open space in the dim, flat-grey illumination
+of morning twilight.
+
+Elza! She was there, standing near a huge isolated tree; Elza, pale,
+trembling, a hand pressed against her mouth in terror; disheveled, her
+garments dirty and torn with her wanderings through the forest.
+
+A swift glimpse as momentarily I paused; a second or two only, but the
+scene was impressed upon my brain as actinic light upon a photo-screen.
+Close by Elza, partially behind her, I saw something small, no taller
+than Elza's waist. A naked thing of sleek, glistening skin. The
+monstrosity of a human child; a bulging head, wavering upon a neck
+incapable of supporting it; a thick round body; twisted, misshapen
+limbs. A face ... human? It made my gorge rise with its gruesome
+suggestion of humanity. Nostrils--no nose; a mouth, lipless, but red
+like a curved gash with upturned corners to make the travesty of a grin;
+a triangle of watery eyes, goggling. Senselessly, it stood watching Elza
+with a dull, vacant curiosity. Not human, this thing! Yet monstrously
+repulsive in its hideous suggestion of an idiot child.
+
+Elza was not facing it; my gaze instinctively followed hers to the tree.
+Crowning horror! The adult of this thing upon the ground hung swaying by
+a thick hand and arm from a low limb; hung, then dropped. Growling,
+mouthing as though it would try and form human words of menace, it
+picked itself up and shambled toward Elza.
+
+I leaped for them. Elza seemed too terrified to run. The thing reached
+her, towered over her; seized her in its arms. She screamed--the agony
+of revolt and terror; but over her voice rose my own shout of rage, and
+abruptly the thing dropped her and turned to confront me. Snarling,
+glaring with its three hideous blood-shot eyes; waving its thick, bent
+arms.
+
+I had no weapons save those with which nature had endowed me. The regret
+of that came as a fleeting thought; and then I crashed into the thing;
+my fist, passing its awkward guard, struck it full in the face. I
+sickened. Even in the heat of combat a nausea swept me. For no solid
+flesh and bone met my blow, like the shell of an egg, my fist crashed
+into and through its face.
+
+Warm, sticky moisture ... a stench ...
+
+The thing had toppled backward, with me sprawling upon its bloated bulk.
+It struggled, writhed ... Its arms gripped me, its huge fingers clutched
+my throat ... I caught a glimpse of its smashed face ... so close, I
+turned away ... a face of yellow-white pulp ...
+
+My fist cracked and sank into its chest. I pounded, smashed; broke the
+shell of its distended body ... noisome ... the revulsion, the nausea of
+it all but overcame me.
+
+At last the thing lay still; and from the wet, sticky foulness of it I
+rose and stood shuddering. Elza lay on the ground; but she had risen
+upon one elbow and I saw that she was unharmed save for the shock of
+terror through which she had passed--a mitigated shock with the
+knowledge now that I was with her, and that I too was uninjured.
+
+The infant thing had vanished. I hastened forward.
+
+"Elza! Elza, dear--"
+
+Joy lighted her face.
+
+"Jac!"
+
+I would have lifted her up; but the consciousness of my own
+foulness--the yellow-white slime streaked with red which smeared my
+arms, splattered my clothing--gave me pause. In the growing light,
+beyond the clearing, I caught the silver sheen of water. Without a word
+I ran for it; a shimmering pool the existence of which no doubt had
+drawn these grewsome beings of the forest into its vicinity. To the
+cleansing water I ran, plunged in, purged myself of that horrible
+foulness which human senses could not endure.
+
+When I returned, Elza was upon her feet. Recovered at last she flung
+herself into my arms. Impulsive; seeking protection as she clung to me;
+fear; the let-down of overwrought nerves as she stood and clung and
+sobbed upon my shoulder.
+
+It was all of that; but oh! it was more than that as well. My Elza,
+raising her tear-stained face and kissing me. Murmuring, "Jac, I love
+you!" Murmuring her love: "Jac dear, you're safe! I've wanted so long to
+be with you again--I've been so frightened--so frightened--"
+
+Giving me back my kisses unreserved; holding me with eager
+arms ... Tarrano? The memory of him came to me. How foolish my fears,
+my jealousy! That man of genius ... conqueror of worlds ...
+
+But my Elza loved _me_!...
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+_Industriana_
+
+
+It must have been two days later when at last we were rescued by the
+_Rhaal_ patrol and taken to Industriana. Back there in the forest I had
+suddenly remembered that the mate to the thing I had killed would
+doubtless be lurking in the vicinity. We fled. Subsisting on what food
+of the wilds we could find, at last we were picked up and taken to the
+City of Work.
+
+The Great City had been destroyed. Wanton capital of the Central State,
+we learned now that it lay dead. To outward aspect, unharmed. Fair,
+serene, alluring as ever it lay there on its shimmering waters; but the
+life within it, was dead. Refugees--a quarter perhaps of the
+inhabitants--had escaped; hourly the search patrols were picking them
+up, bringing them to Industriana. Rescue parties were searching the
+city, to find any who might still be alive.
+
+And out in the forest lay a great pile of ashes, still exhaling a thin
+wisp of its deadly breath--where Tarrano had created the Black Cloud;
+lost his captive Elza, but doubtless had escaped himself back to his
+City of Ice.
+
+We found Georg and Maida safe at Industriana. Marvelous city! Elza had
+never seen it before. She sat gazing breathless as from the air on the
+patrol vessel, we approached it.
+
+The land of this region was a black, rocky soil upon which vegetation
+would not grow. A rolling land, grimly black, metallic; with
+outcroppings of ore, red and white and with occasional patches of thin
+white sand whereon a prickly blue grass struggled for life.
+
+Rolling hills; and then places where nature had upheaved into a turmoil.
+Huge naked black crags; buttes; hills with precipitous black sides of
+sleek metal; narrow canyons with tumultuous water flowing through them.
+
+In such a place stood Industriana. The City of Work! Set in an area
+where nature lay scarred, twisted in convulsion, its buildings clung to
+every conceivable slope and in every position. Many-storied
+buildings--residences and factories indiscriminately intermingled. All
+built in sober, solid rectangles of the forbidding black stone.
+
+A long steep slope from an excavated quarry deep in the ground, ran
+straight up to a commanding hilltop--the slope set with an orderly array
+of buildings clinging to it in terraces. Buildings huge, or tiny huts;
+all anchored in the rear to the ground, and set upon metal girders in
+the front. Bisecting the slope was a vertical street--a broad escalator
+of moving steps, one half going upward, the other down. Beside it, a
+series of other escalators for the traffic of moving merchandise.
+
+Cross streets on the hill were spider bridges, clinging with thin, stiff
+legs. And at the summit of the hill stood a tremendous funnel belching
+flame and smoke into the sky.
+
+To one side of the hill lay a bowl-like depression with a single squat
+building in its center--a low building of many funnels; and about it the
+black yawning mouths of shafts down into the ground--mines vomiting ore,
+broken chunks of the metallic rock coming up as though by the invisible
+magic of magnetism, hunting through the air in an arc to fall with a
+clatter into great bins above the smelter.
+
+In another place, at the bottom of a canyon roared a surging torrent of
+river. A harnessed river; plunging into turbines; emerging to tumble
+over a cascade, its every drop caught by turning buckets spilled again
+at the bottom. Water pursuing its surging course downward, its power
+used again and again. The canyon dry at one place near the lower edge of
+the city, the water all electrified, resolved into piped hydrogen and
+oxygen. Like a tremendous clock ticking, the water, momentarily dammed
+back, was released in a torrent to the electrolysis vats. The hissing
+gases, under tremendous pressure, raised up the heavy-weighted tops of
+two expanding tanks. Another tick of this giant clock--the gases
+released, were merged again to water. The tops of the tanks lowered,
+each in turn, one coming down as the other went up--hundreds of tons of
+weight--their slow downward pull geared to scores of whirling
+wheels--the power shifted to dynamos scattered throughout the city.
+
+It was the twilight of nightfall when we arrived over Industriana. A
+thousand funnels and chimneys belched their flame and smoke--the flame
+tinting the sky with a lurid yellow-green glare, the smoke hanging like
+a dim blue gauze through which everything seemed unreal, infernal.
+
+From the city rose a roar--the myriad sounds of industry mingled by the
+magic of distance. And as we got closer, the roar resolved into its
+component parts; the grinding of gears; clicking of belts and chains;
+whirring of dynamos and motors; shrill electrical screams; the
+clattering of falling ore; clanking of swiftly moving merchandise, bound
+in metal, magnetized to monorail cars shifting it to warehouses on the
+nearby hills. And over it all flashed the brilliant signal lights of the
+merchandise traffic directors whose stentorian electrical voices
+broadcasting commands sounded above the city's noises.
+
+An inferno of activity. A seeming confusion; yet the aspect of confusion
+was a fallacy, for beneath it lay a precision--an orderly precision as
+calm and exact as the mind of the Director of a Signal Tower counting
+off the split seconds of his beams.
+
+An orderly precision--the brain of one man guiding and dominating
+everything; at his desk alone for long hours throughout the days and
+nights. A quiet, grey-haired gentleman; unhurried, unharassed, seemingly
+almost inactive; always seated at his empty desk smoking endless
+arrant-cylinders. The dominating business brain of Industriana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+_Departure_
+
+
+Georg and Maida were very busy in Industriana; and now Elza and I were
+admitted to their activities--Elza and I, with our new-found love and
+happiness neglected for the greater thing, the welfare of the nation
+upon which hinged the very safety of Venus itself; and Mars; and our own
+fair Earth.
+
+Industriana, greatest commercial and manufacturing center of Venus, had
+been given over momentarily to the preparations for war. The _Rhaals_
+had at last turned from industry to the conquest of Tarrano.
+Preparations were almost completed; our armies were to start within a
+very few times of sleep.
+
+I had had no experience in warfare; but the history of our Earth had
+told me much of it. The enlisting and training of huge armies of men;
+arming them; artillery; naval and air forces; commissary and supplies; a
+gigantic business organization to equip, move and maintain millions of
+fighting men.
+
+Ancient warfare! This--our modern way--was indeed dissimilar. It was,
+from most aspects, simplicity itself. We had no need of men in great
+numbers. I found something like a single thousand of men being organized
+and trained. And equipped with weapons to outward aspects comparatively
+simple.
+
+On all the three worlds the age of explosives of the sort history
+records, was long since passed. Electronic weapons--all basically the
+same. And I found now that it was the power for them, developed,
+transformed into its various characteristics and stored for individual
+transportation and use, which was mainly engrossing Industriana.
+
+I had opportunity, that first night, of meeting Geno-Rhaalton--the
+present head of that famous Rhaalton line, for generations hereditary
+leaders of their race.
+
+We found him, this Geno-Rhaalton, in a secluded, somber little office of
+black metallic walls, grey hangings and rug, a block of carved stone his
+desk, and a few of the stiff-backed stone chairs, each with its single
+prim cushion.
+
+The office was beyond sight and sound of the busy city. His desk was
+empty, save for the array of apparatus around its edges--the clicking
+tabulators which recorded, sorted, analyzed and summarized for him every
+minute detail with which the city was engaged.
+
+Machines of business detail. We had them, of course, in the Inter-Allied
+offices of Greater New York. I have seen our Divisional Director voice
+into a mouthpiece the demand for some statistical summary computed up to
+five minutes before, and covering his entire Atlantic Division. He would
+have it, recorded in cold print before him, within a moment.
+
+Yet, compared to the Rhaalton efficiency, our own methods seemed
+antiquated indeed. This man was in touch with every transpiring detail
+simultaneously; yet not confused by them, for every detail was also
+combined into a whole--to be examined for itself if he wished. Visually
+as well, the entire city lay before his gaze--the walls of the office
+were lined with rows and tiers of small mirrors; receivers and
+mouthpieces connected him with everything. Sights, sounds, and even
+smells of the various factories were available to him--smells when his
+sense of smell might be necessary for the testing of some elusive gas.
+
+Without moving his physical body his presence was in effect transported
+wherever throughout the city he wished to be. A man of tremendous
+concentration, to handle but one thing at a time; with all the power of
+his brain to give instant decision, and then to forget it utterly.
+
+I found him a rather small man; smooth-shaven; grey-haired; a grave face
+and demeanor, with dark eyes solemn with thought, yet twinkling often
+when he spoke. A man of flabby muscles and gentle voice; seemingly
+unforceful, and with a personality likable, but hardly dominating.
+
+Instinctively I found myself comparing him to Tarrano. Tarrano's strong,
+wiry body. The flash of his eye; his inscrutability, always suggesting
+menace; the power, the genius of his personality--the force radiating
+from him which no one could mistake. His intellectual power--his
+concentration--certainly the equal of this little leader of the
+_Rhaals_.
+
+Tarrano the Conqueror! Tarrano--man of destiny--risen from nothing and
+by the sheer genius of his will throwing three worlds into chaos, at one
+stage combining two worlds into his self-created Empire; and menacing
+the third. Surely Tarrano was a greater man than this Rhaalton. I knew
+it; much as I hated Tarrano I was forced to admit it.
+
+Yet as I stood there acknowledging the soft-spoken greeting of Rhaalton,
+I had the swift premonition that Tarrano was going down into defeat. And
+that this little man, without moving from his desk or raising his voice,
+would be the main factor in bringing it about.
+
+And I wondered why such a thing could be. I know why now. Tarrano, with
+all his genius, lacked just one quality which this little man had in
+abundance. The milk of human kindness--humanity--a radiating force the
+essence of which paradoxically was the unforceful gentleness of him. The
+Almighty--as we each of us in our hearts must envisage our God--is just,
+but gentle, humane in His justness. And with all the genius in the
+universe--the war-like power--the weapons--the cohorts--all the
+wonderful armament of war--you cannot transgress the Will of the
+Almighty. Against all human logic of what should be victory--you will
+meet defeat....
+
+The thoughts fled through my mind and vanished into the realities of the
+present. Rhaalton was saying:
+
+"We will be ready within another time of sleep. Jac Hallen, you wish, I
+suppose, to go out with our forces?"
+
+"Oh yes," I said.
+
+He smiled. "The eagerness of youth for danger! And yet is very
+necessary--very laudable--"
+
+He passed a hand across his forehead with a weary gesture--a gesture
+which seemed to me despondent. Could this be our vaunted leader? My
+heart sank.
+
+He added abruptly: "We shall conquer this Tarrano--but at what cost!"
+His smile was wistful. "We must choose the lesser evil."
+
+Still gently, almost sorrowfully, but with a directness and clarity of
+thought which amazed me, he plunged into a detailed account of what
+Georg was to do in command of our forces. My own part in it, already
+planned by him in detail. Maida's part. Elza's. The division of _Rhaal_
+maidens.
+
+Girlhood in war! It seemed very strange. Yet the _Rhaal_ maidens were
+going as a matter of course, since there were some activities for which
+they were more fitted than the men. With all the _Rhaal_ maidens going,
+Elza and Maida would not stay behind. And though Maida--a wife--was
+objected to by Rhaalton, he had yielded finally to her pleading.
+
+I will not now detail our plans or our armament. We had, in general, one
+thousand unmarried men, in five divisions of two hundred each. They were
+largely _Rhaals_, with the few Earth men previously sent us; fifty
+perhaps of the most loyal _slaans_; and a scattering of the other races
+of the Venus Central State. A few--thirty perhaps--of the Little People
+of Mars. In addition, another hundred men, individually in charge of the
+larger apparatus and the vehicles. And the division of two hundred
+girls.
+
+Our journey to the Cold Country was to be made on flying platforms and
+vehicles of various sizes; some large to carry fifty passengers or more;
+others so small that only one person could be carried. These latter, the
+girls were to use. I call them platforms. In this size they were not,
+literally speaking, much more than the transporting mechanism fastened
+to the girl's waist.
+
+There were also heavier vehicles carrying the larger apparatus; and
+several of fairly large size with food, clothing, housing
+equipment--supplies of all kinds for our maintenance abroad. A dozen
+vehicles also carrying huge skeleton towers, encircled at the top with
+ray projectors. A vehicle with a single room--an instrument room fully
+equipped by means of which Geno-Rhaalton at his desk would be in contact
+with our every move. And largest vehicle of all--in aspect a solid,
+squat affair almost of a size for inter-planetary travel--our power
+plant.
+
+We started at dawn of the second morning after my own arrival in
+Industriana. The girls were to travel to the borders of the Cold Country
+on the larger vehicles, but they wished to start flying individually for
+the first few helans of the journey for practice. Georg, Maida, Elza and
+I were to travel in the instrument room.
+
+We massed upon a broad hilltop near the city. In the grey twilight of
+dawn with a flush of pink in the sky where the sun in a few moments
+would rise, I stood in the outer doorway of the instrument vehicle.
+Around me was the confusion of departure. Eager young men; laughing
+girls, flushed with excitement. The gayety of youth going to war! Young
+as I was myself, I was struck with the drama, the pathos of it. What
+would the home-coming be?
+
+Georg, Maida and Elza were with me. Geno-Rhaalton stepped up to us.
+Bare-headed. A solemn little man, heavy-hearted.
+
+"Good-by," he said simply. "I know you will do your best."
+
+"Jac! Look there!"
+
+I followed Elza's startled gesture to the soft, white clouds which were
+massed in the sky above us. By what magic of science the thing was
+accomplished, I know not; but up there in the clouds a gigantic image of
+Tarrano was materializing! His head and shoulders. Arms folded; his face
+with a sardonic smile leering down at us! Lips moving. And out of the
+air about us came his audible, broadcasting words.
+
+_"Do your best, my friends!"_ Ironic mockery! _"Coming to conquer
+Tarrano? Hasten! You are keeping Tarrano waiting most impatiently!"_
+
+The giant voice died away into silence; the huge image melted into the
+clouds and vanished.
+
+Rhaalton looked at us again, expressionless. "Good-by," he repeated. "Do
+your best."
+
+He turned away abruptly. And then as he walked with a despondent droop,
+I saw his shoulders suddenly straighten. He flung a hand into the air.
+The signal to start! From a tower in Industriana a puff of violet light
+shot up to magnify the signal.
+
+The girls, all in their places, rose into the air. Draperies fluttering,
+like graceful birds they rose, circled over us in an arc; and then in a
+long, single line, with officers apart to one side marking them in
+squads of twenty, they sped into the dimness of distance.
+
+The tower vehicles now were rising. Then the larger platform; the power
+plant, like a floating building sailing majestically up.
+
+"Come, Jac."
+
+Elza and Maida were inside the instrument room gazing through one of its
+windows; and Georg drew me within, closing the transparent door after
+us. Through the windows I could see the line of vehicles following after
+the girls. Then our instrument room rose quietly, soundlessly. The
+ground dropped slowly away, then faster; and as we swung about I saw the
+hilltop beneath us. Its sides were lined with waving spectators;
+stricken momentarily with awe at the apparition of Tarrano, they had
+already forgotten it; from every vantage point of Industriana they were
+frantically waving.
+
+But the hilltop was empty, save for one lone figure--Geno-Rhaalton
+standing sorrowfully gazing after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+_First Assault_
+
+
+Our spies had informed us that of recent weeks there had arisen about
+the City of Ice a huge wall behind which Tarrano would make his stand.
+It was our plan to approach within range of this and establish our power
+plant as a base from which to direct our offensive. The trip from the
+Great City was not long. After a few helans our girls ceased flying
+individually and boarded their appointed vehicles.
+
+In a long single line, armament platforms, the towers, our instrument
+room, with the power plant bringing up the rear, we sailed forward.
+There were in our instrument vehicle, Maida, Georg, Elza and myself, the
+vehicle manned by two pilots and two mechanicians--a _slaan_, a Mars
+man, and two Earth men. We were in constant communication with
+Geno-Rhaalton. And though he enjoined upon us all the necessity for
+sleeping or resting during the trip, himself sat alert at his desk,
+unrelaxing. The little mirror on our table showed him sitting there,
+watching every move we made.
+
+We laid down to rest, but sleep was impossible. Through the panelled
+transparent floor, I watched the country changing as we advanced;
+vegetation dwindling; the soil changing to rocky barrenness at the
+border of the Cold Country. And then the snow-plains, the mute frozen
+rivers of ice, the mountains.
+
+In the twilight of the Cold Country autumn, we sailed up to the
+mountains and approached to the City of Ice. Alert, all of us now, as at
+an altitude of a few thousand feet we circled about, marking time until
+the power plant had selected its base and landed to make ready for the
+battle.
+
+Throughout the trip we had expected--had anticipated the possibility--of
+a surprise attack by Tarrano; an ambush in the open air, perhaps
+by some means strange to us. But the vision magnifiers, the
+microphones--encompassing every known range of sight and sound--showed
+us nothing. Especially at the mountains we had thought to meet
+opposition. But at first none came. It seemed somehow ominous, this lack
+of action from Tarrano; and when the leader of our line--a tower
+vehicle--rose sharply to scale the jagged peaks of the Divide, the flare
+of a hostile electronic bomb rising came almost as a relief. From the
+instrument room--forewarned an instant by the hiss of our microphones--I
+saw the bomb start upward. Slowly as a rocket it mounted--a blurred ball
+of glowing violet light, quite plain in the dim twilight. I knew that
+the tower platform at which it was directed would have time to throw out
+its insulation; I knew that the insulation would doubtless be
+effective--yet my heart leaped nevertheless. At my hand was a projector;
+but in those few seconds the tower just in advance of us in the line was
+quicker. Its ray darted at the violet ball; the soundless explosion
+threw a wave of sparks about the menaced tower, like a puff--a pricked
+bubble of soap-film--the violet ball was dissipated. But I saw the
+menaced tower rock a trifle from the shock.
+
+Geno-Rhaalton's face in the mirror beside me was very solemn. I heard
+him murmuring something to the other towers, saw their light flash
+downward, searching the mountain defiles. And as I watched that little
+image of Rhaalton, I chanced to notice a mirror on Rhaalton's desk.
+Rhaalton himself was looking at it--a mirror which had been dark, but
+which now flashed on. An outlaw circuit! The mirror imaged the face of
+Tarrano. Tarrano grinning ironically!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+_Invisible Assailants_
+
+
+We did not locate the source of the bomb, and no others rose to assail
+us. The mountain defiles, so far as our lights could illuminate them,
+seemed deserted. We passed over the Divide, and on the plateau beyond,
+we landed. A region of rolling country beneath its snow and ice. The
+mountains came down sharply to the inner plain--a crescent of mountain
+range stretching off into the dimness of distance, half encircling this
+white plateau in the center of which stood the City of Ice. We could
+just see it at the horizon, the glittering spires of its Ice Palace.
+
+Around the city, completely enveloping it, was a thick circular wall of
+ice twenty times the height of a man. We were too far away to see it
+plainly--a turreted wall doubtless armed with projectors throughout its
+circular length. Our finders would not show it, for it was insulated
+against them. It stood there grey-white, bleak and apparently deserted.
+
+Georg said: "It's the man's accursed inactivity! Is he going to do
+nothing?... Our power plant has landed, Jac--there in the foothills--see
+it drop?" A call from Rhaalton took his attention.
+
+We landed our entire force in the foothills of the mountains. The power
+plant was there; it looked like a squat industrial building set upon a
+ledge of ice--a shining cliff-face behind it, a precipice in front. At
+the foot of the precipice our other vehicles were clustered.
+
+We were there throughout three entire times of sleep, hours strangely
+the same in that unaltered polar twilight. During them, with the tower
+platforms set in a ring about us to make an armed camp, we unloaded our
+apparatus, erected our power controls, prepared the individual circuits,
+making ready for our offensive. And still--though we, were alert for
+it--no move from Tarrano.
+
+They were hours during which, with my lack of technical knowledge, I
+found myself often with nothing to do. Our camp was bustling with
+activity, but among the now idle girls and many of the young men, there
+was an air of gayety. They laughed, shouted, played games amid the rocks
+from which we had long since melted the snow. Once, in what would have
+been early evening had not the Sun in these latitudes held level like a
+burned-out ball near the horizon, Elza and I wandered from the camp to
+climb the cliffs nearby.
+
+Beyond the circle of the camp's heat, the deadly cold of the region
+assailed us. We had not wished to equip with the individual heating,
+which for battle would leave us free of heavy garments; instead we
+swathed ourselves in furs, with the exercise of climbing to aid us in
+keeping warm.
+
+It was wonderful to be again alone with Elza. Even with what was
+impending we were young enough to put it momentarily from our minds.
+Like young lovers clandestinely stealing away to a tryst, we left the
+camp and hand in hand, climbed up amid the crags. A few hundred feet to
+one side of the power house, and about the same distance above it, we
+sat down at last to rest.
+
+The scene from here was picturesque in the extreme. Across the flat,
+shadowless snowy plain was the wall of ice with the city behind it. All
+in the far distance, this city wherein our enemy was entrenched; and
+there were no lights, no movement that we could see. In that drab
+twilight, it seemed almost unreal.
+
+The plain too, was empty. A few palpably deserted huts, nothing else.
+Beneath us, snugly anchored there on the ledge, was our power house. No
+unreality here. Its aerials were mounted; its external dynamos were
+visibly revolving; from its windows blue shafts of light slanted out;
+and from it rose the low hum of active power.
+
+Below it, spread over the slightly sloping area of foothill beneath us,
+lay our encampment. A ring of our tower vehicles, with their projectors
+mounted and ready, their colored search-beams slowly sweeping the white
+plain and the dead grey sky. Within their ring, the camp itself. Lighted
+by the blue-white tubes set upon quadrupeds at intervals; heated by
+strings of red-glowing wire and the red wire-balls used on Venus. The
+snow and ice on the ground within the camp had melted, exposing the
+naked rock.
+
+A scene of blue and red lights and shifting shadows; bustling with
+activity--figures, tiny from this height, hurrying about. The sounds
+from it rose to us; the low hum and snap of the weapons being tested;
+the shouted commands; and sometimes, mingled with it, the laughing shout
+of a light-hearted girl.
+
+Elza clung close to me. "Everything will be ready soon."
+
+I nodded. "They're going to mount a ray up here on the cliff. Grolier
+was telling me, for permanent protection--to stay here with the power
+house when we go out to the attack."
+
+Silent with her thoughts she did not answer me. Sidewise, I regarded her
+solemn little face encased in its hood of fur. And then clumsily, for
+our furs were heavy and awkward, I put my arm about her.
+
+"I love you, Elza. It's worth a great deal to be here alone with you."
+
+"Jac, what will he do?" Her gaze was to the far-off City of Ice. "It
+seems so--so sinister, Jac, this silence from him. This inactivity. It
+is not like him to be inactive."
+
+"He's there," I said. "Rolltar the Mars man--boastful fellow,
+blow-hard--he was telling some of us that in his opinion Tarrano had
+already run away."
+
+"Never!" she exclaimed. "This is his last stand. He'll make it
+here--defeat us here--"
+
+"Elza!"
+
+She glanced momentarily at me, smiled a queer smile, and then gazed once
+more over the distant plain. "I do not mean I think he'll defeat us,
+Jac. I mean, that is his reasoning--make his last stand here--"
+
+"He hasn't run away," I repeated. "I told Rolltar so. We got an outlaw
+connection into the Ice Palace today. For a moment only, and then it was
+discovered and broken off. But we had the image for a moment--it chanced
+to show Tarrano himself. But he's isolated now. Bretan said his
+isolation power--around the Ice Palace and the wall anyway--is greater
+than any image-ray we can send against it."
+
+My heart leaped suddenly, for I saw Elza's eyes widen, fear spring to
+her face; heard the sharp intake of her breath, and felt her hand grip
+my arm.
+
+"Jac! There's something wrong! See there? And you hear it?"
+
+From the instrument room I heard a vague drumming. A hiss, and then a
+drumming growing louder. It was not a new sound, for now I remembered I
+had been conscious of it for several moments past. Our encampment was
+awake to it! A confusion down there; people running about; a figure
+dashing wildly into the instrument room. And the aerials on the power
+house began to snap viciously.
+
+"Jac! What is it?"
+
+"I don't know. See there, Elza? The sub-ray lights!"
+
+The search-beams from our towers were inordinately active. Sweeping the
+empty snow-plain and the empty sky. Empty? To my fevered imagination
+they were peopled with enemies. And then one of the towers flashed on a
+sub-ray--the dull infra-red for envisaging the slow rays below the power
+of human sight. And another tower with its faint purple beam was using
+the ultra-violet.
+
+"That drumming, Elza! That's a microphone--the big one they just erected
+near the instrument room. There's something coming! That's the magnified
+sound of some distant rush of air. Very faint sound, but they must have
+heard it on the ear-phones long ago. That microphone must have just been
+connected--"
+
+Something coming? We could see nothing.
+
+"Let's go down, Jac! We must get back--"
+
+"I've got infra-red glasses--" I fumbled beneath my furs. But I did not
+have them.
+
+"Jac--"
+
+"Wait, Elza."
+
+My glasses would have been useless, for the sub and ultra beams from the
+towers were disclosing nothing. I could tell that by the hasty searching
+sweeps they made. And then from the big Wilton tower, the newly
+connected Zed-ray flashed on, I could hear the load of it in the
+deepened, throaty hum from the power house. Its dirty brown beam sprayed
+out over the plain; then swung to the sky, caught something, hung
+motionless, narrowed into great intensity. The powerful Zed-ray,
+capturing the visibility of dense solids only.[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: Similar doubtless to our present-day X-ray.]
+
+There was something up there in the sky! The Zed-ray met resistance; we
+could see the sparks, and hear the snap of them coming like a roar from
+the microphone above the drumming. Met the resistance and conquered it;
+gradually the snapping roar died away.
+
+"Jac! I see something! Something there--don't you see it?"
+
+A luminous blur became visible in the nearer sky--moving blobs of silver
+luminosity in the mud-brown light of the Zed-ray. A hundred or more
+moving silver blobs. They were taking form. The silvery phosphorescent
+look faded, became grey-white. Took definite shape. Waving arms and
+legs! Bones bereft of flesh. Human skeletons! Limbs waving rhythmically.
+Bony arms, with fingers clutching metal weapons. Assailants coming at us
+through the air, stripped by the Zed-ray of clothing, skin, flesh,
+organs, to the naked bone. Skeletons with skulls of empty eye-sockets
+and set jaw-bones to make the travesty of human faces grim with menace!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+_Attack on the Power House_
+
+
+Stricken with surprise and awe, Elza and I sat there motionless. Our
+encampment was in a turmoil of confusion--chaos, out of which very soon
+order came. The skeleton figures in the air--I saw now that there were
+nearer two hundred than one hundred--were perhaps two thousand feet
+away, and at an altitude of about the cliff-ledge where Elza and I were
+sitting.
+
+They swept forward, bathed in the Zed-ray with all our other
+search-beams darkened to give it full sway. Momentarily I saw them
+clearer; metallic cylinders in bony fingers, and a metal mechanism of
+flight encasing, yet not touching the ribs.
+
+"Jac! Why don't our rays--"
+
+As though to answer Elza's unfinished question, one of our towers turned
+a disintegrating ray upon them. A narrow pencil-point of light, barely
+visible in this flat daylight. It swung up into our Zed-ray, searched
+and clung to one of the skeleton figures. Had it penetrated, the man
+would have been dissipated like a puff of vapor. But it did not; and
+then I knew that for that distance at least, this enemy's isolation
+power--individual barrage--was too great.
+
+Yet the assailed figure wavered! Our amplifier gave out his shout--half
+fear, half admonition. The line of skeletons swung upward. Came on, but
+mounted so that I saw that they were making for the summit of the cliff
+above us--above our power house.
+
+Their defense--invisibility, and a mere isolation barrage so that we
+could not harm them with our tower rays while they kept beyond range.
+But what was their means of attack? Why would Tarrano....
+
+"The power house," Elza answered; and I realized then that she had read
+my thoughts. The power house, if they could demolish it....
+
+Our thoughts, questions and answers unspoken, flew fast; but the drama
+before us unfolded faster. With the knowledge that we could see them,
+these invaders cast aside a portion of their equipment to give them
+greater freedom. We could see the metal portions of the trappings
+falling like plummets. The skeleton images faded; and then as our tower
+withdrew the Zed-ray and our search-beams picked them up, we saw our
+enemies as they really were. Men clothed in a casing of cylindrical
+garments with the flying mechanisms strapped to their chests; some with
+visors and headpieces, nearly all with small weapons in their hands.
+
+Keeping well away, they continued to mount. They were striving for the
+pinnacle of cliff-tops above us; but as our rays darted at them they
+halted, wavered; and now when nearly above the camp, they began mounting
+straight up.
+
+"Jac! Look there!"
+
+One of our tower vehicles was preparing to rise. Its ray, following the
+search-beams upward, was aimed at the invaders, but they were beyond its
+effective range. Their weapons of attack? I knew now.
+
+"Suicides!"
+
+Whether Elza said it, or merely thought it I do not know. One of the
+figures came down as though falling. A few seconds only; but though our
+search-beam showed it, the smaller rays for those seconds missed it.
+Down--until no more than five hundred feet above us it checked its fall.
+A giant of a man; and with his hand cylinder--in range now--he shot a
+bolt at our power house. It struck; I could see the flash, saw an aerial
+shatter before the charge went harmlessly into the body of the building.
+Then one of our rays caught the man; his figure crumpled; the shower of
+sparks as his barrage was broken, exploded like a tiny bursting bomb;
+and as the sparks died, there was nothing where the man had been.
+
+A suicide; but one of our aerials was shattered. And then others came
+down--not many, for it was grim business and the courage of them must
+have failed at the last. Falling bodies; tiny bolts striking the power
+house; the sparks--then empty air where living men had been.
+
+Our tower left the ground. Some of our men, with small flying platforms
+strapped to them, were crowding its top. Its beams preceded it--but I
+saw the beams breaking intermittently as the bolts struck the power
+house. The invaders wavered with indecision. Some of them came down to
+voluntary death; others strove for the cliff-top; some took flight. Our
+tower swept into them; one of them, injured but not annihilated, fell
+with a crash into the encampment.
+
+Above Elza and me was a maze of flashing beams; futile bolts; the puffs
+of myriad sparks. A bolt seemed to strike quite near where we were
+sitting; I drew Elza back and we crouched in the hollow of a rock. A
+body came hurtling down, crashed to the cliff-ledge almost at our feet
+with the sickening thump of mangled flesh and broken bones--hung an
+instant to give me a momentary glimpse of a face contorted in death
+agony; then rolled over and fell further down the jagged cliff.
+
+Then above us presently there was silence and the drab empty sky. Our
+tower was back beyond the cliff-top. Soon it appeared; apparently
+unharmed, it came dropping down to its former place on the ground.
+
+The first attack was over. And off in the distance a few solitary
+figures were winging their way back to the City of Ice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+_City of Ice Besieged_
+
+
+We were not greatly harmed by this surprise attack; the power house was
+superficially damaged, but soon repaired. That night--I call it that
+though the constant weak daylight made the term incongruous--activity
+showed in the City of Ice.
+
+It came with a vertical spray of light rising from the ice wall which
+encircled the city. Spreading light beams rising from points a hundred
+feet apart along the wall. The beams spread fan-shape, so that within
+fifty feet above their source they met and merged into a thin sheet of
+effulgence rising into the sky. Tarrano's barrage.
+
+It seemed then that beyond suicidal sorties of the kind we had just
+repulsed, Tarrano was planning to stand purely on the defensive. It was
+our own plan to surround the city with our towers; even those on the
+further side would be within range of our power house; and with the city
+thus beleaguered, we would attack the wall from every side at once.
+
+We tested now this barrage Tarrano had thrown up. Sprays of its
+insulated area came down to protect the wall in front; and protected
+also the triangular spaces between the sources of the main beams.
+Tentatively one of our towers approached within range; but our rays only
+beat into the barrage with the hiss of molten metal plunged into water,
+and with a burst of interference sparks. Even at a horizontal thousand
+feet we could do nothing. Then we tried altitude. Our projectors,
+mounted individually on small platforms automatically controlled to fly
+without human pilot, went up and we strove to get them over the barrage.
+
+At five thousand feet one went over safely. But the electronic bomb it
+dropped into the city was an easy mark for Tarrano's watchful defense
+rays. He exploded it harmlessly when it was still high above him.
+
+After the next time of sleep we invested the city. Our towers were set
+in a ring about it, two thousand feet from the wall. They were mobile
+units, ready to sail forward or back or upward at any moment. Georg
+stayed in command of the instrument room. It was never placed, but
+sailed continuously in slow circular flight around the city above our
+line. The power house remained in its place, with our largest projector
+mounted on the cliff beside it in order to frustrate any further
+attacks.
+
+They were solemn moments as we broke our encampment. The girls, far more
+agile in the air than men, were lightly dressed, with the supporting
+mechanism strapped to them. The heating units enveloped them in an
+invisible cloak of warm air. To their left arms a strapped cylinder gave
+off a fan-shape area of insulation--an almost invisible shield of
+protective barrage some five feet long. It showed as a faint glow of
+light; and in flight their left arms could swing it like a shield to
+protect their bodies. They had telephonic ear-pieces available; a tiny
+mirror fastened to their chests to face them, upon which Georg or
+Geno-Rhaalton could project images; a mouthpiece for talking to Georg;
+and a belt of offensive weapons, useful within a range of five hundred
+feet but no further.
+
+Very alert and agile, twisting and turning in the air were these girls.
+We men were similarly equipped, but our movements in the air were
+heavier, clumsier. Elza and I had practiced with the others for days;
+and with our harmless duelling rays I had found that I could never hope
+to hit her while she dealt me mortal blows.
+
+Elza, commanding a squad of twenty girls, was assigned to a portion of
+the line some helans from me. My own place, with a hundred men under me,
+was near a tower almost on the opposite side from the power house.
+
+It was a solemn parting from Elza. I wrapped her in my arms, tried to
+smile. "Be very--careful, Elza."
+
+She kissed me, clung to me; then cast me off and was gone.
+
+With the city invested, we rested idly for another time of sleep.
+Occasionally we made a tentative tower attack which came to nothing.
+Tarrano waited; his barrage remained the same. We tried to provoke a
+move from him, but could not.
+
+The snow-plain where I was stationed here was similar to the other side,
+save that there were no mountains. From the power house to Tarrano's
+wall there was a dip, so that the wall stood upon higher ground. On my
+side, however, the reverse was true. The wall lay in a hollow in one
+place, with a steady upward slope back from it to uplands behind us, as
+though in some better day a broad watercourse had flowed down here, now
+long since buried in solid ice and snow.
+
+I mention this topography because it had a vital bearing upon what so
+soon was to transpire.
+
+Rhaalton desired that Tarrano come out and attack us; but Tarrano would
+not. We thought perhaps that his offense was inadequate and the one move
+that he made strengthened that belief. From the city beside the palace,
+a rectangle of black metal some fifty feet square, rose slowly up. In
+aspect it was a square, windowless room--a room without a ceiling, open
+at the top. It rose to a height of five hundred feet and hung level. And
+from it depended dangling power cables connecting it with the ground.
+
+It was the presence of these cables that made us feel Tarrano was
+offensively weak. He could not aerially transport his power; hence, for
+offense he could only rely upon individual batteries which, unless
+permanently stationed within the city, we knew would have a short range
+at best. We watched this thing in the air for hours. It did not move; it
+was soundless. What was its purpose? We could not guess.
+
+And then at last, Geno-Rhaalton ordered us all to the attack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+_Battle_
+
+
+I found myself in the air; with my men around me we hovered. Then
+Georg's command from the instrument room sounded in my ears. I gave the
+signal; and flying wedge-shaped, we hurled ourselves forward. It was
+like lying on the air, diving head foremost. The rush of wind sang past
+me; the ground, a hundred feet below, was a white surface flowing
+backward.
+
+We were heading for the base of one of Tarrano's barrage projectors. It
+was mounted within the wall; but the wall itself was protected merely by
+a fan-shaped subsidiary beam--a weaker barrage over that small area,
+which by concentrated effort we hoped to break.
+
+From a helan away on both sides of me I saw other wedges of our men
+coming slanting in to assail the same point; overhead a corps of girls
+was hovering. Our towers, three of them concentrated here, had risen to
+a moderate height; their rays were playing upon the threatened area; a
+steady fountain of sparks showed where they were striking the barrage.
+
+A silent bombardment of flashing beams and sparks. At five hundred feet
+we added our own smaller rays to the turmoil. If the barrage would break
+at this point....
+
+The instrument room, watchful of everything, sailed over me. On my
+mirror I saw Georg's intent face; his voice said:
+
+"Careful, Jac! They may come out."
+
+Prophetic words! The segment of barrage here suddenly vanished. A ray
+darted out. Beside it, a cloud of flying figures came out of the city
+like insects from a hive.
+
+An inferno of almost hand to hand fighting. It was everyone for himself;
+and I gave the order for my men to break formation. Ordered them to get
+up close to the wall if they could ... to strike, with the closest
+possible range at the base of the enemy ray....
+
+I flung myself forward. Tarrano's men soon were around me. Twisting,
+darting figures ... tiny beams of death to be fended off with my
+shield....
+
+A body fell past me in the air ... others, while I looked at them, in
+the blink of an eyelid, vanished into nothingness ... One of our towers
+sailing high, suddenly went dark, turned over, wavered down, dismembered
+with leprous missing parts--and then in a puff was obliterated.
+
+I found myself nearly up to the wall, and higher than its top. The
+segment of barrage remained broken. I could see into the city--the Ice
+Palace, still seemingly deserted. And near it, the base of the powerful
+ground ray which was assailing our towers ... If I could get past the
+wall, unnoticed, get within range of that projector....
+
+Most of the fighting was now behind me. We seemed to be holding our
+own ... the squad of girls was coming down; I prayed that Elza might not
+be among them....
+
+The instrument room had vanished beyond my sight; but Georg's voice
+said:
+
+"We're sending reinforcements! Gather your men--hold off for a moment!"
+
+From every pan of our line other units of men and towers were coming. We
+had broken through the barrage here. If we could now, by a concerted
+rush, get our force over the wall, into the city....
+
+Within the instrument room, Georg sat watching. The inactivity of his
+own part, the comparative lack of personal danger, galled him. But he
+was too occupied with his duties to give it more than passing thought.
+We had broken the barrage at one point ... from every quarter he was
+rushing reinforcements there to take advantage of the break....
+
+And then Tarrano's trickery became apparent. We had not broken his
+barrage; he had deliberately withdrawn it, to encourage us, to bring our
+other units to the spot.... Our power house, neglected, was momentarily
+comparatively defenseless. The enemy barrage at the point of the wall
+nearest it, suddenly lifted. Beams darted from the opening ... men came
+out in a cloud....
+
+I held back momentarily from the wall and gathered my remnant of men
+about me. Only half my former strength; but with sinking heart I tried
+to assure myself that the others had not heeded my call. The fighting
+here had slackened; Tarrano's men had risen high, engaged at long range
+by our girls, from whom they were slowly, trickily retreating as though
+to lure the girls above the city; and my heart was thankful when I heard
+the relayed order from Rhaalton for the girls to withdraw--not to pass
+above the wall, even at high altitude. The order came just in time; the
+barrage here flashed on again, trapping a few of our men behind it.
+
+I was aware of this new attack on the power house. Our units were
+hurriedly being ordered back. Georg, in desperation, had flung his
+instrument vehicle at the enemy ray ... My connection broke; and then
+another connection brought me someone's voice with the report that the
+instrument room had darkened that main enemy ray, but had itself crashed
+to the ground ... I wondered if Georg were killed ... later, I heard
+someone say that he was safe within the power house....
+
+I disobeyed my final orders; I did not swing back toward the power
+house; instead, with my men around me, we fled back from this segment of
+the wall to the higher lying white plain behind it.
+
+I have spoken of the down-grade of this land here, culminating in the
+depression which marked this part of the wall. It was that depression
+which gave me my idea. Our heat-ray cylinders had so far been useless.
+They had a range of only two hundred feet, and no power to attack a
+barrage. Some of them had futilely been used; the snow and ice on the
+ground above our recent fighting was melted in patches--pools of boiling
+water lay on the naked rock; and the water, flowing down the depression,
+had reached the ice-wall--a tiny stream of it, eating into the wall,
+slowly, surely....
+
+With my men I flew up the slope. The ice and snow here melted under
+the close-range play of our heat-cylinders. Rivulets of boiling water
+began creeping toward the city. Other men at my call joined us. Two
+hundred of us soon were melting the ice. The rivulets merged into
+brooks, to streams--and soon a river torrent of hissing, boiling water
+gathering volume as it went, was surging at the wall. The wall
+began melting--itself feeding this monster which was eating at its
+vitals ... a yawning hole began opening at the base of the wall ... it
+began sagging at the top ... crumbling....
+
+The segment of barrage here went dark. No trickery now; the barrage at
+this point actually was broken. The boiling river went through the wall,
+swept down the slope into the city. Through the great clouds of steam I
+could see the Ice Palace with its brittle outlines softening under the
+heat ... one of its thin spires broke off and fell....
+
+Feverishly we added to the river source. The whole area here was grey
+with steam. Girls had joined us ... Elza was not among them ... Elza!
+With my triumph there lay always in the background of my consciousness
+the weight of my fear for Elza....
+
+The fighting in the other sector had continued desperately. Our power
+house was hopelessly damaged; the towers, with their power gone, were
+using their batteries; soon they would be exhausted. But now we
+abandoned that sector; our remaining towers--all our flying forces--came
+to this melting area where the vanishing city lay defenseless before
+us.... We hurled ourselves into it, using only our heat-rays. Everywhere
+we added to the boiling torrent; even the interference heat of the
+fighting was to our advantage. This brittle city which owed its very
+existence to the congealing cold, lay enveloped in a cloud of steam.
+
+Then Tarrano played his last card. The cubical building of metal with
+the cables depending from it, still hung motionless. It now burst into
+sound. A low electrical hum; then louder to a whine--a scream. Our men
+and girls were in the air around it. I too was there. Tarrano's men--the
+remaining few who were desperately fighting--had suddenly withdrawn.
+
+And then we knew the purpose of this hanging room. A strange form of
+some tremendous electro-magnet. I could feel it pulling at me. My power
+to guide myself in the air was wavering.
+
+From my height I could see down into this ceilingless rectangle. It was
+un-manned by humans. A room of whirling, flashing knives! Above it, even
+then some of our men were struggling in its magnetic grip ... being
+drawn down into it ... a girl's power must suddenly have collapsed; she
+was sucked in with a rush--torn to fragments by the whirling knives....
+
+The area of magnetism seemed to spread for a helan or more. Everywhere
+around me I saw our men and girls struggling with it, fighting to keep
+away, but closing in a ring around it ... faster, continually more
+helpless until at last, their bodies out of control whirling end over
+end, they were sucked in like water rushing into a turbine.... One of
+our weakened towers attacked it; but some of the remnants of Tarrano's
+projectors caught the tower and darkened it.
+
+Through the rising clouds of steam I could see the magnet vaguely now.
+But I could feel it pulling; and soon, in spite of myself, I was fairly
+close above it. I strove to keep my wits. The others who were meeting
+their death lost control of their bodies at the last and could not use
+their cylinders. I had some battery power remaining; I snapped on my
+disintegrating ray to test it. It was my last desperate recourse.
+
+I righted my body, and yielding to the magnetic pull, ceasing to
+struggle, I dove head first at that yawning rectangle. A gleaming blur
+of knives ... blood-stained now ... within these rectangular walls
+horrible carnage....
+
+A second of despair; but my ray struck true ... Around me was chaos; my
+senses reeled, went black for an instant. But I recovered, found myself
+whirling in the empty air....
+
+The city was melting into a turmoil of boiling water and surging steam.
+The fighting everywhere had ceased. Wavering figures were
+rising--fugitives struggling away. With my senses still confused, I
+righted myself, undecided where to go or what to do. Above me two
+figures were still in combat. One of them--a man--assailed by a
+heat-ray, came hurtling down past me. The other wavered--a girl with her
+flying mechanism out of control. She was a hundred feet or more above
+me, wavering downward. Elza! I shot myself up to her, seized her in my
+arms, my own supporting mechanism sustaining us both. Elza, spent, but
+uninjured, I held her close.
+
+"Elza dear! My Elza!"
+
+We hung there in the air. From out the vanishing city, rising through
+the steam came a small metal vehicle. A pointed cylinder, in height no
+more than twice that of a man. It came up slowly. Its rectangular door
+was open. As it reached our level and went past us quite close, I saw a
+man's figure standing there. Tarrano! Tarrano alone! From the wreckage
+of his city, making his escape alone!
+
+Without thought--holding Elza tightly within my arms--I flung us upward.
+Tarrano saw us, recognized us. He slackened his upward pace. With my
+sober reason gone, I strove to overtake him; saw the sardonic leer on
+his face but did not realize that he was waiting for us. We caught up
+with his vehicle; he pulled us through the doorway, to the floor of the
+narrow circular room with its heavy translucent panes.
+
+He was bending over me, leering. "Jac Hallen! And my little Lady Elza!
+How fortunate!"
+
+I cast off Elza and gained my feet. For an instant we stood--Tarrano and
+I--measuring each other. He seemed calm; his face bore a slow sardonic
+smile; he was unarmed, drawn back against the concavity of the wall,
+watching me with his steady, keen eyes. Behind him through the low
+window, I saw the white ground now far below us; we were rising swiftly.
+
+"So you brought my Lady Elza back to me, Jac Hallen?"
+
+He got no further, for with a leap I was upon him. To use my weapons in
+these narrow quarters would have been suicide. My body pinned him
+against the wall as I lunged; my fingers strove for his throat.
+
+He was no larger than I, but the strength of him was extraordinary. His
+body stiffened to resist my impact; one of his hands gripped my wrist;
+his other hand--the heel of it--came up beneath my chin, forcing my head
+back.
+
+He fought silently, with movements that seemed almost deliberate. Into
+the center of the room we struggled. I saw that Elza was upon her feet,
+a hand pressed to her mouth in terror.
+
+"Elza!"
+
+I had meant to tell her to use the control levers which were on a small
+table nearby--to bring us back to the ground; but with this momentary
+diverting of my attention, Tarrano's fist struck me full in the face. I
+staggered back. Elza screamed--called something to Tarrano. I staggered,
+but I did not fall; and as Tarrano stood there, still with his slow
+smile, I recovered myself and was again upon him. Locked together we
+swayed to the control table. My back was to it. Tarrano's slender
+fingers with a grip like alemite, had found my throat. Slowly,
+irresistibly he forced me backward over the table. I was helpless; my
+breath was stopped; Tarrano's triumphant face bending over me was fading
+with my senses.
+
+"In just a moment, Lady Elza...."
+
+He was telling her calmly that in a moment he would be finished with me.
+Did the man's egotism, here at the last, delude him into the belief that
+Elza wanted him to conquer me? With all the weapons of science
+discarded--this primitive struggle of man against man with the woman as
+prize--did the thought of that delude him into the belief that her love
+was his, now that he was killing me?
+
+I never knew. But beneath the roaring of my head, I heard his gentle
+words to her. And then, behind him, I saw her coming forward. A heavy
+metal object which she had picked up from the floor was in her hand.
+Tarrano saw her also--in a mirror on the table--saw her raise the jagged
+weapon. Raise it to strike; not at me--at himself. His face was close
+above mine. In that second, I saw in his expression the realization that
+Elza was attacking him.
+
+Whatever his emotions, like a flash he acted. His grip on my throat
+loosened. His arm, swinging backward, warded off Elza's trembling,
+hesitant blow. The metal block, intended for his head, was knocked from
+her hand; it fell clattering to the floor. And reaching over, Tarrano
+gripped the vehicle's control lever, wrenched it bodily from its
+fastenings! Control of the vehicle was irrevocably lost! We were
+falling!
+
+Breathless moments! Tarrano idly stood apart; his face a mask. My breath
+restored, I was recovering. I drew myself erect.
+
+Death! But my confused thoughts went to Elza. Her flying mechanism was
+partially sustaining; my own probably was still effective. Before
+Tarrano was aware of my purpose, I had pushed Elza forcibly through the
+doorway. Into the rush of air her figure disappeared. But Tarrano
+gripped me as I tried to follow her. Gripped me and clung. A breathless,
+dizzy instant. Locked together, our bodies shifted crazily. I
+tried to get him out the doorway with me, but he fought against
+it.... Smiling--always smiling....
+
+Elza fell safely. But they told me that Tarrano and I hovered for days
+unconscious on the borderland between life and death, living finally,
+for our vehicle had plunged into a tremendous snow-bank, to break its
+fall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Last scene of all ... They would not have Tarrano on any of the three
+worlds. While still living, the very personality of him was a menace.
+With his woman Tara, who refused to leave him and whom he tolerated,
+they banished him to that tiny asteroid which pursued its solitary way
+between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
+
+A lonely, barren little world, with its single, primitive race of
+spindly beings--timid, frail beings, half-human, half insect. We took
+him there--Maida and Georg, Elza and I. He anticipated his dislike of
+the asteroid's slight gravity, and demanded weighted shoes so that he
+might walk with the normal feeling of Earth and Venus.
+
+"You give me too much freedom," he told us solemnly.
+
+And there amid the rocks, with Tara we set him down. As we parted, he
+turned to Elza. She and I were joined in marriage by then. He faced her,
+took one of her hands and pressed its palm to his forehead, the gesture
+of homage and respect.
+
+"Goodbye, Lady Elza. I wish for you all life's happiness." He smiled,
+but it was a very wistful smile. And then he swung away abruptly.
+
+"Tara! Prepare me food. Leave me--I would be alone." His imperious
+gesture dispersed also the crowd of natives who were curiously regarding
+him. Here, in his last little domain, he would still be master.
+
+Our vehicle slowly rose. From its windows we watched him. Ignoring us
+utterly, weighted down by his heavy shoes, he paced his barren rocks,
+head lowered, alone with those thoughts he never shared with anyone.
+
+Tarrano, the Conqueror!
+
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tarrano the Conqueror
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21638]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARRANO THE CONQUEROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/></a>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h1>TARRANO<br />
+
+THE CONQUEROR</h1>
+
+<h2>BY RAY CUMMINGS</h2>
+
+
+<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY<br />
+A. C. McCLURG &amp; CO.<br />
+CHICAGO</h4>
+
+<h4>IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE PAN AMERICAN UNION.</h4>
+
+<h4>Printed in the United States of America</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>To Hugo Gernsback, scientist, author and publisher, whose constant
+efforts in behalf of scientific fiction have contributed so largely
+to its present popularity, this tale is gratefully dedicated.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>In "Tarrano the Conqueror" is presented a tale of the year 2430 A.D.&mdash;a
+time somewhat farther beyond our present-day era than we are beyond
+Columbus' discovery of America. My desire has been to create for you the
+impression that you have suddenly been plunged forward into that
+time&mdash;to give you the feeling Columbus might have had could he have read
+a novel of our present-day life.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>To this end I have conceived myself a writer of that future time,
+addressing his contemporary public. You are to imagine yourself reading
+a present day translation of my original text&mdash;a translation so free
+that a thousand little colloquialisms will have crept into it that could
+not possibly have their counterparts in the year 2430.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Apart from the text, you will occasionally find brief explanatory
+footnotes. Conceive them as having been put there by the translator.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>If you find parts of this tale unusual or bizarre, please remember that
+we are living now in a comparatively ignorant day. The tale is not
+intended to be fantastic or full of new and strange ideas. I have used
+nothing but those developments of our present-day civilization to which
+we are all looking forward as logical probabilities&mdash;woven them into a
+picture of what life in America very probably will be five hundred years
+from now. To that extent, the tale itself is intended to be only a love
+story of adventure and romance&mdash;written, not for you, but for that
+future audience.</i></p>
+
+<p>RAY CUMMINGS.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. The New Murders</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. Warning</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. Spy in the House</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. To the North Pole</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. Outlawed Flight</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. Man of Destiny</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. Prisoners</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. Unknown Friend</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. Paralyzed!</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. Georg Escapes</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. Recaptured</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. Tara</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. Love&mdash;and Hate</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. Defying Worlds</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. Escape</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. Playground of Venus</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. Violet Beam of Death</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. Passing of a Friend</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. Waters of Eternal Peace</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. Unseen Menace</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. Love, Music&mdash;and a Warning</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. Revolution!</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. First Retreat</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. Attack on the Palace</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. Immortal Terror</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. Black Cloud of Death</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. Tarrano The Man</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. Thing in the Forest</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. A Woman's Scream</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. The Monster</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI. Industriana</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII. Departure</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII. First Assault</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV. Invisible Assailants</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV. Attack on the Power House</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI. City of Ice Besieged</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII. Battle</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>TARRANO THE CONQUEROR</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3><i>The New Murders</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I was standing fairly close to the President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic
+when the first of the new murders was committed. The President fell
+almost at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my
+elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will.
+The Venus man did not make a move; he merely stood beside me in the
+press of the throng, seemingly as absorbed as all of us in what the
+President was saying.</p>
+
+<p>It was late afternoon. The sun was setting behind the cliffs across the
+river. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand people within
+sight of the President, listening raptly to his words. It was at Park
+Sixty, and I was standing on the Tenth Level.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The crowd packed all
+twelve of the levels; the park was black with people. The President
+stood on a balcony of the park tower. He was no more than a few hundred
+feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were
+the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the
+audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were
+scattering it throughout the city, I suppose five million people were
+listening to the voice of the President at that moment. He had just said
+that we must remain friendly with Venus; that in our enlightened age
+controversies were inevitable, but that they should be settled with
+sober thought&mdash;around the council table. This talk of war was
+ridiculous. He was denouncing the public news-broadcasters; moulders of
+public opinion, who every day&mdash;every hour&mdash;must offer a new sensation to
+their millions of subscribers.</p>
+
+<p>He had reached this point when without warning his body pitched forward.
+The balcony rail caught it; and it hung there inert. The slanting rays
+of the sun fell full upon the ruffled white shirt; white, but turning
+pink, then red, with the crimson stain welling out from beneath.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant the crowd was stunned into silence. Then a murmur arose,
+and swelled into shouts of horror. A surge of people swept me forward. I
+could not see clearly what was happening on the balcony. The form of the
+murdered President was hanging there against the rail; a score of
+government officials were rushing toward it; but the body, toppling over
+the low support, came hurtling downward into the crowd, quite near me;
+but I could not reach it&mdash;the throng was too dense.</p>
+
+<p>The shouts everywhere were deafening. I was shoved along the Tenth Level
+by the press of people coming up the stairway. Shouts, excited
+questions; the wail of children almost trampled under foot; the screams
+of women. And over it all, the electrically magnified voice of the
+traffic director-general in the peak of the main tower roaring his
+orders to the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>It was a panic until the traffic-directors descended upon us. We were
+pushed up on the moving sidewalks. North or south, whichever direction
+came handiest, we were herded upon the sidewalks and whirled away. With
+a hundred other spectators near me I was shoved to a sidewalk moving
+south along the Tenth Level. It was going some four miles an hour. But
+they would not let me stay there. From behind, the crowd was shoving;
+and from one parallel strip of moving pavement to the other I was pushed
+along&mdash;until at last I reached the seats of the forty mile an hour
+inside section.</p>
+
+<p>The scene at Park Sixty was far out of direct sight and hearing. The
+park there had already been cleared of spectators, I knew; and they were
+doubtless bearing the President's body away.</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered!" said a man beside me. "Murdered! Look there!"</p>
+
+<p>We were across the river, into Manhattan. The Tenth Level here runs
+about four hundred feet above the ground-street of the city. The man
+beside me was pointing to a steel tower we were passing. It was several
+hundreds yards away; on its side abreast of us was a forty-foot square
+news-mirror, brightly illumined. On all the stairways and balconies here
+a local crowd had gathered, watching the mirror. It was reporting the
+present scene at Park Sixty. As we sped past the tower I could see in
+the silver surface of the mirror the image of the now empty park from
+which we had been so summarily ejected. They were carrying off the
+President's body; a little group of officials bearing it away; red,
+broken, gruesome, with the dying rays of the sun still upon it. Carrying
+it slowly along to where an aero-car was waiting on the side landing
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>We were past the mirror in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered," the man next to me repeated. "The President murdered."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed stunned, as indeed everyone was. Then he eyed me&mdash;my cap,
+which had on it the insignia of my calling.</p>
+
+<p>"You are one of them," he said bitterly. "The last word he said&mdash;the
+lurid news-gatherers."</p>
+
+<p>But I shook my head. "We are necessary. It was unfortunate that he
+should have said that."</p>
+
+<p>I had no opportunity to talk further. The man moved away toward the foot
+of a landing stage near us. A south-bound flyer had overtaken us and was
+landing. I boarded it also, and ten minutes later was in my office in
+South-Manhattan.</p>
+
+<p>I was at this time employed by one of the most enterprising
+news-organizations in Greater New York. There was pandemonium in there
+that evening. My supper came up in the pneumatic tube from the public
+cookery nearby, but I had hardly time to taste it.</p>
+
+<p>This, the evening of May 12, 2430, was for me&mdash;and for all the
+Earth&mdash;the most stirring evening of history. Events of inter-planetary
+importance tumbled over each other as they came to us through the air
+from the Official Information Stations. And we&mdash;myself and a thousand
+like me in our office&mdash;retold them for our twenty million subscribers
+throughout the Anglo-Saxon Nation.</p>
+
+<p>The President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic was murdered at 5:10. It was
+the first of the new murders. I say new murders, for not in two hundred
+years had the life of so high an official been wilfully taken. But it
+was only the first. At 6:15 word came from Tokyohama,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> that the ruler
+of Allied Mongolia was dead&mdash;murdered under similar circumstances. And
+ten minutes later from Mombozo, Africa, the blacks reported their leader
+killed while asleep in his official residence.</p>
+
+<p>The Earth momentarily was without leadership!</p>
+
+<p>I was struggling to get accounts of these successive disasters out over
+our audiophones. Above my desk, in a duplicating mirror from
+Headquarters, I could see that at the palace of Mombozo a throng of
+terrified blacks were gathered. It was night there&mdash;a blurred scene of
+flashing lights and frightened, milling people.</p>
+
+<p>Greys&mdash;next to me&mdash;had a mirror tuned to Tokyohama. The sun there was
+shining upon almost a similar scene of panic. Black and yellow men&mdash;on
+opposite sides of the Earth. And between them our white races in
+turmoil. Outside my own window I could hear the shouts of the crowd that
+jammed the Twentieth Level.</p>
+
+<p>Greys leaned toward me. "Seven o'clock, Jac. You've got the arrival of
+the Venus mail. Don't overlook it ... By the code, man, your hands are
+shaking! You're white as a ghost!"</p>
+
+<p>The Venus mail; I had forgotten it completely.</p>
+
+<p>"Greys, I wonder if it'll get in."</p>
+
+<p>He stared at me strangely. "You're thinking that, too. I told the
+British National Announcer it was a Venus plot. He laughed at me. Those
+Great Londoners can't see their fingers before them. He said, 'That's
+your lurid sense of newscasting.'"</p>
+
+<p>Venus plot! I remembered my impressions of the Venus man who was beside
+me when our President fell.</p>
+
+<p>Greys was back at his work. I swept the south shore of Eastern Island<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+with my finder, and picked up the image of the inter-planetary landing
+stage, at which the Venus mail was due to arrive. I could see the blaze
+of lights plainly; and with another, closer focus I caught the huge
+landing platform itself. It was empty.</p>
+
+<p>The station-master there answered my call. He had no word of the mail.</p>
+
+<p>"Try the lookout at Table Mountain," he advised me. "They may be coming
+down that way.... Sure I'll let you know.... What a night! They say that
+in Mediterrania&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But I cut off; it was no time to chat with him. Table Mountain,
+Capetown, had no word of the mail. Then I caught the Yukon Station. The
+mail flyer had come down on the North Polar side&mdash;was already crossing
+Hudson Bay.</p>
+
+<p>At 8:26 it landed on Eastern Island. A deluge of Venus despatches
+overwhelmed me. But the mail news, before I could even begin to handle
+my section of it, was far overshadowed. Venus, now at 8:44 was calling
+us by helio. The message came in the inter-planetary code, was decoded
+at National Headquarters, and from there flashed to us.</p>
+
+<p>The ruler of the Venus Central State was murdered! An almost incoherent
+message. The murder of the ruler, at a time co-incident with 6:30 in
+Greater New York. Then the words:</p>
+
+<p><i>"City being attacked ... Tarrano, beware Tarrano ... You are in danger
+of ..."</i></p>
+
+<p>In danger of what? The message broke off. The observers, behind their
+huge telescopes at the Potomac Headquarters, saw the helio-lights of the
+Venus Central State go dark suddenly. Our own station flashed its call,
+but there was no answer. Venus&mdash;evening star on that date&mdash;was sinking
+to the horizon. But our Observatory in Texas could see the planet
+clearly; and gave the same report.</p>
+
+<p>Communication was broken. The authorities of the Venus Central
+State&mdash;friendly to us in spite of the recent immigration
+controversy&mdash;had tried to warn us.</p>
+
+<p>Of what?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Warning</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It must have been nearly nine o'clock when a personal message came for
+me. Not through the ordinary open airways, but in the National Length,
+and coded. It came to my desk by official messenger, decoded, printed
+and sealed.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Jac Hallen, Inter-Allied News</i>. Come to me, North-east Island at
+once, if they can spare you. Important. Answer.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende.</p></div>
+
+<p>Our Division Manager scanned the message curiously and told me I could
+go. I got off my answer. I did not dare call Dr. Brende openly, since he
+had used the code, but sent it the same way. I would be up at once.</p>
+
+<p>With a word of good-bye to Greys, I shoved aside my work, caught up a
+heavy jacket and cap and left the office. The levels outside our
+building were still jammed with an excited throng. I pushed my way
+through it, up to the entrance to the Staten Bridge. The waters of the
+harbor beneath me had a broad band of moonlight upon them, dim in the
+glare of the city lights. I glanced upward with satisfaction. A good
+night for air-traveling.</p>
+
+<p>My small personal air-car was on the stage near the bridge entrance. The
+attendant was there, staring at me as I dashed up in such haste. He
+handed me my key from the rack.</p>
+
+<p>"Going far, Jac? What a night! They'll be ordering them off if many more
+go up.... Going north?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>I was away, rising with my helicopters until the city was a yellow haze
+beneath me. I <i>was</i> going north&mdash;to Dr. Brende's little private island
+off the coast of Maine. The lower lanes were pretty well crowded. I
+tried one of the north-bound at 8,000 feet; but the going was awkward.
+Then I went to 16,000.</p>
+
+<p>But Grille, the attendant back at the bridge, evidently had his finder
+on me, out of plain curiosity. He called me.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll chase you out of there," came his voice. "Nothing doing up
+there tonight. That's reserved. Didn't you know it?"</p>
+
+<p>I grinned at him. In the glow of my pitlight I hoped he could see my
+face and the grin.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll never catch me," I said. "I'm traveling fast tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"Chase you out," he persisted. "The patrol's keeping them low. General
+Orders, an hour ago. Didn't you know it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you ought to. You ought to know everything in your business.
+Besides, the lights are up."</p>
+
+<p>They were indeed; I could see them in all the towers underneath me. I
+was flying north-east; and at the moment, with a following wind, I was
+doing something over three-fifty.</p>
+
+<p>"But they'll shut off your power," Grille warned. "You'll come down soon
+enough then."</p>
+
+<p>Which was also true enough. The evening local-express for Boston and
+beyond was overhauling me. And when the green beam of a traffic tower
+came up and picked me out, I decided I had better obey. Dutifully I
+descended until the beam, satisfied, swung away from me.</p>
+
+<p>At 8,000 feet, I went on. There was too much traffic for decent speed
+and the directors in every pilot bag and tower I passed seemed watching
+me closely. At the latitude of Boston, I swung out to sea, off the main
+arteries of travel. The early night mail for Eurasia,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> with Great
+London its first stop, went by me far overhead. I could make out its
+green and purple lights, and the spreading silver beam that preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>Alone in my pit, with the dull whir of my propellers alone breaking the
+silence of the night, I pondered the startling events of the past few
+hours. Above me the stars and planets gleamed in the deep purple of an
+almost cloudless sky. Venus had long since dropped below the horizon.
+But Mars was up there&mdash;approaching the zenith. I wondered what the
+Martian helio might be saying. I could have asked Greys back at the
+office. But Greys, I knew, would be too busy to bother with me.</p>
+
+<p>What could Dr. Brende want of me? I was glad he had sent for me&mdash;there
+was nowhere I would rather have gone this particular evening. And it
+would give me a chance to see Elza again.</p>
+
+<p>I could tell by the light-numerals below, that I was now over Maine. I
+did not need to consult my charts; I had been up this way many times,
+for, the Brendes&mdash;the doctor, his daughter Elza, and her twin brother
+Georg&mdash;I counted my best friends.</p>
+
+<p>I was over the sea, with the coast of Maine to my left. The traffic,
+since I left the line of Boston, had been far less. The patrols flashed
+by me at intervals, but they did not molest me.</p>
+
+<p>I descended presently, and located the small two-mile island which Dr.
+Brende owned and upon which he lived.</p>
+
+<p>It was 10:20 when I came down to find them waiting for me on the runway.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor held out both his hands. "Good enough, Jac. I got your
+code&mdash;we've been waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's crowded," I said. "Heavy up to Boston. And they wouldn't let me go
+high."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. And then Elza put her cool little hand in mine.</p>
+
+<p>"We're glad to see you, Jac. Very glad."</p>
+
+<p>They took me to the house. Dr. Brende was a small, dark man of
+sixty-odd, smooth-shaven, a thin face, with a mop of iron-grey hair
+above it, and keen dark eyes beneath bushy white brows. He was usually
+kindly and gentle of manner&mdash;at times a little abstracted; at other
+times he could be more forceful and direct than anyone with whom I had
+ever had contact.</p>
+
+<p>At the house we were joined by the doctor's son, Georg. My best friend,
+I should say; certainly, for my part, I treasured his friendship very
+highly. He and Elza were twins&mdash;twenty-three years old at this time. I
+am two years older; and I had been a room-mate with Georg at the Common
+University of the Potomac.</p>
+
+<p>Our friendship had, if anything, grown closer since my promotion into
+the business world. Yet we were as unlike as two individuals could
+possibly be. I am dark-haired, slim, and of comparatively slight
+muscular strength. Restless&mdash;full of nervous energy&mdash;and, they tell me,
+somewhat short of temper. Georg was a blond, powerful young giant. A
+head taller than I&mdash;blue-eyed, from his mother, now dead&mdash;square-jawed,
+and a complexion pink and white. He was slow to anger. He seldom spoke
+impulsively; and usually with a slow, quiet drawl. Always he seemed
+looking at life and people with a half-humorous smile&mdash;looking at the
+human pageant with its foibles, follies and frailties&mdash;tolerantly. Yet
+there was nothing conceited about him. Quite the reverse. He was
+generally wholly deprecating in manner, as though he himself were of
+least importance. Until aroused. In our days of learning, I saw Georg
+once&mdash;just once&mdash;thoroughly angered.</p>
+
+<p>"... Came up promptly, didn't you?" Georg was saying. He was leading me
+to the house doorway, but I stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go to the grove," I suggested. We turned down from the small
+viaduct, passed the house, and went into the heavy grove of trees
+nearby.</p>
+
+<p>"He's hungry," Elza declared. "Jac, did you eat at the office tonight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you really?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some," I admitted. In truth the run up here had brought me a thoroughly
+hearty appetite, which I just realized.</p>
+
+<p>"I was pretty busy, you know," I added. "Such a night&mdash;but don't you
+bother."</p>
+
+<p>But she had already scurried away toward the house. Dear little Elza! I
+wished then, for the hundredth time, that I was a man of wealth&mdash;or at
+least, not as poor as a tower timekeeper. True, I made fair money&mdash;but
+the urge to spend it recklessly dominated me. I decided in that moment,
+to reform for good; and lay by enough to justify asking a woman to be my
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>We reclined on a mossy bank in the grove of trees, so thick a grove that
+it hid the house from our sight.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor extinguished the glowing lights with which the tree-branches
+were dotted. We were in the semi-darkness of a beautiful, moonlit night.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go to sleep, Jac!"</p>
+
+<p>I became aware that Georg and his father were smiling at me.</p>
+
+<p>I sat up, snapping my wits into alertness. "No. Of course not. I guess
+I'm tired. You've no idea what the office was like tonight. Roaring."</p>
+
+<p>"I can imagine," Georg said. "You were at Park Sixty when the President
+fell, weren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. But I wasn't supposed to be. I wasn't assigned to that. How did
+you guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elza saw you. She had our finder on you&mdash;I couldn't push her away from
+it." His slow smile was quizzical.</p>
+
+<p>"On me? In all that crowd. She must have searched about very carefully
+to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I stopped; I could feel my cheeks burning, and was glad of the dimness
+there under the trees.</p>
+
+<p>"She did," said Georg.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent for you, Jac," Dr. Brende interjected abstractedly,
+"because&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Georg checked him. "Not now, father. Someone&mdash;anyone&mdash;might pick you
+up. Your words&mdash;or read your lips&mdash;there's light enough here to register
+on a finder."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor nodded. "He's afraid&mdash;you see, Jac, it's these Venus&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Father&mdash;please. It's a long chance&mdash;but why take any? We can insulate
+in the house."</p>
+
+<p>The chance that someone who shouldn't be, was tuned to us as we sat
+there in that lonely grove! With the doctor's widespread reputation&mdash;his
+more than national prominence&mdash;it did not seem to me to be such a long
+chance either, on this, of all nights.</p>
+
+<p>"As you say, no use in putting private things into the public air," I
+remarked; and I felt then as though a thousand hostile eyes and ears
+were watching and listening. "We can talk of what everybody knows,"
+Georg commented. "The Martian Ruler of the Little People was
+assassinated an hour ago. You heard that coming up?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said; but I had imagined as much. "Did they say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They said nothing," Dr. Brende put in. "The flash of a dozen helioed
+words&mdash;no more."</p>
+
+<p>"It went dark, like Venus?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Just discontinued. I judge they're excited up there&mdash;the Bureau
+disorganized perhaps&mdash;I don't know. That was the last we got at the
+house, just before you came down. There may be something in there
+now&mdash;you Inter-Allied people are pretty reliable."</p>
+
+<p>The ruler of the Venus Central State, the leading monarch of Mars, and
+our three chief executives of Earth&mdash;murdered almost simultaneously! It
+was incredible&mdash;any one of the murders would have been incredible&mdash;yet
+it was true.</p>
+
+<p>There had been times&mdash;in the Inter-Allied Office, particularly&mdash;when I
+had been insulated from aerial eavesdropping. But never had I felt the
+need of it more than now. A constraint fell over me; I seemed afraid to
+say anything. I think we all three felt very much like that; and it was
+a relief when Elza arrived with my dainty little meal.</p>
+
+<p>"Any word from Mars, Elza?" her father asked.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down beside me, helping me to the food.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not look," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>She did not look, because she was busy preparing my meal! Dear little
+Elza! And because of my accursed extravagance&mdash;my poverty&mdash;no word of
+love had ever passed between us!</p>
+
+<p>I thought I had never seen Elza so beautiful as this moment. A slim
+little thing, perfectly formed and matured, and inches shorter than I.
+Thick brown hair braided, and hanging below her waist. A face&mdash;pretty as
+her mother's must have been&mdash;yet intellectual as her father's.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken Elza to the great music festivals of the city, and counted
+her the best dressed girl in all the vast throng. Tonight she was
+dressed simply. A grey-blue, tubular sort of skirt, clinging close to
+the lines of her figure and split at the side for walking; a
+tight-fitting bodice, light in color (a man knows little of the
+technicalities of such things); throat bare, with a flaring rolled
+collar behind&mdash;a throat like a rose-petal with the moonlight on it; arms
+bare, save for the upper, triangular sleeves.</p>
+
+<p>It must suffice; I can only say she was adorable. Almost in silence I
+ate my meal, with her beside me.</p>
+
+<p>Georg went into the house once, to consult the news-tape. It was crowded
+with Earth events&mdash;excitement, confusion everywhere&mdash;inconsequential
+reports, they seemed, by comparison with what had gone before. But of
+helios from Mars, or Venus, there were none reported. Of Venus, the tape
+said nothing save that each of our westward stations was vainly calling
+in turn, as the planet dropped toward its horizon.</p>
+
+<p>I finished my meal&mdash;too leisurely for Georg and the doctor; and then we
+all went into the house, to the insulated room where at last we could
+talk openly.</p>
+
+<p>As we entered the main corridor, we heard the low voice of the
+Inter-Allied news-announcer, coming from the disc in a room nearby.</p>
+
+<p><i>"And Venus&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>The words caught our attention. We hurried in, and stood by the
+Inter-Allied equipment. Georg picked up the pile of tape whereon the
+announcer's words were being printed. He ran back over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Another helio from Venus!" he exclaimed. "Ten minutes ago."</p>
+
+<p>And then I saw his lips go tight together. He made no move to hide the
+tape from Elza, but she was beside him and already reading it. Her
+fingers switched off the announcer's droning voice.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Pacific Coastal Station,"</i> Elza read. In the sudden silence of the
+room her voice was low, clear, and steady, though her hands were
+trembling. <i>"P.C.S. 10.42 Venus helio. 'Defeat! Beware Tarrano! Notify
+your Dr. Brende in Eurasia, danger.'"</i></p>
+
+<p>We men stared at each other. But Elza went on reading.</p>
+
+<p><i>"P.C.S. 10.44 Venus helio. 'Lost! No more! Smashing apparatus!' The
+Venus sending station went dark at 10.44.30. Hawaiian station will call
+later, but have little hope of re-establishing connection. Tokyohama
+10.46 Official, via Potomac National Headquarters. Excitement here
+continues. Levels crowded&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>Elza dropped the tape. "That's all of importance. Venus Central Station
+warning <i>you</i>, father."</p>
+
+<p>A buzz across the room called the doctor to his personal receiver. It
+was a message in code from Potomac National Headquarters. We watched the
+queer-looking characters printing on the tape. Very softly, in a voice
+hardly above a whisper, Georg decoded it.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Dr. Brende, see P.C.S. 10.42, warning you, probably of Venus
+immigrants now here. Do you need guard? Or will you come to Washington
+at once for personal safety?"</i></p>
+
+<p>"Father!" cried Elza.</p>
+
+<p>Georg burst out. "Enough of this. We cannot&mdash;dare not talk in here.
+Father, come&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>We went out into the corridor again, across which was the small room
+insulated from all aerial vibrations. In the corridor a figure was
+standing&mdash;the one other member of the Brende household&mdash;the
+maid-servant, a girl about Elza's age. I knew her well, of course, but
+this evening I had forgotten her existence. She was standing in the
+corridor. Did I imagine it, or had she been gazing up at the mechanism
+ten feet above the floor&mdash;the mechanism controlling the insulated room?</p>
+
+<p>"You wish me, Miss Elza? I thought I heard you call."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Ahla, not 'til later."</p>
+
+<p>With a gesture of respect, the girl withdrew, passing from our sight
+down the incline which led to the lower part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very small incident, but in view of what was transpiring, it
+gave me a shock nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>For Elza's maid was a Venus girl!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Spy in the House</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The insulated room was small, with a dome-shaped ceiling, no windows,
+and but one small, heavy door through which we entered, closing it
+carefully behind us.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," Dr. Brende exclaimed. "Now we can talk freely."</p>
+
+<p>But I was not satisfied. "That girl, Ahla&mdash;can you trust her?"</p>
+
+<p>They all looked at me in surprise. When one is close to danger,
+sometimes one recognizes it least; with Ahla in this household for over
+a year now, they could not imagine her an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her looking up at the insulator," I added swiftly. "Out there in
+the corridor. Am I talking wild? Perhaps I am. But she seemed startled;
+and she was standing just under the insulator, wasn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" began Elza.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," I exclaimed. "When I first saw the President fall, at Park
+Sixty, I felt that a Venus man had done it. These other murders&mdash;they're
+all the same. Done by Venus men of the Cold Country."</p>
+
+<p>"Ahla's country," Elza murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Exactly. And the Venus Central State has been attacked and has
+fallen. An assassination on Mars, and three here on Earth&mdash;all
+simultaneously. It's one gigantic plot, I tell you&mdash;and the Cold Country
+of Venus is at the bottom of it."</p>
+
+<p>Georg jumped to his feet. "I'll see if the room has been tampered with."</p>
+
+<p>He was back presently. "The insulator is intact. I set the alarm bell.
+If she touches it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the cookery, where she should be. I told her we would eat in an
+hour. That ought to keep her busy."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. "I think we are all a little
+overwrought&mdash;though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come
+here by me. Don't look so solemn, child."</p>
+
+<p>He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but
+his gesture checked me. "I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand
+these events, perhaps better than any of you. Let me go back two
+years&mdash;when I was in the Venus Central State."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded my remembrance; and he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"At that time the authorities there were greatly perturbed. They were
+menaced by rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold
+Country people into the Central State, for it is already overcrowded.
+You did not know that, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the threatened rebellion?" I asked. "They were trying to keep
+it secret, but we heard rumors."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so. And Jac, I will tell you why they kept it secret. The Central
+State was encouraging emigration to the Earth. The Venus Cold Country is
+a poor place to live in&mdash;and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable
+people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Central State did not want
+them within its borders; and so it kept secret its troubles with
+them&mdash;and encouraged emigration to the Earth.</p>
+
+<p>"We&mdash;as you know&mdash;make no distinction between Venus people. We are
+friendly with the Central State, and the Cold Country is governed by
+it&mdash;or was until tonight. Thus, you see, we have been in the position of
+having to receive these renegade immigrants. Shut out from all the good
+land and decent climate of Venus, they began coming here.</p>
+
+<p>"But we did not want them, and of late we have been holding them off,
+cutting the quota allowed very materially. Last week, as you also know,
+in Triple Conference, our three races decided to allow at each Inferior
+Conjunction of the Earth and Venus, so small a quota that the Central
+State protested vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"The controversy has been hot; but the Central State&mdash;trying to foist
+off its undesirables on us&mdash;knows it is in the wrong. And fundamentally,
+it is friendly to us&mdash;I think it has proven that in the last two hours."</p>
+
+<p>Again I would have spoken, but he went on at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're familiar with most of this, Jac. But you news-gatherers
+sometimes reason in too lurid a fashion. Let me go on. Mars was drawn
+into the affair. To extricate ourselves, we offered to admit&mdash;under
+temporary guard&mdash;all Venus immigrants who would pass on at once&mdash;at the
+first astronomical opportunity&mdash;to Mars. This would have been very nice
+for us&mdash;but not for Mars."</p>
+
+<p>"They are hot-headed, in Mars," Georg commented.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," said the doctor. "But very direct and forceful,
+nevertheless. They met our suggestion with a law excluding Venus
+immigrants entirely. It was this, I think, that precipitated tonight's
+events&mdash;though of course they must have been brewing for a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"This Tarrano&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard of him when I was in Venus," said Dr. Brende. "He was at that
+time a lower official in the Cold Country. Evidently he has risen in his
+world.</p>
+
+<p>"I come now to conjecture&mdash;but I think it must be fairly close to truth.
+Tarrano, leading the Cold Country, has risen to open rebellion. His
+attack upon the Central State must have come suddenly&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, just this evening?" Elza asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not. But hoping to quell the rebellion, the Central State
+has suppressed news of it. At such a time&mdash;with this controversy going
+on&mdash;such reports would only injure the Central State's inter-planetary
+position. That's obvious, isn't it? Then tonight, when things were
+desperate, the Central State gave out its call. Tarrano has conquered
+Venus, I'm sure. And at the last, before destroying its helio, the
+Central State tried to warn us."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what?" I demanded. "And what about these murders?"</p>
+
+<p>"Done by emissaries of Tarrano, no doubt. For revenge, because of the
+Martian and Earth legislation&mdash;or for&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think we should not speculate too much," said Georg. "At least, not
+on that line. They warned you personally, father. We were so careful to
+keep everything secret&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende mopped his forehead. He was trying to appear calm&mdash;I knew he
+did not want unduly to alarm Elza; but I could see that he was laboring
+under great emotion nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"Things get out, Georg," he said. "We have been careful&mdash;yes. But two
+years ago, when I visited the Central State, I told them there what I
+hoped to accomplish. There were no grave inter-planetary problems
+then&mdash;I thought I had no need of great secrecy. And since then, though,
+we have been very careful&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Careful! With a Venus girl from the Cold Country living in their
+household! Truly, humans are a strange mixture of sagacity and folly!</p>
+
+<p>"The Central State has heard something concerning you," Georg said.
+"That could easily happen&mdash;prisoners captured from Tarrano's forces, for
+instance. With dispatches&mdash;or perhaps some intercepted aerial message."</p>
+
+<p>What was this secret they were discussing? I was the only one in the
+room who did not know it. And why had Dr. Brende sent for me tonight?</p>
+
+<p>I asked him both questions. His face went even more solemn than it had
+been before.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent for you, Jac, because in a measure I anticipated what has now
+befallen. Danger specifically to us Brendes, I mean. We count you as our
+friend&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>How it warmed my heart to hear him say that; and to see the glance that
+Elza cast me!</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;Our friend. I am an old man&mdash;you are young. Yet you are wise, too. We
+need you tonight."</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hand when I would have told him how glad I was to be with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"You know something of my work," he said, as a statement, rather than a
+question. "I should say, mine and Georg's and Elza's, for they have both
+helped me materially."</p>
+
+<p>I knew that Dr. Brende had for years been one of the Earth's most
+eminent research physicians. It was he who discovered the light
+vibrations which had banished forever the dread germs of several of the
+major diseases. He did not practice; his work was research only.</p>
+
+<p>He went on: "Jac, I have found what for years I have been striving to
+find&mdash;a vibration of light, though it is invisible&mdash;which so far as I
+can determine, kills every bacillus harmful to man. There is nothing new
+in the idea&mdash;I have been working at it all my life. Sunlight! Altered
+and modified in several particulars, yet sunlight nevertheless. How
+strange that for countless centuries, man never realized the blessed
+boon of sunlight&mdash;the greatest enemy of all disease!</p>
+
+<p>"Each year, as you know, I have conquered some of what we call the major
+diseases. A few of them&mdash;cancer<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>, for instance&mdash;persisted in eluding
+me. Its bacilli&mdash;you can easily recognize the tiny purplish, horned rods
+which cause what we popularly call cancer&mdash;just would not die. No form
+of light or other vibration I could devise, seemed to hurt them&mdash;unless
+I used a vibration harmful, even fatal, to the blood-contents itself: I
+killed the cancer&mdash;in the words of you news-gatherers&mdash;but I also killed
+the patient."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes smiled at the jest, but his face remained intensely serious.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Jac, I solved that problem&mdash;just a few months ago. And upon the
+heels of it I solved another, of infinitely more importance." He paused
+slightly. "I have learned how to kill, or at least arrest, the bacillus
+of old age. It is a bacillus, you know. We grow old because every day we
+live beyond the age of thirty&mdash;the bacillus of old age is attacking us.
+I call them the Brende-bacilli&mdash;these tiny, frayed discs that make us
+grow old. I have seen them&mdash;and killed them!"</p>
+
+<p>It dawned on me slowly, the import of what he was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He means," said Georg, "that at present we cannot only banish
+disease&mdash;all disease&mdash;but we can keep your body from aging. Not
+permanently, doubtless&mdash;but with the span of life lengthened threefold
+at least. Only by violence now need you die prematurely."</p>
+
+<p>This then was the secret the existence of which Tarrano had learned. He
+had....</p>
+
+<p>But Dr. Brende was quietly voicing my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems obvious, Jac, that this Tarrano at least suspects that I have
+made some such discovery as this. That he would withhold it from
+mankind, for the benefit of his own race, seems also obvious. That he is
+about to make an attempt to get it from me, I am convinced."</p>
+
+<p>I remembered the wording of the message of warning from the Central
+State. <i>"Your Dr. Brende, in Eurasia."</i> I mentioned it.</p>
+
+<p>"Our main laboratory is there," Georg said. "In Northern
+Siberia&mdash;isolated from people so far as possible, and in a climate
+advantageous for the work."</p>
+
+<p>Elza spoke for the first time in many minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"We have guards there, Jac&mdash;eight of our assistants.... Father, I called
+Robins a while ago. He said everything was all right. But don't you
+think we should call him again?"</p>
+
+<p>The doctor had drifted into deep thought. "What? Oh, yes, Elza. I was
+thinking we should go there. My notes&mdash;descriptions of how to build a
+larger apparatus&mdash;larger than the small model I have installed there&mdash;my
+notes are all there, and I want them. And I don't think, at such a time,
+I should trust Robins to bring them."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an
+answer, you remember."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going there to the Potomac&mdash;tell them that. Tell them we will come
+there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model."</p>
+
+<p>As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start
+to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet
+for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside.</p>
+
+<p>Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he
+opened it. I was close behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see&mdash;in case she <i>is</i> doing
+something."</p>
+
+<p>He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him.</p>
+
+<p>The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the
+instrument room.</p>
+
+<p>We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the
+maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was
+talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside
+her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of
+cave&mdash;flickering lights&mdash;a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly
+armed.</p>
+
+<p>She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the
+mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and
+leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>To the North Pole</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"You stand back! You do not touch me!"</p>
+
+<p>The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white
+hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood
+tense&mdash;a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long
+grey stockings beneath.</p>
+
+<p>We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It
+was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry,
+she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns
+unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors,
+flinging everything to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg caught
+her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them.</p>
+
+<p>"Ahla!" Elza cried in horror.</p>
+
+<p>I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the
+instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was
+coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.</p>
+
+<p>We were cut off from all communication with the world. It gave me a
+queer feeling&mdash;made the small island we were on seem so remote.</p>
+
+<p>Georg was shaking the girl, demanding with whom she had been talking and
+why. But she fell into sullen silence, and nothing we could do would
+make her break it. It infuriated me, that stubbornness; it was all I
+could do to keep from harming her in my efforts to make her talk.</p>
+
+<p>Georg, at last, pulled me away; he led the girl to a couch and sternly
+bade her sit there without moving. She seemed willing enough to do that;
+she still had not spoken, but her eyes were watching us closely.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende was examining the smashed instruments. "Ruined. We cannot use
+them. Those messages&mdash;we must send them. I must talk to Robins&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>We went into the corridor, out of earshot of the girl, but where we
+could watch her. That we were in immediate danger was obvious, and we
+all realized it. Ahla had told some of her people that we were here on
+the island; doubtless was planning to have them come here at once and
+seize us.</p>
+
+<p>How far away from us were they? I had seen in the mirror the interior of
+a cave-like room. Where was it? Might it not be near at hand&mdash;over on
+the mainland? Might not these enemies arrive on the island at any
+moment?</p>
+
+<p>Georg suggested that we send our messages from the aeros. We had my own
+car&mdash;and a larger car of the Brendes. More than ever now, Dr. Brende was
+worried over the safety of his Siberian laboratory; but from the aero we
+could talk to Robins.</p>
+
+<p>We went to the landing stage. I wanted to tie up Ahla, but as Georg
+said, she could do nothing now that the instrument room was out of
+commission. We admonished her sternly to stay where she was, and left
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>On the open landing stage my small aero was lying where I had left it;
+but a moment's glance showed us it was wrecked&mdash;its instruments and its
+driving mechanism demolished!</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt about it now; Ahla had planned to keep us on the
+island while her people came and seized us. Fortunately the Brende car
+was well housed and barred. We saw that the gates had been tampered
+with, but with the limited time Ahla had to work in, she had been unable
+to force them. We swung them wide, and to our infinite relief found the
+car unharmed.</p>
+
+<p>At once Dr. Brende called Robins. But the laboratory did not answer!</p>
+
+<p>"It may be your sending apparatus," I suggested. "Send your message down
+to Headquarters&mdash;with their high power they'll get Robins quickly
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>He tried that&mdash;sending also his answer to the previous coded message
+Headquarters had sent him. It was now 11:45. We waited some eight
+minutes, during which time I rushed back to the house. Ahla was sitting
+obediently where I had left her.</p>
+
+<p>"You stay there," I told her. "If you move, I'll break every bone in
+your rotten little body."</p>
+
+<p>Back at the landing stage I found Dr. Brende in despair. Headquarters
+could not raise Robins. They had relayed the message to Wrangel and
+Spitzbergen Islands&mdash;but the stations there reported similarly. Dr.
+Brende's laboratory did not answer its call.</p>
+
+<p>This decided us. We had no wish to remain where we were. The Brende car,
+far larger than the small one of mine, was fully equipped and
+provisioned. We rolled it out, and in a moment were flying in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende's car was large, commodious, and smooth-riding. A pleasure to
+fly in such a car! Georg was at the controls. I sat close beside Elza in
+the semi-darkness, gazing down through the pit-rail window to where the
+island was dropping away beneath us. It was a perfect night; the moon
+had set; the stars and planets gleamed in an almost cloudless sky. Red
+Mars, I saw, very nearly over our heads.</p>
+
+<p>It was now midnight, and for the moment we chanced to have the air to
+ourselves. We rose to the 10,000-foot level, then headed directly North.
+It carried us inland; soon the sea was out of sight behind. Lights
+dotted the landscape&mdash;a town or city here and there, and occasionally a
+tower.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende was poring over charts, illumined by a dim glow-light beside
+him. "Can we get power all the way, Georg?... Elza child, hadn't you
+better lie down? A long trip&mdash;you'll be tired out."</p>
+
+<p>"Call Royal Mountain<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>," Georg suggested. "Ask them about serving us
+power; I'll stay 10,000 or below. Under one thousand, when we get
+further north. Ask them if they can guarantee us power all the way."</p>
+
+<p>The station at Royal Mountain would guarantee us nothing on this night;
+they advised us to keep low. Their own power-sending station was working
+as usual. But this night&mdash;who could tell what General Orders might come?
+Everyone's nerves were frayed; this Director demanded gruffly to know
+who we were.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him none of his business," I put in. My own nerves were frayed,
+too.</p>
+
+<p>"Quiet!" warned Georg. "He'll hear you&mdash;and it <i>is</i> his business if he
+wants to make it so. Tell him we are the Inter-Allied News, father. That
+is true enough, and no use putting into the air that Dr. Brende is
+flying north."</p>
+
+<p>Royal Mountain let us through. We passed well to the east of it about
+12:45&mdash;too far away to sight its lights. The cross-traffic was somewhat
+heavier here. Beneath it, at 5,000 and 6,000 feet, a steady stream of
+cars was passing east and west.</p>
+
+<p>We were riding easily&mdash;little wind, almost none&mdash;and were doing 390
+miles an hour. You cannot bank or turn very well at such a speed; it is
+injurious to the human body. But our course was straight north. Dr.
+Brende showed it to me on his chart&mdash;north, following the 70th West
+Meridian. Compass corrections as we got further north&mdash;and astronomical
+readings, these would take us direct to the Pole. I could never fathom
+this air navigation; I flew by tower lights, and landmarks&mdash;but to Dr.
+Brende and Georg, the mathematics of it were simple.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock we had crossed the route of the Chicago-Great London Mail
+flyer. But we did not see the vessel. The temperature was growing
+steadily colder. The pit was inclosed, and I switched on the heaters.
+Elza had fallen asleep on the side couch, with my promise to awaken her
+at the first sign of dawn.</p>
+
+<p>At two-thirty, the Greater New York-East Indian Express overhauled us
+and passed overhead. It was flying almost north, bound for Bombay and
+Ceylon via Novaya Zemlya. It was in the 18,000-foot lane. The air up
+there was clear, but beneath us a fog obscured the land.</p>
+
+<p>At intervals all this time Dr. Brende had been trying to raise
+Robins&mdash;but there was still no answer. We did not discuss what might be
+the trouble. Of what use could such talk be?</p>
+
+<p>But it perturbed us, for imagination can picture almost anything. Georg
+even felt the strain of it, for he said almost gruffly:</p>
+
+<p>"Stop it, father. I don't think you should call attention to us so much.
+Get the meteorological reports from the Pole&mdash;we need them. If they tell
+us this weather will hold at 10,000 and below, we'll make good time."</p>
+
+<p>Soon after three o'clock we swept over Hudson Strait into Baffinland. We
+were down to 4,000 feet, but the fog still lay under us like a blanket.
+It clung low; we were well above it, in a cloudless night, with no wind
+save the rush of our forward flight.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the pink flush of dawn. True to my promise I awakened Elza.
+But there was nothing for her to see; the stars growing pale, pink
+spreading into orange, and then the sun. But the fog under us still lay
+thick.</p>
+
+<p>We were holding our speed very nearly at 380 an hour. By daylight&mdash;about
+five o'clock, after a light meal&mdash;we were over Baffin Bay. I had
+relieved Georg at the controls. The headlands of North Greenland lay
+before us. Then the fog lifted a little, broke away in places. The water
+became visible&mdash;drift and slush-ice of the Spring, with lines of open
+water here and there.</p>
+
+<p>And then the fog closed down again, lifting momentarily at six o'clock
+when we passed over the north-western tip of Greenland. The tower there
+gave us its routine signal, which we answered in kind. There was little
+traffic along here; a few local cars in the lowest lanes.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after six, when we were above Grantland, another of the great
+trans-Arctic passenger liners went over us. The San Francisco Night
+line, for Mid-Eurasia and points South. It was crossing Greenland, from
+San Francisco, Vancouver, Edmonton, to the North Cape, the Russias, and
+African points south of Suez.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock, with the sun circling the lower sky, the fog under us
+suddenly dissipated completely. We were over the Polar ocean. Masses of
+drift ice and slush, but for the most part surprisingly clear. At eight
+o'clock, flying low&mdash;no more than a thousand feet&mdash;we sighted the steel
+tower with foundations sunk into the ocean's depths which marks the top
+of our little Earth.</p>
+
+<p>We flashed by the tower in a moment, answering the director's signal
+perfunctorily. Southward now, on the 110th East Meridian, without
+deviating from the straight course we had held.</p>
+
+<p>It was truly a beautiful sight, this Polar ocean. Masses of ice,
+glittering in the morning sunlight. A fog-bank to the left; but
+everywhere else patches of green water and floes that gleamed like
+millions of precious stones as they flung back the light to us. Or
+again, a mass of low, solid ice, flushed pink in the morning light. And
+behind us, just above the horizon, a segment of purple sky where a storm
+was gathering&mdash;a deep purple which was mirrored in the placid patches of
+open water, and darkened the ice-floes to a solemn, sombre hue.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was entranced, though she had made many trans-Polar trips. But
+Georg, now again at the controls, kept his eyes on the instruments; and
+the doctor, trying vainly once more to talk with his laboratory, now so
+close ahead of us, sat in moody silence.</p>
+
+<p>It was 9:38 when we sighted, well off to the right, the rocky headland
+of Cape Chelusin<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>&mdash;the most northerly point of Eurasia. A long, low
+cliff of grey rock, ridged white with snow in its clefts. We swung
+toward it, at greatly decreased speed, and at an altitude of only a few
+hundred feet.</p>
+
+<p>This was all a bleak, desolate region&mdash;curiously so&mdash;and I think, one of
+the very few so desolate on Earth. As we advanced, the Siberian coast
+spread out before us. Mountains behind, and a strip of rocky lowland
+along the sea. There were patches of snow&mdash;the mountains were white with
+it; but on the lowlands, for the most part the Spring sun had already
+melted it. The Spring was well advanced; there were many open channels
+in the water over which we were skimming&mdash;drift-ice, and slush-ice which
+soon would be gone.</p>
+
+<p>Cape Chelusin! It was here that Dr. Brende had placed his Arctic
+laboratory&mdash;as far from the haunts of man as he could find&mdash;a hundred
+miles from the nearest person, so he told me. And as I gazed about me I
+realized how isolated we were. Not a car in the whole circular panorama
+of sky; no sign of vessel on the water; no towns on the land.</p>
+
+<p>It was just after ten in the morning when we dropped silently to the
+small landing stage a hundred yards or so from the shore. We disembarked
+in the sunlight of what would have been a pleasant December morning in
+Greater New York; and I gazed about me curiously. A level lowland of
+crags with the white of snow in their hollows; a collection of broad,
+low buildings nearby, with a narrow steel viaduct running down to them
+from the landing stage. And behind everything, the frowning headland of
+the Cape.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings stood silent, without sign of life. There was no one in
+sight anywhere. No one out to greet us; I thought it a little strange
+but I said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>We started down the viaduct. Under us, in patches of soil, I could see
+the vivid colors of the little Arctic flowers already rearing their
+heads to the Spring sunlight. I called Elza's attention to them. A vague
+apprehension was within me; my heart was pounding unreasonably. But this
+was Dr. Brende's affair, not mine; and I wanted to hide my perturbation
+from Elza.</p>
+
+<p>The viaduct reached the ground; a path led on to the houses.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Dr. Brende called out:</p>
+
+<p>"Robins! Robins! Grantley! Where are you!"</p>
+
+<p>The words seemed to echo back faintly to us; but the buildings remained
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better wait here with Elza," Georg said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go on&mdash;see what&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He checked his words, and started forward. But Dr. Brende was with him,
+and in doubt what to do I followed with Elza.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the nearest building, into a low, dim room, with doors on the
+sides. In the silence I seemed to hear my heart pounding my ribs. Elza's
+face was pale and perturbed, but she smiled very courageously at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" said Georg. "You wait here."</p>
+
+<p>He turned into a side door leading to another room, and in an instant
+was back with a face from which the color had departed.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not in there," he said unsteadily. "Elza&mdash;you go outside with
+father.... They must be around somewhere, Jac. Come, look."</p>
+
+<p>There was a rustle behind us. Arms came around me, pinning me. I heard
+Elza scream, saw Georg fighting two dark forms which had leaped upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>I was flung to the ground, but I fought&mdash;three men, it seemed to be, who
+were upon me. Then Georg's voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! Stop&mdash;they'll kill you."</p>
+
+<p>I yielded suddenly, and my assailants jerked me to my feet. A group of
+Venus men were surrounding us. Georg, his jacket torn to ribbons, was
+backed up against the wall with three or four Venus men holding him.</p>
+
+<p>And on the floor nearby Dr. Brende lay prone, with a crimson stain
+spreading on his white ruffled shirt, and Elza sobbing over him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Outlawed Flight</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Dr. Brende was dead. We knew it in the moment that followed our sudden
+assault and capture. Elza knelt there sobbing. Then she stood up, her
+tears checked; and on her face a look of pathetic determination to
+repress her grief. Now that we had yielded, the Venus men, searching us
+for our weapons, cast us loose. We bent over Dr. Brende, Georg and I.
+Dead. No power in this universe could bring him back to us.</p>
+
+<p>Georg pressed his lips tightly together. His face, red from the exertion
+of his fight, went pale. But he showed no other emotion. And, as he
+leaned toward me, he whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Got us, Jac! Say nothing. Don't put up any show of fight."</p>
+
+<p>Elza now was standing against the wall, a hand before her eyes. I went
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Elza, dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her hand pressed mine.</p>
+
+<p>Our captors stood curiously watching us. There seemed to be at least ten
+of them&mdash;men as tall as myself, though not so tall as Georg. Swarthy,
+gray-skinned fellows&mdash;one or two of them squat, ape-like with their
+heavy shoulders and dangling arms. Men of the Venus Cold Country. They
+were talking together in their queer, soft language. One of them I took
+to be the leader. Argo was his name, I afterward learned. He was
+somewhat taller than the rest, and slim. A man perhaps thirty. Paler of
+skin than most of his companions&mdash;gray skin with a bronze cast. Dressed
+like the others in fur. But his heavy jacket was open, disclosing a
+ruffled white shirt, with a low black stock about his throat.</p>
+
+<p>A shifty-eyed fellow, this Argo. Smooth-shaven, with a mouth
+slack-lipped, and small black eyes. But his features were finely
+chiseled; and with that bronze cast to his skin, I guessed that he was
+from the Venus Central State. He seemed much perturbed that Dr. Brende
+was dead. Occasionally he burst into English as he rebuked one of the
+others for the killing.</p>
+
+<p>No more than a moment had passed. Georg joined Elza and me. We stood
+waiting. Georg whispered: "They killed Robins and his helpers. In
+there&mdash;&mdash;" He gestured. "I saw them lying in there. If only I had&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Argo was standing before us. "This is a very pleasant surprise&mdash;" He
+spoke the careful English of the educated foreigner. His tone was
+ironical. "Very pleasant&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly he turned away again. But in that instant, his eyes had roved
+Elza in a way that turned me cold.</p>
+
+<p>They led us away, down a padded hallway into the instrument room. It was
+in full operation; our Inter-Allied news-tape was clicking; the low
+voice of the announcer droned through the silence. I started toward the
+tape, but Argo waved me away. He had volunteered us nothing, and again
+Georg advised silence.</p>
+
+<p>Argo had given his orders. Through a window I saw men carrying apparatus
+from the house. A small metal frame of sun-mirrors, prisms and vacuum
+tubes. Georg whispered: "Father's model."</p>
+
+<p>The man with it passed beyond my sight. Others came along, carrying the
+cylinders of books&mdash;Dr. Brende's notes&mdash;and a variety of other
+paraphernalia. Carrying it back from the shore toward the headlands of
+the Cape, where I realized now they had an aero secreted.</p>
+
+<p>Argo was at a mirror; he had a head-piece on; he was talking into a
+disc&mdash;talking in a private code. I could see the surface of the small
+mirror. A room, with windows. Through one of the windows, by daylight,
+palms and huge banana leaves were visible. A room seemingly in the
+tropics of our own hemisphere.</p>
+
+<p>Argo was triumphant&mdash;explaining, doubtless, that he had captured us.
+Mingled with his voice, the Inter-Allied announcer was saying:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Greater-New York 10.32 Martian Helio, via Tokyohama: Little People
+Proclamation&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>A man standing near the tape switched off the droning voice. At the
+receiving table, every few seconds came the buzz of the laboratory's
+call. Wrangel Island again calling Robins; but no one paid any heed.
+Argo finished at the mirror. He glanced over the tape, smiling
+sardonically. Then, methodically, deliberately, he swept the instruments
+to the floor, jerked out the connections, turned out the
+current&mdash;wrecked it all with a few strokes. A moment later we were taken
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, from back by the low reaches of the Cape, we saw an aero
+rising. They had loaded it with Dr. Brende's effects, and in it half of
+the men were departing. It rose vertically until we could see it only as
+a speck in the blue of the morning sky&mdash;a speck vanishing to the north
+over the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>With four or five of the men&mdash;all those remaining&mdash;Argo took us three to
+the Brende car. We did not pass Dr. Brende's body, lying there in the
+outer room. Elza and Georg gazed that way involuntarily; but they said
+nothing. The greatest grief is that which is hidden, and never once
+afterward did either of them show it by more than an affectionate word
+for that father whom they had loved so dearly.</p>
+
+<p>Soon we were back in the Brende car in which we had landed no more than
+an hour before. It was a standard Byctin model&mdash;evidently Argo and his
+men knew how to operate it perfectly. We were herded into the pit, and
+in a moment more were in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Argo seemed now rather anxious to make friends with us. He was in a high
+good humor. His eyes flashed at me sharply when I questioned him once or
+twice; but he offered us no indignities. To Elza he spoke commandingly,
+but with that deference to which every woman of birth and breeding is
+entitled from a man.</p>
+
+<p>We rose straight up and, at 18,000 feet, headed northward by a point or
+two west. We would pass the Pole on our right&mdash;too far to sight it with
+the naked eye, I realized; but I knew, too, that the Director there
+would see the distant image of us on his finder, even though we refused
+connection should he call us. And we had no right to be up here in the
+18,000-foot lane. They'd order us down&mdash;shut off our power, if
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>We could not escape observation on this daylight flight. Heading this
+way, it would take us past the Pole and on southward, down the Western
+Hemisphere over the Americas. We could not refuse connection for long.
+We would be challenged, then brought down. Or, if Argo answered a call,
+some Director would examine our pit with his finder&mdash;would see Elza,
+Georg and me as prisoners. We could gesture surreptitiously to him....</p>
+
+<p>My thoughts ran on. Argo's soft, ironic voice brought me out of them.</p>
+
+<p>"We will answer the first call that comes," he said smilingly. "You
+understand? We are the Inter-Allied News on Official Dispatch." He was
+addressing me, his glance going to the insignia on my cap. "<i>You</i> are of
+the Inter-Allied?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not like his tone. "None of your&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quiet, Jac," Georg warned.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac Hallen," I amended.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Division 8, Manhattan," he read from my cap. "Well, when the first
+Director calls&mdash;from the Pole perhaps&mdash;you will tell him we are
+Inter-Allied Officials. He will see us here&mdash;I do not believe, the way
+we are sitting, that he will think anything is wrong. He will see us of
+Venus. There are Venus men employed by the Inter-Allied. Is it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>I had to admit that it was. He nodded. "You will fool the Directors, Jac
+Hallen. You understand? You will get the reports on weather today down
+the 67th Meridian West. And ask if we can have power to the Equator and
+below." His eyes flashed. "And if you attempt any trickery&mdash;you will
+die. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>I did, indeed. And I knew that his plans were well laid&mdash;that I would be
+helpless to give us over without paying for it with my life&mdash;with the
+lives of Elza and Georg as well.</p>
+
+<p>From up here in the 18th lane, the Polar ocean lay a glittering white
+and purple expanse beneath us. Then, again, a fog rolled out down there
+like a blanket. We passed the Pole, a hundred miles or more to one side,
+and headed Southward. No challenge. Under us, occasional local cars
+swept by; but up here we were clear of traffic.</p>
+
+<p>Elza prepared our lunch, in the little electric galley forward of the
+observation pit. The Great London-East Indies Mail Flyer crossed us,
+coming along this same level. It was headed toward the Pole from the
+British Isles. Its pilot challenged us before it had come up over the
+horizon. A crusty fellow. His face in the mirror glared at me as I
+accepted connection. He ordered me down, Inter-Allied or no.</p>
+
+<p>Argo was at my elbow. His pencil-ray dug into my ribs. Had I made a
+false move it would have drilled me clean with its tiny burning light. I
+told the pilot we would descend. It placated him; but he saw Argo's
+face, mumbled something about damned foreigners&mdash;general orders probably
+coming tomorrow to clean out Venia&mdash;damned well rid of the traitors.
+Then he disconnected. Venia, Georg and I were sure, was where Argo was
+now taking us. But the rest of his comments I did not clearly understand
+until later.</p>
+
+<p>We descended, and the flyer came up over the horizon and passed us
+overhead. We were pointing southward now, had picked up the 67th West
+Meridian and were following it down. The Hays station<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> challenged us;
+but they were satisfied with my explanation. Argo had us up in speed
+around four hundred miles per hour. We went down Davis Strait, over
+Newfoundland, avoiding the congested cross-traffic of mid-afternoon in
+the lowest lanes, and out over the main Atlantic. Night closed down upon
+us. It was safer for Argo now. We flew without lights. Outlawed. Had
+they caught us at it, we would have been brought down, captured by the
+patrol and imprisoned. Yet Argo doubtless considered the chance of that
+less dangerous than a reliance upon my ability to trick the succeeding
+directors.</p>
+
+<p>With darkness we ascended again to the upper mail lanes. Over the main
+Eastern Atlantic now, and out here this night, there was little local
+traffic. The mail and passenger liners went by at intervals&mdash;the
+spreading beams of their lurid headlights giving us warning enough so
+that we could dive down and avoid being caught in their light. I prayed
+that one of their lights might pick us up, but none did.</p>
+
+<p>North of Bermuda, a division of the North Atlantic patrol circled over
+us. The ocean was calm. Argo dropped us to the surface. We floated there
+like a derelict&mdash;dark, silent, save for the lapping of the water against
+our aluminite pontoons. The patrol's searching beams swept within a
+hundred feet of us&mdash;missed us by a miracle. And as the patrol passed on,
+we rose again to our course.</p>
+
+<p>Argo gave us one of the small cabins to ourselves that night. He was
+still deferential to Elza, but in his manner and in the glitter of those
+little black eyes, there was irony, and an open, though unexpressed,
+admiration for her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>We slept little. Georg and I&mdash;one or the other of us&mdash;was awake all
+night. We talked occasionally&mdash;not much, for speculation was of no
+avail. We wondered what could be transpiring abroad through all these
+hours. Hours of unprecedented turmoil on Earth, and on our neighboring
+worlds. We wondered how the Central State of Venus might be faring with
+the revolution. Would they ask aid of the Earth? This Tarrano&mdash;merely a
+name to us as yet, but a name already full of dread. Where was he? Had
+he been responsible for all this? Dr. Brende's secret was in his hands
+now, we were sure. What would he do next?</p>
+
+<p>About three o'clock in the morning&mdash;a fair, calm night&mdash;our power died
+abruptly. We were in the Caribbean Sea not far above the Northern coast
+of South America, at 15&deg; North latitude, 67&deg; West longitude. Our power
+died. Elza was fast asleep, but the sudden quiet brought Georg and me to
+alertness. We joined Argo in the pit. He was perturbed, and cursing. We
+dropped, gliding down, for there was no need of picking a landing with
+the emergency heliocopter batteries&mdash;glided down to the calm surface.
+For a moment we lay there, rocking&mdash;a dark blob on the water. I heard a
+sudden sharp swish. An under-surface freight vessel, plowing from
+Venezuelan ports to the West Indian Islands, came suddenly to the
+surface. Its headlight flashed on, but missed us. It sped past. I could
+see the sleek black outline of its wet back, and the lines of foam as it
+sheered the water. We lay rocking in its wake as it disappeared
+northward.</p>
+
+<p>Then, without warning, our power came on again. An inadvertent break
+perhaps; or maybe some local or general orders. We did not know. Argo
+was picking from the air occasional news, but he said nothing of it to
+us; and he was sending out nothing, of course.</p>
+
+<p>Dawn found us over the mountains. The Director at Caracas challenged us.
+Argo kept me by his side constantly now. Dutifully we answered every
+call. The local morning traffic was beginning to pick up; but we mingled
+with it, at 8,000 feet and more, to clear the mountains comfortably.</p>
+
+<p>Elza again cooked and, with Argo joining us, we had breakfast. Argo's
+good nature continued, as we successfully approached the end of our
+flight. But still he volunteered nothing to us. We asked him no
+questions. Elza was grave-faced, solemn. But she did not bother Georg
+and me with woman's fears. Bravely she kept her own counsel, anxious
+only to be of help to us.</p>
+
+<p>We passed over the Venezuelan Province, over the mountains and into
+Amazonia, headwaters of the great river&mdash;still on the 67th Meridian
+West. The jungles here were sparsely settled; there were, I knew, no
+more than a dozen standard cities of a million population, or over, in
+the whole region of Western Brazilana. As we advanced, I noticed an
+unusual number of the armed government flyers above us. Many were
+hovering, almost motionless, as though waiting for orders. But none of
+them molested us.</p>
+
+<p>Near the 10th parallel South latitude, we passed under a fleet of the
+white official vessels, with a division of the Brazilana patrol joined
+with them. A hundred vessels hovering up there in an east and west
+line&mdash;a line a hundred miles long it must have been.</p>
+
+<p>Hovering there, for what? We did not know; but Argo, leering up at them
+insolently, may have guessed. They challenged us, but let us through.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the last one in," this sub-director of the patrol told us. I
+could see him in our mirror as his gaze examined our pit&mdash;a dapper,
+jaunty fellow with the up-tilted mustache affected in Latina. "Last one
+in&mdash;you Inter-Allied are a nuisance."</p>
+
+<p>He was more particular than those directors we had passed before. My
+badge and my verbal explanation were not enough. He made me show him the
+Inter-Allied seal which I always carried, and I gave him the pass-code
+of the current week.</p>
+
+<p>"Last one in," he reiterated. "And you wouldn't get in now without those
+refugees with you. Venia's closed after noon of today. Didn't you know
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is. They shut off the power early this morning for all low
+vibrations&mdash;yours and under. Brought 'em all down for a general traffic
+inspection. Then changed their minds and threw it on again. But if
+you're coming out north again, you've got to get out by noon. And you go
+in at your own peril."</p>
+
+<p>He assumed that Argo and his men were Venus refugees going with me into
+Venia! I only vaguely understood what might be afoot, but I did not dare
+question him. Argo's side glance at me was menacing. I agreed with this
+director obediently and broke connection.</p>
+
+<p>We seemed now to have passed within the patrol line. There were no more
+official vessels to be seen. We clung low, and at 12&deg; South, 60&deg; 2O'
+West, at 10:16 that morning we descended in Venia, capital of the
+Central Latina Province, largest immigrant colony of the Western
+Hemisphere.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>We landed on a stage of one of the upper crescent terraces. A crowd of
+Venus people surrounded us. Even in the turmoil of our debarkation, I
+wondered where the official landing director might be. None of the
+governing officials were in sight. The place was in confusion. Crowds
+were on the spider bridges; the terraces and the sloping steps were
+jammed. Milling, excited people. The foreign police, pompous Venus men
+in gaudy uniforms, were herding the people about.</p>
+
+<p>But none of our Earth officials! Where were they, who should have been
+in charge of all this confusion?</p>
+
+<p>My heart sank. Something drastic, sinister, had occurred. We had no time
+to guess what it might be. Argo drove us forward, with scant courtesy
+now, down in a vertical car, through a tunnel on foot to what they
+called here in Venia the Lower Plaza. We crossed it, and entered one of
+their queerly flat buildings at the ground level; entered through an
+archway, passed through several rooms and came at last into a room
+whirring with instruments.</p>
+
+<p>Argo said triumphantly, yet humbly: "Tarrano, Master&mdash;we are here."</p>
+
+<p>A man at a table of helio-sending instruments turned and faced us. We
+were in the presence of the dread Tarrano!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Man of Destiny</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Tarrano! He rose slowly to his feet, his gaze on us for an instant, then
+turning to Argo.</p>
+
+<p>"So! You took them? Well done, Argo!"</p>
+
+<p>His gesture dismissed his subordinate; Argo backed from the room. From a
+disc, an announcer was detailing dispatches. Tarrano frowned slightly.
+He advanced to us as we three stood together. I had heard Elza give a
+low, surprised cry as we entered. She stood with a hand upon my arm. I
+could feel her trembling, but her face now was impassive.</p>
+
+<p>Georg whispered to me: "This Tarrano&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But our captor's voice checked him. "Come this way, please." He
+signalled, and three men came forward. To them he issued short commands;
+they took their places at the instrument tables. Then he led us from the
+room through an arch, over a small trestle, into a tiny inner courtyard.
+A tropical garden, surrounded by blank circular walls of the building. A
+patch of blue sky showed above it. A garden secluded from prying eyes,
+with only a single spider bridge crossing overhead. Vivid flowers and
+foliage made it a bower. Brown bark paths laced it; a tiny fountain
+splashed in the center.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano sat on the rim of the fountain; he gestured to a white stone
+bench where we three sat in a row, Elza between us. It made me feel like
+a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is dead." He was addressing Elza; and then Georg. "That is
+unfortunate. He was a good man. I'm sorry."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was soft and musical. He sat there on the fountain rim, an
+elbow on his crossed knees, chin resting in his hand, his eyes studying
+us. A small, slight figure of a man, no more than thirty-five. Simply
+dressed; white trousers of the tropics, with a strip of narrow black
+down the leg-fronts; a girdle of gold; ruffled white shirt, with sleeves
+that flared a trifle, and a neck-piece of black. From his belt dangled a
+few instruments and several personal weapons&mdash;beautifully wrought,
+small&mdash;almost miniatures&mdash;yet deadly-looking for all that.</p>
+
+<p>He was bareheaded; black hair closely clipped. A face smooth-shaven.
+Thin, with a nose hawk-like, and black eyes and heavy brows. His mouth
+was thin-lipped, though smiling now, disclosing even, white teeth. Yet a
+cruel mouth, with the firm jaw of determination and power under it. The
+familiar gray Venus skin, but with that bronze cast of the people of the
+Central State.</p>
+
+<p>At first glance, not an unusual or particularly commanding figure. Yet
+the man's power of personality, the sheer dominant force of him,
+radiated like a tower code-beam. No one could be in his presence an
+instant without feeling it. A power that enwrapped you; made you feel
+like a child. Helpless. Anxious to placate a possible wrath that would
+be devastating; anxious&mdash;absurdly&mdash;for a smile. It was a radiation of
+genius, humbling every mediocre mortal it touched.</p>
+
+<p>I felt it&mdash;felt all this from the moment I came into his presence. Felt
+like a child, sitting there on that bench. Vaguely frightened; sullen,
+with childish resentment at my superior. And over it all, my man's
+mentality made me angry at myself for such emotions; angry at the
+consciousness of my own inferiority, forced upon me now more strongly
+than ever anything or any one had made me feel it before.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano was smiling gently. "... killed your father. I would not have
+had it so. Yet&mdash;perhaps it was necessary. The Lady Elza&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I could feel Elza trembling again. Georg burst out: "What do you want of
+us? Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's slim gray-brown hand came up.</p>
+
+<p>"The Lady Elza remembers me&mdash;&mdash;" He seemed waiting with his gentle smile
+for her to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"They called you Taro then," she said. Her voice was the small, scared,
+diffident voice of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Taro. A mere sub-officer of the Central State. But destined for
+bigger things than that, as you see. They did not like what they called
+my ambitious ways&mdash;and so they sent me to the Cold Country. That was
+soon after I had met you and your father, Lady Elza. You hardly remarked
+me then&mdash;I was so insignificant a personage. But you&mdash;I remembered
+you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Still there was in his voice and on his face nothing but kindness and a
+queer whimsical look of reminiscence. He broke off at the buzz of a disc
+that hung from his belt by a golden chain. He jerked it loose from its
+snap, and to his ear clasped a small receiver. Like a mask his
+gentleness dropped from him. His voice rasped:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?..." The receiver murmured into his ear. He said: "Connect
+him&mdash;I'll listen to what he has to say."</p>
+
+<p>A moment; then on the tiny mirror fastened to his wrist with a strap, I
+saw a face appear&mdash;a face known throughout our Earth&mdash;the face of the
+War-Director of Great London. Tarrano listened impassively. When the
+voice ceased, he said without an instant's hesitation: "No!"</p>
+
+<p>A decision irrevocable; the power almost of a deity seemed behind its
+finality. "No! I&mdash;will&mdash;not&mdash;do&mdash;it!" Careful, slow enunciation as
+though to make sure an inferior mentality could not mistake his words.
+And with a click, Tarrano broke connection. The mirror went dark; he
+hung his little disc and ear-piece back on his belt. Again he was
+smiling at us gently, the incident forgotten already&mdash;dismissed from his
+mind until the need to consider it should again arise.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember you, Lady Elza, very well." A vague wistfulness came into
+his voice. "I wish to speak with you alone&mdash;now&mdash;for a moment." He
+touched two of the metal buttons of his shirt-front together. A man
+appeared in the narrow tunnel-entrance to the garden. A small man, no
+more than four and a half feet tall; a trim, but powerfully made little
+figure, in the black and white linen uniform worn also by Tarrano. Yet
+more pretentiously dressed than his superior. A broad belt of dangling
+weapons; under it, a sash of red, encircling his waist and flowing down
+one side. Over his white ruffled shirt, a short sleeveless vest of black
+silk. A circular hat, with a vivid plume. A smooth-shaven face; black
+hair long to the base of the neck; a deep, red-brown complexion. A
+native of the Little People of Mars, here in the service of Tarrano. He
+stood stiff and respectful in the tunnel entrance.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano said crisply: "Wolfgar, take these two men to the fourth tower.
+Make them comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>I met Georg's eyes. Leave Elza here alone with this man? Georg burst
+out: "My sister goes with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"So?" Tarrano's heavy brows went up inquiringly. A quizzical smile
+plucked at his lips. "You need have no fear. The Lady Elza&mdash;&mdash;" He swung
+to her. "Not&mdash;afraid, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;no," she stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"She'll come with us," I declared; but the stoutness of my words could
+not hide my fear. Tarrano was still smiling; but as I took a protecting
+step toward Elza, his smile died.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;will go&mdash;with Wolfgar&mdash;both of you." That same slow finality. His
+face was impassive; but under his frowning bushy brows, his eyes
+transfixed me. It was as though with his paralyzing ray he had rooted me
+to the spot. And Georg beside me. Yet he had not moved from his careless
+attitude of ease on the fountain-rim; the little conical golden weapon
+dangled untouched at his belt.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was frightened. "Jac! You must do what he says. I'm&mdash;not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>Again Tarrano was smiling. "No&mdash;of course not." His gaze went to Georg.
+"You are her brother&mdash;your fear is very natural. So I give you my
+word&mdash;the honorable word of Tarrano&mdash;that she shall come to no harm."</p>
+
+<p>Elza murmured: "Go, Georg." Afraid for us, and doubtless she had good
+reason to be. It struck me then as queer that Tarrano should waste these
+words with us; but I realized, as did Elza and Georg, that we were
+treading very dangerous ground. Georg said, with a sudden dignity at
+which I marveled:</p>
+
+<p>"Your word is quite enough." He gestured to me. With a last glance at
+Elza, standing there frightened, but for our sakes striving not to show
+it, we let this Wolfgar lead us away.</p>
+
+<p>Elza later told us what occurred. With her father, she had been twice to
+the Venus Central State&mdash;the visit of two years ago Dr. Brende had
+mentioned to me, and a former one. It was upon this first trip Elza had
+met Tarrano. He was an under-officer then, in the Army of the Central
+State&mdash;his name then was Taro. She&mdash;herself no more than a slip of a
+girl at that time&mdash;remembered him as a queerly silent young
+man&mdash;insignificant in physique and manner. He had escorted her once to a
+Venus festival; in a strange, brooding, humble, yet dignified fashion,
+he had spoken of love. She had laughed, and soon forgot the incident.
+But Tarrano had not forgotten. The daughter of the great Dr. Brende had
+fired his youthful imagination. Who knows what dreams even then&mdash;born of
+the genius as yet merely latent&mdash;were within him? He had never crossed
+Elza's mind from that time, until today she saw and recognized him.</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone, still without moving from his seat, he signed her
+to come to him, to sit on the carpet of grass at his feet. She was
+frightened, but she would not show it. He made no move to touch her; he
+gazed down to meet her upturned, fascinated stare, still with his
+gentle, whimsical smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer that I should meet you again, Lady Elza. Yet, I must admit, it
+comes not by chance, for I contrived it. My prisoner! Dr. Brende's
+daughter, held captive by little Taro!"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to amuse him, this whimsical reminiscence of those days when
+he was struggling unknown. "I want to confess something to you, Lady
+Elza. You were so far above me then&mdash;daughter of the famous Dr. Brende.
+Yet, as you remember, I aspired to you. And now&mdash;I have not changed. I
+never change. I still&mdash;aspire to you."</p>
+
+<p>He said it very softly, slowly. She flushed; but for that moment fear of
+him dropped from her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said. "I&mdash;I thank you for such a compliment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A compliment? Yes, I suppose it is that now. You wondered, didn't you,
+why I was so lenient with your brother and that Jac Hallen when they
+would have refused me obedience? That is not my way&mdash;to be lenient." He
+said it with a sudden snap of crispness, but his eyes were twinkling.
+"It was because of you, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;of course. Because I&mdash;want you to like me." His fingers
+involuntarily touched a stray lock of her hair as she sat there at his
+feet, but when she moved her head away he withdrew his hand. His slow
+voice went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Back in those other days, Lady Elza, the little Taro had strange
+dreams. A power within him&mdash;he could feel it&mdash;here&mdash;&mdash;" His gaze was far
+away; his fist struck his breast. "He could feel it&mdash;the urge to fulfill
+his destiny&mdash;feel it within him, and no one else knew it was there.</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;you came. A shy, rather pretty little girl, he realizes now, is
+all you were. But then&mdash;you seemed a goddess. A new dream arose&mdash;a dream
+of you ... I frighten you, child?" His tone was contrite. "I do not mean
+to do that. I am too hasty. Queer, isn't it, that I can make men,
+nations, worlds, obey me&mdash;but I have to bide my time with a fragile
+little woman?"</p>
+
+<p>His mood changed; he stirred. "I could bend you to my will&mdash;break
+you&mdash;like that!" His lean fingers snapped. Then his hand dropped, and
+again he relaxed. "But of what use?... Your respect? I have it now.
+Respect and fear come to me from everyone. It is something more than
+that I want from you."</p>
+
+<p>She would have spoken, but his gesture stopped her. "Queer that I should
+want it? Yes, I think perhaps it is. The little Taro was very queer,
+perhaps very impressionable. He knew he had nations and worlds to
+conquer&mdash;a destiny to fulfill. Not alone because of you, little Elza. I
+would not make you think that. But for you to share. The great Tarrano,
+master of the universe, and his Lady Elza! Worlds for you to toy with,
+like gems on a thread adorning your white throat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He must have swayed her, the sheer power of him. Impulsively she touched
+his knee. "I am not worth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His face clouded with a frown. "I would not try to buy your love&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said. "No, I did not mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not try to buy you. I want to share with you&mdash;these worlds&mdash;as
+your due. To make myself master of everything, so that you will look to
+me and say, 'He is the greatest of all men&mdash;I love him'.... Soon I will
+be the greatest of all men throughout the ages. And very gentle always,
+with you, Lady Elza&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A buzz came from the disc at his belt. He answered the call&mdash;listened to
+a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"So? Bring him here." He disconnected. "...very gentle with you, my
+Elza&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice drifted away. He seemed waiting; and Elza, her head whirling
+with the confusion of it all, sat silent. A moment; then Argo appeared,
+driving a half-nude man before him. A native official of Venia, stripped
+of his uniform. Argo flung him down in the garden path, where he
+cowered, his face ashen, his eyes wild, lips mumbling with terror.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano barely moved. "So? You tell me he was asleep at the mirrors,
+Argo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Master, I could not help it! Since first you made your move in Greater
+New York at Park Sixty, I have sat there. Two nights and a day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And you fell asleep without asking for a relief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Master, I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I did not realize I was sleeping&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A gesture to Argo, and the man was flung closer to Tarrano's feet. Elza
+shrank away.</p>
+
+<p>"Left a mirror unattended. So?... The wire, Argo." He took the length
+of wire, gleaming white-hot, as the leering, gloating Argo turned the
+current into it&mdash;Tarrano took it, lashed it upon the poor wretch's naked
+back and legs. Welts arose, and the stench of burning flesh. A measured
+score of the passionless strokes made him writhe and scream in agony.</p>
+
+<p>It turned Elza sick and faint. Shuddering, she crouched there, hiding
+her face until the punishment was over and the half-unconscious culprit
+was carried away.</p>
+
+<p>"Very gentle with you, my Elza...."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up to find Tarrano smiling at her; looked up and stared, and
+wondered what might be her fate with such a man as this.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Prisoners</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>From the garden where Tarrano was talking with Elza, the Mars man
+Wolfgar led us to the tower in which we were to be imprisoned. Quite
+evidently it had been placed in readiness for us. A tower of several
+rooms, comfortably equipped. As we crossed the lower bridge and reached
+the main doorway, Wolfgar unsealed a black fuse-box which stood there,
+and pulled the relief-switch. The current, barring passage through every
+door and window of the tower, was thrown off. We entered. My mind was
+alert. This man of the Little People could not again turn on that
+current without going outside. Once it was on, like an invisible wall it
+would prevent our escape. But now&mdash;could not Georg and I with our
+superior strength overpower this smaller man?</p>
+
+<p>I caught Georg's glance as our captor led us into the lower room&mdash;an
+apartment cut into the half-segment of a circle. Georg, at my elbow,
+whispered: "No use! Where could we go? Could not get out of the
+city&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The hearing of the Little People is sharp. Wolfgar turned his head and
+smiled. "You will be quite secure here&mdash;do not think of escape." His
+bronzed fingers toyed with a cone at his belt. "Do not think of it."</p>
+
+<p>Soon he left us, with the parting words: "You may use the upper circle
+of balcony. The current rises only from its rail." He smiled and left
+us. A pleasant smile; I felt myself liking this jailer of ours.</p>
+
+<p>We took a turn of the tower. There were three bedrooms; a cookery, with
+food and equipment wherein evidently it was intended that Elza could
+prepare our meals; and two bath-apartments, one of them fairly
+luxurious, with a pool almost large enough for a little swimming; tubes
+of scent for the water and the usual temperature rods.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I remarked. "Obviously we are to be comfortable." I was trying
+to be cheerful, but my heart was heavy with foreboding nevertheless.
+"How long do you suppose they'll keep us here, Georg? And what&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His impatient gesture stopped me. His mind was on Elza&mdash;alone down there
+in the garden with Tarrano&mdash;as was mine, though I had not wanted to
+speak of her.</p>
+
+<p>There was an instrument room, up the circular incline in the peak of the
+tower! We heard the hum of it; and when we went up there, the first
+thing we saw was a mirror tuned in readiness for us to view the garden
+we had just left. This strange Tarrano, giving Georg the visible proof
+that he would keep his word and not harm Elza. We could see in this
+mirror the image of the scene down there&mdash;Elza and Tarrano talking. But
+could not hear the words&mdash;those were denied us. We saw the culprit
+brought in; the punishment with the white-hot wire-lash, and a few
+moments later Elza was with us.</p>
+
+<p>During the hours which followed, we made no attempt to escape. Such an
+effort would have been absurd. The current controls were outside, beyond
+our reach. Visibly, we were free, with open, unbarred arches and
+casements. But to pass through one of them, the barring current struck
+you like a wall, with darting sparks when it was touched. As Wolfgar had
+said, we had access to the upper balcony; the waist-high rail there,
+with its needle-points of electrodes, sent up a visible stream of the
+Nth Electrons&mdash;a dull glow by daylight; at night a riot of colors and
+snapping sparks.</p>
+
+<p>Through this barrage an inner vista of the city was visible; towers,
+arcades, landing-stages and spider bridges a hundred feet or so above
+us; the lower levels beneath, and through a canyon of walls we could
+just make out a corner of the ground-plaza, with its trees and beds of
+flowers.</p>
+
+<p>A queerly flat little city&mdash;tropical with banana trees and vivid foliage
+in every corner plot of the viaducts. At night it was beautiful with its
+romantic spreading lights of soft rose and violet tubes, and there was a
+fair patch of open sky above us&mdash;a deep purple at night, star-strewn.</p>
+
+<p>Under other circumstances our imprisonment would not have been irksome.
+But these hours, most critical of any in the history of the nations of
+Earth, Venus and Mars, unfolded their momentous events while we were
+forced there to helpless idleness. All sending apparatus of our
+instrument room was permanently disconnected. But the news came in to us
+from a hundred sources&mdash;rolled out for us in the announcer's droning
+words; printed for permanent record upon the tapes and visible images of
+it all constantly were flashing upon the mirrors.</p>
+
+<p>We spent hours in that instrument room&mdash;one or the other of us was
+almost always there. Save that we were ourselves isolated from
+communication, we were in touch with everything. A whim of this Tarrano;
+perhaps a strain of vanity that Elza should see and hear of these
+events.</p>
+
+<p>So much had occurred already during those hours of our trip over the
+Polar ocean and back that we scarce could fathom it. But gradually we
+pieced it together. Underlying it all, Tarrano's dream of universal
+conquest was plain. In the Venus Cold Country he had started his
+wide-flung plans. Years of planning, with plans maturing slowly,
+secretly, and bursting now like a spreading ray-bomb upon the three
+worlds at once.</p>
+
+<p>In Venus, the Cold Country had conquered its governing Central State.
+Tarrano's army there was in full control. The helio station in the Great
+City was now reinstated. The Tarrano officials had already set up their
+new government. With notification to the Earth and Mars that they
+demanded recognition, they were sending the usual routine helio
+dispatches and reports, quite as though nothing had occurred. The mails
+would proceed as before, they announced; the one due to leave this
+afternoon for the Earth was off on time.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very clever propaganda for our Earth public consumption.
+Tarrano&mdash;who was visiting our Earth at present, they said&mdash;had been
+chosen Master of Venus. His government desired Earth's official
+recognition, and asked for our proclamation of friendliness in answer to
+their own. The present Ambassadors of the Venus Central State to the
+Earth&mdash;there were three of them, one each in Great London, Tokyohama and
+Mombozo&mdash;this new government requested that we send them back to the
+Great City as prisoners of the Tarrano forces. Other Ambassadors,
+representing the new government, would be sent to the Earth.</p>
+
+<p>All this occurred during the first few hours of our imprisonment in the
+tower. And during the day previous, at 7 P.M. this night&mdash;70&deg; West
+Meridian Time&mdash;the governments of our Earth met in Triple Conference in
+Great London. Three rulers pro tem&mdash;White, Yellow and Black&mdash;to replace
+the three who had been assassinated. The responsibility for the
+assassinations was placed by the Council upon Tarrano. But this&mdash;from
+his headquarters here in Venia&mdash;he blandly refused to accept, denying
+all knowledge of the murders. Venia was the principal Venus immigrant
+colony of Earth's Western Hemisphere. It had already been closed by our
+Earth Council; its inhabitants interned as possible alien enemies,
+pending diplomatic developments. This was the meaning of that line of
+official vessels lying there to the north on guard. No one could leave
+Venia, and for a day Venus refugees had been ordered into it from
+everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>At 8:40 this evening came from Great London our ultimatum to Tarrano. A
+duplicate of it went to the Great City of Venus via the Hawaiian
+Station. The Earth would not recognize the Tarrano government of Venus.
+We would hold to our treaty of friendship with the Central State. We
+would remain neutral for a time. But Tarrano himself we declared an
+outlaw. His presence was required in Washington to stand trial for the
+assassinations, and the delivery in Washington of Dr. Brende's notes and
+model was demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The ultimatum carried a day of grace; the alternate was a declaration of
+war by the Earth, and our immediate attack upon Venia. It was the same
+proposition which our War Director had previously made unofficially to
+Tarrano while he was there in the garden with Elza and which Tarrano so
+summarily had rejected.</p>
+
+<p>The ultimatum came to us in the tower as we sat listening to the
+announcer's measured tones. Elza exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"But why do they wait? Father's model must be here. Tarrano, the leader
+of all this&mdash;is here. Within the hour those vessels of war could sweep
+in here&mdash;capture Tarrano&mdash;recover father's model&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Georg interrupted quietly: "No one knows if the model is here. That
+other car from the laboratory&mdash;we don't know where it went. The
+plundered laboratory has been found, of course. No station up there is
+near enough to have eavesdropped upon our capture, but the whole thing
+must have come out by now. But that aero with the model may have met an
+inter-planetary vessel&mdash;the model may be on the way to Venus by now."</p>
+
+<p>"Georg," I exclaimed, "do <i>you</i> know the workings of that model? Could
+you build another without the notes?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded solemnly. "Yes. And they know that, in Washington. I could
+build another. But they know by now, that I, too, am in Tarrano's
+hands&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And he will kill you, of course, to destroy that knowledge and keep the
+secret for himself&mdash;&mdash;" I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake; but I
+thought it, and I realized that Georg was thinking it also.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Brende's secret of longevity was the crux of all this turmoil&mdash;the
+lever by which Tarrano was raising himself. Scores of facts amid the
+tumultuous news of these hours showed us that. For months, throughout
+Venus, Tarrano had spread the insidious propaganda that he alone had the
+secret of immortality&mdash;that when he was made ruler, he would use it for
+the benefit of his followers.</p>
+
+<p>Converts to Tarrano's cause were everywhere. In the Central State many
+welcomed the coming of his army. And now from the Great City his
+propaganda was being sent to the Earth. Murmurs from our own Earth
+public were beginning to be heard. The ignorant lower classes seemed
+ready to swallow anything. A new beneficent ruler who guaranteed
+everlasting life! Throughout the ages people have flocked to that same
+standard!</p>
+
+<p>In Mars, much the same was transpiring. At almost her closest point to
+the Earth these days, Red Mars sent us constant helios from the midnight
+sky. The Little People had appointed a new ruler to take the place of
+him who had been assassinated. The Council there put the assassination
+to unknown causes. Tarrano was held blameless. The Little People
+declared themselves neutral. But they gave prompt official recognition
+to the Tarrano government of Venus. And everywhere throughout Mars the
+public was stirred by the thought of everlasting life.</p>
+
+<p>"Fools!" muttered Georg. "That Little People government&mdash;they'll have a
+revolution of their own to fight at this rate. Can't you see what
+Tarrano is doing? Working everywhere with propaganda&mdash;working on the
+public&mdash;the gullible public ready always to swallow anything&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>On Earth, lay the crisis. Our own governments only had taken a firm
+stand. What could Tarrano do with this ultimatum? Either he must yield
+himself and the Brende secret, or a war in which he would be immediately
+overwhelmed here in Venia would follow.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly ten o'clock that first night. Elza had gone to the
+balcony. We heard her call us softly, but with obvious tenseness. Out
+there we found her pointing excitedly. A few hundred feet away and
+somewhat below us was a tower similar to our own. In one of its oblong
+casements a glow of rose-light showed. And within the glow was the
+full-length figure of a girl. We could see her plainly, though a small
+image at that distance with the naked eye, and our personal vision
+instruments had been taken from us. A slender, imperial figure&mdash;a young
+girl seemingly about Elza's age. Dressed in a shimmering blue kirtle,
+short after the Venus fashion, with long grey stockings beneath. A girl
+with flowing waves of pure white hair to her waist&mdash;a girl of the Venus
+Central State. She seemed, like ourselves, a prisoner. An aura or
+barrage was around her tower. She stood there, back in the tower room,
+full in the rose-light as though surreptitiously trying to attract our
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>As we gathered on our balcony, behind the glow of our own barrage, she
+gestured to us vehemently. And then, with one white arm, she began to
+semaphore. One arm, and then with both. Georg and I recognized it&mdash;the
+Secondary Code of the Anglo-Saxon Army. We murmured the letters aloud as
+she gave them:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I am&mdash;&mdash;</i>" Abruptly she stopped. A violent gesture, and she
+disappeared; her rose-glow went out; her tower casement was dark. On a
+lower spider bridge Tarrano had appeared. He was crossing it on foot
+toward our tower, his small erect form advancing hastelessly, with the
+figure of Argo behind him.</p>
+
+<p>He reached our lower entrance, cut off the barrage there, and entered.
+Argo replaced the barrage, lingered an instant, gazing upward at us with
+his habitual leer. Then he retraced his steps across the bridge and
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>A moment more, and in our lounging apartment Tarrano faced us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Unknown Friend</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"Sit down." Tarrano motioned us to feather hassocks and stretched
+himself indolently upon our pillowed divan. With an elbow and hand
+supporting his head he regarded us with his sombre black eyes, his face
+impassive, an inscrutable smile playing about his thin lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak with you three. The Lady Elza&mdash;&mdash;" His glance went to
+her briefly, then to Georg. "She has told you, perhaps, what I had to
+say to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Georg shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Elza had indeed told us. And with sinking heart I had listened, for it
+did not seem to me that any maiden could resist so dominant a man as
+this. But I had made no comment, nor had Georg. Elza had seemed
+unwilling to discuss it, had flushed when her brother's eyes had keenly
+searched her face.</p>
+
+<p>And she flushed now, but Tarrano dismissed the subject with a gesture.
+"That&mdash;is between her and me.... You have been following the general
+news, I assume? I provided you with it." He rolled a little cylinder of
+the arrant-leaf, and lighted it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Georg.</p>
+
+<p>Georg was waiting for our captor to lay his cards before us. Tarrano
+knew it; his smile broadened. "I shall not mince words, Georg Brende.
+Between men, that is not necessary. And we are isolated here&mdash;no one
+beyond Venia can listen. As you know, I am already Master of Venus. In
+Mars&mdash;that will shortly come. They will hand themselves over to me&mdash;or I
+shall conquer them." He shrugged. "It is quite immaterial." He added
+contemptuously: "People are fools&mdash;almost everyone&mdash;it is no great feat
+to dominate them."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find our Earth leaders are not fools," Georg said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's heavy brows went up. "So?" He chuckled. "That remains to be
+seen. Well, you heard the ultimatum they sent me? What do you think of
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you'd best obey it," I burst out impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not speaking to you." He did not change the level intonation of
+his voice, nor even look my way. "You are to die tomorrow, Jac
+Hallen&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Elza gave a low cry; instantly his gaze swung to her. "So? That strikes
+at <i>you</i>, Lady Elza?"</p>
+
+<p>She flushed even deeper than before, and the flush, with her instinctive
+look to me that accompanied it, made my heart leap. Tarrano's face had
+darkened. "You would not have me put him to death, Lady Elza?"</p>
+
+<p>She was struggling to guard from him her emotions; struggling to match
+her woman's wit against him.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;why no," she stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"No? Because he is&mdash;your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I&mdash;I would not let you do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Not let me?" Incredulous amusement swept over his face.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I would not&mdash;let you do that." Her gaze now held level with his. A
+strength came to her voice. Georg and I watched her&mdash;and watched
+Tarrano&mdash;fascinated. She repeated once more: "No. I would not let you."</p>
+
+<p>"How could you stop me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would&mdash;tell you not to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"So?" Admiration leaped into his eyes to mingle with the amusement
+there. "You would tell me not to do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." She did not flinch before him.</p>
+
+<p>"And you think then&mdash;I would spare him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I know you would."</p>
+
+<p>"And why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;if you did a thing like that&mdash;I should&mdash;hate you."</p>
+
+<p>"Hate&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Hate you&mdash;always."</p>
+
+<p>He turned suddenly away from her, sitting up with a snap of alertness.
+"Enough of this." Did he realize he was defeated in this passage with a
+girl? Was he trying to cover from us the knowledge of his defeat? And
+then again the bigness of him made itself manifest. He acknowledged
+soberly:</p>
+
+<p>"You have bested me, Lady Elza. And you've made me realize that
+I&mdash;Tarrano&mdash;have almost lowered myself to admit this Jac Hallen my
+rival." He laughed harshly. "Not so! A rival? Pah! He shall live if you
+wish it&mdash;live close by you and me&mdash;as an insect might live on a twig by
+the rim of the eagle's nest.... Enough!... I was asking you, Georg
+Brende, of this ultimatum. Should I yield to it?" He had suppressed his
+other emotions; he was amusing himself with us again.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Georg.</p>
+
+<p>"But I have already refused&mdash;today in the garden. Would you have me
+change? I am not one lightly to change a decision already reached."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Of one thing I am sure. I cannot let them declare
+war against me just now. I have no defense, here in Venia. Scarce the
+armament for my handful of men. Your vessels of war would sweep down
+here and overpower me in a breath&mdash;trap me here helpless&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Georg.</p>
+
+<p>"And so I must not let them do that. They want me to come to Washington
+with the Brende model&mdash;deliver it over to them. Yet&mdash;that does not
+appeal to me. Tomorrow I shall have to bargain with them further. I
+could not deliver to them the Brende model." He was chuckling at his own
+phrasing. "No&mdash;no, I could not do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" demanded Georg. "Isn't the model here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is&mdash;where it is," said Tarrano. He became more serious. "You,
+Georg&mdash;you could build one of those models?"</p>
+
+<p>Georg did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"You could, of course," Tarrano insisted. "My spy, Ahla&mdash;you remember
+her, the Lady Elza's maid for so long? She is here in Venia; she tells
+me of your knowledge and skill with your father's apparatus. So you see,
+I realize I have two to guard&mdash;the model itself, and you, who know its
+secret."</p>
+
+<p>He now became more openly alert and earnest than I had ever seen him.
+The light from the tube along the side wall edged his lean, serious face
+with its silver glow. "I've a proposition for you, Georg Brende. Between
+men, such things can be put bruskly. Your sister&mdash;her personal decision
+will take time. I would not force it. But meanwhile&mdash;I do not like to
+hold you and her as captives."</p>
+
+<p>The shadow of a smile crossed Georg's face. "We shall be glad to have
+you set us free."</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano remained grave. "You are a humorist. And a clever young fellow,
+Georg Brende. You&mdash;as Elza's brother&mdash;and as your father's son with your
+medical knowledge&mdash;you can be of great use to me. Suppose I offer you a
+place by my side always? To share with me&mdash;and with the Lady Elza&mdash;these
+conquests.... Wait! It is not the part of wisdom to decide until you
+have all the facts. I shall confide in you one of my plans. The publics
+of Venus, Mars and the Earth&mdash;they think this everlasting life, as they
+call it, is to be shared with them."</p>
+
+<p>His chuckle was the rasp of a file on a block of adamant. "Shared
+with them! That is the bait I dangle before their noses. In reality,
+I shall share it only with the Lady Elza. And with you&mdash;her brother,
+and the mate you some day will take for yourself. Indeed, I have
+a maiden already at hand, picked out for you.... But that can come
+later.... Everlasting life? Nonsense! Your father's discovery cannot
+confer that. But we shall live two centuries or more. Four of us. To
+see the generations come and go&mdash;frail mortals, while we live on to
+conquer and to rule the worlds.... Come, what do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say no."</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano showed no emotion, save perhaps a flicker of admiration. "You
+are decisive. You have many good qualities, Georg Brende. I wonder if
+you have any good reasons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are an enemy of my world," Georg declared, with more heat
+than he had yet displayed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Patriotism! A good lure for the ignorant masses, that thing they
+call patriotism. For rulers, a good mask with which to hide their
+unscrupulous schemes. That's all it is, Georg Brende. Cannot you give me
+a better reason? You think perhaps I am not sincere? You think I would
+not share longevity with you&mdash;that I would play you false?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," Georg declared. "But my father's work was for the people. I'm not
+talking patriotism&mdash;only humanitarianism. The strife, suffering in our
+worlds&mdash;you would avoid it yourself&mdash;and gloat while others bore it.
+You&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Youth!" Tarrano interrupted. "Altruism! It is very pretty in
+theory&mdash;but quite nonsensical. Man lifts himself&mdash;the individual must
+look out for himself&mdash;not for others. Each man to his destiny&mdash;and the
+weak go down and the strong go up. It is the way of all life&mdash;animal and
+human. It always has been&mdash;and it always will be. The way of the
+universe. You are very young, Georg Brende."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," Georg said, and fell silent.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano abruptly rose to his feet. "Calm thought is better than
+argument. You have imagination&mdash;you can picture what I offer. Think it
+over. And if youth is your trouble&mdash;&mdash;" His eyes were twinkling. "I
+shall have to wait until you grow up. We have a long road to
+travel&mdash;empires cannot be built in a day."</p>
+
+<p>He paused before Elza with a grave, dignified bow. "Goodnight, Lady
+Elza."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodnight," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He left us. We stood listening to his footsteps as he quietly descended
+the tower incline. At his summons, the barrage was lifted. He went out.
+From the balcony we saw him cross the spider bridge, with Argo at his
+heels. As they vanished into the yawning mouth of an arcade beyond the
+bridge, again came that rose-glow in the other tower. We saw again the
+girl with flowing white hair standing there. And now she was waving us
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"She wants us inside, where we can't be seen," Georg murmured. We drew
+back into the room, standing where we still could see the girl. I
+wondered then&mdash;and we had discussed it several times these last
+hours&mdash;if the interior of our tower were under observation by some
+distant guard. We felt that probably it was, visibly and audibly; and we
+had been very careful of what we said aloud.</p>
+
+<p>But now, if we were watched, we could not help it; we would have to take
+the chance. The figure of the girl showed plainly down there through the
+other casement. And again, with slow-moving white arms she began to
+semaphore. A queer application of the Secondary Code, which always is
+used officially with coral-light beams over considerable distances. But
+it sufficed in this emergency. Slowly she spelled out the letters,
+words, phrases.</p>
+
+<p><i>"I am Princess Maida&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>Georg whispered to us: "Hereditary ruler of the Central State&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. "Watch, Georg&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><i>"Prisoner&mdash;&mdash;"</i> came next: <i>"Like yourselves, and we must escape."</i></p>
+
+<p>She paused a moment, letting her arms drop to her sides, shaking the
+glorious waves of her white hair with a toss of her head. Then, at a
+gesture from Georg that he understood, she began again:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Escape tonight&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>I half expected that any moment Tarrano or one of his men would burst in
+to stop this. But the signals continued.</p>
+
+<p><i>"I am sending you a friend&mdash;tonight&mdash;soon&mdash;he will come to you. With
+plans for our escape. A good friend&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>Her tower abruptly went dark. Cautiously I gazed down from our balcony.
+Argo had appeared on the spider bridge; he was pacing back and forth.
+Did he suspect anything? We could not tell, but it seemed not. It was
+the midnight hour; a brilliant white flash swept the city to mark it.</p>
+
+<p>In a low corner of the balcony, behind the glow of our barrage, we
+crouched together, whispering excitedly. But cautiously, for we
+knew that the microphonic ears of a jailor might be upon us. The
+Princess Maida&mdash;here in Tarrano's hands! She was sending us a
+friend&mdash;tonight&mdash;soon; a friend who would help us all to escape.</p>
+
+<p>"By the code!" Georg exclaimed. "If we could get to Washington&mdash;if I
+could be there now in this crisis&mdash;with my knowledge of the Brende
+light&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Far above our personal safety, our lives, lay the importance of Georg's
+knowledge. With the Brende secret&mdash;through him&mdash;in the hands of the
+Earth Council, Tarrano's greatest lever to power would be broken. Our
+Earth public would sway back to patriotic loyalty. The Little People of
+Mars unquestionably would remain friendly with us, with the Brende light
+to be developed on Earth and shared with them. They would see Tarrano
+perhaps, for what he was&mdash;a dangerous, unscrupulous enemy.... If only
+Georg could escape....</p>
+
+<p>An hour went by with murmured thoughts like these. A friend coming to
+help us? How could he reach us? And how help us to escape?</p>
+
+<p>We crouched there, waiting. Argo&mdash;obviously on night guard&mdash;still paced
+the bridge. The city was comparatively dark and silent; yet even so,
+there seemed more activity than we felt was normal. Occasional beams
+flashed across the narrow segment of our sky. The crescent terraces,
+visible through a shallow canyon of buildings to the left, were a blaze
+of colored lights with the dark figures of people thronging them. The
+mingled hum of instruments was in the night air; sometimes the snap of
+an aerial; and the steady, clicking whir of the night escalators on the
+city street levels and inclines.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours that we waited. The green flash of the second hour past
+midnight bathed the city in its split-second lurid glare. Elza had
+fallen asleep, beside us on the feathered hassock of our balcony corner.
+But Georg and I were fully alert&mdash;waiting for this unknown friend. Georg
+had smoked innumerable arrant-leaf cylinders. Through the insulated
+tube, from a public cookery occasional hot dishes were passing our
+dining room for us to take if we wished. But we had touched none of
+them. From the food stock on hand, Elza had cooked our two simple meals.
+But now, with Elza asleep, Georg left me and returned in a moment with
+steaming cups of taro. We drank it silently, still waiting. Argo still
+paced the bridge on guard. Presently we saw the figure of Wolfgar join
+him. The two spoke together a moment; then Argo disappeared; Wolfgar
+paced back and forth on guard in his place.</p>
+
+<p>At 2:30 the Inter-Allied announcer&mdash;for half an hour past quite
+silent&mdash;brought us to our feet, his monotone droning from the disc in
+our instrument room:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Greater New York, Inter-Allied Unofficial 2:27 A. M. Tarrano replies
+to the Earth Council Ultimatum...."</i></p>
+
+<p>Our start woke up Elza. Together we rushed into the instrument room.</p>
+
+<p><i>"With many hours yet before the Earth Council Ultimatum expires, it is
+unofficially reported that Tarrano has sent his note in answer. Its
+text, we are reliably informed, is now in the hands of our Governments
+at Great London, Greater New York, Tokyohama and Mombozo. Helios of it
+also have been sent to Tarrano's own government of Venus and to the
+Little People of Mars. We have as yet no further details...."</i></p>
+
+<p>A buzz came as he ended, with only the click of the tape continuing as
+it printed his words. A period of silence, then again his voice:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Official 2:32 A. M. Inter-Allied News: Tarrano rejects Ultimatum. His
+note to Earth Council complete defiance. Official text follows...."</i></p>
+
+<p>We listened, dumb with amazement and awe. Tarrano's note was indeed,
+complete defiance. He would not yield up the Brende light. Nor would he
+deliver himself in Washington for trial. In the suave, courteous
+language of diplomacy, he deplored the unreasonable attitude of the
+Earth leaders. Ironically, he suggested that they declare war. He would
+be overwhelmed in Venia, of course. He had no means of defending himself
+against their aggression. But at the first flash of hostile rays, the
+Brende model would be destroyed forever. And Georg Brende&mdash;the only
+living person who had the knowledge to replace the model&mdash;would die
+instantly. The Brende secret would be lost irrevocably. It was
+unfortunate that humanity on Earth, Venus and Mars, should be denied
+their chance for immortality. Unfortunate that the Earth leaders were so
+headstrong. They were enemies, in reality, of their own people&mdash;and
+enemies of the peoples of Venus and Mars. But if the Earth Council
+wished war with Tarrano&mdash;then war let it be.</p>
+
+<p>"A bluff," I exclaimed. "He would lose everything himself. It's
+suicide&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not suicide," Georg said soberly. "Propaganda. Can't you see it? He
+knows the Earth Council will make no move until the ultimatum time has
+expired. Hours yet. And in those hours, he is working upon the publics
+of the three worlds."</p>
+
+<p>The announcer was silent again. Below us, in our tower, we heard a
+footstep. The barrage had been lifted to admit someone, then thrown on
+again. Measured footsteps were coming up our incline. We stood
+motionless, breathless. A moment; then into the room came Wolfgar. He
+did not speak. Advancing close to us as we stood transfixed, he jerked
+an instrument from his belt. It whirred and hummed in his hand. The room
+around us went black&mdash;a barrage of blackness and silence, with ourselves
+and Wolfgar in a pale glow standing within it as in a cylinder. The
+isolation-barrage. I had never been within one before, though upon
+drastic occasion they were in official use.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar said swiftly: "We cannot be seen or heard. I have been in charge
+of the mirror observing you&mdash;I have thrown it out of use. The Princess
+Maida&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;the friend?" Georg whispered tensely. Elza was trembling and I
+put my arm about her.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar's face lightened with a brief smile; then went intensely
+serious. "Yes. A spy, trusted by Tarrano for years&mdash;but my heart is with
+the Princess Maida. We must escape&mdash;all of us&mdash;now, or it will be too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped abruptly, and a look of consternation came to him. The black
+silence enveloping us had without warning begun to crackle. The metal
+cone in Wolfgar's hand glowed red with interference-heat&mdash;but he clung
+to it, though it burned him. Sparks were snapping in the blackness
+around us. Our isolation was dissolving. Someone&mdash;something&mdash;was
+breaking it down, struggling to get at us!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Paralyzed!</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving.
+Someone&mdash;something&mdash;was in the room, breaking down the barrage,
+struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me,
+Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was
+glowing red in his hand from intense heat.</p>
+
+<p>Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his
+words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:</p>
+
+<p>"We're trapped! <i>You</i>, of all of us&mdash;you Georg Brende, must escape."</p>
+
+<p>The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a
+weapon into Georg's hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.</p>
+
+<p>"Princess Maida ... she ... in that other tower ... you, so much more
+important than the rest of us...." Phrases I heard; but only phrases,
+for in those few seconds I stood dumbly confused, fascinated by watching
+the blackness in which we had enveloped ourselves now breaking into
+lurid, angry sparks.</p>
+
+<p>A distant corner of the room became visible; outlines of the wall-beams;
+the growing glare of a wall-light in a tube over there. And through the
+brightening gloom&mdash;the figure of a lone man standing. Tarrano!</p>
+
+<p>I heard Georg mutter: "Jac! Make a show of fight! Hold him! But
+careful&mdash;careful of Elza!"</p>
+
+<p>Behind me there came an electrical flash; the pungent smell of burning
+cloth. Georg was no longer beside us!</p>
+
+<p>Elza was still clinging to me in fright. I shook her off. Wolfgar flung
+his smoking, useless cylinder to the floor. The blackness at once sprang
+into light; the sparks died. Tarrano was standing in the room, quietly,
+before us. Standing with a grim, cynical smile, regarding us.</p>
+
+<p>But only for an instant did he stand quiet. Across the room, creeping
+for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw
+him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the
+interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at
+another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped
+toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me. Elza screamed. Tarrano's
+hand was leaving his belt. I reached him; flung out my fist for his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>But in that instant the weapon in Tarrano's hand was brought upon me. My
+paralyzed muscles made my arm and fist go wide. My blow missed him; he
+stepped aside; and like a man drunk with baro-wine, I stumbled past him,
+halted, swayed and struggled to keep my footing.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar had felt it also; he was reeling near me, holding himself from
+falling with difficulty. I was unarmed; but there were weapons hanging
+from Wolfgar's belt. His numbed fingers were groping for them. But the
+effort was too great. The blood, driven back from his arms, left them
+powerless; they fell dangling to his sides.</p>
+
+<p>A few seconds; but we had occupied Tarrano during them. Georg was
+through the balcony doorway and beyond our sight. Elza was standing
+motionless, too frightened to move. I felt myself growing numb, weighted
+to the floor as though my feet had taken root. My arms were hanging like
+wood; fingers tingling, then growing cold, dead to sensation. And a
+numbness creeping up my legs; and spreading inward from my arms and
+shoulders. In a few moments more, I knew the numbness would reach my
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano had not moved, save that single step side-wise to avoid my
+onslaught. As I stood there now with my face like fire and my brain
+whirling with the blood congested in it, I heard his quiet voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear, Lady Elza. This Jac Hallen&mdash;as I promised you&mdash;is quite
+safe with me."</p>
+
+<p>His gesture waved her aside, that she should not come within those
+deadly vibrations he was flinging at us. And I saw his other hand lift a
+tiny mouthpiece from his belt; heard his voice say into it: "Argo? Argo!
+That Georg Brende&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped; a look of annoyance came over his face. Argo did not answer!
+Dimly to my fading senses came the triumphant thought, the realization
+that Argo outside, upon whom Tarrano depended to seize Georg&mdash;had
+failed.</p>
+
+<p>Action had come to Tarrano. He snapped off his weapon. Released from it,
+Wolfgar and I wilted to the floor&mdash;lay inert. The returning blood in my
+limbs made them prick as with a million needles. To my sight and
+hearing, the room was whirling and roaring. I felt Tarrano bending
+swiftly over me; felt the forcible insertion of a branched metal tube in
+my nostrils; a hand over my mouth. I struggled to hold my
+breath&mdash;failed. Then inhaled with a gasp, a pungent, sickening-sweet
+gas. Roaring, clanging gongs sounded in my ears&mdash;roaring and clattering
+louder, then fading into silence. A wild, tumbling phantasmagoria of
+dreams. Then complete unconsciousness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Georg Escapes</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I come now to recount events at which I was not present, and the details
+of which I did not learn until later. Fronted by Tarrano, in those few
+seconds of confusion, Georg made his decision to escape even at the cost
+of leaving Elza and me. He murmured his hurried good-bye. The moment had
+arrived. He could see Tarrano dimly through the sparks. He leaped
+backward, through that wall of electrical disturbance which surrounded
+us. The sparks tore at him; burned his clothing and flesh; the shock of
+it gripped his heart. But he went through; crept for the balcony. It was
+dark out there. He would have rushed for Tarrano instead of the balcony,
+but as he came through the sparks he had seen that the barrier
+surrounding our tower was momentarily lifted. Argo had cut it off to
+admit Tarrano a few moments before. He had not yet replaced
+it&mdash;absorbed, doubtless, in watching in his finder what Tarrano was
+doing with us. He must have seen Georg reach the balcony; and jumped
+then to replace the barrier. But too late. Georg was over the balcony
+rail with a leap. The insulated tubes were there&mdash;upright gleaming tubes
+of metal extending downward to the platform below. Tubes smooth, and as
+thick as a woman's waist.</p>
+
+<p>Georg slid down them. The barrage, above him on the balcony, had been
+replaced. He saw below him the figure of Argo come running out. A weapon
+in each hand. The burning pencil-ray swung at Georg, but missed him as
+he came down. Had it struck, it would have drilled him clean with its
+tiny hole of fire. Then Argo must have realized that Georg should be
+taken alive. He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrations
+which Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me.</p>
+
+<p>Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; and
+as he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe.
+But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a last
+effort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo. They went down together.</p>
+
+<p>Argo lay inert. The impact had knocked him senseless, and had struck his
+weapon from his hand. Georg sat up, and for a moment chafed his
+tingling, prickling arms and legs. He was bruised and shaken by the
+fall, but uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>Within our tower, Tarrano was still occupied with us. Georg leaped to
+his feet. He left Argo lying there&mdash;ran over the spider-bridge; down a
+spiral metal stairway, across another bridge, and came upon the small
+park-like platform which stood at the bottom of the other tower. He had
+passed within sight of a few pedestrians. One of them shouted at him;
+another had tried mildly to stop him. A crowd on a distant terrace saw
+him. A few of their personal flashes were turned his way. Murmurs arose.
+Someone at the head of one of the escalators, in a panic pulled an
+alarm-switch. It flared green into the sky, flashing its warning.</p>
+
+<p>The interior-guards&mdash;seated at their instrument tables in the lower
+rooms of the official buildings&mdash;had seen Georg in their finders. The
+alarm was spreading. Lights were appearing everywhere.... The murmurs of
+gathering people ... excited crowds ... an absurd woman leaning down
+over a far-away parapet and screaming ... an ignorant, flustered
+street-guard on a nearby upper terrace swinging his pencil-ray down at
+Georg.... Fortunately it fell short.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult around
+him&mdash;stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein the
+Princess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles of
+doors and casements, all open&mdash;but barred by the glow of the electrical
+barrage surrounding it.</p>
+
+<p>Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.
+Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to use
+it. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. He
+hesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But he
+knew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerial
+mast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare of
+white.</p>
+
+<p>His finger pressed the trigger. A soundless flash of purple enveloped
+the tower. Sparks mounted into the air&mdash;a cloud of vivid electrical
+sparks; but mingled with them in a moment were sparks also of burning
+wood and fibre. Smoke began to roll upward; the purple flash was gone,
+and dull red took its place. The hum and angry buzz of outraged
+electricity was stilled. Flames appeared at all the tower casements&mdash;red
+flames, then yellow with their greater heat.</p>
+
+<p>The trim and interior of the tower was burning. The protons Georg had
+flung at it with his weapon had broken the electrical barrage. The
+interference heat had burned out the connections and fired everything
+combustible within the tower. A terrific heat. It began to melt and burn
+the <i>blenite</i>.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The upper portion of the tower walls began to
+crumble. Huge blocks of stone were shifting, tottering; and they began
+to fall through the glare of mounting flames and the thick black smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Georg had tossed away his now useless weapon&mdash;emptied of its charge. He
+was crouching in the shadow of a parapet. The city was now in turmoil.
+Alarm lights everywhere. The shrilling of sirens; roaring of megaphoned
+commands ... women screaming hysterically....</p>
+
+<p>A chaos, out of which, for a few moments, Georg knew no order could
+come. But his heart was in his mouth. The Princess Maida, within that
+burning building....</p>
+
+<p>He had located the tiny postern gate at the bottom of the tower where
+Wolfgar had told him she would appear. The barrage was gone; and in a
+moment she came&mdash;a white figure appearing there amid the smoke that was
+rolling out.</p>
+
+<p>He rushed to her. A figure wholly encased in white <i>itan</i><a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> fabric
+with head-mask, and tubes from its generator to supply her with air.
+Wolfgar had smuggled the equipment in to her for just this emergency.
+She stood awkwardly beside Georg&mdash;a grotesque figure hampered by the
+heavy costume. Its crescent panes of <i>itanoid</i> begoggled her.</p>
+
+<p>Behind him, Georg could hear people advancing. A guard picked them out
+with a white flash. The mounting flames of the tower bathed everything
+in red. A block of stone fell near at hand, crashing through the
+metallic platform upon which they were standing. Broken, it sagged
+beneath their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Georg tore at the girl's head-piece, lifted it off. Her face was pale,
+frightened, yet she seemed calm. Her glorious white hair tumbled down in
+waves over her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Wolfgar&mdash;he&mdash;&mdash;" She choked a little in the smoke that swirled around
+them. Georg cut in: "He sent me&mdash;Georg Brende. Don't talk now&mdash;get this
+off."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled the heavy costume from her. She emerged from it&mdash;slim and
+beautiful in the shimmering blue kirtle, with long grey stockings
+beneath.</p>
+
+<p>A spider incline was nearby. But a dozen guards were coming up it at a
+run. With the girl's hand in his, Georg turned the other way. People
+were closing in all around them&mdash;an excited crowd held back by the heat
+of the burning tower, the smoke and the falling blocks of stone. Someone
+swung a pencil-ray wildly. It seared Georg like a branding-iron on the
+flesh of his arm as it swung past. He pulled Maida toward the head of an
+escalator a dozen feet away. Its steps were coming upward from the plaza
+at the ground level. Half way up, the first of an up-coming throng were
+mounting it.</p>
+
+<p>But Georg again turned aside. He found Maida quick of wit to catch his
+plans; and agile of body to follow him. They climbed down the metal
+frame-work of the escalator sides; down under it to where the inverted
+steps were passing downward on the endless belts. Maida slid into one of
+them, with Georg after her, his arms holding her in place.</p>
+
+<p>They huddled there. No one had seen them enter. Smoothly the escalator
+drew them downward. Above them in a moment the tramp of feet sounded
+close above their heads as the crowd rushed upward.</p>
+
+<p>They approached the bottom, slid out upon a swinging bridge which
+chanced at the moment to be empty of people. Down it at a run; into the
+palm-lined plaza at the bottom of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Down here it was comparatively dim and silent. The alarm lights of the
+plaza section had not yet come on; the excitement was concentrated upon
+the burning tower above. The crowd, rushing up there, left the plaza
+momentarily deserted. Georg and Maida crossed it at a run, scurried like
+frightened rabbits through a tunnel arcade, down a lower cross-street,
+and came at last unmolested to the outskirts of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings here were almost all at the ground level. Georg and Maida
+ran onward, hardly noticed, for everyone was gazing upward at the
+distant, burning tower. Georg was heading for where Wolfgar had an aero
+secreted. A mile or more. They reached the spot&mdash;but the aero was not
+there. They were in the open country now&mdash;Venia is small.
+Plantations&mdash;an agricultural region. Most of the houses were deserted,
+the occupants having fled into the city as refugees when threats and
+orders came from Washington the day before. Georg and Maida came upon a
+little conical house; it lay silent, heavy-shadowed in the starlight
+with the glow of the city edging its side and circular roof. Beside it
+was an incline with a helicopter standing up there on a private landing
+stage.... Georg and Maida rushed up the incline.</p>
+
+<p>A small helicopter; its dangling basket was barely large enough for
+two&mdash;a basket with a tiny safety 'plane fastened to its outrigger.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Georg and the girl had boarded the helicopter. She was
+silent; she had hardly said a word throughout it all.... The helicopter
+mounted straight up; its whirling propellers above sent a rush of air
+downward.</p>
+
+<p>"These batteries," said Georg. "The guards in Venia can't stop us. An
+aero&mdash;even if we had it&mdash;I doubt if we could get power for it. They've
+shut off general power by now, I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded. "Yes&mdash;no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>As they mounted upward, the city dwindled beneath them&mdash;dwindled to an
+area of red and green and purple lights. It was silent up here in the
+starlight; a calm, windless night&mdash;cloudless, save for a gray bank which
+obscured the moon.</p>
+
+<p>Ten thousand feet up. Then fifteen. The city was a tiny patch of blended
+colors. Light rockets occasionally mounted now. But their glare fell
+short. Georg's mind was busy with his plans. Had the helicopter been
+seen? It seemed not. No rocket-light had reached it; and there was no
+sign of pursuit from below.</p>
+
+<p>Maida crouched beside him. He felt her hand timidly upon his arm; felt
+her shy, sidelong glance upon him. And suddenly he was conscious of her
+beauty. His heart leaped, and as he turned to her, she smiled&mdash;a smile
+of eager trust which lighted her face like a torch of faith in the spire
+of a house of worship.</p>
+
+<p>"You are planning?" she said. "You know what it is we must do?"</p>
+
+<p>He said: "I think so. The <i>volan</i><a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> out there is large enough for two.
+You'll trust yourself to it with me? You're not afraid, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she said. "What you say we must do, we will do."</p>
+
+<p>"We must go higher, Maida. Then, you see...."</p>
+
+<p>He told her his plans. And mounting up there into the silent canopy of
+stars, his fingers wound themselves into the soft strands of her hair
+which lay upon him; and his heart beat fast with the nearness of
+her.... Told her his plans, and she acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty thousand feet. The cold was upon them. Shivering himself, he
+wrapped her in a fur which the basket contained. At 25,000, they took to
+the <i>vol plan</i>. It was a padded board a dozen feet long and half as
+wide. Released, it shot downward; a hundred feet or more, with the
+heavens whirling soundlessly. Then Georg got the wings open; the descent
+was checked; the stars righted themselves above, and once again the
+earth was beneath.</p>
+
+<p>They had strapped themselves to the board, and now Georg undid the
+thongs. Together they lay prone, side by side, with the narrow,
+double-banked wings beneath the line of their shoulders, and the
+rudder-tail behind them. Flexible 'planes and tail, responding to
+Georg's grip on the controls.</p>
+
+<p>Fluttering, uncertain at first, like a huge bird of quivering wings,
+they began their incline descent. A spiral, then Georg opened it to a
+straight glide northward&mdash;rushing downward and onward through the
+starlight, in a wind of their own making which fluttered the light
+fabric of Maida's robe and tossed her waves of hair about her.</p>
+
+<p>A long, silent glide, with only the rush of wind. It seemed hours, while
+the girl did not speak and Georg anxiously searched the sky ahead.
+Underneath them, the dark forests were slipping past; but inexorably
+coming upward. They were down to 5,000 feet; then Georg saw at last what
+he had hoped, prayed for, but almost despaired of. A beam of light to
+the northward&mdash;the spreading beam of an oncoming patrol. It was high
+overhead; but it came forward fast. A sweeping, keenly searching beam,
+and finally it struck them. Clung to them.</p>
+
+<p>And presently the big patrol vessel was almost above them. It hung
+there, a dark winged shape dotted with colored lights. A signal flash&mdash;a
+sharp command to Georg, but, of course, he could not answer. Then the
+Director's finder picked him out. The <i>volan</i> was fluttering, spiralling
+slowly as Georg struggled to hold his place.</p>
+
+<p>And then the patrol launched its tender. It came darting down like a
+wasp. A moment more, and Georg and Maida were taken aboard it. The
+<i>volan</i> fluttered to the forest unguided and was lost in the black
+treetops, now no more than a thousand feet below.</p>
+
+<p>Surrounded by amazed officials, Maida and Georg entered the patrol
+vessel. Georg Brende, escaped safely from Tarrano! The Brende secret
+released from Tarrano's control! The Director flashed the news to
+Washington and to Great London. Orders came back. A score of other
+vessels of this Patrol-Division came dashing up&mdash;a convoy which soon was
+speeding northward to Washington with its precious messenger.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Recaptured</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>In Washington during those next few days, events of the Earth, Venus and
+Mars swirled and raged around Georg as though he were engulfed in the
+Iguazu or Niagara. Passive himself at first&mdash;a spectator merely; yet he
+was the keystone of the Earth Council's strength. The Brende secret was
+desired by the publics of all three worlds. Even greater than its real
+value as a medical discovery, it swayed the popular mind.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano possessed the Brende secret. The only model, and Dr. Brende's
+notes were in his hands. Washington had ordered him to give them up, and
+he had refused. But now the status was changed. Georg held the secret
+also&mdash;and Georg was in Washington. It left the Earth Council free to
+deal with Tarrano.</p>
+
+<p>During those days Georg was housed in official apartments, with Maida
+very often near him. Inactive, they were much together, discussing their
+respective worlds. The Princess Maida was hereditary ruler of the Venus
+Central State&mdash;the only living heir to the throne. When Tarrano's forces
+threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by
+spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the
+tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had
+been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to
+Tarrano.</p>
+
+<p>In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by
+a Council. The public loved her&mdash;but a majority of it had gone astray
+when she disappeared&mdash;lured by Tarrano's glowing promises.</p>
+
+<p>Maida told Georg all this with a sweet, gentle sadness that was
+pathetic. And with an earnest, patriotic fervor&mdash;the love of her country
+and her people for whom she would give her life.</p>
+
+<p>She added: "If only I could get back there, Georg&mdash;I could make them
+realize the right course. I could win them again. Tarrano will play them
+false&mdash;<i>you</i> know it, and so do I."</p>
+
+<p>Pathetic earnestness in this girl still no more than seventeen! And
+Georg, sitting beside her, gazing into her solemn, beautiful face, felt
+that indeed she could win them, with those limpid blue eyes and her
+words which rang with sincerity and truth.</p>
+
+<p>They sat generally in an unofficial instrument room adjoining the
+government offices. A room high in a spire above the upper levels of the
+city. And around them rolled the momentous events of which they were the
+center.</p>
+
+<p>The time limit of the Earth Council's ultimatum to Tarrano expired.
+Already Tarrano had answered it with defiance. But on the stroke of its
+expiration, came another note from him. Georg read it from the tape to
+Maida:</p>
+
+<p><i>"To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject&mdash;&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not
+see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand
+that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he
+did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to
+recall it. He had already recalled it, in fact. He assured the Council
+that it was now on its way back, direct to Washington. He had done this
+because he felt that the Earth leaders were making a mistake&mdash;a grave
+mistake in the interests of their own people. Georg Brende was in
+Washington&mdash;that was true. But Georg Brende was a silly, conceited young
+man, flattered by his prominence in the public eye, his head turned by
+his own importance. Dr. Brende had been a genius. The son was a mere
+upstart, pretending to a scientific knowledge he did not have.</p>
+
+<p>"Trickery!" exclaimed Georg. "But he knows the people may believe it.
+Some of them undoubtedly will."</p>
+
+<p>"And you cannot thwart your public," Maida said. "Even your Earth
+Council, secure in its power, cannot do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," Georg rejoined. He was indignant, as well he might have been.
+"Tarrano is trying to avoid being attacked. Time&mdash;any delay&mdash;is what he
+wants."</p>
+
+<p>The note went on. Tarrano&mdash;seeking only the welfare of the people&mdash;could
+not stand by and see the Earth Council wreck its public. Tarrano had
+reconsidered his former note. The Brende model was vital, and since the
+Earth Council demanded the model (for the benefit of its people) the
+people should have it. In a few days it would be in Washington. Tarrano
+himself would not come to Washington. His doing that could not help the
+public welfare, and he was but human. The Earth Council had made itself
+his enemy; he could not be expected to trust his life in enemy hands.</p>
+
+<p>The note closed with the suggestion that the Council withdraw its patrol
+from Venia. This talk of war was childish. Withdraw the patrol, and
+Tarrano himself might go back to Venus. He would wait a day for answer
+to this request; and if it were not granted&mdash;if the patrol were not
+entirely removed&mdash;then the Brende model would be destroyed. And if the
+publics of three worlds wished to depend upon a conceited, ignorant
+young man like Georg Brende for the everlasting life, they were welcome
+to do so.</p>
+
+<p>A clever piece of trickery, and it was awkward to deal with. One had
+only to watch its effect upon the public to realize how insidious it
+was. Tarrano had told us&mdash;in the tower in Venia: "I shall have to
+bargain with them." And chuckled as he said it.</p>
+
+<p>A series of notes from the Earth Council and back again, followed during
+the next few days. But the patrol was not withdrawn; nor was war
+declared. The Earth Council knew that Tarrano had not ordered the model
+back&mdash;nor would he destroy it. Yet if the Earth forces were to overwhelm
+Tarrano, and the model were lost, a revolution upon Earth could easily
+take place before Georg could convince the people that he was able to
+build them another model.</p>
+
+<p>This delay&mdash;while Tarrano was held virtually a prisoner in Venia&mdash;was
+decided upon at the instigation of Georg himself. He&mdash;Georg&mdash;would
+address the publics of the three worlds. With Maida beside him to
+influence her own public in Venus, they would convince everyone that
+Georg had the secret&mdash;and that he alone would use it for the public
+good.</p>
+
+<p>Youthful plans! Youthful enthusiasm! The belief that they could win
+confidence to their cause by the very truthfulness in their hearts! The
+belief that right makes might&mdash;which Tarrano would have told them was
+untrue!</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was a good plan, and the Earth Council approved it, since it
+could do no harm to try. And it perhaps would have been successful but
+for one thing, of which even at that moment I&mdash;in Venia&mdash;was aware.
+Tarrano's trickery was not all on the surface. He had written into that
+note&mdash;by a code of diabolically ingenious wording&mdash;a secret message to
+his own spies in Washington. Commands for them to obey. A dozen of his
+spies were in the Earth government's most trusted, highest service&mdash;and
+some of them were there in Washington, close around Georg and Maida as
+they made their altruistic plan.</p>
+
+<p>The attempt was to be made from the high-power sending station in the
+mountains of West North America.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Our observatory was there; and the
+only one of its kind on the Earth. It was equipped to send a radio voice
+audibly to every part of the Earth; and by helio, also to Mars and
+Venus, there to be re-transformed from light to sound and heard
+throughout those other worlds. And moving images of the speakers, seen
+on the finders all over the Earth, Venus and Mars simultaneously. The
+power, the generating equipment was at this station; and no matter where
+in the sky Venus or Mars might be, from the Mountain Station the
+vibrations of mingled light and sound were relayed elsewhere on Earth to
+other stations from which the helios could be flashed direct.</p>
+
+<p>To Skylan, as the Mountain Station was popularly called, Georg and Maida
+were taken in official aero under heavy convoy. Yet, even then, at their
+very elbows, spies of Tarrano must have been lurking.</p>
+
+<p>The official flyer landed them on the broad stage amid deep, soft snow.
+It was night&mdash;a brief trip from the late afternoon, through dinner and
+they were there. A night of clear shining stars&mdash;brilliant gems in deep
+purple. Clear, crisp, rarefied air; a tumbling expanse of white, with
+the stars stretched over it like a close-hung canopy.</p>
+
+<p>They were ushered into the low, rambling building. The attempt was to be
+made at once. Mars was mounting the eastern sky; and to the west, Venus
+was setting. Both visible from direct helios at that moment&mdash;Red Mars,
+from this mountain top, glowing like the tip of an arrant-cylinder up
+there.</p>
+
+<p>In the brief time since the party had left Washington, the worlds had
+been notified. The eyes and ears of the millions of three planets were
+waiting to see and hear this Georg Brende and this Princess Maida.</p>
+
+<p>The sending room was small, circular, and crowded with apparatus. And
+above its dome, opened to the sky, wherein the intensified helios shaded
+so that no ray of them might blind the operators, were sputtering as
+though eager to be away with their messages.</p>
+
+<p>With a dozen officials around him, Georg prepared to enter the sending
+room. He had parted from Maida a few moments before, when she had left
+him to be shown to her apartment by the women attendants.</p>
+
+<p>As she moved away, on impulse he had stopped her. "We shall succeed,
+Maida."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand touched his arm. A brave smile, a nod, and she had passed on,
+leaving him standing there gazing after her with pounding heart.
+Pounding, not with excitement at the task before him in that sending
+room; pounding with the sudden knowledge that the welfare of this frail
+little woman meant more to him than the safety of all these worlds.</p>
+
+<p>At last Georg stood in the sending room. The officials sat grouped
+around him. Maida had not yet arrived from her apartment. There was a
+small platform, upon which she and Georg were to stand together. He took
+his place upon it, waiting for her.</p>
+
+<p>Before him was the sending disc; it glowed red as they turned the
+current into it. Then they illumined the mirrors; a circle of them, each
+with its image of Georg upon the platform. The white lights above him
+flashed on, beating down upon him with their hot, dazzling glare. The
+reflected beams from the mirrors, struck upward into the dome overhead.
+The helios up there were humming and sputtering loudly.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the circle of intense white light in which Georg was standing,
+the spectators sat in gloom behind the mirrors. Maida had not come. The
+Skylan Director, impatient ordered a woman to go for her.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, Georg said to this Director:</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;these lights&mdash;this heat. It makes me feel faint&mdash;standing here."</p>
+
+<p>Georg had stumbled from the platform. Between two of the mirrors, shaded
+from the glare, the perturbed Director met him. Moisture beaded Georg's
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll&mdash;be quite all right in a moment. I'm going over there." He smiled
+weakly. A dozen feet away there was an opened outer casement. It looked
+down twenty feet, perhaps, to the deep snow that covered the station's
+grounds. The Director started with Georg; but Georg pushed him violently
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! You let me alone!" His accents were those of a spoiled child.
+The Director hesitated, and Georg, with a hand to his forehead, wavered
+toward the casement. The Director saw him standing there; saw him sway,
+then fall or jump forward, and disappear.</p>
+
+<p>They rushed outside. The snow was trampled all about with heavy
+footprints, but Georg had vanished. From the women's apartment, the
+attendant came back. The Princess Maida could not be found!</p>
+
+<p>And in those moments of confusion, from outside across the starlit snow,
+an aero was rising. Silent, black&mdash;and no one saw it as it winged away
+into the night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Tara</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano
+dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us.
+Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano&mdash;there in the tower
+room&mdash;rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and
+found Elza bending over me.</p>
+
+<p>I sat up, dizzily, with the room reeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! Jac, dear&mdash;&mdash;" She made me lie back, until I could feel the blood
+returning to my clammy face; and the room steadied, and the clanging of
+the gongs in my ears died away.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;why, I'm&mdash;all right," I gasped. And I lay there, clinging to her
+hand. Dear little Elza! In that moment of relief that I had come to my
+senses, she could not hide the love which even now was unspoken between
+us. Tarrano! I lay there weak and faint; but with the pressure of Elza's
+hand, I did not fear that this Tarrano could win her from me.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar was standing across the room from us. He came forward.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not die," he said; and smiled. "I told her you would not die."</p>
+
+<p>It was now morning. Wolfgar and Elza told me I had been unconscious some
+hours. We were still imprisoned as before in the tower. Georg had
+escaped with Maida, they said; or at least, they hoped so. And they
+described the burning of the other tower. The city had been in a
+turmoil. It still was; I could hear now the shouts of the crowd outside.
+And turning as I lay there, through the casement I could see the
+blackened, still smoking ruins of Maida's tower; the broken iron
+terrace; the spider bridge melted away, hanging loose and dangling like
+an aimless pendulum.</p>
+
+<p>The latest news, Elza and Wolfgar could not give me. The instrument room
+of our tower had been disconnected by Tarrano when he left some hours
+before. As they said it, we heard a familiar buzz; then the drone of an
+announcer's voice. Tarrano's guard had doubtless observed my recovery
+and had had orders to throw current into our instruments. Strange man,
+this Tarrano! He wished the news spread before us again. Confident of
+his own dominance over every crisis, he wanted Elza and me to hear it as
+it came from the discs.</p>
+
+<p>We went to the instrument room. I found myself weak, but quite
+uninjured. Elza left us there, and went to prepare food which I needed
+to strengthen me.</p>
+
+<p>The public events of those hours and days following, I have recounted as
+Georg saw them and took part in them in Washington. We observed them,
+here in the tower, with alternate hopes and fears. Our life of
+imprisonment went on much as before. Occasionally, Tarrano visited us,
+always making us sit like children before him, while at his ease he
+reclined on our divan.</p>
+
+<p>But he would never give us much real information; the man always was an
+enigma.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friend Georg has a wonderful plan," he announced to us ironically
+early one evening. He smiled his caustic smile. "You have seen the
+tape?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said. It was Georg's plan to address with Maida, the publics of
+Earth, Venus and Mars.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano nodded. "He and the Princess are going to convince everyone that
+I am an impostor."</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer that; and abruptly he chuckled. "That would be
+unfortunate for me&mdash;if they could do that. Do you think they'll be able
+to?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," I said.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed openly. "Of course. But they will not. That long note of mine
+to your government&mdash;you read it, naturally. But you didn't read in it my
+secret instructions to my agents in Washington, did you? Well, they were
+there in it&mdash;my commands&mdash;the letters ending its words made another
+message."</p>
+
+<p>He was amused at our discomfiture. "Simple enough? Yet really an
+intricate code in itself. It made the phrasing of the main note a little
+difficult to compose, that was all." He sat up with his accustomed snap
+of alertness, and his face turned grim. "Georg will never address his
+audience. Nor the Princess&mdash;she will never appear before those sending
+mirrors. I have seen to that." Again he was chuckling. "No, no, I could
+not let them do a thing like that. They might turn people against me."</p>
+
+<p>Elza began indignantly: "You&mdash;you are&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His gesture checked her. "Your brother is quite safe, Lady Elza. And the
+Princess Maida also. Indeed, they are on the point of falling in love
+with each other. Natural! And perfectly right. It is as I would have
+it."</p>
+
+<p>His strong brown fingers were rubbing each other with his satisfaction.
+"Curious, Lady Elza&mdash;how fortunate I am in all my plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you are," I said. "Our government has you a prisoner
+here. They didn't withdraw the patrol as you demanded, did they?"</p>
+
+<p>He frowned a trifle. "No. That was too bad. I rather hoped they would.
+It would have been a stupid thing for them to do&mdash;but still, I almost
+thought they'd do it."</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head. "What they will do is sweep down here and overwhelm
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>He shifted himself to a more comfortable position. "They are playing for
+time&mdash;so that when I fail to produce the model as I agreed, then the
+public will realize I am not to be trusted."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am playing for time, also."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed so willing to discuss the thing that I grew bolder.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you to gain by playing for time?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>He stared. "You would question me, Jac Hallen? How absurd!" He looked at
+Elza, as though to share with her his amazement at my temerity.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar said suddenly to Tarrano: "You will gain nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's face went impassive. I understood him better now; that cold,
+inscrutable look often concealed his strongest emotions. He said evenly:</p>
+
+<p>"I should prefer you not to address me, Wolfgar. A traitor such as
+you&mdash;the sound of your voice offends me."</p>
+
+<p>It struck me then as very strange&mdash;as it had for days before&mdash;that
+Tarrano should have failed to punish Wolfgar. I would have expected
+death; least of all, that Tarrano would have allowed Wolfgar to live
+here in the tower, in comparative ease and comfort. Tarrano's words now
+answered my unspoken questions. He was not looking at Wolfgar, but at
+Elza.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Wolfgar&mdash;deserve death. You know why I cannot kill you? Why I let
+you stay here in the tower?" A faint, almost wistful smile parted his
+thin lips; he did not take his eyes from Elza.</p>
+
+<p>"I am greatly handicapped, Wolfgar. The Lady Elza here would not like to
+have me put you to death. She would not even care to have me mistreat
+you. She is very tender hearted." He raised a deprecating hand. "Ah,
+Lady Elza, does that surprise you? You never told me I must be lenient
+with this traitor? Of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;&mdash;" Elza began, but he stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Lady Elza, I have already learned to obey you." He was smiling
+very gently. "Learned to obey even your unspoken commands."</p>
+
+<p>I wondered how much of this attitude might be sincere, and how much
+calculated trickery. Could Elza, indeed, control him?</p>
+
+<p>She must have had much the same thought, for she said with a forced
+smile: "You give me a great deal of power. If you&mdash;wish to obey me,
+you'll set us free&mdash;send us all to Washington."</p>
+
+<p>That amused him. "Ah, but I cannot do that."</p>
+
+<p>She gained confidence. "You are willing to be very gracious in things
+which do not inconvenience you, Tarrano. It is not very impressive."</p>
+
+<p>He looked hurt. "You misinterpret. I will do for you anything I can. But
+you must remember, Lady Elza, that my judgment is better than yours. I
+would not let you lead us into disaster. You are a gentle little woman.
+Your instincts are toward humane treatment of everyone&mdash;toward mercy
+rather than justice. In all such things, I shall be guided by you.
+Justice&mdash;tempered with mercy. A union very, very beautiful, Lady
+Elza ... But, you see, beyond that&mdash;you are wrong. I am a man, and in
+the big things I must dominate. It is I who guide, and you who follow.
+You see that, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The sincerity in his voice was unmistakable. And my heart sank as I
+watched Elza. Her gaze fell, and a flush mantled her cheeks. Tarrano
+added quietly: "We shall have no difficulty, you and I, Lady Elza. Each
+of us a place, and a duty. A destiny together...."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off and rose quickly to his feet. "Enough. I have been weak to
+say so much as this."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to leave us, and I became aware of a woman's figure standing
+in the shadows of the archway across the room. She started forward as
+Tarrano glanced her way. A Venus woman of the Cold Country. Yet,
+obviously, one of good birth and breeding. A woman of perhaps 30 years,
+beautiful in the Venus cast; dressed in the conventional bodice
+breast-plates and short skirt, with grey stockings and sandals.</p>
+
+<p>Within the room, she regarded Tarrano silently. There was about her a
+quiet dignity; she stood with her tall, slim figure drawn to its full
+height. Her pure white hair was coiled upon her head, with a rich metal
+ornament to fasten it. And from it, a mantle of shimmering blue fabric
+hung down her back.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano said: "What are you doing up here? I told you to wait below."</p>
+
+<p>Her face showed no emotion. But there was a glitter to her eyes, a glow
+in their grey depths like <i>alumite</i> in the hydro-flame of a torch.</p>
+
+<p>She said slowly: "Master, I think it would be very correct if you would
+let me stay here and serve the Lady Elza. I told you that before, but
+you would not listen."</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano, with sudden decision, swung toward Elza. "This is the Elta<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+Tara. She was concerned that I should allow you to dwell here alone with
+this Jac Hallen, and this traitor from Mars." His tone conveyed infinite
+contempt for us.</p>
+
+<p>The woman said quickly: "The Lady Elza would be glad of my
+companionship." She shot a swift glance to Elza. What it was meant to
+convey, I could not have said. Perhaps Elza understood it, or thought
+she did. She spoke up.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to have you very much, indeed." She added to Tarrano, and
+there was on her face a look of feminine guile:</p>
+
+<p>"You, of course, could not refuse me so small a favor? After all your
+protestations&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He gestured impatiently. "Very well." And he added to Tara: "You will
+serve the Lady Elza as she directs."</p>
+
+<p>He stalked away into the darkened passage. In the gloom there, he
+stopped and again faced us; the light from a small blue tube in there
+illumined him dimly. He was smiling ironically.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall maintain the instruments for you. The mirrors will show you
+Georg and Maida. They are just about arriving at the Mountain Station.
+Watch them! You will see how far they progress with their wonderful
+speeches."</p>
+
+<p>He left us. We heard his measured tread as he stalked down the tower
+incline. The barrage about the tower was lifted momentarily as he went
+out. Then it came on again, with its glow beyond our casements, and its
+low electrical whine.</p>
+
+<p>I was just turning back to the room when a sound behind me made me face
+sharply about. My heart leaped into my throat. The woman Tara had
+produced from about her person a weapon of some kind. She thought she
+was unobserved, but from the angle at which I stood, I saw her. A
+gleaming metal object was in her hand. And then she launched it&mdash;a small
+flat disc of metal, thin, and with its circular edge keen as a
+knife-blade.</p>
+
+<p>Whirling with a very soft hum hardly audible, it left her hand and
+floated upward across the room. Circling the casements up near the
+ceiling, and then heading downward straight for Elza! And I saw, too,
+that the woman was guiding it by a tiny radio-control.</p>
+
+<p>The thing was so unexpected that I stood gaping. But only for an
+instant. I saw the deadly whirling knife-disc sailing for Elza.... It
+would strike her ... shear her white throat....</p>
+
+<p>With a shout of horror and anger, I leaped for the woman. But Wolfgar,
+too, had seen the disc and he went into action quicker than I. The divan
+was beside him. He snatched up a pillow; flung it upward at the disc.
+The soft pillow struck the disc; together, entangled, they fell
+harmlessly to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>I was upon the woman, snatching the handle of the control-wire from her
+hand, wrenching its connection loose from her robe. Under my onslaught,
+she fell; and I kneeled beside her, gripping her while she tore at me
+and screamed with hysterical, murderous frenzy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Love&mdash;and Hate</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I did not harm this Tara, though I was sorely tempted to; and after a
+moment we quieted her. She was crying and laughing by turns; but when we
+seated her on the divan she controlled herself and fell into a sullen
+silence. Elza, pale and frightened at her escape, faced the woman, and
+waved Wolfgar and me aside. Strange little Elza! Resolute, she stood
+there, and would brook no interference with her purpose. Wolfgar and I
+withdrew a pace or two and stood watching them.</p>
+
+<p>Tara's breast was heaving with her pent emotion. She sat drooping on the
+divan, her face buried in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Elza said gently: "Why did you do that, Tara?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer; only the woman's catching breath as she struggled
+with her sobs. Across the background of my consciousness came the
+thought that Tarrano or one of his guards would doubtless momentarily
+appear to investigate all this turmoil. And I was vaguely conscious also
+that from our instrument room the sounds of an unusual activity were
+coming. But I did not heed them. Elza was insisting:</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do that, Tara? Why should you want to harm me?"</p>
+
+<p>Tara looked up. "You have stolen the man I love."</p>
+
+<p>"I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Tarrano&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off, set her lips firmly together as though to repress further
+words; and her fine grey eyes, filled with unbidden tears, were
+smoldering to their depths with hate.</p>
+
+<p>Impulsively Elza sank to the floor beside the woman. But Tara drew away.</p>
+
+<p>Elza said: "Tarrano&mdash;he is a wonderful man, Tara. A genius&mdash;the greatest
+figure of these three worlds...."</p>
+
+<p>My heart sank to hear her say it!</p>
+
+<p>"... a genius, Tara. You should be proud to love him...."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;&mdash;" The woman's writhing fingers seemed about to reach for Elza. I
+took a sudden step forward, then relaxed. Elza added quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"But I would not steal Tarrano from you. Don't you realize that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's true."</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! You have stolen him! With your queer Earth beauty&mdash;that colored
+hair of yours&mdash;those rounded limbs&mdash;you've bewitched him! I can see it.
+You can't lie to me! I made him angry once and he admitted it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I say yes. You've stolen him from me. He loves you&mdash;and he mocks and
+laughs at me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tara, wait. I do not love Tarrano, I tell you. I would not have
+him&mdash;&mdash;" How my heart leaped to hear her say it so convincingly. She
+added:</p>
+
+<p>"He loves me, perhaps&mdash;but I can't help that. He has me prisoner here. I
+am forced&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You lie! You are playing to win him! What girl would refuse? You say
+yourself he is the greatest man of the ages. You lie when you tell me
+you do not want him!"</p>
+
+<p>Elza had taken the woman by the shoulders. "Tara, listen&mdash;you <i>must</i>
+listen! Are you mated with Tarrano?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! But years ago he promised me. I took his name then, as we do in the
+Cold Country. They still call me Tara! Years I have waited, true to my
+promise&mdash;with even my name of maidenhood relinquished. <i>His</i> name&mdash;Tara!
+And now he tosses me aside&mdash;because <i>you</i>, only an Earth woman, have
+bewitched him."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't want to bewitch him, Tara." Elza's voice was very gentle; and
+a whimsical smile was plucking at her lips. "You think I want him
+because he is a genius&mdash;the greatest man of our time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that why <i>you</i> want him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I love him."</p>
+
+<p>"You loved him before he was very great, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Back in the Cold Country. When he was only a boy&mdash;and I was no
+more than a girl half grown. I love him for himself, I tell you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Elza interrupted; and her voice risen to greater firmness, held a
+quality of earnest pleading.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Tara! You love Tarrano for himself&mdash;because you are a woman
+capable of love. It is the man you love&mdash;not his deeds, or his fame or
+his destiny. Isn't that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then won't you give me credit for being a woman with instincts as fine
+as your own? The love of a good woman goes unbidden. You can't win it by
+conquering worlds and flinging them at her feet. Tarrano thinks you can.
+He thinks to dazzle me with his feats of prowess. He wants to buy my
+love with thrones for me to grace as queen. He thinks my awe and fear of
+him are love. He thinks a woman's love is born of respect, and
+admiration, and promises of wealth. But you and I, Tara&mdash;we know it
+isn't. We know it's born of a glance&mdash;born in poverty and
+sickness&mdash;adversity&mdash;every ill circumstance&mdash;born without reason&mdash;for no
+reason at all. Just born! And if anything else gives it birth&mdash;it is not
+a true woman's love. You and I know that, Tara. Don't you see?"</p>
+
+<p>Tara was sobbing unrestrainedly now, and Elza, with arms around her,
+went on:</p>
+
+<p>"You should be proud to love Tarrano. If I loved him, I would be proud
+of him, too. But I do not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A step sounded near at hand. Tarrano stood in the archway, with arms
+folded, regarding us sardonically.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Defying Worlds</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"So?" Tarrano eyed us, evidently in no hurry to speak further, seemingly
+amused at our confusion. Had he heard much of what the two women had
+said? All of it, or most of it, doubtless, with his instruments as he
+approached. But, even with the knowledge of Elza's vehement appraisal of
+him, he seemed now quite imperturbable. His gaze touched me and Wolfgar,
+then returned to the women.</p>
+
+<p>"So? It would seem, Tara, that your plan to wait upon the Lady Elza was
+not very successful." He dropped the irony, adding crisply: "Tara, come
+here!"</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet obediently, and stood facing him. Humble, fearful,
+yet a trifle defiant. For a moment he frowned upon her thoughtfully;
+then he said to Elza:</p>
+
+<p>"Your policy of mercy is very embarrassing, Lady Elza." He made a
+deprecating gesture, and again his eyes were twinkling. "This woman
+threatened your life. My guards were lax&mdash;though I must admit they had
+good excuse, with the other tasks which I thrust upon them.... Your life
+was threatened&mdash;you escaped by the merest chance of fortune. You know,
+of course, what justice would bid me do to this would-be murderess?"</p>
+
+<p>Elza was on her feet, standing beside Tara. She did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano now was smiling. "I must let her go unpunished? Embarrassing,
+this merciful policy to which you have committed me! Yet&mdash;your will is
+my law as you know&mdash;though I feel that some day it will involve us in
+disaster.... You, Tara, will not be punished, much as you deserve it."
+He paused, then said as an afterthought: "You, Jac Hallen, I thank you
+for what you tried to do in thwarting the attack. You acted in very
+clumsy fashion&mdash;but, at least, you doubtless did your best." Gravely he
+turned to Wolfgar. "I shall not forget, Wolfgar, that, in an emergency,
+you saved the life of Lady Elza.... Enough! These are busy moments. You
+chose an awkward time to raise this turmoil. Come with me&mdash;all of you."</p>
+
+<p>He summoned Argo and two other guards. Unceremoniously, and with more
+haste than I had ever seen in Tarrano, he led us from the building. A
+hint of his purpose came to me, as he bade Elza gather up her few
+personal belongings, and gave them to a guard to carry.</p>
+
+<p>In a group, he herded us across the spider bridge. It was early evening,
+but night had fully fallen. The city was ablaze with its colored lights.
+We crossed the bridge, passed through a tunnel-arcade, and came out to a
+platform which was at the base of a skeleton tower. Its naked girders
+rose some seven hundred feet above us. The highest structure in the
+city. A waiting lifting-car was there. We entered, and it shot us
+upward.</p>
+
+<p>At the top, the narrowed structure was enclosed into a single room some
+thirty feet square. A many-windowed room, with a small metal balcony
+surrounding it outside. Immediately above the room, at the very peak of
+the tower, was a single, powerful light-beam; its silver searching ray
+swept the cloudless, starry sky in a slow circle.</p>
+
+<p>The room was crowded with instruments. Unlighted, save by the reflected
+glow of its many image-mirrors, all of which seemed in full operation. A
+dozen intent men sat at the tables; a silent room, but for the hum and
+click of the instruments.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano said softly: "We have been very busy while you below were
+engaged with your petty hates."</p>
+
+<p>He seated himself at a table apart, upon which was a single mirror, and
+he gathered us around him. The mirror was dark. He called:</p>
+
+<p>"Rax&mdash;let me see Mars&mdash;you have them by relay? The Hill City?"</p>
+
+<p>The mirror flashed on. From an aperture overhead, a tiny beam of the
+blue helio-transformer came down to it. In the mirror I saw an image of
+the familiar Hill City. A terraced slope, dotted with the cubical
+buildings, spires and tunnel mouths. An empty channel<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> curved down
+across the landscape from the north.</p>
+
+<p>A distant scene, empty and lifeless save for black puffs which rose in
+the air above the city.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano called impatiently: "Closer, Rax!"</p>
+
+<p>The image dissolved, blurred; turned red, violet, then white. We seemed
+now upon a height close above the city. It was seething with confusion.
+Fighting going on in the streets. Animals and men, fighting; a crowd of
+the Little People thronging a public square, with beasts of war charging
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The Hairless Men; I had heard of them, with their animals trained to
+fight, while they&mdash;the humans&mdash;lurked behind. A mysterious, almost
+grewsome race, to us who live on Earth&mdash;these hairless dwellers of the
+underground Mars. Dead-white of skin; sleek and hairless; heavily
+muscled from the work of their world; and almost blind from living in
+the dark.</p>
+
+<p>They were swarming now into the Hill City of the ruling Little People.
+The beasts, at their commands, were running wild through the
+streets ... dripping jaws, tearing at the women ... the children....</p>
+
+<p>I felt Elza turn away, shuddering.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano chuckled. "The revolt. It came, of course, as I planned. This
+Little People government&mdash;it was annoying ... Colley!"</p>
+
+<p>"Master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Send the message, Colley. Fling it audibly over Mars! Tell the rulers
+of the Little People that if they send up the green bomb of
+surrender&mdash;Tarrano will spare them further bloodshed. Tell them that I
+am not giving the Brende secret to Earth. In a moment I shall defy the
+Earth Council. Promise them that the Brende secret is going to Mars.
+Assure them they will have everlasting life for everyone.... Wohl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the Cave Station."</p>
+
+<p>The mirror went dark. Then it turned a dazzling yellow. A cavern in the
+interior of Mars. A dark scene of wavering yellow torches. Around a
+table of instruments sat a score of hairless men. Tarrano snatched up a
+mouthpiece&mdash;murmured slowly into it. I could see the leader of the
+hairless men nod after a time, as the message reached him. And I saw him
+turn away to issue swift orders as Tarrano had commanded.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano said brusquely: "Enough!... Wohl!"</p>
+
+<p>The mirror went dark. A voice called: "Master, the green bomb has gone
+up from the Hill City! Do you wish to see?"</p>
+
+<p>"No.... Give me Venus. Olgan! Are they quiet on Venus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Master."</p>
+
+<p>"Congratulate them that we have conquered the Little People. Tell them
+Mars is ours now! Tell them I am coming to Venus at once&mdash;with the
+Brende model...."</p>
+
+<p>"Master, you wish to see Venus? I have direct communication&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Another voice interrupted. "The Earth Council, Master! They demand an
+explanation of why you say the Brende model is going to Mars. You have
+promised it to Earth. They demand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano rasped: "Tell them to wait ... I don't want Venus,
+Olgan.... Megar! Give me the Earth Mountain Station."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to me, and his voice dropped again to that characteristic
+sardonic drawl:</p>
+
+<p>"We must see how your friend Georg Brende is faring."</p>
+
+<p>The mirror showed Georg, standing irresolute on the platform before the
+sending discs.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano called: "The Princess Maida&mdash;can't you locate her?"</p>
+
+<p>The scene blurred momentarily, then showed us the outside of the
+Station. A white expanse of snow, with purple starlit sky above. From a
+side door of the building, as we watched, the figures of two women
+appeared. A woman leading Maida. As they came out, with Maida all
+unsuspecting, from the shadows a group of men pounced upon them&mdash;dragged
+Maida away.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano laughed. "Enough!... Show me Georg Brende again.... Hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>We saw Georg waver and leap through the window, fall into the snow,
+where, from the shadows of the building, other men rushed out upon
+him ... hurried him away after the captive Maida....</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's laugh was grim and triumphant. "Ha! We win there, also!
+Enough! Nunz? Nunz&mdash;now you can give me the Earth Council! Where is it
+sitting? Washington, or Great London?"</p>
+
+<p>"Washington, Master."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well.... No, never mind connecting me. You speak for me. Tell them
+I've changed my mind. The Brende model is not coming to Washington. Tell
+them Georg Brende is lost to them, also. Tell them I declare war!
+<i>Tarrano the Conqueror</i> declares war on the Earth! Tell them that, with
+my compliments. Tell them to come down here and overwhelm me&mdash;it ought
+to be very easy!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Escape</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>That <i>Tarrano</i> should thus defy the Earth, when by every law of rational
+circumstance the move seemed to spell only his own disaster, was
+characteristic of the man. He stood there in the instrument room at the
+peak of the skeleton tower in Venia and rasped out to the Earth Council
+his defiance. Silence followed&mdash;silence unbroken save by the hiss and
+click of the instruments as the message was sent.</p>
+
+<p>And then Tarrano ordered thrown upon himself the lights and sending
+mirrors so that his own image might be available to all of the public
+and Earth officials who cared to look upon it. Within the circle of
+mirrors he stood drawn to his full height; his eyes flashing, heavy
+brows lowered, and a sardonic smile&mdash;almost a leer&mdash;pulling at his thin
+lips. The embodiment of defiance. Yet to those who knew him well&mdash;as I
+was beginning to know him&mdash;there was in his eyes a gleam of irony, as
+though even in this situation he saw humor. A game, with worlds and
+nations as his pawns&mdash;a game wherein, though he had apparently lost,
+with the confidence of his genius he knew that the hidden move he was
+about to make would extricate him.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough," he rasped.</p>
+
+<p>The mirrors went dark. He turned away; and still without appearance of
+haste he drew Wolfgar, Elza and me to the balcony. Together we stood
+gazing over the lights of the city below us.</p>
+
+<p>A cloudless, starry sky. Empty of air-craft; but to the north just below
+the horizon, we knew that the line of war vessels was hovering. Even
+now, doubtless, they had their orders to descend upon us. Tarrano seemed
+waiting, and I suppose we stood there half an hour. Occasionally he
+would sight an instrument toward the north; and by the orders he gave at
+intervals I knew that preparations for action on his part were under
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour. Then abruptly from below the northern horizon lights came
+up&mdash;spreading colored beams. The Earth war vessels! A line of them as
+far as we could see from left to right, mounting up into the sky as they
+winged their way toward us&mdash;a line spreading out in a broad arc. And
+then, behind us, I saw others appear. We were surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring sight, that vast ring of approaching
+colored lights. Red, green and purple&mdash;slowly moving eyes. Light-rockets
+sometimes mounting above them, to burst with a soundless glare of white
+light in the sky; and underneath, the spreading white search-beams,
+sweeping down to the dark forest that lay all about us.</p>
+
+<p>Soon, in the white glare of the bombs, we could distinguish the actual
+shapes of the vessels. Still Tarrano did not move from his place by the
+balcony rail. He stood there, with a hand contemplatively under his
+chin, as though absorbed by an interest in the scene purely impersonal.
+Was he going to give himself up? Stand there inactive while these armed
+forces of the most powerful world in the Solar System swept down upon
+him?</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly he snapped his instrument back to his belt. He had not used it
+since the hostile lights had appeared. Previously, I knew, he had been
+watching those lights, with the curved ray of the instrument when the
+lights themselves had been below the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>He turned now to me. "They are here, Jac Hallen. Almost here. And I am
+at their mercy." His tone was ironic; then it hardened into grimness. He
+was addressing me, but I knew it was for Elza's benefit he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I came here to Earth, Jac Hallen, for certain things. I find them now
+accomplished. I belong here no longer." He laughed. "I would not force
+myself into a war prematurely. That would be very unwise. I think&mdash;we
+shall have to avoid this&mdash;engagement. I am&mdash;slightly outnumbered."</p>
+
+<p>He called an order, quite calmly over his shoulder. I suppose, at that
+moment, the Earth war vessels were no more than five miles away. The
+whole sky was a kaleidoscope of darting lights. In answer to his order,
+from the peak of our tower a light bomb mounted&mdash;a vertical ray of green
+light. The bomb of surrender!</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano chuckled. "That should halt them. Come! We must start."</p>
+
+<p>He held a brief colloquy with a Venus man who appeared beside him. The
+man nodded and hastened back into the instrument room. The green light
+of our bomb had died away. The lights in the sky began fading&mdash;the whole
+sky fading, turning to blackness! I became aware that Tarrano had thrown
+around our tower a temporary isolation barrage. For a few moments&mdash;while
+the current he had at his command could hold it&mdash;we could not be seen on
+the image finders of the advancing vessels.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano repeated: "That should hold them&mdash;I have surrendered! They
+should be triumphant. And outside our barrage, our men will bargain with
+them. Ten minutes! We should be able to hold them off that long at
+least. Come, Lady Elza. We must start now."</p>
+
+<p>With a scant ceremony in sharp contrast to his courteous words to Elza,
+he hurried us off. Three of us&mdash;Elza, Wolfgar and myself, with one
+attendant who still carried Elza's personal belongings. Hurried us into
+the vertical car which had brought us up into the tower. It descended
+now, down the iron skeleton shaft. Outside the girders I could see only
+the blackness of the barrage, with faint snapping sparks.</p>
+
+<p>Silently we descended. It seemed very far down. And suddenly I realized
+that we were going lower than the ground level. The barrage sparks had
+vanished. The blackness now was a normal darkness; and in it I could see
+slipping upward the smooth black sides of the vertical shaft into which
+we were dropping. And the sulphuric smell of the barrage was gone. The
+air now smelt of earth&mdash;the heavy, close air of underground.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know how far down we went. A thousand feet perhaps. The thing
+surprised me. Yet in those moments my mind encompassed it; and many of
+Tarrano's motives which I had not reasoned out before now seemed plain.
+He had come from Venus to the Earth, possibly several months ago. Had
+come directly here to Venia and set up his headquarters. His purpose on
+Earth&mdash;as he had just told me&mdash;did not lie with warfare. While he was
+here his forces had conquered the Great City of Venus, and just now, the
+Hill City of Mars. He controlled Venus and Mars&mdash;but he was still far
+from ready to attack the Earth.</p>
+
+<p>He had come to the Earth in person for several important purposes. For
+one&mdash;he desired the Brende model and Dr. Brende's notes. He had them
+now; they were, in reality, at this present moment in the Great City of
+Venus. Also, with the Brende secret&mdash;to control it absolutely&mdash;he had to
+have Georg Brende. Well, as I was soon to realize, Georg was now his
+captive. And the Princess Maida? His purpose in holding her was
+two-fold. She had, now as always in the Venus Central State, a
+tremendous sentimental sway upon her people. Tarrano had abducted her,
+forcibly to remove her from the scene of action, so that during her
+unexplained absence his propaganda would have more influence. He had
+brought her here to Earth; and now his plan was to have Georg Brende and
+her fall in love with each other. He still hoped to win Georg to his
+cause, by giving him the Princess Maida, if for no other reason. And
+with Maida married to Georg&mdash;and Georg in Tarrano's service&mdash;Maida
+herself would turn her influence in Venus to consolidate her people to
+Tarrano.</p>
+
+<p>These, in part, were Tarrano's present plans and motives. They were
+working out well. And&mdash;as he had said&mdash;the Earth did not concern him now
+as a battle-ground. Later ... But even with this sudden insight which
+seemed to come to me, I was inadequate to grasp what later he was to
+attempt.</p>
+
+<p>While thus occupied with my thoughts, we were steadily descending into
+the ground under Venia&mdash;dropping out of sight while above us, perhaps by
+now, the eager warcraft of Earth were overwhelming the city. Tarrano had
+not spoken; but when at last our little car bumped gently at the bottom,
+he said smilingly: "We are here, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>We left the car, and passed into a dim-lighted cavern. I saw a lateral
+black tunnel-mouth yawning nearby, with a shining rail at its top and
+bottom, one above the other. And between the rails was a metal vehicle.
+A long, narrow car; yet with its turtle-back and its propelling gas-tube
+at the rear, with a rudder on each side of the tube, I realized that it
+was designed also for sub-sea travel. A small affair. Ten feet at its
+greatest width, and fifty or sixty feet long.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing startling in this evidence of underground and sub-sea
+transportation. But that it should be here in primitive Venia surprised
+me. Then I realized that Tarrano had been here perhaps many months.
+Quietly, secretly he had constructed this underground road. For his
+escape, I could not doubt it. Indeed, I did not doubt but that the man
+had anticipated practically every event which had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>We found in the car, or boat if you will, a variety of attendants and
+personal belongings. Tara was there; I saw her sitting alone on one of
+the distant rings of seats. And Argo was among us&mdash;and others whom I had
+learned to know by sight and name. It was the party and equipment which
+Tarrano had probably originally brought with him from Venus. We, the
+last arrivals in the car, took our places. The doors slid closed. The
+car vibrated slightly; purred with its forward motors. We were started.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a long trip. How far we went I have no means of knowing. But
+after a time, by the changed motion and sounds, I realized that we were
+traversing water. Then above us after another interval, they opened a
+hatchway. The pure fresh air of night streamed in upon us. Every light
+in the boat had been extinguished. At Tarrano's command I followed him
+up the small spider incline and through the hatchway. We stood on a
+little circular space of the turtle-deck, well aft&mdash;an observation space
+enclosed by a low metal rail. A few feet below us dark glossy water was
+slipping past.</p>
+
+<p>At a lazy hasteless pace, we were passing along what I saw to be a broad
+river. The Riola Amazonia<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> I afterward learned it to be. Heavy banks
+of luxurious foliage, dark and silent. Inundated in places. And after a
+few moments we slackened, turned sharply into one of the inundated coves
+and nosed slowly amid a tangle of the jungle bank.</p>
+
+<p>And then I saw, hidden here in the recesses of this pathless forest, a
+small inter-planetary flyer, painted a hazy grey-blue. Around and over
+it the vegetation had been carefully, cunningly trained. A few cautious
+lights illumined it now; but without them, and even in daylight, I knew
+that from above it could never be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Our party entered it&mdash;a small but surprisingly luxurious vessel. The
+foliage from above it was cut away by ready workmen; and in half an hour
+more we were rising from the forest. Straight up, into that cloudless
+sky. The land dropped away beneath us; visually concave at first as the
+circular horizon seemed to rise with us. The sky overhead fortunately
+was empty&mdash;nothing in sight to bar our outward flight. And we carried no
+lights.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment or two, so swiftly did we gather velocity, the lights of
+Venia&mdash;a distant patch of them&mdash;were visible. Then, further away, I
+presently saw the grey expanse of open sea. And as we mounted, the
+simulated concavity of the Earth turned convex. I had never seen it
+thus&mdash;had never been so far above its surface before. A huge grey ball
+down there which was our Earth. Outlines of sea and land. Then
+continents and oceans, enveloped by patches of cloud area. A
+grey ball, changing to a glowing, vaguely dull red; then silver.
+Dwindling&mdash;gleaming brighter silver on one side where the sunlight
+struck it.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the realms of outer, inter-planetary space!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Playground of Venus</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>After a trip uneventful&mdash;save that to me, taking it for the first time,
+it was an experience never to be forgotten in a lifetime&mdash;we landed at
+the Great City of Venus. We had sent no messages during the trip, and
+with our grey-blue color, I think we escaped telescopic and even radio
+observation by the Earth. Into our vessel's small instrument room, where
+Tarrano spent most of his time, reports of the news occasionally drifted
+in. But his connection&mdash;small and inadequate&mdash;was often broken. Nor did
+Tarrano this time seem interested in having Wolfgar, Elza and me learn
+the news. Yet it was not unfavorable to him. I gathered that the Earth
+formally had accepted his declaration of war. Relations with Venus&mdash;and
+with Mars also, had been discontinued. The mails no longer left. The
+helios were stopped. But, so far as I could learn, the Earth was
+undertaking no offensive action. For the present, certainly.</p>
+
+<p>Soon we were beyond reach of all messages save helios, which were not in
+operation. And in another day news began reaching us from Venus. But
+from this Tarrano barred us.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Venus, as we dropped upon it, first as a tremendous lovely
+crescent of silver beneath us. A crescent first, and, as hours passed,
+the darkened area took shape. A ball hanging there in space. Growing
+almost momentarily larger. Soon we could distinguish cloud areas. Then
+the land&mdash;the water. A ball filling half our lower segment of sky. Then
+all of it.</p>
+
+<p>We reached the Venus atmosphere, passed through cloud masses, and out
+again into the brilliant sunshine. Below us, glowing with the glory of
+mid-day, lay the Venus Central State. Rolling hills with distant
+mountain peaks, the highest of them far-away, glittering white with the
+sunlight on their snow-caps.</p>
+
+<p>A land of warmth and beauty. Dazzling green, with a luxuriant
+vegetation, tropical yet strange.</p>
+
+<p>As we dropped lower, I sat alone, gazing downward. We were passing over
+the land now, at an altitude of no more than twenty thousand feet. A
+vivid land. Vivid sunlight; inky shadows; a green to everything&mdash;a
+solid, brilliant green. Amid it, spots of other colors; splashes of
+yellow; patches of scarlet as though some huge field were massed with
+scarlet blossoms. And trailing silver threads&mdash;rivers and streams. Or
+again glittering silver lakes nestling in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>A fairyland of beauty. Yet as I gazed, it seemed not the fairyland of a
+child. Not childish, but mature; for I could not miss in its aspect, a
+warmth, a quality of sensuousness. A land of dalliance and pleasure of
+the senses. And I realized then why the Venus people derived all their
+advancement of science and industry from Earthly and Martian sources. A
+hand of luxury and physical ease. People, not primitive&mdash;but decadent.</p>
+
+<p>I became aware of Wolfgar at my elbow. "It is very beautiful, eh, Jac
+Hallen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beautiful&mdash;yes. You've been here before, Wolfgar?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. "Oh yes. Soon we will reach the Great City. That too is
+strange and beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>Elza saw us together and joined us. The Great City presently came into
+distant view. Wolfgar, with that gentle voice and smile characteristic
+of him began to describe to us what we should see. Abruptly Elza said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have never really thanked you, Wolfgar. You saved my life&mdash;there when
+Tara attacked me."</p>
+
+<p>He gestured. "Your thanks are more than such a service deserves."</p>
+
+<p>As though the subject had suggested Georg and Maida to him, he added,
+"I am wondering where Georg Brende and the Princess Maida may be."</p>
+
+<p>I fancied then that I saw a quality of wistfulness in his eyes. A gentle
+little fellow, this Mars man. Queer and brooding, with strange thoughts
+not to be fathomed. He added as though to himself: "I have often
+wondered&mdash;" Then stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Elza and I had discussed it. We felt sure that Georg and Maida had been
+taken to Venus. They could have had only a few hours' start of
+ourselves. Yet this vessel we were in was unusually slow. We felt
+convinced that they had already arrived on Venus&mdash;had been there perhaps
+already for a day.</p>
+
+<p>We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; but
+soon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of the
+Central State.</p>
+
+<p>It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded by
+gently sloping hillsides. The bowl was entirely filled by water&mdash;a broad
+flat lake of silver which from this height showed us its pearly bottom.
+On the water&mdash;seen from above&mdash;the houses seemed floating&mdash;clusters of
+lily pads on a placid shining pool. They were, in reality, flat cubical
+buildings solidly built of rectangular blocks of stone, standing just
+above the water level on solid stone foundations. Always green and
+white&mdash;stones like blocks of smooth, polished marble, set in green and
+white patterns. Balconies and cornices of what might have been gleaming,
+beaten copper. Flat roofs, edged with scarlet flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the buildings were low and small. Others of several stories,
+pretentious and ornate. One very large, like a palace, standing alone on
+its verdant island.</p>
+
+<p>The houses were mostly gathered in clusters of various shapes and sizes.
+Yet a semblance of order prevailed. Winding streets of open water lay
+between the groups. There were trellised walks and arching spider
+bridges, sometimes over the streets, sometimes joining one house to
+another.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there I saw lagoons of open water, dotted with small green
+islands like parks&mdash;islands on which the vegetation grew far higher and
+more luxuriant than any even in the tropics of our Earth. Vegetation
+always under careful training and control. Profuse with flowers, vivid
+and gigantic. The houses too, were roofed with gardens&mdash;sometimes
+with pergolas and trellises of the aerial scarlet blossoms.
+Occasionally&mdash;these latter details I observed as we descended close upon
+the city&mdash;I saw houses with a tiny swimming pool on the roof&mdash;a private
+pool hidden in masses of colored flowers.</p>
+
+<p>A playground&mdash;the playground of Venus. It seemed very
+backward&mdash;uncivilized. And then Wolfgar pointed out the surrounding
+hillsides. On them, cleared of their vegetation, our modern civilization
+stood gaunt and efficient. Towers, aerials, landing stages, aerial
+trams, factories, tall stacks over the dynamo houses belching thick
+black smoke, which artificial wind-generators carefully blew away from
+the city.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of their hillside ring of necessary modernity, the people
+of the Great City had kept their playground inviolate. Work, science,
+industry&mdash;all necessary. But the real business of life was pleasure.
+Art, music, beauty.... And I am not far from thinking that unless
+abused, their formula is better than ours.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Violet Beam of Death</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>We landed on a stage at the summit of one of the nearer hillsides. Our
+coming&mdash;unheralded since we had carried no sending instruments&mdash;created
+a furor. The workers rested to watch us as we disembarked. It was not so
+different a scene, here on the hill, than might have occurred on Earth.
+We took a moving platform, down the hill, to the water's edge. A barge
+was awaiting us&mdash;a broad flat vessel with gaudy trappings. A score of
+attendants lined its sides, each with a pole to thrust it through the
+shallow water. And on its high-raised stern, beneath a canopy was a
+couch upon which Tarrano reclined, with us of his party at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>A royal barge, queerly ancient, barbaric&mdash;reminding me of the flat,
+motionless pictures of Earth's early history. Yet it was a symbol here
+on Venus, not of barbarism, but of decadence.</p>
+
+<p>We started off. I may have given a false idea of the size of the Great
+City. Its lake, indeed, was fully fifteen miles or more in diameter.
+Half a million people lived on or close around that placid stretch of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The news of Tarrano's arrival had instantly spread. Graceful boats, all
+propelled by hand, thronged our course. From them, and from every
+house-window, balcony and roof-top, a waving multitude cheered the
+coming of the Master. The new Master, to whom so recently they had given
+their allegiance&mdash;the Master who in return was to endow them with life
+everlasting.</p>
+
+<p>It was a gay, holiday throng&mdash;cheering us, tossing flower-petals down
+upon us as we passed majestically beneath the bridges. Yet among these
+gaudily dressed women and men with the luster of wealth and ease upon
+them, others mingled. Others of a lower class, poorly dressed, with the
+badge of servitude upon them, enthralled in a social peonage which I did
+not yet understand.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slaans</i>," Wolfgar called them. A term half of derision, half contempt.
+And Wolfgar pointed one out to me. A huge grey, surly-looking fellow
+passing in a one-man shell or boat of tree-fibre. He gazed up at us as
+he went by&mdash;a furtive glance of cold, sullen fury. Unmistakable. And I
+saw it again on others of his kind&mdash;men, women, even children who gazed
+at us with big, round eyes. A dumb, sullen resentment, with a
+smouldering fury beneath it.</p>
+
+<p>During the trip, which may have taken an hour, I remarked something
+also, which did not at the time seem significant but very soon I was to
+recall it and understand its import. Argo, of course, was still with us.
+As we embarked upon the barge, a man evidently an official of the Great
+City had paid his humble respects to Tarrano and then withdrawn to a
+further part of the vessel, drawing Argo with him. I saw the two in
+close conversation. The official evidently was telling Argo something of
+importance. I could see Argo growing indignant and then his eyes
+gleaming, a leer upon his cruel lips.</p>
+
+<p>During the trip Tarrano sat calm, half reclining on his couch&mdash;sat
+watching with his keen expressionless eyes the applause of the
+multitude. It was, I think, and I believe he felt it also, the height of
+his career up to that time&mdash;this triumphant entry into the greatest city
+of Venus. He did not speak, just sat watching and listening, with a half
+smile of triumph pulling at his mouth. Yet I know too, that those keen
+eyes of his did not miss the sullen glances of the <i>slaans</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The weather, as always in the Venus Central State, was warm&mdash;a luxurious
+tropic warmth. And now I felt&mdash;as I had seen from above&mdash;the languorous,
+sensuous quality of it all. Music, mingled with the ripple of girlish
+laughter and cheers, came from the houses as we passed. Soft, fragrant
+flower-petals deluged us. The very air was laden heavy with exotic
+perfumes from the flowers which were everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at last at what appeared to be a palace&mdash;a broad, low
+building of polished stone, on an island of its own. It was the building
+I had noticed when first we saw the Great City from above. Gardens were
+about the building, and on its roof. Flowers lined its many balconies.</p>
+
+<p>We drew up to a stone landing-place.</p>
+
+<p>"The palace of the Princess Maida," Wolfgar whispered.</p>
+
+<p>But I had no time to question him. Attendants appeared. A queer mixture.
+Incongruous men of science, armed with belts of instruments. They
+greeted Tarrano humbly; escorted him away.</p>
+
+<p>Other attendants. Natives of the city, in the flowing, bright-colored
+robes we had seen everywhere. A group of them&mdash;laughing young
+girls&mdash;descended upon us.</p>
+
+<p>"The Princess Maida bids you welcome."</p>
+
+<p>They hurried us into the building. I was surprised. Tarrano had
+seemingly ignored us. It was quite as though we were honored guests,
+arriving in the Central State when Maida was its ruler.</p>
+
+<p>Led by the girls, we passed upward into the building past splashing
+fountains, cascades of perfumed water with tubes of silver light
+gleaming in its midst; and were thrust at last into a room.</p>
+
+<p>The girls withdrew. Across the floor-polished stone, with heavy woven
+rugs upon it&mdash;Georg and the Princess Maida advanced upon us.</p>
+
+<p>Our greetings were brief. I could have talked to them both for a day,
+questioning them; and they, no doubt, had as much to ask of us. But they
+were solemn, grave and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"Not now, Jac," Georg said to check me. "Elza dear&mdash;I have been so
+worried over you."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac&mdash;the situation here&mdash;our own cause&mdash;the safety of our Earth
+itself&mdash;this Tarrano&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Maida stopped him. "The very air has ears. Not now." Her glance
+turned to Wolfgar; her slim hands went out to greet him. "Wolfgar, my
+friend. It is good to see you here."</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar knelt before her, gazed for one instant into her eyes, and then
+with head bowed, brushed the hem of her robe to his face.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed gently. "Stand up, Wolfgar. I would not be the Princess
+Maida to you now. Only&mdash;your friend. Your grateful friend."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden soundless flash. From across the room a beam of
+violet flame darted at us. It struck just between Maida and Wolfgar, as
+he rose from his knee. Both of them involuntarily stepped backward,
+apart from each other. And between them, breast high, the flame hung
+level across the room. Maida was on one side of it; all the rest of us,
+on the other.</p>
+
+<p>I turned. At the door, Argo had appeared. From a black object in his
+hand, the beam was streaming. He rested the black thing on a wall ledge
+so that the beam hung level.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand where you are, all of you." He started toward Maida, behind the
+beam from the rest of us.</p>
+
+<p>Georg made as though to leap forward, but Wolfgar restrained him. "Wait!
+You don't understand&mdash;that's death!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw now that the violet light had encircled us. Only Maida and Argo
+were outside it. He was approaching her, with a cylinder in his hand.
+The ray from it struck her without power of movement or speech. Her
+eyes, terrified, turned to us. Again Georg would have leaped, but
+Wolfgar shouted, "Wait! That's death! Don't you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Argo was leering. "Death? Yes! If you touch that violet light! Death, of
+course. But you won't touch it! You will stand and watch&mdash;stand silently
+for you know that if you shout, the vibrations will bring the beam upon
+you. You won't move&mdash;you'll stand and watch me kill your Princess
+Maida&mdash;not quickly&mdash;she is too beautiful for that. You, Georg
+Brende&mdash;you, Wolfgar, traitor from Mars. You shall see your Princess
+Maida die&mdash;this would-be traitoress to my Master Tarrano!"</p>
+
+<p>With all the strength of his puny body Wolfgar flung Georg
+backward&mdash;safely away from the deadly violet beam. And then, without
+warning, without a cry which would endanger us, the little Mars man
+sprang headlong, into and through the violet beam of death.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Passing of a Friend</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Wolfgar was not dead; but when we picked him up it was obvious that he
+was dying. The violet beam vanished as his body struck it&mdash;vanished with
+a hiss and splutter, and a puff of sulphuric smoke that mingled with the
+smell of burning garments and flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Georg and I leaped forward. Argo was standing transfixed by surprise at
+what Wolfgar had done; and as the beam died, Georg was upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment!"</p>
+
+<p>The quiet, commanding voice of Tarrano. He must have come quickly, when
+informed by the finders of Argo's treachery. Yet he stood now at the
+arcade entrance, drawn to his full height, frowning with lowered brows,
+but wholly without appearance of haste.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment&mdash;stand aside, all of you."</p>
+
+<p>Argo cowered. The rest of us moved aside. Elza came toward me, and I put
+my arm around her. Poor little Elza! She was shivering with fright.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano seemed not to need information as to what had transpired. His
+eyes, roving over us, saw the lifeless, seared body of Wolfgar lying on
+the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad," he said. Then his gaze swung to Argo.</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!"</p>
+
+<p>There was on Tarrano's face and in his voice an expression, a tone quite
+new to me. A quiet grimness. More than that. A quality of deadliness&mdash;of
+inexorable deadliness which could well have chilled the stoutest heart
+that fronted it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, Argo." Tarrano stood quite motionless. "Argo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Master! Master, you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come!"</p>
+
+<p>Argo was on the floor. Shaking with terror&mdash;for he, probably better than
+any of us, understood what was coming&mdash;dragged himself to Tarrano's
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Master, have mercy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up! Are you a man?"</p>
+
+<p>Argo's legs would barely support him, but he struggled to get himself
+erect. With a wrench, Tarrano tore the robe from Argo's chest.</p>
+
+<p>"Master! Master! Have mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>In Tarrano's hand I saw a needle-like piece of steel. A dagger, yet it
+was more like a needle.</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;Oh&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano had stabbed it gently into the man's chest. A mere prick into
+the flesh, and a tiny drop of blood oozed out.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Argo stood swaying. Eyes white-rimmed with mortal terror as
+he stupidly looked down at the drop of blood. A moment, then the
+injected poison took effect. He tottered, flung his arms above his head
+and fell. Lay writhing an instant; then twitching; and then quite still.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano turned away, his face impassive. "Unfortunate. He was a good man
+in many ways&mdash;I shall be sorry to lose his services." He saw me with my
+arm around Elza, and he frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"So?"</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively, involuntarily&mdash;and I hated myself for it&mdash;I dropped my
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>Georg exclaimed: "Wolfgar&mdash;he&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano turned from me. "He is not dead&mdash;but he will die. There is
+nothing we can do. I'm very sorry&mdash;very sorry indeed."</p>
+
+<p>A sincere regret was in his tone. We lifted Wolfgar up, carried him to a
+depression in the floor by the wall&mdash;a shallow, couch-like bowl
+half-filled with down.</p>
+
+<p>On the floor we gathered, seated on cushions; and presently Wolfgar
+regained consciousness. His face was not burned. It lighted with a dazed
+smile; and his eyes, searching us, picked out Maida.</p>
+
+<p>"You are safe&mdash;I'm&mdash;so glad."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was low and labored; and at once his eyes closed again as
+though the effort of speaking were too great.</p>
+
+<p>Maida was sitting near me at Wolfgar's head, bending over him. She had
+recovered from her terror of Argo; and as she leaned down, gazing at the
+dying Wolfgar, I think I have never seen so gentle, so compassionate an
+expression upon the face of any woman.</p>
+
+<p>Elza whispered: "There must be something we can do. The men of
+medicine&mdash;the lights&mdash;the healing lights! Georg! Cannot you use
+father's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>They were only an overwrought girl's excited ideas, of course. Wolfgar's
+lungs were seared; even as Elza spoke, he coughed, and blood welled from
+his mouth&mdash;blood which Georg quickly wiped away.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano was on his feet behind us, with folded arms; and as he looked
+down, I saw on his face also&mdash;the face which a few moments before had
+been grim with deadly menace&mdash;a look now of gentle compassion very much
+like Maida's.</p>
+
+<p>"No use," he said softly. "We can do nothing. He will die."</p>
+
+<p>Again Wolfgar's eyes opened. "Die&mdash;of course." He tried to raise one of
+his burned hands, but dropped it back. "Die? Yes&mdash;of course. In just a
+moment...." His eyes, already dulled, swung about. "Who is that&mdash;crying?
+There's no need&mdash;to cry."</p>
+
+<p>It was little Elza beside me, struggling to suppress her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar's slow, labored voice demanded: "That isn't&mdash;my Princess Maida
+crying&mdash;is it? I don't want&mdash;her to cry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Georg gently. "Maida is here&mdash;right here by you. She isn't
+crying."</p>
+
+<p>His gaze found Maida's face. "Oh, yes&mdash;I can see you&mdash;Princess Maida.
+You're not crying&mdash;that's good. There's nothing to&mdash;cry about."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed for a moment to gather a little strength; he moved his head
+and saw Tarrano standing there behind us.</p>
+
+<p>"Master?" He used the old term with a whimsical smile. "I&mdash;called you
+that&mdash;for a long time, didn't I? You have a right to consider me a
+traitor&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A spy," said Tarrano very gently. "Not a traitor. That you would have
+been had you served me&mdash;a traitor to your Princess."</p>
+
+<p>Wolfgar's head tried to nod; relief was on his face. "I'm&mdash;glad you
+understand. I would not want to die&mdash;having you think harshly of me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a man&mdash;I honor you." Abruptly Tarrano turned away and strode
+across the room. And always since I have wondered if he left that scene
+of death because of the emotion he could not hide.</p>
+
+<p>Georg said: "You should not talk, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"But I&mdash;want to talk. I have&mdash;only a few minutes. Just these&mdash;last few
+minutes&mdash;I want to talk to my&mdash;Princess Maida. You'll&mdash;excuse us&mdash;the
+Princess Maida and me&mdash;won't you? Just for these last&mdash;few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>We withdrew beyond his fading sight.</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;Princess Maida&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice still reached us. She leaned closer over him. Her tears were
+falling now, but as she spoke she strove for calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"Wolfgar&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His eyes were glazing, but they dung to her. "Princess&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. "Just Maida&mdash;your friend. The woman you have given your
+life for." Her voice almost broke. "Oh, Wolfgar! Never shall I forget
+that. To give your life&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is&mdash;a great honor." The gesture he made to check her words of thanks
+exhausted him. His eyes closed; for a moment he seemed not to breathe.
+As Maida leaned down in alarm, her beautiful white hair tumbled forward
+over her shoulders. A lock of it brushed Wolfgar. He could not lift his
+hands, but they groped for the tresses, found them and clung. Her white
+waves of hair, with his fingers, shriveled, burned black, entwined in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Again his eyelids came up. "You won't leave me&mdash;Princess Maida. Not for
+these&mdash;last few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she half whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;cannot&mdash;if you would." His whimsical smile returned. "You see? I
+am&mdash;holding you."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he was silent. His eyes stayed open, staring dully at her.
+His face and lips were drained now of their blood.</p>
+
+<p>"You're&mdash;still there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;of course I know you are. But I&mdash;cannot see you very well&mdash;now.
+You look&mdash;so far away."</p>
+
+<p>She put her face down quite close to him. Her eyes were brimming with
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;yes," he said. "That's better&mdash;much better. Now I can&mdash;see
+you&mdash;very plainly. I was thinking&mdash;I wanted to&mdash;tell you something.
+It&mdash;wouldn't be right to tell you&mdash;except that I'll soon&mdash;be gone where
+it won't make any difference."</p>
+
+<p>He gathered all his last remaining strength. "I&mdash;love you&mdash;Princess
+Maida."</p>
+
+<p>She forced a gentle smile through her tears. "Yes, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," he persisted, "not as my Princess&mdash;just as&mdash;a woman.
+The&mdash;woman I've always loved. That's been my secret. You see? It
+would&mdash;always have been&mdash;my secret&mdash;the little Mars man Wolfgar&mdash;in love
+with his Princess Maida. You&mdash;don't think it too impertinent of me&mdash;do
+you? I mean&mdash;confessing it now&mdash;just at&mdash;the end?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she whispered. "No, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you&mdash;very much." His breath exhaled with a faint sigh. "Thank
+you&mdash;very much. I wanted to tell you that&mdash;before I&mdash;go. And&mdash;if you
+wouldn't mind&mdash;I want to&mdash;call you&mdash;just Maida."</p>
+
+<p>"Just Maida, Wolfgar. Yes, of course, I want you to call me that." Her
+voice was broken. She brushed away her tears that he might not notice
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he agreed. His staring eyes were trying to see her. "My Maida.
+You're&mdash;very beautiful&mdash;my Maida. I&mdash;wonder&mdash;you see, I'm taking
+advantage of you&mdash;I wonder if you'd say you&mdash;love me? I'd be so
+happy&mdash;just to hear you say it."</p>
+
+<p>As I sat there behind them, I prayed then that she might say it.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he whispered. "You <i>did</i> say it! My Maida says that she loves me!"
+Happiness transfigured his livid face. But his smile was whimsical
+still. "You're&mdash;very kind to me. Please&mdash;say it again."</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;that's how I always dreamed it would sound.
+I&mdash;love&mdash;you&mdash;Wolfgar."</p>
+
+<p>His voice trailed away; a film was settling over his staring eyes. Then
+again his lips moved. "Maida says&mdash;'I love you, Wolfgar' ... I'm&mdash;so
+happy...."</p>
+
+<p>Quite suddenly she realized that he was gone. Her pent-up emotion came
+with a sob.</p>
+
+<p>"Wolfgar! My friend&mdash;my wonderful, loyal friend&mdash;don't die, Wolfgar!
+Don't die!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Waters of Eternal Peace</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Little Wolfgar was gone. It seemed at first very strange, unreal. It lay
+a shadow of grief upon our spirits, for many hours a deeper shadow than
+all those grave events impending upon which hung the fate of three
+worlds.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano ordered for Wolfgar a public burial of ceremony and honor in the
+waters of eternal peace&mdash;ordered it for that same evening. Once again
+Tarrano demonstrated the strangeness of his nature. His arrival to take
+possession of Venus had been made the occasion of a great festival. "The
+Water Festival," they called it, which was held only at times of
+universal public rejoicing. It was planned now to do honor to
+Tarrano&mdash;planned for this same evening. But he postponed it a night;
+tonight was for Wolfgar.</p>
+
+<p>We were still captives in Tarrano's hands, as we had been on Earth in
+Venia. Yet here in the Great City of Venus a curious situation arose.
+Tarrano himself explained it to us that afternoon. An embarrassing
+situation for him, he termed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Very embarrassing," he said, with eyes that smiled at us quizzically.
+"Just for your ears alone, you understand, I am willing to admit that I
+must handle these Great City people very carefully. You, Princess
+Maida&mdash;you are greatly beloved of your people."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. "For that reason they would not like to know you are
+virtually a captive. And you, Georg Brende&mdash;really, they are beginning
+to look on you as a savior&mdash;to save them from disease and death. It is
+rather unflattering to me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, then with sudden decision added:</p>
+
+<p>"Soon you two will realize that to join me will be your best course. And
+best for all the worlds, for it will bring to them all peace and health
+and happiness.... No, I ask no decision from you now. Nor from you, Lady
+Elza." His gaze softened as he regarded her&mdash;softened almost to a
+quantity of wistfulness. "<i>You</i> know, Lady Elza, for what I am striving.
+I may&mdash;indeed I shall&mdash;conquer the worlds. But you hold in the palm of
+your little white hand, my real reward.... Enough!"</p>
+
+<p>And then he offered us a sort of pseudo-liberty. We might all come and
+go about the Great City at will. Apparently&mdash;to the public eye&mdash;allied
+to Tarrano. The Princess Maida&mdash;as before&mdash;hereditary honored ruler;
+with Tarrano guiding the business affairs of State, as on Earth our
+Presidents and their Councils rule the legendary Kings and Queens. The
+one ruling in fact; the other, an affair of pretty sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>It was this condition which Tarrano now desired to bring about. With
+Georg already beloved for his medical knowledge; and flying rumors
+(started no doubt by Tarrano) that the handsome Earth man would some day
+marry their Princess.</p>
+
+<p>Myself&mdash;the irony of it!&mdash;I was appointed a sort of bodyguard to the
+Lady Elza&mdash;the little Earth girl whose presence in the Great City would
+help conciliate the Earth and bring about universal peace&mdash;with Venus in
+control.</p>
+
+<p>So ran the popular fancy, guided by Tarrano. We were given our
+pseudo-liberty, watched always by the unseen eyes of Tarrano's guards.
+And there was nothing we could do but accept our status. Tarrano was
+guiding his destiny cleverly. Yet underneath it all, unseen forces were
+at work. We sensed them. The <i>slaans</i>&mdash;submissive at their menial tasks,
+but everywhere with sullen, resentful glances. Perhaps Tarrano realized
+his danger; but I do not think that he, any more than the rest of us,
+realized what the Water Festival was to bring forth.</p>
+
+<p>That night&mdash;our first night on Venus&mdash;midway between the darkness of
+sunset and the dawn&mdash;we buried Wolfgar. The air was soft and warm, with
+a gentle breeze that riffled the placid waters of the lake. Overhead,
+the sky gleamed with a myriad stars&mdash;reddish stars, all of them like Red
+Mars himself as seen through the heavy Venus atmosphere. Largest of
+them, the Earth. My birthplace! Save Elza here with me on Venus, that
+tiny red spot in the heavens, red like the tip of a lighted
+arrant-cylinder, held all that was dear to me!</p>
+
+<p>The funeral cortege&mdash;a solemn line of panoplied boats, started from the
+palace. Boats hung with purple fabric. In single file they wended their
+way through the city streets. From every landing, balcony, window and
+roof-top, the people stared down at us. The street corners were hung
+with shaded tubes of light, shining down with spots of color to the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed, the people bowed their heads, hands to their foreheads,
+palms outward. The gesture of grief. From one building came a low
+musical chant.</p>
+
+<p>"Honor to Wolfgar! The man who gave his life for our Princess. Honor to
+Wolfgar!"</p>
+
+<p>We came to the edge of the city. The lake here narrowed to a river&mdash;a
+length of winding river opening to the pond which was the burial place
+of Eternal Peace. On Tarrano's barge, with Elza and Georg, we led the
+way. Maida was not with us. I asked Tarrano where she was, but solemnly
+he denied me.</p>
+
+<p>At the burial waters&mdash;on the sloping banks of which a silent throng had
+gathered&mdash;we landed. And following us, the other vessels of the cortege
+came along and stopped beside us. The pond was dotted with white markers
+for the graves. The whole scene unlighted, save for the stars, and the
+red and purple aural lights of the Venus heavens, which mounted the sky
+at this midnight hour. A great, glowing arc&mdash;the reflected glow from a
+myriad cluster of tiny moons and moon-dust, encircling Venus. The soft
+light from it flooded the water and the tombs with a flush of red and
+purple.</p>
+
+<p>As we lay there against the bank, with that silent throng breathlessly
+watching, from down the river came the last vessel of our cortege. It
+made a scene I shall never forget. The bier. Draped in purple. A single,
+half-naked <i>slaan</i> propelling it with a sweep from its stern. The body
+of Wolfgar lying on its raised prow&mdash;his dead, white face, with peace
+upon it. Beside the body, the lone figure of Maida, kneeling at
+Wolfgar's head, with her white, braided hair falling down over her
+shoulders. Kneeling and staring, almost expressionless; but I knew that
+with her whole heart she was speeding the soul of Wolfgar to its eternal
+peace.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Unseen Menace</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>That day following the burial of Wolfgar, there was nothing of
+importance occurred. No news from the Earth could get in. I felt that
+the Earth might be planning an attack. Probably was, since war had been
+declared. Yet that of course was months away.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano apparently was engaged in the pleasurable triumph of the coming
+Water Festival. All day he seemed engaged in planning it. But I knew
+that he was engaged secretly with far sterner things concerning the Cold
+Country, which lay a day's journey from us. But what they were, I did
+not know.</p>
+
+<p>The Water Festival was all we talked of. That afternoon, Tarrano
+describing it, said smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"They say it is for me. But, Lady Elza&mdash;it is <i>I</i> who plan it&mdash;for you.
+You have not seen the Red Woman." A gleam of amusement played upon his
+lips; but as he regarded Elza, I saw another look&mdash;of speculation, as
+though he were gauging her.</p>
+
+<p>"The Red Woman, Lady Elza. She will preside tonight. You will find
+her&mdash;very interesting. We will watch her together, you and I."</p>
+
+<p>I did not know then what he meant; but I remembered the words later, and
+understood only too well.</p>
+
+<p>Just after sundown, when I chanced to be in a small boat alone, near the
+palace, the first of two significant incidents occurred. From the
+shadows beneath a house, the head of a swimming man emerged. A <i>slaan</i>,
+and he gripped the sides of my boat as I drifted.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Earth man." He spoke in the quaint universal language, which I
+understood, though imperfectly.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed at him. A bullet-like head, with sullen, blazing eyes. He added:
+"We do not blame you&mdash;or your woman, Elza&mdash;or the Princess Maida. Have
+no fear, but guard yourself well tonight."</p>
+
+<p>Before I could speak he had sunk into the water, swimming beneath it. I
+could see the phosphorescence of his moving body as he swam away into
+the shadows beyond my line of vision.</p>
+
+<p>The other incident came a moment later. As I was gazing down into the
+water I saw a moving metal shape. A triangular metal head, as of a
+diver's cap. More than that, it turned upward; and behind its pane was a
+man's face. Unfamiliar to me&mdash;yet the face of an Anglo-Saxon man of
+Earth! Unmistakable! It stared at me a moment&mdash;no more than three or
+four feet below my boat. And then it moved away and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>I had no opportunity to speak alone with Elza, or Georg or Maida that
+entire evening. Always Tarrano was with us. We sat upon the palace
+balcony, we men smoking our arrant-cylinders. Tarrano talked and joked
+like a care-free youth. He was very courteous to Elza, with a holiday
+spirit upon him. But his eyes never relaxed; and often I could see him
+measuring her.</p>
+
+<p>The aural lights mounted the sky. The holiday spirit which was on
+Tarrano was spreading everywhere throughout the city. Boats gayly
+bedecked&mdash;in such contrast to the funeral cortege of poor Wolfgar just
+the night before&mdash;began passing the palace on their way to the festival
+waters. Men and laughing girls thronged them. All with red masks
+covering their faces. The men in grey tight-fitting garments, with
+conical caps and flowing plumes; the girls in bright-colored, flowing
+robes, and tresses dangling with flowers entwined in them.</p>
+
+<p>The balcony upon which we sat was close above the water level. The
+barges, of every size and kind, glided past. Sometimes the girls would
+shower us with flower petals. One small boat paused before us. A girl
+stood up to wave at me. Her hand, held up with the loose robe falling
+back from her slim white arm, offered me a huge scarlet blossom. The
+love offering. As I hesitated, her laughter rippled out. She tore the
+mask from her face. Her red mouth was smiling; her eyes, provocative,
+were dancing with mischief. She tossed the flower into my face as her
+escort, with a shout of mock anger, pulled her back to him.</p>
+
+<p>Their boats glided on.</p>
+
+<p>Other boats passed; some with girls gayly strumming instruments of
+music. One boat with a man strumming, and a girl on a small dais,
+dancing with a whirl of black veils. As they came opposite to us another
+man in the boat reached up and pushed the girl overboard. She fell into
+the water with a scream of laughter; came up like a mermaid and they
+pulled her aboard, the veils and her hair clinging to her.</p>
+
+<p>At last Tarrano signified that we must go. It was upon me then to make
+an effort to draw back, to keep Elza and Maida at the palace with Georg
+and me. My heart was heavy with foreboding. Amid all this laughter and
+music&mdash;pleasure of the senses reigning supreme here in the Great City
+tonight&mdash;I could not miss a sense of impending evil. The <i>slaans</i>
+propelling the boats were stolid and grim. Not for them, this dalliance.
+Not for their women, this music and laughter, these daring costumes to
+display their beauty. The <i>slaan</i> women, drab with work, were slinking
+about unnoticed. Often I would see a boat of them slip by, furtively, in
+the shadows. Drab women, watching these beauties, resentful, sullen&mdash;and
+with what purpose smouldering in their hearts I could only guess.</p>
+
+<p>The very air&mdash;to me at least&mdash;seemed pregnant with impending evil. I
+know that Georg felt it too. Often I had caught his eye as he regarded
+me. Once he started to whisper to me aside, but like a flash, Tarrano
+with his microphonic ear, turned to interrupt us.</p>
+
+<p>I wanted to stay with Elza at the palace. Suddenly I was afraid of
+Tarrano, more afraid for Elza than I had ever been. And who, and what
+was this Red Woman? Maida knew, of course. Maida had been very solemn
+for hours; thoughtful, almost grim.</p>
+
+<p>And the <i>slaan</i> in the water who said he did not blame us. He had warned
+us to guard ourselves. But how? There were no weapons. On this night of
+pleasure nothing would have been more incongruous.</p>
+
+<p>And that metal cap in the water with a man's face behind it? An Earth
+man of my own race! What did it mean?</p>
+
+<p>I was perturbed&mdash;frightened. But I did not demur when Tarrano led us to
+his flower-bedecked barge. Of what use?</p>
+
+<p>We were paired. Georg with Maida; Elza with Tarrano. And I? Tarrano told
+me curtly&mdash;and with a smile of ironic amusement&mdash;that when we reached
+the festival so handsome a man as I would have no trouble engaging the
+attention of some Venus maiden.</p>
+
+<p>On cushions in the barge we reclined while our <i>slaans</i> poled us along
+the streets. Tarrano was feeding sweets to Elza as though they were gay
+young lovers. Poor little Elza! She was frightened. Her face was a
+trifle pale, her lips set. But she, too, knew that we were wholly in
+Tarrano's power, and she made the best of the situation. Sometimes she
+would laugh gayly; but I could not miss the note of fear in it.</p>
+
+<p>The progress of our barge was slow. Boats clustered around us, their
+occupants pelting us with flowers. A deluge spray of perfume was turned
+on us&mdash;a heavy, exotic scent, almost cloying. It lay redolent on our
+garments for hours.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Tarrano gave us masks. And long robes for Maida and Elza to
+cover the gay holiday dresses they were wearing.</p>
+
+<p>At the edge of the city a canal had been dug through the hillside. We
+passed slowly through it, under archways of dangling colored lights,
+around a sharp bend and came upon the Water Festival. And&mdash;with
+impending tragedy for the moment forgotten&mdash;I gazed for this first time
+at such a scene of pleasure and beauty as I had never even imagined.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Love, Music&mdash;and a Warning</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The Water Festival! As our barge rounded a bend in the canal, under the
+archways of dangling colored lights, the festival spread before us.
+Involuntarily I stood up to gaze. The canal opened into an artificial
+lake&mdash;a broad circular sheet of water some 800 <i>helans</i><a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> in diameter.
+Sloping hillsides enclosed the lake&mdash;hillsides which I saw were terraced
+with huge banks of seats in tiers one above the other.</p>
+
+<p>The seats were crowded with people. White ribbons of roads gave access
+from the neighboring countryside for land-surface vehicles, and there
+were stages for the accommodation of air-craft. The rural populace, and
+people from the nearby smaller cities, had gathered to view this
+national spectacle&mdash;a million or more of them probably, with their
+individual electrical telescopes for direct distant vision, and small
+pocket mirrors for that which otherwise would be hidden. A million
+people at least, seated here on these gigantic spreading tiers.</p>
+
+<p>The lake itself was thus the stage as it were, of a tremendous arena.
+Tiny artificial islands dotted the lake&mdash;a hundred of them. Islands,
+some no more than a few feet broad; some larger, and in the center of
+the lake, one quite large. All the islands were covered with luxuriant
+vegetation. The tiny ones were no more than shadowed nooks of leaves and
+flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Between the islands, crooked lanes of the placid water wended their way
+in and out, broadening into occasional lagoons. Bridges crossed the
+lanes; archways of lights spanned them at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>From this distance the whole scene was a riot of color and great red and
+purple auroral lights of Venus, which at this midnight hour rode the
+upper sky, tinged everything vividly. The archway lights were soft rose,
+silver and gold. Some of the tiny islands, from sources hidden were
+bathed in bright silver. Others darker, in deep purple and red; still
+others, quite unlighted, dim and shadowed, touched only by the reflected
+glow from those near them.</p>
+
+<p>From the main island lights were flashing into the sky; occasional color
+bombs mounted and burst, painting the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>A riot of color. And then as we approached, I became aware of sound and
+movement as well. Music from scores of unseen sources. Music from single
+isolated instruments floating softly over the water&mdash;lovers playing
+accompaniment to their pleading voices; or again, groups of voices&mdash;the
+curiously mellow voices of young girls&mdash;and, on an island apart, music
+from an aerial carrying strains from the public <i>concelan</i>.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was all music of a type unfamiliar to me of Earth. The
+intellectuality of our Earth music was missing. This music of Venus was
+built upon queer minor strains; unfinished cadences; a rhythm of the
+sort we of Earth could never encompass. I listened, and felt the appeal
+of my senses. The lavish, abandoned music of barbarism? I had almost
+thought it that. Yet it was not. Rather was it decadent. This whole
+scene; the color, the music, the heavy cloying scents with which the
+night air was redolent; the warm, sensuous abandonment, felt rather than
+made obvious&mdash;it was not barbarism, but decadence. And I realized then
+how close are the two extremes. A reversion to type, merely. And I knew,
+then, that from the pinnacle of civilization which we of Earth had
+reached, naught lay before us but this.</p>
+
+<p>Music everywhere throughout the festival. And movement. As we floated
+out of the canal, passing slowly along one of the broader waterways,
+boats and barges slipped past us. Barges crowded with revelers. And the
+small boats, generally with but a man and a girl&mdash;fugitive couples with
+the holiday spirit upon them, seeking the shadowed nooks of islands for
+their love-making.</p>
+
+<p>In one lagoon we came upon such a boat. The man in it&mdash;a gay youth in
+red and black motley, with the mask fallen from his laughing, perspiring
+face&mdash;was in its stern, manipulating it with a long, thin paddle. The
+girl was lying face down on cushions in its prow. She was facing
+forward, with her long white hair tumbling about her. Around the boat
+were clustered a number of other boats. Each was small, with only a man
+in it. A ring of boats, besieging the girl. Our barge paused to watch. A
+boat would dash forward, its occupant standing up to thrust it on. But
+the girl, swung to meet it by the efforts of her escort, would turn her
+cylinder of <i>alcholite</i><a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> upon the attacker. Befuddled, her adversary
+would retreat; or another, momentarily drunk, would fall into the water
+to be sobered.</p>
+
+<p>All with gay shouts of laughter; until at last the couple were
+victorious and scurried away to their island.</p>
+
+<p>We passed on. There were mimic battles often on the islands. A hidden
+couple found out and dragged back. A lone man attacked and pelted with
+flowers by a band of marauding girls. A diving platform at one end of an
+oval lagoon. Girls mounting it to dive into the red-shimmering water,
+where waiting youths were swimming, and by their prowess in downing
+other contenders would seize upon the girls and carry them off to where
+a barge was loading its passengers for the main island.</p>
+
+<p>To this main island we came at last. It was heavily wooded, and indented
+with shallow, placid waterways. In one of them we landed; and amid a
+sudden quiet and awe at the presence of Tarrano, we went ashore. Georg
+walking with Maida; Tarrano forcing Elza to hold his arm; and I, beside
+Elza until Tarrano sternly bade me walk behind.</p>
+
+<p>We were masked, but the revelers knew us. Amid the throng with which the
+island was packed, we moved slowly forward toward a gay pavilion which
+was in the center of the grove. Music came from it&mdash;a broad, roofed-over
+pavilion with a dancing floor in the depression of its center space, and
+tiers of balconies above it.</p>
+
+<p>Within the pavilion, where the air was heavy with the smell of wine,
+arrant-smoke, intoxicating whiffs of surreptitiously used
+alcholite-cylinders and sensuous perfumes upon the garments of the
+women&mdash;in here, the throng pressed around us; the dancers stopped to
+gaze; the music momentarily hushed; the spectators on the
+balconies&mdash;girls reclining on cushions with young gallants seated beside
+them with trays of food and drink&mdash;all turned to crane down at us.</p>
+
+<p>"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"</p>
+
+<p>A girl shouted it. A murmur of applause swept about us.</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly Tarrano removed his mask. His face, which had been concealed,
+showed with the flush of pleasure and his lips were parted with a smile
+of gratification and triumph. But, as the red silk mask was doffed,
+another took its place&mdash;the mask of imperturbability&mdash;that grave,
+inscrutable look with which he always masked his real emotions.</p>
+
+<p>"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano raised his hand; his quiet, calm voice carried throughout the
+silent room.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no Master here tonight. No Master&mdash;only the Mistress of Love.
+Let us honor her. Let <i>her</i> rule us all&mdash;tonight."</p>
+
+<p>For just an instant his gaze seemed to linger upon Elza; then he gravely
+replaced his red mask. Applause swept the room; the music started again.
+The lights overhead began whirling their kaleidoscope of colors down
+upon the dancers.</p>
+
+<p>We took our places in a canopied enclosure upon the first balcony, some
+twenty feet above the dance floor. Tarrano refused the cushions; he
+placed Elza deferentially upon them, and spread food and drink and
+sweet-meats before her. Near them sat Georg and Maida. I would have sat
+between Elza and Georg, but Tarrano pulled me away from them.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wanted below." He said it very softly, for my ears alone; but
+through his mask I could see his eyes blazing at me.</p>
+
+<p>"They are diving into the pool outside&mdash;cannot you hear them, Jac
+Hallen?" Impatience came to his voice; in truth, I must have been
+staring at him witless. "Maidens out there, Jac Hallen, who are seeking
+handsome youths like yourself for escort. Must I speak plainly? You are
+not wanted here. Go!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Another word will be your last." His voice was still almost
+emotionless, but I did not miss the gesture of his hand to his belt.
+"You had best obey, Jac Hallen."</p>
+
+<p>I was hardly so witless as not to realize the truth of his admonition. I
+turned away; and with all the laughter and movement around us, I think
+that Georg, Maida and Elza did not see me go.</p>
+
+<p>For the space of an hour or more, I stood alone on the lower floor of
+the pavilion, watching the balcony where Tarrano and the others sat.
+Stood there alone, feeling helpless and with my heart heavy with
+foreboding. Beneath my grey robe I was dressed in holiday fashion of the
+Great City&mdash;beribboned and gartered, with feathers at my scarlet
+shoulders for all the world like a male <i>nada</i>.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> My red mask I kept
+on, and folded my cloak around me.</p>
+
+<p>The dance floor was crowded. I saw now that it was cut into small
+circles marked with black&mdash;circles in diameter about the length of a
+man. At intervals&mdash;perhaps five minutes apart&mdash;a signal in the music
+caused each of the dancing couples to select a circle and to dance
+wholly within it. And then one of the circles, by mechanical device, was
+raised into the air above all the others. The couple on it, thus
+prominent, danced at their best, to be judged by Tarrano for a prize.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour I stood there. I could see Elza plainly. She had removed her
+mask. Her face was flushed, her lips laughing. Once, in a chance
+silence, her shout of applause rang out. The quality of abandonment in
+it turned me cold. Did I see Tarrano's hand move back to his belt? Was
+he intoxicating her? Then I saw Maida make a gesture&mdash;wave something
+from beneath her cloak at Elza. A scent to sober her? It seemed so, for
+Elza looked confused; and I saw Maida flash her a look of warning.</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly, from an alcove near me, a group of girls rushed out. Their
+cloaks and white veils fell from them as they came my way&mdash;laughing as
+they ran for the doorway leading outside to the pool. I was in their way
+and they bumped into me; one of them gripped me. I tried to jerk loose,
+but she clung. A slim girl, enveloped in her long, white tresses. Her
+eyes laughed at me; her red mouth went up alluringly to my face.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you&mdash;<i>you</i>, Jac Hallen." Her arms wound about my neck as she
+clung. I was trying to cast her off when her fingers lifted a corner of
+my mask.</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid you were <i>not</i> Jac Hallen." Her whisper was relieved, and
+it had suddenly turned swift and vehement. "I am sister to Maida&mdash;my
+name, Alda. I am to warn you. When Tarrano dances with the Red
+Woman&mdash;when they go up on the raised circle&mdash;<i>you drop to the floor</i>!
+You understand? Keep down, or the rays might strike you! But be here,
+inside, and watch. And <i>afterward</i>, go quickly to join the Princess and
+your Elza. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>She clung to me, with her slim, white body pressed against my cloak. To
+anyone watching us, she would have seemed merely making love. Her eyes
+were provocative; her lips mocking me. But she was whispering, <i>"Drop to
+the floor when Tarrano dances with the Red Woman&mdash;drop or the rays might
+strike you!"</i></p>
+
+<p>Another girl was plucking at me from behind. Alda shouted: "You shall
+not have him!" and cast me off. But I heard her whisper, <i>"Come outside
+for a moment&mdash;then come back!"</i>&mdash;and then, aloud, she cried to the other
+girl, "You shall not have him! He is coming to watch me dive and swim! I
+am more beautiful than you&mdash;you could not win him from me!"</p>
+
+<p>I let them drag me out into the grove by the scented pool.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Revolution!</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I realize that I am, by nature, not overly observant; and in those
+moments, when I stood out there beside the pool, I think I came most
+forcibly to appreciate how little I habitually observe that which is not
+readily apparent. An incident now occurred to bring it home to me; and,
+quite suddenly, a score of things which I had seen during the past two
+hours at the festival were made plain.</p>
+
+<p>Music, feasting, merry-making, love! In the midst of it all, an
+undercurrent of events was flowing. Unseen events&mdash;but I had partly seen
+some of them, and now, at last, I began to understand.</p>
+
+<p>In the main hall of the pavilion, midway to its roof, a line of mirrors
+was placed along the wall facing Tarrano. A hundred small mirrors, side
+by side. On them were moving images of what was taking place in
+different parts of the festival&mdash;so that Tarrano and the others might
+see the merry-making, not only in the pavilion, but elsewhere, as well.
+It was interesting to watch the mirrors&mdash;and sometimes amusing. The
+scene of a gay battle of boats in a nearby lagoon; the diving girls in
+the pools; a view from the sky above of the whole scene; another,
+looking upward at the color bombs bursting overhead; a bridge on which a
+dozen girls were besieged by as many men, who sought to climb upward
+from their boats underneath, flowers for missiles, and the alcholite
+fumes which held off the attackers, or, perchance, caused a girl to fall
+into the water, to be instantly captured.</p>
+
+<p>Other mirrors, eavesdropping upon the secluded islands, making public,
+for the amusement of the spectators in the pavilion, the furtive
+love-making of couples who fancied themselves alone.</p>
+
+<p>All this I had seen. And now I remembered that, occasionally, a mirror
+had gone dark, and then turned suddenly to a scene somewhere else. I
+understood now. Quiet incidents against Tarrano were in progress. The
+mirrors were being tampered with, that none of these events should be
+shown.</p>
+
+<p>There were, scattered throughout the festival, fully a hundred men of
+Tarrano's guard. Some of them I knew by their uniforms; others were
+concealed by red masks and robes like myself. When first we entered the
+pavilion, some twenty or thirty of them had been there with us. But many
+of them did not stay; and now I remembered that, one by one, I had seen
+them slip away, lured by the slim, white shapes of girls who came from
+the pool to beguile them.</p>
+
+<p>I realized now that these girls of the scented pool were very possibly
+all working for Maida. Most daring of all at the festival, these fifty
+girls who now disported themselves in the water at my feet. All
+beautiful, none beyond the first flush of earliest maturity. Slight,
+grey-white nymphs, laughing as they discarded their hampering veils,
+tossing their white hair as they plunged into the shimmering pool.
+Seemingly the most seductive, most abandoned of everyone.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, as I stood there, I saw three of them climb from the water and,
+with gay shouts, rush into the pavilion. Back in a moment; and with them
+a flushed man&mdash;one of Tarrano's guards&mdash;flushed and flattered at their
+attention. His hat was gone, his robe disheveled, as the girls fought
+for him. They stopped quite close to me; and I saw that one of them was
+Alda.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not have him!" she shouted to her companions. "He is mine! He
+loves me&mdash;none of you!"</p>
+
+<p>From her thick hair I saw her draw a tiny cylinder, wave it in the man's
+face. And, with another laugh, she flung her arms around his neck and
+fell with him into the water. I watched the splash and the ripples where
+they went down. In a moment, the girl came up&mdash;<i>but the man did not</i>. In
+all the confusion of the crowded pool, it was not very obvious.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen, perhaps, of such incidents, which now, that I was alert to
+understand, were apparent. The mirrors might have shown some of
+them&mdash;but the mirrors always went dark just in time.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's guards were disappearing. And now I saw a <i>slaan</i> skulking in
+the shadows of the shrubbery nearby. And I noticed, too, that this pool
+at my feet had a stream flowing outward from it&mdash;a waterway connecting
+it with the main lake. And I remembered the Earth man in sub-sea garb
+whom I had seen. Were there many Earth men down here in the water?</p>
+
+<p><i>"When Tarrano dances with the Red Woman, you drop to the floor."</i></p>
+
+<p>I remembered Alda's words and her admonition, "Be inside the pavilion."
+And presently I caught her glance as she was poised for a dive&mdash;and it
+seemed directing me to leave.</p>
+
+<p>Wrapped in my drab cloak, I went back inside. The merry-making had
+increased; the place was more crowded than ever. I had been there but a
+moment when a gong sounded. The music stopped. In the hush Tarrano, on
+the balcony, rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"The tri-night hour<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> is here." He removed his mask; his face was
+grave, but a slight smile curved his thin lips. "Let us see ourselves
+now as we really are."</p>
+
+<p>He slipped his robe from his shoulders and stood in his festive costume.
+For so slight a man, I was surprised at the strength of him. Bands of
+gold-metal encircled his naked torso; a broad girdle of purple cloth
+hung from his waist. His bare limbs were lean and straight; sandals of
+red were on his feet. And a band about his forehead with a single
+feather in it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, for it all, he was no male <i>nada</i>, but every inch a man. Gravely
+smiling, as, with a gesture, he bade them all discard their masks and
+robes. From overhead the colored lights turned white. And in the glare,
+the robes and masks were dropped. Costumes grotesque, some of them;
+others symbolic; others merely beautiful. Vivid colors. Dancers daringly
+garbed, with whom the girls from the pool now mingled.</p>
+
+<p>A moment of breathless silence; then ripples of applause from the
+spectators. And then the music and the dancing went on.</p>
+
+<p>Barbaric costumes? Some frankly imitated the bygone ages of Venus, Mars
+and Earth. But the spirit that prompted them was decadence&mdash;nothing
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, as I stood unmasked in my effeminate garb, holding myself
+aloof from the girls who would have carried me off to the dancing floor,
+I saw the roof of the pavilion roll back. The open sky spread above us.
+And from it came down an effulgence of silver light, from a source high
+overhead. It bathed us all in its soft radiance; and, simultaneously,
+the lights in the pavilion went out. A single golden shaft rested on
+Tarrano. Elza, Georg and Maida were still there. In the golden light I
+could see them quite plainly&mdash;could see that Elza was flushed with
+suppressed excitement. Not the alcholite fumes now. Georg, too, seemed
+very alert. And Maida. There was, indeed, a tenseness about them all&mdash;an
+air of vague expectancy which made my heart beat faster as I realized
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Was Tarrano totally unaware of what was about to happen? Was he unaware
+of this hidden, lurking menace to him, which now, to me, was so obvious?
+I could not believe that; yet, he was imperturbable, solemn as ever.</p>
+
+<p>A shaft of golden light upon Tarrano. The darkened chamber. The silver
+radiance coming down upon us in a shaft from the sky. A hush lay upon
+the room. The music had ceased; now it began again, very soft, ethereal.
+Everyone in the room was gazing upward. From high overhead in the silver
+shaft a shape appeared, slowly floating downward. A woman's figure. It
+came down, supported by what mechanical or scientific device I never
+knew. It seemed floating unsupported.</p>
+
+<p>Within the pavilion, suspended in mid-air, I saw that it was a woman in
+filmy red veils. Poised on tip-toe in the air. Arms outstretched, with
+the red veils hanging from them like wings. A woman fully matured. White
+hair piled in coils on her head, with a huge, scarlet blossom in it. A
+face, somewhat heavy of feature, powdered white; with glowing eyes, dark
+lidded; and a scarlet mouth. A face, an expression in the smouldering
+eyes, the full lips half parted&mdash;a face and an expression that seemed
+the very incarnation of all that is sensuous in humans. The Red Woman!
+The living symbol of all that lay beneath this festive merry-making.</p>
+
+<p>The Red Woman! For a moment she hovered there before us. A shaft of red
+light now came down from above. It caught her, bathed her in its lurid
+glow. On her face came a look of triumph, and a leer almost insolent, as
+slowly she began fluttering through the air toward Tarrano. He rose to
+meet her. Whispered something aside to Elza.</p>
+
+<p>Close before him, the Red Woman hovered. And now a circle-dais from the
+floor came up to her. She rested upon it; began a slow, sinuous dance;
+one by one loosening the veils; the red light deepening until it painted
+her body red in lieu of the draperies.</p>
+
+<p>No frivolous mockery here. Intense, smouldering eyes as she held her
+gaze on Tarrano's face and slowly raised her arms in invitation to him.
+At her gesture, he rose to his feet. Yet I knew he was not under her
+spell, for his lips were smiling, bantering.</p>
+
+<p>But he rose obediently, and stepped from the balcony to the upraised
+dais. Around his neck the Red Woman wound her arms&mdash;white arms stained
+red by the lurid light.</p>
+
+<p>A flash! I did not see from whence it came; but within me some
+subconscious impulse made me drop to the floor. The light from overhead
+was out. Momentary darkness. A woman's scream of terror. Then others.
+The sound of running feet; bodies falling. Panic in the crowd. Confusion
+everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Then light from somewhere came on. People were tramping me. I fought
+them off, climbed to my feet. On the dais the Red Woman lay dead.
+Huddled in a heap, with a brand of black searing her forehead. <i>Slaans</i>
+were leaping about the room&mdash;huge, half-naked men&mdash;brandishing primitive
+knives. Flashing steel, buried in the backs of the fleeing merry-makers.
+Other figures&mdash;Earth men they seemed&mdash;gripping the <i>slaans</i>, staying
+their murderous fury.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano? I did not see him at first. The air above the floor of the
+pavilion was full of snapping sparks&mdash;a battle of some unknown rays. The
+mirrors were shattered: glass from them was falling about me. Then, in
+the semi-gloom on the balcony, Tarrano's figure materialized. Invisible
+before, the hostile rays upon it now made it apparent. But Tarrano
+seemed proof against the rays. I could see he was unharmed; and as he
+stood there, no doubt using a curved, duplicating beam, the like of
+which I have seen used in warfare, the image of him seemed to shift.
+Then it doubled&mdash;two images, one here, one further down the balcony.
+Then still others&mdash;appearing and disappearing, always in different
+places, until no one could have said where the man himself really was. A
+dozen Tarranos, each enveloped in hostile sparks, each with his face
+grinning at us in mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly, I heard Georg's voice shout above the din: "Elza! Elza is
+gone!"</p>
+
+<p>The images of Tarrano faded. He, too, was gone.</p>
+
+<p>And then I saw Maida on the balcony, standing with upraised arms. Her
+voice rang out.</p>
+
+<p>"Down with Tarrano! Death to Tarrano!" And then her pleading command:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slaans</i>, no more bloodshed! Be loyal, <i>slaans</i>, to your Princess
+Maida!"</p>
+
+<p>And Georg calling: "Loyalty, everyone, to your Princess Maida. Loyalty!
+Loyalty!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>First Retreat</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I must recount now what Elza later told me, going back to those moments
+when Elza sat upon the balcony watching Tarrano and the Red Woman. The
+significance of what had been transpiring at the Water Festival was not
+clear to Elza; she did not know what was impending, but as she sat there
+with Tarrano beside her, a sense of danger oppressed her. Danger which
+lay like a weight upon her heart. Yet several times she found herself
+laughing&mdash;hilarious; and from Maida's warning glance, and the steadying
+odor which Maida wafted to her, she knew that Tarrano was using the
+alcholite fumes to intoxicate her.</p>
+
+<p>The Red Woman and Tarrano were upon the dais. There came a flash; then
+darkness. Elza went cold with terror. She sat stiff and silent, while
+around her surged that turmoil of confusion. The smell of chemicals was
+in the air; her skin prickled as with a million tiny needles where
+sparks now began to snap against it.</p>
+
+<p>How long she crouched there, or what was happening, Elza did not know.
+But presently she heard Tarrano's voice in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Lady Elza, I must get you out of this." In the darkness his face
+glowed wraith-like. Then she felt his hand upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, we must leave here. I would not have you endangered."</p>
+
+<p>With a haste and roughness that belied the calm solicitude of his words,
+he pulled her to her feet. There was light in the pavilion now. Elza saw
+dimly the turmoil of struggling figures; and then she saw the scene
+duplicated&mdash;saw it shift and sway in crazy fashion. Though she did not
+know it, she was looking out along the curved rays which Tarrano was
+sending from them. Sparks were snapping everywhere. A second image of
+Tarrano appeared to the left of her&mdash;she saw it in a mirror nearby&mdash;yet
+he was at her right, gripping her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>She found herself being dragged along the balcony; stumbling over a body
+lying there; feeling a surge of heat and electric disturbance beat
+against her face. Then Tarrano had her in his arms, carrying her. She
+heard him curse as a sudden wave of fire seemed to strike them&mdash;hostile
+rays bringing a numbness to muscles and brain. Tarrano was fumbling at
+his belt; and through a shower of sparks he stumbled onward with his
+burden.</p>
+
+<p>Elza's senses were fading. Vaguely she was conscious that Tarrano was
+carrying her down an incline to the ground. Grateful, cool air. Stars
+overhead. Trees; foliage; shimmering water. The screams and confusion of
+the pavilion growing fainter....</p>
+
+<p>When Elza regained consciousness, she was lying in the bottom of a
+little boat, Tarrano beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"So? You have awakened? We are quite safe, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>She and Tarrano were alone in the boat. It was long and very narrow,
+with its sides no more than a foot above the water. Tarrano sat at its
+chemical mechanism. A boat familiar to us of Earth. A small
+chemical-electric generator. The explosion of water in a little tank,
+with the resultant gases ejected through a small pipe projecting under
+the surface at its stern. The boat swept forward smoothly, rapidly and
+almost silently, with a stream of the gas bubbles coming to the surface
+in its wake.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite safe, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>She saw that Tarrano's face was blackened with grime. His garments were
+burned, and hers were also. He was disheveled, but his manner was as
+imperturbable as ever. He made her comfortable on the cushions in the
+boat; drew a robe closer around her against the rush of the night air.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was unhurt. She saw now, with clarifying senses, that they were
+plying along a narrow river. Banks of foliage on each side; the auroral
+lights in the sky; occasionally on the hillsides along the river, the
+dim outlines of a house.</p>
+
+<p>It was all a trifle unreal&mdash;like looking through a sunglass that was
+darkened&mdash;for around the boat hung always a vague pall of gloom. Tarrano
+spoke of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Our isolation barrage. It is very weak, but the best I can
+contrive. From these hills the naked eye, now at night could hardly
+penetrate it.... A precaution, for they will be searching for us
+perhaps.... Ah!..."</p>
+
+<p>A white search-ray sprang from a house at the top of a hill nearby. It
+leaped across the dark countryside, swept the water&mdash;which at that point
+had broadened into a lagoon&mdash;and landed upon the boat. It was a light
+strong enough to penetrate the barrage&mdash;the boat was disclosed to
+observers in the house. But Tarrano raised a small metal projector. A
+dull-red beam sprang from it and mingled with the other. A surge of
+sparks; then Tarrano's red beam conquered. It absorbed the white light.
+And Tarrano's beam was curved. It lay over the lake in a huge bow,
+bending far out to one side. Yet its other end fell upon the hostile
+house. The white search-ray from the house was submerged, bent outward
+with Tarrano's beam. From the house, the observer could only gaze along
+this curved light. He saw the image of the boat&mdash;not where the boat
+really was&mdash;but as though the ray were straight.</p>
+
+<p>Elza, staring with her heart in her throat, saw a ball of yellow fire
+mount from the house. It swung into the air in a slow, lazy parabola,
+came down and dropped into the lake. But it fell where the marksman saw
+the boat, a safe distance to one side. A ball of fire dropping into the
+water, exploding the water all around it for a distance of a dozen feet.
+Like a cascade, the water mounted.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano chuckled. "A very bad marksman."</p>
+
+<p>Other bombs came. It turns me cold when I think how orders like this
+could have come from the Great City&mdash;these bombs which had they found
+their mark would have killed Tarrano, but at the expense of the life of
+Elza. They did not find their mark. Tarrano continually changed the
+curve of his beam. The image of the boat shifted. A few moments only;
+and riding the waves of the bomb-tossed water, they rounded a bend, back
+into the narrow river and were beyond range.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano snapped off his ray. "Quite safe, Lady Elza. Do not be alarmed.
+I doubt if they will locate us again. They should be very busy now in
+the Great City. I'm surprised they could even think to notify this
+Station we have just passed."</p>
+
+<p>We were indeed very busy in the Great City during those hours, as you
+shall presently hear.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano and Elza were not again disturbed. How far they went in the boat
+she does not know, but at last they landed in a sheltered cove. An air
+vehicle was there. Tarrano transferred Elza to it, and in a moment more
+they were aloft.</p>
+
+<p>The vehicle was little more than an oblong platform, with a low railing.
+A platform of a substance resembling <i>glascite-transparent</i>; and with a
+<i>glascite</i> shield V-shaped in front to break the rush of wind and yet
+give vision. A mechanism, not of radio-power, but of gravity like the
+space-flyers. Such platforms had been, but were no longer in use on
+Earth. Elza had never seen one. It was a new experience for her, this
+flying with nothing above one, nothing to the side, or underneath save
+that transparent substance. To her it was like floating, and at times
+falling headlong through the air.</p>
+
+<p>They rose no more than a thousand feet at first, and then swept parallel
+with the ground. At a tremendous speed; even at this height the forests
+seemed moving backward as the ground moves beneath a surface vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>Dark, somber forests of luxuriant tropical vegetation. It was now
+nearing dawn; the auroral lights were dropping low in the sky; the great
+Venus Cross of Dawn was rising, its first two stars already above the
+line of hills to one side.</p>
+
+<p>Then the sky out there flushed red; a limb of the glorious Sun of Venus
+came up. A new day. And even though the air was warm, within Elza was
+ashiver.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very wonderful to me, my Elza, this being alone with you."</p>
+
+<p>He sat beside her, gazing at her with his calm, impenetrable eyes. It
+was near noon of that day following their escape from the Water
+Festival. They had flown possibly two thousand miles. The Sun had risen,
+but after a time&mdash;since their enormous speed and change of latitude had
+affected the angle at which they viewed it&mdash;the Sun now was hanging
+almost level, not far above the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath the platform&mdash;a mile below now&mdash;lay a tumbled waste of naked
+crags. The borders of the Cold Country! Tarrano's stronghold! The
+birthplace of his dreams of universal conquest.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was staring downward. A barren waste. Rocks bare of verdure. Grey,
+with red ore staining them. A desolation of empty rock, with grey flat
+shadows. And far ahead, the broken, serrated ranks of mountains with
+rocky peaks, white-hooded with the snow upon their summits. The Cold
+Country. Bleak; forbidding.</p>
+
+<p>This brittle air was cold; yet Elza and Tarrano were warm. Before the
+platform, a ray darted&mdash;a low-powered ray of a type that was to be so
+great a factor in the warfare into which we were all so soon to be
+plunged. It heated the air, so that the platform rushed always through a
+wind that was balmy.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say?" Elza looked up to meet Tarrano's steady gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"I said it is wonderful to be thus alone with you, my Elza."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh." She looked away.</p>
+
+<p>He persisted; but his voice was gentle and earnest. "Soon we will be at
+my home, Lady Elza. And now&mdash;there are some things I would like to say
+while I have the opportunity.... You will listen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said; and tried to keep from him the trembling within her.
+"I'll listen, of course."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. "Thank you.... My Elza, you have heard me talk of conquering
+the world. My dream&mdash;my destiny. It will come to pass, of course. Yet&mdash;"
+A smile pulled at his lips. "Do you know, my Elza, what you and I are
+doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>She stared, and he did not wait for her to answer.</p>
+
+<p>"We're making my first retreat. I wonder if you can realize how I feel,
+having to admit that? Tarrano in retreat!... Our escape from Venia?
+Pouf! That was a jest. I was there on Earth merely to get you, and the
+Brende model. I had no thought of conquering the Earth just then. I
+accomplished my two purposes&mdash;and left.... It was not a retreat, merely
+a planned departure.</p>
+
+<p>"But this, my Elza, is very different. I did not wish to do what I am
+doing now. I had planned&mdash;I had thought, had actually hoped, that I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. You see, I tell you this,
+little girl, because&mdash;well I am a lonely man. I walk alone&mdash;and because
+I am human&mdash;it does me good to have someone to talk to. I had hoped I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. Last night&mdash;at the start of the
+Water Festival&mdash;I began to realize it was impossible. I should have
+enlisted the <i>Rhaals</i>&mdash;the men of science, Elza. But I had no time, and
+they are very aloof. I could have won them to me had I tried." He
+shrugged. "I must confess I was over-confident of my strength&mdash;the
+strength of my position. The <i>Rhaals</i> stayed out of the affair&mdash;stayed
+in their own city, which has always been their policy. That was what I
+expected, but now I see I should have had their aid. I did&mdash;well what I
+did to guard against the unhappy outcome you witnessed&mdash;what I did was
+wrongly planned. You see, I take all the blame. I alone am responsible
+for my destiny. There are some who in defeat cry bitterly, 'Luck! That
+cursed luck was against me!' Not so! Leadership is not a matter of luck.
+Destiny is what you make it. You see?</p>
+
+<p>"And so now I am making my first retreat. A set-back, nothing more. I
+shall launch my forces from the City of Ice, instead of marshalling them
+from the Central State as I had planned. And Mars is still mine. I still
+control Mars, little Elza.... A set-back just now&mdash;and it bothers me. It
+hurts my pride&mdash;and as you know, my Elza, Tarrano is very proud."</p>
+
+<p>She had been listening to him, her fingers plucking idly at her robe. He
+bent closer to her; his voice turned tender. "I was thinking that
+perhaps&mdash;just perhaps you would scorn Tarrano in his triumphs, you might
+feel differently toward him now&mdash;in his first retreat. Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm&mdash;sorry&mdash;from your viewpoint, I
+mean&mdash;that things are going wrong."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want very
+much to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at your
+defeat."</p>
+
+<p>"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are too
+optimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slight
+set-back. A strategic retreat&mdash;and in a week I will have regained more
+than I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now&mdash;and always&mdash;be so
+gentle with you&mdash;why we are almost quarreling! That is not right. For
+the lives of a thousand of my servants, I would not have used that tone
+to you just now. Forgive me....</p>
+
+<p>"I was saying, my Elza&mdash;could not you feel more kindly to me now. A
+little hope from those gentle eyes of yours&mdash;a little word from those
+red lips&mdash;a word of hope for what some day might be for us&mdash;you and
+me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She dared to try and turn the subject. "You mentioned the Brende
+model&mdash;where is it? Have you it in the Cold Country?"</p>
+
+<p>He frowned. "Yes. And I will use it&mdash;for you and me alone. You've always
+known that, haven't you? Just for you and me, my Elza." He took her
+hand. "Won't you try and love me&mdash;just a trifle?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not move. "I&mdash;don't know." Then she faced him squarely. "I do
+not love you, Tarrano." Something in his eyes&mdash;a quality of pleading; a
+wistful smile upon his lips&mdash;suddenly struck her as pathetic. Strange
+and queerly pathetic that such a man as he should be reduced to
+wistfulness. Emotion swept her. Not love. A feeling of sympathy; a
+womanly desire to lighten his sorrow; to sympathize and yet to withhold
+from him the happiness he sought.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not love you, Tarrano. But I do respect you. And I am sorry&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Respect! I have told you I can command that from everyone. But
+love&mdash;your love&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I would give it if I could, Tarrano."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;you're trying to love me&mdash;and cannot?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean&mdash;Oh, I don't know what I mean, save that I do not love you yet."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. "I think you speak the truth when you say you do not know
+what you mean. Your love! If I had it, I should know that I would have
+it always. But&mdash;having it not&mdash;" He was very sincere, but his smile
+broadened. "Having it not, my Elza, there is no power in all the heavens
+that can tell me how to get it. It may be born in a moment from now&mdash;or
+never. Who can tell?"</p>
+
+<p>She was silent; and after a moment, he added: "Enough of this. I would
+ask you just one thing. You are not afraid of me, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said; and at that moment she meant it.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have you ever be afraid, Lady Elza. Love is not conceived
+by fear. And you must know I could never force my love upon you. For if
+I did&mdash;I should withhold forever the birth of this love of yours which
+is all I seek&mdash;this love I am trying to breathe into life.... Enough!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not mention the subject again. For hours&mdash;eating what meager
+stock of tabloid food with which their vehicle was provisioned&mdash;they
+flew onward. Rising now to top the line of jagged mountains. Over them
+the platform swept. In the crisp air the snow down there gleamed
+blue-white; the ice with an age-old look filled the valleys between the
+peaks.</p>
+
+<p>The arctic! It was nothing like the Polar regions of Earth. Stark
+desolation. A naked land seemingly upheaved by some gigantic cataclysm
+of nature, lying tumbled and broken where it had fallen in convulsive
+agony; and then congealed forever in a grip of ice.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun hung level as the vehicle advanced. In these latitudes it would
+swing side-wise in a slow, low arc, to dip again below the horizon and
+vanish. Here in the Cold Country it was morning of the Long Day. Summer!</p>
+
+<p>On over the crags and glaciers Tarrano guided their frail flying
+platform. Houses occasionally showed now&mdash;huts of ice, congealed
+dwellings, blue-white in the flat sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>And then at last, over the horizon came the ramparts of a city. The City
+of Ice! The size of it&mdash;the evidences of civilization here in this
+brittle land of deadly cold&mdash;made Elza gasp with wonderment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Attack on the Palace</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I must take you back now to the Water Festival and the events in the
+Great City which followed it. <i>Slaans</i> in murderous frenzy were plunging
+through the throng of erstwhile revelers. Maida could not quell them.
+The revolt which she had started against Tarrano seemed now a
+self-created monster to destroy us all.</p>
+
+<p>But there were Earth men among us. A hundred of them, no more. They had
+come from Washington that same day; had landed, I learned later,
+secretly near the Great City, sent with our Earth Council's plans to
+communicate with Maida. Beneath the water, coming individually, they had
+entered the festival; and helping Maida's girls (the diving girls whom I
+had encountered) they had made away with most of Tarrano's guards.</p>
+
+<p>In those first moments of frenzy, I got to the balcony&mdash;joined Maida and
+Georg. Elza was gone! My heart went cold, but in those hurried, frantic
+moments, grave disaster as it was, I did not dwell upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"We must get away&mdash;back to the palace!" Georg exclaimed as I joined
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The Earth men on the main floor were holding the <i>slaans</i> partially in
+check. Bodies were lying in a welter&mdash;I shall not describe it. Then
+abruptly, upon a table a huge <i>slaan</i> leaped&mdash;his garments blood-stained
+from his victims, a blade of dripping steel in his hands. He shouted
+above the tumult&mdash;words not in the universal language, but in the
+dialect of the <i>slaans</i>. His command carried throughout the building.
+Other <i>slaans</i> took it up; we could hear it echoed outside as others
+shouted it over the waters.</p>
+
+<p>The bloodshed abruptly ceased. The <i>slaans</i> leaped away from the Earth
+men, who were glad enough to let them go&mdash;rushed for the archways of the
+pavilion. Outside, we could hear the water splashing. Swimmers&mdash;and
+boats scurrying off. Then comparative silence. The scream of a <i>slaan</i>
+woman in the grove nearby, still desiring vengeance; the groans of the
+dying at our feet; the hiss and splutter of weapons discarded, with
+circuits still connected. And over it all, the great whine of a danger
+whistle, which some distant official had plugged.... A lull. And around
+us lay strewn stark tragedy where a few moments before had been festive
+merry-making. A crimson scene, with the body of the Red Woman lying like
+a symbol in its midst....</p>
+
+<p>Within an hour we were back at the palace. The whole city was seething.
+Boats and lights were everywhere. Control of everything seemed lost.
+Warning signals shrilled in crazy fashion. Public mirrors were dark, or
+turned to places and time wholly irrelevant.</p>
+
+<p>In the palace itself we soon secured a semblance of order. Maida's girls
+were here, with wet veils and long dank tresses clinging to their sleek
+bodies. Lips painted alluring red. But eyes which now were solemn and
+grim. Their demeanor alert and business-like. Unconscious of themselves
+they moved about the palace, executing Maida's orders.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen or so of Maida's personal retainers were here&mdash;and most of the
+Earth men. Keen-eyed young men of the Washington Headquarters Staff. One
+of them&mdash;Tomm Aften by name, a ruddy, blue-eyed fellow&mdash;was in command.
+He stayed close by Georg and me.</p>
+
+<p>The city was seething. But out of the chaos was coming a comparatively
+orderly menace. We could sense it at first; and then in a few brief
+minutes so swift that we had no time to prepare&mdash;the menace became
+obvious and was at hand.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>slaans</i> had withdrawn from the festival for a greater, more
+organized effort. Their revolt against Tarrano in which Maida had
+joined, was bigger, more deep-rooted than a mere revolt. It was against
+Maida herself. Trickery of the downtrodden <i>slaans</i> against the ruling
+class. Against the old order of government. Even against the <i>Rhaals</i>,
+who in their distant city were all-powerful, but who obeyed the laws and
+took no part in anything.</p>
+
+<p>Revolution! From down the waterways of streets which converged into the
+broad lagoon before the palace, boats began arriving. Boats crowded with
+<i>slaans</i>. Disheveled, unkempt men and women with primitive weapons of
+steel and wire brandished aloft. They surged into the lagoon. A
+murderous, frenzied mob&mdash;thoughtless of itself, suicidal to attack us,
+yet daring everything in its frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the lagoon was crowded&mdash;a chaos of pushing, shoving boats. Then the
+boats began landing, disgorging their occupants, wild-eyed <i>slaans</i> each
+a potential murderer. The gardens of the palace were presently jammed
+with them. They did not at first come within our threshholds; they stood
+milling about under the palms, trampling the tropic flowers, screaming
+threats and epithets at us. But waiting&mdash;as a mob always does&mdash;for some
+leader to advance, that they might follow him upon us.</p>
+
+<p>We stood on the palace roof-top. I must confess that we were in a flurry
+for the moment. There were undoubtedly weapons at hand, but I at least
+did not have them, nor did I know where they were. Excusable flurry
+possibly for the thing had come so quickly, and most of us were
+strangers here of but a few hours.</p>
+
+<p>The roof had a low railing waist-high, but broad. We stood clustered
+behind it. In the garden beneath, the mob was shouting up at us. And,
+before I could stop her, Maida had leaped to the top of the rail. Georg
+and I clutched at her, then steadied her.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Slaans&mdash;"</i></p>
+
+<p>But they would not hear her. Shouts went up; a roar of threats. The
+press of additions to the mob landing from other boats, forced the front
+ranks forward. They were now on the palace steps, jammed there waving
+their weapons yet still hesitating to advance.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slaans</i>&mdash;my people&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Maida's frail voice was lost in the uproar. Then a missle was thrown
+upward&mdash;a portion of a broken generator&mdash;a heavy chunk of metal. It
+barely missed Maida, and fell with a thump to the roof behind us. Then
+came others&mdash;a rain of them about us. I tried to pull Maida back, but
+she fought me, her voice still calling out its appeal.</p>
+
+<p>With a bound, Georg was up on the rail beside her. Aften&mdash;the young
+Earth man&mdash;had quietly handed him a cylinder. Georg waved it at the mob.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slaans</i>&mdash;" His stronger voice caught their attention. A sudden hush
+fell.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slaans</i>&mdash;it is I, Georg Brende. Your Princess Maida rules you now only
+under me. A new ruler, <i>slaans</i>&mdash;the man of Earth&mdash;Georg Brende who must
+be obeyed&mdash;Georg Brende, soon to be husband of your Princess&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But they would not hear him out. The din from them submerged his voice.
+His lips snapped tight as abruptly he ceased talking; his brows lowered
+grimly and I saw his finger press upon the cylinder.</p>
+
+<p>Maida's voice screamed: "Georg! Have mercy! Do not kill them!"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke barely in time. His cylinder swept upward. The rays from it
+caught only the upper portions of the palms and the tree tops. The
+foliage withered, shriveled before that soundless, invisible blast.</p>
+
+<p>Not a blast of heat. The mob, surprised, then frightened, stared upward.
+The soft tropical foliage in a great wide swath was dead, with naked
+sticks of limbs. Black, then turning white. Not with heat&mdash;but cold. Ice
+was forming from the moisture in the humid air. And then the sudden
+condensation brought snow&mdash;a thick white fall of it sifting down into
+the palm-laden garden; falling gently, then swirling in a sudden wind
+which had begun.</p>
+
+<p>As though itself stiffened by the cold just overhead, the mob stood
+transfixed. Then a murmur of horror came. And I saw through the veil of
+whirling snow, that into some of the trees <i>slaans</i> had climbed. Their
+bodies, frozen now, slid and fell&mdash;black plummets hurtling downward
+through the swirling snow-flakes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Immortal Terror</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>To Elza, approaching with Tarrano on the tiny flying platform the City
+of Ice, the place seemed truly like a child's dream of Fairyland. The
+rude snow huts of the Arctic of our Earth were all that she had ever
+conceived could be built of frozen water. Here, in the outskirts of the
+city, she saw indeed, quite similar huts. But further in&mdash;ornate
+buildings several stories high. She caught a vague glimpse of them only,
+as the platform flew above them and descended in the center of the city.</p>
+
+<p>They had passed over great outer encircling ramparts&mdash;a huge wall many
+<i>helans</i> long&mdash;built entirely of ice blocks&mdash;fortifications like that
+fabled wall which in the dim history of our Earth had once encircled a
+portion of the domain of the Yellow Race.</p>
+
+<p>The platform came down before a central building&mdash;the Palace of Ice.
+Even in this dim daylight of the Cold Country summer, the great building
+gleamed and glittered resplendent. A building of many levels, storied
+and winged, with spider bridges and aerial arcades connecting the wings.
+Frescoed everywhere! ornate with carved design chipped in ice blocks
+hard as marble. Rolling terraces of snow and ice surrounded it&mdash;lawns of
+smooth white, with winding paths of ice. A many balconied building;
+towers, spires and minarets crowning it. All blue-white. Glittering.
+Seemingly fragile; from a distance, a toy&mdash;a sample of the ultra-skill
+of some master confectioner, as though the whole thing were a toy of
+sugar for children to admire. But at close range&mdash;solid; in the cold of
+this terrible region, as solid as though constructed of blocks of stone.</p>
+
+<p>With the flying platform landed, and its warming rays cut off,
+attendants rushed forward. Tarrano and Elza were wrapped in furs at
+once&mdash;heavy furs which covered them from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! Well, Graten!" Tarrano greeted his subordinate smilingly. "Things
+are in condition here? You got my message?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Master. All is in good fashion here. We welcome you."</p>
+
+<p>In his furs, with face almost hidden, Elza could not see what manner of
+man this was.</p>
+
+<p>They entered the palace. Frescoed; carved everywhere, within as without.
+The main doorway led into a palatial hall, carpeted with furs. It was
+warm. Tarrano discarded his fur, and helped Elza out of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"You like my home, Lady Elza?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's&mdash;beautiful," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>His smile showed amusement at the wonder and awe which stamped her
+expression. He added very gently:</p>
+
+<p>"I had in mind when I built it, the hope that you would be pleased."</p>
+
+<p>A comfortable interior warmth. Elza noticed little blurs of red light
+behind wire cages here and there. The warmth came from them; and a glow
+of pale white light from the tubes along the wall.</p>
+
+<p>A woman hurried to them. Tara! Elza recognized her at once. Tara,
+looking very pretty in a pale blue robe, with her hair done high upon
+her head. The woman who loved Tarrano; he had sent her on here to be rid
+of her, when he went to the Great City. She came forward. Pleasure was
+on her face at seeing Tarrano; but her glance as she turned it
+momentarily toward Elza, held again that smouldering jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano was evidently in a mood of high good humor.</p>
+
+<p>"You welcome me prettily, Tara." She had flung her arms about him.
+"Tara, my dear is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;you come but in time. They are working the Brende instrument.
+Already they have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They? Who?" He frowned. His words were hard and cold as the ice-blocks
+around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Woolff. And the son of Cretar. Many of them&mdash;using it now!"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano drew Elza with him. Tara led the way. Through glowing white
+hallways, an arcade; down steps and an incline&mdash;to burst at last through
+a tunnel-like passage into a room.</p>
+
+<p>"So? What is this, Cretar?"</p>
+
+<p>A room littered with apparatus. A dozen men were about. Men scantily
+dressed in this interior heat. Short, squat men of the Cold Country;
+flat-nosed, heavy faces; hair long to the base of the neck. In a corner
+stood the Brende instrument, fully erected. A light from it seemed
+penetrating the bared chest of a man who was at that moment standing in
+its curative rays.</p>
+
+<p>He whom Tarrano called Cretar, took a step forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, we&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Making yourselves immortal?" The anger had left Tarrano's voice; irony
+was there instead.</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you done that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;yes! Yes! We did! Forgive us, Master."</p>
+
+<p>The man before the instrument had retreated from it. Elza saw now that
+all the men were shrinking back in terror. All save Cretar, who had
+fallen tremblingly to his knees. Yet Tarrano showed no anger. He
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not hurt you, Cretar! Get up, man! I am not angry&mdash;not even
+annoyed. Why, your skin is turning orange. See the mottles!"</p>
+
+<p>On the flesh of all the men&mdash;save the one who had been checked in the
+act of using the instrument&mdash;a bright orange mottling was apparent.
+Cretar exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"The immunity to all diseases, master. It is itself a
+disease&mdash;harmless&mdash;and it combats every other." He laughed a little
+wildly. "We cannot get sick now. We cannot die&mdash;we are immortal. Come,
+Master&mdash;let us make you so!"</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano whispered: "You see, Lady Elza? The orange spots! These men of
+medicine here have used the Brende secret to its full. Immune from
+disease!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let us treat <i>you</i>, Master. This immortality&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>On Cretar's face was a triumphant smile, but in his eyes lay a terror.
+The man who had not been treated stood against the wall watching with
+interest and curiosity. But the others! They crouched; wary; alert eyes
+like animals at bay.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano laughed. "Treat me! Cretar, you know not with what you have been
+trifling. Immortal? You are indeed. Disease cannot touch you! You cannot
+die&mdash;save by violence!"</p>
+
+<p>He swung to Elza. "These men, Lady Elza&mdash;they are strong-muscled. In
+health now more perfect than any other humans. <i>You</i> are frail&mdash;a frail
+little woman. And unarmed. I bid you&mdash;strike one of them!"</p>
+
+<p>She stared; but as she suddenly faced about, she caught in part his
+meaning. Before her Cretar shrank back, his face gone white, his teeth
+chattering.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that behind you?" Tarrano's voice simulated sudden alarm; he
+scuffled his feet on the floor. The men jumped with fright; nerves
+unstrung, they cowered.</p>
+
+<p>"What manner of men!" Tarrano's laugh was contemptuous. "Oh, Lady Elza,
+let this be a lesson to all of us! To cure disease is well. To prevent
+it&mdash;that too is good. But immortality&mdash;Dr. Brende never intended it,
+<i>you</i> know he did not, Lady Elza&mdash;the belief that we have everlasting
+life here on this plane&mdash;the Creator never intended that. With all
+danger of death gone&mdash;save violence&mdash;these immortals here fear violence
+so greatly that they are men no longer!</p>
+
+<p>"Immortal terror! God forbid <i>I</i> should ever feel it! Or you, Lady Elza.
+A lesson for us all, who would be so un-Godly as to seek and think we
+have found what only the Creator Himself can bestow!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Black Cloud of Death</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I must revert now to that time in the gardens of Maida's palace at the
+Great City when we stood upon its roof-top, threatened below by that mob
+of <i>slaans</i>. Georg stood with the cylinder in his hand, waving it. The
+palm foliage was freezing. Down through the swirling snow fell the
+frozen bodies of the <i>slaans</i> who had climbed into the gigantic palm
+fronds. The thuds as the bodies struck the ground sounded horribly plain
+in the stillness. Georg was still waving his cylinder. Snow and ice were
+gathering everywhere. Incautiously he lowered the weapon; a brief,
+momentary chill&mdash;the congealing breath of the Arctic in this warm
+palm-laden garden&mdash;swept the horror-stricken crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"Georg, have mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>Maida's frightened, pleading words brought Georg to his senses. He
+snapped off the cylinder and dropped it behind him to the palace
+roof-top. He was trembling and white as he stood with his arm around
+Maida. Weapons so drastic as this one were seldom used. Indeed, it was
+law throughout both Venus and the Earth that no civilian should possess
+them. The power for wholesale death in his hand, and which without
+wholly meaning to, he had so nearly used to its full effect, had
+unnerved him.</p>
+
+<p>Without the ray, the wind soon died. The warmer air mounting, melted the
+ice; the snow ceased falling. But the swath of shriveled foliage
+remained&mdash;a hideous scar cut into the luxuriant tropical growth.</p>
+
+<p>The mob had forgotten its threats, its evil intent. Silent for a moment,
+it now burst into outcries. Motionless: then milling about, struggling
+aimlessly with itself&mdash;struggling to retreat. A panic of terror. The
+boats in the lagoon were retreating. The <i>slaans</i> along the fringe of
+shore began hurriedly to embark. The groups huddled at the palace steps
+were trying to shove the others back. In a rout they tumbled into their
+boats and scurried away. Maida's voice, striving to reassure them, was
+unheard.</p>
+
+<p>And presently the scarred, trampled garden was empty and silent.</p>
+
+<p>The rebellion, checked thus at its start, was quelled. Throughout the
+city that night&mdash;for the <i>slaans</i> to hear whether they would or no&mdash;the
+broadcast stations flung their stentorian tones to the people; a speech
+by Maida; her promise of better things to come for the <i>slaans</i>; the end
+of Tarrano's brief rule; a reorganization of past conditions. Maida
+herself had never been in control in the Central State. The luxury&mdash;the
+license-of the ruling class had been no fault of hers. She promised fair
+treatment now to the <i>slaans</i>. She was to marry Georg Brende, the Earth
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Maida did marry Georg. With the many stirring events&mdash;a time when
+disaster and death threatened us all&mdash;so soon to follow, I shall not
+pause to describe the wedding. A quaint, yet magnificent spectacle.
+Maida in her regal robe; Georg looking every inch a ruler. Their barge
+of white leading the procession&mdash;a barge of white flowers, its sides
+lined with maidens to fend off the deluge of blossoms with which the
+onlookers assailed the bridal couple. The arrival at the marriage
+island, where on an altar the quaintly garbed holy man immersed them;
+and the solemn men of law united them as one.</p>
+
+<p>It was a night of rejoicing throughout the Great City; and on every
+mirror in the Empire it was pictured for those who could not be present.</p>
+
+<p>A time of rejoicing. Yet then&mdash;as always those days&mdash;my heart was heavy.
+Elza was held by Tarrano. We knew he had taken her to the City of Ice.
+There was of course, no radio communication with the Cold Country. We
+had tried eavesdropping upon it, but to no avail. Tarrano's close-flung
+barrage checked every wave we could send against it.</p>
+
+<p>Time passed&mdash;a month or more. We were worried over Elza naturally. Yet
+the saving grace was that we knew Tarrano would treat her kindly; that
+for the present at least, she was in no danger.</p>
+
+<p>Georg and Maida took possession of the Central State. Their rule started
+auspiciously, for by a series of speeches&mdash;a reorganization of money
+payments&mdash;the <i>slaans</i> seemed well satisfied. Loyal, and with a growing
+patriotism, an eagerness to help in the coming war with Tarrano.
+Georg&mdash;without actually saying so&mdash;made them believe that the only hope
+of everlasting life was the recovery from Tarrano of the Brende model.
+The model was in the City of Ice; it must be captured.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, to us of the government, the Brende model was not
+indispensable. The greatest factor was that the threat of Tarrano's
+universal conquest must be forever removed. Like a rocket-bomb, this man
+of genius had risen from obscurity&mdash;had all but conquered the three
+greatest worlds of the universe.</p>
+
+<p>I think that the height of Tarrano's power was reached that day on the
+eve of the Water Festival when he made his triumphant entry into the
+Great City. Venus was his at that moment; all of Venus. Mars was his;
+the Hairless Men&mdash;savages who had fallen readily to his wiles, had
+conquered the civilized, ruling Little People. And the Earth, over-run
+by his spies, deluged by his propaganda which, insidiously as rust will
+eat away a metal, was eating into the loyalty of our Earth-public&mdash;our
+own great Earth was in a dangerous position. The Earth Council realized
+it. The Almighty only could know how many of our officials, our men in
+trusted positions, were at heart loyal to Tarrano!</p>
+
+<p>The thing was obvious. The assassination of our three rulers&mdash;leaders of
+the white, yellow and black races&mdash;with which Tarrano's campaign in the
+open had begun&mdash;those assassinations could never have taken place had
+not our military organization been diseased.</p>
+
+<p>Facts like these were constantly coming to us now, here in the Great
+City. A brief time of physical inactivity. Yet underneath the calm, we
+realized there was a struggle going on everywhere; a struggle of
+sentiment, of propaganda, of public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Warfare, with modern weapons by which a man single-handed might destroy
+a city&mdash;is no longer a matter of men. The citizen&mdash;unarmed&mdash;united in
+sentiment and desire with a million of his kind&mdash;becomes the real ruler.
+You cannot&mdash;because you have a weapon&mdash;destroy a million of your
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>We realized this. And in the ultimate decision&mdash;the popular fancy
+almost&mdash;of our publics&mdash;lay our real success or downfall.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano in the popular mind had a tremendous hold. Dispatches from Earth
+made it plain that upon every street level the people were discussing
+him. From the Great City daily we sent bulletins of our progress toward
+checking&mdash;destroying&mdash;the menace of him. But bulletins also were
+emanating from the City of Ice. We could not stop them. Cut off at every
+official Earth station&mdash;and with all unofficial stations unable to
+receive them&mdash;nevertheless at some secret station which could not be
+found, they were received. And from there, circulated throughout the
+Earth. The air was full of them. Mysteriously, scenes showing the great
+Tarrano appeared upon the official news-mirrors; a speech of Tarrano's
+was once officially broadcasted before its source could be located and
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Like a smothered fire smouldering, lacking only a breath of vital gas to
+explode it into flame, the sentiment for Tarrano spread about the Earth.</p>
+
+<p>Public opinion is fickle. It sways instinctively&mdash;not always, but
+often&mdash;to the winning side. Here in Venus we knew we must defeat
+Tarrano. Destroy him personally and thus put an end to it all forever,
+since his dominion hung wholly upon the genius of his own personality.</p>
+
+<p>Our spies, some of them, got to the City of Ice, and back. A few flying
+men were able to hover about the city, and with instruments peer down
+into it. We knew that Tarrano was mobilizing for a move upon the Earth,
+where with a war-like demonstration he hoped to be accepted, yielded to,
+without a severe struggle. But, within a month now, we learned he had
+abandoned that idea. He knew, of course, our own preparations to attack
+him; and he began concentrating everything upon his own defense in the
+City of Ice.</p>
+
+<p>His last stand. We officials knew it. And we knew he felt it also. And
+though on Earth our public felt differently, the Little People
+recognized it. A stirring, wonderful time&mdash;that day when on our mirrors
+was pictured the revolt of the Little People against the Tarrano rule of
+the Hairless Men. Grim scenes of tragedy; and over the carnage, the
+Little People triumphed. Tarrano's rule&mdash;with all the excesses of the
+Hairless Men who proved themselves mere rapacious plunderers in the name
+of warfare&mdash;was at an end on Mars.</p>
+
+<p>The effect on Earth of this Martian reversal was beneficial to us. A
+good omen. We on Venus, redoubled our efforts to attack successfully the
+City of Ice.</p>
+
+<p>Mars could send us no aid, though now in full sympathy with us. The
+planet was daily at a greater distance from us; and the Little People,
+not recovered from the effects of their own bloody strife, were in no
+position to help us.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did the Earth Council deem it wise to send men additional to those
+few we already had. The Earth was rapidly being left behind by the
+swifter flight of Venus through her orbit. The official season for the
+mail-flyers was closed. The opposition of the two planets was long since
+passed; millions of additional miles were adding to the space separating
+them.</p>
+
+<p>And the Earth Council was not sure of its men! Any one of them might
+secretly be in Tarrano's service&mdash;and do us infinitely more harm if
+brought to Venus, than if left at home.</p>
+
+<p>We seemed of solid strength in the Central State. For the first time in
+generations the <i>Rhaals</i>&mdash;the men of science from whom all the progress
+of civilization on Venus came&mdash;departed from their attitude of
+aloofness. Their work&mdash;always before industrial&mdash;now turned to the
+sterner demands of war.</p>
+
+<p>The Rhaal City<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> lay a brief flight from us. A grave sort of
+people, these <i>Rhaals</i>. Men of square-cut, sober-colored garments; women
+of sober grey flowing robes&mdash;white hair coiled upon their heads.
+Intelligent women, dignified of demeanor; many of them learned as were
+the men.</p>
+
+<p>Their city, teeming now with the preparations for war, was intensely
+interesting to me. We spent most of our days in it, flying back at
+nightfall to Maida's palace. Yet I shall not describe it, nor our
+preparations, our days of activity&mdash;but hasten on to the first of the
+extraordinary incidents impending.</p>
+
+<p>It came&mdash;this first incident&mdash;through my thoughts of Elza. I was
+worried&mdash;more than worried, sometimes almost terrified about her. My
+instinct would have been to take a handful of men and dash to her
+rescue&mdash;which of course would have been absurd. I tried to reassure
+myself. Tarrano would treat her kindly. Soon, in full force, our army
+would descend upon the City of Ice, capture it, destroy Tarrano&mdash;rescue
+Elza.</p>
+
+<p>Rescue Elza! Ah, there lay the difficulty which I never dared
+contemplate in detail. How would we rescue her? Tarrano would treat her
+kindly, now during his own security. But if, at the last, he saw his own
+defeat, his death perhaps impending&mdash;would he treat her kindly then?</p>
+
+<p>I loved Elza very deeply. A new torture came from it now. Did she love
+me&mdash;or Tarrano? I remembered the gentleness of the man with her. His
+dignity, his power&mdash;his undoubted genius. And who, what was I? A mere
+news-gatherer. A man of no force, and little personality. A nonentity.
+Sometimes as in my jealousy I contemplated Elza with Tarrano now, I felt
+that he was everything a young girl would fancy. How could she help
+loving him?</p>
+
+<p>At night, when sleep would not come to me, I would lie tossing, thinking
+of it. Did Elza love me&mdash;or Tarrano? Once I had thought she loved me.
+But she had never said so.</p>
+
+<p>It was out of this constant thinking of Elza that the first of the
+incidents I have mentioned, arose. There came to me one night the
+feeling that Elza was near me. I awoke from half sleep to full
+wakefulness. In my bedroom, upon the low couch on which I lay, the aural
+lights of Venus spread their vivid tints. The palace was silent; I sat
+up, pressing my palms to my throbbing temples.</p>
+
+<p><i>Elza was coming nearer to me!</i></p>
+
+<p>I knew it. Not by any of my bodily senses. A knowledge, which suddenly I
+realized that I had. A moment, and then I was conscious of her voice! No
+sound; my ears heard nothing. Yet my brain was aware of familiar tones.
+I recognized them, as one can remember how a loved voice sounded when
+last it was heard.</p>
+
+<p>But this was no memory. A present actuality; it rang soundless in my
+brain. Elza's voice. Anxious! Frightened!</p>
+
+<p>At first only the confused <i>tone</i> of it. Then the consciousness of
+words. Two reiterated words:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Danger! Jac! Danger! Jac!"</i></p>
+
+<p>I waited no longer, but rushed to Georg and Maida&mdash;beautiful Maida in
+her robe of sleep with her white hair tumbling about her. Georg half
+awake&mdash;yet almost at once he could understand me, and explain.</p>
+
+<p>Natural, instinctive telepathy! It had not occurred to me. I had never
+bothered to develop telepathy; and indeed with any degree of fluency&mdash;or
+even of surety of reception&mdash;the phenomenon is difficult to perfect.
+Yet, as I knew, with a loved one absent upon whom one's thoughts dwell
+constantly&mdash;in time of stress telepathy is occasionally automatically
+established.</p>
+
+<p>It was so in Georg and Maida's case, back there in the Mountain Station
+on Earth. Telepathy was the explanation of Georg's mysterious actions as
+he stood there before the sending mirrors, crossed the room in
+confusion, and like one in a dream leaped from the window to be seized
+by Tarrano's spies. Maida had been abducted a moment before. Georg's
+brain became aware of it. Her danger, the appeal she sent to him.</p>
+
+<p>So it now seemed to be from Elza to me. Georg, out of bed now beside me,
+urged me to greater efforts of concentration, that I might understand
+what message Elza was sending.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Elza! Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"</i></p>
+
+<p>I murmured the words to myself as with all my power, I thought them over
+and over, flinging out the thoughts like radio waves into the night.
+Mysterious vibrations! In an instant, from here&mdash;everywhere in the
+universe. Who knows their character? Their speed? The speed of light a
+laggard perhaps beside the flash of a thought! Waves of my thoughts,
+speeding through the night, with only one receiving station in all the
+universe! Would Elza's brain capture them?</p>
+
+<p><i>"Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"</i></p>
+
+<p><i>"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"</i></p>
+
+<p>It was very clear. The words rang in my head. But always only those two.
+And then at last&mdash;it may have been an hour later&mdash;other words:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Death! The black cloud of death! You can see it coming! See it coming!
+Death! To you Jac! To all of you in the city!"</i></p>
+
+<p>We rushed to the casement. The broad lagoon before the palace lay like a
+mirror tinted red and purple. Beyond it, palms and the outlines of
+houses lay dark against the star-strewn sky.</p>
+
+<p>But out there, over the city, in the distance a dark patch obscured the
+stars. We watched it breathless. A dark patch which soon took shape. A
+cloud! A black cloud&mdash;unnatural of aspect somehow&mdash;a rolling, low-lying
+black cloud. Growing larger; spreading out side-wise; sweeping toward
+the city on a wind which had not reached us.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Jac! Jac dear! Danger! Death to all the city!"</i></p>
+
+<p>Elza's words were still beating in my brain. Soundless words of terror
+and warning!</p>
+
+<p><i>"Death, Jac! Death to all the city! The black cloud of death!"</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Tarrano the Man</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"Wake up, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>A silence. His hand touched her white shoulder. "Wake up, Lady Elza. It
+is I&mdash;Tarrano."</p>
+
+<p>Elza opened her eyes, struggling to confused wakefulness. The white
+walls of her sleeping room in Tarrano's palace of the City of Ice were
+stained with the dim red radiance of her night light. She opened her
+eyes to meet Tarrano's inscrutable face as he bent over her couch;
+became conscious of his low, insistent, "Wake up, Lady Elza;" and his
+fingers half caressing the filmy scarf that covered her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Terror flooded Elza; that time she had always feared, had come. Yet she
+had the presence of mind to smile, drawing away from him and sitting up,
+with the fur bed-covering pulled to her chin.</p>
+
+<p>"Tarrano? Why&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He straightened, and into his expression came apology.</p>
+
+<p>"I frightened you, Lady Elza? I'm sorry. I would not do that for all the
+worlds."</p>
+
+<p>Her terror receded. The old Tarrano over whom she still held sway. She
+summoned a look of haughty questioning.</p>
+
+<p>"You are bold, Tarrano&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His gesture was deprecating; he seated himself on the edge of her couch.
+She saw now that he was fully dressed and armed with a belt of many
+instruments.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Elza had been in the City of Ice for a considerable period.
+Irksome, worried days of semi-imprisonment; and through them, Tarrano's
+attitude toward her was unchanged. She saw little of him; he seemed very
+busy, though to what end, and what his activities, she could not learn.</p>
+
+<p>Within the palace, half as guard, half as maid-servant, Tara was
+generally Elza's only companion. And then, one evening when Tara's
+smouldering jealousy broke forth in Tarrano's presence and Elza uttered
+an involuntary cry of fear, Tara was summarily removed.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was left practically alone; until at length came this night when
+invading the privacy of her sleeping room, Tarrano awakened her. He sat
+now upon the edge of her couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a confession to make to you, Lady Elza." He smiled slightly. "As
+you know, there is no one else in our habitable universe to whom I would
+speak thus frankly."</p>
+
+<p>"I am honored, Tarrano. But here, at this hour of sleep&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He waved away the words. "I have asked your pardon for that. My
+confession&mdash;as once before, Lady Elza, I come to you most humbly,
+confessing that my affairs are not going as I would like. You do not
+know, of course, that Mars&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," she interrupted. "You have kept me from the
+news-mirrors, if indeed there are any here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mars revolted against me," he went on imperturbably. "The Little People
+are again in control. Fools! They do not realize, those governors of
+Mars, that their public ultimately will demand this <i>Everlasting Life</i>
+of mine&mdash;the Brende secret&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She frowned. "No one knows better than you, Tarrano, that my father's
+secret does not bestow immortality. To cure disease, in a measure&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He checked her; his smile was ironical. "You and I know that, Lady Elza.
+We know that on this plane we would not want everlasting life if we
+could have it. But the public does not know that&mdash;let us not discuss it.
+I was telling you&mdash;confessing to you&mdash;I have lost Mars. Temporarily, of
+course. Meanwhile, I have been preparing to invade the Earth." His
+gesture was expansive. "I have been planning, from here in the Cold
+Country, to send armies to your Earth."</p>
+
+<p>He paused an instant. "I think now I shall wait until the next
+opposition&mdash;we are far from Earth now, but all in good time we shall be
+closer.... Strange is it not, that I should like to tell you my plans?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer; she watched his smile fading into a look of
+grimness. "In the Great City, here on Venus, they are getting ready to
+attack me. Did you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You supposed they were? Your brother, and that Jac Hallen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you hoped they were, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>He frowned. "You are disconcertingly frank, Lady Elza. Well, let me tell
+you this&mdash;it would come to nothing. The <i>Rhaals</i> are with them&mdash;all the
+resources of the Central State are to be thrown against me. Yet it will
+come to nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Her heart leaped. Tarrano was making his last stand. Beyond the logical
+sense of his words, she could see it in his eyes. He knew he was making
+his last stand. He knew too that she was now aware of it; and that
+behind the confidence of his words&mdash;that was the confession he was
+making.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano's last stand! There seemed to her then something illogically
+pathetic in it all. This man of genius&mdash;so short a time ago all but the
+Emperor of three worlds. And now, with them slipping from his grasp,
+reduced to this last stronghold in the bleak fastnesses of the Cold
+Country, awaiting the inevitable attack upon him. Something pathetic....</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Tarrano."</p>
+
+<p>As though mirrored from her own expression, a wistful look had come to
+him. Her words drove it away.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry? There is nothing to be sorry about. Their attack will come to
+nothing ... yet&mdash;" He stopped short, and then as though deciding to say
+what he had begun, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, Lady Elza, I am no fool to discard possibilities. I may be
+defeated." He laughed harshly. "To what depths has Tarrano fallen that
+he can voice such a possibility!"</p>
+
+<p>He leaned toward her and into his tone came a greater earnestness than
+she ever heard in it before.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Elza, if they should be successful, they would not capture me&mdash;for
+I would die fighting. You understand that, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>She met his eyes; the gleam in them held her. Forgetful of herself, she
+had allowed the fur to drop from her: she sat bolt upright, the dim red
+light tinting the scarf that lay like gossamer around her white
+shoulders. His hand came out and touched her arm, slipped up to her
+shoulder and rested there, but she did not feel it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will die fighting," he repeated. "You understand that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>"And you would be sorry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not relax. His eyes burned her: but deep in them she saw that
+quality of wistfulness, of pleading.</p>
+
+<p>"You, my Elza, they would rescue&mdash;unless I killed you."</p>
+
+<p>She did not move, but within her was a shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"You know I would kill you, my Elza, rather than give you up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;wonder. Sometimes I think I would." Suddenly he cast aside all
+restraint. "Oh, my Elza&mdash;that we should have to plan such things as
+these! You, sitting there&mdash;you are so beautiful! Your eyes&mdash;limpid pools
+with terror lurking in them when I would have them misty with love! My
+Elza&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The woman in her responded. A wave of color flooded her throat and face.
+But she drew away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"My Elza! Can you not tell me that even in defeat I may be victorious?
+It is you more than all else that I desire."</p>
+
+<p>Without warning his arms were around her, holding her fiercely to him,
+his face close to hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Elza! With you, defeat would be victory. And with you&mdash;now&mdash;if you
+would but say the word&mdash;together we will surmount every obstacle.&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was kissing her, bending back her head, and his grip upon her
+shoulder was bruising the flesh. No longer Tarrano, Conqueror of the
+universe, just Tarrano the man. Terror surged within Elza's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Tarrano!"</p>
+
+<p>"Elza dear&mdash;my Elza&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tarrano!" She fought with him. "Tarrano, do you dare&mdash;I tell you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The frightened pleading of a woman at bay. And then abruptly he cast her
+off. His laugh was grim.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fool I am! Tarrano the weakling!" He leaped from the couch and
+began pacing the room. "Tarrano the weakling! To what depths has Tarrano
+fallen!"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped before her. "I ask your pardon, Lady Elza. This has been
+madness. Forget my words&mdash;all madness."</p>
+
+<p>His tone was crisp. "Human weakness to which I did not realize I was so
+prone made me talk like a fool. Desire you above the conquest of the
+universe? Absurd! Lies that men whisper into women's ears! All lies!"</p>
+
+<p>Was he telling the real truth now? Or was this a mood of recrimination?
+Bitterness that his love was scorned. Again his gaze held her, but in it
+now she could see nothing but a cruel inflexible purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Tarrano in defeat! That is impossible, Lady Elza. You will very shortly
+realize that, for I am going to show you how, single-handed, I can make
+it impossible. Show you with your own eyes. It was my purpose in coming
+to waken you&mdash;my purpose, when your beauty led me into weakness
+incredible.... Get up, Lady Elza."</p>
+
+<p>She stared. With folded arms he stood emotionless regarding her.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up, I tell you. Put on those garments you wore when we arrived. We
+are going travelling again."</p>
+
+<p>He stood waiting; and beneath his gaze she shrank back, drawing the fur
+rug over her.</p>
+
+<p>A smile of contempt parted his lips. "You hesitate? You think I am still
+a weakling? You over-rate your beauty, Lady Elza.... Make haste, I
+command you. We must start very soon."</p>
+
+<p>She summoned her voice. "Start? Where? What are you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No questions, Lady Elza. Not now. Make haste&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He jerked from her the fur covering, flung it across the room, and with
+the same gesture turned away impersonally. Trembling, she rose from the
+couch and donned the garments he had indicated, while he stood brooding
+by the window, gazing through its transparent pane at the glistening
+frozen city which was all that remained of his empire.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Thing in the Forest</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"All in good time, Lady Elza, you will know where we are."</p>
+
+<p>Alone, unnoticed, they had departed from the City of Ice on a small
+flying platform similar to the one they had used before. The night had
+passed; day, with a new warmth to the sun, came again. Flying low, with
+Tarrano in a grim, moody silence, and Elza staring downward.</p>
+
+<p>The aural lights were overhead when at the last Tarrano brought the
+platform to rest. A thick, luxuriant forest. Huge trees with rope-like
+roots and heavy vines. Others with leaves like the ears of an elephant.
+And the ground hidden by almost impenetrable underbrush.</p>
+
+<p>They had landed in a tiny glade beside a dank marsh of water, where
+ferns shoulder high were embanked. It was dark, the stars and the tints
+of the auroral lights were barely distinguishable through the mass of
+foliage overhead. Elza gazed around her fearsomely. The air was heavy,
+oppressive. Redolent with the perfume of wild flowers and the smell of
+mouldering, steaming soil.</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time. Lady Elza," Tarrano repeated. "You will know where we
+are presently; we are closer to human habitation than you would think."</p>
+
+<p>Elza's heart pounded. As they were descending she had noticed a glow of
+light in the sky ahead. As though by intuition now, she seemed to
+realize that they were not far from the Great City. Her thoughts leaped
+to me&mdash;Jac Hallen&mdash;there in Maida's palace. Tarrano's grim, sinister
+purpose was as yet unknown to her. But she guessed that in it, danger
+impended for me&mdash;for all of us in the Great City.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"</i></p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts instinctively reiterated the two words uppermost in her
+mind. And I think that it was just about then when they awakened me.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the vehicle, Tarrano commanded Elza to follow him; and he began
+picking his way through the jungle. A light was in his hand; it
+penetrated but a short distance. A quivering beam of yellow light; then
+Elza saw that upon occasion, as Tarrano's finger slid a lever, the beam
+narrowed, intensified to a bright lavender. And now where it struck, the
+vegetation withered. Blackened, sometimes burst into tiny flame, and
+parted thus before them as they advanced.</p>
+
+<p>The jungle was silent; yet, as Elza listened, beneath the crackle of the
+burning twigs she could hear the tiny myriad voices of insect life.
+Startled voices as the heat of Tarrano's beam struck them. Rustling
+leaves; breaking twigs; things scurrying and sliding away, unseen in the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice a crashing&mdash;some monster disturbed in his rest plunging
+away. Again, a slithering bulk of something, undulating its path through
+the thickets. All unseen. Save once. Looking upward, Elza caught a gleam
+of green eyes overhead. A triangle of three baleful spots of
+phosphorescent green. Her murmur of fright caused Tarrano to glance
+upward. His lavender, beam, grown suddenly larger, swung there with a
+hiss. Falling from above came a pink body. A bloated body, square, with
+squat, twisted legs; a thing larger than a man. A grotesque naked
+monstrosity almost in human form. A travesty&mdash;gruesome mockery of
+mankind. A face, three-eyed...</p>
+
+<p>The thing lay writhing in the underbrush, mouthing, mumbling and then
+screaming&mdash;the shrill scream of death agony. And the horrible smell of
+burning flesh as Tarrano's light played upon it...</p>
+
+<p>"Come away, Lady Elza. I'm sorry. I had hoped to avoid an affair such as
+this."</p>
+
+<p>Sickened, shuddering, Elza clung close to Tarrano as he led her onward.</p>
+
+<p>An hour or more; and now Elza could see in the distance the lights of
+the Great City.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"</i></p>
+
+<p>The idea of thought-transference had come to her. With all the power of
+her mind she was thinking her warning to me, praying that it might reach
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"Single-handed, Lady Elza. You shall see now how, single-handed, I make
+impossible any attack upon Tarrano."</p>
+
+<p>In her abstraction Elza had almost forgotten herself and Tarrano; his
+voice reached her&mdash;his voice grim and with a gloating, sinister triumph
+in it. He was bending to the ground. Elza saw that they had come to an
+open space&mdash;an eminence rising above the forest. Underfoot was a stony
+soil; in places, bare black rock with an outcropping of red, like the
+cinnabar from which on Earth we melt the <i>Heavy-metal</i>.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p>Tarrano faced her. "Nature, my Lady Elza, is fair to my purpose. I knew
+I would find some such deposit as this." He turned his face to one side
+attentively, and darted his light&mdash;harmlessly yellow now&mdash;to where a
+lone tree showed its great leaves beginning to waver in a night breeze.</p>
+
+<p>"Nature is with us! See there, my Elza! A wind is coming&mdash;a wind from us
+to&mdash;them!"</p>
+
+<p>The breeze grew&mdash;a breeze blowing directly over the forest to where in
+the distance the lights of the Great City showed plainly. Tarrano added:</p>
+
+<p>"I had thought to create the wind." He tapped his belt. "Create the wind
+to carry our onslaught. But you see, it is unnecessary. Nature is kind,
+and far more efficacious than our man-made devices."</p>
+
+<p><i>"Jac! Danger!"</i> She stood there in the breeze, watching Tarrano&mdash;his
+purpose as yet no more than guessed&mdash;praying that I might receive her
+warning.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano selected his spot&mdash;a tiny little cone of rock no bigger than his
+thumb. He beckoned Elza.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand close, and watch. You shall see how from the merest spark, a
+conflagration may ensue."</p>
+
+<p>The cylinder in his hand darted forth a needle-like shaft&mdash;a light of
+intense purple. It touched the tiny cone of rock, and he held it there.</p>
+
+<p>"A moment. Be patient, my Elza."</p>
+
+<p>The point of rock seemed presently to melt. Like a tiny volcano, at
+their feet, lava from it was flowing down. A little stream of melted
+rock, viscous, bubbling a trifle; red at the edges, white within, and
+with wisps of smoke curling up from it.</p>
+
+<p>Elza stared with the fascination of horror, for now tiny tongues of
+flame were licking about. Blue tongues, licking the air, vanishing into
+wisps of black smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano snapped off his ray. But the tongues of flame stayed alive.
+Spreading slowly, soundlessly, their heat now melting the ground.</p>
+
+<p>A breath of the smoke touched Elza's face. Pungent, acrid. It stopped
+her breathing. She choked, coughed heavily to expel it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come away, Lady Elza. Let us watch from a safer distance."</p>
+
+<p>He led her from the hillock, up the wind to where at the edge of the
+forest they stood gazing.</p>
+
+<p>The blue fire had spread over a distance of several feet. A sluggish,
+boiling, bubbling area of flame. Tongues now the height of a man. And
+from them, rolling upward, a heavy black cloud&mdash;deadly fumes thick,
+blacker than the night, spreading out, welling forward over the forest
+toward the Great City slumbering in its falsely peaceful security.</p>
+
+<p>At last Elza knew. Stood there, cold, shuddering, thinking with all the
+power of her mind and being:</p>
+
+<p><i>"Death, Jac! Death to all the City! The black cloud of death!"</i></p>
+
+<p>Oblivious to Tarrano she stood until at last the rocky eminence was one
+great mass of the surging blue fire. And the black cloud, compact as a
+thunder-head, rolled onward.</p>
+
+<p><i>"You can see it coming! Death Jac! Death to all the City!"</i></p>
+
+<p>A sudden madness descended upon Elza. She felt abruptly that her warning
+was futile, felt an overpowering desire to run. Run somewhere&mdash;anywhere,
+away from the lurid sight she was facing. Or run perhaps, to the Great
+City; to race with that black cloud of death; to run fast and far, and
+burst into our palace to warn us.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano himself lost in triumphant contemplation of what he had done,
+for the moment was heedless of Elza's presence. With white face upon
+which the blue glare had settled like a mask of death, Elza turned
+silently from him. Forgetful of that horrible thing they had
+encountered&mdash;others of its kind which might be lurking about&mdash;she turned
+silently and plunged into the black depths of the forest.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A Woman's Scream</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"The black Cloud of Death!"</p>
+
+<p>We stood there at the casement of the palace, gazing with a growing
+terror at the visible evidence of the tragedy which threatened. A black
+cloud off there in the distance, spreading out, rolling inexorably
+toward us. And then came the wind, and with it a breath of the black
+monster&mdash;a choking, horrible suggestion of the death rolling already
+over the city.</p>
+
+<p>We must have been fascinated at the casement for some considerable time.
+Elza's thought messages had ceased. Abruptly I came to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"The Black Cloud of Death!" I turned to Georg and Maida. "Alarm the
+city! Arouse them all! Alarm&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Maida's face was white: she flung off Georg's arm which had been
+protectingly around her. "The siren&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Terrible moments, those that followed. Confusion; panic; death!</p>
+
+<p>The public siren in the tower by the lagoon entrance shrilled its
+warning. The danger lights blazed out. The city came to life. Lights
+sprang up everywhere. People&mdash;with the daze of sleep still upon
+them&mdash;appeared at the casements; on the roof-tops; on the canal steps
+they appeared, fumbling with their boats. Panic!</p>
+
+<p>A pandemonium. Aircraft, such as could so hastily be mustered, swept
+overhead. A glare of lights everywhere. The shrill voice of the siren
+stilled, to make audible the broadcast warnings&mdash;stentorian tones
+screaming: "The Black Cloud of Death! Escape from the city! Escape to
+Industriana!"</p>
+
+<p>Warning, advice, command! But over it all, the breath of the black cloud
+now lay heavy. The lights were dimmed by it. Everywhere&mdash;to every
+deepest recess of the city&mdash;to every inner room where to escape it many
+had fled&mdash;its deadly choking breath was penetrating.</p>
+
+<p>Within the palace was turmoil. We had an air-vehicle on a landing-stage
+nearby; but Georg and Maida would not leave at once. Rulers of the
+Central State, as a Director might stick to his crumbling Tower, they
+stayed now in the Great City. Encouraging the people. Maida's voice,
+futilely attempting to broadcast over the uproar. Georg commanding the
+official air-vessels to load with refugees; himself struggling to direct
+the jam of boats toward the embarking stages.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the instrument room of the palace. The air was pale-blue,
+though I had closed every casement. Ourselves, choking already; then
+gasping; and with no time or thought to procure a mask. The chemical
+room, from whence we might have secured apparatus to purify our air, had
+been abandoned before we thought to seek it out. I dashed into it, my
+breath held. Its casements were open; its air thick-blue with the fumes;
+its staff long since fled. I ran back to Georg and Maida, gasping, my
+lungs on fire, my head roaring.</p>
+
+<p>"No use! Abandoned!"</p>
+
+<p>The department of weather control where&mdash;had we been forewarned&mdash;we
+might have found means to divert the wind by another of our own
+creation&mdash;was deserted by its staff at the first alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"No use! Georg&mdash;Maida&mdash;let us go!"</p>
+
+<p>The mirrors all about us in the instrument room were going dark; the
+horrible scenes of death throughout the city which they pictured were
+vanishing. The public lights were going out; the broadcast voices were
+ceasing.</p>
+
+<p>The city now was out of control. But still the lagoon outside was
+packed with boats&mdash;overloaded boats.... Screams of terror, choked into
+silence ... boats with frenzied occupants leaping into the water to find
+a quicker, happier death ... a woman with a babe in her arms on a
+housetop across the lagoon&mdash;the infant already dead; the crazed mother
+flinging it down into the water, herself following with a long, gasping
+scream...</p>
+
+<p>At last Georg pulled at me&mdash;no longer could we speak&mdash;pulled at me, and
+with Maida between us, we fled. The air outside was worse. In the
+dimness, our landing stage seemed <i>belans</i> away. The flagged area
+between us and the stage&mdash;a space of square-cut metal flagging,
+bordering the lagoon&mdash;was littered with bodies. Dead&mdash;or dying. People
+even now staggering from landed boats&mdash;staggering blindly, stumbling
+over bodies, falling and lying always where they had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>With our own senses fading, we groped our way forward. Soon we were
+separated. I saw Maida fall and Georg pick her up, but I was powerless
+to reach them.</p>
+
+<p>The landing stage seemed so far away. The dead and dying beneath my feet
+obstructed me as I staggered over them. A woman, reeling toward me,
+flung her arms about my neck with an iron grip of despair. I stared into
+her face, purple almost with its congested blood, her mouth gaping, her
+blood-shot eyes bulging; and even with the terror distorting them, I saw
+beneath it their look of despairing appeal...</p>
+
+<p>Her arms clinging to me desperately; but with a curse I flung her to the
+ground and reeled onward.</p>
+
+<p>Without knowing it, I had come to the brink of the water's edge. The
+flagging seemed to drop away. I fell. Dimly I heard the splash as I
+struck the water; and felt a grateful cooling sense as it closed over
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I am a strong, instinctive swimmer. I did not breathe, and when I rose
+to the surface, the single swift breath I took was purer than any I had
+had for half an hour past. My head cleared a little; swimming
+instinctively, and with cautious breaths, I found that I was able to go
+on.</p>
+
+<p>I know now that by some vagary of chance&mdash;of fate if you will&mdash;I had
+struck a surface area where breathable air still remained. I swam,
+striving to plan, to think where I might be swimming. Yet it was all a
+phantasmagoria, with only the strength of my muscles and the instinct to
+preserve my life remaining to direct me. Swimming endlessly ... swimming
+... taking a half-gasp of breath ... swimming ... trying to think ... or
+dreaming ... was it all a dream?...</p>
+
+<p>When I came to myself I was lying upon a bank of ferns in the outskirts
+of the city. It was still night; the black cloud of death had passed on;
+the air was pure. Like a man for days bereft of water, I lay and drank
+in the air, pure at last, as the Almighty distils it for us.</p>
+
+<p>Bodies were lying around me on the bank. A dark, silent house stood
+nearby; and a deserted boat. All darkness and silence&mdash;the brooding
+silence of death. I was still dazed. Maida&mdash;Georg; they seemed like
+people in a dream long faded. Industriana! They were going to the
+<i>Rhaal</i> City of Industriana. <i>I</i> had been trying to get there. I must
+get there now&mdash;join them. I climbed to my feet; the edge of a forest was
+nearby and with wavering steps I started toward it.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back on it now I realize that I was even then half crazed. In a
+daze I must have stumbled through the forest for hours. Unreasoning,
+with only that one idea&mdash;to get to Industriana; and in the background of
+my consciousness the vague belief that Elza would be there to greet me.
+Into the depths of the untrammeled forest with unguided steps I
+wandered.</p>
+
+<p>At last I found myself wondering if the dawn were coming; the tri-night
+hour was long since passed; the auroral lights as I could sometimes see
+them through the tangle of vegetation overhead, were low in the sky.
+Insects&mdash;and sometimes larger beings&mdash;leaped and slithered unseen before
+my advance. But I did not heed them. Eyes may have peered at me as I
+stumbled through the blackness of the undergrowth; but if they did, I
+did not notice them.</p>
+
+<p>And then at last I was brought abruptly to full rationality and
+consciousness. Stumbling through a tangle of low growth&mdash;a black thicket
+which tore at my garments and scratched my flesh&mdash;I was transfixed by a
+woman's scream. It came through the darkness from near at hand. A
+crashing of the underbrush, and a woman's scream of terror. It stopped
+my breath, turned me cold.</p>
+
+<p>Elza!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>The Monster</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I stood frozen with horror; but as my brain cleared&mdash;awake at last to
+full rationality and consciousness&mdash;beneath the horror came a surging
+joy of the knowledge that at last Elza was near me. The scream was
+repeated; inactive no longer, I dashed the thicket branches apart with
+my arms and plunged forward through the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Ahead of me the thickets opened into a sort of clearing. I saw the sky,
+the stars&mdash;paling stars with the first flush of dawn overpowering them.
+I stood at the edge of an open space in the dim, flat-grey illumination
+of morning twilight.</p>
+
+<p>Elza! She was there, standing near a huge isolated tree; Elza, pale,
+trembling, a hand pressed against her mouth in terror; disheveled, her
+garments dirty and torn with her wanderings through the forest.</p>
+
+<p>A swift glimpse as momentarily I paused; a second or two only, but the
+scene was impressed upon my brain as actinic light upon a photo-screen.
+Close by Elza, partially behind her, I saw something small, no taller
+than Elza's waist. A naked thing of sleek, glistening skin. The
+monstrosity of a human child; a bulging head, wavering upon a neck
+incapable of supporting it; a thick round body; twisted, misshapen
+limbs. A face ... human? It made my gorge rise with its gruesome
+suggestion of humanity. Nostrils&mdash;no nose; a mouth, lipless, but red
+like a curved gash with upturned corners to make the travesty of a grin;
+a triangle of watery eyes, goggling. Senselessly, it stood watching Elza
+with a dull, vacant curiosity. Not human, this thing! Yet monstrously
+repulsive in its hideous suggestion of an idiot child.</p>
+
+<p>Elza was not facing it; my gaze instinctively followed hers to the tree.
+Crowning horror! The adult of this thing upon the ground hung swaying by
+a thick hand and arm from a low limb; hung, then dropped. Growling,
+mouthing as though it would try and form human words of menace, it
+picked itself up and shambled toward Elza.</p>
+
+<p>I leaped for them. Elza seemed too terrified to run. The thing reached
+her, towered over her; seized her in its arms. She screamed&mdash;the agony
+of revolt and terror; but over her voice rose my own shout of rage, and
+abruptly the thing dropped her and turned to confront me. Snarling,
+glaring with its three hideous blood-shot eyes; waving its thick, bent
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>I had no weapons save those with which nature had endowed me. The regret
+of that came as a fleeting thought; and then I crashed into the thing;
+my fist, passing its awkward guard, struck it full in the face. I
+sickened. Even in the heat of combat a nausea swept me. For no solid
+flesh and bone met my blow, like the shell of an egg, my fist crashed
+into and through its face.</p>
+
+<p>Warm, sticky moisture ... a stench ...</p>
+
+<p>The thing had toppled backward, with me sprawling upon its bloated bulk.
+It struggled, writhed ... Its arms gripped me, its huge fingers clutched
+my throat ... I caught a glimpse of its smashed face ... so close, I
+turned away ... a face of yellow-white pulp ...</p>
+
+<p>My fist cracked and sank into its chest. I pounded, smashed; broke the
+shell of its distended body ... noisome ... the revulsion, the nausea of
+it all but overcame me.</p>
+
+<p>At last the thing lay still; and from the wet, sticky foulness of it I
+rose and stood shuddering. Elza lay on the ground; but she had risen
+upon one elbow and I saw that she was unharmed save for the shock of
+terror through which she had passed&mdash;a mitigated shock with the
+knowledge now that I was with her, and that I too was uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>The infant thing had vanished. I hastened forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Elza! Elza, dear&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Joy lighted her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac!"</p>
+
+<p>I would have lifted her up; but the consciousness of my own
+foulness&mdash;the yellow-white slime streaked with red which smeared my
+arms, splattered my clothing&mdash;gave me pause. In the growing light,
+beyond the clearing, I caught the silver sheen of water. Without a word
+I ran for it; a shimmering pool the existence of which no doubt had
+drawn these grewsome beings of the forest into its vicinity. To the
+cleansing water I ran, plunged in, purged myself of that horrible
+foulness which human senses could not endure.</p>
+
+<p>When I returned, Elza was upon her feet. Recovered at last she flung
+herself into my arms. Impulsive; seeking protection as she clung to me;
+fear; the let-down of overwrought nerves as she stood and clung and
+sobbed upon my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>It was all of that; but oh! it was more than that as well. My Elza,
+raising her tear-stained face and kissing me. Murmuring, "Jac, I love
+you!" Murmuring her love: "Jac dear, you're safe! I've wanted so long to
+be with you again&mdash;I've been so frightened&mdash;so frightened&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Giving me back my kisses unreserved; holding me with eager
+arms ... Tarrano? The memory of him came to me. How foolish my fears,
+my jealousy! That man of genius ... conqueror of worlds ...</p>
+
+<p>But my Elza loved <i>me</i>!...</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Industriana</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It must have been two days later when at last we were rescued by the
+<i>Rhaal</i> patrol and taken to Industriana. Back there in the forest I had
+suddenly remembered that the mate to the thing I had killed would
+doubtless be lurking in the vicinity. We fled. Subsisting on what food
+of the wilds we could find, at last we were picked up and taken to the
+City of Work.</p>
+
+<p>The Great City had been destroyed. Wanton capital of the Central State,
+we learned now that it lay dead. To outward aspect, unharmed. Fair,
+serene, alluring as ever it lay there on its shimmering waters; but the
+life within it, was dead. Refugees&mdash;a quarter perhaps of the
+inhabitants&mdash;had escaped; hourly the search patrols were picking them
+up, bringing them to Industriana. Rescue parties were searching the
+city, to find any who might still be alive.</p>
+
+<p>And out in the forest lay a great pile of ashes, still exhaling a thin
+wisp of its deadly breath&mdash;where Tarrano had created the Black Cloud;
+lost his captive Elza, but doubtless had escaped himself back to his
+City of Ice.</p>
+
+<p>We found Georg and Maida safe at Industriana. Marvelous city! Elza had
+never seen it before. She sat gazing breathless as from the air on the
+patrol vessel, we approached it.</p>
+
+<p>The land of this region was a black, rocky soil upon which vegetation
+would not grow. A rolling land, grimly black, metallic; with
+outcroppings of ore, red and white and with occasional patches of thin
+white sand whereon a prickly blue grass struggled for life.</p>
+
+<p>Rolling hills; and then places where nature had upheaved into a turmoil.
+Huge naked black crags; buttes; hills with precipitous black sides of
+sleek metal; narrow canyons with tumultuous water flowing through them.</p>
+
+<p>In such a place stood Industriana. The City of Work! Set in an area
+where nature lay scarred, twisted in convulsion, its buildings clung to
+every conceivable slope and in every position. Many-storied
+buildings&mdash;residences and factories indiscriminately intermingled. All
+built in sober, solid rectangles of the forbidding black stone.</p>
+
+<p>A long steep slope from an excavated quarry deep in the ground, ran
+straight up to a commanding hilltop&mdash;the slope set with an orderly array
+of buildings clinging to it in terraces. Buildings huge, or tiny huts;
+all anchored in the rear to the ground, and set upon metal girders in
+the front. Bisecting the slope was a vertical street&mdash;a broad escalator
+of moving steps, one half going upward, the other down. Beside it, a
+series of other escalators for the traffic of moving merchandise.</p>
+
+<p>Cross streets on the hill were spider bridges, clinging with thin, stiff
+legs. And at the summit of the hill stood a tremendous funnel belching
+flame and smoke into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>To one side of the hill lay a bowl-like depression with a single squat
+building in its center&mdash;a low building of many funnels; and about it the
+black yawning mouths of shafts down into the ground&mdash;mines vomiting ore,
+broken chunks of the metallic rock coming up as though by the invisible
+magic of magnetism, hunting through the air in an arc to fall with a
+clatter into great bins above the smelter.</p>
+
+<p>In another place, at the bottom of a canyon roared a surging torrent of
+river. A harnessed river; plunging into turbines; emerging to tumble
+over a cascade, its every drop caught by turning buckets spilled again
+at the bottom. Water pursuing its surging course downward, its power
+used again and again. The canyon dry at one place near the lower edge of
+the city, the water all electrified, resolved into piped hydrogen and
+oxygen. Like a tremendous clock ticking, the water, momentarily dammed
+back, was released in a torrent to the electrolysis vats. The hissing
+gases, under tremendous pressure, raised up the heavy-weighted tops of
+two expanding tanks. Another tick of this giant clock&mdash;the gases
+released, were merged again to water. The tops of the tanks lowered,
+each in turn, one coming down as the other went up&mdash;hundreds of tons of
+weight&mdash;their slow downward pull geared to scores of whirling
+wheels&mdash;the power shifted to dynamos scattered throughout the city.</p>
+
+<p>It was the twilight of nightfall when we arrived over Industriana. A
+thousand funnels and chimneys belched their flame and smoke&mdash;the flame
+tinting the sky with a lurid yellow-green glare, the smoke hanging like
+a dim blue gauze through which everything seemed unreal, infernal.</p>
+
+<p>From the city rose a roar&mdash;the myriad sounds of industry mingled by the
+magic of distance. And as we got closer, the roar resolved into its
+component parts; the grinding of gears; clicking of belts and chains;
+whirring of dynamos and motors; shrill electrical screams; the
+clattering of falling ore; clanking of swiftly moving merchandise, bound
+in metal, magnetized to monorail cars shifting it to warehouses on the
+nearby hills. And over it all flashed the brilliant signal lights of the
+merchandise traffic directors whose stentorian electrical voices
+broadcasting commands sounded above the city's noises.</p>
+
+<p>An inferno of activity. A seeming confusion; yet the aspect of confusion
+was a fallacy, for beneath it lay a precision&mdash;an orderly precision as
+calm and exact as the mind of the Director of a Signal Tower counting
+off the split seconds of his beams.</p>
+
+<p>An orderly precision&mdash;the brain of one man guiding and dominating
+everything; at his desk alone for long hours throughout the days and
+nights. A quiet, grey-haired gentleman; unhurried, unharassed, seemingly
+almost inactive; always seated at his empty desk smoking endless
+arrant-cylinders. The dominating business brain of Industriana.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Departure</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Georg and Maida were very busy in Industriana; and now Elza and I were
+admitted to their activities&mdash;Elza and I, with our new-found love and
+happiness neglected for the greater thing, the welfare of the nation
+upon which hinged the very safety of Venus itself; and Mars; and our own
+fair Earth.</p>
+
+<p>Industriana, greatest commercial and manufacturing center of Venus, had
+been given over momentarily to the preparations for war. The <i>Rhaals</i>
+had at last turned from industry to the conquest of Tarrano.
+Preparations were almost completed; our armies were to start within a
+very few times of sleep.</p>
+
+<p>I had had no experience in warfare; but the history of our Earth had
+told me much of it. The enlisting and training of huge armies of men;
+arming them; artillery; naval and air forces; commissary and supplies; a
+gigantic business organization to equip, move and maintain millions of
+fighting men.</p>
+
+<p>Ancient warfare! This&mdash;our modern way&mdash;was indeed dissimilar. It was,
+from most aspects, simplicity itself. We had no need of men in great
+numbers. I found something like a single thousand of men being organized
+and trained. And equipped with weapons to outward aspects comparatively
+simple.</p>
+
+<p>On all the three worlds the age of explosives of the sort history
+records, was long since passed. Electronic weapons&mdash;all basically the
+same. And I found now that it was the power for them, developed,
+transformed into its various characteristics and stored for individual
+transportation and use, which was mainly engrossing Industriana.</p>
+
+<p>I had opportunity, that first night, of meeting Geno-Rhaalton&mdash;the
+present head of that famous Rhaalton line, for generations hereditary
+leaders of their race.</p>
+
+<p>We found him, this Geno-Rhaalton, in a secluded, somber little office of
+black metallic walls, grey hangings and rug, a block of carved stone his
+desk, and a few of the stiff-backed stone chairs, each with its single
+prim cushion.</p>
+
+<p>The office was beyond sight and sound of the busy city. His desk was
+empty, save for the array of apparatus around its edges&mdash;the clicking
+tabulators which recorded, sorted, analyzed and summarized for him every
+minute detail with which the city was engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Machines of business detail. We had them, of course, in the Inter-Allied
+offices of Greater New York. I have seen our Divisional Director voice
+into a mouthpiece the demand for some statistical summary computed up to
+five minutes before, and covering his entire Atlantic Division. He would
+have it, recorded in cold print before him, within a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, compared to the Rhaalton efficiency, our own methods seemed
+antiquated indeed. This man was in touch with every transpiring detail
+simultaneously; yet not confused by them, for every detail was also
+combined into a whole&mdash;to be examined for itself if he wished. Visually
+as well, the entire city lay before his gaze&mdash;the walls of the office
+were lined with rows and tiers of small mirrors; receivers and
+mouthpieces connected him with everything. Sights, sounds, and even
+smells of the various factories were available to him&mdash;smells when his
+sense of smell might be necessary for the testing of some elusive gas.</p>
+
+<p>Without moving his physical body his presence was in effect transported
+wherever throughout the city he wished to be. A man of tremendous
+concentration, to handle but one thing at a time; with all the power of
+his brain to give instant decision, and then to forget it utterly.</p>
+
+<p>I found him a rather small man; smooth-shaven; grey-haired; a grave face
+and demeanor, with dark eyes solemn with thought, yet twinkling often
+when he spoke. A man of flabby muscles and gentle voice; seemingly
+unforceful, and with a personality likable, but hardly dominating.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively I found myself comparing him to Tarrano. Tarrano's strong,
+wiry body. The flash of his eye; his inscrutability, always suggesting
+menace; the power, the genius of his personality&mdash;the force radiating
+from him which no one could mistake. His intellectual power&mdash;his
+concentration&mdash;certainly the equal of this little leader of the
+<i>Rhaals</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano the Conqueror! Tarrano&mdash;man of destiny&mdash;risen from nothing and
+by the sheer genius of his will throwing three worlds into chaos, at one
+stage combining two worlds into his self-created Empire; and menacing
+the third. Surely Tarrano was a greater man than this Rhaalton. I knew
+it; much as I hated Tarrano I was forced to admit it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet as I stood there acknowledging the soft-spoken greeting of Rhaalton,
+I had the swift premonition that Tarrano was going down into defeat. And
+that this little man, without moving from his desk or raising his voice,
+would be the main factor in bringing it about.</p>
+
+<p>And I wondered why such a thing could be. I know why now. Tarrano, with
+all his genius, lacked just one quality which this little man had in
+abundance. The milk of human kindness&mdash;humanity&mdash;a radiating force the
+essence of which paradoxically was the unforceful gentleness of him. The
+Almighty&mdash;as we each of us in our hearts must envisage our God&mdash;is just,
+but gentle, humane in His justness. And with all the genius in the
+universe&mdash;the war-like power&mdash;the weapons&mdash;the cohorts&mdash;all the
+wonderful armament of war&mdash;you cannot transgress the Will of the
+Almighty. Against all human logic of what should be victory&mdash;you will
+meet defeat....</p>
+
+<p>The thoughts fled through my mind and vanished into the realities of the
+present. Rhaalton was saying:</p>
+
+<p>"We will be ready within another time of sleep. Jac Hallen, you wish, I
+suppose, to go out with our forces?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," I said.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. "The eagerness of youth for danger! And yet is very
+necessary&mdash;very laudable&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He passed a hand across his forehead with a weary gesture&mdash;a gesture
+which seemed to me despondent. Could this be our vaunted leader? My
+heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>He added abruptly: "We shall conquer this Tarrano&mdash;but at what cost!"
+His smile was wistful. "We must choose the lesser evil."</p>
+
+<p>Still gently, almost sorrowfully, but with a directness and clarity of
+thought which amazed me, he plunged into a detailed account of what
+Georg was to do in command of our forces. My own part in it, already
+planned by him in detail. Maida's part. Elza's. The division of <i>Rhaal</i>
+maidens.</p>
+
+<p>Girlhood in war! It seemed very strange. Yet the <i>Rhaal</i> maidens were
+going as a matter of course, since there were some activities for which
+they were more fitted than the men. With all the <i>Rhaal</i> maidens going,
+Elza and Maida would not stay behind. And though Maida&mdash;a wife&mdash;was
+objected to by Rhaalton, he had yielded finally to her pleading.</p>
+
+<p>I will not now detail our plans or our armament. We had, in general, one
+thousand unmarried men, in five divisions of two hundred each. They were
+largely <i>Rhaals</i>, with the few Earth men previously sent us; fifty
+perhaps of the most loyal <i>slaans</i>; and a scattering of the other races
+of the Venus Central State. A few&mdash;thirty perhaps&mdash;of the Little People
+of Mars. In addition, another hundred men, individually in charge of the
+larger apparatus and the vehicles. And the division of two hundred
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>Our journey to the Cold Country was to be made on flying platforms and
+vehicles of various sizes; some large to carry fifty passengers or more;
+others so small that only one person could be carried. These latter, the
+girls were to use. I call them platforms. In this size they were not,
+literally speaking, much more than the transporting mechanism fastened
+to the girl's waist.</p>
+
+<p>There were also heavier vehicles carrying the larger apparatus; and
+several of fairly large size with food, clothing, housing
+equipment&mdash;supplies of all kinds for our maintenance abroad. A dozen
+vehicles also carrying huge skeleton towers, encircled at the top with
+ray projectors. A vehicle with a single room&mdash;an instrument room fully
+equipped by means of which Geno-Rhaalton at his desk would be in contact
+with our every move. And largest vehicle of all&mdash;in aspect a solid,
+squat affair almost of a size for inter-planetary travel&mdash;our power
+plant.</p>
+
+<p>We started at dawn of the second morning after my own arrival in
+Industriana. The girls were to travel to the borders of the Cold Country
+on the larger vehicles, but they wished to start flying individually for
+the first few helans of the journey for practice. Georg, Maida, Elza and
+I were to travel in the instrument room.</p>
+
+<p>We massed upon a broad hilltop near the city. In the grey twilight of
+dawn with a flush of pink in the sky where the sun in a few moments
+would rise, I stood in the outer doorway of the instrument vehicle.
+Around me was the confusion of departure. Eager young men; laughing
+girls, flushed with excitement. The gayety of youth going to war! Young
+as I was myself, I was struck with the drama, the pathos of it. What
+would the home-coming be?</p>
+
+<p>Georg, Maida and Elza were with me. Geno-Rhaalton stepped up to us.
+Bare-headed. A solemn little man, heavy-hearted.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," he said simply. "I know you will do your best."</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! Look there!"</p>
+
+<p>I followed Elza's startled gesture to the soft, white clouds which were
+massed in the sky above us. By what magic of science the thing was
+accomplished, I know not; but up there in the clouds a gigantic image of
+Tarrano was materializing! His head and shoulders. Arms folded; his face
+with a sardonic smile leering down at us! Lips moving. And out of the
+air about us came his audible, broadcasting words.</p>
+
+<p><i>"Do your best, my friends!"</i> Ironic mockery! <i>"Coming to conquer
+Tarrano? Hasten! You are keeping Tarrano waiting most impatiently!"</i></p>
+
+<p>The giant voice died away into silence; the huge image melted into the
+clouds and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Rhaalton looked at us again, expressionless. "Good-by," he repeated. "Do
+your best."</p>
+
+<p>He turned away abruptly. And then as he walked with a despondent droop,
+I saw his shoulders suddenly straighten. He flung a hand into the air.
+The signal to start! From a tower in Industriana a puff of violet light
+shot up to magnify the signal.</p>
+
+<p>The girls, all in their places, rose into the air. Draperies fluttering,
+like graceful birds they rose, circled over us in an arc; and then in a
+long, single line, with officers apart to one side marking them in
+squads of twenty, they sped into the dimness of distance.</p>
+
+<p>The tower vehicles now were rising. Then the larger platform; the power
+plant, like a floating building sailing majestically up.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Jac."</p>
+
+<p>Elza and Maida were inside the instrument room gazing through one of its
+windows; and Georg drew me within, closing the transparent door after
+us. Through the windows I could see the line of vehicles following after
+the girls. Then our instrument room rose quietly, soundlessly. The
+ground dropped slowly away, then faster; and as we swung about I saw the
+hilltop beneath us. Its sides were lined with waving spectators;
+stricken momentarily with awe at the apparition of Tarrano, they had
+already forgotten it; from every vantage point of Industriana they were
+frantically waving.</p>
+
+<p>But the hilltop was empty, save for one lone figure&mdash;Geno-Rhaalton
+standing sorrowfully gazing after us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>First Assault</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Our spies had informed us that of recent weeks there had arisen about
+the City of Ice a huge wall behind which Tarrano would make his stand.
+It was our plan to approach within range of this and establish our power
+plant as a base from which to direct our offensive. The trip from the
+Great City was not long. After a few helans our girls ceased flying
+individually and boarded their appointed vehicles.</p>
+
+<p>In a long single line, armament platforms, the towers, our instrument
+room, with the power plant bringing up the rear, we sailed forward.
+There were in our instrument vehicle, Maida, Georg, Elza and myself, the
+vehicle manned by two pilots and two mechanicians&mdash;a <i>slaan</i>, a Mars
+man, and two Earth men. We were in constant communication with
+Geno-Rhaalton. And though he enjoined upon us all the necessity for
+sleeping or resting during the trip, himself sat alert at his desk,
+unrelaxing. The little mirror on our table showed him sitting there,
+watching every move we made.</p>
+
+<p>We laid down to rest, but sleep was impossible. Through the panelled
+transparent floor, I watched the country changing as we advanced;
+vegetation dwindling; the soil changing to rocky barrenness at the
+border of the Cold Country. And then the snow-plains, the mute frozen
+rivers of ice, the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>In the twilight of the Cold Country autumn, we sailed up to the
+mountains and approached to the City of Ice. Alert, all of us now, as at
+an altitude of a few thousand feet we circled about, marking time until
+the power plant had selected its base and landed to make ready for the
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the trip we had expected&mdash;had anticipated the possibility&mdash;of
+a surprise attack by Tarrano; an ambush in the open air, perhaps
+by some means strange to us. But the vision magnifiers, the
+microphones&mdash;encompassing every known range of sight and sound&mdash;showed
+us nothing. Especially at the mountains we had thought to meet
+opposition. But at first none came. It seemed somehow ominous, this lack
+of action from Tarrano; and when the leader of our line&mdash;a tower
+vehicle&mdash;rose sharply to scale the jagged peaks of the Divide, the flare
+of a hostile electronic bomb rising came almost as a relief. From the
+instrument room&mdash;forewarned an instant by the hiss of our microphones&mdash;I
+saw the bomb start upward. Slowly as a rocket it mounted&mdash;a blurred ball
+of glowing violet light, quite plain in the dim twilight. I knew that
+the tower platform at which it was directed would have time to throw out
+its insulation; I knew that the insulation would doubtless be
+effective&mdash;yet my heart leaped nevertheless. At my hand was a projector;
+but in those few seconds the tower just in advance of us in the line was
+quicker. Its ray darted at the violet ball; the soundless explosion
+threw a wave of sparks about the menaced tower, like a puff&mdash;a pricked
+bubble of soap-film&mdash;the violet ball was dissipated. But I saw the
+menaced tower rock a trifle from the shock.</p>
+
+<p>Geno-Rhaalton's face in the mirror beside me was very solemn. I heard
+him murmuring something to the other towers, saw their light flash
+downward, searching the mountain defiles. And as I watched that little
+image of Rhaalton, I chanced to notice a mirror on Rhaalton's desk.
+Rhaalton himself was looking at it&mdash;a mirror which had been dark, but
+which now flashed on. An outlaw circuit! The mirror imaged the face of
+Tarrano. Tarrano grinning ironically!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Invisible Assailants</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>We did not locate the source of the bomb, and no others rose to assail
+us. The mountain defiles, so far as our lights could illuminate them,
+seemed deserted. We passed over the Divide, and on the plateau beyond,
+we landed. A region of rolling country beneath its snow and ice. The
+mountains came down sharply to the inner plain&mdash;a crescent of mountain
+range stretching off into the dimness of distance, half encircling this
+white plateau in the center of which stood the City of Ice. We could
+just see it at the horizon, the glittering spires of its Ice Palace.</p>
+
+<p>Around the city, completely enveloping it, was a thick circular wall of
+ice twenty times the height of a man. We were too far away to see it
+plainly&mdash;a turreted wall doubtless armed with projectors throughout its
+circular length. Our finders would not show it, for it was insulated
+against them. It stood there grey-white, bleak and apparently deserted.</p>
+
+<p>Georg said: "It's the man's accursed inactivity! Is he going to do
+nothing?... Our power plant has landed, Jac&mdash;there in the foothills&mdash;see
+it drop?" A call from Rhaalton took his attention.</p>
+
+<p>We landed our entire force in the foothills of the mountains. The power
+plant was there; it looked like a squat industrial building set upon a
+ledge of ice&mdash;a shining cliff-face behind it, a precipice in front. At
+the foot of the precipice our other vehicles were clustered.</p>
+
+<p>We were there throughout three entire times of sleep, hours strangely
+the same in that unaltered polar twilight. During them, with the tower
+platforms set in a ring about us to make an armed camp, we unloaded our
+apparatus, erected our power controls, prepared the individual circuits,
+making ready for our offensive. And still&mdash;though we, were alert for
+it&mdash;no move from Tarrano.</p>
+
+<p>They were hours during which, with my lack of technical knowledge, I
+found myself often with nothing to do. Our camp was bustling with
+activity, but among the now idle girls and many of the young men, there
+was an air of gayety. They laughed, shouted, played games amid the rocks
+from which we had long since melted the snow. Once, in what would have
+been early evening had not the Sun in these latitudes held level like a
+burned-out ball near the horizon, Elza and I wandered from the camp to
+climb the cliffs nearby.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the circle of the camp's heat, the deadly cold of the region
+assailed us. We had not wished to equip with the individual heating,
+which for battle would leave us free of heavy garments; instead we
+swathed ourselves in furs, with the exercise of climbing to aid us in
+keeping warm.</p>
+
+<p>It was wonderful to be again alone with Elza. Even with what was
+impending we were young enough to put it momentarily from our minds.
+Like young lovers clandestinely stealing away to a tryst, we left the
+camp and hand in hand, climbed up amid the crags. A few hundred feet to
+one side of the power house, and about the same distance above it, we
+sat down at last to rest.</p>
+
+<p>The scene from here was picturesque in the extreme. Across the flat,
+shadowless snowy plain was the wall of ice with the city behind it. All
+in the far distance, this city wherein our enemy was entrenched; and
+there were no lights, no movement that we could see. In that drab
+twilight, it seemed almost unreal.</p>
+
+<p>The plain too, was empty. A few palpably deserted huts, nothing else.
+Beneath us, snugly anchored there on the ledge, was our power house. No
+unreality here. Its aerials were mounted; its external dynamos were
+visibly revolving; from its windows blue shafts of light slanted out;
+and from it rose the low hum of active power.</p>
+
+<p>Below it, spread over the slightly sloping area of foothill beneath us,
+lay our encampment. A ring of our tower vehicles, with their projectors
+mounted and ready, their colored search-beams slowly sweeping the white
+plain and the dead grey sky. Within their ring, the camp itself. Lighted
+by the blue-white tubes set upon quadrupeds at intervals; heated by
+strings of red-glowing wire and the red wire-balls used on Venus. The
+snow and ice on the ground within the camp had melted, exposing the
+naked rock.</p>
+
+<p>A scene of blue and red lights and shifting shadows; bustling with
+activity&mdash;figures, tiny from this height, hurrying about. The sounds
+from it rose to us; the low hum and snap of the weapons being tested;
+the shouted commands; and sometimes, mingled with it, the laughing shout
+of a light-hearted girl.</p>
+
+<p>Elza clung close to me. "Everything will be ready soon."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. "They're going to mount a ray up here on the cliff. Grolier
+was telling me, for permanent protection&mdash;to stay here with the power
+house when we go out to the attack."</p>
+
+<p>Silent with her thoughts she did not answer me. Sidewise, I regarded her
+solemn little face encased in its hood of fur. And then clumsily, for
+our furs were heavy and awkward, I put my arm about her.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, Elza. It's worth a great deal to be here alone with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Jac, what will he do?" Her gaze was to the far-off City of Ice. "It
+seems so&mdash;so sinister, Jac, this silence from him. This inactivity. It
+is not like him to be inactive."</p>
+
+<p>"He's there," I said. "Rolltar the Mars man&mdash;boastful fellow,
+blow-hard&mdash;he was telling some of us that in his opinion Tarrano had
+already run away."</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" she exclaimed. "This is his last stand. He'll make it
+here&mdash;defeat us here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Elza!"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced momentarily at me, smiled a queer smile, and then gazed once
+more over the distant plain. "I do not mean I think he'll defeat us,
+Jac. I mean, that is his reasoning&mdash;make his last stand here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't run away," I repeated. "I told Rolltar so. We got an outlaw
+connection into the Ice Palace today. For a moment only, and then it was
+discovered and broken off. But we had the image for a moment&mdash;it chanced
+to show Tarrano himself. But he's isolated now. Bretan said his
+isolation power&mdash;around the Ice Palace and the wall anyway&mdash;is greater
+than any image-ray we can send against it."</p>
+
+<p>My heart leaped suddenly, for I saw Elza's eyes widen, fear spring to
+her face; heard the sharp intake of her breath, and felt her hand grip
+my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! There's something wrong! See there? And you hear it?"</p>
+
+<p>From the instrument room I heard a vague drumming. A hiss, and then a
+drumming growing louder. It was not a new sound, for now I remembered I
+had been conscious of it for several moments past. Our encampment was
+awake to it! A confusion down there; people running about; a figure
+dashing wildly into the instrument room. And the aerials on the power
+house began to snap viciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. See there, Elza? The sub-ray lights!"</p>
+
+<p>The search-beams from our towers were inordinately active. Sweeping the
+empty snow-plain and the empty sky. Empty? To my fevered imagination
+they were peopled with enemies. And then one of the towers flashed on a
+sub-ray&mdash;the dull infra-red for envisaging the slow rays below the power
+of human sight. And another tower with its faint purple beam was using
+the ultra-violet.</p>
+
+<p>"That drumming, Elza! That's a microphone&mdash;the big one they just erected
+near the instrument room. There's something coming! That's the magnified
+sound of some distant rush of air. Very faint sound, but they must have
+heard it on the ear-phones long ago. That microphone must have just been
+connected&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Something coming? We could see nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go down, Jac! We must get back&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got infra-red glasses&mdash;" I fumbled beneath my furs. But I did not
+have them.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Elza."</p>
+
+<p>My glasses would have been useless, for the sub and ultra beams from the
+towers were disclosing nothing. I could tell that by the hasty searching
+sweeps they made. And then from the big Wilton tower, the newly
+connected Zed-ray flashed on, I could hear the load of it in the
+deepened, throaty hum from the power house. Its dirty brown beam sprayed
+out over the plain; then swung to the sky, caught something, hung
+motionless, narrowed into great intensity. The powerful Zed-ray,
+capturing the visibility of dense solids only.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>There was something up there in the sky! The Zed-ray met resistance; we
+could see the sparks, and hear the snap of them coming like a roar from
+the microphone above the drumming. Met the resistance and conquered it;
+gradually the snapping roar died away.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! I see something! Something there&mdash;don't you see it?"</p>
+
+<p>A luminous blur became visible in the nearer sky&mdash;moving blobs of silver
+luminosity in the mud-brown light of the Zed-ray. A hundred or more
+moving silver blobs. They were taking form. The silvery phosphorescent
+look faded, became grey-white. Took definite shape. Waving arms and
+legs! Bones bereft of flesh. Human skeletons! Limbs waving rhythmically.
+Bony arms, with fingers clutching metal weapons. Assailants coming at us
+through the air, stripped by the Zed-ray of clothing, skin, flesh,
+organs, to the naked bone. Skeletons with skulls of empty eye-sockets
+and set jaw-bones to make the travesty of human faces grim with menace!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Attack on the Power House</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Stricken with surprise and awe, Elza and I sat there motionless. Our
+encampment was in a turmoil of confusion&mdash;chaos, out of which very soon
+order came. The skeleton figures in the air&mdash;I saw now that there were
+nearer two hundred than one hundred&mdash;were perhaps two thousand feet
+away, and at an altitude of about the cliff-ledge where Elza and I were
+sitting.</p>
+
+<p>They swept forward, bathed in the Zed-ray with all our other
+search-beams darkened to give it full sway. Momentarily I saw them
+clearer; metallic cylinders in bony fingers, and a metal mechanism of
+flight encasing, yet not touching the ribs.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! Why don't our rays&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As though to answer Elza's unfinished question, one of our towers turned
+a disintegrating ray upon them. A narrow pencil-point of light, barely
+visible in this flat daylight. It swung up into our Zed-ray, searched
+and clung to one of the skeleton figures. Had it penetrated, the man
+would have been dissipated like a puff of vapor. But it did not; and
+then I knew that for that distance at least, this enemy's isolation
+power&mdash;individual barrage&mdash;was too great.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the assailed figure wavered! Our amplifier gave out his shout&mdash;half
+fear, half admonition. The line of skeletons swung upward. Came on, but
+mounted so that I saw that they were making for the summit of the cliff
+above us&mdash;above our power house.</p>
+
+<p>Their defense&mdash;invisibility, and a mere isolation barrage so that we
+could not harm them with our tower rays while they kept beyond range.
+But what was their means of attack? Why would Tarrano....</p>
+
+<p>"The power house," Elza answered; and I realized then that she had read
+my thoughts. The power house, if they could demolish it....</p>
+
+<p>Our thoughts, questions and answers unspoken, flew fast; but the drama
+before us unfolded faster. With the knowledge that we could see them,
+these invaders cast aside a portion of their equipment to give them
+greater freedom. We could see the metal portions of the trappings
+falling like plummets. The skeleton images faded; and then as our tower
+withdrew the Zed-ray and our search-beams picked them up, we saw our
+enemies as they really were. Men clothed in a casing of cylindrical
+garments with the flying mechanisms strapped to their chests; some with
+visors and headpieces, nearly all with small weapons in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping well away, they continued to mount. They were striving for the
+pinnacle of cliff-tops above us; but as our rays darted at them they
+halted, wavered; and now when nearly above the camp, they began mounting
+straight up.</p>
+
+<p>"Jac! Look there!"</p>
+
+<p>One of our tower vehicles was preparing to rise. Its ray, following the
+search-beams upward, was aimed at the invaders, but they were beyond its
+effective range. Their weapons of attack? I knew now.</p>
+
+<p>"Suicides!"</p>
+
+<p>Whether Elza said it, or merely thought it I do not know. One of the
+figures came down as though falling. A few seconds only; but though our
+search-beam showed it, the smaller rays for those seconds missed it.
+Down&mdash;until no more than five hundred feet above us it checked its fall.
+A giant of a man; and with his hand cylinder&mdash;in range now&mdash;he shot a
+bolt at our power house. It struck; I could see the flash, saw an aerial
+shatter before the charge went harmlessly into the body of the building.
+Then one of our rays caught the man; his figure crumpled; the shower of
+sparks as his barrage was broken, exploded like a tiny bursting bomb;
+and as the sparks died, there was nothing where the man had been.</p>
+
+<p>A suicide; but one of our aerials was shattered. And then others came
+down&mdash;not many, for it was grim business and the courage of them must
+have failed at the last. Falling bodies; tiny bolts striking the power
+house; the sparks&mdash;then empty air where living men had been.</p>
+
+<p>Our tower left the ground. Some of our men, with small flying platforms
+strapped to them, were crowding its top. Its beams preceded it&mdash;but I
+saw the beams breaking intermittently as the bolts struck the power
+house. The invaders wavered with indecision. Some of them came down to
+voluntary death; others strove for the cliff-top; some took flight. Our
+tower swept into them; one of them, injured but not annihilated, fell
+with a crash into the encampment.</p>
+
+<p>Above Elza and me was a maze of flashing beams; futile bolts; the puffs
+of myriad sparks. A bolt seemed to strike quite near where we were
+sitting; I drew Elza back and we crouched in the hollow of a rock. A
+body came hurtling down, crashed to the cliff-ledge almost at our feet
+with the sickening thump of mangled flesh and broken bones&mdash;hung an
+instant to give me a momentary glimpse of a face contorted in death
+agony; then rolled over and fell further down the jagged cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Then above us presently there was silence and the drab empty sky. Our
+tower was back beyond the cliff-top. Soon it appeared; apparently
+unharmed, it came dropping down to its former place on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The first attack was over. And off in the distance a few solitary
+figures were winging their way back to the City of Ice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3><i>City of Ice Besieged</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>We were not greatly harmed by this surprise attack; the power house was
+superficially damaged, but soon repaired. That night&mdash;I call it that
+though the constant weak daylight made the term incongruous&mdash;activity
+showed in the City of Ice.</p>
+
+<p>It came with a vertical spray of light rising from the ice wall which
+encircled the city. Spreading light beams rising from points a hundred
+feet apart along the wall. The beams spread fan-shape, so that within
+fifty feet above their source they met and merged into a thin sheet of
+effulgence rising into the sky. Tarrano's barrage.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed then that beyond suicidal sorties of the kind we had just
+repulsed, Tarrano was planning to stand purely on the defensive. It was
+our own plan to surround the city with our towers; even those on the
+further side would be within range of our power house; and with the city
+thus beleaguered, we would attack the wall from every side at once.</p>
+
+<p>We tested now this barrage Tarrano had thrown up. Sprays of its
+insulated area came down to protect the wall in front; and protected
+also the triangular spaces between the sources of the main beams.
+Tentatively one of our towers approached within range; but our rays only
+beat into the barrage with the hiss of molten metal plunged into water,
+and with a burst of interference sparks. Even at a horizontal thousand
+feet we could do nothing. Then we tried altitude. Our projectors,
+mounted individually on small platforms automatically controlled to fly
+without human pilot, went up and we strove to get them over the barrage.</p>
+
+<p>At five thousand feet one went over safely. But the electronic bomb it
+dropped into the city was an easy mark for Tarrano's watchful defense
+rays. He exploded it harmlessly when it was still high above him.</p>
+
+<p>After the next time of sleep we invested the city. Our towers were set
+in a ring about it, two thousand feet from the wall. They were mobile
+units, ready to sail forward or back or upward at any moment. Georg
+stayed in command of the instrument room. It was never placed, but
+sailed continuously in slow circular flight around the city above our
+line. The power house remained in its place, with our largest projector
+mounted on the cliff beside it in order to frustrate any further
+attacks.</p>
+
+<p>They were solemn moments as we broke our encampment. The girls, far more
+agile in the air than men, were lightly dressed, with the supporting
+mechanism strapped to them. The heating units enveloped them in an
+invisible cloak of warm air. To their left arms a strapped cylinder gave
+off a fan-shape area of insulation&mdash;an almost invisible shield of
+protective barrage some five feet long. It showed as a faint glow of
+light; and in flight their left arms could swing it like a shield to
+protect their bodies. They had telephonic ear-pieces available; a tiny
+mirror fastened to their chests to face them, upon which Georg or
+Geno-Rhaalton could project images; a mouthpiece for talking to Georg;
+and a belt of offensive weapons, useful within a range of five hundred
+feet but no further.</p>
+
+<p>Very alert and agile, twisting and turning in the air were these girls.
+We men were similarly equipped, but our movements in the air were
+heavier, clumsier. Elza and I had practiced with the others for days;
+and with our harmless duelling rays I had found that I could never hope
+to hit her while she dealt me mortal blows.</p>
+
+<p>Elza, commanding a squad of twenty girls, was assigned to a portion of
+the line some helans from me. My own place, with a hundred men under me,
+was near a tower almost on the opposite side from the power house.</p>
+
+<p>It was a solemn parting from Elza. I wrapped her in my arms, tried to
+smile. "Be very&mdash;careful, Elza."</p>
+
+<p>She kissed me, clung to me; then cast me off and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>With the city invested, we rested idly for another time of sleep.
+Occasionally we made a tentative tower attack which came to nothing.
+Tarrano waited; his barrage remained the same. We tried to provoke a
+move from him, but could not.</p>
+
+<p>The snow-plain where I was stationed here was similar to the other side,
+save that there were no mountains. From the power house to Tarrano's
+wall there was a dip, so that the wall stood upon higher ground. On my
+side, however, the reverse was true. The wall lay in a hollow in one
+place, with a steady upward slope back from it to uplands behind us, as
+though in some better day a broad watercourse had flowed down here, now
+long since buried in solid ice and snow.</p>
+
+<p>I mention this topography because it had a vital bearing upon what so
+soon was to transpire.</p>
+
+<p>Rhaalton desired that Tarrano come out and attack us; but Tarrano would
+not. We thought perhaps that his offense was inadequate and the one move
+that he made strengthened that belief. From the city beside the palace,
+a rectangle of black metal some fifty feet square, rose slowly up. In
+aspect it was a square, windowless room&mdash;a room without a ceiling, open
+at the top. It rose to a height of five hundred feet and hung level. And
+from it depended dangling power cables connecting it with the ground.</p>
+
+<p>It was the presence of these cables that made us feel Tarrano was
+offensively weak. He could not aerially transport his power; hence, for
+offense he could only rely upon individual batteries which, unless
+permanently stationed within the city, we knew would have a short range
+at best. We watched this thing in the air for hours. It did not move; it
+was soundless. What was its purpose? We could not guess.</p>
+
+<p>And then at last, Geno-Rhaalton ordered us all to the attack.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Battle</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>I found myself in the air; with my men around me we hovered. Then
+Georg's command from the instrument room sounded in my ears. I gave the
+signal; and flying wedge-shaped, we hurled ourselves forward. It was
+like lying on the air, diving head foremost. The rush of wind sang past
+me; the ground, a hundred feet below, was a white surface flowing
+backward.</p>
+
+<p>We were heading for the base of one of Tarrano's barrage projectors. It
+was mounted within the wall; but the wall itself was protected merely by
+a fan-shaped subsidiary beam&mdash;a weaker barrage over that small area,
+which by concentrated effort we hoped to break.</p>
+
+<p>From a helan away on both sides of me I saw other wedges of our men
+coming slanting in to assail the same point; overhead a corps of girls
+was hovering. Our towers, three of them concentrated here, had risen to
+a moderate height; their rays were playing upon the threatened area; a
+steady fountain of sparks showed where they were striking the barrage.</p>
+
+<p>A silent bombardment of flashing beams and sparks. At five hundred feet
+we added our own smaller rays to the turmoil. If the barrage would break
+at this point....</p>
+
+<p>The instrument room, watchful of everything, sailed over me. On my
+mirror I saw Georg's intent face; his voice said:</p>
+
+<p>"Careful, Jac! They may come out."</p>
+
+<p>Prophetic words! The segment of barrage here suddenly vanished. A ray
+darted out. Beside it, a cloud of flying figures came out of the city
+like insects from a hive.</p>
+
+<p>An inferno of almost hand to hand fighting. It was everyone for himself;
+and I gave the order for my men to break formation. Ordered them to get
+up close to the wall if they could ... to strike, with the closest
+possible range at the base of the enemy ray....</p>
+
+<p>I flung myself forward. Tarrano's men soon were around me. Twisting,
+darting figures ... tiny beams of death to be fended off with my
+shield....</p>
+
+<p>A body fell past me in the air ... others, while I looked at them, in
+the blink of an eyelid, vanished into nothingness ... One of our towers
+sailing high, suddenly went dark, turned over, wavered down, dismembered
+with leprous missing parts&mdash;and then in a puff was obliterated.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself nearly up to the wall, and higher than its top. The
+segment of barrage remained broken. I could see into the city&mdash;the Ice
+Palace, still seemingly deserted. And near it, the base of the powerful
+ground ray which was assailing our towers ... If I could get past the
+wall, unnoticed, get within range of that projector....</p>
+
+<p>Most of the fighting was now behind me. We seemed to be holding our
+own ... the squad of girls was coming down; I prayed that Elza might not
+be among them....</p>
+
+<p>The instrument room had vanished beyond my sight; but Georg's voice
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"We're sending reinforcements! Gather your men&mdash;hold off for a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>From every pan of our line other units of men and towers were coming. We
+had broken through the barrage here. If we could now, by a concerted
+rush, get our force over the wall, into the city....</p>
+
+<p>Within the instrument room, Georg sat watching. The inactivity of his
+own part, the comparative lack of personal danger, galled him. But he
+was too occupied with his duties to give it more than passing thought.
+We had broken the barrage at one point ... from every quarter he was
+rushing reinforcements there to take advantage of the break....</p>
+
+<p>And then Tarrano's trickery became apparent. We had not broken his
+barrage; he had deliberately withdrawn it, to encourage us, to bring our
+other units to the spot.... Our power house, neglected, was momentarily
+comparatively defenseless. The enemy barrage at the point of the wall
+nearest it, suddenly lifted. Beams darted from the opening ... men came
+out in a cloud....</p>
+
+<p>I held back momentarily from the wall and gathered my remnant of men
+about me. Only half my former strength; but with sinking heart I tried
+to assure myself that the others had not heeded my call. The fighting
+here had slackened; Tarrano's men had risen high, engaged at long range
+by our girls, from whom they were slowly, trickily retreating as though
+to lure the girls above the city; and my heart was thankful when I heard
+the relayed order from Rhaalton for the girls to withdraw&mdash;not to pass
+above the wall, even at high altitude. The order came just in time; the
+barrage here flashed on again, trapping a few of our men behind it.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware of this new attack on the power house. Our units were
+hurriedly being ordered back. Georg, in desperation, had flung his
+instrument vehicle at the enemy ray ... My connection broke; and then
+another connection brought me someone's voice with the report that the
+instrument room had darkened that main enemy ray, but had itself crashed
+to the ground ... I wondered if Georg were killed ... later, I heard
+someone say that he was safe within the power house....</p>
+
+<p>I disobeyed my final orders; I did not swing back toward the power
+house; instead, with my men around me, we fled back from this segment of
+the wall to the higher lying white plain behind it.</p>
+
+<p>I have spoken of the down-grade of this land here, culminating in the
+depression which marked this part of the wall. It was that depression
+which gave me my idea. Our heat-ray cylinders had so far been useless.
+They had a range of only two hundred feet, and no power to attack a
+barrage. Some of them had futilely been used; the snow and ice on the
+ground above our recent fighting was melted in patches&mdash;pools of boiling
+water lay on the naked rock; and the water, flowing down the depression,
+had reached the ice-wall&mdash;a tiny stream of it, eating into the wall,
+slowly, surely....</p>
+
+<p>With my men I flew up the slope. The ice and snow here melted under
+the close-range play of our heat-cylinders. Rivulets of boiling water
+began creeping toward the city. Other men at my call joined us. Two
+hundred of us soon were melting the ice. The rivulets merged into
+brooks, to streams&mdash;and soon a river torrent of hissing, boiling water
+gathering volume as it went, was surging at the wall. The wall
+began melting&mdash;itself feeding this monster which was eating at its
+vitals ... a yawning hole began opening at the base of the wall ... it
+began sagging at the top ... crumbling....</p>
+
+<p>The segment of barrage here went dark. No trickery now; the barrage at
+this point actually was broken. The boiling river went through the wall,
+swept down the slope into the city. Through the great clouds of steam I
+could see the Ice Palace with its brittle outlines softening under the
+heat ... one of its thin spires broke off and fell....</p>
+
+<p>Feverishly we added to the river source. The whole area here was grey
+with steam. Girls had joined us ... Elza was not among them ... Elza!
+With my triumph there lay always in the background of my consciousness
+the weight of my fear for Elza....</p>
+
+<p>The fighting in the other sector had continued desperately. Our power
+house was hopelessly damaged; the towers, with their power gone, were
+using their batteries; soon they would be exhausted. But now we
+abandoned that sector; our remaining towers&mdash;all our flying forces&mdash;came
+to this melting area where the vanishing city lay defenseless before
+us.... We hurled ourselves into it, using only our heat-rays. Everywhere
+we added to the boiling torrent; even the interference heat of the
+fighting was to our advantage. This brittle city which owed its very
+existence to the congealing cold, lay enveloped in a cloud of steam.</p>
+
+<p>Then Tarrano played his last card. The cubical building of metal with
+the cables depending from it, still hung motionless. It now burst into
+sound. A low electrical hum; then louder to a whine&mdash;a scream. Our men
+and girls were in the air around it. I too was there. Tarrano's men&mdash;the
+remaining few who were desperately fighting&mdash;had suddenly withdrawn.</p>
+
+<p>And then we knew the purpose of this hanging room. A strange form of
+some tremendous electro-magnet. I could feel it pulling at me. My power
+to guide myself in the air was wavering.</p>
+
+<p>From my height I could see down into this ceilingless rectangle. It was
+un-manned by humans. A room of whirling, flashing knives! Above it, even
+then some of our men were struggling in its magnetic grip ... being
+drawn down into it ... a girl's power must suddenly have collapsed; she
+was sucked in with a rush&mdash;torn to fragments by the whirling knives....</p>
+
+<p>The area of magnetism seemed to spread for a helan or more. Everywhere
+around me I saw our men and girls struggling with it, fighting to keep
+away, but closing in a ring around it ... faster, continually more
+helpless until at last, their bodies out of control whirling end over
+end, they were sucked in like water rushing into a turbine.... One of
+our weakened towers attacked it; but some of the remnants of Tarrano's
+projectors caught the tower and darkened it.</p>
+
+<p>Through the rising clouds of steam I could see the magnet vaguely now.
+But I could feel it pulling; and soon, in spite of myself, I was fairly
+close above it. I strove to keep my wits. The others who were meeting
+their death lost control of their bodies at the last and could not use
+their cylinders. I had some battery power remaining; I snapped on my
+disintegrating ray to test it. It was my last desperate recourse.</p>
+
+<p>I righted my body, and yielding to the magnetic pull, ceasing to
+struggle, I dove head first at that yawning rectangle. A gleaming blur
+of knives ... blood-stained now ... within these rectangular walls
+horrible carnage....</p>
+
+<p>A second of despair; but my ray struck true ... Around me was chaos; my
+senses reeled, went black for an instant. But I recovered, found myself
+whirling in the empty air....</p>
+
+<p>The city was melting into a turmoil of boiling water and surging steam.
+The fighting everywhere had ceased. Wavering figures were
+rising&mdash;fugitives struggling away. With my senses still confused, I
+righted myself, undecided where to go or what to do. Above me two
+figures were still in combat. One of them&mdash;a man&mdash;assailed by a
+heat-ray, came hurtling down past me. The other wavered&mdash;a girl with her
+flying mechanism out of control. She was a hundred feet or more above
+me, wavering downward. Elza! I shot myself up to her, seized her in my
+arms, my own supporting mechanism sustaining us both. Elza, spent, but
+uninjured, I held her close.</p>
+
+<p>"Elza dear! My Elza!"</p>
+
+<p>We hung there in the air. From out the vanishing city, rising through
+the steam came a small metal vehicle. A pointed cylinder, in height no
+more than twice that of a man. It came up slowly. Its rectangular door
+was open. As it reached our level and went past us quite close, I saw a
+man's figure standing there. Tarrano! Tarrano alone! From the wreckage
+of his city, making his escape alone!</p>
+
+<p>Without thought&mdash;holding Elza tightly within my arms&mdash;I flung us upward.
+Tarrano saw us, recognized us. He slackened his upward pace. With my
+sober reason gone, I strove to overtake him; saw the sardonic leer on
+his face but did not realize that he was waiting for us. We caught up
+with his vehicle; he pulled us through the doorway, to the floor of the
+narrow circular room with its heavy translucent panes.</p>
+
+<p>He was bending over me, leering. "Jac Hallen! And my little Lady Elza!
+How fortunate!"</p>
+
+<p>I cast off Elza and gained my feet. For an instant we stood&mdash;Tarrano and
+I&mdash;measuring each other. He seemed calm; his face bore a slow sardonic
+smile; he was unarmed, drawn back against the concavity of the wall,
+watching me with his steady, keen eyes. Behind him through the low
+window, I saw the white ground now far below us; we were rising swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>"So you brought my Lady Elza back to me, Jac Hallen?"</p>
+
+<p>He got no further, for with a leap I was upon him. To use my weapons in
+these narrow quarters would have been suicide. My body pinned him
+against the wall as I lunged; my fingers strove for his throat.</p>
+
+<p>He was no larger than I, but the strength of him was extraordinary. His
+body stiffened to resist my impact; one of his hands gripped my wrist;
+his other hand&mdash;the heel of it&mdash;came up beneath my chin, forcing my head
+back.</p>
+
+<p>He fought silently, with movements that seemed almost deliberate. Into
+the center of the room we struggled. I saw that Elza was upon her feet,
+a hand pressed to her mouth in terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Elza!"</p>
+
+<p>I had meant to tell her to use the control levers which were on a small
+table nearby&mdash;to bring us back to the ground; but with this momentary
+diverting of my attention, Tarrano's fist struck me full in the face. I
+staggered back. Elza screamed&mdash;called something to Tarrano. I staggered,
+but I did not fall; and as Tarrano stood there, still with his slow
+smile, I recovered myself and was again upon him. Locked together we
+swayed to the control table. My back was to it. Tarrano's slender
+fingers with a grip like alemite, had found my throat. Slowly,
+irresistibly he forced me backward over the table. I was helpless; my
+breath was stopped; Tarrano's triumphant face bending over me was fading
+with my senses.</p>
+
+<p>"In just a moment, Lady Elza...."</p>
+
+<p>He was telling her calmly that in a moment he would be finished with me.
+Did the man's egotism, here at the last, delude him into the belief that
+Elza wanted him to conquer me? With all the weapons of science
+discarded&mdash;this primitive struggle of man against man with the woman as
+prize&mdash;did the thought of that delude him into the belief that her love
+was his, now that he was killing me?</p>
+
+<p>I never knew. But beneath the roaring of my head, I heard his gentle
+words to her. And then, behind him, I saw her coming forward. A heavy
+metal object which she had picked up from the floor was in her hand.
+Tarrano saw her also&mdash;in a mirror on the table&mdash;saw her raise the jagged
+weapon. Raise it to strike; not at me&mdash;at himself. His face was close
+above mine. In that second, I saw in his expression the realization that
+Elza was attacking him.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever his emotions, like a flash he acted. His grip on my throat
+loosened. His arm, swinging backward, warded off Elza's trembling,
+hesitant blow. The metal block, intended for his head, was knocked from
+her hand; it fell clattering to the floor. And reaching over, Tarrano
+gripped the vehicle's control lever, wrenched it bodily from its
+fastenings! Control of the vehicle was irrevocably lost! We were
+falling!</p>
+
+<p>Breathless moments! Tarrano idly stood apart; his face a mask. My breath
+restored, I was recovering. I drew myself erect.</p>
+
+<p>Death! But my confused thoughts went to Elza. Her flying mechanism was
+partially sustaining; my own probably was still effective. Before
+Tarrano was aware of my purpose, I had pushed Elza forcibly through the
+doorway. Into the rush of air her figure disappeared. But Tarrano
+gripped me as I tried to follow her. Gripped me and clung. A breathless,
+dizzy instant. Locked together, our bodies shifted crazily. I
+tried to get him out the doorway with me, but he fought against
+it.... Smiling&mdash;always smiling....</p>
+
+<p>Elza fell safely. But they told me that Tarrano and I hovered for days
+unconscious on the borderland between life and death, living finally,
+for our vehicle had plunged into a tremendous snow-bank, to break its
+fall.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Last scene of all ... They would not have Tarrano on any of the three
+worlds. While still living, the very personality of him was a menace.
+With his woman Tara, who refused to leave him and whom he tolerated,
+they banished him to that tiny asteroid which pursued its solitary way
+between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.</p>
+
+<p>A lonely, barren little world, with its single, primitive race of
+spindly beings&mdash;timid, frail beings, half-human, half insect. We took
+him there&mdash;Maida and Georg, Elza and I. He anticipated his dislike of
+the asteroid's slight gravity, and demanded weighted shoes so that he
+might walk with the normal feeling of Earth and Venus.</p>
+
+<p>"You give me too much freedom," he told us solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>And there amid the rocks, with Tara we set him down. As we parted, he
+turned to Elza. She and I were joined in marriage by then. He faced her,
+took one of her hands and pressed its palm to his forehead, the gesture
+of homage and respect.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodbye, Lady Elza. I wish for you all life's happiness." He smiled,
+but it was a very wistful smile. And then he swung away abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tara! Prepare me food. Leave me&mdash;I would be alone." His imperious
+gesture dispersed also the crowd of natives who were curiously regarding
+him. Here, in his last little domain, he would still be master.</p>
+
+<p>Our vehicle slowly rose. From its windows we watched him. Ignoring us
+utterly, weighted down by his heavy shoes, he paced his barren rocks,
+head lowered, alone with those thoughts he never shared with anyone.</p>
+
+<p>Tarrano, the Conqueror!</p>
+
+
+<p>The End.</p>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> New York City, about where Yonkers now stands.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Now Long Island.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Now Europe and Asia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A medical word, translated here as <i>cancer</i>, though
+possibly not that.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Now Montreal.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Now Cape Chelyuskin, Laimur Peninsula, Siberia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Hayes Peninsula, Northwest Greenland, near the present site
+of Etah.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Now Matto Grosso State, Brazil.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A cement or mortar used in stone constructions&mdash;evidently
+partially combustible.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A universal insulating fabric, as rubber insulates
+electricity and asbestos bars heat.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> A small winged board without power, used for emergency
+descents by volplaning down from disabled aeros.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The Rocky Mountains, in the United States or possibly
+Alberta.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Elta&mdash;a term or title denoting rank by birth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Canal, as it now is thought to be.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Evidently the upper Amazon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> About 4,000 feet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Orchestra.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> A scent or perfume, highly intoxicating.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> A popinjay&mdash;fop.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Half-way between midnight and dawn.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> An awkward, unpronounceable word which for the purposes of
+this narrative may be termed Industriana.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Quicksilver.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Similar doubtless to our present-day X-ray.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
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+Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tarrano the Conqueror
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2007 [EBook #21638]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARRANO THE CONQUEROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                TARRANO
+
+                             THE CONQUEROR
+
+                            BY RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY
+A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+CHICAGO
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE PAN AMERICAN
+UNION.
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+To Hugo Gernsback, scientist, author and publisher, whose constant
+efforts in behalf of scientific fiction have contributed so largely
+to its present popularity, this tale is gratefully dedicated.
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+_In "Tarrano the Conqueror" is presented a tale of the year 2430 A.D.--a
+time somewhat farther beyond our present-day era than we are beyond
+Columbus' discovery of America. My desire has been to create for you the
+impression that you have suddenly been plunged forward into that
+time--to give you the feeling Columbus might have had could he have read
+a novel of our present-day life.
+
+To this end I have conceived myself a writer of that future time,
+addressing his contemporary public. You are to imagine yourself reading
+a present day translation of my original text--a translation so free
+that a thousand little colloquialisms will have crept into it that could
+not possibly have their counterparts in the year 2430.
+
+Apart from the text, you will occasionally find brief explanatory
+footnotes. Conceive them as having been put there by the translator.
+
+If you find parts of this tale unusual or bizarre, please remember that
+we are living now in a comparatively ignorant day. The tale is not
+intended to be fantastic or full of new and strange ideas. I have used
+nothing but those developments of our present-day civilization to which
+we are all looking forward as logical probabilities--woven them into a
+picture of what life in America very probably will be five hundred years
+from now. To that extent, the tale itself is intended to be only a love
+story of adventure and romance--written, not for you, but for that
+future audience._
+
+RAY CUMMINGS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. The New Murders
+
+      II. Warning
+
+     III. Spy in the House
+
+      IV. To the North Pole
+
+       V. Outlawed Flight
+
+      VI. Man of Destiny
+
+     VII. Prisoners
+
+    VIII. Unknown Friend
+
+      IX. Paralyzed!
+
+       X. Georg Escapes
+
+      XI. Recaptured
+
+     XII. Tara
+
+    XIII. Love--and Hate
+
+     XIV. Defying Worlds
+
+      XV. Escape
+
+     XVI. Playground of Venus
+
+    XVII. Violet Beam of Death
+
+   XVIII. Passing of a Friend
+
+     XIX. Waters of Eternal Peace
+
+      XX. Unseen Menace
+
+     XXI. Love, Music--and a Warning
+
+    XXII. Revolution!
+
+   XXIII. First Retreat
+
+    XXIV. Attack on the Palace
+
+     XXV. Immortal Terror
+
+    XXVI. Black Cloud of Death
+
+   XXVII. Tarrano The Man
+
+  XXVIII. Thing in the Forest
+
+    XXIX. A Woman's Scream
+
+     XXX. The Monster
+
+    XXXI. Industriana
+
+   XXXII. Departure
+
+  XXXIII. First Assault
+
+   XXXIV. Invisible Assailants
+
+    XXXV. Attack on the Power House
+
+   XXXVI. City of Ice Besieged
+
+  XXXVII. Battle
+
+
+
+
+TARRANO THE CONQUEROR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_The New Murders_
+
+
+I was standing fairly close to the President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic
+when the first of the new murders was committed. The President fell
+almost at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my
+elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will.
+The Venus man did not make a move; he merely stood beside me in the
+press of the throng, seemingly as absorbed as all of us in what the
+President was saying.
+
+It was late afternoon. The sun was setting behind the cliffs across the
+river. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand people within
+sight of the President, listening raptly to his words. It was at Park
+Sixty, and I was standing on the Tenth Level.[1] The crowd packed all
+twelve of the levels; the park was black with people. The President
+stood on a balcony of the park tower. He was no more than a few hundred
+feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were
+the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the
+audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were
+scattering it throughout the city, I suppose five million people were
+listening to the voice of the President at that moment. He had just said
+that we must remain friendly with Venus; that in our enlightened age
+controversies were inevitable, but that they should be settled with
+sober thought--around the council table. This talk of war was
+ridiculous. He was denouncing the public news-broadcasters; moulders of
+public opinion, who every day--every hour--must offer a new sensation to
+their millions of subscribers.
+
+[Footnote 1: New York City, about where Yonkers now stands.]
+
+He had reached this point when without warning his body pitched forward.
+The balcony rail caught it; and it hung there inert. The slanting rays
+of the sun fell full upon the ruffled white shirt; white, but turning
+pink, then red, with the crimson stain welling out from beneath.
+
+For an instant the crowd was stunned into silence. Then a murmur arose,
+and swelled into shouts of horror. A surge of people swept me forward. I
+could not see clearly what was happening on the balcony. The form of the
+murdered President was hanging there against the rail; a score of
+government officials were rushing toward it; but the body, toppling over
+the low support, came hurtling downward into the crowd, quite near me;
+but I could not reach it--the throng was too dense.
+
+The shouts everywhere were deafening. I was shoved along the Tenth Level
+by the press of people coming up the stairway. Shouts, excited
+questions; the wail of children almost trampled under foot; the screams
+of women. And over it all, the electrically magnified voice of the
+traffic director-general in the peak of the main tower roaring his
+orders to the crowd.
+
+It was a panic until the traffic-directors descended upon us. We were
+pushed up on the moving sidewalks. North or south, whichever direction
+came handiest, we were herded upon the sidewalks and whirled away. With
+a hundred other spectators near me I was shoved to a sidewalk moving
+south along the Tenth Level. It was going some four miles an hour. But
+they would not let me stay there. From behind, the crowd was shoving;
+and from one parallel strip of moving pavement to the other I was pushed
+along--until at last I reached the seats of the forty mile an hour
+inside section.
+
+The scene at Park Sixty was far out of direct sight and hearing. The
+park there had already been cleared of spectators, I knew; and they were
+doubtless bearing the President's body away.
+
+"Murdered!" said a man beside me. "Murdered! Look there!"
+
+We were across the river, into Manhattan. The Tenth Level here runs
+about four hundred feet above the ground-street of the city. The man
+beside me was pointing to a steel tower we were passing. It was several
+hundreds yards away; on its side abreast of us was a forty-foot square
+news-mirror, brightly illumined. On all the stairways and balconies here
+a local crowd had gathered, watching the mirror. It was reporting the
+present scene at Park Sixty. As we sped past the tower I could see in
+the silver surface of the mirror the image of the now empty park from
+which we had been so summarily ejected. They were carrying off the
+President's body; a little group of officials bearing it away; red,
+broken, gruesome, with the dying rays of the sun still upon it. Carrying
+it slowly along to where an aero-car was waiting on the side landing
+stage.
+
+We were past the mirror in a moment.
+
+"Murdered," the man next to me repeated. "The President murdered."
+
+He seemed stunned, as indeed everyone was. Then he eyed me--my cap,
+which had on it the insignia of my calling.
+
+"You are one of them," he said bitterly. "The last word he said--the
+lurid news-gatherers."
+
+But I shook my head. "We are necessary. It was unfortunate that he
+should have said that."
+
+I had no opportunity to talk further. The man moved away toward the foot
+of a landing stage near us. A south-bound flyer had overtaken us and was
+landing. I boarded it also, and ten minutes later was in my office in
+South-Manhattan.
+
+I was at this time employed by one of the most enterprising
+news-organizations in Greater New York. There was pandemonium in there
+that evening. My supper came up in the pneumatic tube from the public
+cookery nearby, but I had hardly time to taste it.
+
+This, the evening of May 12, 2430, was for me--and for all the
+Earth--the most stirring evening of history. Events of inter-planetary
+importance tumbled over each other as they came to us through the air
+from the Official Information Stations. And we--myself and a thousand
+like me in our office--retold them for our twenty million subscribers
+throughout the Anglo-Saxon Nation.
+
+The President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic was murdered at 5:10. It was
+the first of the new murders. I say new murders, for not in two hundred
+years had the life of so high an official been wilfully taken. But it
+was only the first. At 6:15 word came from Tokyohama,[2] that the ruler
+of Allied Mongolia was dead--murdered under similar circumstances. And
+ten minutes later from Mombozo, Africa, the blacks reported their leader
+killed while asleep in his official residence.
+
+[Footnote 2: Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan.]
+
+The Earth momentarily was without leadership!
+
+I was struggling to get accounts of these successive disasters out over
+our audiophones. Above my desk, in a duplicating mirror from
+Headquarters, I could see that at the palace of Mombozo a throng of
+terrified blacks were gathered. It was night there--a blurred scene of
+flashing lights and frightened, milling people.
+
+Greys--next to me--had a mirror tuned to Tokyohama. The sun there was
+shining upon almost a similar scene of panic. Black and yellow men--on
+opposite sides of the Earth. And between them our white races in
+turmoil. Outside my own window I could hear the shouts of the crowd that
+jammed the Twentieth Level.
+
+Greys leaned toward me. "Seven o'clock, Jac. You've got the arrival of
+the Venus mail. Don't overlook it ... By the code, man, your hands are
+shaking! You're white as a ghost!"
+
+The Venus mail; I had forgotten it completely.
+
+"Greys, I wonder if it'll get in."
+
+He stared at me strangely. "You're thinking that, too. I told the
+British National Announcer it was a Venus plot. He laughed at me. Those
+Great Londoners can't see their fingers before them. He said, 'That's
+your lurid sense of newscasting.'"
+
+Venus plot! I remembered my impressions of the Venus man who was beside
+me when our President fell.
+
+Greys was back at his work. I swept the south shore of Eastern Island[3]
+with my finder, and picked up the image of the inter-planetary landing
+stage, at which the Venus mail was due to arrive. I could see the blaze
+of lights plainly; and with another, closer focus I caught the huge
+landing platform itself. It was empty.
+
+[Footnote 3: Now Long Island.]
+
+The station-master there answered my call. He had no word of the mail.
+
+"Try the lookout at Table Mountain," he advised me. "They may be coming
+down that way.... Sure I'll let you know.... What a night! They say that
+in Mediterrania--"
+
+But I cut off; it was no time to chat with him. Table Mountain,
+Capetown, had no word of the mail. Then I caught the Yukon Station. The
+mail flyer had come down on the North Polar side--was already crossing
+Hudson Bay.
+
+At 8:26 it landed on Eastern Island. A deluge of Venus despatches
+overwhelmed me. But the mail news, before I could even begin to handle
+my section of it, was far overshadowed. Venus, now at 8:44 was calling
+us by helio. The message came in the inter-planetary code, was decoded
+at National Headquarters, and from there flashed to us.
+
+The ruler of the Venus Central State was murdered! An almost incoherent
+message. The murder of the ruler, at a time co-incident with 6:30 in
+Greater New York. Then the words:
+
+_"City being attacked ... Tarrano, beware Tarrano ... You are in danger
+of ..."_
+
+In danger of what? The message broke off. The observers, behind their
+huge telescopes at the Potomac Headquarters, saw the helio-lights of the
+Venus Central State go dark suddenly. Our own station flashed its call,
+but there was no answer. Venus--evening star on that date--was sinking
+to the horizon. But our Observatory in Texas could see the planet
+clearly; and gave the same report.
+
+Communication was broken. The authorities of the Venus Central
+State--friendly to us in spite of the recent immigration
+controversy--had tried to warn us.
+
+Of what?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+_Warning_
+
+
+It must have been nearly nine o'clock when a personal message came for
+me. Not through the ordinary open airways, but in the National Length,
+and coded. It came to my desk by official messenger, decoded, printed
+and sealed.
+
+     _Jac Hallen, Inter-Allied News_. Come to me, North-east Island at
+     once, if they can spare you. Important. Answer.
+
+     Dr. Brende.
+
+Our Division Manager scanned the message curiously and told me I could
+go. I got off my answer. I did not dare call Dr. Brende openly, since he
+had used the code, but sent it the same way. I would be up at once.
+
+With a word of good-bye to Greys, I shoved aside my work, caught up a
+heavy jacket and cap and left the office. The levels outside our
+building were still jammed with an excited throng. I pushed my way
+through it, up to the entrance to the Staten Bridge. The waters of the
+harbor beneath me had a broad band of moonlight upon them, dim in the
+glare of the city lights. I glanced upward with satisfaction. A good
+night for air-traveling.
+
+My small personal air-car was on the stage near the bridge entrance. The
+attendant was there, staring at me as I dashed up in such haste. He
+handed me my key from the rack.
+
+"Going far, Jac? What a night! They'll be ordering them off if many more
+go up.... Going north?"
+
+"No," I said shortly.
+
+I was away, rising with my helicopters until the city was a yellow haze
+beneath me. I _was_ going north--to Dr. Brende's little private island
+off the coast of Maine. The lower lanes were pretty well crowded. I
+tried one of the north-bound at 8,000 feet; but the going was awkward.
+Then I went to 16,000.
+
+But Grille, the attendant back at the bridge, evidently had his finder
+on me, out of plain curiosity. He called me.
+
+"They'll chase you out of there," came his voice. "Nothing doing up
+there tonight. That's reserved. Didn't you know it?"
+
+I grinned at him. In the glow of my pitlight I hoped he could see my
+face and the grin.
+
+"They'll never catch me," I said. "I'm traveling fast tonight."
+
+"Chase you out," he persisted. "The patrol's keeping them low. General
+Orders, an hour ago. Didn't you know it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, you ought to. You ought to know everything in your business.
+Besides, the lights are up."
+
+They were indeed; I could see them in all the towers underneath me. I
+was flying north-east; and at the moment, with a following wind, I was
+doing something over three-fifty.
+
+"But they'll shut off your power," Grille warned. "You'll come down soon
+enough then."
+
+Which was also true enough. The evening local-express for Boston and
+beyond was overhauling me. And when the green beam of a traffic tower
+came up and picked me out, I decided I had better obey. Dutifully I
+descended until the beam, satisfied, swung away from me.
+
+At 8,000 feet, I went on. There was too much traffic for decent speed
+and the directors in every pilot bag and tower I passed seemed watching
+me closely. At the latitude of Boston, I swung out to sea, off the main
+arteries of travel. The early night mail for Eurasia,[4] with Great
+London its first stop, went by me far overhead. I could make out its
+green and purple lights, and the spreading silver beam that preceded it.
+
+[Footnote 4: Now Europe and Asia.]
+
+Alone in my pit, with the dull whir of my propellers alone breaking the
+silence of the night, I pondered the startling events of the past few
+hours. Above me the stars and planets gleamed in the deep purple of an
+almost cloudless sky. Venus had long since dropped below the horizon.
+But Mars was up there--approaching the zenith. I wondered what the
+Martian helio might be saying. I could have asked Greys back at the
+office. But Greys, I knew, would be too busy to bother with me.
+
+What could Dr. Brende want of me? I was glad he had sent for me--there
+was nowhere I would rather have gone this particular evening. And it
+would give me a chance to see Elza again.
+
+I could tell by the light-numerals below, that I was now over Maine. I
+did not need to consult my charts; I had been up this way many times,
+for, the Brendes--the doctor, his daughter Elza, and her twin brother
+Georg--I counted my best friends.
+
+I was over the sea, with the coast of Maine to my left. The traffic,
+since I left the line of Boston, had been far less. The patrols flashed
+by me at intervals, but they did not molest me.
+
+I descended presently, and located the small two-mile island which Dr.
+Brende owned and upon which he lived.
+
+It was 10:20 when I came down to find them waiting for me on the runway.
+
+The doctor held out both his hands. "Good enough, Jac. I got your
+code--we've been waiting for you."
+
+"It's crowded," I said. "Heavy up to Boston. And they wouldn't let me go
+high."
+
+He nodded. And then Elza put her cool little hand in mine.
+
+"We're glad to see you, Jac. Very glad."
+
+They took me to the house. Dr. Brende was a small, dark man of
+sixty-odd, smooth-shaven, a thin face, with a mop of iron-grey hair
+above it, and keen dark eyes beneath bushy white brows. He was usually
+kindly and gentle of manner--at times a little abstracted; at other
+times he could be more forceful and direct than anyone with whom I had
+ever had contact.
+
+At the house we were joined by the doctor's son, Georg. My best friend,
+I should say; certainly, for my part, I treasured his friendship very
+highly. He and Elza were twins--twenty-three years old at this time. I
+am two years older; and I had been a room-mate with Georg at the Common
+University of the Potomac.
+
+Our friendship had, if anything, grown closer since my promotion into
+the business world. Yet we were as unlike as two individuals could
+possibly be. I am dark-haired, slim, and of comparatively slight
+muscular strength. Restless--full of nervous energy--and, they tell me,
+somewhat short of temper. Georg was a blond, powerful young giant. A
+head taller than I--blue-eyed, from his mother, now dead--square-jawed,
+and a complexion pink and white. He was slow to anger. He seldom spoke
+impulsively; and usually with a slow, quiet drawl. Always he seemed
+looking at life and people with a half-humorous smile--looking at the
+human pageant with its foibles, follies and frailties--tolerantly. Yet
+there was nothing conceited about him. Quite the reverse. He was
+generally wholly deprecating in manner, as though he himself were of
+least importance. Until aroused. In our days of learning, I saw Georg
+once--just once--thoroughly angered.
+
+"... Came up promptly, didn't you?" Georg was saying. He was leading me
+to the house doorway, but I stopped him.
+
+"Let's go to the grove," I suggested. We turned down from the small
+viaduct, passed the house, and went into the heavy grove of trees
+nearby.
+
+"He's hungry," Elza declared. "Jac, did you eat at the office tonight?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"Did you really?"
+
+"Some," I admitted. In truth the run up here had brought me a thoroughly
+hearty appetite, which I just realized.
+
+"I was pretty busy, you know," I added. "Such a night--but don't you
+bother."
+
+But she had already scurried away toward the house. Dear little Elza! I
+wished then, for the hundredth time, that I was a man of wealth--or at
+least, not as poor as a tower timekeeper. True, I made fair money--but
+the urge to spend it recklessly dominated me. I decided in that moment,
+to reform for good; and lay by enough to justify asking a woman to be my
+wife.
+
+We reclined on a mossy bank in the grove of trees, so thick a grove that
+it hid the house from our sight.
+
+The doctor extinguished the glowing lights with which the tree-branches
+were dotted. We were in the semi-darkness of a beautiful, moonlit night.
+
+"Don't go to sleep, Jac!"
+
+I became aware that Georg and his father were smiling at me.
+
+I sat up, snapping my wits into alertness. "No. Of course not. I guess
+I'm tired. You've no idea what the office was like tonight. Roaring."
+
+"I can imagine," Georg said. "You were at Park Sixty when the President
+fell, weren't you?"
+
+"Yes. But I wasn't supposed to be. I wasn't assigned to that. How did
+you guess?"
+
+"Elza saw you. She had our finder on you--I couldn't push her away from
+it." His slow smile was quizzical.
+
+"On me? In all that crowd. She must have searched about very carefully
+to----"
+
+I stopped; I could feel my cheeks burning, and was glad of the dimness
+there under the trees.
+
+"She did," said Georg.
+
+"I sent for you, Jac," Dr. Brende interjected abstractedly,
+"because----"
+
+But Georg checked him. "Not now, father. Someone--anyone--might pick you
+up. Your words--or read your lips--there's light enough here to register
+on a finder."
+
+The doctor nodded. "He's afraid--you see, Jac, it's these Venus----"
+
+"Father--please. It's a long chance--but why take any? We can insulate
+in the house."
+
+The chance that someone who shouldn't be, was tuned to us as we sat
+there in that lonely grove! With the doctor's widespread reputation--his
+more than national prominence--it did not seem to me to be such a long
+chance either, on this, of all nights.
+
+"As you say, no use in putting private things into the public air," I
+remarked; and I felt then as though a thousand hostile eyes and ears
+were watching and listening. "We can talk of what everybody knows,"
+Georg commented. "The Martian Ruler of the Little People was
+assassinated an hour ago. You heard that coming up?"
+
+"No," I said; but I had imagined as much. "Did they say--"
+
+"They said nothing," Dr. Brende put in. "The flash of a dozen helioed
+words--no more."
+
+"It went dark, like Venus?"
+
+"No. Just discontinued. I judge they're excited up there--the Bureau
+disorganized perhaps--I don't know. That was the last we got at the
+house, just before you came down. There may be something in there
+now--you Inter-Allied people are pretty reliable."
+
+The ruler of the Venus Central State, the leading monarch of Mars, and
+our three chief executives of Earth--murdered almost simultaneously! It
+was incredible--any one of the murders would have been incredible--yet
+it was true.
+
+There had been times--in the Inter-Allied Office, particularly--when I
+had been insulated from aerial eavesdropping. But never had I felt the
+need of it more than now. A constraint fell over me; I seemed afraid to
+say anything. I think we all three felt very much like that; and it was
+a relief when Elza arrived with my dainty little meal.
+
+"Any word from Mars, Elza?" her father asked.
+
+She sat down beside me, helping me to the food.
+
+"I did not look," she answered.
+
+She did not look, because she was busy preparing my meal! Dear little
+Elza! And because of my accursed extravagance--my poverty--no word of
+love had ever passed between us!
+
+I thought I had never seen Elza so beautiful as this moment. A slim
+little thing, perfectly formed and matured, and inches shorter than I.
+Thick brown hair braided, and hanging below her waist. A face--pretty as
+her mother's must have been--yet intellectual as her father's.
+
+I had taken Elza to the great music festivals of the city, and counted
+her the best dressed girl in all the vast throng. Tonight she was
+dressed simply. A grey-blue, tubular sort of skirt, clinging close to
+the lines of her figure and split at the side for walking; a
+tight-fitting bodice, light in color (a man knows little of the
+technicalities of such things); throat bare, with a flaring rolled
+collar behind--a throat like a rose-petal with the moonlight on it; arms
+bare, save for the upper, triangular sleeves.
+
+It must suffice; I can only say she was adorable. Almost in silence I
+ate my meal, with her beside me.
+
+Georg went into the house once, to consult the news-tape. It was crowded
+with Earth events--excitement, confusion everywhere--inconsequential
+reports, they seemed, by comparison with what had gone before. But of
+helios from Mars, or Venus, there were none reported. Of Venus, the tape
+said nothing save that each of our westward stations was vainly calling
+in turn, as the planet dropped toward its horizon.
+
+I finished my meal--too leisurely for Georg and the doctor; and then we
+all went into the house, to the insulated room where at last we could
+talk openly.
+
+As we entered the main corridor, we heard the low voice of the
+Inter-Allied news-announcer, coming from the disc in a room nearby.
+
+_"And Venus----"_
+
+The words caught our attention. We hurried in, and stood by the
+Inter-Allied equipment. Georg picked up the pile of tape whereon the
+announcer's words were being printed. He ran back over it.
+
+"Another helio from Venus!" he exclaimed. "Ten minutes ago."
+
+And then I saw his lips go tight together. He made no move to hide the
+tape from Elza, but she was beside him and already reading it. Her
+fingers switched off the announcer's droning voice.
+
+_"Pacific Coastal Station,"_ Elza read. In the sudden silence of the
+room her voice was low, clear, and steady, though her hands were
+trembling. _"P.C.S. 10.42 Venus helio. 'Defeat! Beware Tarrano! Notify
+your Dr. Brende in Eurasia, danger.'"_
+
+We men stared at each other. But Elza went on reading.
+
+_"P.C.S. 10.44 Venus helio. 'Lost! No more! Smashing apparatus!' The
+Venus sending station went dark at 10.44.30. Hawaiian station will call
+later, but have little hope of re-establishing connection. Tokyohama
+10.46 Official, via Potomac National Headquarters. Excitement here
+continues. Levels crowded----"_
+
+Elza dropped the tape. "That's all of importance. Venus Central Station
+warning _you_, father."
+
+A buzz across the room called the doctor to his personal receiver. It
+was a message in code from Potomac National Headquarters. We watched the
+queer-looking characters printing on the tape. Very softly, in a voice
+hardly above a whisper, Georg decoded it.
+
+_"Dr. Brende, see P.C.S. 10.42, warning you, probably of Venus
+immigrants now here. Do you need guard? Or will you come to Washington
+at once for personal safety?"_
+
+"Father!" cried Elza.
+
+Georg burst out. "Enough of this. We cannot--dare not talk in here.
+Father, come----"
+
+We went out into the corridor again, across which was the small room
+insulated from all aerial vibrations. In the corridor a figure was
+standing--the one other member of the Brende household--the
+maid-servant, a girl about Elza's age. I knew her well, of course, but
+this evening I had forgotten her existence. She was standing in the
+corridor. Did I imagine it, or had she been gazing up at the mechanism
+ten feet above the floor--the mechanism controlling the insulated room?
+
+"You wish me, Miss Elza? I thought I heard you call."
+
+"No, Ahla, not 'til later."
+
+With a gesture of respect, the girl withdrew, passing from our sight
+down the incline which led to the lower part of the house.
+
+It was a very small incident, but in view of what was transpiring, it
+gave me a shock nevertheless.
+
+For Elza's maid was a Venus girl!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_Spy in the House_
+
+
+The insulated room was small, with a dome-shaped ceiling, no windows,
+and but one small, heavy door through which we entered, closing it
+carefully behind us.
+
+"At last," Dr. Brende exclaimed. "Now we can talk freely."
+
+But I was not satisfied. "That girl, Ahla--can you trust her?"
+
+They all looked at me in surprise. When one is close to danger,
+sometimes one recognizes it least; with Ahla in this household for over
+a year now, they could not imagine her an enemy.
+
+"I saw her looking up at the insulator," I added swiftly. "Out there in
+the corridor. Am I talking wild? Perhaps I am. But she seemed startled;
+and she was standing just under the insulator, wasn't she?"
+
+"But--" began Elza.
+
+"Wait," I exclaimed. "When I first saw the President fall, at Park
+Sixty, I felt that a Venus man had done it. These other murders--they're
+all the same. Done by Venus men of the Cold Country."
+
+"Ahla's country," Elza murmured.
+
+"Yes. Exactly. And the Venus Central State has been attacked and has
+fallen. An assassination on Mars, and three here on Earth--all
+simultaneously. It's one gigantic plot, I tell you--and the Cold Country
+of Venus is at the bottom of it."
+
+Georg jumped to his feet. "I'll see if the room has been tampered with."
+
+He was back presently. "The insulator is intact. I set the alarm bell.
+If she touches it--"
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In the cookery, where she should be. I told her we would eat in an
+hour. That ought to keep her busy."
+
+Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. "I think we are all a little
+overwrought--though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come
+here by me. Don't look so solemn, child."
+
+He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but
+his gesture checked me. "I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand
+these events, perhaps better than any of you. Let me go back two
+years--when I was in the Venus Central State."
+
+I nodded my remembrance; and he went on:
+
+"At that time the authorities there were greatly perturbed. They were
+menaced by rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold
+Country people into the Central State, for it is already overcrowded.
+You did not know that, did you?"
+
+"You mean the threatened rebellion?" I asked. "They were trying to keep
+it secret, but we heard rumors."
+
+"Just so. And Jac, I will tell you why they kept it secret. The Central
+State was encouraging emigration to the Earth. The Venus Cold Country is
+a poor place to live in--and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable
+people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Central State did not want
+them within its borders; and so it kept secret its troubles with
+them--and encouraged emigration to the Earth.
+
+"We--as you know--make no distinction between Venus people. We are
+friendly with the Central State, and the Cold Country is governed by
+it--or was until tonight. Thus, you see, we have been in the position of
+having to receive these renegade immigrants. Shut out from all the good
+land and decent climate of Venus, they began coming here.
+
+"But we did not want them, and of late we have been holding them off,
+cutting the quota allowed very materially. Last week, as you also know,
+in Triple Conference, our three races decided to allow at each Inferior
+Conjunction of the Earth and Venus, so small a quota that the Central
+State protested vigorously.
+
+"The controversy has been hot; but the Central State--trying to foist
+off its undesirables on us--knows it is in the wrong. And fundamentally,
+it is friendly to us--I think it has proven that in the last two hours."
+
+Again I would have spoken, but he went on at once.
+
+"I know you're familiar with most of this, Jac. But you news-gatherers
+sometimes reason in too lurid a fashion. Let me go on. Mars was drawn
+into the affair. To extricate ourselves, we offered to admit--under
+temporary guard--all Venus immigrants who would pass on at once--at the
+first astronomical opportunity--to Mars. This would have been very nice
+for us--but not for Mars."
+
+"They are hot-headed, in Mars," Georg commented.
+
+"Quite so," said the doctor. "But very direct and forceful,
+nevertheless. They met our suggestion with a law excluding Venus
+immigrants entirely. It was this, I think, that precipitated tonight's
+events--though of course they must have been brewing for a long time."
+
+"This Tarrano--" I began.
+
+"I heard of him when I was in Venus," said Dr. Brende. "He was at that
+time a lower official in the Cold Country. Evidently he has risen in his
+world.
+
+"I come now to conjecture--but I think it must be fairly close to truth.
+Tarrano, leading the Cold Country, has risen to open rebellion. His
+attack upon the Central State must have come suddenly--"
+
+"You mean, just this evening?" Elza asked.
+
+"No, of course not. But hoping to quell the rebellion, the Central State
+has suppressed news of it. At such a time--with this controversy going
+on--such reports would only injure the Central State's inter-planetary
+position. That's obvious, isn't it? Then tonight, when things were
+desperate, the Central State gave out its call. Tarrano has conquered
+Venus, I'm sure. And at the last, before destroying its helio, the
+Central State tried to warn us."
+
+"Of what?" I demanded. "And what about these murders?"
+
+"Done by emissaries of Tarrano, no doubt. For revenge, because of the
+Martian and Earth legislation--or for--"
+
+"I think we should not speculate too much," said Georg. "At least, not
+on that line. They warned you personally, father. We were so careful to
+keep everything secret--"
+
+Dr. Brende mopped his forehead. He was trying to appear calm--I knew he
+did not want unduly to alarm Elza; but I could see that he was laboring
+under great emotion nevertheless.
+
+"Things get out, Georg," he said. "We have been careful--yes. But two
+years ago, when I visited the Central State, I told them there what I
+hoped to accomplish. There were no grave inter-planetary problems
+then--I thought I had no need of great secrecy. And since then, though,
+we have been very careful--"
+
+Careful! With a Venus girl from the Cold Country living in their
+household! Truly, humans are a strange mixture of sagacity and folly!
+
+"The Central State has heard something concerning you," Georg said.
+"That could easily happen--prisoners captured from Tarrano's forces, for
+instance. With dispatches--or perhaps some intercepted aerial message."
+
+What was this secret they were discussing? I was the only one in the
+room who did not know it. And why had Dr. Brende sent for me tonight?
+
+I asked him both questions. His face went even more solemn than it had
+been before.
+
+"I sent for you, Jac, because in a measure I anticipated what has now
+befallen. Danger specifically to us Brendes, I mean. We count you as our
+friend--"
+
+How it warmed my heart to hear him say that; and to see the glance that
+Elza cast me!
+
+"--Our friend. I am an old man--you are young. Yet you are wise, too. We
+need you tonight."
+
+He raised his hand when I would have told him how glad I was to be with
+them.
+
+"You know something of my work," he said, as a statement, rather than a
+question. "I should say, mine and Georg's and Elza's, for they have both
+helped me materially."
+
+I knew that Dr. Brende had for years been one of the Earth's most
+eminent research physicians. It was he who discovered the light
+vibrations which had banished forever the dread germs of several of the
+major diseases. He did not practice; his work was research only.
+
+He went on: "Jac, I have found what for years I have been striving to
+find--a vibration of light, though it is invisible--which so far as I
+can determine, kills every bacillus harmful to man. There is nothing new
+in the idea--I have been working at it all my life. Sunlight! Altered
+and modified in several particulars, yet sunlight nevertheless. How
+strange that for countless centuries, man never realized the blessed
+boon of sunlight--the greatest enemy of all disease!
+
+"Each year, as you know, I have conquered some of what we call the major
+diseases. A few of them--cancer[5], for instance--persisted in eluding
+me. Its bacilli--you can easily recognize the tiny purplish, horned rods
+which cause what we popularly call cancer--just would not die. No form
+of light or other vibration I could devise, seemed to hurt them--unless
+I used a vibration harmful, even fatal, to the blood-contents itself: I
+killed the cancer--in the words of you news-gatherers--but I also killed
+the patient."
+
+[Footnote 5: A medical word, translated here as _cancer_, though
+possibly not that.]
+
+His eyes smiled at the jest, but his face remained intensely serious.
+
+"Then, Jac, I solved that problem--just a few months ago. And upon the
+heels of it I solved another, of infinitely more importance." He paused
+slightly. "I have learned how to kill, or at least arrest, the bacillus
+of old age. It is a bacillus, you know. We grow old because every day we
+live beyond the age of thirty--the bacillus of old age is attacking us.
+I call them the Brende-bacilli--these tiny, frayed discs that make us
+grow old. I have seen them--and killed them!"
+
+It dawned on me slowly, the import of what he was saying.
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"He means," said Georg, "that at present we cannot only banish
+disease--all disease--but we can keep your body from aging. Not
+permanently, doubtless--but with the span of life lengthened threefold
+at least. Only by violence now need you die prematurely."
+
+This then was the secret the existence of which Tarrano had learned. He
+had....
+
+But Dr. Brende was quietly voicing my thoughts.
+
+"It seems obvious, Jac, that this Tarrano at least suspects that I have
+made some such discovery as this. That he would withhold it from
+mankind, for the benefit of his own race, seems also obvious. That he is
+about to make an attempt to get it from me, I am convinced."
+
+I remembered the wording of the message of warning from the Central
+State. _"Your Dr. Brende, in Eurasia."_ I mentioned it.
+
+"Our main laboratory is there," Georg said. "In Northern
+Siberia--isolated from people so far as possible, and in a climate
+advantageous for the work."
+
+Elza spoke for the first time in many minutes.
+
+"We have guards there, Jac--eight of our assistants.... Father, I called
+Robins a while ago. He said everything was all right. But don't you
+think we should call him again?"
+
+The doctor had drifted into deep thought. "What? Oh, yes, Elza. I was
+thinking we should go there. My notes--descriptions of how to build a
+larger apparatus--larger than the small model I have installed there--my
+notes are all there, and I want them. And I don't think, at such a time,
+I should trust Robins to bring them."
+
+"What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an
+answer, you remember."
+
+"I'm going there to the Potomac--tell them that. Tell them we will come
+there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model."
+
+As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start
+to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet
+for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside.
+
+Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he
+opened it. I was close behind him.
+
+"What----"
+
+"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see--in case she _is_ doing
+something."
+
+He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him.
+
+The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the
+instrument room.
+
+We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the
+maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was
+talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside
+her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of
+cave--flickering lights--a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly
+armed.
+
+She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the
+mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and
+leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+_To the North Pole_
+
+
+"You stand back! You do not touch me!"
+
+The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white
+hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood
+tense--a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long
+grey stockings beneath.
+
+We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It
+was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry,
+she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns
+unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors,
+flinging everything to the floor.
+
+A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg caught
+her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them.
+
+"Ahla!" Elza cried in horror.
+
+I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this
+girl.
+
+Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the
+instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was
+coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.
+
+We were cut off from all communication with the world. It gave me a
+queer feeling--made the small island we were on seem so remote.
+
+Georg was shaking the girl, demanding with whom she had been talking and
+why. But she fell into sullen silence, and nothing we could do would
+make her break it. It infuriated me, that stubbornness; it was all I
+could do to keep from harming her in my efforts to make her talk.
+
+Georg, at last, pulled me away; he led the girl to a couch and sternly
+bade her sit there without moving. She seemed willing enough to do that;
+she still had not spoken, but her eyes were watching us closely.
+
+Dr. Brende was examining the smashed instruments. "Ruined. We cannot use
+them. Those messages--we must send them. I must talk to Robins----"
+
+We went into the corridor, out of earshot of the girl, but where we
+could watch her. That we were in immediate danger was obvious, and we
+all realized it. Ahla had told some of her people that we were here on
+the island; doubtless was planning to have them come here at once and
+seize us.
+
+How far away from us were they? I had seen in the mirror the interior of
+a cave-like room. Where was it? Might it not be near at hand--over on
+the mainland? Might not these enemies arrive on the island at any
+moment?
+
+Georg suggested that we send our messages from the aeros. We had my own
+car--and a larger car of the Brendes. More than ever now, Dr. Brende was
+worried over the safety of his Siberian laboratory; but from the aero we
+could talk to Robins.
+
+We went to the landing stage. I wanted to tie up Ahla, but as Georg
+said, she could do nothing now that the instrument room was out of
+commission. We admonished her sternly to stay where she was, and left
+the house.
+
+On the open landing stage my small aero was lying where I had left it;
+but a moment's glance showed us it was wrecked--its instruments and its
+driving mechanism demolished!
+
+There was no doubt about it now; Ahla had planned to keep us on the
+island while her people came and seized us. Fortunately the Brende car
+was well housed and barred. We saw that the gates had been tampered
+with, but with the limited time Ahla had to work in, she had been unable
+to force them. We swung them wide, and to our infinite relief found the
+car unharmed.
+
+At once Dr. Brende called Robins. But the laboratory did not answer!
+
+"It may be your sending apparatus," I suggested. "Send your message down
+to Headquarters--with their high power they'll get Robins quickly
+enough."
+
+He tried that--sending also his answer to the previous coded message
+Headquarters had sent him. It was now 11:45. We waited some eight
+minutes, during which time I rushed back to the house. Ahla was sitting
+obediently where I had left her.
+
+"You stay there," I told her. "If you move, I'll break every bone in
+your rotten little body."
+
+Back at the landing stage I found Dr. Brende in despair. Headquarters
+could not raise Robins. They had relayed the message to Wrangel and
+Spitzbergen Islands--but the stations there reported similarly. Dr.
+Brende's laboratory did not answer its call.
+
+This decided us. We had no wish to remain where we were. The Brende car,
+far larger than the small one of mine, was fully equipped and
+provisioned. We rolled it out, and in a moment were flying in the air.
+
+Dr. Brende's car was large, commodious, and smooth-riding. A pleasure to
+fly in such a car! Georg was at the controls. I sat close beside Elza in
+the semi-darkness, gazing down through the pit-rail window to where the
+island was dropping away beneath us. It was a perfect night; the moon
+had set; the stars and planets gleamed in an almost cloudless sky. Red
+Mars, I saw, very nearly over our heads.
+
+It was now midnight, and for the moment we chanced to have the air to
+ourselves. We rose to the 10,000-foot level, then headed directly North.
+It carried us inland; soon the sea was out of sight behind. Lights
+dotted the landscape--a town or city here and there, and occasionally a
+tower.
+
+Dr. Brende was poring over charts, illumined by a dim glow-light beside
+him. "Can we get power all the way, Georg?... Elza child, hadn't you
+better lie down? A long trip--you'll be tired out."
+
+"Call Royal Mountain[6]," Georg suggested. "Ask them about serving us
+power; I'll stay 10,000 or below. Under one thousand, when we get
+further north. Ask them if they can guarantee us power all the way."
+
+[Footnote 6: Now Montreal.]
+
+The station at Royal Mountain would guarantee us nothing on this night;
+they advised us to keep low. Their own power-sending station was working
+as usual. But this night--who could tell what General Orders might come?
+Everyone's nerves were frayed; this Director demanded gruffly to know
+who we were.
+
+"Tell him none of his business," I put in. My own nerves were frayed,
+too.
+
+"Quiet!" warned Georg. "He'll hear you--and it _is_ his business if he
+wants to make it so. Tell him we are the Inter-Allied News, father. That
+is true enough, and no use putting into the air that Dr. Brende is
+flying north."
+
+Royal Mountain let us through. We passed well to the east of it about
+12:45--too far away to sight its lights. The cross-traffic was somewhat
+heavier here. Beneath it, at 5,000 and 6,000 feet, a steady stream of
+cars was passing east and west.
+
+We were riding easily--little wind, almost none--and were doing 390
+miles an hour. You cannot bank or turn very well at such a speed; it is
+injurious to the human body. But our course was straight north. Dr.
+Brende showed it to me on his chart--north, following the 70th West
+Meridian. Compass corrections as we got further north--and astronomical
+readings, these would take us direct to the Pole. I could never fathom
+this air navigation; I flew by tower lights, and landmarks--but to Dr.
+Brende and Georg, the mathematics of it were simple.
+
+At two o'clock we had crossed the route of the Chicago-Great London Mail
+flyer. But we did not see the vessel. The temperature was growing
+steadily colder. The pit was inclosed, and I switched on the heaters.
+Elza had fallen asleep on the side couch, with my promise to awaken her
+at the first sign of dawn.
+
+At two-thirty, the Greater New York-East Indian Express overhauled us
+and passed overhead. It was flying almost north, bound for Bombay and
+Ceylon via Novaya Zemlya. It was in the 18,000-foot lane. The air up
+there was clear, but beneath us a fog obscured the land.
+
+At intervals all this time Dr. Brende had been trying to raise
+Robins--but there was still no answer. We did not discuss what might be
+the trouble. Of what use could such talk be?
+
+But it perturbed us, for imagination can picture almost anything. Georg
+even felt the strain of it, for he said almost gruffly:
+
+"Stop it, father. I don't think you should call attention to us so much.
+Get the meteorological reports from the Pole--we need them. If they tell
+us this weather will hold at 10,000 and below, we'll make good time."
+
+Soon after three o'clock we swept over Hudson Strait into Baffinland. We
+were down to 4,000 feet, but the fog still lay under us like a blanket.
+It clung low; we were well above it, in a cloudless night, with no wind
+save the rush of our forward flight.
+
+Then came the pink flush of dawn. True to my promise I awakened Elza.
+But there was nothing for her to see; the stars growing pale, pink
+spreading into orange, and then the sun. But the fog under us still lay
+thick.
+
+We were holding our speed very nearly at 380 an hour. By daylight--about
+five o'clock, after a light meal--we were over Baffin Bay. I had
+relieved Georg at the controls. The headlands of North Greenland lay
+before us. Then the fog lifted a little, broke away in places. The water
+became visible--drift and slush-ice of the Spring, with lines of open
+water here and there.
+
+And then the fog closed down again, lifting momentarily at six o'clock
+when we passed over the north-western tip of Greenland. The tower there
+gave us its routine signal, which we answered in kind. There was little
+traffic along here; a few local cars in the lowest lanes.
+
+Shortly after six, when we were above Grantland, another of the great
+trans-Arctic passenger liners went over us. The San Francisco Night
+line, for Mid-Eurasia and points South. It was crossing Greenland, from
+San Francisco, Vancouver, Edmonton, to the North Cape, the Russias, and
+African points south of Suez.
+
+At seven o'clock, with the sun circling the lower sky, the fog under us
+suddenly dissipated completely. We were over the Polar ocean. Masses of
+drift ice and slush, but for the most part surprisingly clear. At eight
+o'clock, flying low--no more than a thousand feet--we sighted the steel
+tower with foundations sunk into the ocean's depths which marks the top
+of our little Earth.
+
+We flashed by the tower in a moment, answering the director's signal
+perfunctorily. Southward now, on the 110th East Meridian, without
+deviating from the straight course we had held.
+
+It was truly a beautiful sight, this Polar ocean. Masses of ice,
+glittering in the morning sunlight. A fog-bank to the left; but
+everywhere else patches of green water and floes that gleamed like
+millions of precious stones as they flung back the light to us. Or
+again, a mass of low, solid ice, flushed pink in the morning light. And
+behind us, just above the horizon, a segment of purple sky where a storm
+was gathering--a deep purple which was mirrored in the placid patches of
+open water, and darkened the ice-floes to a solemn, sombre hue.
+
+Elza was entranced, though she had made many trans-Polar trips. But
+Georg, now again at the controls, kept his eyes on the instruments; and
+the doctor, trying vainly once more to talk with his laboratory, now so
+close ahead of us, sat in moody silence.
+
+It was 9:38 when we sighted, well off to the right, the rocky headland
+of Cape Chelusin[7]--the most northerly point of Eurasia. A long, low
+cliff of grey rock, ridged white with snow in its clefts. We swung
+toward it, at greatly decreased speed, and at an altitude of only a few
+hundred feet.
+
+[Footnote 7: Now Cape Chelyuskin, Laimur Peninsula, Siberia.]
+
+This was all a bleak, desolate region--curiously so--and I think, one of
+the very few so desolate on Earth. As we advanced, the Siberian coast
+spread out before us. Mountains behind, and a strip of rocky lowland
+along the sea. There were patches of snow--the mountains were white with
+it; but on the lowlands, for the most part the Spring sun had already
+melted it. The Spring was well advanced; there were many open channels
+in the water over which we were skimming--drift-ice, and slush-ice which
+soon would be gone.
+
+Cape Chelusin! It was here that Dr. Brende had placed his Arctic
+laboratory--as far from the haunts of man as he could find--a hundred
+miles from the nearest person, so he told me. And as I gazed about me I
+realized how isolated we were. Not a car in the whole circular panorama
+of sky; no sign of vessel on the water; no towns on the land.
+
+It was just after ten in the morning when we dropped silently to the
+small landing stage a hundred yards or so from the shore. We disembarked
+in the sunlight of what would have been a pleasant December morning in
+Greater New York; and I gazed about me curiously. A level lowland of
+crags with the white of snow in their hollows; a collection of broad,
+low buildings nearby, with a narrow steel viaduct running down to them
+from the landing stage. And behind everything, the frowning headland of
+the Cape.
+
+The buildings stood silent, without sign of life. There was no one in
+sight anywhere. No one out to greet us; I thought it a little strange
+but I said nothing.
+
+We started down the viaduct. Under us, in patches of soil, I could see
+the vivid colors of the little Arctic flowers already rearing their
+heads to the Spring sunlight. I called Elza's attention to them. A vague
+apprehension was within me; my heart was pounding unreasonably. But this
+was Dr. Brende's affair, not mine; and I wanted to hide my perturbation
+from Elza.
+
+The viaduct reached the ground; a path led on to the houses.
+
+Suddenly Dr. Brende called out:
+
+"Robins! Robins! Grantley! Where are you!"
+
+The words seemed to echo back faintly to us; but the buildings remained
+silent.
+
+"You'd better wait here with Elza," Georg said.
+
+"I'll go on--see what----"
+
+He checked his words, and started forward. But Dr. Brende was with him,
+and in doubt what to do I followed with Elza.
+
+We entered the nearest building, into a low, dim room, with doors on the
+sides. In the silence I seemed to hear my heart pounding my ribs. Elza's
+face was pale and perturbed, but she smiled very courageously at me.
+
+"Wait!" said Georg. "You wait here."
+
+He turned into a side door leading to another room, and in an instant
+was back with a face from which the color had departed.
+
+"They're not in there," he said unsteadily. "Elza--you go outside with
+father.... They must be around somewhere, Jac. Come, look."
+
+There was a rustle behind us. Arms came around me, pinning me. I heard
+Elza scream, saw Georg fighting two dark forms which had leaped upon
+him.
+
+I was flung to the ground, but I fought--three men, it seemed to be, who
+were upon me. Then Georg's voice:
+
+"Jac! Stop--they'll kill you."
+
+I yielded suddenly, and my assailants jerked me to my feet. A group of
+Venus men were surrounding us. Georg, his jacket torn to ribbons, was
+backed up against the wall with three or four Venus men holding him.
+
+And on the floor nearby Dr. Brende lay prone, with a crimson stain
+spreading on his white ruffled shirt, and Elza sobbing over him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+_Outlawed Flight_
+
+
+Dr. Brende was dead. We knew it in the moment that followed our sudden
+assault and capture. Elza knelt there sobbing. Then she stood up, her
+tears checked; and on her face a look of pathetic determination to
+repress her grief. Now that we had yielded, the Venus men, searching us
+for our weapons, cast us loose. We bent over Dr. Brende, Georg and I.
+Dead. No power in this universe could bring him back to us.
+
+Georg pressed his lips tightly together. His face, red from the exertion
+of his fight, went pale. But he showed no other emotion. And, as he
+leaned toward me, he whispered:
+
+"Got us, Jac! Say nothing. Don't put up any show of fight."
+
+Elza now was standing against the wall, a hand before her eyes. I went
+to her.
+
+"Elza, dear----"
+
+Her hand pressed mine.
+
+Our captors stood curiously watching us. There seemed to be at least ten
+of them--men as tall as myself, though not so tall as Georg. Swarthy,
+gray-skinned fellows--one or two of them squat, ape-like with their
+heavy shoulders and dangling arms. Men of the Venus Cold Country. They
+were talking together in their queer, soft language. One of them I took
+to be the leader. Argo was his name, I afterward learned. He was
+somewhat taller than the rest, and slim. A man perhaps thirty. Paler of
+skin than most of his companions--gray skin with a bronze cast. Dressed
+like the others in fur. But his heavy jacket was open, disclosing a
+ruffled white shirt, with a low black stock about his throat.
+
+A shifty-eyed fellow, this Argo. Smooth-shaven, with a mouth
+slack-lipped, and small black eyes. But his features were finely
+chiseled; and with that bronze cast to his skin, I guessed that he was
+from the Venus Central State. He seemed much perturbed that Dr. Brende
+was dead. Occasionally he burst into English as he rebuked one of the
+others for the killing.
+
+No more than a moment had passed. Georg joined Elza and me. We stood
+waiting. Georg whispered: "They killed Robins and his helpers. In
+there----" He gestured. "I saw them lying in there. If only I had--"
+
+Argo was standing before us. "This is a very pleasant surprise--" He
+spoke the careful English of the educated foreigner. His tone was
+ironical. "Very pleasant--"
+
+Abruptly he turned away again. But in that instant, his eyes had roved
+Elza in a way that turned me cold.
+
+They led us away, down a padded hallway into the instrument room. It was
+in full operation; our Inter-Allied news-tape was clicking; the low
+voice of the announcer droned through the silence. I started toward the
+tape, but Argo waved me away. He had volunteered us nothing, and again
+Georg advised silence.
+
+Argo had given his orders. Through a window I saw men carrying apparatus
+from the house. A small metal frame of sun-mirrors, prisms and vacuum
+tubes. Georg whispered: "Father's model."
+
+The man with it passed beyond my sight. Others came along, carrying the
+cylinders of books--Dr. Brende's notes--and a variety of other
+paraphernalia. Carrying it back from the shore toward the headlands of
+the Cape, where I realized now they had an aero secreted.
+
+Argo was at a mirror; he had a head-piece on; he was talking into a
+disc--talking in a private code. I could see the surface of the small
+mirror. A room, with windows. Through one of the windows, by daylight,
+palms and huge banana leaves were visible. A room seemingly in the
+tropics of our own hemisphere.
+
+Argo was triumphant--explaining, doubtless, that he had captured us.
+Mingled with his voice, the Inter-Allied announcer was saying:
+
+_"Greater-New York 10.32 Martian Helio, via Tokyohama: Little People
+Proclamation----"_
+
+A man standing near the tape switched off the droning voice. At the
+receiving table, every few seconds came the buzz of the laboratory's
+call. Wrangel Island again calling Robins; but no one paid any heed.
+Argo finished at the mirror. He glanced over the tape, smiling
+sardonically. Then, methodically, deliberately, he swept the instruments
+to the floor, jerked out the connections, turned out the
+current--wrecked it all with a few strokes. A moment later we were taken
+away.
+
+Outside, from back by the low reaches of the Cape, we saw an aero
+rising. They had loaded it with Dr. Brende's effects, and in it half of
+the men were departing. It rose vertically until we could see it only as
+a speck in the blue of the morning sky--a speck vanishing to the north
+over the Pole.
+
+With four or five of the men--all those remaining--Argo took us three to
+the Brende car. We did not pass Dr. Brende's body, lying there in the
+outer room. Elza and Georg gazed that way involuntarily; but they said
+nothing. The greatest grief is that which is hidden, and never once
+afterward did either of them show it by more than an affectionate word
+for that father whom they had loved so dearly.
+
+Soon we were back in the Brende car in which we had landed no more than
+an hour before. It was a standard Byctin model--evidently Argo and his
+men knew how to operate it perfectly. We were herded into the pit, and
+in a moment more were in the air.
+
+Argo seemed now rather anxious to make friends with us. He was in a high
+good humor. His eyes flashed at me sharply when I questioned him once or
+twice; but he offered us no indignities. To Elza he spoke commandingly,
+but with that deference to which every woman of birth and breeding is
+entitled from a man.
+
+We rose straight up and, at 18,000 feet, headed northward by a point or
+two west. We would pass the Pole on our right--too far to sight it with
+the naked eye, I realized; but I knew, too, that the Director there
+would see the distant image of us on his finder, even though we refused
+connection should he call us. And we had no right to be up here in the
+18,000-foot lane. They'd order us down--shut off our power, if
+necessary.
+
+We could not escape observation on this daylight flight. Heading this
+way, it would take us past the Pole and on southward, down the Western
+Hemisphere over the Americas. We could not refuse connection for long.
+We would be challenged, then brought down. Or, if Argo answered a call,
+some Director would examine our pit with his finder--would see Elza,
+Georg and me as prisoners. We could gesture surreptitiously to him....
+
+My thoughts ran on. Argo's soft, ironic voice brought me out of them.
+
+"We will answer the first call that comes," he said smilingly. "You
+understand? We are the Inter-Allied News on Official Dispatch." He was
+addressing me, his glance going to the insignia on my cap. "_You_ are of
+the Inter-Allied?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+I did not like his tone. "None of your--"
+
+"Quiet, Jac," Georg warned.
+
+"Jac Hallen," I amended.
+
+"Yes. Division 8, Manhattan," he read from my cap. "Well, when the first
+Director calls--from the Pole perhaps--you will tell him we are
+Inter-Allied Officials. He will see us here--I do not believe, the way
+we are sitting, that he will think anything is wrong. He will see us of
+Venus. There are Venus men employed by the Inter-Allied. Is it not so?"
+
+I had to admit that it was. He nodded. "You will fool the Directors, Jac
+Hallen. You understand? You will get the reports on weather today down
+the 67th Meridian West. And ask if we can have power to the Equator and
+below." His eyes flashed. "And if you attempt any trickery--you will
+die. You understand?"
+
+I did, indeed. And I knew that his plans were well laid--that I would be
+helpless to give us over without paying for it with my life--with the
+lives of Elza and Georg as well.
+
+From up here in the 18th lane, the Polar ocean lay a glittering white
+and purple expanse beneath us. Then, again, a fog rolled out down there
+like a blanket. We passed the Pole, a hundred miles or more to one side,
+and headed Southward. No challenge. Under us, occasional local cars
+swept by; but up here we were clear of traffic.
+
+Elza prepared our lunch, in the little electric galley forward of the
+observation pit. The Great London-East Indies Mail Flyer crossed us,
+coming along this same level. It was headed toward the Pole from the
+British Isles. Its pilot challenged us before it had come up over the
+horizon. A crusty fellow. His face in the mirror glared at me as I
+accepted connection. He ordered me down, Inter-Allied or no.
+
+Argo was at my elbow. His pencil-ray dug into my ribs. Had I made a
+false move it would have drilled me clean with its tiny burning light. I
+told the pilot we would descend. It placated him; but he saw Argo's
+face, mumbled something about damned foreigners--general orders probably
+coming tomorrow to clean out Venia--damned well rid of the traitors.
+Then he disconnected. Venia, Georg and I were sure, was where Argo was
+now taking us. But the rest of his comments I did not clearly understand
+until later.
+
+We descended, and the flyer came up over the horizon and passed us
+overhead. We were pointing southward now, had picked up the 67th West
+Meridian and were following it down. The Hays station[8] challenged us;
+but they were satisfied with my explanation. Argo had us up in speed
+around four hundred miles per hour. We went down Davis Strait, over
+Newfoundland, avoiding the congested cross-traffic of mid-afternoon in
+the lowest lanes, and out over the main Atlantic. Night closed down upon
+us. It was safer for Argo now. We flew without lights. Outlawed. Had
+they caught us at it, we would have been brought down, captured by the
+patrol and imprisoned. Yet Argo doubtless considered the chance of that
+less dangerous than a reliance upon my ability to trick the succeeding
+directors.
+
+[Footnote 8: Hayes Peninsula, Northwest Greenland, near the present site
+of Etah.]
+
+With darkness we ascended again to the upper mail lanes. Over the main
+Eastern Atlantic now, and out here this night, there was little local
+traffic. The mail and passenger liners went by at intervals--the
+spreading beams of their lurid headlights giving us warning enough so
+that we could dive down and avoid being caught in their light. I prayed
+that one of their lights might pick us up, but none did.
+
+North of Bermuda, a division of the North Atlantic patrol circled over
+us. The ocean was calm. Argo dropped us to the surface. We floated there
+like a derelict--dark, silent, save for the lapping of the water against
+our aluminite pontoons. The patrol's searching beams swept within a
+hundred feet of us--missed us by a miracle. And as the patrol passed on,
+we rose again to our course.
+
+Argo gave us one of the small cabins to ourselves that night. He was
+still deferential to Elza, but in his manner and in the glitter of those
+little black eyes, there was irony, and an open, though unexpressed,
+admiration for her beauty.
+
+We slept little. Georg and I--one or the other of us--was awake all
+night. We talked occasionally--not much, for speculation was of no
+avail. We wondered what could be transpiring abroad through all these
+hours. Hours of unprecedented turmoil on Earth, and on our neighboring
+worlds. We wondered how the Central State of Venus might be faring with
+the revolution. Would they ask aid of the Earth? This Tarrano--merely a
+name to us as yet, but a name already full of dread. Where was he? Had
+he been responsible for all this? Dr. Brende's secret was in his hands
+now, we were sure. What would he do next?
+
+About three o'clock in the morning--a fair, calm night--our power died
+abruptly. We were in the Caribbean Sea not far above the Northern coast
+of South America, at 15 deg. North latitude, 67 deg. West longitude. Our power
+died. Elza was fast asleep, but the sudden quiet brought Georg and me to
+alertness. We joined Argo in the pit. He was perturbed, and cursing. We
+dropped, gliding down, for there was no need of picking a landing with
+the emergency heliocopter batteries--glided down to the calm surface.
+For a moment we lay there, rocking--a dark blob on the water. I heard a
+sudden sharp swish. An under-surface freight vessel, plowing from
+Venezuelan ports to the West Indian Islands, came suddenly to the
+surface. Its headlight flashed on, but missed us. It sped past. I could
+see the sleek black outline of its wet back, and the lines of foam as it
+sheered the water. We lay rocking in its wake as it disappeared
+northward.
+
+Then, without warning, our power came on again. An inadvertent break
+perhaps; or maybe some local or general orders. We did not know. Argo
+was picking from the air occasional news, but he said nothing of it to
+us; and he was sending out nothing, of course.
+
+Dawn found us over the mountains. The Director at Caracas challenged us.
+Argo kept me by his side constantly now. Dutifully we answered every
+call. The local morning traffic was beginning to pick up; but we mingled
+with it, at 8,000 feet and more, to clear the mountains comfortably.
+
+Elza again cooked and, with Argo joining us, we had breakfast. Argo's
+good nature continued, as we successfully approached the end of our
+flight. But still he volunteered nothing to us. We asked him no
+questions. Elza was grave-faced, solemn. But she did not bother Georg
+and me with woman's fears. Bravely she kept her own counsel, anxious
+only to be of help to us.
+
+We passed over the Venezuelan Province, over the mountains and into
+Amazonia, headwaters of the great river--still on the 67th Meridian
+West. The jungles here were sparsely settled; there were, I knew, no
+more than a dozen standard cities of a million population, or over, in
+the whole region of Western Brazilana. As we advanced, I noticed an
+unusual number of the armed government flyers above us. Many were
+hovering, almost motionless, as though waiting for orders. But none of
+them molested us.
+
+Near the 10th parallel South latitude, we passed under a fleet of the
+white official vessels, with a division of the Brazilana patrol joined
+with them. A hundred vessels hovering up there in an east and west
+line--a line a hundred miles long it must have been.
+
+Hovering there, for what? We did not know; but Argo, leering up at them
+insolently, may have guessed. They challenged us, but let us through.
+
+"You are the last one in," this sub-director of the patrol told us. I
+could see him in our mirror as his gaze examined our pit--a dapper,
+jaunty fellow with the up-tilted mustache affected in Latina. "Last one
+in--you Inter-Allied are a nuisance."
+
+He was more particular than those directors we had passed before. My
+badge and my verbal explanation were not enough. He made me show him the
+Inter-Allied seal which I always carried, and I gave him the pass-code
+of the current week.
+
+"Last one in," he reiterated. "And you wouldn't get in now without those
+refugees with you. Venia's closed after noon of today. Didn't you know
+it?"
+
+"No," I said.
+
+"Well, it is. They shut off the power early this morning for all low
+vibrations--yours and under. Brought 'em all down for a general traffic
+inspection. Then changed their minds and threw it on again. But if
+you're coming out north again, you've got to get out by noon. And you go
+in at your own peril."
+
+He assumed that Argo and his men were Venus refugees going with me into
+Venia! I only vaguely understood what might be afoot, but I did not dare
+question him. Argo's side glance at me was menacing. I agreed with this
+director obediently and broke connection.
+
+We seemed now to have passed within the patrol line. There were no more
+official vessels to be seen. We clung low, and at 12 deg. South, 60 deg. 2O'
+West, at 10:16 that morning we descended in Venia, capital of the
+Central Latina Province, largest immigrant colony of the Western
+Hemisphere.[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Now Matto Grosso State, Brazil.]
+
+We landed on a stage of one of the upper crescent terraces. A crowd of
+Venus people surrounded us. Even in the turmoil of our debarkation, I
+wondered where the official landing director might be. None of the
+governing officials were in sight. The place was in confusion. Crowds
+were on the spider bridges; the terraces and the sloping steps were
+jammed. Milling, excited people. The foreign police, pompous Venus men
+in gaudy uniforms, were herding the people about.
+
+But none of our Earth officials! Where were they, who should have been
+in charge of all this confusion?
+
+My heart sank. Something drastic, sinister, had occurred. We had no time
+to guess what it might be. Argo drove us forward, with scant courtesy
+now, down in a vertical car, through a tunnel on foot to what they
+called here in Venia the Lower Plaza. We crossed it, and entered one of
+their queerly flat buildings at the ground level; entered through an
+archway, passed through several rooms and came at last into a room
+whirring with instruments.
+
+Argo said triumphantly, yet humbly: "Tarrano, Master--we are here."
+
+A man at a table of helio-sending instruments turned and faced us. We
+were in the presence of the dread Tarrano!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_Man of Destiny_
+
+
+Tarrano! He rose slowly to his feet, his gaze on us for an instant, then
+turning to Argo.
+
+"So! You took them? Well done, Argo!"
+
+His gesture dismissed his subordinate; Argo backed from the room. From a
+disc, an announcer was detailing dispatches. Tarrano frowned slightly.
+He advanced to us as we three stood together. I had heard Elza give a
+low, surprised cry as we entered. She stood with a hand upon my arm. I
+could feel her trembling, but her face now was impassive.
+
+Georg whispered to me: "This Tarrano----"
+
+But our captor's voice checked him. "Come this way, please." He
+signalled, and three men came forward. To them he issued short commands;
+they took their places at the instrument tables. Then he led us from the
+room through an arch, over a small trestle, into a tiny inner courtyard.
+A tropical garden, surrounded by blank circular walls of the building. A
+patch of blue sky showed above it. A garden secluded from prying eyes,
+with only a single spider bridge crossing overhead. Vivid flowers and
+foliage made it a bower. Brown bark paths laced it; a tiny fountain
+splashed in the center.
+
+Tarrano sat on the rim of the fountain; he gestured to a white stone
+bench where we three sat in a row, Elza between us. It made me feel like
+a child.
+
+"Your father is dead." He was addressing Elza; and then Georg. "That is
+unfortunate. He was a good man. I'm sorry."
+
+His voice was soft and musical. He sat there on the fountain rim, an
+elbow on his crossed knees, chin resting in his hand, his eyes studying
+us. A small, slight figure of a man, no more than thirty-five. Simply
+dressed; white trousers of the tropics, with a strip of narrow black
+down the leg-fronts; a girdle of gold; ruffled white shirt, with sleeves
+that flared a trifle, and a neck-piece of black. From his belt dangled a
+few instruments and several personal weapons--beautifully wrought,
+small--almost miniatures--yet deadly-looking for all that.
+
+He was bareheaded; black hair closely clipped. A face smooth-shaven.
+Thin, with a nose hawk-like, and black eyes and heavy brows. His mouth
+was thin-lipped, though smiling now, disclosing even, white teeth. Yet a
+cruel mouth, with the firm jaw of determination and power under it. The
+familiar gray Venus skin, but with that bronze cast of the people of the
+Central State.
+
+At first glance, not an unusual or particularly commanding figure. Yet
+the man's power of personality, the sheer dominant force of him,
+radiated like a tower code-beam. No one could be in his presence an
+instant without feeling it. A power that enwrapped you; made you feel
+like a child. Helpless. Anxious to placate a possible wrath that would
+be devastating; anxious--absurdly--for a smile. It was a radiation of
+genius, humbling every mediocre mortal it touched.
+
+I felt it--felt all this from the moment I came into his presence. Felt
+like a child, sitting there on that bench. Vaguely frightened; sullen,
+with childish resentment at my superior. And over it all, my man's
+mentality made me angry at myself for such emotions; angry at the
+consciousness of my own inferiority, forced upon me now more strongly
+than ever anything or any one had made me feel it before.
+
+Tarrano was smiling gently. "... killed your father. I would not have
+had it so. Yet--perhaps it was necessary. The Lady Elza----"
+
+I could feel Elza trembling again. Georg burst out: "What do you want of
+us? Who are you?"
+
+Tarrano's slim gray-brown hand came up.
+
+"The Lady Elza remembers me----" He seemed waiting with his gentle smile
+for her to speak.
+
+"They called you Taro then," she said. Her voice was the small, scared,
+diffident voice of a child.
+
+"Yes. Taro. A mere sub-officer of the Central State. But destined for
+bigger things than that, as you see. They did not like what they called
+my ambitious ways--and so they sent me to the Cold Country. That was
+soon after I had met you and your father, Lady Elza. You hardly remarked
+me then--I was so insignificant a personage. But you--I remembered
+you----"
+
+Still there was in his voice and on his face nothing but kindness and a
+queer whimsical look of reminiscence. He broke off at the buzz of a disc
+that hung from his belt by a golden chain. He jerked it loose from its
+snap, and to his ear clasped a small receiver. Like a mask his
+gentleness dropped from him. His voice rasped:
+
+"Yes?..." The receiver murmured into his ear. He said: "Connect
+him--I'll listen to what he has to say."
+
+A moment; then on the tiny mirror fastened to his wrist with a strap, I
+saw a face appear--a face known throughout our Earth--the face of the
+War-Director of Great London. Tarrano listened impassively. When the
+voice ceased, he said without an instant's hesitation: "No!"
+
+A decision irrevocable; the power almost of a deity seemed behind its
+finality. "No! I--will--not--do--it!" Careful, slow enunciation as
+though to make sure an inferior mentality could not mistake his words.
+And with a click, Tarrano broke connection. The mirror went dark; he
+hung his little disc and ear-piece back on his belt. Again he was
+smiling at us gently, the incident forgotten already--dismissed from his
+mind until the need to consider it should again arise.
+
+"I remember you, Lady Elza, very well." A vague wistfulness came into
+his voice. "I wish to speak with you alone--now--for a moment." He
+touched two of the metal buttons of his shirt-front together. A man
+appeared in the narrow tunnel-entrance to the garden. A small man, no
+more than four and a half feet tall; a trim, but powerfully made little
+figure, in the black and white linen uniform worn also by Tarrano. Yet
+more pretentiously dressed than his superior. A broad belt of dangling
+weapons; under it, a sash of red, encircling his waist and flowing down
+one side. Over his white ruffled shirt, a short sleeveless vest of black
+silk. A circular hat, with a vivid plume. A smooth-shaven face; black
+hair long to the base of the neck; a deep, red-brown complexion. A
+native of the Little People of Mars, here in the service of Tarrano. He
+stood stiff and respectful in the tunnel entrance.
+
+Tarrano said crisply: "Wolfgar, take these two men to the fourth tower.
+Make them comfortable."
+
+I met Georg's eyes. Leave Elza here alone with this man? Georg burst
+out: "My sister goes with me!"
+
+"So?" Tarrano's heavy brows went up inquiringly. A quizzical smile
+plucked at his lips. "You need have no fear. The Lady Elza----" He swung
+to her. "Not--afraid, are you?"
+
+"I--no," she stammered.
+
+"She'll come with us," I declared; but the stoutness of my words could
+not hide my fear. Tarrano was still smiling; but as I took a protecting
+step toward Elza, his smile died.
+
+"You--will go--with Wolfgar--both of you." That same slow finality. His
+face was impassive; but under his frowning bushy brows, his eyes
+transfixed me. It was as though with his paralyzing ray he had rooted me
+to the spot. And Georg beside me. Yet he had not moved from his careless
+attitude of ease on the fountain-rim; the little conical golden weapon
+dangled untouched at his belt.
+
+Elza was frightened. "Jac! You must do what he says. I'm--not afraid."
+
+Again Tarrano was smiling. "No--of course not." His gaze went to Georg.
+"You are her brother--your fear is very natural. So I give you my
+word--the honorable word of Tarrano--that she shall come to no harm."
+
+Elza murmured: "Go, Georg." Afraid for us, and doubtless she had good
+reason to be. It struck me then as queer that Tarrano should waste these
+words with us; but I realized, as did Elza and Georg, that we were
+treading very dangerous ground. Georg said, with a sudden dignity at
+which I marveled:
+
+"Your word is quite enough." He gestured to me. With a last glance at
+Elza, standing there frightened, but for our sakes striving not to show
+it, we let this Wolfgar lead us away.
+
+Elza later told us what occurred. With her father, she had been twice to
+the Venus Central State--the visit of two years ago Dr. Brende had
+mentioned to me, and a former one. It was upon this first trip Elza had
+met Tarrano. He was an under-officer then, in the Army of the Central
+State--his name then was Taro. She--herself no more than a slip of a
+girl at that time--remembered him as a queerly silent young
+man--insignificant in physique and manner. He had escorted her once to a
+Venus festival; in a strange, brooding, humble, yet dignified fashion,
+he had spoken of love. She had laughed, and soon forgot the incident.
+But Tarrano had not forgotten. The daughter of the great Dr. Brende had
+fired his youthful imagination. Who knows what dreams even then--born of
+the genius as yet merely latent--were within him? He had never crossed
+Elza's mind from that time, until today she saw and recognized him.
+
+When they were alone, still without moving from his seat, he signed her
+to come to him, to sit on the carpet of grass at his feet. She was
+frightened, but she would not show it. He made no move to touch her; he
+gazed down to meet her upturned, fascinated stare, still with his
+gentle, whimsical smile.
+
+"Queer that I should meet you again, Lady Elza. Yet, I must admit, it
+comes not by chance, for I contrived it. My prisoner! Dr. Brende's
+daughter, held captive by little Taro!"
+
+It seemed to amuse him, this whimsical reminiscence of those days when
+he was struggling unknown. "I want to confess something to you, Lady
+Elza. You were so far above me then--daughter of the famous Dr. Brende.
+Yet, as you remember, I aspired to you. And now--I have not changed. I
+never change. I still--aspire to you."
+
+He said it very softly, slowly. She flushed; but for that moment fear of
+him dropped from her.
+
+"Oh," she said. "I--I thank you for such a compliment----"
+
+"A compliment? Yes, I suppose it is that now. You wondered, didn't you,
+why I was so lenient with your brother and that Jac Hallen when they
+would have refused me obedience? That is not my way--to be lenient." He
+said it with a sudden snap of crispness, but his eyes were twinkling.
+"It was because of you, Lady Elza."
+
+"Me?" she murmured.
+
+"You--of course. Because I--want you to like me." His fingers
+involuntarily touched a stray lock of her hair as she sat there at his
+feet, but when she moved her head away he withdrew his hand. His slow
+voice went on:
+
+"Back in those other days, Lady Elza, the little Taro had strange
+dreams. A power within him--he could feel it--here----" His gaze was far
+away; his fist struck his breast. "He could feel it--the urge to fulfill
+his destiny--feel it within him, and no one else knew it was there.
+
+"Then--you came. A shy, rather pretty little girl, he realizes now, is
+all you were. But then--you seemed a goddess. A new dream arose--a dream
+of you ... I frighten you, child?" His tone was contrite. "I do not mean
+to do that. I am too hasty. Queer, isn't it, that I can make men,
+nations, worlds, obey me--but I have to bide my time with a fragile
+little woman?"
+
+His mood changed; he stirred. "I could bend you to my will--break
+you--like that!" His lean fingers snapped. Then his hand dropped, and
+again he relaxed. "But of what use?... Your respect? I have it now.
+Respect and fear come to me from everyone. It is something more than
+that I want from you."
+
+She would have spoken, but his gesture stopped her. "Queer that I should
+want it? Yes, I think perhaps it is. The little Taro was very queer,
+perhaps very impressionable. He knew he had nations and worlds to
+conquer--a destiny to fulfill. Not alone because of you, little Elza. I
+would not make you think that. But for you to share. The great Tarrano,
+master of the universe, and his Lady Elza! Worlds for you to toy with,
+like gems on a thread adorning your white throat----"
+
+He must have swayed her, the sheer power of him. Impulsively she touched
+his knee. "I am not worth----"
+
+His face clouded with a frown. "I would not try to buy your love----"
+
+"Oh," she said. "No, I did not mean----"
+
+"I would not try to buy you. I want to share with you--these worlds--as
+your due. To make myself master of everything, so that you will look to
+me and say, 'He is the greatest of all men--I love him'.... Soon I will
+be the greatest of all men throughout the ages. And very gentle always,
+with you, Lady Elza----"
+
+A buzz came from the disc at his belt. He answered the call--listened to
+a voice.
+
+"So? Bring him here." He disconnected. "...very gentle with you, my
+Elza----"
+
+His voice drifted away. He seemed waiting; and Elza, her head whirling
+with the confusion of it all, sat silent. A moment; then Argo appeared,
+driving a half-nude man before him. A native official of Venia, stripped
+of his uniform. Argo flung him down in the garden path, where he
+cowered, his face ashen, his eyes wild, lips mumbling with terror.
+
+Tarrano barely moved. "So? You tell me he was asleep at the mirrors,
+Argo?"
+
+"Master, I could not help it! Since first you made your move in Greater
+New York at Park Sixty, I have sat there. Two nights and a day----"
+
+"And you fell asleep without asking for a relief?"
+
+"Master, I----"
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"Yes. I did not realize I was sleeping----"
+
+A gesture to Argo, and the man was flung closer to Tarrano's feet. Elza
+shrank away.
+
+"Left a mirror unattended. So?... The wire, Argo." He took the length
+of wire, gleaming white-hot, as the leering, gloating Argo turned the
+current into it--Tarrano took it, lashed it upon the poor wretch's naked
+back and legs. Welts arose, and the stench of burning flesh. A measured
+score of the passionless strokes made him writhe and scream in agony.
+
+It turned Elza sick and faint. Shuddering, she crouched there, hiding
+her face until the punishment was over and the half-unconscious culprit
+was carried away.
+
+"Very gentle with you, my Elza...."
+
+She looked up to find Tarrano smiling at her; looked up and stared, and
+wondered what might be her fate with such a man as this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+_Prisoners_
+
+
+From the garden where Tarrano was talking with Elza, the Mars man
+Wolfgar led us to the tower in which we were to be imprisoned. Quite
+evidently it had been placed in readiness for us. A tower of several
+rooms, comfortably equipped. As we crossed the lower bridge and reached
+the main doorway, Wolfgar unsealed a black fuse-box which stood there,
+and pulled the relief-switch. The current, barring passage through every
+door and window of the tower, was thrown off. We entered. My mind was
+alert. This man of the Little People could not again turn on that
+current without going outside. Once it was on, like an invisible wall it
+would prevent our escape. But now--could not Georg and I with our
+superior strength overpower this smaller man?
+
+I caught Georg's glance as our captor led us into the lower room--an
+apartment cut into the half-segment of a circle. Georg, at my elbow,
+whispered: "No use! Where could we go? Could not get out of the
+city----"
+
+The hearing of the Little People is sharp. Wolfgar turned his head and
+smiled. "You will be quite secure here--do not think of escape." His
+bronzed fingers toyed with a cone at his belt. "Do not think of it."
+
+Soon he left us, with the parting words: "You may use the upper circle
+of balcony. The current rises only from its rail." He smiled and left
+us. A pleasant smile; I felt myself liking this jailer of ours.
+
+We took a turn of the tower. There were three bedrooms; a cookery, with
+food and equipment wherein evidently it was intended that Elza could
+prepare our meals; and two bath-apartments, one of them fairly
+luxurious, with a pool almost large enough for a little swimming; tubes
+of scent for the water and the usual temperature rods.
+
+"Well," I remarked. "Obviously we are to be comfortable." I was trying
+to be cheerful, but my heart was heavy with foreboding nevertheless.
+"How long do you suppose they'll keep us here, Georg? And what----"
+
+His impatient gesture stopped me. His mind was on Elza--alone down there
+in the garden with Tarrano--as was mine, though I had not wanted to
+speak of her.
+
+There was an instrument room, up the circular incline in the peak of the
+tower! We heard the hum of it; and when we went up there, the first
+thing we saw was a mirror tuned in readiness for us to view the garden
+we had just left. This strange Tarrano, giving Georg the visible proof
+that he would keep his word and not harm Elza. We could see in this
+mirror the image of the scene down there--Elza and Tarrano talking. But
+could not hear the words--those were denied us. We saw the culprit
+brought in; the punishment with the white-hot wire-lash, and a few
+moments later Elza was with us.
+
+During the hours which followed, we made no attempt to escape. Such an
+effort would have been absurd. The current controls were outside, beyond
+our reach. Visibly, we were free, with open, unbarred arches and
+casements. But to pass through one of them, the barring current struck
+you like a wall, with darting sparks when it was touched. As Wolfgar had
+said, we had access to the upper balcony; the waist-high rail there,
+with its needle-points of electrodes, sent up a visible stream of the
+Nth Electrons--a dull glow by daylight; at night a riot of colors and
+snapping sparks.
+
+Through this barrage an inner vista of the city was visible; towers,
+arcades, landing-stages and spider bridges a hundred feet or so above
+us; the lower levels beneath, and through a canyon of walls we could
+just make out a corner of the ground-plaza, with its trees and beds of
+flowers.
+
+A queerly flat little city--tropical with banana trees and vivid foliage
+in every corner plot of the viaducts. At night it was beautiful with its
+romantic spreading lights of soft rose and violet tubes, and there was a
+fair patch of open sky above us--a deep purple at night, star-strewn.
+
+Under other circumstances our imprisonment would not have been irksome.
+But these hours, most critical of any in the history of the nations of
+Earth, Venus and Mars, unfolded their momentous events while we were
+forced there to helpless idleness. All sending apparatus of our
+instrument room was permanently disconnected. But the news came in to us
+from a hundred sources--rolled out for us in the announcer's droning
+words; printed for permanent record upon the tapes and visible images of
+it all constantly were flashing upon the mirrors.
+
+We spent hours in that instrument room--one or the other of us was
+almost always there. Save that we were ourselves isolated from
+communication, we were in touch with everything. A whim of this Tarrano;
+perhaps a strain of vanity that Elza should see and hear of these
+events.
+
+So much had occurred already during those hours of our trip over the
+Polar ocean and back that we scarce could fathom it. But gradually we
+pieced it together. Underlying it all, Tarrano's dream of universal
+conquest was plain. In the Venus Cold Country he had started his
+wide-flung plans. Years of planning, with plans maturing slowly,
+secretly, and bursting now like a spreading ray-bomb upon the three
+worlds at once.
+
+In Venus, the Cold Country had conquered its governing Central State.
+Tarrano's army there was in full control. The helio station in the Great
+City was now reinstated. The Tarrano officials had already set up their
+new government. With notification to the Earth and Mars that they
+demanded recognition, they were sending the usual routine helio
+dispatches and reports, quite as though nothing had occurred. The mails
+would proceed as before, they announced; the one due to leave this
+afternoon for the Earth was off on time.
+
+It was all very clever propaganda for our Earth public consumption.
+Tarrano--who was visiting our Earth at present, they said--had been
+chosen Master of Venus. His government desired Earth's official
+recognition, and asked for our proclamation of friendliness in answer to
+their own. The present Ambassadors of the Venus Central State to the
+Earth--there were three of them, one each in Great London, Tokyohama and
+Mombozo--this new government requested that we send them back to the
+Great City as prisoners of the Tarrano forces. Other Ambassadors,
+representing the new government, would be sent to the Earth.
+
+All this occurred during the first few hours of our imprisonment in the
+tower. And during the day previous, at 7 P.M. this night--70 deg. West
+Meridian Time--the governments of our Earth met in Triple Conference in
+Great London. Three rulers pro tem--White, Yellow and Black--to replace
+the three who had been assassinated. The responsibility for the
+assassinations was placed by the Council upon Tarrano. But this--from
+his headquarters here in Venia--he blandly refused to accept, denying
+all knowledge of the murders. Venia was the principal Venus immigrant
+colony of Earth's Western Hemisphere. It had already been closed by our
+Earth Council; its inhabitants interned as possible alien enemies,
+pending diplomatic developments. This was the meaning of that line of
+official vessels lying there to the north on guard. No one could leave
+Venia, and for a day Venus refugees had been ordered into it from
+everywhere.
+
+At 8:40 this evening came from Great London our ultimatum to Tarrano. A
+duplicate of it went to the Great City of Venus via the Hawaiian
+Station. The Earth would not recognize the Tarrano government of Venus.
+We would hold to our treaty of friendship with the Central State. We
+would remain neutral for a time. But Tarrano himself we declared an
+outlaw. His presence was required in Washington to stand trial for the
+assassinations, and the delivery in Washington of Dr. Brende's notes and
+model was demanded.
+
+The ultimatum carried a day of grace; the alternate was a declaration of
+war by the Earth, and our immediate attack upon Venia. It was the same
+proposition which our War Director had previously made unofficially to
+Tarrano while he was there in the garden with Elza and which Tarrano so
+summarily had rejected.
+
+The ultimatum came to us in the tower as we sat listening to the
+announcer's measured tones. Elza exclaimed:
+
+"But why do they wait? Father's model must be here. Tarrano, the leader
+of all this--is here. Within the hour those vessels of war could sweep
+in here--capture Tarrano--recover father's model----"
+
+Georg interrupted quietly: "No one knows if the model is here. That
+other car from the laboratory--we don't know where it went. The
+plundered laboratory has been found, of course. No station up there is
+near enough to have eavesdropped upon our capture, but the whole thing
+must have come out by now. But that aero with the model may have met an
+inter-planetary vessel--the model may be on the way to Venus by now."
+
+"Georg," I exclaimed, "do _you_ know the workings of that model? Could
+you build another without the notes?"
+
+He nodded solemnly. "Yes. And they know that, in Washington. I could
+build another. But they know by now, that I, too, am in Tarrano's
+hands----"
+
+"And he will kill you, of course, to destroy that knowledge and keep the
+secret for himself----" I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake; but I
+thought it, and I realized that Georg was thinking it also.
+
+Dr. Brende's secret of longevity was the crux of all this turmoil--the
+lever by which Tarrano was raising himself. Scores of facts amid the
+tumultuous news of these hours showed us that. For months, throughout
+Venus, Tarrano had spread the insidious propaganda that he alone had the
+secret of immortality--that when he was made ruler, he would use it for
+the benefit of his followers.
+
+Converts to Tarrano's cause were everywhere. In the Central State many
+welcomed the coming of his army. And now from the Great City his
+propaganda was being sent to the Earth. Murmurs from our own Earth
+public were beginning to be heard. The ignorant lower classes seemed
+ready to swallow anything. A new beneficent ruler who guaranteed
+everlasting life! Throughout the ages people have flocked to that same
+standard!
+
+In Mars, much the same was transpiring. At almost her closest point to
+the Earth these days, Red Mars sent us constant helios from the midnight
+sky. The Little People had appointed a new ruler to take the place of
+him who had been assassinated. The Council there put the assassination
+to unknown causes. Tarrano was held blameless. The Little People
+declared themselves neutral. But they gave prompt official recognition
+to the Tarrano government of Venus. And everywhere throughout Mars the
+public was stirred by the thought of everlasting life.
+
+"Fools!" muttered Georg. "That Little People government--they'll have a
+revolution of their own to fight at this rate. Can't you see what
+Tarrano is doing? Working everywhere with propaganda--working on the
+public--the gullible public ready always to swallow anything----"
+
+On Earth, lay the crisis. Our own governments only had taken a firm
+stand. What could Tarrano do with this ultimatum? Either he must yield
+himself and the Brende secret, or a war in which he would be immediately
+overwhelmed here in Venia would follow.
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock that first night. Elza had gone to the
+balcony. We heard her call us softly, but with obvious tenseness. Out
+there we found her pointing excitedly. A few hundred feet away and
+somewhat below us was a tower similar to our own. In one of its oblong
+casements a glow of rose-light showed. And within the glow was the
+full-length figure of a girl. We could see her plainly, though a small
+image at that distance with the naked eye, and our personal vision
+instruments had been taken from us. A slender, imperial figure--a young
+girl seemingly about Elza's age. Dressed in a shimmering blue kirtle,
+short after the Venus fashion, with long grey stockings beneath. A girl
+with flowing waves of pure white hair to her waist--a girl of the Venus
+Central State. She seemed, like ourselves, a prisoner. An aura or
+barrage was around her tower. She stood there, back in the tower room,
+full in the rose-light as though surreptitiously trying to attract our
+attention.
+
+As we gathered on our balcony, behind the glow of our own barrage, she
+gestured to us vehemently. And then, with one white arm, she began to
+semaphore. One arm, and then with both. Georg and I recognized it--the
+Secondary Code of the Anglo-Saxon Army. We murmured the letters aloud as
+she gave them:
+
+"_I am----_" Abruptly she stopped. A violent gesture, and she
+disappeared; her rose-glow went out; her tower casement was dark. On a
+lower spider bridge Tarrano had appeared. He was crossing it on foot
+toward our tower, his small erect form advancing hastelessly, with the
+figure of Argo behind him.
+
+He reached our lower entrance, cut off the barrage there, and entered.
+Argo replaced the barrage, lingered an instant, gazing upward at us with
+his habitual leer. Then he retraced his steps across the bridge and
+disappeared.
+
+A moment more, and in our lounging apartment Tarrano faced us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+_Unknown Friend_
+
+
+"Sit down." Tarrano motioned us to feather hassocks and stretched
+himself indolently upon our pillowed divan. With an elbow and hand
+supporting his head he regarded us with his sombre black eyes, his face
+impassive, an inscrutable smile playing about his thin lips.
+
+"I wish to speak with you three. The Lady Elza----" His glance went to
+her briefly, then to Georg. "She has told you, perhaps, what I had to
+say to her?"
+
+"Yes," said Georg shortly.
+
+Elza had indeed told us. And with sinking heart I had listened, for it
+did not seem to me that any maiden could resist so dominant a man as
+this. But I had made no comment, nor had Georg. Elza had seemed
+unwilling to discuss it, had flushed when her brother's eyes had keenly
+searched her face.
+
+And she flushed now, but Tarrano dismissed the subject with a gesture.
+"That--is between her and me.... You have been following the general
+news, I assume? I provided you with it." He rolled a little cylinder of
+the arrant-leaf, and lighted it.
+
+"Yes," said Georg.
+
+Georg was waiting for our captor to lay his cards before us. Tarrano
+knew it; his smile broadened. "I shall not mince words, Georg Brende.
+Between men, that is not necessary. And we are isolated here--no one
+beyond Venia can listen. As you know, I am already Master of Venus. In
+Mars--that will shortly come. They will hand themselves over to me--or I
+shall conquer them." He shrugged. "It is quite immaterial." He added
+contemptuously: "People are fools--almost everyone--it is no great feat
+to dominate them."
+
+"You'll find our Earth leaders are not fools," Georg said quietly.
+
+Tarrano's heavy brows went up. "So?" He chuckled. "That remains to be
+seen. Well, you heard the ultimatum they sent me? What do you think of
+it?"
+
+"I think you'd best obey it," I burst out impulsively.
+
+"I was not speaking to you." He did not change the level intonation of
+his voice, nor even look my way. "You are to die tomorrow, Jac
+Hallen----"
+
+Elza gave a low cry; instantly his gaze swung to her. "So? That strikes
+at _you_, Lady Elza?"
+
+She flushed even deeper than before, and the flush, with her instinctive
+look to me that accompanied it, made my heart leap. Tarrano's face had
+darkened. "You would not have me put him to death, Lady Elza?"
+
+She was struggling to guard from him her emotions; struggling to match
+her woman's wit against him.
+
+"I--why no," she stammered.
+
+"No? Because he is--your friend?"
+
+"Yes. I--I would not let you do that."
+
+"Not let me?" Incredulous amusement swept over his face.
+
+"No. I would not--let you do that." Her gaze now held level with his. A
+strength came to her voice. Georg and I watched her--and watched
+Tarrano--fascinated. She repeated once more: "No. I would not let you."
+
+"How could you stop me?"
+
+"I would--tell you not to do it."
+
+"So?" Admiration leaped into his eyes to mingle with the amusement
+there. "You would tell me not to do it?"
+
+"Yes." She did not flinch before him.
+
+"And you think then--I would spare him?"
+
+"Yes. I know you would."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because--if you did a thing like that--I should--hate you."
+
+"Hate----"
+
+"Yes. Hate you--always."
+
+He turned suddenly away from her, sitting up with a snap of alertness.
+"Enough of this." Did he realize he was defeated in this passage with a
+girl? Was he trying to cover from us the knowledge of his defeat? And
+then again the bigness of him made itself manifest. He acknowledged
+soberly:
+
+"You have bested me, Lady Elza. And you've made me realize that
+I--Tarrano--have almost lowered myself to admit this Jac Hallen my
+rival." He laughed harshly. "Not so! A rival? Pah! He shall live if you
+wish it--live close by you and me--as an insect might live on a twig by
+the rim of the eagle's nest.... Enough!... I was asking you, Georg
+Brende, of this ultimatum. Should I yield to it?" He had suppressed his
+other emotions; he was amusing himself with us again.
+
+"Yes," said Georg.
+
+"But I have already refused--today in the garden. Would you have me
+change? I am not one lightly to change a decision already reached."
+
+"You'll have to."
+
+"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Of one thing I am sure. I cannot let them declare
+war against me just now. I have no defense, here in Venia. Scarce the
+armament for my handful of men. Your vessels of war would sweep down
+here and overpower me in a breath--trap me here helpless----"
+
+"Of course," said Georg.
+
+"And so I must not let them do that. They want me to come to Washington
+with the Brende model--deliver it over to them. Yet--that does not
+appeal to me. Tomorrow I shall have to bargain with them further. I
+could not deliver to them the Brende model." He was chuckling at his own
+phrasing. "No--no, I could not do that."
+
+"Why?" demanded Georg. "Isn't the model here?"
+
+"It is--where it is," said Tarrano. He became more serious. "You,
+Georg--you could build one of those models?"
+
+Georg did not answer.
+
+"You could, of course," Tarrano insisted. "My spy, Ahla--you remember
+her, the Lady Elza's maid for so long? She is here in Venia; she tells
+me of your knowledge and skill with your father's apparatus. So you see,
+I realize I have two to guard--the model itself, and you, who know its
+secret."
+
+He now became more openly alert and earnest than I had ever seen him.
+The light from the tube along the side wall edged his lean, serious face
+with its silver glow. "I've a proposition for you, Georg Brende. Between
+men, such things can be put bruskly. Your sister--her personal decision
+will take time. I would not force it. But meanwhile--I do not like to
+hold you and her as captives."
+
+The shadow of a smile crossed Georg's face. "We shall be glad to have
+you set us free."
+
+Tarrano remained grave. "You are a humorist. And a clever young fellow,
+Georg Brende. You--as Elza's brother--and as your father's son with your
+medical knowledge--you can be of great use to me. Suppose I offer you a
+place by my side always? To share with me--and with the Lady Elza--these
+conquests.... Wait! It is not the part of wisdom to decide until you
+have all the facts. I shall confide in you one of my plans. The publics
+of Venus, Mars and the Earth--they think this everlasting life, as they
+call it, is to be shared with them."
+
+His chuckle was the rasp of a file on a block of adamant. "Shared
+with them! That is the bait I dangle before their noses. In reality,
+I shall share it only with the Lady Elza. And with you--her brother,
+and the mate you some day will take for yourself. Indeed, I have
+a maiden already at hand, picked out for you.... But that can come
+later.... Everlasting life? Nonsense! Your father's discovery cannot
+confer that. But we shall live two centuries or more. Four of us. To
+see the generations come and go--frail mortals, while we live on to
+conquer and to rule the worlds.... Come, what do you say?"
+
+"I say no."
+
+Tarrano showed no emotion, save perhaps a flicker of admiration. "You
+are decisive. You have many good qualities, Georg Brende. I wonder if
+you have any good reasons?"
+
+"Because you are an enemy of my world," Georg declared, with more heat
+than he had yet displayed.
+
+"Ah! Patriotism! A good lure for the ignorant masses, that thing they
+call patriotism. For rulers, a good mask with which to hide their
+unscrupulous schemes. That's all it is, Georg Brende. Cannot you give me
+a better reason? You think perhaps I am not sincere? You think I would
+not share longevity with you--that I would play you false?"
+
+"No," Georg declared. "But my father's work was for the people. I'm not
+talking patriotism--only humanitarianism. The strife, suffering in our
+worlds--you would avoid it yourself--and gloat while others bore it.
+You----"
+
+"Youth!" Tarrano interrupted. "Altruism! It is very pretty in
+theory--but quite nonsensical. Man lifts himself--the individual must
+look out for himself--not for others. Each man to his destiny--and the
+weak go down and the strong go up. It is the way of all life--animal and
+human. It always has been--and it always will be. The way of the
+universe. You are very young, Georg Brende."
+
+"Perhaps," Georg said, and fell silent.
+
+Tarrano abruptly rose to his feet. "Calm thought is better than
+argument. You have imagination--you can picture what I offer. Think it
+over. And if youth is your trouble----" His eyes were twinkling. "I
+shall have to wait until you grow up. We have a long road to
+travel--empires cannot be built in a day."
+
+He paused before Elza with a grave, dignified bow. "Goodnight, Lady
+Elza."
+
+"Goodnight," she said.
+
+He left us. We stood listening to his footsteps as he quietly descended
+the tower incline. At his summons, the barrage was lifted. He went out.
+From the balcony we saw him cross the spider bridge, with Argo at his
+heels. As they vanished into the yawning mouth of an arcade beyond the
+bridge, again came that rose-glow in the other tower. We saw again the
+girl with flowing white hair standing there. And now she was waving us
+back.
+
+"She wants us inside, where we can't be seen," Georg murmured. We drew
+back into the room, standing where we still could see the girl. I
+wondered then--and we had discussed it several times these last
+hours--if the interior of our tower were under observation by some
+distant guard. We felt that probably it was, visibly and audibly; and we
+had been very careful of what we said aloud.
+
+But now, if we were watched, we could not help it; we would have to take
+the chance. The figure of the girl showed plainly down there through the
+other casement. And again, with slow-moving white arms she began to
+semaphore. A queer application of the Secondary Code, which always is
+used officially with coral-light beams over considerable distances. But
+it sufficed in this emergency. Slowly she spelled out the letters,
+words, phrases.
+
+_"I am Princess Maida----"_
+
+Georg whispered to us: "Hereditary ruler of the Central State----"
+
+I nodded. "Watch, Georg----"
+
+_"Prisoner----"_ came next: _"Like yourselves, and we must escape."_
+
+She paused a moment, letting her arms drop to her sides, shaking the
+glorious waves of her white hair with a toss of her head. Then, at a
+gesture from Georg that he understood, she began again:
+
+_"Escape tonight----"_
+
+I half expected that any moment Tarrano or one of his men would burst in
+to stop this. But the signals continued.
+
+_"I am sending you a friend--tonight--soon--he will come to you. With
+plans for our escape. A good friend----"_
+
+Her tower abruptly went dark. Cautiously I gazed down from our balcony.
+Argo had appeared on the spider bridge; he was pacing back and forth.
+Did he suspect anything? We could not tell, but it seemed not. It was
+the midnight hour; a brilliant white flash swept the city to mark it.
+
+In a low corner of the balcony, behind the glow of our barrage, we
+crouched together, whispering excitedly. But cautiously, for we
+knew that the microphonic ears of a jailor might be upon us. The
+Princess Maida--here in Tarrano's hands! She was sending us a
+friend--tonight--soon; a friend who would help us all to escape.
+
+"By the code!" Georg exclaimed. "If we could get to Washington--if I
+could be there now in this crisis--with my knowledge of the Brende
+light----"
+
+Far above our personal safety, our lives, lay the importance of Georg's
+knowledge. With the Brende secret--through him--in the hands of the
+Earth Council, Tarrano's greatest lever to power would be broken. Our
+Earth public would sway back to patriotic loyalty. The Little People of
+Mars unquestionably would remain friendly with us, with the Brende light
+to be developed on Earth and shared with them. They would see Tarrano
+perhaps, for what he was--a dangerous, unscrupulous enemy.... If only
+Georg could escape....
+
+An hour went by with murmured thoughts like these. A friend coming to
+help us? How could he reach us? And how help us to escape?
+
+We crouched there, waiting. Argo--obviously on night guard--still paced
+the bridge. The city was comparatively dark and silent; yet even so,
+there seemed more activity than we felt was normal. Occasional beams
+flashed across the narrow segment of our sky. The crescent terraces,
+visible through a shallow canyon of buildings to the left, were a blaze
+of colored lights with the dark figures of people thronging them. The
+mingled hum of instruments was in the night air; sometimes the snap of
+an aerial; and the steady, clicking whir of the night escalators on the
+city street levels and inclines.
+
+It seemed hours that we waited. The green flash of the second hour past
+midnight bathed the city in its split-second lurid glare. Elza had
+fallen asleep, beside us on the feathered hassock of our balcony corner.
+But Georg and I were fully alert--waiting for this unknown friend. Georg
+had smoked innumerable arrant-leaf cylinders. Through the insulated
+tube, from a public cookery occasional hot dishes were passing our
+dining room for us to take if we wished. But we had touched none of
+them. From the food stock on hand, Elza had cooked our two simple meals.
+But now, with Elza asleep, Georg left me and returned in a moment with
+steaming cups of taro. We drank it silently, still waiting. Argo still
+paced the bridge on guard. Presently we saw the figure of Wolfgar join
+him. The two spoke together a moment; then Argo disappeared; Wolfgar
+paced back and forth on guard in his place.
+
+At 2:30 the Inter-Allied announcer--for half an hour past quite
+silent--brought us to our feet, his monotone droning from the disc in
+our instrument room:
+
+_"Greater New York, Inter-Allied Unofficial 2:27 A. M. Tarrano replies
+to the Earth Council Ultimatum...."_
+
+Our start woke up Elza. Together we rushed into the instrument room.
+
+_"With many hours yet before the Earth Council Ultimatum expires, it is
+unofficially reported that Tarrano has sent his note in answer. Its
+text, we are reliably informed, is now in the hands of our Governments
+at Great London, Greater New York, Tokyohama and Mombozo. Helios of it
+also have been sent to Tarrano's own government of Venus and to the
+Little People of Mars. We have as yet no further details...."_
+
+A buzz came as he ended, with only the click of the tape continuing as
+it printed his words. A period of silence, then again his voice:
+
+_"Official 2:32 A. M. Inter-Allied News: Tarrano rejects Ultimatum. His
+note to Earth Council complete defiance. Official text follows...."_
+
+We listened, dumb with amazement and awe. Tarrano's note was indeed,
+complete defiance. He would not yield up the Brende light. Nor would he
+deliver himself in Washington for trial. In the suave, courteous
+language of diplomacy, he deplored the unreasonable attitude of the
+Earth leaders. Ironically, he suggested that they declare war. He would
+be overwhelmed in Venia, of course. He had no means of defending himself
+against their aggression. But at the first flash of hostile rays, the
+Brende model would be destroyed forever. And Georg Brende--the only
+living person who had the knowledge to replace the model--would die
+instantly. The Brende secret would be lost irrevocably. It was
+unfortunate that humanity on Earth, Venus and Mars, should be denied
+their chance for immortality. Unfortunate that the Earth leaders were so
+headstrong. They were enemies, in reality, of their own people--and
+enemies of the peoples of Venus and Mars. But if the Earth Council
+wished war with Tarrano--then war let it be.
+
+"A bluff," I exclaimed. "He would lose everything himself. It's
+suicide--"
+
+"Not suicide," Georg said soberly. "Propaganda. Can't you see it? He
+knows the Earth Council will make no move until the ultimatum time has
+expired. Hours yet. And in those hours, he is working upon the publics
+of the three worlds."
+
+The announcer was silent again. Below us, in our tower, we heard a
+footstep. The barrage had been lifted to admit someone, then thrown on
+again. Measured footsteps were coming up our incline. We stood
+motionless, breathless. A moment; then into the room came Wolfgar. He
+did not speak. Advancing close to us as we stood transfixed, he jerked
+an instrument from his belt. It whirred and hummed in his hand. The room
+around us went black--a barrage of blackness and silence, with ourselves
+and Wolfgar in a pale glow standing within it as in a cylinder. The
+isolation-barrage. I had never been within one before, though upon
+drastic occasion they were in official use.
+
+Wolfgar said swiftly: "We cannot be seen or heard. I have been in charge
+of the mirror observing you--I have thrown it out of use. The Princess
+Maida--"
+
+"You are--the friend?" Georg whispered tensely. Elza was trembling and I
+put my arm about her.
+
+Wolfgar's face lightened with a brief smile; then went intensely
+serious. "Yes. A spy, trusted by Tarrano for years--but my heart is with
+the Princess Maida. We must escape--all of us--now, or it will be too
+late."
+
+He stopped abruptly, and a look of consternation came to him. The black
+silence enveloping us had without warning begun to crackle. The metal
+cone in Wolfgar's hand glowed red with interference-heat--but he clung
+to it, though it burned him. Sparks were snapping in the blackness
+around us. Our isolation was dissolving. Someone--something--was
+breaking it down, struggling to get at us!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+_Paralyzed!_
+
+
+The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving.
+Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage,
+struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me,
+Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was
+glowing red in his hand from intense heat.
+
+Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his
+words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:
+
+"We're trapped! _You_, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape."
+
+The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a
+weapon into Georg's hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.
+
+"Princess Maida ... she ... in that other tower ... you, so much more
+important than the rest of us...." Phrases I heard; but only phrases,
+for in those few seconds I stood dumbly confused, fascinated by watching
+the blackness in which we had enveloped ourselves now breaking into
+lurid, angry sparks.
+
+A distant corner of the room became visible; outlines of the wall-beams;
+the growing glare of a wall-light in a tube over there. And through the
+brightening gloom--the figure of a lone man standing. Tarrano!
+
+I heard Georg mutter: "Jac! Make a show of fight! Hold him! But
+careful--careful of Elza!"
+
+Behind me there came an electrical flash; the pungent smell of burning
+cloth. Georg was no longer beside us!
+
+Elza was still clinging to me in fright. I shook her off. Wolfgar flung
+his smoking, useless cylinder to the floor. The blackness at once sprang
+into light; the sparks died. Tarrano was standing in the room, quietly,
+before us. Standing with a grim, cynical smile, regarding us.
+
+But only for an instant did he stand quiet. Across the room, creeping
+for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw
+him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the
+interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at
+another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg.
+
+Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped
+toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me. Elza screamed. Tarrano's
+hand was leaving his belt. I reached him; flung out my fist for his
+face.
+
+But in that instant the weapon in Tarrano's hand was brought upon me. My
+paralyzed muscles made my arm and fist go wide. My blow missed him; he
+stepped aside; and like a man drunk with baro-wine, I stumbled past him,
+halted, swayed and struggled to keep my footing.
+
+Wolfgar had felt it also; he was reeling near me, holding himself from
+falling with difficulty. I was unarmed; but there were weapons hanging
+from Wolfgar's belt. His numbed fingers were groping for them. But the
+effort was too great. The blood, driven back from his arms, left them
+powerless; they fell dangling to his sides.
+
+A few seconds; but we had occupied Tarrano during them. Georg was
+through the balcony doorway and beyond our sight. Elza was standing
+motionless, too frightened to move. I felt myself growing numb, weighted
+to the floor as though my feet had taken root. My arms were hanging like
+wood; fingers tingling, then growing cold, dead to sensation. And a
+numbness creeping up my legs; and spreading inward from my arms and
+shoulders. In a few moments more, I knew the numbness would reach my
+heart.
+
+Tarrano had not moved, save that single step side-wise to avoid my
+onslaught. As I stood there now with my face like fire and my brain
+whirling with the blood congested in it, I heard his quiet voice:
+
+"Do not fear, Lady Elza. This Jac Hallen--as I promised you--is quite
+safe with me."
+
+His gesture waved her aside, that she should not come within those
+deadly vibrations he was flinging at us. And I saw his other hand lift a
+tiny mouthpiece from his belt; heard his voice say into it: "Argo? Argo!
+That Georg Brende----"
+
+He stopped; a look of annoyance came over his face. Argo did not answer!
+Dimly to my fading senses came the triumphant thought, the realization
+that Argo outside, upon whom Tarrano depended to seize Georg--had
+failed.
+
+Action had come to Tarrano. He snapped off his weapon. Released from it,
+Wolfgar and I wilted to the floor--lay inert. The returning blood in my
+limbs made them prick as with a million needles. To my sight and
+hearing, the room was whirling and roaring. I felt Tarrano bending
+swiftly over me; felt the forcible insertion of a branched metal tube in
+my nostrils; a hand over my mouth. I struggled to hold my
+breath--failed. Then inhaled with a gasp, a pungent, sickening-sweet
+gas. Roaring, clanging gongs sounded in my ears--roaring and clattering
+louder, then fading into silence. A wild, tumbling phantasmagoria of
+dreams. Then complete unconsciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+_Georg Escapes_
+
+
+I come now to recount events at which I was not present, and the details
+of which I did not learn until later. Fronted by Tarrano, in those few
+seconds of confusion, Georg made his decision to escape even at the cost
+of leaving Elza and me. He murmured his hurried good-bye. The moment had
+arrived. He could see Tarrano dimly through the sparks. He leaped
+backward, through that wall of electrical disturbance which surrounded
+us. The sparks tore at him; burned his clothing and flesh; the shock of
+it gripped his heart. But he went through; crept for the balcony. It was
+dark out there. He would have rushed for Tarrano instead of the balcony,
+but as he came through the sparks he had seen that the barrier
+surrounding our tower was momentarily lifted. Argo had cut it off to
+admit Tarrano a few moments before. He had not yet replaced
+it--absorbed, doubtless, in watching in his finder what Tarrano was
+doing with us. He must have seen Georg reach the balcony; and jumped
+then to replace the barrier. But too late. Georg was over the balcony
+rail with a leap. The insulated tubes were there--upright gleaming tubes
+of metal extending downward to the platform below. Tubes smooth, and as
+thick as a woman's waist.
+
+Georg slid down them. The barrage, above him on the balcony, had been
+replaced. He saw below him the figure of Argo come running out. A weapon
+in each hand. The burning pencil-ray swung at Georg, but missed him as
+he came down. Had it struck, it would have drilled him clean with its
+tiny hole of fire. Then Argo must have realized that Georg should be
+taken alive. He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrations
+which Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me.
+
+Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; and
+as he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe.
+But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a last
+effort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo. They went down together.
+
+Argo lay inert. The impact had knocked him senseless, and had struck his
+weapon from his hand. Georg sat up, and for a moment chafed his
+tingling, prickling arms and legs. He was bruised and shaken by the
+fall, but uninjured.
+
+Within our tower, Tarrano was still occupied with us. Georg leaped to
+his feet. He left Argo lying there--ran over the spider-bridge; down a
+spiral metal stairway, across another bridge, and came upon the small
+park-like platform which stood at the bottom of the other tower. He had
+passed within sight of a few pedestrians. One of them shouted at him;
+another had tried mildly to stop him. A crowd on a distant terrace saw
+him. A few of their personal flashes were turned his way. Murmurs arose.
+Someone at the head of one of the escalators, in a panic pulled an
+alarm-switch. It flared green into the sky, flashing its warning.
+
+The interior-guards--seated at their instrument tables in the lower
+rooms of the official buildings--had seen Georg in their finders. The
+alarm was spreading. Lights were appearing everywhere.... The murmurs of
+gathering people ... excited crowds ... an absurd woman leaning down
+over a far-away parapet and screaming ... an ignorant, flustered
+street-guard on a nearby upper terrace swinging his pencil-ray down at
+Georg.... Fortunately it fell short.
+
+For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult around
+him--stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein the
+Princess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles of
+doors and casements, all open--but barred by the glow of the electrical
+barrage surrounding it.
+
+Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.
+Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to use
+it. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. He
+hesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But he
+knew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerial
+mast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare of
+white.
+
+His finger pressed the trigger. A soundless flash of purple enveloped
+the tower. Sparks mounted into the air--a cloud of vivid electrical
+sparks; but mingled with them in a moment were sparks also of burning
+wood and fibre. Smoke began to roll upward; the purple flash was gone,
+and dull red took its place. The hum and angry buzz of outraged
+electricity was stilled. Flames appeared at all the tower casements--red
+flames, then yellow with their greater heat.
+
+The trim and interior of the tower was burning. The protons Georg had
+flung at it with his weapon had broken the electrical barrage. The
+interference heat had burned out the connections and fired everything
+combustible within the tower. A terrific heat. It began to melt and burn
+the _blenite_.[10] The upper portion of the tower walls began to
+crumble. Huge blocks of stone were shifting, tottering; and they began
+to fall through the glare of mounting flames and the thick black smoke.
+
+[Footnote 10: A cement or mortar used in stone constructions--evidently
+partially combustible.]
+
+Georg had tossed away his now useless weapon--emptied of its charge. He
+was crouching in the shadow of a parapet. The city was now in turmoil.
+Alarm lights everywhere. The shrilling of sirens; roaring of megaphoned
+commands ... women screaming hysterically....
+
+A chaos, out of which, for a few moments, Georg knew no order could
+come. But his heart was in his mouth. The Princess Maida, within that
+burning building....
+
+He had located the tiny postern gate at the bottom of the tower where
+Wolfgar had told him she would appear. The barrage was gone; and in a
+moment she came--a white figure appearing there amid the smoke that was
+rolling out.
+
+He rushed to her. A figure wholly encased in white _itan_[11] fabric
+with head-mask, and tubes from its generator to supply her with air.
+Wolfgar had smuggled the equipment in to her for just this emergency.
+She stood awkwardly beside Georg--a grotesque figure hampered by the
+heavy costume. Its crescent panes of _itanoid_ begoggled her.
+
+[Footnote 11: A universal insulating fabric, as rubber insulates
+electricity and asbestos bars heat.]
+
+Behind him, Georg could hear people advancing. A guard picked them out
+with a white flash. The mounting flames of the tower bathed everything
+in red. A block of stone fell near at hand, crashing through the
+metallic platform upon which they were standing. Broken, it sagged
+beneath their feet.
+
+Georg tore at the girl's head-piece, lifted it off. Her face was pale,
+frightened, yet she seemed calm. Her glorious white hair tumbled down in
+waves over her shoulders.
+
+"Wolfgar--he----" She choked a little in the smoke that swirled around
+them. Georg cut in: "He sent me--Georg Brende. Don't talk now--get this
+off."
+
+He pulled the heavy costume from her. She emerged from it--slim and
+beautiful in the shimmering blue kirtle, with long grey stockings
+beneath.
+
+A spider incline was nearby. But a dozen guards were coming up it at a
+run. With the girl's hand in his, Georg turned the other way. People
+were closing in all around them--an excited crowd held back by the heat
+of the burning tower, the smoke and the falling blocks of stone. Someone
+swung a pencil-ray wildly. It seared Georg like a branding-iron on the
+flesh of his arm as it swung past. He pulled Maida toward the head of an
+escalator a dozen feet away. Its steps were coming upward from the plaza
+at the ground level. Half way up, the first of an up-coming throng were
+mounting it.
+
+But Georg again turned aside. He found Maida quick of wit to catch his
+plans; and agile of body to follow him. They climbed down the metal
+frame-work of the escalator sides; down under it to where the inverted
+steps were passing downward on the endless belts. Maida slid into one of
+them, with Georg after her, his arms holding her in place.
+
+They huddled there. No one had seen them enter. Smoothly the escalator
+drew them downward. Above them in a moment the tramp of feet sounded
+close above their heads as the crowd rushed upward.
+
+They approached the bottom, slid out upon a swinging bridge which
+chanced at the moment to be empty of people. Down it at a run; into the
+palm-lined plaza at the bottom of the city.
+
+Down here it was comparatively dim and silent. The alarm lights of the
+plaza section had not yet come on; the excitement was concentrated upon
+the burning tower above. The crowd, rushing up there, left the plaza
+momentarily deserted. Georg and Maida crossed it at a run, scurried like
+frightened rabbits through a tunnel arcade, down a lower cross-street,
+and came at last unmolested to the outskirts of the city.
+
+The buildings here were almost all at the ground level. Georg and Maida
+ran onward, hardly noticed, for everyone was gazing upward at the
+distant, burning tower. Georg was heading for where Wolfgar had an aero
+secreted. A mile or more. They reached the spot--but the aero was not
+there. They were in the open country now--Venia is small.
+Plantations--an agricultural region. Most of the houses were deserted,
+the occupants having fled into the city as refugees when threats and
+orders came from Washington the day before. Georg and Maida came upon a
+little conical house; it lay silent, heavy-shadowed in the starlight
+with the glow of the city edging its side and circular roof. Beside it
+was an incline with a helicopter standing up there on a private landing
+stage.... Georg and Maida rushed up the incline.
+
+A small helicopter; its dangling basket was barely large enough for
+two--a basket with a tiny safety 'plane fastened to its outrigger.
+
+In a moment Georg and the girl had boarded the helicopter. She was
+silent; she had hardly said a word throughout it all.... The helicopter
+mounted straight up; its whirling propellers above sent a rush of air
+downward.
+
+"These batteries," said Georg. "The guards in Venia can't stop us. An
+aero--even if we had it--I doubt if we could get power for it. They've
+shut off general power by now, I'm sure."
+
+She nodded. "Yes--no doubt."
+
+As they mounted upward, the city dwindled beneath them--dwindled to an
+area of red and green and purple lights. It was silent up here in the
+starlight; a calm, windless night--cloudless, save for a gray bank which
+obscured the moon.
+
+Ten thousand feet up. Then fifteen. The city was a tiny patch of blended
+colors. Light rockets occasionally mounted now. But their glare fell
+short. Georg's mind was busy with his plans. Had the helicopter been
+seen? It seemed not. No rocket-light had reached it; and there was no
+sign of pursuit from below.
+
+Maida crouched beside him. He felt her hand timidly upon his arm; felt
+her shy, sidelong glance upon him. And suddenly he was conscious of her
+beauty. His heart leaped, and as he turned to her, she smiled--a smile
+of eager trust which lighted her face like a torch of faith in the spire
+of a house of worship.
+
+"You are planning?" she said. "You know what it is we must do?"
+
+He said: "I think so. The _volan_[12] out there is large enough for two.
+You'll trust yourself to it with me? You're not afraid, are you?"
+
+[Footnote 12: A small winged board without power, used for emergency
+descents by volplaning down from disabled aeros.]
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "What you say we must do, we will do."
+
+"We must go higher, Maida. Then, you see...."
+
+He told her his plans. And mounting up there into the silent canopy of
+stars, his fingers wound themselves into the soft strands of her hair
+which lay upon him; and his heart beat fast with the nearness of
+her.... Told her his plans, and she acquiesced.
+
+Twenty thousand feet. The cold was upon them. Shivering himself, he
+wrapped her in a fur which the basket contained. At 25,000, they took to
+the _vol plan_. It was a padded board a dozen feet long and half as
+wide. Released, it shot downward; a hundred feet or more, with the
+heavens whirling soundlessly. Then Georg got the wings open; the descent
+was checked; the stars righted themselves above, and once again the
+earth was beneath.
+
+They had strapped themselves to the board, and now Georg undid the
+thongs. Together they lay prone, side by side, with the narrow,
+double-banked wings beneath the line of their shoulders, and the
+rudder-tail behind them. Flexible 'planes and tail, responding to
+Georg's grip on the controls.
+
+Fluttering, uncertain at first, like a huge bird of quivering wings,
+they began their incline descent. A spiral, then Georg opened it to a
+straight glide northward--rushing downward and onward through the
+starlight, in a wind of their own making which fluttered the light
+fabric of Maida's robe and tossed her waves of hair about her.
+
+A long, silent glide, with only the rush of wind. It seemed hours, while
+the girl did not speak and Georg anxiously searched the sky ahead.
+Underneath them, the dark forests were slipping past; but inexorably
+coming upward. They were down to 5,000 feet; then Georg saw at last what
+he had hoped, prayed for, but almost despaired of. A beam of light to
+the northward--the spreading beam of an oncoming patrol. It was high
+overhead; but it came forward fast. A sweeping, keenly searching beam,
+and finally it struck them. Clung to them.
+
+And presently the big patrol vessel was almost above them. It hung
+there, a dark winged shape dotted with colored lights. A signal flash--a
+sharp command to Georg, but, of course, he could not answer. Then the
+Director's finder picked him out. The _volan_ was fluttering, spiralling
+slowly as Georg struggled to hold his place.
+
+And then the patrol launched its tender. It came darting down like a
+wasp. A moment more, and Georg and Maida were taken aboard it. The
+_volan_ fluttered to the forest unguided and was lost in the black
+treetops, now no more than a thousand feet below.
+
+Surrounded by amazed officials, Maida and Georg entered the patrol
+vessel. Georg Brende, escaped safely from Tarrano! The Brende secret
+released from Tarrano's control! The Director flashed the news to
+Washington and to Great London. Orders came back. A score of other
+vessels of this Patrol-Division came dashing up--a convoy which soon was
+speeding northward to Washington with its precious messenger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_Recaptured_
+
+
+In Washington during those next few days, events of the Earth, Venus and
+Mars swirled and raged around Georg as though he were engulfed in the
+Iguazu or Niagara. Passive himself at first--a spectator merely; yet he
+was the keystone of the Earth Council's strength. The Brende secret was
+desired by the publics of all three worlds. Even greater than its real
+value as a medical discovery, it swayed the popular mind.
+
+Tarrano possessed the Brende secret. The only model, and Dr. Brende's
+notes were in his hands. Washington had ordered him to give them up, and
+he had refused. But now the status was changed. Georg held the secret
+also--and Georg was in Washington. It left the Earth Council free to
+deal with Tarrano.
+
+During those days Georg was housed in official apartments, with Maida
+very often near him. Inactive, they were much together, discussing their
+respective worlds. The Princess Maida was hereditary ruler of the Venus
+Central State--the only living heir to the throne. When Tarrano's forces
+threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by
+spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the
+tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had
+been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to
+Tarrano.
+
+In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by
+a Council. The public loved her--but a majority of it had gone astray
+when she disappeared--lured by Tarrano's glowing promises.
+
+Maida told Georg all this with a sweet, gentle sadness that was
+pathetic. And with an earnest, patriotic fervor--the love of her country
+and her people for whom she would give her life.
+
+She added: "If only I could get back there, Georg--I could make them
+realize the right course. I could win them again. Tarrano will play them
+false--_you_ know it, and so do I."
+
+Pathetic earnestness in this girl still no more than seventeen! And
+Georg, sitting beside her, gazing into her solemn, beautiful face, felt
+that indeed she could win them, with those limpid blue eyes and her
+words which rang with sincerity and truth.
+
+They sat generally in an unofficial instrument room adjoining the
+government offices. A room high in a spire above the upper levels of the
+city. And around them rolled the momentous events of which they were the
+center.
+
+The time limit of the Earth Council's ultimatum to Tarrano expired.
+Already Tarrano had answered it with defiance. But on the stroke of its
+expiration, came another note from him. Georg read it from the tape to
+Maida:
+
+_"To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject----"_
+
+A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not
+see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand
+that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he
+did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to
+recall it. He had already recalled it, in fact. He assured the Council
+that it was now on its way back, direct to Washington. He had done this
+because he felt that the Earth leaders were making a mistake--a grave
+mistake in the interests of their own people. Georg Brende was in
+Washington--that was true. But Georg Brende was a silly, conceited young
+man, flattered by his prominence in the public eye, his head turned by
+his own importance. Dr. Brende had been a genius. The son was a mere
+upstart, pretending to a scientific knowledge he did not have.
+
+"Trickery!" exclaimed Georg. "But he knows the people may believe it.
+Some of them undoubtedly will."
+
+"And you cannot thwart your public," Maida said. "Even your Earth
+Council, secure in its power, cannot do that."
+
+"Exactly," Georg rejoined. He was indignant, as well he might have been.
+"Tarrano is trying to avoid being attacked. Time--any delay--is what he
+wants."
+
+The note went on. Tarrano--seeking only the welfare of the people--could
+not stand by and see the Earth Council wreck its public. Tarrano had
+reconsidered his former note. The Brende model was vital, and since the
+Earth Council demanded the model (for the benefit of its people) the
+people should have it. In a few days it would be in Washington. Tarrano
+himself would not come to Washington. His doing that could not help the
+public welfare, and he was but human. The Earth Council had made itself
+his enemy; he could not be expected to trust his life in enemy hands.
+
+The note closed with the suggestion that the Council withdraw its patrol
+from Venia. This talk of war was childish. Withdraw the patrol, and
+Tarrano himself might go back to Venus. He would wait a day for answer
+to this request; and if it were not granted--if the patrol were not
+entirely removed--then the Brende model would be destroyed. And if the
+publics of three worlds wished to depend upon a conceited, ignorant
+young man like Georg Brende for the everlasting life, they were welcome
+to do so.
+
+A clever piece of trickery, and it was awkward to deal with. One had
+only to watch its effect upon the public to realize how insidious it
+was. Tarrano had told us--in the tower in Venia: "I shall have to
+bargain with them." And chuckled as he said it.
+
+A series of notes from the Earth Council and back again, followed during
+the next few days. But the patrol was not withdrawn; nor was war
+declared. The Earth Council knew that Tarrano had not ordered the model
+back--nor would he destroy it. Yet if the Earth forces were to overwhelm
+Tarrano, and the model were lost, a revolution upon Earth could easily
+take place before Georg could convince the people that he was able to
+build them another model.
+
+This delay--while Tarrano was held virtually a prisoner in Venia--was
+decided upon at the instigation of Georg himself. He--Georg--would
+address the publics of the three worlds. With Maida beside him to
+influence her own public in Venus, they would convince everyone that
+Georg had the secret--and that he alone would use it for the public
+good.
+
+Youthful plans! Youthful enthusiasm! The belief that they could win
+confidence to their cause by the very truthfulness in their hearts! The
+belief that right makes might--which Tarrano would have told them was
+untrue!
+
+Yet it was a good plan, and the Earth Council approved it, since it
+could do no harm to try. And it perhaps would have been successful but
+for one thing, of which even at that moment I--in Venia--was aware.
+Tarrano's trickery was not all on the surface. He had written into that
+note--by a code of diabolically ingenious wording--a secret message to
+his own spies in Washington. Commands for them to obey. A dozen of his
+spies were in the Earth government's most trusted, highest service--and
+some of them were there in Washington, close around Georg and Maida as
+they made their altruistic plan.
+
+The attempt was to be made from the high-power sending station in the
+mountains of West North America.[13] Our observatory was there; and the
+only one of its kind on the Earth. It was equipped to send a radio voice
+audibly to every part of the Earth; and by helio, also to Mars and
+Venus, there to be re-transformed from light to sound and heard
+throughout those other worlds. And moving images of the speakers, seen
+on the finders all over the Earth, Venus and Mars simultaneously. The
+power, the generating equipment was at this station; and no matter where
+in the sky Venus or Mars might be, from the Mountain Station the
+vibrations of mingled light and sound were relayed elsewhere on Earth to
+other stations from which the helios could be flashed direct.
+
+[Footnote 13: The Rocky Mountains, in the United States or possibly
+Alberta.]
+
+To Skylan, as the Mountain Station was popularly called, Georg and Maida
+were taken in official aero under heavy convoy. Yet, even then, at their
+very elbows, spies of Tarrano must have been lurking.
+
+The official flyer landed them on the broad stage amid deep, soft snow.
+It was night--a brief trip from the late afternoon, through dinner and
+they were there. A night of clear shining stars--brilliant gems in deep
+purple. Clear, crisp, rarefied air; a tumbling expanse of white, with
+the stars stretched over it like a close-hung canopy.
+
+They were ushered into the low, rambling building. The attempt was to be
+made at once. Mars was mounting the eastern sky; and to the west, Venus
+was setting. Both visible from direct helios at that moment--Red Mars,
+from this mountain top, glowing like the tip of an arrant-cylinder up
+there.
+
+In the brief time since the party had left Washington, the worlds had
+been notified. The eyes and ears of the millions of three planets were
+waiting to see and hear this Georg Brende and this Princess Maida.
+
+The sending room was small, circular, and crowded with apparatus. And
+above its dome, opened to the sky, wherein the intensified helios shaded
+so that no ray of them might blind the operators, were sputtering as
+though eager to be away with their messages.
+
+With a dozen officials around him, Georg prepared to enter the sending
+room. He had parted from Maida a few moments before, when she had left
+him to be shown to her apartment by the women attendants.
+
+As she moved away, on impulse he had stopped her. "We shall succeed,
+Maida."
+
+Her hand touched his arm. A brave smile, a nod, and she had passed on,
+leaving him standing there gazing after her with pounding heart.
+Pounding, not with excitement at the task before him in that sending
+room; pounding with the sudden knowledge that the welfare of this frail
+little woman meant more to him than the safety of all these worlds.
+
+At last Georg stood in the sending room. The officials sat grouped
+around him. Maida had not yet arrived from her apartment. There was a
+small platform, upon which she and Georg were to stand together. He took
+his place upon it, waiting for her.
+
+Before him was the sending disc; it glowed red as they turned the
+current into it. Then they illumined the mirrors; a circle of them, each
+with its image of Georg upon the platform. The white lights above him
+flashed on, beating down upon him with their hot, dazzling glare. The
+reflected beams from the mirrors, struck upward into the dome overhead.
+The helios up there were humming and sputtering loudly.
+
+Beyond the circle of intense white light in which Georg was standing,
+the spectators sat in gloom behind the mirrors. Maida had not come. The
+Skylan Director, impatient ordered a woman to go for her.
+
+Then, suddenly, Georg said to this Director:
+
+"I--these lights--this heat. It makes me feel faint--standing here."
+
+Georg had stumbled from the platform. Between two of the mirrors, shaded
+from the glare, the perturbed Director met him. Moisture beaded Georg's
+forehead.
+
+"I'll--be quite all right in a moment. I'm going over there." He smiled
+weakly. A dozen feet away there was an opened outer casement. It looked
+down twenty feet, perhaps, to the deep snow that covered the station's
+grounds. The Director started with Georg; but Georg pushed him violently
+away.
+
+"No! No! You let me alone!" His accents were those of a spoiled child.
+The Director hesitated, and Georg, with a hand to his forehead, wavered
+toward the casement. The Director saw him standing there; saw him sway,
+then fall or jump forward, and disappear.
+
+They rushed outside. The snow was trampled all about with heavy
+footprints, but Georg had vanished. From the women's apartment, the
+attendant came back. The Princess Maida could not be found!
+
+And in those moments of confusion, from outside across the starlit snow,
+an aero was rising. Silent, black--and no one saw it as it winged away
+into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+_Tara_
+
+
+I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano
+dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us.
+Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano--there in the tower
+room--rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and
+found Elza bending over me.
+
+I sat up, dizzily, with the room reeling.
+
+"Jac! Jac, dear----" She made me lie back, until I could feel the blood
+returning to my clammy face; and the room steadied, and the clanging of
+the gongs in my ears died away.
+
+"I--why, I'm--all right," I gasped. And I lay there, clinging to her
+hand. Dear little Elza! In that moment of relief that I had come to my
+senses, she could not hide the love which even now was unspoken between
+us. Tarrano! I lay there weak and faint; but with the pressure of Elza's
+hand, I did not fear that this Tarrano could win her from me.
+
+Wolfgar was standing across the room from us. He came forward.
+
+"You did not die," he said; and smiled. "I told her you would not die."
+
+It was now morning. Wolfgar and Elza told me I had been unconscious some
+hours. We were still imprisoned as before in the tower. Georg had
+escaped with Maida, they said; or at least, they hoped so. And they
+described the burning of the other tower. The city had been in a
+turmoil. It still was; I could hear now the shouts of the crowd outside.
+And turning as I lay there, through the casement I could see the
+blackened, still smoking ruins of Maida's tower; the broken iron
+terrace; the spider bridge melted away, hanging loose and dangling like
+an aimless pendulum.
+
+The latest news, Elza and Wolfgar could not give me. The instrument room
+of our tower had been disconnected by Tarrano when he left some hours
+before. As they said it, we heard a familiar buzz; then the drone of an
+announcer's voice. Tarrano's guard had doubtless observed my recovery
+and had had orders to throw current into our instruments. Strange man,
+this Tarrano! He wished the news spread before us again. Confident of
+his own dominance over every crisis, he wanted Elza and me to hear it as
+it came from the discs.
+
+We went to the instrument room. I found myself weak, but quite
+uninjured. Elza left us there, and went to prepare food which I needed
+to strengthen me.
+
+The public events of those hours and days following, I have recounted as
+Georg saw them and took part in them in Washington. We observed them,
+here in the tower, with alternate hopes and fears. Our life of
+imprisonment went on much as before. Occasionally, Tarrano visited us,
+always making us sit like children before him, while at his ease he
+reclined on our divan.
+
+But he would never give us much real information; the man always was an
+enigma.
+
+"Your friend Georg has a wonderful plan," he announced to us ironically
+early one evening. He smiled his caustic smile. "You have seen the
+tape?"
+
+"Yes," I said. It was Georg's plan to address with Maida, the publics of
+Earth, Venus and Mars.
+
+Tarrano nodded. "He and the Princess are going to convince everyone that
+I am an impostor."
+
+I did not answer that; and abruptly he chuckled. "That would be
+unfortunate for me--if they could do that. Do you think they'll be able
+to?"
+
+"I hope so," I said.
+
+He laughed openly. "Of course. But they will not. That long note of mine
+to your government--you read it, naturally. But you didn't read in it my
+secret instructions to my agents in Washington, did you? Well, they were
+there in it--my commands--the letters ending its words made another
+message."
+
+He was amused at our discomfiture. "Simple enough? Yet really an
+intricate code in itself. It made the phrasing of the main note a little
+difficult to compose, that was all." He sat up with his accustomed snap
+of alertness, and his face turned grim. "Georg will never address his
+audience. Nor the Princess--she will never appear before those sending
+mirrors. I have seen to that." Again he was chuckling. "No, no, I could
+not let them do a thing like that. They might turn people against me."
+
+Elza began indignantly: "You--you are----"
+
+His gesture checked her. "Your brother is quite safe, Lady Elza. And the
+Princess Maida also. Indeed, they are on the point of falling in love
+with each other. Natural! And perfectly right. It is as I would have
+it."
+
+His strong brown fingers were rubbing each other with his satisfaction.
+"Curious, Lady Elza--how fortunate I am in all my plans."
+
+"I don't think you are," I said. "Our government has you a prisoner
+here. They didn't withdraw the patrol as you demanded, did they?"
+
+He frowned a trifle. "No. That was too bad. I rather hoped they would.
+It would have been a stupid thing for them to do--but still, I almost
+thought they'd do it."
+
+I shook my head. "What they will do is sweep down here and overwhelm
+you."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He shifted himself to a more comfortable position. "They are playing for
+time--so that when I fail to produce the model as I agreed, then the
+public will realize I am not to be trusted."
+
+"Exactly," I said.
+
+"Well, I am playing for time, also."
+
+He seemed so willing to discuss the thing that I grew bolder.
+
+"What have you to gain by playing for time?" I demanded.
+
+He stared. "You would question me, Jac Hallen? How absurd!" He looked at
+Elza, as though to share with her his amazement at my temerity.
+
+Wolfgar said suddenly to Tarrano: "You will gain nothing."
+
+Tarrano's face went impassive. I understood him better now; that cold,
+inscrutable look often concealed his strongest emotions. He said evenly:
+
+"I should prefer you not to address me, Wolfgar. A traitor such as
+you--the sound of your voice offends me."
+
+It struck me then as very strange--as it had for days before--that
+Tarrano should have failed to punish Wolfgar. I would have expected
+death; least of all, that Tarrano would have allowed Wolfgar to live
+here in the tower, in comparative ease and comfort. Tarrano's words now
+answered my unspoken questions. He was not looking at Wolfgar, but at
+Elza.
+
+"You, Wolfgar--deserve death. You know why I cannot kill you? Why I let
+you stay here in the tower?" A faint, almost wistful smile parted his
+thin lips; he did not take his eyes from Elza.
+
+"I am greatly handicapped, Wolfgar. The Lady Elza here would not like to
+have me put you to death. She would not even care to have me mistreat
+you. She is very tender hearted." He raised a deprecating hand. "Ah,
+Lady Elza, does that surprise you? You never told me I must be lenient
+with this traitor? Of course not."
+
+"I----" Elza began, but he stopped her.
+
+"You see, Lady Elza, I have already learned to obey you." He was smiling
+very gently. "Learned to obey even your unspoken commands."
+
+I wondered how much of this attitude might be sincere, and how much
+calculated trickery. Could Elza, indeed, control him?
+
+She must have had much the same thought, for she said with a forced
+smile: "You give me a great deal of power. If you--wish to obey me,
+you'll set us free--send us all to Washington."
+
+That amused him. "Ah, but I cannot do that."
+
+She gained confidence. "You are willing to be very gracious in things
+which do not inconvenience you, Tarrano. It is not very impressive."
+
+He looked hurt. "You misinterpret. I will do for you anything I can. But
+you must remember, Lady Elza, that my judgment is better than yours. I
+would not let you lead us into disaster. You are a gentle little woman.
+Your instincts are toward humane treatment of everyone--toward mercy
+rather than justice. In all such things, I shall be guided by you.
+Justice--tempered with mercy. A union very, very beautiful, Lady
+Elza ... But, you see, beyond that--you are wrong. I am a man, and in
+the big things I must dominate. It is I who guide, and you who follow.
+You see that, don't you?"
+
+The sincerity in his voice was unmistakable. And my heart sank as I
+watched Elza. Her gaze fell, and a flush mantled her cheeks. Tarrano
+added quietly: "We shall have no difficulty, you and I, Lady Elza. Each
+of us a place, and a duty. A destiny together...."
+
+He broke off and rose quickly to his feet. "Enough. I have been weak to
+say so much as this."
+
+He turned to leave us, and I became aware of a woman's figure standing
+in the shadows of the archway across the room. She started forward as
+Tarrano glanced her way. A Venus woman of the Cold Country. Yet,
+obviously, one of good birth and breeding. A woman of perhaps 30 years,
+beautiful in the Venus cast; dressed in the conventional bodice
+breast-plates and short skirt, with grey stockings and sandals.
+
+Within the room, she regarded Tarrano silently. There was about her a
+quiet dignity; she stood with her tall, slim figure drawn to its full
+height. Her pure white hair was coiled upon her head, with a rich metal
+ornament to fasten it. And from it, a mantle of shimmering blue fabric
+hung down her back.
+
+Tarrano said: "What are you doing up here? I told you to wait below."
+
+Her face showed no emotion. But there was a glitter to her eyes, a glow
+in their grey depths like _alumite_ in the hydro-flame of a torch.
+
+She said slowly: "Master, I think it would be very correct if you would
+let me stay here and serve the Lady Elza. I told you that before, but
+you would not listen."
+
+Tarrano, with sudden decision, swung toward Elza. "This is the Elta[14]
+Tara. She was concerned that I should allow you to dwell here alone with
+this Jac Hallen, and this traitor from Mars." His tone conveyed infinite
+contempt for us.
+
+[Footnote 14: Elta--a term or title denoting rank by birth.]
+
+The woman said quickly: "The Lady Elza would be glad of my
+companionship." She shot a swift glance to Elza. What it was meant to
+convey, I could not have said. Perhaps Elza understood it, or thought
+she did. She spoke up.
+
+"I would like to have you very much, indeed." She added to Tarrano, and
+there was on her face a look of feminine guile:
+
+"You, of course, could not refuse me so small a favor? After all your
+protestations----"
+
+He gestured impatiently. "Very well." And he added to Tara: "You will
+serve the Lady Elza as she directs."
+
+He stalked away into the darkened passage. In the gloom there, he
+stopped and again faced us; the light from a small blue tube in there
+illumined him dimly. He was smiling ironically.
+
+"I shall maintain the instruments for you. The mirrors will show you
+Georg and Maida. They are just about arriving at the Mountain Station.
+Watch them! You will see how far they progress with their wonderful
+speeches."
+
+He left us. We heard his measured tread as he stalked down the tower
+incline. The barrage about the tower was lifted momentarily as he went
+out. Then it came on again, with its glow beyond our casements, and its
+low electrical whine.
+
+I was just turning back to the room when a sound behind me made me face
+sharply about. My heart leaped into my throat. The woman Tara had
+produced from about her person a weapon of some kind. She thought she
+was unobserved, but from the angle at which I stood, I saw her. A
+gleaming metal object was in her hand. And then she launched it--a small
+flat disc of metal, thin, and with its circular edge keen as a
+knife-blade.
+
+Whirling with a very soft hum hardly audible, it left her hand and
+floated upward across the room. Circling the casements up near the
+ceiling, and then heading downward straight for Elza! And I saw, too,
+that the woman was guiding it by a tiny radio-control.
+
+The thing was so unexpected that I stood gaping. But only for an
+instant. I saw the deadly whirling knife-disc sailing for Elza.... It
+would strike her ... shear her white throat....
+
+With a shout of horror and anger, I leaped for the woman. But Wolfgar,
+too, had seen the disc and he went into action quicker than I. The divan
+was beside him. He snatched up a pillow; flung it upward at the disc.
+The soft pillow struck the disc; together, entangled, they fell
+harmlessly to the floor.
+
+I was upon the woman, snatching the handle of the control-wire from her
+hand, wrenching its connection loose from her robe. Under my onslaught,
+she fell; and I kneeled beside her, gripping her while she tore at me
+and screamed with hysterical, murderous frenzy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+_Love--and Hate_
+
+
+I did not harm this Tara, though I was sorely tempted to; and after a
+moment we quieted her. She was crying and laughing by turns; but when we
+seated her on the divan she controlled herself and fell into a sullen
+silence. Elza, pale and frightened at her escape, faced the woman, and
+waved Wolfgar and me aside. Strange little Elza! Resolute, she stood
+there, and would brook no interference with her purpose. Wolfgar and I
+withdrew a pace or two and stood watching them.
+
+Tara's breast was heaving with her pent emotion. She sat drooping on the
+divan, her face buried in her hands.
+
+Elza said gently: "Why did you do that, Tara?"
+
+There was no answer; only the woman's catching breath as she struggled
+with her sobs. Across the background of my consciousness came the
+thought that Tarrano or one of his guards would doubtless momentarily
+appear to investigate all this turmoil. And I was vaguely conscious also
+that from our instrument room the sounds of an unusual activity were
+coming. But I did not heed them. Elza was insisting:
+
+"Why did you do that, Tara? Why should you want to harm me?"
+
+Tara looked up. "You have stolen the man I love."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes. Tarrano----"
+
+She broke off, set her lips firmly together as though to repress further
+words; and her fine grey eyes, filled with unbidden tears, were
+smoldering to their depths with hate.
+
+Impulsively Elza sank to the floor beside the woman. But Tara drew away.
+
+Elza said: "Tarrano--he is a wonderful man, Tara. A genius--the greatest
+figure of these three worlds...."
+
+My heart sank to hear her say it!
+
+"... a genius, Tara. You should be proud to love him...."
+
+"You----" The woman's writhing fingers seemed about to reach for Elza. I
+took a sudden step forward, then relaxed. Elza added quickly:
+
+"But I would not steal Tarrano from you. Don't you realize that?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"But it's true."
+
+"No! No! You have stolen him! With your queer Earth beauty--that colored
+hair of yours--those rounded limbs--you've bewitched him! I can see it.
+You can't lie to me! I made him angry once and he admitted it."
+
+"No, I tell you!"
+
+"I say yes. You've stolen him from me. He loves you--and he mocks and
+laughs at me----"
+
+"Tara, wait. I do not love Tarrano, I tell you. I would not have
+him----" How my heart leaped to hear her say it so convincingly. She
+added:
+
+"He loves me, perhaps--but I can't help that. He has me prisoner here. I
+am forced----"
+
+"You lie! You are playing to win him! What girl would refuse? You say
+yourself he is the greatest man of the ages. You lie when you tell me
+you do not want him!"
+
+Elza had taken the woman by the shoulders. "Tara, listen--you _must_
+listen! Are you mated with Tarrano?"
+
+"No! But years ago he promised me. I took his name then, as we do in the
+Cold Country. They still call me Tara! Years I have waited, true to my
+promise--with even my name of maidenhood relinquished. _His_ name--Tara!
+And now he tosses me aside--because _you_, only an Earth woman, have
+bewitched him."
+
+"I didn't want to bewitch him, Tara." Elza's voice was very gentle; and
+a whimsical smile was plucking at her lips. "You think I want him
+because he is a genius--the greatest man of our time?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Is that why _you_ want him?"
+
+"No, I love him."
+
+"You loved him before he was very great, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes. Back in the Cold Country. When he was only a boy--and I was no
+more than a girl half grown. I love him for himself, I tell you----"
+
+Elza interrupted; and her voice risen to greater firmness, held a
+quality of earnest pleading.
+
+"Wait, Tara! You love Tarrano for himself--because you are a woman
+capable of love. It is the man you love--not his deeds, or his fame or
+his destiny. Isn't that so?"
+
+"Yes. I----"
+
+"Then won't you give me credit for being a woman with instincts as fine
+as your own? The love of a good woman goes unbidden. You can't win it by
+conquering worlds and flinging them at her feet. Tarrano thinks you can.
+He thinks to dazzle me with his feats of prowess. He wants to buy my
+love with thrones for me to grace as queen. He thinks my awe and fear of
+him are love. He thinks a woman's love is born of respect, and
+admiration, and promises of wealth. But you and I, Tara--we know it
+isn't. We know it's born of a glance--born in poverty and
+sickness--adversity--every ill circumstance--born without reason--for no
+reason at all. Just born! And if anything else gives it birth--it is not
+a true woman's love. You and I know that, Tara. Don't you see?"
+
+Tara was sobbing unrestrainedly now, and Elza, with arms around her,
+went on:
+
+"You should be proud to love Tarrano. If I loved him, I would be proud
+of him, too. But I do not----"
+
+A step sounded near at hand. Tarrano stood in the archway, with arms
+folded, regarding us sardonically.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+_Defying Worlds_
+
+
+"So?" Tarrano eyed us, evidently in no hurry to speak further, seemingly
+amused at our confusion. Had he heard much of what the two women had
+said? All of it, or most of it, doubtless, with his instruments as he
+approached. But, even with the knowledge of Elza's vehement appraisal of
+him, he seemed now quite imperturbable. His gaze touched me and Wolfgar,
+then returned to the women.
+
+"So? It would seem, Tara, that your plan to wait upon the Lady Elza was
+not very successful." He dropped the irony, adding crisply: "Tara, come
+here!"
+
+She rose to her feet obediently, and stood facing him. Humble, fearful,
+yet a trifle defiant. For a moment he frowned upon her thoughtfully;
+then he said to Elza:
+
+"Your policy of mercy is very embarrassing, Lady Elza." He made a
+deprecating gesture, and again his eyes were twinkling. "This woman
+threatened your life. My guards were lax--though I must admit they had
+good excuse, with the other tasks which I thrust upon them.... Your life
+was threatened--you escaped by the merest chance of fortune. You know,
+of course, what justice would bid me do to this would-be murderess?"
+
+Elza was on her feet, standing beside Tara. She did not answer.
+
+Tarrano now was smiling. "I must let her go unpunished? Embarrassing,
+this merciful policy to which you have committed me! Yet--your will is
+my law as you know--though I feel that some day it will involve us in
+disaster.... You, Tara, will not be punished, much as you deserve it."
+He paused, then said as an afterthought: "You, Jac Hallen, I thank you
+for what you tried to do in thwarting the attack. You acted in very
+clumsy fashion--but, at least, you doubtless did your best." Gravely he
+turned to Wolfgar. "I shall not forget, Wolfgar, that, in an emergency,
+you saved the life of Lady Elza.... Enough! These are busy moments. You
+chose an awkward time to raise this turmoil. Come with me--all of you."
+
+He summoned Argo and two other guards. Unceremoniously, and with more
+haste than I had ever seen in Tarrano, he led us from the building. A
+hint of his purpose came to me, as he bade Elza gather up her few
+personal belongings, and gave them to a guard to carry.
+
+In a group, he herded us across the spider bridge. It was early evening,
+but night had fully fallen. The city was ablaze with its colored lights.
+We crossed the bridge, passed through a tunnel-arcade, and came out to a
+platform which was at the base of a skeleton tower. Its naked girders
+rose some seven hundred feet above us. The highest structure in the
+city. A waiting lifting-car was there. We entered, and it shot us
+upward.
+
+At the top, the narrowed structure was enclosed into a single room some
+thirty feet square. A many-windowed room, with a small metal balcony
+surrounding it outside. Immediately above the room, at the very peak of
+the tower, was a single, powerful light-beam; its silver searching ray
+swept the cloudless, starry sky in a slow circle.
+
+The room was crowded with instruments. Unlighted, save by the reflected
+glow of its many image-mirrors, all of which seemed in full operation. A
+dozen intent men sat at the tables; a silent room, but for the hum and
+click of the instruments.
+
+Tarrano said softly: "We have been very busy while you below were
+engaged with your petty hates."
+
+He seated himself at a table apart, upon which was a single mirror, and
+he gathered us around him. The mirror was dark. He called:
+
+"Rax--let me see Mars--you have them by relay? The Hill City?"
+
+The mirror flashed on. From an aperture overhead, a tiny beam of the
+blue helio-transformer came down to it. In the mirror I saw an image of
+the familiar Hill City. A terraced slope, dotted with the cubical
+buildings, spires and tunnel mouths. An empty channel[15] curved down
+across the landscape from the north.
+
+[Footnote 15: Canal, as it now is thought to be.]
+
+A distant scene, empty and lifeless save for black puffs which rose in
+the air above the city.
+
+Tarrano called impatiently: "Closer, Rax!"
+
+The image dissolved, blurred; turned red, violet, then white. We seemed
+now upon a height close above the city. It was seething with confusion.
+Fighting going on in the streets. Animals and men, fighting; a crowd of
+the Little People thronging a public square, with beasts of war charging
+them.
+
+The Hairless Men; I had heard of them, with their animals trained to
+fight, while they--the humans--lurked behind. A mysterious, almost
+grewsome race, to us who live on Earth--these hairless dwellers of the
+underground Mars. Dead-white of skin; sleek and hairless; heavily
+muscled from the work of their world; and almost blind from living in
+the dark.
+
+They were swarming now into the Hill City of the ruling Little People.
+The beasts, at their commands, were running wild through the
+streets ... dripping jaws, tearing at the women ... the children....
+
+I felt Elza turn away, shuddering.
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "The revolt. It came, of course, as I planned. This
+Little People government--it was annoying ... Colley!"
+
+"Master?"
+
+"Send the message, Colley. Fling it audibly over Mars! Tell the rulers
+of the Little People that if they send up the green bomb of
+surrender--Tarrano will spare them further bloodshed. Tell them that I
+am not giving the Brende secret to Earth. In a moment I shall defy the
+Earth Council. Promise them that the Brende secret is going to Mars.
+Assure them they will have everlasting life for everyone.... Wohl!"
+
+"Master?"
+
+"Give me the Cave Station."
+
+The mirror went dark. Then it turned a dazzling yellow. A cavern in the
+interior of Mars. A dark scene of wavering yellow torches. Around a
+table of instruments sat a score of hairless men. Tarrano snatched up a
+mouthpiece--murmured slowly into it. I could see the leader of the
+hairless men nod after a time, as the message reached him. And I saw him
+turn away to issue swift orders as Tarrano had commanded.
+
+Tarrano said brusquely: "Enough!... Wohl!"
+
+The mirror went dark. A voice called: "Master, the green bomb has gone
+up from the Hill City! Do you wish to see?"
+
+"No.... Give me Venus. Olgan! Are they quiet on Venus?"
+
+"Yes, Master."
+
+"Congratulate them that we have conquered the Little People. Tell them
+Mars is ours now! Tell them I am coming to Venus at once--with the
+Brende model...."
+
+"Master, you wish to see Venus? I have direct communication----"
+
+Another voice interrupted. "The Earth Council, Master! They demand an
+explanation of why you say the Brende model is going to Mars. You have
+promised it to Earth. They demand----"
+
+Tarrano rasped: "Tell them to wait ... I don't want Venus,
+Olgan.... Megar! Give me the Earth Mountain Station."
+
+He turned to me, and his voice dropped again to that characteristic
+sardonic drawl:
+
+"We must see how your friend Georg Brende is faring."
+
+The mirror showed Georg, standing irresolute on the platform before the
+sending discs.
+
+Tarrano called: "The Princess Maida--can't you locate her?"
+
+The scene blurred momentarily, then showed us the outside of the
+Station. A white expanse of snow, with purple starlit sky above. From a
+side door of the building, as we watched, the figures of two women
+appeared. A woman leading Maida. As they came out, with Maida all
+unsuspecting, from the shadows a group of men pounced upon them--dragged
+Maida away.
+
+Tarrano laughed. "Enough!... Show me Georg Brende again.... Hurry!"
+
+We saw Georg waver and leap through the window, fall into the snow,
+where, from the shadows of the building, other men rushed out upon
+him ... hurried him away after the captive Maida....
+
+Tarrano's laugh was grim and triumphant. "Ha! We win there, also!
+Enough! Nunz? Nunz--now you can give me the Earth Council! Where is it
+sitting? Washington, or Great London?"
+
+"Washington, Master."
+
+"Very well.... No, never mind connecting me. You speak for me. Tell them
+I've changed my mind. The Brende model is not coming to Washington. Tell
+them Georg Brende is lost to them, also. Tell them I declare war!
+_Tarrano the Conqueror_ declares war on the Earth! Tell them that, with
+my compliments. Tell them to come down here and overwhelm me--it ought
+to be very easy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+_Escape_
+
+
+That _Tarrano_ should thus defy the Earth, when by every law of rational
+circumstance the move seemed to spell only his own disaster, was
+characteristic of the man. He stood there in the instrument room at the
+peak of the skeleton tower in Venia and rasped out to the Earth Council
+his defiance. Silence followed--silence unbroken save by the hiss and
+click of the instruments as the message was sent.
+
+And then Tarrano ordered thrown upon himself the lights and sending
+mirrors so that his own image might be available to all of the public
+and Earth officials who cared to look upon it. Within the circle of
+mirrors he stood drawn to his full height; his eyes flashing, heavy
+brows lowered, and a sardonic smile--almost a leer--pulling at his thin
+lips. The embodiment of defiance. Yet to those who knew him well--as I
+was beginning to know him--there was in his eyes a gleam of irony, as
+though even in this situation he saw humor. A game, with worlds and
+nations as his pawns--a game wherein, though he had apparently lost,
+with the confidence of his genius he knew that the hidden move he was
+about to make would extricate him.
+
+"Enough," he rasped.
+
+The mirrors went dark. He turned away; and still without appearance of
+haste he drew Wolfgar, Elza and me to the balcony. Together we stood
+gazing over the lights of the city below us.
+
+A cloudless, starry sky. Empty of air-craft; but to the north just below
+the horizon, we knew that the line of war vessels was hovering. Even
+now, doubtless, they had their orders to descend upon us. Tarrano seemed
+waiting, and I suppose we stood there half an hour. Occasionally he
+would sight an instrument toward the north; and by the orders he gave at
+intervals I knew that preparations for action on his part were under
+way.
+
+Half an hour. Then abruptly from below the northern horizon lights came
+up--spreading colored beams. The Earth war vessels! A line of them as
+far as we could see from left to right, mounting up into the sky as they
+winged their way toward us--a line spreading out in a broad arc. And
+then, behind us, I saw others appear. We were surrounded.
+
+It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring sight, that vast ring of approaching
+colored lights. Red, green and purple--slowly moving eyes. Light-rockets
+sometimes mounting above them, to burst with a soundless glare of white
+light in the sky; and underneath, the spreading white search-beams,
+sweeping down to the dark forest that lay all about us.
+
+Soon, in the white glare of the bombs, we could distinguish the actual
+shapes of the vessels. Still Tarrano did not move from his place by the
+balcony rail. He stood there, with a hand contemplatively under his
+chin, as though absorbed by an interest in the scene purely impersonal.
+Was he going to give himself up? Stand there inactive while these armed
+forces of the most powerful world in the Solar System swept down upon
+him?
+
+Abruptly he snapped his instrument back to his belt. He had not used it
+since the hostile lights had appeared. Previously, I knew, he had been
+watching those lights, with the curved ray of the instrument when the
+lights themselves had been below the horizon.
+
+He turned now to me. "They are here, Jac Hallen. Almost here. And I am
+at their mercy." His tone was ironic; then it hardened into grimness. He
+was addressing me, but I knew it was for Elza's benefit he spoke.
+
+"I came here to Earth, Jac Hallen, for certain things. I find them now
+accomplished. I belong here no longer." He laughed. "I would not force
+myself into a war prematurely. That would be very unwise. I think--we
+shall have to avoid this--engagement. I am--slightly outnumbered."
+
+He called an order, quite calmly over his shoulder. I suppose, at that
+moment, the Earth war vessels were no more than five miles away. The
+whole sky was a kaleidoscope of darting lights. In answer to his order,
+from the peak of our tower a light bomb mounted--a vertical ray of green
+light. The bomb of surrender!
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "That should halt them. Come! We must start."
+
+He held a brief colloquy with a Venus man who appeared beside him. The
+man nodded and hastened back into the instrument room. The green light
+of our bomb had died away. The lights in the sky began fading--the whole
+sky fading, turning to blackness! I became aware that Tarrano had thrown
+around our tower a temporary isolation barrage. For a few moments--while
+the current he had at his command could hold it--we could not be seen on
+the image finders of the advancing vessels.
+
+Tarrano repeated: "That should hold them--I have surrendered! They
+should be triumphant. And outside our barrage, our men will bargain with
+them. Ten minutes! We should be able to hold them off that long at
+least. Come, Lady Elza. We must start now."
+
+With a scant ceremony in sharp contrast to his courteous words to Elza,
+he hurried us off. Three of us--Elza, Wolfgar and myself, with one
+attendant who still carried Elza's personal belongings. Hurried us into
+the vertical car which had brought us up into the tower. It descended
+now, down the iron skeleton shaft. Outside the girders I could see only
+the blackness of the barrage, with faint snapping sparks.
+
+Silently we descended. It seemed very far down. And suddenly I realized
+that we were going lower than the ground level. The barrage sparks had
+vanished. The blackness now was a normal darkness; and in it I could see
+slipping upward the smooth black sides of the vertical shaft into which
+we were dropping. And the sulphuric smell of the barrage was gone. The
+air now smelt of earth--the heavy, close air of underground.
+
+I do not know how far down we went. A thousand feet perhaps. The thing
+surprised me. Yet in those moments my mind encompassed it; and many of
+Tarrano's motives which I had not reasoned out before now seemed plain.
+He had come from Venus to the Earth, possibly several months ago. Had
+come directly here to Venia and set up his headquarters. His purpose on
+Earth--as he had just told me--did not lie with warfare. While he was
+here his forces had conquered the Great City of Venus, and just now, the
+Hill City of Mars. He controlled Venus and Mars--but he was still far
+from ready to attack the Earth.
+
+He had come to the Earth in person for several important purposes. For
+one--he desired the Brende model and Dr. Brende's notes. He had them
+now; they were, in reality, at this present moment in the Great City of
+Venus. Also, with the Brende secret--to control it absolutely--he had to
+have Georg Brende. Well, as I was soon to realize, Georg was now his
+captive. And the Princess Maida? His purpose in holding her was
+two-fold. She had, now as always in the Venus Central State, a
+tremendous sentimental sway upon her people. Tarrano had abducted her,
+forcibly to remove her from the scene of action, so that during her
+unexplained absence his propaganda would have more influence. He had
+brought her here to Earth; and now his plan was to have Georg Brende and
+her fall in love with each other. He still hoped to win Georg to his
+cause, by giving him the Princess Maida, if for no other reason. And
+with Maida married to Georg--and Georg in Tarrano's service--Maida
+herself would turn her influence in Venus to consolidate her people to
+Tarrano.
+
+These, in part, were Tarrano's present plans and motives. They were
+working out well. And--as he had said--the Earth did not concern him now
+as a battle-ground. Later ... But even with this sudden insight which
+seemed to come to me, I was inadequate to grasp what later he was to
+attempt.
+
+While thus occupied with my thoughts, we were steadily descending into
+the ground under Venia--dropping out of sight while above us, perhaps by
+now, the eager warcraft of Earth were overwhelming the city. Tarrano had
+not spoken; but when at last our little car bumped gently at the bottom,
+he said smilingly: "We are here, Lady Elza."
+
+We left the car, and passed into a dim-lighted cavern. I saw a lateral
+black tunnel-mouth yawning nearby, with a shining rail at its top and
+bottom, one above the other. And between the rails was a metal vehicle.
+A long, narrow car; yet with its turtle-back and its propelling gas-tube
+at the rear, with a rudder on each side of the tube, I realized that it
+was designed also for sub-sea travel. A small affair. Ten feet at its
+greatest width, and fifty or sixty feet long.
+
+There was nothing startling in this evidence of underground and sub-sea
+transportation. But that it should be here in primitive Venia surprised
+me. Then I realized that Tarrano had been here perhaps many months.
+Quietly, secretly he had constructed this underground road. For his
+escape, I could not doubt it. Indeed, I did not doubt but that the man
+had anticipated practically every event which had occurred.
+
+We found in the car, or boat if you will, a variety of attendants and
+personal belongings. Tara was there; I saw her sitting alone on one of
+the distant rings of seats. And Argo was among us--and others whom I had
+learned to know by sight and name. It was the party and equipment which
+Tarrano had probably originally brought with him from Venus. We, the
+last arrivals in the car, took our places. The doors slid closed. The
+car vibrated slightly; purred with its forward motors. We were started.
+
+It was not a long trip. How far we went I have no means of knowing. But
+after a time, by the changed motion and sounds, I realized that we were
+traversing water. Then above us after another interval, they opened a
+hatchway. The pure fresh air of night streamed in upon us. Every light
+in the boat had been extinguished. At Tarrano's command I followed him
+up the small spider incline and through the hatchway. We stood on a
+little circular space of the turtle-deck, well aft--an observation space
+enclosed by a low metal rail. A few feet below us dark glossy water was
+slipping past.
+
+At a lazy hasteless pace, we were passing along what I saw to be a broad
+river. The Riola Amazonia[16] I afterward learned it to be. Heavy banks
+of luxurious foliage, dark and silent. Inundated in places. And after a
+few moments we slackened, turned sharply into one of the inundated coves
+and nosed slowly amid a tangle of the jungle bank.
+
+[Footnote 16: Evidently the upper Amazon.]
+
+And then I saw, hidden here in the recesses of this pathless forest, a
+small inter-planetary flyer, painted a hazy grey-blue. Around and over
+it the vegetation had been carefully, cunningly trained. A few cautious
+lights illumined it now; but without them, and even in daylight, I knew
+that from above it could never be seen.
+
+Our party entered it--a small but surprisingly luxurious vessel. The
+foliage from above it was cut away by ready workmen; and in half an hour
+more we were rising from the forest. Straight up, into that cloudless
+sky. The land dropped away beneath us; visually concave at first as the
+circular horizon seemed to rise with us. The sky overhead fortunately
+was empty--nothing in sight to bar our outward flight. And we carried no
+lights.
+
+In a moment or two, so swiftly did we gather velocity, the lights of
+Venia--a distant patch of them--were visible. Then, further away, I
+presently saw the grey expanse of open sea. And as we mounted, the
+simulated concavity of the Earth turned convex. I had never seen it
+thus--had never been so far above its surface before. A huge grey ball
+down there which was our Earth. Outlines of sea and land. Then
+continents and oceans, enveloped by patches of cloud area. A
+grey ball, changing to a glowing, vaguely dull red; then silver.
+Dwindling--gleaming brighter silver on one side where the sunlight
+struck it.
+
+We were in the realms of outer, inter-planetary space!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+_Playground of Venus_
+
+
+After a trip uneventful--save that to me, taking it for the first time,
+it was an experience never to be forgotten in a lifetime--we landed at
+the Great City of Venus. We had sent no messages during the trip, and
+with our grey-blue color, I think we escaped telescopic and even radio
+observation by the Earth. Into our vessel's small instrument room, where
+Tarrano spent most of his time, reports of the news occasionally drifted
+in. But his connection--small and inadequate--was often broken. Nor did
+Tarrano this time seem interested in having Wolfgar, Elza and me learn
+the news. Yet it was not unfavorable to him. I gathered that the Earth
+formally had accepted his declaration of war. Relations with Venus--and
+with Mars also, had been discontinued. The mails no longer left. The
+helios were stopped. But, so far as I could learn, the Earth was
+undertaking no offensive action. For the present, certainly.
+
+Soon we were beyond reach of all messages save helios, which were not in
+operation. And in another day news began reaching us from Venus. But
+from this Tarrano barred us.
+
+I saw Venus, as we dropped upon it, first as a tremendous lovely
+crescent of silver beneath us. A crescent first, and, as hours passed,
+the darkened area took shape. A ball hanging there in space. Growing
+almost momentarily larger. Soon we could distinguish cloud areas. Then
+the land--the water. A ball filling half our lower segment of sky. Then
+all of it.
+
+We reached the Venus atmosphere, passed through cloud masses, and out
+again into the brilliant sunshine. Below us, glowing with the glory of
+mid-day, lay the Venus Central State. Rolling hills with distant
+mountain peaks, the highest of them far-away, glittering white with the
+sunlight on their snow-caps.
+
+A land of warmth and beauty. Dazzling green, with a luxuriant
+vegetation, tropical yet strange.
+
+As we dropped lower, I sat alone, gazing downward. We were passing over
+the land now, at an altitude of no more than twenty thousand feet. A
+vivid land. Vivid sunlight; inky shadows; a green to everything--a
+solid, brilliant green. Amid it, spots of other colors; splashes of
+yellow; patches of scarlet as though some huge field were massed with
+scarlet blossoms. And trailing silver threads--rivers and streams. Or
+again glittering silver lakes nestling in the hills.
+
+A fairyland of beauty. Yet as I gazed, it seemed not the fairyland of a
+child. Not childish, but mature; for I could not miss in its aspect, a
+warmth, a quality of sensuousness. A land of dalliance and pleasure of
+the senses. And I realized then why the Venus people derived all their
+advancement of science and industry from Earthly and Martian sources. A
+hand of luxury and physical ease. People, not primitive--but decadent.
+
+I became aware of Wolfgar at my elbow. "It is very beautiful, eh, Jac
+Hallen?"
+
+"Beautiful--yes. You've been here before, Wolfgar?"
+
+He nodded. "Oh yes. Soon we will reach the Great City. That too is
+strange and beautiful."
+
+Elza saw us together and joined us. The Great City presently came into
+distant view. Wolfgar, with that gentle voice and smile characteristic
+of him began to describe to us what we should see. Abruptly Elza said:
+
+"I have never really thanked you, Wolfgar. You saved my life--there when
+Tara attacked me."
+
+He gestured. "Your thanks are more than such a service deserves."
+
+As though the subject had suggested Georg and Maida to him, he added,
+"I am wondering where Georg Brende and the Princess Maida may be."
+
+I fancied then that I saw a quality of wistfulness in his eyes. A gentle
+little fellow, this Mars man. Queer and brooding, with strange thoughts
+not to be fathomed. He added as though to himself: "I have often
+wondered--" Then stopped.
+
+Elza and I had discussed it. We felt sure that Georg and Maida had been
+taken to Venus. They could have had only a few hours' start of
+ourselves. Yet this vessel we were in was unusually slow. We felt
+convinced that they had already arrived on Venus--had been there perhaps
+already for a day.
+
+We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; but
+soon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of the
+Central State.
+
+It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded by
+gently sloping hillsides. The bowl was entirely filled by water--a broad
+flat lake of silver which from this height showed us its pearly bottom.
+On the water--seen from above--the houses seemed floating--clusters of
+lily pads on a placid shining pool. They were, in reality, flat cubical
+buildings solidly built of rectangular blocks of stone, standing just
+above the water level on solid stone foundations. Always green and
+white--stones like blocks of smooth, polished marble, set in green and
+white patterns. Balconies and cornices of what might have been gleaming,
+beaten copper. Flat roofs, edged with scarlet flowers.
+
+Some of the buildings were low and small. Others of several stories,
+pretentious and ornate. One very large, like a palace, standing alone on
+its verdant island.
+
+The houses were mostly gathered in clusters of various shapes and sizes.
+Yet a semblance of order prevailed. Winding streets of open water lay
+between the groups. There were trellised walks and arching spider
+bridges, sometimes over the streets, sometimes joining one house to
+another.
+
+Here and there I saw lagoons of open water, dotted with small green
+islands like parks--islands on which the vegetation grew far higher and
+more luxuriant than any even in the tropics of our Earth. Vegetation
+always under careful training and control. Profuse with flowers, vivid
+and gigantic. The houses too, were roofed with gardens--sometimes
+with pergolas and trellises of the aerial scarlet blossoms.
+Occasionally--these latter details I observed as we descended close upon
+the city--I saw houses with a tiny swimming pool on the roof--a private
+pool hidden in masses of colored flowers.
+
+A playground--the playground of Venus. It seemed very
+backward--uncivilized. And then Wolfgar pointed out the surrounding
+hillsides. On them, cleared of their vegetation, our modern civilization
+stood gaunt and efficient. Towers, aerials, landing stages, aerial
+trams, factories, tall stacks over the dynamo houses belching thick
+black smoke, which artificial wind-generators carefully blew away from
+the city.
+
+In the midst of their hillside ring of necessary modernity, the people
+of the Great City had kept their playground inviolate. Work, science,
+industry--all necessary. But the real business of life was pleasure.
+Art, music, beauty.... And I am not far from thinking that unless
+abused, their formula is better than ours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+_Violet Beam of Death_
+
+
+We landed on a stage at the summit of one of the nearer hillsides. Our
+coming--unheralded since we had carried no sending instruments--created
+a furor. The workers rested to watch us as we disembarked. It was not so
+different a scene, here on the hill, than might have occurred on Earth.
+We took a moving platform, down the hill, to the water's edge. A barge
+was awaiting us--a broad flat vessel with gaudy trappings. A score of
+attendants lined its sides, each with a pole to thrust it through the
+shallow water. And on its high-raised stern, beneath a canopy was a
+couch upon which Tarrano reclined, with us of his party at his feet.
+
+A royal barge, queerly ancient, barbaric--reminding me of the flat,
+motionless pictures of Earth's early history. Yet it was a symbol here
+on Venus, not of barbarism, but of decadence.
+
+We started off. I may have given a false idea of the size of the Great
+City. Its lake, indeed, was fully fifteen miles or more in diameter.
+Half a million people lived on or close around that placid stretch of
+water.
+
+The news of Tarrano's arrival had instantly spread. Graceful boats, all
+propelled by hand, thronged our course. From them, and from every
+house-window, balcony and roof-top, a waving multitude cheered the
+coming of the Master. The new Master, to whom so recently they had given
+their allegiance--the Master who in return was to endow them with life
+everlasting.
+
+It was a gay, holiday throng--cheering us, tossing flower-petals down
+upon us as we passed majestically beneath the bridges. Yet among these
+gaudily dressed women and men with the luster of wealth and ease upon
+them, others mingled. Others of a lower class, poorly dressed, with the
+badge of servitude upon them, enthralled in a social peonage which I did
+not yet understand.
+
+"_Slaans_," Wolfgar called them. A term half of derision, half contempt.
+And Wolfgar pointed one out to me. A huge grey, surly-looking fellow
+passing in a one-man shell or boat of tree-fibre. He gazed up at us as
+he went by--a furtive glance of cold, sullen fury. Unmistakable. And I
+saw it again on others of his kind--men, women, even children who gazed
+at us with big, round eyes. A dumb, sullen resentment, with a
+smouldering fury beneath it.
+
+During the trip, which may have taken an hour, I remarked something
+also, which did not at the time seem significant but very soon I was to
+recall it and understand its import. Argo, of course, was still with us.
+As we embarked upon the barge, a man evidently an official of the Great
+City had paid his humble respects to Tarrano and then withdrawn to a
+further part of the vessel, drawing Argo with him. I saw the two in
+close conversation. The official evidently was telling Argo something of
+importance. I could see Argo growing indignant and then his eyes
+gleaming, a leer upon his cruel lips.
+
+During the trip Tarrano sat calm, half reclining on his couch--sat
+watching with his keen expressionless eyes the applause of the
+multitude. It was, I think, and I believe he felt it also, the height of
+his career up to that time--this triumphant entry into the greatest city
+of Venus. He did not speak, just sat watching and listening, with a half
+smile of triumph pulling at his mouth. Yet I know too, that those keen
+eyes of his did not miss the sullen glances of the _slaans_.
+
+The weather, as always in the Venus Central State, was warm--a luxurious
+tropic warmth. And now I felt--as I had seen from above--the languorous,
+sensuous quality of it all. Music, mingled with the ripple of girlish
+laughter and cheers, came from the houses as we passed. Soft, fragrant
+flower-petals deluged us. The very air was laden heavy with exotic
+perfumes from the flowers which were everywhere.
+
+We arrived at last at what appeared to be a palace--a broad, low
+building of polished stone, on an island of its own. It was the building
+I had noticed when first we saw the Great City from above. Gardens were
+about the building, and on its roof. Flowers lined its many balconies.
+
+We drew up to a stone landing-place.
+
+"The palace of the Princess Maida," Wolfgar whispered.
+
+But I had no time to question him. Attendants appeared. A queer mixture.
+Incongruous men of science, armed with belts of instruments. They
+greeted Tarrano humbly; escorted him away.
+
+Other attendants. Natives of the city, in the flowing, bright-colored
+robes we had seen everywhere. A group of them--laughing young
+girls--descended upon us.
+
+"The Princess Maida bids you welcome."
+
+They hurried us into the building. I was surprised. Tarrano had
+seemingly ignored us. It was quite as though we were honored guests,
+arriving in the Central State when Maida was its ruler.
+
+Led by the girls, we passed upward into the building past splashing
+fountains, cascades of perfumed water with tubes of silver light
+gleaming in its midst; and were thrust at last into a room.
+
+The girls withdrew. Across the floor-polished stone, with heavy woven
+rugs upon it--Georg and the Princess Maida advanced upon us.
+
+Our greetings were brief. I could have talked to them both for a day,
+questioning them; and they, no doubt, had as much to ask of us. But they
+were solemn, grave and anxious.
+
+"Not now, Jac," Georg said to check me. "Elza dear--I have been so
+worried over you."
+
+"But----" I demanded.
+
+"Jac--the situation here--our own cause--the safety of our Earth
+itself--this Tarrano--"
+
+But Maida stopped him. "The very air has ears. Not now." Her glance
+turned to Wolfgar; her slim hands went out to greet him. "Wolfgar, my
+friend. It is good to see you here."
+
+Wolfgar knelt before her, gazed for one instant into her eyes, and then
+with head bowed, brushed the hem of her robe to his face.
+
+She laughed gently. "Stand up, Wolfgar. I would not be the Princess
+Maida to you now. Only--your friend. Your grateful friend."
+
+There was a sudden soundless flash. From across the room a beam of
+violet flame darted at us. It struck just between Maida and Wolfgar, as
+he rose from his knee. Both of them involuntarily stepped backward,
+apart from each other. And between them, breast high, the flame hung
+level across the room. Maida was on one side of it; all the rest of us,
+on the other.
+
+I turned. At the door, Argo had appeared. From a black object in his
+hand, the beam was streaming. He rested the black thing on a wall ledge
+so that the beam hung level.
+
+"Stand where you are, all of you." He started toward Maida, behind the
+beam from the rest of us.
+
+Georg made as though to leap forward, but Wolfgar restrained him. "Wait!
+You don't understand--that's death!"
+
+I saw now that the violet light had encircled us. Only Maida and Argo
+were outside it. He was approaching her, with a cylinder in his hand.
+The ray from it struck her without power of movement or speech. Her
+eyes, terrified, turned to us. Again Georg would have leaped, but
+Wolfgar shouted, "Wait! That's death! Don't you understand?"
+
+Argo was leering. "Death? Yes! If you touch that violet light! Death, of
+course. But you won't touch it! You will stand and watch--stand silently
+for you know that if you shout, the vibrations will bring the beam upon
+you. You won't move--you'll stand and watch me kill your Princess
+Maida--not quickly--she is too beautiful for that. You, Georg
+Brende--you, Wolfgar, traitor from Mars. You shall see your Princess
+Maida die--this would-be traitoress to my Master Tarrano!"
+
+With all the strength of his puny body Wolfgar flung Georg
+backward--safely away from the deadly violet beam. And then, without
+warning, without a cry which would endanger us, the little Mars man
+sprang headlong, into and through the violet beam of death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+_Passing of a Friend_
+
+
+Wolfgar was not dead; but when we picked him up it was obvious that he
+was dying. The violet beam vanished as his body struck it--vanished with
+a hiss and splutter, and a puff of sulphuric smoke that mingled with the
+smell of burning garments and flesh.
+
+Georg and I leaped forward. Argo was standing transfixed by surprise at
+what Wolfgar had done; and as the beam died, Georg was upon him.
+
+"One moment!"
+
+The quiet, commanding voice of Tarrano. He must have come quickly, when
+informed by the finders of Argo's treachery. Yet he stood now at the
+arcade entrance, drawn to his full height, frowning with lowered brows,
+but wholly without appearance of haste.
+
+"One moment--stand aside, all of you."
+
+Argo cowered. The rest of us moved aside. Elza came toward me, and I put
+my arm around her. Poor little Elza! She was shivering with fright.
+
+Tarrano seemed not to need information as to what had transpired. His
+eyes, roving over us, saw the lifeless, seared body of Wolfgar lying on
+the floor.
+
+"Too bad," he said. Then his gaze swung to Argo.
+
+"Master----"
+
+"Silence!"
+
+There was on Tarrano's face and in his voice an expression, a tone quite
+new to me. A quiet grimness. More than that. A quality of deadliness--of
+inexorable deadliness which could well have chilled the stoutest heart
+that fronted it.
+
+"Come here, Argo." Tarrano stood quite motionless. "Argo!"
+
+"Master! Master, you----"
+
+"Come!"
+
+Argo was on the floor. Shaking with terror--for he, probably better than
+any of us, understood what was coming--dragged himself to Tarrano's
+feet.
+
+"Stand up!"
+
+"Master, have mercy----"
+
+"Stand up! Are you a man?"
+
+Argo's legs would barely support him, but he struggled to get himself
+erect. With a wrench, Tarrano tore the robe from Argo's chest.
+
+"Master! Master! Have mercy!"
+
+In Tarrano's hand I saw a needle-like piece of steel. A dagger, yet it
+was more like a needle.
+
+"Master--Oh----"
+
+Tarrano had stabbed it gently into the man's chest. A mere prick into
+the flesh, and a tiny drop of blood oozed out.
+
+For a moment Argo stood swaying. Eyes white-rimmed with mortal terror as
+he stupidly looked down at the drop of blood. A moment, then the
+injected poison took effect. He tottered, flung his arms above his head
+and fell. Lay writhing an instant; then twitching; and then quite still.
+
+Tarrano turned away, his face impassive. "Unfortunate. He was a good man
+in many ways--I shall be sorry to lose his services." He saw me with my
+arm around Elza, and he frowned.
+
+"So?"
+
+Instinctively, involuntarily--and I hated myself for it--I dropped my
+arm.
+
+Georg exclaimed: "Wolfgar--he----"
+
+Tarrano turned from me. "He is not dead--but he will die. There is
+nothing we can do. I'm very sorry--very sorry indeed."
+
+A sincere regret was in his tone. We lifted Wolfgar up, carried him to a
+depression in the floor by the wall--a shallow, couch-like bowl
+half-filled with down.
+
+On the floor we gathered, seated on cushions; and presently Wolfgar
+regained consciousness. His face was not burned. It lighted with a dazed
+smile; and his eyes, searching us, picked out Maida.
+
+"You are safe--I'm--so glad."
+
+His voice was low and labored; and at once his eyes closed again as
+though the effort of speaking were too great.
+
+Maida was sitting near me at Wolfgar's head, bending over him. She had
+recovered from her terror of Argo; and as she leaned down, gazing at the
+dying Wolfgar, I think I have never seen so gentle, so compassionate an
+expression upon the face of any woman.
+
+Elza whispered: "There must be something we can do. The men of
+medicine--the lights--the healing lights! Georg! Cannot you use
+father's----"
+
+They were only an overwrought girl's excited ideas, of course. Wolfgar's
+lungs were seared; even as Elza spoke, he coughed, and blood welled from
+his mouth--blood which Georg quickly wiped away.
+
+Tarrano was on his feet behind us, with folded arms; and as he looked
+down, I saw on his face also--the face which a few moments before had
+been grim with deadly menace--a look now of gentle compassion very much
+like Maida's.
+
+"No use," he said softly. "We can do nothing. He will die."
+
+Again Wolfgar's eyes opened. "Die--of course." He tried to raise one of
+his burned hands, but dropped it back. "Die? Yes--of course. In just a
+moment...." His eyes, already dulled, swung about. "Who is that--crying?
+There's no need--to cry."
+
+It was little Elza beside me, struggling to suppress her sobs.
+
+Wolfgar's slow, labored voice demanded: "That isn't--my Princess Maida
+crying--is it? I don't want--her to cry----"
+
+"No," said Georg gently. "Maida is here--right here by you. She isn't
+crying."
+
+His gaze found Maida's face. "Oh, yes--I can see you--Princess Maida.
+You're not crying--that's good. There's nothing to--cry about."
+
+He seemed for a moment to gather a little strength; he moved his head
+and saw Tarrano standing there behind us.
+
+"Master?" He used the old term with a whimsical smile. "I--called you
+that--for a long time, didn't I? You have a right to consider me a
+traitor----"
+
+"A spy," said Tarrano very gently. "Not a traitor. That you would have
+been had you served me--a traitor to your Princess."
+
+Wolfgar's head tried to nod; relief was on his face. "I'm--glad you
+understand. I would not want to die--having you think harshly of me----"
+
+"You are a man--I honor you." Abruptly Tarrano turned away and strode
+across the room. And always since I have wondered if he left that scene
+of death because of the emotion he could not hide.
+
+Georg said: "You should not talk, Wolfgar."
+
+"But I--want to talk. I have--only a few minutes. Just these--last few
+minutes--I want to talk to my--Princess Maida. You'll--excuse us--the
+Princess Maida and me--won't you? Just for these last--few minutes?"
+
+We withdrew beyond his fading sight.
+
+"My--Princess Maida----"
+
+His voice still reached us. She leaned closer over him. Her tears were
+falling now, but as she spoke she strove for calmness.
+
+"Wolfgar----"
+
+His eyes were glazing, but they dung to her. "Princess----"
+
+"No," she said. "Just Maida--your friend. The woman you have given your
+life for." Her voice almost broke. "Oh, Wolfgar! Never shall I forget
+that. To give your life----"
+
+"It is--a great honor." The gesture he made to check her words of thanks
+exhausted him. His eyes closed; for a moment he seemed not to breathe.
+As Maida leaned down in alarm, her beautiful white hair tumbled forward
+over her shoulders. A lock of it brushed Wolfgar. He could not lift his
+hands, but they groped for the tresses, found them and clung. Her white
+waves of hair, with his fingers, shriveled, burned black, entwined in
+them.
+
+Again his eyelids came up. "You won't leave me--Princess Maida. Not for
+these--last few minutes?"
+
+"No," she half whispered.
+
+"You--cannot--if you would." His whimsical smile returned. "You see? I
+am--holding you."
+
+For a moment he was silent. His eyes stayed open, staring dully at her.
+His face and lips were drained now of their blood.
+
+"You're--still there?"
+
+"Yes, Wolfgar."
+
+"Yes--of course I know you are. But I--cannot see you very well--now.
+You look--so far away."
+
+She put her face down quite close to him. Her eyes were brimming with
+tears.
+
+"Oh--yes," he said. "That's better--much better. Now I can--see
+you--very plainly. I was thinking--I wanted to--tell you something.
+It--wouldn't be right to tell you--except that I'll soon--be gone where
+it won't make any difference."
+
+He gathered all his last remaining strength. "I--love you--Princess
+Maida."
+
+She forced a gentle smile through her tears. "Yes, Wolfgar."
+
+"I mean," he persisted, "not as my Princess--just as--a woman.
+The--woman I've always loved. That's been my secret. You see? It
+would--always have been--my secret--the little Mars man Wolfgar--in love
+with his Princess Maida. You--don't think it too impertinent of me--do
+you? I mean--confessing it now--just at--the end?"
+
+"No," she whispered. "No, Wolfgar."
+
+"Thank you--very much." His breath exhaled with a faint sigh. "Thank
+you--very much. I wanted to tell you that--before I--go. And--if you
+wouldn't mind--I want to--call you--just Maida."
+
+"Just Maida, Wolfgar. Yes, of course, I want you to call me that." Her
+voice was broken. She brushed away her tears that he might not notice
+them.
+
+"Yes," he agreed. His staring eyes were trying to see her. "My Maida.
+You're--very beautiful--my Maida. I--wonder--you see, I'm taking
+advantage of you--I wonder if you'd say you--love me? I'd be so
+happy--just to hear you say it."
+
+As I sat there behind them, I prayed then that she might say it.
+
+"I love you, Wolfgar."
+
+"Oh," he whispered. "You _did_ say it! My Maida says that she loves me!"
+Happiness transfigured his livid face. But his smile was whimsical
+still. "You're--very kind to me. Please--say it again."
+
+"I love you, Wolfgar."
+
+"Yes--that's how I always dreamed it would sound.
+I--love--you--Wolfgar."
+
+His voice trailed away; a film was settling over his staring eyes. Then
+again his lips moved. "Maida says--'I love you, Wolfgar' ... I'm--so
+happy...."
+
+Quite suddenly she realized that he was gone. Her pent-up emotion came
+with a sob.
+
+"Wolfgar! My friend--my wonderful, loyal friend--don't die, Wolfgar!
+Don't die!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+_Waters of Eternal Peace_
+
+
+Little Wolfgar was gone. It seemed at first very strange, unreal. It lay
+a shadow of grief upon our spirits, for many hours a deeper shadow than
+all those grave events impending upon which hung the fate of three
+worlds.
+
+Tarrano ordered for Wolfgar a public burial of ceremony and honor in the
+waters of eternal peace--ordered it for that same evening. Once again
+Tarrano demonstrated the strangeness of his nature. His arrival to take
+possession of Venus had been made the occasion of a great festival. "The
+Water Festival," they called it, which was held only at times of
+universal public rejoicing. It was planned now to do honor to
+Tarrano--planned for this same evening. But he postponed it a night;
+tonight was for Wolfgar.
+
+We were still captives in Tarrano's hands, as we had been on Earth in
+Venia. Yet here in the Great City of Venus a curious situation arose.
+Tarrano himself explained it to us that afternoon. An embarrassing
+situation for him, he termed it.
+
+"Very embarrassing," he said, with eyes that smiled at us quizzically.
+"Just for your ears alone, you understand, I am willing to admit that I
+must handle these Great City people very carefully. You, Princess
+Maida--you are greatly beloved of your people."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+He nodded. "For that reason they would not like to know you are
+virtually a captive. And you, Georg Brende--really, they are beginning
+to look on you as a savior--to save them from disease and death. It is
+rather unflattering to me----"
+
+He broke off, then with sudden decision added:
+
+"Soon you two will realize that to join me will be your best course. And
+best for all the worlds, for it will bring to them all peace and health
+and happiness.... No, I ask no decision from you now. Nor from you, Lady
+Elza." His gaze softened as he regarded her--softened almost to a
+quantity of wistfulness. "_You_ know, Lady Elza, for what I am striving.
+I may--indeed I shall--conquer the worlds. But you hold in the palm of
+your little white hand, my real reward.... Enough!"
+
+And then he offered us a sort of pseudo-liberty. We might all come and
+go about the Great City at will. Apparently--to the public eye--allied
+to Tarrano. The Princess Maida--as before--hereditary honored ruler;
+with Tarrano guiding the business affairs of State, as on Earth our
+Presidents and their Councils rule the legendary Kings and Queens. The
+one ruling in fact; the other, an affair of pretty sentiment.
+
+It was this condition which Tarrano now desired to bring about. With
+Georg already beloved for his medical knowledge; and flying rumors
+(started no doubt by Tarrano) that the handsome Earth man would some day
+marry their Princess.
+
+Myself--the irony of it!--I was appointed a sort of bodyguard to the
+Lady Elza--the little Earth girl whose presence in the Great City would
+help conciliate the Earth and bring about universal peace--with Venus in
+control.
+
+So ran the popular fancy, guided by Tarrano. We were given our
+pseudo-liberty, watched always by the unseen eyes of Tarrano's guards.
+And there was nothing we could do but accept our status. Tarrano was
+guiding his destiny cleverly. Yet underneath it all, unseen forces were
+at work. We sensed them. The _slaans_--submissive at their menial tasks,
+but everywhere with sullen, resentful glances. Perhaps Tarrano realized
+his danger; but I do not think that he, any more than the rest of us,
+realized what the Water Festival was to bring forth.
+
+That night--our first night on Venus--midway between the darkness of
+sunset and the dawn--we buried Wolfgar. The air was soft and warm, with
+a gentle breeze that riffled the placid waters of the lake. Overhead,
+the sky gleamed with a myriad stars--reddish stars, all of them like Red
+Mars himself as seen through the heavy Venus atmosphere. Largest of
+them, the Earth. My birthplace! Save Elza here with me on Venus, that
+tiny red spot in the heavens, red like the tip of a lighted
+arrant-cylinder, held all that was dear to me!
+
+The funeral cortege--a solemn line of panoplied boats, started from the
+palace. Boats hung with purple fabric. In single file they wended their
+way through the city streets. From every landing, balcony, window and
+roof-top, the people stared down at us. The street corners were hung
+with shaded tubes of light, shining down with spots of color to the
+water.
+
+As we passed, the people bowed their heads, hands to their foreheads,
+palms outward. The gesture of grief. From one building came a low
+musical chant.
+
+"Honor to Wolfgar! The man who gave his life for our Princess. Honor to
+Wolfgar!"
+
+We came to the edge of the city. The lake here narrowed to a river--a
+length of winding river opening to the pond which was the burial place
+of Eternal Peace. On Tarrano's barge, with Elza and Georg, we led the
+way. Maida was not with us. I asked Tarrano where she was, but solemnly
+he denied me.
+
+At the burial waters--on the sloping banks of which a silent throng had
+gathered--we landed. And following us, the other vessels of the cortege
+came along and stopped beside us. The pond was dotted with white markers
+for the graves. The whole scene unlighted, save for the stars, and the
+red and purple aural lights of the Venus heavens, which mounted the sky
+at this midnight hour. A great, glowing arc--the reflected glow from a
+myriad cluster of tiny moons and moon-dust, encircling Venus. The soft
+light from it flooded the water and the tombs with a flush of red and
+purple.
+
+As we lay there against the bank, with that silent throng breathlessly
+watching, from down the river came the last vessel of our cortege. It
+made a scene I shall never forget. The bier. Draped in purple. A single,
+half-naked _slaan_ propelling it with a sweep from its stern. The body
+of Wolfgar lying on its raised prow--his dead, white face, with peace
+upon it. Beside the body, the lone figure of Maida, kneeling at
+Wolfgar's head, with her white, braided hair falling down over her
+shoulders. Kneeling and staring, almost expressionless; but I knew that
+with her whole heart she was speeding the soul of Wolfgar to its eternal
+peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+_Unseen Menace_
+
+
+That day following the burial of Wolfgar, there was nothing of
+importance occurred. No news from the Earth could get in. I felt that
+the Earth might be planning an attack. Probably was, since war had been
+declared. Yet that of course was months away.
+
+Tarrano apparently was engaged in the pleasurable triumph of the coming
+Water Festival. All day he seemed engaged in planning it. But I knew
+that he was engaged secretly with far sterner things concerning the Cold
+Country, which lay a day's journey from us. But what they were, I did
+not know.
+
+The Water Festival was all we talked of. That afternoon, Tarrano
+describing it, said smilingly:
+
+"They say it is for me. But, Lady Elza--it is _I_ who plan it--for you.
+You have not seen the Red Woman." A gleam of amusement played upon his
+lips; but as he regarded Elza, I saw another look--of speculation, as
+though he were gauging her.
+
+"The Red Woman, Lady Elza. She will preside tonight. You will find
+her--very interesting. We will watch her together, you and I."
+
+I did not know then what he meant; but I remembered the words later, and
+understood only too well.
+
+Just after sundown, when I chanced to be in a small boat alone, near the
+palace, the first of two significant incidents occurred. From the
+shadows beneath a house, the head of a swimming man emerged. A _slaan_,
+and he gripped the sides of my boat as I drifted.
+
+"Wait, Earth man." He spoke in the quaint universal language, which I
+understood, though imperfectly.
+
+I gazed at him. A bullet-like head, with sullen, blazing eyes. He added:
+"We do not blame you--or your woman, Elza--or the Princess Maida. Have
+no fear, but guard yourself well tonight."
+
+Before I could speak he had sunk into the water, swimming beneath it. I
+could see the phosphorescence of his moving body as he swam away into
+the shadows beyond my line of vision.
+
+The other incident came a moment later. As I was gazing down into the
+water I saw a moving metal shape. A triangular metal head, as of a
+diver's cap. More than that, it turned upward; and behind its pane was a
+man's face. Unfamiliar to me--yet the face of an Anglo-Saxon man of
+Earth! Unmistakable! It stared at me a moment--no more than three or
+four feet below my boat. And then it moved away and vanished.
+
+I had no opportunity to speak alone with Elza, or Georg or Maida that
+entire evening. Always Tarrano was with us. We sat upon the palace
+balcony, we men smoking our arrant-cylinders. Tarrano talked and joked
+like a care-free youth. He was very courteous to Elza, with a holiday
+spirit upon him. But his eyes never relaxed; and often I could see him
+measuring her.
+
+The aural lights mounted the sky. The holiday spirit which was on
+Tarrano was spreading everywhere throughout the city. Boats gayly
+bedecked--in such contrast to the funeral cortege of poor Wolfgar just
+the night before--began passing the palace on their way to the festival
+waters. Men and laughing girls thronged them. All with red masks
+covering their faces. The men in grey tight-fitting garments, with
+conical caps and flowing plumes; the girls in bright-colored, flowing
+robes, and tresses dangling with flowers entwined in them.
+
+The balcony upon which we sat was close above the water level. The
+barges, of every size and kind, glided past. Sometimes the girls would
+shower us with flower petals. One small boat paused before us. A girl
+stood up to wave at me. Her hand, held up with the loose robe falling
+back from her slim white arm, offered me a huge scarlet blossom. The
+love offering. As I hesitated, her laughter rippled out. She tore the
+mask from her face. Her red mouth was smiling; her eyes, provocative,
+were dancing with mischief. She tossed the flower into my face as her
+escort, with a shout of mock anger, pulled her back to him.
+
+Their boats glided on.
+
+Other boats passed; some with girls gayly strumming instruments of
+music. One boat with a man strumming, and a girl on a small dais,
+dancing with a whirl of black veils. As they came opposite to us another
+man in the boat reached up and pushed the girl overboard. She fell into
+the water with a scream of laughter; came up like a mermaid and they
+pulled her aboard, the veils and her hair clinging to her.
+
+At last Tarrano signified that we must go. It was upon me then to make
+an effort to draw back, to keep Elza and Maida at the palace with Georg
+and me. My heart was heavy with foreboding. Amid all this laughter and
+music--pleasure of the senses reigning supreme here in the Great City
+tonight--I could not miss a sense of impending evil. The _slaans_
+propelling the boats were stolid and grim. Not for them, this dalliance.
+Not for their women, this music and laughter, these daring costumes to
+display their beauty. The _slaan_ women, drab with work, were slinking
+about unnoticed. Often I would see a boat of them slip by, furtively, in
+the shadows. Drab women, watching these beauties, resentful, sullen--and
+with what purpose smouldering in their hearts I could only guess.
+
+The very air--to me at least--seemed pregnant with impending evil. I
+know that Georg felt it too. Often I had caught his eye as he regarded
+me. Once he started to whisper to me aside, but like a flash, Tarrano
+with his microphonic ear, turned to interrupt us.
+
+I wanted to stay with Elza at the palace. Suddenly I was afraid of
+Tarrano, more afraid for Elza than I had ever been. And who, and what
+was this Red Woman? Maida knew, of course. Maida had been very solemn
+for hours; thoughtful, almost grim.
+
+And the _slaan_ in the water who said he did not blame us. He had warned
+us to guard ourselves. But how? There were no weapons. On this night of
+pleasure nothing would have been more incongruous.
+
+And that metal cap in the water with a man's face behind it? An Earth
+man of my own race! What did it mean?
+
+I was perturbed--frightened. But I did not demur when Tarrano led us to
+his flower-bedecked barge. Of what use?
+
+We were paired. Georg with Maida; Elza with Tarrano. And I? Tarrano told
+me curtly--and with a smile of ironic amusement--that when we reached
+the festival so handsome a man as I would have no trouble engaging the
+attention of some Venus maiden.
+
+On cushions in the barge we reclined while our _slaans_ poled us along
+the streets. Tarrano was feeding sweets to Elza as though they were gay
+young lovers. Poor little Elza! She was frightened. Her face was a
+trifle pale, her lips set. But she, too, knew that we were wholly in
+Tarrano's power, and she made the best of the situation. Sometimes she
+would laugh gayly; but I could not miss the note of fear in it.
+
+The progress of our barge was slow. Boats clustered around us, their
+occupants pelting us with flowers. A deluge spray of perfume was turned
+on us--a heavy, exotic scent, almost cloying. It lay redolent on our
+garments for hours.
+
+Presently Tarrano gave us masks. And long robes for Maida and Elza to
+cover the gay holiday dresses they were wearing.
+
+At the edge of the city a canal had been dug through the hillside. We
+passed slowly through it, under archways of dangling colored lights,
+around a sharp bend and came upon the Water Festival. And--with
+impending tragedy for the moment forgotten--I gazed for this first time
+at such a scene of pleasure and beauty as I had never even imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+_Love, Music--and a Warning_
+
+
+The Water Festival! As our barge rounded a bend in the canal, under the
+archways of dangling colored lights, the festival spread before us.
+Involuntarily I stood up to gaze. The canal opened into an artificial
+lake--a broad circular sheet of water some 800 _helans_[17] in diameter.
+Sloping hillsides enclosed the lake--hillsides which I saw were terraced
+with huge banks of seats in tiers one above the other.
+
+[Footnote 17: About 4,000 feet.]
+
+The seats were crowded with people. White ribbons of roads gave access
+from the neighboring countryside for land-surface vehicles, and there
+were stages for the accommodation of air-craft. The rural populace, and
+people from the nearby smaller cities, had gathered to view this
+national spectacle--a million or more of them probably, with their
+individual electrical telescopes for direct distant vision, and small
+pocket mirrors for that which otherwise would be hidden. A million
+people at least, seated here on these gigantic spreading tiers.
+
+The lake itself was thus the stage as it were, of a tremendous arena.
+Tiny artificial islands dotted the lake--a hundred of them. Islands,
+some no more than a few feet broad; some larger, and in the center of
+the lake, one quite large. All the islands were covered with luxuriant
+vegetation. The tiny ones were no more than shadowed nooks of leaves and
+flowers.
+
+Between the islands, crooked lanes of the placid water wended their way
+in and out, broadening into occasional lagoons. Bridges crossed the
+lanes; archways of lights spanned them at intervals.
+
+From this distance the whole scene was a riot of color and great red and
+purple auroral lights of Venus, which at this midnight hour rode the
+upper sky, tinged everything vividly. The archway lights were soft rose,
+silver and gold. Some of the tiny islands, from sources hidden were
+bathed in bright silver. Others darker, in deep purple and red; still
+others, quite unlighted, dim and shadowed, touched only by the reflected
+glow from those near them.
+
+From the main island lights were flashing into the sky; occasional color
+bombs mounted and burst, painting the heavens.
+
+A riot of color. And then as we approached, I became aware of sound and
+movement as well. Music from scores of unseen sources. Music from single
+isolated instruments floating softly over the water--lovers playing
+accompaniment to their pleading voices; or again, groups of voices--the
+curiously mellow voices of young girls--and, on an island apart, music
+from an aerial carrying strains from the public _concelan_.[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: Orchestra.]
+
+It was all music of a type unfamiliar to me of Earth. The
+intellectuality of our Earth music was missing. This music of Venus was
+built upon queer minor strains; unfinished cadences; a rhythm of the
+sort we of Earth could never encompass. I listened, and felt the appeal
+of my senses. The lavish, abandoned music of barbarism? I had almost
+thought it that. Yet it was not. Rather was it decadent. This whole
+scene; the color, the music, the heavy cloying scents with which the
+night air was redolent; the warm, sensuous abandonment, felt rather than
+made obvious--it was not barbarism, but decadence. And I realized then
+how close are the two extremes. A reversion to type, merely. And I knew,
+then, that from the pinnacle of civilization which we of Earth had
+reached, naught lay before us but this.
+
+Music everywhere throughout the festival. And movement. As we floated
+out of the canal, passing slowly along one of the broader waterways,
+boats and barges slipped past us. Barges crowded with revelers. And the
+small boats, generally with but a man and a girl--fugitive couples with
+the holiday spirit upon them, seeking the shadowed nooks of islands for
+their love-making.
+
+In one lagoon we came upon such a boat. The man in it--a gay youth in
+red and black motley, with the mask fallen from his laughing, perspiring
+face--was in its stern, manipulating it with a long, thin paddle. The
+girl was lying face down on cushions in its prow. She was facing
+forward, with her long white hair tumbling about her. Around the boat
+were clustered a number of other boats. Each was small, with only a man
+in it. A ring of boats, besieging the girl. Our barge paused to watch. A
+boat would dash forward, its occupant standing up to thrust it on. But
+the girl, swung to meet it by the efforts of her escort, would turn her
+cylinder of _alcholite_[19] upon the attacker. Befuddled, her adversary
+would retreat; or another, momentarily drunk, would fall into the water
+to be sobered.
+
+[Footnote 19: A scent or perfume, highly intoxicating.]
+
+All with gay shouts of laughter; until at last the couple were
+victorious and scurried away to their island.
+
+We passed on. There were mimic battles often on the islands. A hidden
+couple found out and dragged back. A lone man attacked and pelted with
+flowers by a band of marauding girls. A diving platform at one end of an
+oval lagoon. Girls mounting it to dive into the red-shimmering water,
+where waiting youths were swimming, and by their prowess in downing
+other contenders would seize upon the girls and carry them off to where
+a barge was loading its passengers for the main island.
+
+To this main island we came at last. It was heavily wooded, and indented
+with shallow, placid waterways. In one of them we landed; and amid a
+sudden quiet and awe at the presence of Tarrano, we went ashore. Georg
+walking with Maida; Tarrano forcing Elza to hold his arm; and I, beside
+Elza until Tarrano sternly bade me walk behind.
+
+We were masked, but the revelers knew us. Amid the throng with which the
+island was packed, we moved slowly forward toward a gay pavilion which
+was in the center of the grove. Music came from it--a broad, roofed-over
+pavilion with a dancing floor in the depression of its center space, and
+tiers of balconies above it.
+
+Within the pavilion, where the air was heavy with the smell of wine,
+arrant-smoke, intoxicating whiffs of surreptitiously used
+alcholite-cylinders and sensuous perfumes upon the garments of the
+women--in here, the throng pressed around us; the dancers stopped to
+gaze; the music momentarily hushed; the spectators on the
+balconies--girls reclining on cushions with young gallants seated beside
+them with trays of food and drink--all turned to crane down at us.
+
+"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"
+
+A girl shouted it. A murmur of applause swept about us.
+
+Abruptly Tarrano removed his mask. His face, which had been concealed,
+showed with the flush of pleasure and his lips were parted with a smile
+of gratification and triumph. But, as the red silk mask was doffed,
+another took its place--the mask of imperturbability--that grave,
+inscrutable look with which he always masked his real emotions.
+
+"Honor to the Master Tarrano!"
+
+Tarrano raised his hand; his quiet, calm voice carried throughout the
+silent room.
+
+"There is no Master here tonight. No Master--only the Mistress of Love.
+Let us honor her. Let _her_ rule us all--tonight."
+
+For just an instant his gaze seemed to linger upon Elza; then he gravely
+replaced his red mask. Applause swept the room; the music started again.
+The lights overhead began whirling their kaleidoscope of colors down
+upon the dancers.
+
+We took our places in a canopied enclosure upon the first balcony, some
+twenty feet above the dance floor. Tarrano refused the cushions; he
+placed Elza deferentially upon them, and spread food and drink and
+sweet-meats before her. Near them sat Georg and Maida. I would have sat
+between Elza and Georg, but Tarrano pulled me away from them.
+
+"You are wanted below." He said it very softly, for my ears alone; but
+through his mask I could see his eyes blazing at me.
+
+"They are diving into the pool outside--cannot you hear them, Jac
+Hallen?" Impatience came to his voice; in truth, I must have been
+staring at him witless. "Maidens out there, Jac Hallen, who are seeking
+handsome youths like yourself for escort. Must I speak plainly? You are
+not wanted here. Go!"
+
+"I----"
+
+"Another word will be your last." His voice was still almost
+emotionless, but I did not miss the gesture of his hand to his belt.
+"You had best obey, Jac Hallen."
+
+I was hardly so witless as not to realize the truth of his admonition. I
+turned away; and with all the laughter and movement around us, I think
+that Georg, Maida and Elza did not see me go.
+
+For the space of an hour or more, I stood alone on the lower floor of
+the pavilion, watching the balcony where Tarrano and the others sat.
+Stood there alone, feeling helpless and with my heart heavy with
+foreboding. Beneath my grey robe I was dressed in holiday fashion of the
+Great City--beribboned and gartered, with feathers at my scarlet
+shoulders for all the world like a male _nada_.[20] My red mask I kept
+on, and folded my cloak around me.
+
+[Footnote 20: A popinjay--fop.]
+
+The dance floor was crowded. I saw now that it was cut into small
+circles marked with black--circles in diameter about the length of a
+man. At intervals--perhaps five minutes apart--a signal in the music
+caused each of the dancing couples to select a circle and to dance
+wholly within it. And then one of the circles, by mechanical device, was
+raised into the air above all the others. The couple on it, thus
+prominent, danced at their best, to be judged by Tarrano for a prize.
+
+For an hour I stood there. I could see Elza plainly. She had removed her
+mask. Her face was flushed, her lips laughing. Once, in a chance
+silence, her shout of applause rang out. The quality of abandonment in
+it turned me cold. Did I see Tarrano's hand move back to his belt? Was
+he intoxicating her? Then I saw Maida make a gesture--wave something
+from beneath her cloak at Elza. A scent to sober her? It seemed so, for
+Elza looked confused; and I saw Maida flash her a look of warning.
+
+Abruptly, from an alcove near me, a group of girls rushed out. Their
+cloaks and white veils fell from them as they came my way--laughing as
+they ran for the doorway leading outside to the pool. I was in their way
+and they bumped into me; one of them gripped me. I tried to jerk loose,
+but she clung. A slim girl, enveloped in her long, white tresses. Her
+eyes laughed at me; her red mouth went up alluringly to my face.
+
+"I love you--_you_, Jac Hallen." Her arms wound about my neck as she
+clung. I was trying to cast her off when her fingers lifted a corner of
+my mask.
+
+"I was afraid you were _not_ Jac Hallen." Her whisper was relieved, and
+it had suddenly turned swift and vehement. "I am sister to Maida--my
+name, Alda. I am to warn you. When Tarrano dances with the Red
+Woman--when they go up on the raised circle--_you drop to the floor_!
+You understand? Keep down, or the rays might strike you! But be here,
+inside, and watch. And _afterward_, go quickly to join the Princess and
+your Elza. You understand?"
+
+She clung to me, with her slim, white body pressed against my cloak. To
+anyone watching us, she would have seemed merely making love. Her eyes
+were provocative; her lips mocking me. But she was whispering, _"Drop to
+the floor when Tarrano dances with the Red Woman--drop or the rays might
+strike you!"_
+
+Another girl was plucking at me from behind. Alda shouted: "You shall
+not have him!" and cast me off. But I heard her whisper, _"Come outside
+for a moment--then come back!"_--and then, aloud, she cried to the other
+girl, "You shall not have him! He is coming to watch me dive and swim! I
+am more beautiful than you--you could not win him from me!"
+
+I let them drag me out into the grove by the scented pool.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+_Revolution!_
+
+
+I realize that I am, by nature, not overly observant; and in those
+moments, when I stood out there beside the pool, I think I came most
+forcibly to appreciate how little I habitually observe that which is not
+readily apparent. An incident now occurred to bring it home to me; and,
+quite suddenly, a score of things which I had seen during the past two
+hours at the festival were made plain.
+
+Music, feasting, merry-making, love! In the midst of it all, an
+undercurrent of events was flowing. Unseen events--but I had partly seen
+some of them, and now, at last, I began to understand.
+
+In the main hall of the pavilion, midway to its roof, a line of mirrors
+was placed along the wall facing Tarrano. A hundred small mirrors, side
+by side. On them were moving images of what was taking place in
+different parts of the festival--so that Tarrano and the others might
+see the merry-making, not only in the pavilion, but elsewhere, as well.
+It was interesting to watch the mirrors--and sometimes amusing. The
+scene of a gay battle of boats in a nearby lagoon; the diving girls in
+the pools; a view from the sky above of the whole scene; another,
+looking upward at the color bombs bursting overhead; a bridge on which a
+dozen girls were besieged by as many men, who sought to climb upward
+from their boats underneath, flowers for missiles, and the alcholite
+fumes which held off the attackers, or, perchance, caused a girl to fall
+into the water, to be instantly captured.
+
+Other mirrors, eavesdropping upon the secluded islands, making public,
+for the amusement of the spectators in the pavilion, the furtive
+love-making of couples who fancied themselves alone.
+
+All this I had seen. And now I remembered that, occasionally, a mirror
+had gone dark, and then turned suddenly to a scene somewhere else. I
+understood now. Quiet incidents against Tarrano were in progress. The
+mirrors were being tampered with, that none of these events should be
+shown.
+
+There were, scattered throughout the festival, fully a hundred men of
+Tarrano's guard. Some of them I knew by their uniforms; others were
+concealed by red masks and robes like myself. When first we entered the
+pavilion, some twenty or thirty of them had been there with us. But many
+of them did not stay; and now I remembered that, one by one, I had seen
+them slip away, lured by the slim, white shapes of girls who came from
+the pool to beguile them.
+
+I realized now that these girls of the scented pool were very possibly
+all working for Maida. Most daring of all at the festival, these fifty
+girls who now disported themselves in the water at my feet. All
+beautiful, none beyond the first flush of earliest maturity. Slight,
+grey-white nymphs, laughing as they discarded their hampering veils,
+tossing their white hair as they plunged into the shimmering pool.
+Seemingly the most seductive, most abandoned of everyone.
+
+Yet, as I stood there, I saw three of them climb from the water and,
+with gay shouts, rush into the pavilion. Back in a moment; and with them
+a flushed man--one of Tarrano's guards--flushed and flattered at their
+attention. His hat was gone, his robe disheveled, as the girls fought
+for him. They stopped quite close to me; and I saw that one of them was
+Alda.
+
+"You shall not have him!" she shouted to her companions. "He is mine! He
+loves me--none of you!"
+
+From her thick hair I saw her draw a tiny cylinder, wave it in the man's
+face. And, with another laugh, she flung her arms around his neck and
+fell with him into the water. I watched the splash and the ripples where
+they went down. In a moment, the girl came up--_but the man did not_. In
+all the confusion of the crowded pool, it was not very obvious.
+
+A dozen, perhaps, of such incidents, which now, that I was alert to
+understand, were apparent. The mirrors might have shown some of
+them--but the mirrors always went dark just in time.
+
+Tarrano's guards were disappearing. And now I saw a _slaan_ skulking in
+the shadows of the shrubbery nearby. And I noticed, too, that this pool
+at my feet had a stream flowing outward from it--a waterway connecting
+it with the main lake. And I remembered the Earth man in sub-sea garb
+whom I had seen. Were there many Earth men down here in the water?
+
+_"When Tarrano dances with the Red Woman, you drop to the floor."_
+
+I remembered Alda's words and her admonition, "Be inside the pavilion."
+And presently I caught her glance as she was poised for a dive--and it
+seemed directing me to leave.
+
+Wrapped in my drab cloak, I went back inside. The merry-making had
+increased; the place was more crowded than ever. I had been there but a
+moment when a gong sounded. The music stopped. In the hush Tarrano, on
+the balcony, rose to his feet.
+
+"The tri-night hour[21] is here." He removed his mask; his face was
+grave, but a slight smile curved his thin lips. "Let us see ourselves
+now as we really are."
+
+[Footnote 21: Half-way between midnight and dawn.]
+
+He slipped his robe from his shoulders and stood in his festive costume.
+For so slight a man, I was surprised at the strength of him. Bands of
+gold-metal encircled his naked torso; a broad girdle of purple cloth
+hung from his waist. His bare limbs were lean and straight; sandals of
+red were on his feet. And a band about his forehead with a single
+feather in it.
+
+Yet, for it all, he was no male _nada_, but every inch a man. Gravely
+smiling, as, with a gesture, he bade them all discard their masks and
+robes. From overhead the colored lights turned white. And in the glare,
+the robes and masks were dropped. Costumes grotesque, some of them;
+others symbolic; others merely beautiful. Vivid colors. Dancers daringly
+garbed, with whom the girls from the pool now mingled.
+
+A moment of breathless silence; then ripples of applause from the
+spectators. And then the music and the dancing went on.
+
+Barbaric costumes? Some frankly imitated the bygone ages of Venus, Mars
+and Earth. But the spirit that prompted them was decadence--nothing
+more.
+
+Presently, as I stood unmasked in my effeminate garb, holding myself
+aloof from the girls who would have carried me off to the dancing floor,
+I saw the roof of the pavilion roll back. The open sky spread above us.
+And from it came down an effulgence of silver light, from a source high
+overhead. It bathed us all in its soft radiance; and, simultaneously,
+the lights in the pavilion went out. A single golden shaft rested on
+Tarrano. Elza, Georg and Maida were still there. In the golden light I
+could see them quite plainly--could see that Elza was flushed with
+suppressed excitement. Not the alcholite fumes now. Georg, too, seemed
+very alert. And Maida. There was, indeed, a tenseness about them all--an
+air of vague expectancy which made my heart beat faster as I realized
+it.
+
+Was Tarrano totally unaware of what was about to happen? Was he unaware
+of this hidden, lurking menace to him, which now, to me, was so obvious?
+I could not believe that; yet, he was imperturbable, solemn as ever.
+
+A shaft of golden light upon Tarrano. The darkened chamber. The silver
+radiance coming down upon us in a shaft from the sky. A hush lay upon
+the room. The music had ceased; now it began again, very soft, ethereal.
+Everyone in the room was gazing upward. From high overhead in the silver
+shaft a shape appeared, slowly floating downward. A woman's figure. It
+came down, supported by what mechanical or scientific device I never
+knew. It seemed floating unsupported.
+
+Within the pavilion, suspended in mid-air, I saw that it was a woman in
+filmy red veils. Poised on tip-toe in the air. Arms outstretched, with
+the red veils hanging from them like wings. A woman fully matured. White
+hair piled in coils on her head, with a huge, scarlet blossom in it. A
+face, somewhat heavy of feature, powdered white; with glowing eyes, dark
+lidded; and a scarlet mouth. A face, an expression in the smouldering
+eyes, the full lips half parted--a face and an expression that seemed
+the very incarnation of all that is sensuous in humans. The Red Woman!
+The living symbol of all that lay beneath this festive merry-making.
+
+The Red Woman! For a moment she hovered there before us. A shaft of red
+light now came down from above. It caught her, bathed her in its lurid
+glow. On her face came a look of triumph, and a leer almost insolent, as
+slowly she began fluttering through the air toward Tarrano. He rose to
+meet her. Whispered something aside to Elza.
+
+Close before him, the Red Woman hovered. And now a circle-dais from the
+floor came up to her. She rested upon it; began a slow, sinuous dance;
+one by one loosening the veils; the red light deepening until it painted
+her body red in lieu of the draperies.
+
+No frivolous mockery here. Intense, smouldering eyes as she held her
+gaze on Tarrano's face and slowly raised her arms in invitation to him.
+At her gesture, he rose to his feet. Yet I knew he was not under her
+spell, for his lips were smiling, bantering.
+
+But he rose obediently, and stepped from the balcony to the upraised
+dais. Around his neck the Red Woman wound her arms--white arms stained
+red by the lurid light.
+
+A flash! I did not see from whence it came; but within me some
+subconscious impulse made me drop to the floor. The light from overhead
+was out. Momentary darkness. A woman's scream of terror. Then others.
+The sound of running feet; bodies falling. Panic in the crowd. Confusion
+everywhere.
+
+Then light from somewhere came on. People were tramping me. I fought
+them off, climbed to my feet. On the dais the Red Woman lay dead.
+Huddled in a heap, with a brand of black searing her forehead. _Slaans_
+were leaping about the room--huge, half-naked men--brandishing primitive
+knives. Flashing steel, buried in the backs of the fleeing merry-makers.
+Other figures--Earth men they seemed--gripping the _slaans_, staying
+their murderous fury.
+
+Tarrano? I did not see him at first. The air above the floor of the
+pavilion was full of snapping sparks--a battle of some unknown rays. The
+mirrors were shattered: glass from them was falling about me. Then, in
+the semi-gloom on the balcony, Tarrano's figure materialized. Invisible
+before, the hostile rays upon it now made it apparent. But Tarrano
+seemed proof against the rays. I could see he was unharmed; and as he
+stood there, no doubt using a curved, duplicating beam, the like of
+which I have seen used in warfare, the image of him seemed to shift.
+Then it doubled--two images, one here, one further down the balcony.
+Then still others--appearing and disappearing, always in different
+places, until no one could have said where the man himself really was. A
+dozen Tarranos, each enveloped in hostile sparks, each with his face
+grinning at us in mockery.
+
+Abruptly, I heard Georg's voice shout above the din: "Elza! Elza is
+gone!"
+
+The images of Tarrano faded. He, too, was gone.
+
+And then I saw Maida on the balcony, standing with upraised arms. Her
+voice rang out.
+
+"Down with Tarrano! Death to Tarrano!" And then her pleading command:
+
+"_Slaans_, no more bloodshed! Be loyal, _slaans_, to your Princess
+Maida!"
+
+And Georg calling: "Loyalty, everyone, to your Princess Maida. Loyalty!
+Loyalty!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+_First Retreat_
+
+
+I must recount now what Elza later told me, going back to those moments
+when Elza sat upon the balcony watching Tarrano and the Red Woman. The
+significance of what had been transpiring at the Water Festival was not
+clear to Elza; she did not know what was impending, but as she sat there
+with Tarrano beside her, a sense of danger oppressed her. Danger which
+lay like a weight upon her heart. Yet several times she found herself
+laughing--hilarious; and from Maida's warning glance, and the steadying
+odor which Maida wafted to her, she knew that Tarrano was using the
+alcholite fumes to intoxicate her.
+
+The Red Woman and Tarrano were upon the dais. There came a flash; then
+darkness. Elza went cold with terror. She sat stiff and silent, while
+around her surged that turmoil of confusion. The smell of chemicals was
+in the air; her skin prickled as with a million tiny needles where
+sparks now began to snap against it.
+
+How long she crouched there, or what was happening, Elza did not know.
+But presently she heard Tarrano's voice in her ear.
+
+"Come, Lady Elza, I must get you out of this." In the darkness his face
+glowed wraith-like. Then she felt his hand upon her arm.
+
+"Come, we must leave here. I would not have you endangered."
+
+With a haste and roughness that belied the calm solicitude of his words,
+he pulled her to her feet. There was light in the pavilion now. Elza saw
+dimly the turmoil of struggling figures; and then she saw the scene
+duplicated--saw it shift and sway in crazy fashion. Though she did not
+know it, she was looking out along the curved rays which Tarrano was
+sending from them. Sparks were snapping everywhere. A second image of
+Tarrano appeared to the left of her--she saw it in a mirror nearby--yet
+he was at her right, gripping her arm.
+
+"Hurry, Lady Elza."
+
+She found herself being dragged along the balcony; stumbling over a body
+lying there; feeling a surge of heat and electric disturbance beat
+against her face. Then Tarrano had her in his arms, carrying her. She
+heard him curse as a sudden wave of fire seemed to strike them--hostile
+rays bringing a numbness to muscles and brain. Tarrano was fumbling at
+his belt; and through a shower of sparks he stumbled onward with his
+burden.
+
+Elza's senses were fading. Vaguely she was conscious that Tarrano was
+carrying her down an incline to the ground. Grateful, cool air. Stars
+overhead. Trees; foliage; shimmering water. The screams and confusion of
+the pavilion growing fainter....
+
+When Elza regained consciousness, she was lying in the bottom of a
+little boat, Tarrano beside her.
+
+"So? You have awakened? We are quite safe, Lady Elza."
+
+She and Tarrano were alone in the boat. It was long and very narrow,
+with its sides no more than a foot above the water. Tarrano sat at its
+chemical mechanism. A boat familiar to us of Earth. A small
+chemical-electric generator. The explosion of water in a little tank,
+with the resultant gases ejected through a small pipe projecting under
+the surface at its stern. The boat swept forward smoothly, rapidly and
+almost silently, with a stream of the gas bubbles coming to the surface
+in its wake.
+
+"Quite safe, Lady Elza."
+
+She saw that Tarrano's face was blackened with grime. His garments were
+burned, and hers were also. He was disheveled, but his manner was as
+imperturbable as ever. He made her comfortable on the cushions in the
+boat; drew a robe closer around her against the rush of the night air.
+
+Elza was unhurt. She saw now, with clarifying senses, that they were
+plying along a narrow river. Banks of foliage on each side; the auroral
+lights in the sky; occasionally on the hillsides along the river, the
+dim outlines of a house.
+
+It was all a trifle unreal--like looking through a sunglass that was
+darkened--for around the boat hung always a vague pall of gloom. Tarrano
+spoke of it.
+
+"Our isolation barrage. It is very weak, but the best I can
+contrive. From these hills the naked eye, now at night could hardly
+penetrate it.... A precaution, for they will be searching for us
+perhaps.... Ah!..."
+
+A white search-ray sprang from a house at the top of a hill nearby. It
+leaped across the dark countryside, swept the water--which at that point
+had broadened into a lagoon--and landed upon the boat. It was a light
+strong enough to penetrate the barrage--the boat was disclosed to
+observers in the house. But Tarrano raised a small metal projector. A
+dull-red beam sprang from it and mingled with the other. A surge of
+sparks; then Tarrano's red beam conquered. It absorbed the white light.
+And Tarrano's beam was curved. It lay over the lake in a huge bow,
+bending far out to one side. Yet its other end fell upon the hostile
+house. The white search-ray from the house was submerged, bent outward
+with Tarrano's beam. From the house, the observer could only gaze along
+this curved light. He saw the image of the boat--not where the boat
+really was--but as though the ray were straight.
+
+Elza, staring with her heart in her throat, saw a ball of yellow fire
+mount from the house. It swung into the air in a slow, lazy parabola,
+came down and dropped into the lake. But it fell where the marksman saw
+the boat, a safe distance to one side. A ball of fire dropping into the
+water, exploding the water all around it for a distance of a dozen feet.
+Like a cascade, the water mounted.
+
+Tarrano chuckled. "A very bad marksman."
+
+Other bombs came. It turns me cold when I think how orders like this
+could have come from the Great City--these bombs which had they found
+their mark would have killed Tarrano, but at the expense of the life of
+Elza. They did not find their mark. Tarrano continually changed the
+curve of his beam. The image of the boat shifted. A few moments only;
+and riding the waves of the bomb-tossed water, they rounded a bend, back
+into the narrow river and were beyond range.
+
+Tarrano snapped off his ray. "Quite safe, Lady Elza. Do not be alarmed.
+I doubt if they will locate us again. They should be very busy now in
+the Great City. I'm surprised they could even think to notify this
+Station we have just passed."
+
+We were indeed very busy in the Great City during those hours, as you
+shall presently hear.
+
+Tarrano and Elza were not again disturbed. How far they went in the boat
+she does not know, but at last they landed in a sheltered cove. An air
+vehicle was there. Tarrano transferred Elza to it, and in a moment more
+they were aloft.
+
+The vehicle was little more than an oblong platform, with a low railing.
+A platform of a substance resembling _glascite-transparent_; and with a
+_glascite_ shield V-shaped in front to break the rush of wind and yet
+give vision. A mechanism, not of radio-power, but of gravity like the
+space-flyers. Such platforms had been, but were no longer in use on
+Earth. Elza had never seen one. It was a new experience for her, this
+flying with nothing above one, nothing to the side, or underneath save
+that transparent substance. To her it was like floating, and at times
+falling headlong through the air.
+
+They rose no more than a thousand feet at first, and then swept parallel
+with the ground. At a tremendous speed; even at this height the forests
+seemed moving backward as the ground moves beneath a surface vehicle.
+
+Dark, somber forests of luxuriant tropical vegetation. It was now
+nearing dawn; the auroral lights were dropping low in the sky; the great
+Venus Cross of Dawn was rising, its first two stars already above the
+line of hills to one side.
+
+Then the sky out there flushed red; a limb of the glorious Sun of Venus
+came up. A new day. And even though the air was warm, within Elza was
+ashiver.
+
+"It is very wonderful to me, my Elza, this being alone with you."
+
+He sat beside her, gazing at her with his calm, impenetrable eyes. It
+was near noon of that day following their escape from the Water
+Festival. They had flown possibly two thousand miles. The Sun had risen,
+but after a time--since their enormous speed and change of latitude had
+affected the angle at which they viewed it--the Sun now was hanging
+almost level, not far above the horizon.
+
+Beneath the platform--a mile below now--lay a tumbled waste of naked
+crags. The borders of the Cold Country! Tarrano's stronghold! The
+birthplace of his dreams of universal conquest.
+
+Elza was staring downward. A barren waste. Rocks bare of verdure. Grey,
+with red ore staining them. A desolation of empty rock, with grey flat
+shadows. And far ahead, the broken, serrated ranks of mountains with
+rocky peaks, white-hooded with the snow upon their summits. The Cold
+Country. Bleak; forbidding.
+
+This brittle air was cold; yet Elza and Tarrano were warm. Before the
+platform, a ray darted--a low-powered ray of a type that was to be so
+great a factor in the warfare into which we were all so soon to be
+plunged. It heated the air, so that the platform rushed always through a
+wind that was balmy.
+
+"What did you say?" Elza looked up to meet Tarrano's steady gaze.
+
+"I said it is wonderful to be thus alone with you, my Elza."
+
+"Oh." She looked away.
+
+He persisted; but his voice was gentle and earnest. "Soon we will be at
+my home, Lady Elza. And now--there are some things I would like to say
+while I have the opportunity.... You will listen?"
+
+"Yes," she said; and tried to keep from him the trembling within her.
+"I'll listen, of course."
+
+He nodded. "Thank you.... My Elza, you have heard me talk of conquering
+the world. My dream--my destiny. It will come to pass, of course. Yet--"
+A smile pulled at his lips. "Do you know, my Elza, what you and I are
+doing now?"
+
+She stared, and he did not wait for her to answer.
+
+"We're making my first retreat. I wonder if you can realize how I feel,
+having to admit that? Tarrano in retreat!... Our escape from Venia?
+Pouf! That was a jest. I was there on Earth merely to get you, and the
+Brende model. I had no thought of conquering the Earth just then. I
+accomplished my two purposes--and left.... It was not a retreat, merely
+a planned departure.
+
+"But this, my Elza, is very different. I did not wish to do what I am
+doing now. I had planned--I had thought, had actually hoped, that I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. You see, I tell you this,
+little girl, because--well I am a lonely man. I walk alone--and because
+I am human--it does me good to have someone to talk to. I had hoped I
+might maintain myself in the Great City. Last night--at the start of the
+Water Festival--I began to realize it was impossible. I should have
+enlisted the _Rhaals_--the men of science, Elza. But I had no time, and
+they are very aloof. I could have won them to me had I tried." He
+shrugged. "I must confess I was over-confident of my strength--the
+strength of my position. The _Rhaals_ stayed out of the affair--stayed
+in their own city, which has always been their policy. That was what I
+expected, but now I see I should have had their aid. I did--well what I
+did to guard against the unhappy outcome you witnessed--what I did was
+wrongly planned. You see, I take all the blame. I alone am responsible
+for my destiny. There are some who in defeat cry bitterly, 'Luck! That
+cursed luck was against me!' Not so! Leadership is not a matter of luck.
+Destiny is what you make it. You see?
+
+"And so now I am making my first retreat. A set-back, nothing more. I
+shall launch my forces from the City of Ice, instead of marshalling them
+from the Central State as I had planned. And Mars is still mine. I still
+control Mars, little Elza.... A set-back just now--and it bothers me. It
+hurts my pride--and as you know, my Elza, Tarrano is very proud."
+
+She had been listening to him, her fingers plucking idly at her robe. He
+bent closer to her; his voice turned tender. "I was thinking that
+perhaps--just perhaps you would scorn Tarrano in his triumphs, you might
+feel differently toward him now--in his first retreat. Do you?"
+
+She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm--sorry--from your viewpoint, I
+mean--that things are going wrong."
+
+He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want very
+much to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at your
+defeat."
+
+"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are too
+optimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slight
+set-back. A strategic retreat--and in a week I will have regained more
+than I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now--and always--be so
+gentle with you--why we are almost quarreling! That is not right. For
+the lives of a thousand of my servants, I would not have used that tone
+to you just now. Forgive me....
+
+"I was saying, my Elza--could not you feel more kindly to me now. A
+little hope from those gentle eyes of yours--a little word from those
+red lips--a word of hope for what some day might be for us--you and
+me--"
+
+She dared to try and turn the subject. "You mentioned the Brende
+model--where is it? Have you it in the Cold Country?"
+
+He frowned. "Yes. And I will use it--for you and me alone. You've always
+known that, haven't you? Just for you and me, my Elza." He took her
+hand. "Won't you try and love me--just a trifle?"
+
+She did not move. "I--don't know." Then she faced him squarely. "I do
+not love you, Tarrano." Something in his eyes--a quality of pleading; a
+wistful smile upon his lips--suddenly struck her as pathetic. Strange
+and queerly pathetic that such a man as he should be reduced to
+wistfulness. Emotion swept her. Not love. A feeling of sympathy; a
+womanly desire to lighten his sorrow; to sympathize and yet to withhold
+from him the happiness he sought.
+
+"I do not love you, Tarrano. But I do respect you. And I am sorry--"
+
+"Respect! I have told you I can command that from everyone. But
+love--your love--"
+
+"I would give it if I could, Tarrano."
+
+"You mean--you're trying to love me--and cannot?"
+
+"I mean--Oh, I don't know what I mean, save that I do not love you yet."
+
+He smiled. "I think you speak the truth when you say you do not know
+what you mean. Your love! If I had it, I should know that I would have
+it always. But--having it not--" He was very sincere, but his smile
+broadened. "Having it not, my Elza, there is no power in all the heavens
+that can tell me how to get it. It may be born in a moment from now--or
+never. Who can tell?"
+
+She was silent; and after a moment, he added: "Enough of this. I would
+ask you just one thing. You are not afraid of me, are you?"
+
+"No," she said; and at that moment she meant it.
+
+"I would not have you ever be afraid, Lady Elza. Love is not conceived
+by fear. And you must know I could never force my love upon you. For if
+I did--I should withhold forever the birth of this love of yours which
+is all I seek--this love I am trying to breathe into life.... Enough!"
+
+He did not mention the subject again. For hours--eating what meager
+stock of tabloid food with which their vehicle was provisioned--they
+flew onward. Rising now to top the line of jagged mountains. Over them
+the platform swept. In the crisp air the snow down there gleamed
+blue-white; the ice with an age-old look filled the valleys between the
+peaks.
+
+The arctic! It was nothing like the Polar regions of Earth. Stark
+desolation. A naked land seemingly upheaved by some gigantic cataclysm
+of nature, lying tumbled and broken where it had fallen in convulsive
+agony; and then congealed forever in a grip of ice.
+
+The Sun hung level as the vehicle advanced. In these latitudes it would
+swing side-wise in a slow, low arc, to dip again below the horizon and
+vanish. Here in the Cold Country it was morning of the Long Day. Summer!
+
+On over the crags and glaciers Tarrano guided their frail flying
+platform. Houses occasionally showed now--huts of ice, congealed
+dwellings, blue-white in the flat sunlight.
+
+And then at last, over the horizon came the ramparts of a city. The City
+of Ice! The size of it--the evidences of civilization here in this
+brittle land of deadly cold--made Elza gasp with wonderment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+_Attack on the Palace_
+
+
+I must take you back now to the Water Festival and the events in the
+Great City which followed it. _Slaans_ in murderous frenzy were plunging
+through the throng of erstwhile revelers. Maida could not quell them.
+The revolt which she had started against Tarrano seemed now a
+self-created monster to destroy us all.
+
+But there were Earth men among us. A hundred of them, no more. They had
+come from Washington that same day; had landed, I learned later,
+secretly near the Great City, sent with our Earth Council's plans to
+communicate with Maida. Beneath the water, coming individually, they had
+entered the festival; and helping Maida's girls (the diving girls whom I
+had encountered) they had made away with most of Tarrano's guards.
+
+In those first moments of frenzy, I got to the balcony--joined Maida and
+Georg. Elza was gone! My heart went cold, but in those hurried, frantic
+moments, grave disaster as it was, I did not dwell upon it.
+
+"We must get away--back to the palace!" Georg exclaimed as I joined
+them.
+
+The Earth men on the main floor were holding the _slaans_ partially in
+check. Bodies were lying in a welter--I shall not describe it. Then
+abruptly, upon a table a huge _slaan_ leaped--his garments blood-stained
+from his victims, a blade of dripping steel in his hands. He shouted
+above the tumult--words not in the universal language, but in the
+dialect of the _slaans_. His command carried throughout the building.
+Other _slaans_ took it up; we could hear it echoed outside as others
+shouted it over the waters.
+
+The bloodshed abruptly ceased. The _slaans_ leaped away from the Earth
+men, who were glad enough to let them go--rushed for the archways of the
+pavilion. Outside, we could hear the water splashing. Swimmers--and
+boats scurrying off. Then comparative silence. The scream of a _slaan_
+woman in the grove nearby, still desiring vengeance; the groans of the
+dying at our feet; the hiss and splutter of weapons discarded, with
+circuits still connected. And over it all, the great whine of a danger
+whistle, which some distant official had plugged.... A lull. And around
+us lay strewn stark tragedy where a few moments before had been festive
+merry-making. A crimson scene, with the body of the Red Woman lying like
+a symbol in its midst....
+
+Within an hour we were back at the palace. The whole city was seething.
+Boats and lights were everywhere. Control of everything seemed lost.
+Warning signals shrilled in crazy fashion. Public mirrors were dark, or
+turned to places and time wholly irrelevant.
+
+In the palace itself we soon secured a semblance of order. Maida's girls
+were here, with wet veils and long dank tresses clinging to their sleek
+bodies. Lips painted alluring red. But eyes which now were solemn and
+grim. Their demeanor alert and business-like. Unconscious of themselves
+they moved about the palace, executing Maida's orders.
+
+A dozen or so of Maida's personal retainers were here--and most of the
+Earth men. Keen-eyed young men of the Washington Headquarters Staff. One
+of them--Tomm Aften by name, a ruddy, blue-eyed fellow--was in command.
+He stayed close by Georg and me.
+
+The city was seething. But out of the chaos was coming a comparatively
+orderly menace. We could sense it at first; and then in a few brief
+minutes so swift that we had no time to prepare--the menace became
+obvious and was at hand.
+
+The _slaans_ had withdrawn from the festival for a greater, more
+organized effort. Their revolt against Tarrano in which Maida had
+joined, was bigger, more deep-rooted than a mere revolt. It was against
+Maida herself. Trickery of the downtrodden _slaans_ against the ruling
+class. Against the old order of government. Even against the _Rhaals_,
+who in their distant city were all-powerful, but who obeyed the laws and
+took no part in anything.
+
+Revolution! From down the waterways of streets which converged into the
+broad lagoon before the palace, boats began arriving. Boats crowded with
+_slaans_. Disheveled, unkempt men and women with primitive weapons of
+steel and wire brandished aloft. They surged into the lagoon. A
+murderous, frenzied mob--thoughtless of itself, suicidal to attack us,
+yet daring everything in its frenzy.
+
+Soon the lagoon was crowded--a chaos of pushing, shoving boats. Then the
+boats began landing, disgorging their occupants, wild-eyed _slaans_ each
+a potential murderer. The gardens of the palace were presently jammed
+with them. They did not at first come within our threshholds; they stood
+milling about under the palms, trampling the tropic flowers, screaming
+threats and epithets at us. But waiting--as a mob always does--for some
+leader to advance, that they might follow him upon us.
+
+We stood on the palace roof-top. I must confess that we were in a flurry
+for the moment. There were undoubtedly weapons at hand, but I at least
+did not have them, nor did I know where they were. Excusable flurry
+possibly for the thing had come so quickly, and most of us were
+strangers here of but a few hours.
+
+The roof had a low railing waist-high, but broad. We stood clustered
+behind it. In the garden beneath, the mob was shouting up at us. And,
+before I could stop her, Maida had leaped to the top of the rail. Georg
+and I clutched at her, then steadied her.
+
+_"Slaans--"_
+
+But they would not hear her. Shouts went up; a roar of threats. The
+press of additions to the mob landing from other boats, forced the front
+ranks forward. They were now on the palace steps, jammed there waving
+their weapons yet still hesitating to advance.
+
+"_Slaans_--my people--"
+
+Maida's frail voice was lost in the uproar. Then a missle was thrown
+upward--a portion of a broken generator--a heavy chunk of metal. It
+barely missed Maida, and fell with a thump to the roof behind us. Then
+came others--a rain of them about us. I tried to pull Maida back, but
+she fought me, her voice still calling out its appeal.
+
+With a bound, Georg was up on the rail beside her. Aften--the young
+Earth man--had quietly handed him a cylinder. Georg waved it at the mob.
+
+"_Slaans_--" His stronger voice caught their attention. A sudden hush
+fell.
+
+"_Slaans_--it is I, Georg Brende. Your Princess Maida rules you now only
+under me. A new ruler, _slaans_--the man of Earth--Georg Brende who must
+be obeyed--Georg Brende, soon to be husband of your Princess--"
+
+But they would not hear him out. The din from them submerged his voice.
+His lips snapped tight as abruptly he ceased talking; his brows lowered
+grimly and I saw his finger press upon the cylinder.
+
+Maida's voice screamed: "Georg! Have mercy! Do not kill them!"
+
+She spoke barely in time. His cylinder swept upward. The rays from it
+caught only the upper portions of the palms and the tree tops. The
+foliage withered, shriveled before that soundless, invisible blast.
+
+Not a blast of heat. The mob, surprised, then frightened, stared upward.
+The soft tropical foliage in a great wide swath was dead, with naked
+sticks of limbs. Black, then turning white. Not with heat--but cold. Ice
+was forming from the moisture in the humid air. And then the sudden
+condensation brought snow--a thick white fall of it sifting down into
+the palm-laden garden; falling gently, then swirling in a sudden wind
+which had begun.
+
+As though itself stiffened by the cold just overhead, the mob stood
+transfixed. Then a murmur of horror came. And I saw through the veil of
+whirling snow, that into some of the trees _slaans_ had climbed. Their
+bodies, frozen now, slid and fell--black plummets hurtling downward
+through the swirling snow-flakes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+_Immortal Terror_
+
+
+To Elza, approaching with Tarrano on the tiny flying platform the City
+of Ice, the place seemed truly like a child's dream of Fairyland. The
+rude snow huts of the Arctic of our Earth were all that she had ever
+conceived could be built of frozen water. Here, in the outskirts of the
+city, she saw indeed, quite similar huts. But further in--ornate
+buildings several stories high. She caught a vague glimpse of them only,
+as the platform flew above them and descended in the center of the city.
+
+They had passed over great outer encircling ramparts--a huge wall many
+_helans_ long--built entirely of ice blocks--fortifications like that
+fabled wall which in the dim history of our Earth had once encircled a
+portion of the domain of the Yellow Race.
+
+The platform came down before a central building--the Palace of Ice.
+Even in this dim daylight of the Cold Country summer, the great building
+gleamed and glittered resplendent. A building of many levels, storied
+and winged, with spider bridges and aerial arcades connecting the wings.
+Frescoed everywhere! ornate with carved design chipped in ice blocks
+hard as marble. Rolling terraces of snow and ice surrounded it--lawns of
+smooth white, with winding paths of ice. A many balconied building;
+towers, spires and minarets crowning it. All blue-white. Glittering.
+Seemingly fragile; from a distance, a toy--a sample of the ultra-skill
+of some master confectioner, as though the whole thing were a toy of
+sugar for children to admire. But at close range--solid; in the cold of
+this terrible region, as solid as though constructed of blocks of stone.
+
+With the flying platform landed, and its warming rays cut off,
+attendants rushed forward. Tarrano and Elza were wrapped in furs at
+once--heavy furs which covered them from head to foot.
+
+"Well! Well, Graten!" Tarrano greeted his subordinate smilingly. "Things
+are in condition here? You got my message?"
+
+"Yes, Master. All is in good fashion here. We welcome you."
+
+In his furs, with face almost hidden, Elza could not see what manner of
+man this was.
+
+They entered the palace. Frescoed; carved everywhere, within as without.
+The main doorway led into a palatial hall, carpeted with furs. It was
+warm. Tarrano discarded his fur, and helped Elza out of hers.
+
+"You like my home, Lady Elza?"
+
+"It's--beautiful," she answered.
+
+His smile showed amusement at the wonder and awe which stamped her
+expression. He added very gently:
+
+"I had in mind when I built it, the hope that you would be pleased."
+
+A comfortable interior warmth. Elza noticed little blurs of red light
+behind wire cages here and there. The warmth came from them; and a glow
+of pale white light from the tubes along the wall.
+
+A woman hurried to them. Tara! Elza recognized her at once. Tara,
+looking very pretty in a pale blue robe, with her hair done high upon
+her head. The woman who loved Tarrano; he had sent her on here to be rid
+of her, when he went to the Great City. She came forward. Pleasure was
+on her face at seeing Tarrano; but her glance as she turned it
+momentarily toward Elza, held again that smouldering jealousy.
+
+Tarrano was evidently in a mood of high good humor.
+
+"You welcome me prettily, Tara." She had flung her arms about him.
+"Tara, my dear is----"
+
+"Master--you come but in time. They are working the Brende instrument.
+Already they have----"
+
+"They? Who?" He frowned. His words were hard and cold as the ice-blocks
+around him.
+
+"Woolff. And the son of Cretar. Many of them--using it now!"
+
+Tarrano drew Elza with him. Tara led the way. Through glowing white
+hallways, an arcade; down steps and an incline--to burst at last through
+a tunnel-like passage into a room.
+
+"So? What is this, Cretar?"
+
+A room littered with apparatus. A dozen men were about. Men scantily
+dressed in this interior heat. Short, squat men of the Cold Country;
+flat-nosed, heavy faces; hair long to the base of the neck. In a corner
+stood the Brende instrument, fully erected. A light from it seemed
+penetrating the bared chest of a man who was at that moment standing in
+its curative rays.
+
+He whom Tarrano called Cretar, took a step forward.
+
+"Master, we----"
+
+"Making yourselves immortal?" The anger had left Tarrano's voice; irony
+was there instead.
+
+"Master----"
+
+"Have you done that?"
+
+"Master--yes! Yes! We did! Forgive us, Master."
+
+The man before the instrument had retreated from it. Elza saw now that
+all the men were shrinking back in terror. All save Cretar, who had
+fallen tremblingly to his knees. Yet Tarrano showed no anger. He
+laughed.
+
+"I would not hurt you, Cretar! Get up, man! I am not angry--not even
+annoyed. Why, your skin is turning orange. See the mottles!"
+
+On the flesh of all the men--save the one who had been checked in the
+act of using the instrument--a bright orange mottling was apparent.
+Cretar exclaimed:
+
+"The immunity to all diseases, master. It is itself a
+disease--harmless--and it combats every other." He laughed a little
+wildly. "We cannot get sick now. We cannot die--we are immortal. Come,
+Master--let us make you so!"
+
+Tarrano whispered: "You see, Lady Elza? The orange spots! These men of
+medicine here have used the Brende secret to its full. Immune from
+disease!"
+
+"Let us treat _you_, Master. This immortality----"
+
+On Cretar's face was a triumphant smile, but in his eyes lay a terror.
+The man who had not been treated stood against the wall watching with
+interest and curiosity. But the others! They crouched; wary; alert eyes
+like animals at bay.
+
+Tarrano laughed. "Treat me! Cretar, you know not with what you have been
+trifling. Immortal? You are indeed. Disease cannot touch you! You cannot
+die--save by violence!"
+
+He swung to Elza. "These men, Lady Elza--they are strong-muscled. In
+health now more perfect than any other humans. _You_ are frail--a frail
+little woman. And unarmed. I bid you--strike one of them!"
+
+She stared; but as she suddenly faced about, she caught in part his
+meaning. Before her Cretar shrank back, his face gone white, his teeth
+chattering.
+
+"What's that behind you?" Tarrano's voice simulated sudden alarm; he
+scuffled his feet on the floor. The men jumped with fright; nerves
+unstrung, they cowered.
+
+"What manner of men!" Tarrano's laugh was contemptuous. "Oh, Lady Elza,
+let this be a lesson to all of us! To cure disease is well. To prevent
+it--that too is good. But immortality--Dr. Brende never intended it,
+_you_ know he did not, Lady Elza--the belief that we have everlasting
+life here on this plane--the Creator never intended that. With all
+danger of death gone--save violence--these immortals here fear violence
+so greatly that they are men no longer!
+
+"Immortal terror! God forbid _I_ should ever feel it! Or you, Lady Elza.
+A lesson for us all, who would be so un-Godly as to seek and think we
+have found what only the Creator Himself can bestow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+_Black Cloud of Death_
+
+
+I must revert now to that time in the gardens of Maida's palace at the
+Great City when we stood upon its roof-top, threatened below by that mob
+of _slaans_. Georg stood with the cylinder in his hand, waving it. The
+palm foliage was freezing. Down through the swirling snow fell the
+frozen bodies of the _slaans_ who had climbed into the gigantic palm
+fronds. The thuds as the bodies struck the ground sounded horribly plain
+in the stillness. Georg was still waving his cylinder. Snow and ice were
+gathering everywhere. Incautiously he lowered the weapon; a brief,
+momentary chill--the congealing breath of the Arctic in this warm
+palm-laden garden--swept the horror-stricken crowd.
+
+"Georg, have mercy!"
+
+Maida's frightened, pleading words brought Georg to his senses. He
+snapped off the cylinder and dropped it behind him to the palace
+roof-top. He was trembling and white as he stood with his arm around
+Maida. Weapons so drastic as this one were seldom used. Indeed, it was
+law throughout both Venus and the Earth that no civilian should possess
+them. The power for wholesale death in his hand, and which without
+wholly meaning to, he had so nearly used to its full effect, had
+unnerved him.
+
+Without the ray, the wind soon died. The warmer air mounting, melted the
+ice; the snow ceased falling. But the swath of shriveled foliage
+remained--a hideous scar cut into the luxuriant tropical growth.
+
+The mob had forgotten its threats, its evil intent. Silent for a moment,
+it now burst into outcries. Motionless: then milling about, struggling
+aimlessly with itself--struggling to retreat. A panic of terror. The
+boats in the lagoon were retreating. The _slaans_ along the fringe of
+shore began hurriedly to embark. The groups huddled at the palace steps
+were trying to shove the others back. In a rout they tumbled into their
+boats and scurried away. Maida's voice, striving to reassure them, was
+unheard.
+
+And presently the scarred, trampled garden was empty and silent.
+
+The rebellion, checked thus at its start, was quelled. Throughout the
+city that night--for the _slaans_ to hear whether they would or no--the
+broadcast stations flung their stentorian tones to the people; a speech
+by Maida; her promise of better things to come for the _slaans_; the end
+of Tarrano's brief rule; a reorganization of past conditions. Maida
+herself had never been in control in the Central State. The luxury--the
+license-of the ruling class had been no fault of hers. She promised fair
+treatment now to the _slaans_. She was to marry Georg Brende, the Earth
+man.
+
+Maida did marry Georg. With the many stirring events--a time when
+disaster and death threatened us all--so soon to follow, I shall not
+pause to describe the wedding. A quaint, yet magnificent spectacle.
+Maida in her regal robe; Georg looking every inch a ruler. Their barge
+of white leading the procession--a barge of white flowers, its sides
+lined with maidens to fend off the deluge of blossoms with which the
+onlookers assailed the bridal couple. The arrival at the marriage
+island, where on an altar the quaintly garbed holy man immersed them;
+and the solemn men of law united them as one.
+
+It was a night of rejoicing throughout the Great City; and on every
+mirror in the Empire it was pictured for those who could not be present.
+
+A time of rejoicing. Yet then--as always those days--my heart was heavy.
+Elza was held by Tarrano. We knew he had taken her to the City of Ice.
+There was of course, no radio communication with the Cold Country. We
+had tried eavesdropping upon it, but to no avail. Tarrano's close-flung
+barrage checked every wave we could send against it.
+
+Time passed--a month or more. We were worried over Elza naturally. Yet
+the saving grace was that we knew Tarrano would treat her kindly; that
+for the present at least, she was in no danger.
+
+Georg and Maida took possession of the Central State. Their rule started
+auspiciously, for by a series of speeches--a reorganization of money
+payments--the _slaans_ seemed well satisfied. Loyal, and with a growing
+patriotism, an eagerness to help in the coming war with Tarrano.
+Georg--without actually saying so--made them believe that the only hope
+of everlasting life was the recovery from Tarrano of the Brende model.
+The model was in the City of Ice; it must be captured.
+
+As a matter of fact, to us of the government, the Brende model was not
+indispensable. The greatest factor was that the threat of Tarrano's
+universal conquest must be forever removed. Like a rocket-bomb, this man
+of genius had risen from obscurity--had all but conquered the three
+greatest worlds of the universe.
+
+I think that the height of Tarrano's power was reached that day on the
+eve of the Water Festival when he made his triumphant entry into the
+Great City. Venus was his at that moment; all of Venus. Mars was his;
+the Hairless Men--savages who had fallen readily to his wiles, had
+conquered the civilized, ruling Little People. And the Earth, over-run
+by his spies, deluged by his propaganda which, insidiously as rust will
+eat away a metal, was eating into the loyalty of our Earth-public--our
+own great Earth was in a dangerous position. The Earth Council realized
+it. The Almighty only could know how many of our officials, our men in
+trusted positions, were at heart loyal to Tarrano!
+
+The thing was obvious. The assassination of our three rulers--leaders of
+the white, yellow and black races--with which Tarrano's campaign in the
+open had begun--those assassinations could never have taken place had
+not our military organization been diseased.
+
+Facts like these were constantly coming to us now, here in the Great
+City. A brief time of physical inactivity. Yet underneath the calm, we
+realized there was a struggle going on everywhere; a struggle of
+sentiment, of propaganda, of public opinion.
+
+Warfare, with modern weapons by which a man single-handed might destroy
+a city--is no longer a matter of men. The citizen--unarmed--united in
+sentiment and desire with a million of his kind--becomes the real ruler.
+You cannot--because you have a weapon--destroy a million of your
+brothers.
+
+We realized this. And in the ultimate decision--the popular fancy
+almost--of our publics--lay our real success or downfall.
+
+Tarrano in the popular mind had a tremendous hold. Dispatches from Earth
+made it plain that upon every street level the people were discussing
+him. From the Great City daily we sent bulletins of our progress toward
+checking--destroying--the menace of him. But bulletins also were
+emanating from the City of Ice. We could not stop them. Cut off at every
+official Earth station--and with all unofficial stations unable to
+receive them--nevertheless at some secret station which could not be
+found, they were received. And from there, circulated throughout the
+Earth. The air was full of them. Mysteriously, scenes showing the great
+Tarrano appeared upon the official news-mirrors; a speech of Tarrano's
+was once officially broadcasted before its source could be located and
+stopped.
+
+Like a smothered fire smouldering, lacking only a breath of vital gas to
+explode it into flame, the sentiment for Tarrano spread about the Earth.
+
+Public opinion is fickle. It sways instinctively--not always, but
+often--to the winning side. Here in Venus we knew we must defeat
+Tarrano. Destroy him personally and thus put an end to it all forever,
+since his dominion hung wholly upon the genius of his own personality.
+
+Our spies, some of them, got to the City of Ice, and back. A few flying
+men were able to hover about the city, and with instruments peer down
+into it. We knew that Tarrano was mobilizing for a move upon the Earth,
+where with a war-like demonstration he hoped to be accepted, yielded to,
+without a severe struggle. But, within a month now, we learned he had
+abandoned that idea. He knew, of course, our own preparations to attack
+him; and he began concentrating everything upon his own defense in the
+City of Ice.
+
+His last stand. We officials knew it. And we knew he felt it also. And
+though on Earth our public felt differently, the Little People
+recognized it. A stirring, wonderful time--that day when on our mirrors
+was pictured the revolt of the Little People against the Tarrano rule of
+the Hairless Men. Grim scenes of tragedy; and over the carnage, the
+Little People triumphed. Tarrano's rule--with all the excesses of the
+Hairless Men who proved themselves mere rapacious plunderers in the name
+of warfare--was at an end on Mars.
+
+The effect on Earth of this Martian reversal was beneficial to us. A
+good omen. We on Venus, redoubled our efforts to attack successfully the
+City of Ice.
+
+Mars could send us no aid, though now in full sympathy with us. The
+planet was daily at a greater distance from us; and the Little People,
+not recovered from the effects of their own bloody strife, were in no
+position to help us.
+
+Nor did the Earth Council deem it wise to send men additional to those
+few we already had. The Earth was rapidly being left behind by the
+swifter flight of Venus through her orbit. The official season for the
+mail-flyers was closed. The opposition of the two planets was long since
+passed; millions of additional miles were adding to the space separating
+them.
+
+And the Earth Council was not sure of its men! Any one of them might
+secretly be in Tarrano's service--and do us infinitely more harm if
+brought to Venus, than if left at home.
+
+We seemed of solid strength in the Central State. For the first time in
+generations the _Rhaals_--the men of science from whom all the progress
+of civilization on Venus came--departed from their attitude of
+aloofness. Their work--always before industrial--now turned to the
+sterner demands of war.
+
+The Rhaal City[22] lay a brief flight from us. A grave sort of
+people, these _Rhaals_. Men of square-cut, sober-colored garments; women
+of sober grey flowing robes--white hair coiled upon their heads.
+Intelligent women, dignified of demeanor; many of them learned as were
+the men.
+
+[Footnote 22: An awkward, unpronounceable word which for the purposes of
+this narrative may be termed Industriana.]
+
+Their city, teeming now with the preparations for war, was intensely
+interesting to me. We spent most of our days in it, flying back at
+nightfall to Maida's palace. Yet I shall not describe it, nor our
+preparations, our days of activity--but hasten on to the first of the
+extraordinary incidents impending.
+
+It came--this first incident--through my thoughts of Elza. I was
+worried--more than worried, sometimes almost terrified about her. My
+instinct would have been to take a handful of men and dash to her
+rescue--which of course would have been absurd. I tried to reassure
+myself. Tarrano would treat her kindly. Soon, in full force, our army
+would descend upon the City of Ice, capture it, destroy Tarrano--rescue
+Elza.
+
+Rescue Elza! Ah, there lay the difficulty which I never dared
+contemplate in detail. How would we rescue her? Tarrano would treat her
+kindly, now during his own security. But if, at the last, he saw his own
+defeat, his death perhaps impending--would he treat her kindly then?
+
+I loved Elza very deeply. A new torture came from it now. Did she love
+me--or Tarrano? I remembered the gentleness of the man with her. His
+dignity, his power--his undoubted genius. And who, what was I? A mere
+news-gatherer. A man of no force, and little personality. A nonentity.
+Sometimes as in my jealousy I contemplated Elza with Tarrano now, I felt
+that he was everything a young girl would fancy. How could she help
+loving him?
+
+At night, when sleep would not come to me, I would lie tossing, thinking
+of it. Did Elza love me--or Tarrano? Once I had thought she loved me.
+But she had never said so.
+
+It was out of this constant thinking of Elza that the first of the
+incidents I have mentioned, arose. There came to me one night the
+feeling that Elza was near me. I awoke from half sleep to full
+wakefulness. In my bedroom, upon the low couch on which I lay, the aural
+lights of Venus spread their vivid tints. The palace was silent; I sat
+up, pressing my palms to my throbbing temples.
+
+_Elza was coming nearer to me!_
+
+I knew it. Not by any of my bodily senses. A knowledge, which suddenly I
+realized that I had. A moment, and then I was conscious of her voice! No
+sound; my ears heard nothing. Yet my brain was aware of familiar tones.
+I recognized them, as one can remember how a loved voice sounded when
+last it was heard.
+
+But this was no memory. A present actuality; it rang soundless in my
+brain. Elza's voice. Anxious! Frightened!
+
+At first only the confused _tone_ of it. Then the consciousness of
+words. Two reiterated words:
+
+_"Danger! Jac! Danger! Jac!"_
+
+I waited no longer, but rushed to Georg and Maida--beautiful Maida in
+her robe of sleep with her white hair tumbling about her. Georg half
+awake--yet almost at once he could understand me, and explain.
+
+Natural, instinctive telepathy! It had not occurred to me. I had never
+bothered to develop telepathy; and indeed with any degree of fluency--or
+even of surety of reception--the phenomenon is difficult to perfect.
+Yet, as I knew, with a loved one absent upon whom one's thoughts dwell
+constantly--in time of stress telepathy is occasionally automatically
+established.
+
+It was so in Georg and Maida's case, back there in the Mountain Station
+on Earth. Telepathy was the explanation of Georg's mysterious actions as
+he stood there before the sending mirrors, crossed the room in
+confusion, and like one in a dream leaped from the window to be seized
+by Tarrano's spies. Maida had been abducted a moment before. Georg's
+brain became aware of it. Her danger, the appeal she sent to him.
+
+So it now seemed to be from Elza to me. Georg, out of bed now beside me,
+urged me to greater efforts of concentration, that I might understand
+what message Elza was sending.
+
+_"Elza! Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"_
+
+I murmured the words to myself as with all my power, I thought them over
+and over, flinging out the thoughts like radio waves into the night.
+Mysterious vibrations! In an instant, from here--everywhere in the
+universe. Who knows their character? Their speed? The speed of light a
+laggard perhaps beside the flash of a thought! Waves of my thoughts,
+speeding through the night, with only one receiving station in all the
+universe! Would Elza's brain capture them?
+
+_"Elza dear! Where are you? What is it?"_
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+It was very clear. The words rang in my head. But always only those two.
+And then at last--it may have been an hour later--other words:
+
+_"Death! The black cloud of death! You can see it coming! See it coming!
+Death! To you Jac! To all of you in the city!"_
+
+We rushed to the casement. The broad lagoon before the palace lay like a
+mirror tinted red and purple. Beyond it, palms and the outlines of
+houses lay dark against the star-strewn sky.
+
+But out there, over the city, in the distance a dark patch obscured the
+stars. We watched it breathless. A dark patch which soon took shape. A
+cloud! A black cloud--unnatural of aspect somehow--a rolling, low-lying
+black cloud. Growing larger; spreading out side-wise; sweeping toward
+the city on a wind which had not reached us.
+
+_"Jac! Jac dear! Danger! Death to all the city!"_
+
+Elza's words were still beating in my brain. Soundless words of terror
+and warning!
+
+_"Death, Jac! Death to all the city! The black cloud of death!"_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+_Tarrano the Man_
+
+
+"Wake up, Lady Elza."
+
+A silence. His hand touched her white shoulder. "Wake up, Lady Elza. It
+is I--Tarrano."
+
+Elza opened her eyes, struggling to confused wakefulness. The white
+walls of her sleeping room in Tarrano's palace of the City of Ice were
+stained with the dim red radiance of her night light. She opened her
+eyes to meet Tarrano's inscrutable face as he bent over her couch;
+became conscious of his low, insistent, "Wake up, Lady Elza;" and his
+fingers half caressing the filmy scarf that covered her shoulders.
+
+Terror flooded Elza; that time she had always feared, had come. Yet she
+had the presence of mind to smile, drawing away from him and sitting up,
+with the fur bed-covering pulled to her chin.
+
+"Tarrano? Why--"
+
+He straightened, and into his expression came apology.
+
+"I frightened you, Lady Elza? I'm sorry. I would not do that for all the
+worlds."
+
+Her terror receded. The old Tarrano over whom she still held sway. She
+summoned a look of haughty questioning.
+
+"You are bold, Tarrano--"
+
+His gesture was deprecating; he seated himself on the edge of her couch.
+She saw now that he was fully dressed and armed with a belt of many
+instruments.
+
+At this time Elza had been in the City of Ice for a considerable period.
+Irksome, worried days of semi-imprisonment; and through them, Tarrano's
+attitude toward her was unchanged. She saw little of him; he seemed very
+busy, though to what end, and what his activities, she could not learn.
+
+Within the palace, half as guard, half as maid-servant, Tara was
+generally Elza's only companion. And then, one evening when Tara's
+smouldering jealousy broke forth in Tarrano's presence and Elza uttered
+an involuntary cry of fear, Tara was summarily removed.
+
+Elza was left practically alone; until at length came this night when
+invading the privacy of her sleeping room, Tarrano awakened her. He sat
+now upon the edge of her couch.
+
+"I have a confession to make to you, Lady Elza." He smiled slightly. "As
+you know, there is no one else in our habitable universe to whom I would
+speak thus frankly."
+
+"I am honored, Tarrano. But here, at this hour of sleep--"
+
+He waved away the words. "I have asked your pardon for that. My
+confession--as once before, Lady Elza, I come to you most humbly,
+confessing that my affairs are not going as I would like. You do not
+know, of course, that Mars--"
+
+"I know nothing," she interrupted. "You have kept me from the
+news-mirrors, if indeed there are any here--"
+
+"Mars revolted against me," he went on imperturbably. "The Little People
+are again in control. Fools! They do not realize, those governors of
+Mars, that their public ultimately will demand this _Everlasting Life_
+of mine--the Brende secret--"
+
+She frowned. "No one knows better than you, Tarrano, that my father's
+secret does not bestow immortality. To cure disease, in a measure--"
+
+He checked her; his smile was ironical. "You and I know that, Lady Elza.
+We know that on this plane we would not want everlasting life if we
+could have it. But the public does not know that--let us not discuss it.
+I was telling you--confessing to you--I have lost Mars. Temporarily, of
+course. Meanwhile, I have been preparing to invade the Earth." His
+gesture was expansive. "I have been planning, from here in the Cold
+Country, to send armies to your Earth."
+
+He paused an instant. "I think now I shall wait until the next
+opposition--we are far from Earth now, but all in good time we shall be
+closer.... Strange is it not, that I should like to tell you my plans?"
+
+She did not answer; she watched his smile fading into a look of
+grimness. "In the Great City, here on Venus, they are getting ready to
+attack me. Did you know that?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"You supposed they were? Your brother, and that Jac Hallen?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you hoped they were, of course?"
+
+"Yes," she repeated.
+
+He frowned. "You are disconcertingly frank, Lady Elza. Well, let me tell
+you this--it would come to nothing. The _Rhaals_ are with them--all the
+resources of the Central State are to be thrown against me. Yet it will
+come to nothing."
+
+Her heart leaped. Tarrano was making his last stand. Beyond the logical
+sense of his words, she could see it in his eyes. He knew he was making
+his last stand. He knew too that she was now aware of it; and that
+behind the confidence of his words--that was the confession he was
+making.
+
+Tarrano's last stand! There seemed to her then something illogically
+pathetic in it all. This man of genius--so short a time ago all but the
+Emperor of three worlds. And now, with them slipping from his grasp,
+reduced to this last stronghold in the bleak fastnesses of the Cold
+Country, awaiting the inevitable attack upon him. Something pathetic....
+
+"I'm sorry, Tarrano."
+
+As though mirrored from her own expression, a wistful look had come to
+him. Her words drove it away.
+
+"Sorry? There is nothing to be sorry about. Their attack will come to
+nothing ... yet--" He stopped short, and then as though deciding to say
+what he had begun, he added:
+
+"Yet, Lady Elza, I am no fool to discard possibilities. I may be
+defeated." He laughed harshly. "To what depths has Tarrano fallen that
+he can voice such a possibility!"
+
+He leaned toward her and into his tone came a greater earnestness than
+she ever heard in it before.
+
+"Lady Elza, if they should be successful, they would not capture me--for
+I would die fighting. You understand that, don't you?"
+
+She met his eyes; the gleam in them held her. Forgetful of herself, she
+had allowed the fur to drop from her: she sat bolt upright, the dim red
+light tinting the scarf that lay like gossamer around her white
+shoulders. His hand came out and touched her arm, slipped up to her
+shoulder and rested there, but she did not feel it.
+
+"I will die fighting," he repeated. "You understand that?"
+
+"Yes," she breathed.
+
+"And you would be sorry?"
+
+"Oh--"
+
+"Would you?"
+
+"Yes, I--"
+
+He did not relax. His eyes burned her: but deep in them she saw that
+quality of wistfulness, of pleading.
+
+"You, my Elza, they would rescue--unless I killed you."
+
+She did not move, but within her was a shudder.
+
+"You know I would kill you, my Elza, rather than give you up?"
+
+"Yes," she murmured.
+
+"I--wonder. Sometimes I think I would." Suddenly he cast aside all
+restraint. "Oh, my Elza--that we should have to plan such things as
+these! You, sitting there--you are so beautiful! Your eyes--limpid pools
+with terror lurking in them when I would have them misty with love! My
+Elza--"
+
+The woman in her responded. A wave of color flooded her throat and face.
+But she drew away from him.
+
+"My Elza! Can you not tell me that even in defeat I may be victorious?
+It is you more than all else that I desire."
+
+Without warning his arms were around her, holding her fiercely to him,
+his face close to hers.
+
+"Elza! With you, defeat would be victory. And with you--now--if you
+would but say the word--together we will surmount every obstacle.--"
+
+He was kissing her, bending back her head, and his grip upon her
+shoulder was bruising the flesh. No longer Tarrano, Conqueror of the
+universe, just Tarrano the man. Terror surged within Elza's heart.
+
+"Tarrano!"
+
+"Elza dear--my Elza--"
+
+"Tarrano!" She fought with him. "Tarrano, do you dare--I tell you--"
+
+The frightened pleading of a woman at bay. And then abruptly he cast her
+off. His laugh was grim.
+
+"What a fool I am! Tarrano the weakling!" He leaped from the couch and
+began pacing the room. "Tarrano the weakling! To what depths has Tarrano
+fallen!"
+
+He stopped before her. "I ask your pardon, Lady Elza. This has been
+madness. Forget my words--all madness."
+
+His tone was crisp. "Human weakness to which I did not realize I was so
+prone made me talk like a fool. Desire you above the conquest of the
+universe? Absurd! Lies that men whisper into women's ears! All lies!"
+
+Was he telling the real truth now? Or was this a mood of recrimination?
+Bitterness that his love was scorned. Again his gaze held her, but in it
+now she could see nothing but a cruel inflexible purpose.
+
+"Tarrano in defeat! That is impossible, Lady Elza. You will very shortly
+realize that, for I am going to show you how, single-handed, I can make
+it impossible. Show you with your own eyes. It was my purpose in coming
+to waken you--my purpose, when your beauty led me into weakness
+incredible.... Get up, Lady Elza."
+
+She stared. With folded arms he stood emotionless regarding her.
+
+"Get up, I tell you. Put on those garments you wore when we arrived. We
+are going travelling again."
+
+He stood waiting; and beneath his gaze she shrank back, drawing the fur
+rug over her.
+
+A smile of contempt parted his lips. "You hesitate? You think I am still
+a weakling? You over-rate your beauty, Lady Elza.... Make haste, I
+command you. We must start very soon."
+
+She summoned her voice. "Start? Where? What are you--"
+
+"No questions, Lady Elza. Not now. Make haste--"
+
+He jerked from her the fur covering, flung it across the room, and with
+the same gesture turned away impersonally. Trembling, she rose from the
+couch and donned the garments he had indicated, while he stood brooding
+by the window, gazing through its transparent pane at the glistening
+frozen city which was all that remained of his empire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+_Thing in the Forest_
+
+
+"All in good time, Lady Elza, you will know where we are."
+
+Alone, unnoticed, they had departed from the City of Ice on a small
+flying platform similar to the one they had used before. The night had
+passed; day, with a new warmth to the sun, came again. Flying low, with
+Tarrano in a grim, moody silence, and Elza staring downward.
+
+The aural lights were overhead when at the last Tarrano brought the
+platform to rest. A thick, luxuriant forest. Huge trees with rope-like
+roots and heavy vines. Others with leaves like the ears of an elephant.
+And the ground hidden by almost impenetrable underbrush.
+
+They had landed in a tiny glade beside a dank marsh of water, where
+ferns shoulder high were embanked. It was dark, the stars and the tints
+of the auroral lights were barely distinguishable through the mass of
+foliage overhead. Elza gazed around her fearsomely. The air was heavy,
+oppressive. Redolent with the perfume of wild flowers and the smell of
+mouldering, steaming soil.
+
+"All in good time. Lady Elza," Tarrano repeated. "You will know where we
+are presently; we are closer to human habitation than you would think."
+
+Elza's heart pounded. As they were descending she had noticed a glow of
+light in the sky ahead. As though by intuition now, she seemed to
+realize that they were not far from the Great City. Her thoughts leaped
+to me--Jac Hallen--there in Maida's palace. Tarrano's grim, sinister
+purpose was as yet unknown to her. But she guessed that in it, danger
+impended for me--for all of us in the Great City.
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+Her thoughts instinctively reiterated the two words uppermost in her
+mind. And I think that it was just about then when they awakened me.
+
+Leaving the vehicle, Tarrano commanded Elza to follow him; and he began
+picking his way through the jungle. A light was in his hand; it
+penetrated but a short distance. A quivering beam of yellow light; then
+Elza saw that upon occasion, as Tarrano's finger slid a lever, the beam
+narrowed, intensified to a bright lavender. And now where it struck, the
+vegetation withered. Blackened, sometimes burst into tiny flame, and
+parted thus before them as they advanced.
+
+The jungle was silent; yet, as Elza listened, beneath the crackle of the
+burning twigs she could hear the tiny myriad voices of insect life.
+Startled voices as the heat of Tarrano's beam struck them. Rustling
+leaves; breaking twigs; things scurrying and sliding away, unseen in the
+darkness.
+
+Once or twice a crashing--some monster disturbed in his rest plunging
+away. Again, a slithering bulk of something, undulating its path through
+the thickets. All unseen. Save once. Looking upward, Elza caught a gleam
+of green eyes overhead. A triangle of three baleful spots of
+phosphorescent green. Her murmur of fright caused Tarrano to glance
+upward. His lavender, beam, grown suddenly larger, swung there with a
+hiss. Falling from above came a pink body. A bloated body, square, with
+squat, twisted legs; a thing larger than a man. A grotesque naked
+monstrosity almost in human form. A travesty--gruesome mockery of
+mankind. A face, three-eyed...
+
+The thing lay writhing in the underbrush, mouthing, mumbling and then
+screaming--the shrill scream of death agony. And the horrible smell of
+burning flesh as Tarrano's light played upon it...
+
+"Come away, Lady Elza. I'm sorry. I had hoped to avoid an affair such as
+this."
+
+Sickened, shuddering, Elza clung close to Tarrano as he led her onward.
+
+An hour or more; and now Elza could see in the distance the lights of
+the Great City.
+
+_"Jac! Danger! Jac! Danger!"_
+
+The idea of thought-transference had come to her. With all the power of
+her mind she was thinking her warning to me, praying that it might reach
+me.
+
+"Single-handed, Lady Elza. You shall see now how, single-handed, I make
+impossible any attack upon Tarrano."
+
+In her abstraction Elza had almost forgotten herself and Tarrano; his
+voice reached her--his voice grim and with a gloating, sinister triumph
+in it. He was bending to the ground. Elza saw that they had come to an
+open space--an eminence rising above the forest. Underfoot was a stony
+soil; in places, bare black rock with an outcropping of red, like the
+cinnabar from which on Earth we melt the _Heavy-metal_.[23]
+
+[Footnote 23: Quicksilver.]
+
+Tarrano faced her. "Nature, my Lady Elza, is fair to my purpose. I knew
+I would find some such deposit as this." He turned his face to one side
+attentively, and darted his light--harmlessly yellow now--to where a
+lone tree showed its great leaves beginning to waver in a night breeze.
+
+"Nature is with us! See there, my Elza! A wind is coming--a wind from us
+to--them!"
+
+The breeze grew--a breeze blowing directly over the forest to where in
+the distance the lights of the Great City showed plainly. Tarrano added:
+
+"I had thought to create the wind." He tapped his belt. "Create the wind
+to carry our onslaught. But you see, it is unnecessary. Nature is kind,
+and far more efficacious than our man-made devices."
+
+_"Jac! Danger!"_ She stood there in the breeze, watching Tarrano--his
+purpose as yet no more than guessed--praying that I might receive her
+warning.
+
+Tarrano selected his spot--a tiny little cone of rock no bigger than his
+thumb. He beckoned Elza.
+
+"Stand close, and watch. You shall see how from the merest spark, a
+conflagration may ensue."
+
+The cylinder in his hand darted forth a needle-like shaft--a light of
+intense purple. It touched the tiny cone of rock, and he held it there.
+
+"A moment. Be patient, my Elza."
+
+The point of rock seemed presently to melt. Like a tiny volcano, at
+their feet, lava from it was flowing down. A little stream of melted
+rock, viscous, bubbling a trifle; red at the edges, white within, and
+with wisps of smoke curling up from it.
+
+Elza stared with the fascination of horror, for now tiny tongues of
+flame were licking about. Blue tongues, licking the air, vanishing into
+wisps of black smoke.
+
+Tarrano snapped off his ray. But the tongues of flame stayed alive.
+Spreading slowly, soundlessly, their heat now melting the ground.
+
+A breath of the smoke touched Elza's face. Pungent, acrid. It stopped
+her breathing. She choked, coughed heavily to expel it.
+
+"Come away, Lady Elza. Let us watch from a safer distance."
+
+He led her from the hillock, up the wind to where at the edge of the
+forest they stood gazing.
+
+The blue fire had spread over a distance of several feet. A sluggish,
+boiling, bubbling area of flame. Tongues now the height of a man. And
+from them, rolling upward, a heavy black cloud--deadly fumes thick,
+blacker than the night, spreading out, welling forward over the forest
+toward the Great City slumbering in its falsely peaceful security.
+
+At last Elza knew. Stood there, cold, shuddering, thinking with all the
+power of her mind and being:
+
+_"Death, Jac! Death to all the City! The black cloud of death!"_
+
+Oblivious to Tarrano she stood until at last the rocky eminence was one
+great mass of the surging blue fire. And the black cloud, compact as a
+thunder-head, rolled onward.
+
+_"You can see it coming! Death Jac! Death to all the City!"_
+
+A sudden madness descended upon Elza. She felt abruptly that her warning
+was futile, felt an overpowering desire to run. Run somewhere--anywhere,
+away from the lurid sight she was facing. Or run perhaps, to the Great
+City; to race with that black cloud of death; to run fast and far, and
+burst into our palace to warn us.
+
+Tarrano himself lost in triumphant contemplation of what he had done,
+for the moment was heedless of Elza's presence. With white face upon
+which the blue glare had settled like a mask of death, Elza turned
+silently from him. Forgetful of that horrible thing they had
+encountered--others of its kind which might be lurking about--she turned
+silently and plunged into the black depths of the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+_A Woman's Scream_
+
+
+"The black Cloud of Death!"
+
+We stood there at the casement of the palace, gazing with a growing
+terror at the visible evidence of the tragedy which threatened. A black
+cloud off there in the distance, spreading out, rolling inexorably
+toward us. And then came the wind, and with it a breath of the black
+monster--a choking, horrible suggestion of the death rolling already
+over the city.
+
+We must have been fascinated at the casement for some considerable time.
+Elza's thought messages had ceased. Abruptly I came to myself.
+
+"The Black Cloud of Death!" I turned to Georg and Maida. "Alarm the
+city! Arouse them all! Alarm--"
+
+Maida's face was white: she flung off Georg's arm which had been
+protectingly around her. "The siren--"
+
+Terrible moments, those that followed. Confusion; panic; death!
+
+The public siren in the tower by the lagoon entrance shrilled its
+warning. The danger lights blazed out. The city came to life. Lights
+sprang up everywhere. People--with the daze of sleep still upon
+them--appeared at the casements; on the roof-tops; on the canal steps
+they appeared, fumbling with their boats. Panic!
+
+A pandemonium. Aircraft, such as could so hastily be mustered, swept
+overhead. A glare of lights everywhere. The shrill voice of the siren
+stilled, to make audible the broadcast warnings--stentorian tones
+screaming: "The Black Cloud of Death! Escape from the city! Escape to
+Industriana!"
+
+Warning, advice, command! But over it all, the breath of the black cloud
+now lay heavy. The lights were dimmed by it. Everywhere--to every
+deepest recess of the city--to every inner room where to escape it many
+had fled--its deadly choking breath was penetrating.
+
+Within the palace was turmoil. We had an air-vehicle on a landing-stage
+nearby; but Georg and Maida would not leave at once. Rulers of the
+Central State, as a Director might stick to his crumbling Tower, they
+stayed now in the Great City. Encouraging the people. Maida's voice,
+futilely attempting to broadcast over the uproar. Georg commanding the
+official air-vessels to load with refugees; himself struggling to direct
+the jam of boats toward the embarking stages.
+
+We were in the instrument room of the palace. The air was pale-blue,
+though I had closed every casement. Ourselves, choking already; then
+gasping; and with no time or thought to procure a mask. The chemical
+room, from whence we might have secured apparatus to purify our air, had
+been abandoned before we thought to seek it out. I dashed into it, my
+breath held. Its casements were open; its air thick-blue with the fumes;
+its staff long since fled. I ran back to Georg and Maida, gasping, my
+lungs on fire, my head roaring.
+
+"No use! Abandoned!"
+
+The department of weather control where--had we been forewarned--we
+might have found means to divert the wind by another of our own
+creation--was deserted by its staff at the first alarm.
+
+"No use! Georg--Maida--let us go!"
+
+The mirrors all about us in the instrument room were going dark; the
+horrible scenes of death throughout the city which they pictured were
+vanishing. The public lights were going out; the broadcast voices were
+ceasing.
+
+The city now was out of control. But still the lagoon outside was
+packed with boats--overloaded boats.... Screams of terror, choked into
+silence ... boats with frenzied occupants leaping into the water to find
+a quicker, happier death ... a woman with a babe in her arms on a
+housetop across the lagoon--the infant already dead; the crazed mother
+flinging it down into the water, herself following with a long, gasping
+scream...
+
+At last Georg pulled at me--no longer could we speak--pulled at me, and
+with Maida between us, we fled. The air outside was worse. In the
+dimness, our landing stage seemed _belans_ away. The flagged area
+between us and the stage--a space of square-cut metal flagging,
+bordering the lagoon--was littered with bodies. Dead--or dying. People
+even now staggering from landed boats--staggering blindly, stumbling
+over bodies, falling and lying always where they had fallen.
+
+With our own senses fading, we groped our way forward. Soon we were
+separated. I saw Maida fall and Georg pick her up, but I was powerless
+to reach them.
+
+The landing stage seemed so far away. The dead and dying beneath my feet
+obstructed me as I staggered over them. A woman, reeling toward me,
+flung her arms about my neck with an iron grip of despair. I stared into
+her face, purple almost with its congested blood, her mouth gaping, her
+blood-shot eyes bulging; and even with the terror distorting them, I saw
+beneath it their look of despairing appeal...
+
+Her arms clinging to me desperately; but with a curse I flung her to the
+ground and reeled onward.
+
+Without knowing it, I had come to the brink of the water's edge. The
+flagging seemed to drop away. I fell. Dimly I heard the splash as I
+struck the water; and felt a grateful cooling sense as it closed over
+me.
+
+I am a strong, instinctive swimmer. I did not breathe, and when I rose
+to the surface, the single swift breath I took was purer than any I had
+had for half an hour past. My head cleared a little; swimming
+instinctively, and with cautious breaths, I found that I was able to go
+on.
+
+I know now that by some vagary of chance--of fate if you will--I had
+struck a surface area where breathable air still remained. I swam,
+striving to plan, to think where I might be swimming. Yet it was all a
+phantasmagoria, with only the strength of my muscles and the instinct to
+preserve my life remaining to direct me. Swimming endlessly ... swimming
+... taking a half-gasp of breath ... swimming ... trying to think ... or
+dreaming ... was it all a dream?...
+
+When I came to myself I was lying upon a bank of ferns in the outskirts
+of the city. It was still night; the black cloud of death had passed on;
+the air was pure. Like a man for days bereft of water, I lay and drank
+in the air, pure at last, as the Almighty distils it for us.
+
+Bodies were lying around me on the bank. A dark, silent house stood
+nearby; and a deserted boat. All darkness and silence--the brooding
+silence of death. I was still dazed. Maida--Georg; they seemed like
+people in a dream long faded. Industriana! They were going to the
+_Rhaal_ City of Industriana. _I_ had been trying to get there. I must
+get there now--join them. I climbed to my feet; the edge of a forest was
+nearby and with wavering steps I started toward it.
+
+Looking back on it now I realize that I was even then half crazed. In a
+daze I must have stumbled through the forest for hours. Unreasoning,
+with only that one idea--to get to Industriana; and in the background of
+my consciousness the vague belief that Elza would be there to greet me.
+Into the depths of the untrammeled forest with unguided steps I
+wandered.
+
+At last I found myself wondering if the dawn were coming; the tri-night
+hour was long since passed; the auroral lights as I could sometimes see
+them through the tangle of vegetation overhead, were low in the sky.
+Insects--and sometimes larger beings--leaped and slithered unseen before
+my advance. But I did not heed them. Eyes may have peered at me as I
+stumbled through the blackness of the undergrowth; but if they did, I
+did not notice them.
+
+And then at last I was brought abruptly to full rationality and
+consciousness. Stumbling through a tangle of low growth--a black thicket
+which tore at my garments and scratched my flesh--I was transfixed by a
+woman's scream. It came through the darkness from near at hand. A
+crashing of the underbrush, and a woman's scream of terror. It stopped
+my breath, turned me cold.
+
+Elza!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+_The Monster_
+
+
+I stood frozen with horror; but as my brain cleared--awake at last to
+full rationality and consciousness--beneath the horror came a surging
+joy of the knowledge that at last Elza was near me. The scream was
+repeated; inactive no longer, I dashed the thicket branches apart with
+my arms and plunged forward through the darkness.
+
+Ahead of me the thickets opened into a sort of clearing. I saw the sky,
+the stars--paling stars with the first flush of dawn overpowering them.
+I stood at the edge of an open space in the dim, flat-grey illumination
+of morning twilight.
+
+Elza! She was there, standing near a huge isolated tree; Elza, pale,
+trembling, a hand pressed against her mouth in terror; disheveled, her
+garments dirty and torn with her wanderings through the forest.
+
+A swift glimpse as momentarily I paused; a second or two only, but the
+scene was impressed upon my brain as actinic light upon a photo-screen.
+Close by Elza, partially behind her, I saw something small, no taller
+than Elza's waist. A naked thing of sleek, glistening skin. The
+monstrosity of a human child; a bulging head, wavering upon a neck
+incapable of supporting it; a thick round body; twisted, misshapen
+limbs. A face ... human? It made my gorge rise with its gruesome
+suggestion of humanity. Nostrils--no nose; a mouth, lipless, but red
+like a curved gash with upturned corners to make the travesty of a grin;
+a triangle of watery eyes, goggling. Senselessly, it stood watching Elza
+with a dull, vacant curiosity. Not human, this thing! Yet monstrously
+repulsive in its hideous suggestion of an idiot child.
+
+Elza was not facing it; my gaze instinctively followed hers to the tree.
+Crowning horror! The adult of this thing upon the ground hung swaying by
+a thick hand and arm from a low limb; hung, then dropped. Growling,
+mouthing as though it would try and form human words of menace, it
+picked itself up and shambled toward Elza.
+
+I leaped for them. Elza seemed too terrified to run. The thing reached
+her, towered over her; seized her in its arms. She screamed--the agony
+of revolt and terror; but over her voice rose my own shout of rage, and
+abruptly the thing dropped her and turned to confront me. Snarling,
+glaring with its three hideous blood-shot eyes; waving its thick, bent
+arms.
+
+I had no weapons save those with which nature had endowed me. The regret
+of that came as a fleeting thought; and then I crashed into the thing;
+my fist, passing its awkward guard, struck it full in the face. I
+sickened. Even in the heat of combat a nausea swept me. For no solid
+flesh and bone met my blow, like the shell of an egg, my fist crashed
+into and through its face.
+
+Warm, sticky moisture ... a stench ...
+
+The thing had toppled backward, with me sprawling upon its bloated bulk.
+It struggled, writhed ... Its arms gripped me, its huge fingers clutched
+my throat ... I caught a glimpse of its smashed face ... so close, I
+turned away ... a face of yellow-white pulp ...
+
+My fist cracked and sank into its chest. I pounded, smashed; broke the
+shell of its distended body ... noisome ... the revulsion, the nausea of
+it all but overcame me.
+
+At last the thing lay still; and from the wet, sticky foulness of it I
+rose and stood shuddering. Elza lay on the ground; but she had risen
+upon one elbow and I saw that she was unharmed save for the shock of
+terror through which she had passed--a mitigated shock with the
+knowledge now that I was with her, and that I too was uninjured.
+
+The infant thing had vanished. I hastened forward.
+
+"Elza! Elza, dear--"
+
+Joy lighted her face.
+
+"Jac!"
+
+I would have lifted her up; but the consciousness of my own
+foulness--the yellow-white slime streaked with red which smeared my
+arms, splattered my clothing--gave me pause. In the growing light,
+beyond the clearing, I caught the silver sheen of water. Without a word
+I ran for it; a shimmering pool the existence of which no doubt had
+drawn these grewsome beings of the forest into its vicinity. To the
+cleansing water I ran, plunged in, purged myself of that horrible
+foulness which human senses could not endure.
+
+When I returned, Elza was upon her feet. Recovered at last she flung
+herself into my arms. Impulsive; seeking protection as she clung to me;
+fear; the let-down of overwrought nerves as she stood and clung and
+sobbed upon my shoulder.
+
+It was all of that; but oh! it was more than that as well. My Elza,
+raising her tear-stained face and kissing me. Murmuring, "Jac, I love
+you!" Murmuring her love: "Jac dear, you're safe! I've wanted so long to
+be with you again--I've been so frightened--so frightened--"
+
+Giving me back my kisses unreserved; holding me with eager
+arms ... Tarrano? The memory of him came to me. How foolish my fears,
+my jealousy! That man of genius ... conqueror of worlds ...
+
+But my Elza loved _me_!...
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+_Industriana_
+
+
+It must have been two days later when at last we were rescued by the
+_Rhaal_ patrol and taken to Industriana. Back there in the forest I had
+suddenly remembered that the mate to the thing I had killed would
+doubtless be lurking in the vicinity. We fled. Subsisting on what food
+of the wilds we could find, at last we were picked up and taken to the
+City of Work.
+
+The Great City had been destroyed. Wanton capital of the Central State,
+we learned now that it lay dead. To outward aspect, unharmed. Fair,
+serene, alluring as ever it lay there on its shimmering waters; but the
+life within it, was dead. Refugees--a quarter perhaps of the
+inhabitants--had escaped; hourly the search patrols were picking them
+up, bringing them to Industriana. Rescue parties were searching the
+city, to find any who might still be alive.
+
+And out in the forest lay a great pile of ashes, still exhaling a thin
+wisp of its deadly breath--where Tarrano had created the Black Cloud;
+lost his captive Elza, but doubtless had escaped himself back to his
+City of Ice.
+
+We found Georg and Maida safe at Industriana. Marvelous city! Elza had
+never seen it before. She sat gazing breathless as from the air on the
+patrol vessel, we approached it.
+
+The land of this region was a black, rocky soil upon which vegetation
+would not grow. A rolling land, grimly black, metallic; with
+outcroppings of ore, red and white and with occasional patches of thin
+white sand whereon a prickly blue grass struggled for life.
+
+Rolling hills; and then places where nature had upheaved into a turmoil.
+Huge naked black crags; buttes; hills with precipitous black sides of
+sleek metal; narrow canyons with tumultuous water flowing through them.
+
+In such a place stood Industriana. The City of Work! Set in an area
+where nature lay scarred, twisted in convulsion, its buildings clung to
+every conceivable slope and in every position. Many-storied
+buildings--residences and factories indiscriminately intermingled. All
+built in sober, solid rectangles of the forbidding black stone.
+
+A long steep slope from an excavated quarry deep in the ground, ran
+straight up to a commanding hilltop--the slope set with an orderly array
+of buildings clinging to it in terraces. Buildings huge, or tiny huts;
+all anchored in the rear to the ground, and set upon metal girders in
+the front. Bisecting the slope was a vertical street--a broad escalator
+of moving steps, one half going upward, the other down. Beside it, a
+series of other escalators for the traffic of moving merchandise.
+
+Cross streets on the hill were spider bridges, clinging with thin, stiff
+legs. And at the summit of the hill stood a tremendous funnel belching
+flame and smoke into the sky.
+
+To one side of the hill lay a bowl-like depression with a single squat
+building in its center--a low building of many funnels; and about it the
+black yawning mouths of shafts down into the ground--mines vomiting ore,
+broken chunks of the metallic rock coming up as though by the invisible
+magic of magnetism, hunting through the air in an arc to fall with a
+clatter into great bins above the smelter.
+
+In another place, at the bottom of a canyon roared a surging torrent of
+river. A harnessed river; plunging into turbines; emerging to tumble
+over a cascade, its every drop caught by turning buckets spilled again
+at the bottom. Water pursuing its surging course downward, its power
+used again and again. The canyon dry at one place near the lower edge of
+the city, the water all electrified, resolved into piped hydrogen and
+oxygen. Like a tremendous clock ticking, the water, momentarily dammed
+back, was released in a torrent to the electrolysis vats. The hissing
+gases, under tremendous pressure, raised up the heavy-weighted tops of
+two expanding tanks. Another tick of this giant clock--the gases
+released, were merged again to water. The tops of the tanks lowered,
+each in turn, one coming down as the other went up--hundreds of tons of
+weight--their slow downward pull geared to scores of whirling
+wheels--the power shifted to dynamos scattered throughout the city.
+
+It was the twilight of nightfall when we arrived over Industriana. A
+thousand funnels and chimneys belched their flame and smoke--the flame
+tinting the sky with a lurid yellow-green glare, the smoke hanging like
+a dim blue gauze through which everything seemed unreal, infernal.
+
+From the city rose a roar--the myriad sounds of industry mingled by the
+magic of distance. And as we got closer, the roar resolved into its
+component parts; the grinding of gears; clicking of belts and chains;
+whirring of dynamos and motors; shrill electrical screams; the
+clattering of falling ore; clanking of swiftly moving merchandise, bound
+in metal, magnetized to monorail cars shifting it to warehouses on the
+nearby hills. And over it all flashed the brilliant signal lights of the
+merchandise traffic directors whose stentorian electrical voices
+broadcasting commands sounded above the city's noises.
+
+An inferno of activity. A seeming confusion; yet the aspect of confusion
+was a fallacy, for beneath it lay a precision--an orderly precision as
+calm and exact as the mind of the Director of a Signal Tower counting
+off the split seconds of his beams.
+
+An orderly precision--the brain of one man guiding and dominating
+everything; at his desk alone for long hours throughout the days and
+nights. A quiet, grey-haired gentleman; unhurried, unharassed, seemingly
+almost inactive; always seated at his empty desk smoking endless
+arrant-cylinders. The dominating business brain of Industriana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+_Departure_
+
+
+Georg and Maida were very busy in Industriana; and now Elza and I were
+admitted to their activities--Elza and I, with our new-found love and
+happiness neglected for the greater thing, the welfare of the nation
+upon which hinged the very safety of Venus itself; and Mars; and our own
+fair Earth.
+
+Industriana, greatest commercial and manufacturing center of Venus, had
+been given over momentarily to the preparations for war. The _Rhaals_
+had at last turned from industry to the conquest of Tarrano.
+Preparations were almost completed; our armies were to start within a
+very few times of sleep.
+
+I had had no experience in warfare; but the history of our Earth had
+told me much of it. The enlisting and training of huge armies of men;
+arming them; artillery; naval and air forces; commissary and supplies; a
+gigantic business organization to equip, move and maintain millions of
+fighting men.
+
+Ancient warfare! This--our modern way--was indeed dissimilar. It was,
+from most aspects, simplicity itself. We had no need of men in great
+numbers. I found something like a single thousand of men being organized
+and trained. And equipped with weapons to outward aspects comparatively
+simple.
+
+On all the three worlds the age of explosives of the sort history
+records, was long since passed. Electronic weapons--all basically the
+same. And I found now that it was the power for them, developed,
+transformed into its various characteristics and stored for individual
+transportation and use, which was mainly engrossing Industriana.
+
+I had opportunity, that first night, of meeting Geno-Rhaalton--the
+present head of that famous Rhaalton line, for generations hereditary
+leaders of their race.
+
+We found him, this Geno-Rhaalton, in a secluded, somber little office of
+black metallic walls, grey hangings and rug, a block of carved stone his
+desk, and a few of the stiff-backed stone chairs, each with its single
+prim cushion.
+
+The office was beyond sight and sound of the busy city. His desk was
+empty, save for the array of apparatus around its edges--the clicking
+tabulators which recorded, sorted, analyzed and summarized for him every
+minute detail with which the city was engaged.
+
+Machines of business detail. We had them, of course, in the Inter-Allied
+offices of Greater New York. I have seen our Divisional Director voice
+into a mouthpiece the demand for some statistical summary computed up to
+five minutes before, and covering his entire Atlantic Division. He would
+have it, recorded in cold print before him, within a moment.
+
+Yet, compared to the Rhaalton efficiency, our own methods seemed
+antiquated indeed. This man was in touch with every transpiring detail
+simultaneously; yet not confused by them, for every detail was also
+combined into a whole--to be examined for itself if he wished. Visually
+as well, the entire city lay before his gaze--the walls of the office
+were lined with rows and tiers of small mirrors; receivers and
+mouthpieces connected him with everything. Sights, sounds, and even
+smells of the various factories were available to him--smells when his
+sense of smell might be necessary for the testing of some elusive gas.
+
+Without moving his physical body his presence was in effect transported
+wherever throughout the city he wished to be. A man of tremendous
+concentration, to handle but one thing at a time; with all the power of
+his brain to give instant decision, and then to forget it utterly.
+
+I found him a rather small man; smooth-shaven; grey-haired; a grave face
+and demeanor, with dark eyes solemn with thought, yet twinkling often
+when he spoke. A man of flabby muscles and gentle voice; seemingly
+unforceful, and with a personality likable, but hardly dominating.
+
+Instinctively I found myself comparing him to Tarrano. Tarrano's strong,
+wiry body. The flash of his eye; his inscrutability, always suggesting
+menace; the power, the genius of his personality--the force radiating
+from him which no one could mistake. His intellectual power--his
+concentration--certainly the equal of this little leader of the
+_Rhaals_.
+
+Tarrano the Conqueror! Tarrano--man of destiny--risen from nothing and
+by the sheer genius of his will throwing three worlds into chaos, at one
+stage combining two worlds into his self-created Empire; and menacing
+the third. Surely Tarrano was a greater man than this Rhaalton. I knew
+it; much as I hated Tarrano I was forced to admit it.
+
+Yet as I stood there acknowledging the soft-spoken greeting of Rhaalton,
+I had the swift premonition that Tarrano was going down into defeat. And
+that this little man, without moving from his desk or raising his voice,
+would be the main factor in bringing it about.
+
+And I wondered why such a thing could be. I know why now. Tarrano, with
+all his genius, lacked just one quality which this little man had in
+abundance. The milk of human kindness--humanity--a radiating force the
+essence of which paradoxically was the unforceful gentleness of him. The
+Almighty--as we each of us in our hearts must envisage our God--is just,
+but gentle, humane in His justness. And with all the genius in the
+universe--the war-like power--the weapons--the cohorts--all the
+wonderful armament of war--you cannot transgress the Will of the
+Almighty. Against all human logic of what should be victory--you will
+meet defeat....
+
+The thoughts fled through my mind and vanished into the realities of the
+present. Rhaalton was saying:
+
+"We will be ready within another time of sleep. Jac Hallen, you wish, I
+suppose, to go out with our forces?"
+
+"Oh yes," I said.
+
+He smiled. "The eagerness of youth for danger! And yet is very
+necessary--very laudable--"
+
+He passed a hand across his forehead with a weary gesture--a gesture
+which seemed to me despondent. Could this be our vaunted leader? My
+heart sank.
+
+He added abruptly: "We shall conquer this Tarrano--but at what cost!"
+His smile was wistful. "We must choose the lesser evil."
+
+Still gently, almost sorrowfully, but with a directness and clarity of
+thought which amazed me, he plunged into a detailed account of what
+Georg was to do in command of our forces. My own part in it, already
+planned by him in detail. Maida's part. Elza's. The division of _Rhaal_
+maidens.
+
+Girlhood in war! It seemed very strange. Yet the _Rhaal_ maidens were
+going as a matter of course, since there were some activities for which
+they were more fitted than the men. With all the _Rhaal_ maidens going,
+Elza and Maida would not stay behind. And though Maida--a wife--was
+objected to by Rhaalton, he had yielded finally to her pleading.
+
+I will not now detail our plans or our armament. We had, in general, one
+thousand unmarried men, in five divisions of two hundred each. They were
+largely _Rhaals_, with the few Earth men previously sent us; fifty
+perhaps of the most loyal _slaans_; and a scattering of the other races
+of the Venus Central State. A few--thirty perhaps--of the Little People
+of Mars. In addition, another hundred men, individually in charge of the
+larger apparatus and the vehicles. And the division of two hundred
+girls.
+
+Our journey to the Cold Country was to be made on flying platforms and
+vehicles of various sizes; some large to carry fifty passengers or more;
+others so small that only one person could be carried. These latter, the
+girls were to use. I call them platforms. In this size they were not,
+literally speaking, much more than the transporting mechanism fastened
+to the girl's waist.
+
+There were also heavier vehicles carrying the larger apparatus; and
+several of fairly large size with food, clothing, housing
+equipment--supplies of all kinds for our maintenance abroad. A dozen
+vehicles also carrying huge skeleton towers, encircled at the top with
+ray projectors. A vehicle with a single room--an instrument room fully
+equipped by means of which Geno-Rhaalton at his desk would be in contact
+with our every move. And largest vehicle of all--in aspect a solid,
+squat affair almost of a size for inter-planetary travel--our power
+plant.
+
+We started at dawn of the second morning after my own arrival in
+Industriana. The girls were to travel to the borders of the Cold Country
+on the larger vehicles, but they wished to start flying individually for
+the first few helans of the journey for practice. Georg, Maida, Elza and
+I were to travel in the instrument room.
+
+We massed upon a broad hilltop near the city. In the grey twilight of
+dawn with a flush of pink in the sky where the sun in a few moments
+would rise, I stood in the outer doorway of the instrument vehicle.
+Around me was the confusion of departure. Eager young men; laughing
+girls, flushed with excitement. The gayety of youth going to war! Young
+as I was myself, I was struck with the drama, the pathos of it. What
+would the home-coming be?
+
+Georg, Maida and Elza were with me. Geno-Rhaalton stepped up to us.
+Bare-headed. A solemn little man, heavy-hearted.
+
+"Good-by," he said simply. "I know you will do your best."
+
+"Jac! Look there!"
+
+I followed Elza's startled gesture to the soft, white clouds which were
+massed in the sky above us. By what magic of science the thing was
+accomplished, I know not; but up there in the clouds a gigantic image of
+Tarrano was materializing! His head and shoulders. Arms folded; his face
+with a sardonic smile leering down at us! Lips moving. And out of the
+air about us came his audible, broadcasting words.
+
+_"Do your best, my friends!"_ Ironic mockery! _"Coming to conquer
+Tarrano? Hasten! You are keeping Tarrano waiting most impatiently!"_
+
+The giant voice died away into silence; the huge image melted into the
+clouds and vanished.
+
+Rhaalton looked at us again, expressionless. "Good-by," he repeated. "Do
+your best."
+
+He turned away abruptly. And then as he walked with a despondent droop,
+I saw his shoulders suddenly straighten. He flung a hand into the air.
+The signal to start! From a tower in Industriana a puff of violet light
+shot up to magnify the signal.
+
+The girls, all in their places, rose into the air. Draperies fluttering,
+like graceful birds they rose, circled over us in an arc; and then in a
+long, single line, with officers apart to one side marking them in
+squads of twenty, they sped into the dimness of distance.
+
+The tower vehicles now were rising. Then the larger platform; the power
+plant, like a floating building sailing majestically up.
+
+"Come, Jac."
+
+Elza and Maida were inside the instrument room gazing through one of its
+windows; and Georg drew me within, closing the transparent door after
+us. Through the windows I could see the line of vehicles following after
+the girls. Then our instrument room rose quietly, soundlessly. The
+ground dropped slowly away, then faster; and as we swung about I saw the
+hilltop beneath us. Its sides were lined with waving spectators;
+stricken momentarily with awe at the apparition of Tarrano, they had
+already forgotten it; from every vantage point of Industriana they were
+frantically waving.
+
+But the hilltop was empty, save for one lone figure--Geno-Rhaalton
+standing sorrowfully gazing after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+_First Assault_
+
+
+Our spies had informed us that of recent weeks there had arisen about
+the City of Ice a huge wall behind which Tarrano would make his stand.
+It was our plan to approach within range of this and establish our power
+plant as a base from which to direct our offensive. The trip from the
+Great City was not long. After a few helans our girls ceased flying
+individually and boarded their appointed vehicles.
+
+In a long single line, armament platforms, the towers, our instrument
+room, with the power plant bringing up the rear, we sailed forward.
+There were in our instrument vehicle, Maida, Georg, Elza and myself, the
+vehicle manned by two pilots and two mechanicians--a _slaan_, a Mars
+man, and two Earth men. We were in constant communication with
+Geno-Rhaalton. And though he enjoined upon us all the necessity for
+sleeping or resting during the trip, himself sat alert at his desk,
+unrelaxing. The little mirror on our table showed him sitting there,
+watching every move we made.
+
+We laid down to rest, but sleep was impossible. Through the panelled
+transparent floor, I watched the country changing as we advanced;
+vegetation dwindling; the soil changing to rocky barrenness at the
+border of the Cold Country. And then the snow-plains, the mute frozen
+rivers of ice, the mountains.
+
+In the twilight of the Cold Country autumn, we sailed up to the
+mountains and approached to the City of Ice. Alert, all of us now, as at
+an altitude of a few thousand feet we circled about, marking time until
+the power plant had selected its base and landed to make ready for the
+battle.
+
+Throughout the trip we had expected--had anticipated the possibility--of
+a surprise attack by Tarrano; an ambush in the open air, perhaps
+by some means strange to us. But the vision magnifiers, the
+microphones--encompassing every known range of sight and sound--showed
+us nothing. Especially at the mountains we had thought to meet
+opposition. But at first none came. It seemed somehow ominous, this lack
+of action from Tarrano; and when the leader of our line--a tower
+vehicle--rose sharply to scale the jagged peaks of the Divide, the flare
+of a hostile electronic bomb rising came almost as a relief. From the
+instrument room--forewarned an instant by the hiss of our microphones--I
+saw the bomb start upward. Slowly as a rocket it mounted--a blurred ball
+of glowing violet light, quite plain in the dim twilight. I knew that
+the tower platform at which it was directed would have time to throw out
+its insulation; I knew that the insulation would doubtless be
+effective--yet my heart leaped nevertheless. At my hand was a projector;
+but in those few seconds the tower just in advance of us in the line was
+quicker. Its ray darted at the violet ball; the soundless explosion
+threw a wave of sparks about the menaced tower, like a puff--a pricked
+bubble of soap-film--the violet ball was dissipated. But I saw the
+menaced tower rock a trifle from the shock.
+
+Geno-Rhaalton's face in the mirror beside me was very solemn. I heard
+him murmuring something to the other towers, saw their light flash
+downward, searching the mountain defiles. And as I watched that little
+image of Rhaalton, I chanced to notice a mirror on Rhaalton's desk.
+Rhaalton himself was looking at it--a mirror which had been dark, but
+which now flashed on. An outlaw circuit! The mirror imaged the face of
+Tarrano. Tarrano grinning ironically!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+_Invisible Assailants_
+
+
+We did not locate the source of the bomb, and no others rose to assail
+us. The mountain defiles, so far as our lights could illuminate them,
+seemed deserted. We passed over the Divide, and on the plateau beyond,
+we landed. A region of rolling country beneath its snow and ice. The
+mountains came down sharply to the inner plain--a crescent of mountain
+range stretching off into the dimness of distance, half encircling this
+white plateau in the center of which stood the City of Ice. We could
+just see it at the horizon, the glittering spires of its Ice Palace.
+
+Around the city, completely enveloping it, was a thick circular wall of
+ice twenty times the height of a man. We were too far away to see it
+plainly--a turreted wall doubtless armed with projectors throughout its
+circular length. Our finders would not show it, for it was insulated
+against them. It stood there grey-white, bleak and apparently deserted.
+
+Georg said: "It's the man's accursed inactivity! Is he going to do
+nothing?... Our power plant has landed, Jac--there in the foothills--see
+it drop?" A call from Rhaalton took his attention.
+
+We landed our entire force in the foothills of the mountains. The power
+plant was there; it looked like a squat industrial building set upon a
+ledge of ice--a shining cliff-face behind it, a precipice in front. At
+the foot of the precipice our other vehicles were clustered.
+
+We were there throughout three entire times of sleep, hours strangely
+the same in that unaltered polar twilight. During them, with the tower
+platforms set in a ring about us to make an armed camp, we unloaded our
+apparatus, erected our power controls, prepared the individual circuits,
+making ready for our offensive. And still--though we, were alert for
+it--no move from Tarrano.
+
+They were hours during which, with my lack of technical knowledge, I
+found myself often with nothing to do. Our camp was bustling with
+activity, but among the now idle girls and many of the young men, there
+was an air of gayety. They laughed, shouted, played games amid the rocks
+from which we had long since melted the snow. Once, in what would have
+been early evening had not the Sun in these latitudes held level like a
+burned-out ball near the horizon, Elza and I wandered from the camp to
+climb the cliffs nearby.
+
+Beyond the circle of the camp's heat, the deadly cold of the region
+assailed us. We had not wished to equip with the individual heating,
+which for battle would leave us free of heavy garments; instead we
+swathed ourselves in furs, with the exercise of climbing to aid us in
+keeping warm.
+
+It was wonderful to be again alone with Elza. Even with what was
+impending we were young enough to put it momentarily from our minds.
+Like young lovers clandestinely stealing away to a tryst, we left the
+camp and hand in hand, climbed up amid the crags. A few hundred feet to
+one side of the power house, and about the same distance above it, we
+sat down at last to rest.
+
+The scene from here was picturesque in the extreme. Across the flat,
+shadowless snowy plain was the wall of ice with the city behind it. All
+in the far distance, this city wherein our enemy was entrenched; and
+there were no lights, no movement that we could see. In that drab
+twilight, it seemed almost unreal.
+
+The plain too, was empty. A few palpably deserted huts, nothing else.
+Beneath us, snugly anchored there on the ledge, was our power house. No
+unreality here. Its aerials were mounted; its external dynamos were
+visibly revolving; from its windows blue shafts of light slanted out;
+and from it rose the low hum of active power.
+
+Below it, spread over the slightly sloping area of foothill beneath us,
+lay our encampment. A ring of our tower vehicles, with their projectors
+mounted and ready, their colored search-beams slowly sweeping the white
+plain and the dead grey sky. Within their ring, the camp itself. Lighted
+by the blue-white tubes set upon quadrupeds at intervals; heated by
+strings of red-glowing wire and the red wire-balls used on Venus. The
+snow and ice on the ground within the camp had melted, exposing the
+naked rock.
+
+A scene of blue and red lights and shifting shadows; bustling with
+activity--figures, tiny from this height, hurrying about. The sounds
+from it rose to us; the low hum and snap of the weapons being tested;
+the shouted commands; and sometimes, mingled with it, the laughing shout
+of a light-hearted girl.
+
+Elza clung close to me. "Everything will be ready soon."
+
+I nodded. "They're going to mount a ray up here on the cliff. Grolier
+was telling me, for permanent protection--to stay here with the power
+house when we go out to the attack."
+
+Silent with her thoughts she did not answer me. Sidewise, I regarded her
+solemn little face encased in its hood of fur. And then clumsily, for
+our furs were heavy and awkward, I put my arm about her.
+
+"I love you, Elza. It's worth a great deal to be here alone with you."
+
+"Jac, what will he do?" Her gaze was to the far-off City of Ice. "It
+seems so--so sinister, Jac, this silence from him. This inactivity. It
+is not like him to be inactive."
+
+"He's there," I said. "Rolltar the Mars man--boastful fellow,
+blow-hard--he was telling some of us that in his opinion Tarrano had
+already run away."
+
+"Never!" she exclaimed. "This is his last stand. He'll make it
+here--defeat us here--"
+
+"Elza!"
+
+She glanced momentarily at me, smiled a queer smile, and then gazed once
+more over the distant plain. "I do not mean I think he'll defeat us,
+Jac. I mean, that is his reasoning--make his last stand here--"
+
+"He hasn't run away," I repeated. "I told Rolltar so. We got an outlaw
+connection into the Ice Palace today. For a moment only, and then it was
+discovered and broken off. But we had the image for a moment--it chanced
+to show Tarrano himself. But he's isolated now. Bretan said his
+isolation power--around the Ice Palace and the wall anyway--is greater
+than any image-ray we can send against it."
+
+My heart leaped suddenly, for I saw Elza's eyes widen, fear spring to
+her face; heard the sharp intake of her breath, and felt her hand grip
+my arm.
+
+"Jac! There's something wrong! See there? And you hear it?"
+
+From the instrument room I heard a vague drumming. A hiss, and then a
+drumming growing louder. It was not a new sound, for now I remembered I
+had been conscious of it for several moments past. Our encampment was
+awake to it! A confusion down there; people running about; a figure
+dashing wildly into the instrument room. And the aerials on the power
+house began to snap viciously.
+
+"Jac! What is it?"
+
+"I don't know. See there, Elza? The sub-ray lights!"
+
+The search-beams from our towers were inordinately active. Sweeping the
+empty snow-plain and the empty sky. Empty? To my fevered imagination
+they were peopled with enemies. And then one of the towers flashed on a
+sub-ray--the dull infra-red for envisaging the slow rays below the power
+of human sight. And another tower with its faint purple beam was using
+the ultra-violet.
+
+"That drumming, Elza! That's a microphone--the big one they just erected
+near the instrument room. There's something coming! That's the magnified
+sound of some distant rush of air. Very faint sound, but they must have
+heard it on the ear-phones long ago. That microphone must have just been
+connected--"
+
+Something coming? We could see nothing.
+
+"Let's go down, Jac! We must get back--"
+
+"I've got infra-red glasses--" I fumbled beneath my furs. But I did not
+have them.
+
+"Jac--"
+
+"Wait, Elza."
+
+My glasses would have been useless, for the sub and ultra beams from the
+towers were disclosing nothing. I could tell that by the hasty searching
+sweeps they made. And then from the big Wilton tower, the newly
+connected Zed-ray flashed on, I could hear the load of it in the
+deepened, throaty hum from the power house. Its dirty brown beam sprayed
+out over the plain; then swung to the sky, caught something, hung
+motionless, narrowed into great intensity. The powerful Zed-ray,
+capturing the visibility of dense solids only.[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: Similar doubtless to our present-day X-ray.]
+
+There was something up there in the sky! The Zed-ray met resistance; we
+could see the sparks, and hear the snap of them coming like a roar from
+the microphone above the drumming. Met the resistance and conquered it;
+gradually the snapping roar died away.
+
+"Jac! I see something! Something there--don't you see it?"
+
+A luminous blur became visible in the nearer sky--moving blobs of silver
+luminosity in the mud-brown light of the Zed-ray. A hundred or more
+moving silver blobs. They were taking form. The silvery phosphorescent
+look faded, became grey-white. Took definite shape. Waving arms and
+legs! Bones bereft of flesh. Human skeletons! Limbs waving rhythmically.
+Bony arms, with fingers clutching metal weapons. Assailants coming at us
+through the air, stripped by the Zed-ray of clothing, skin, flesh,
+organs, to the naked bone. Skeletons with skulls of empty eye-sockets
+and set jaw-bones to make the travesty of human faces grim with menace!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+_Attack on the Power House_
+
+
+Stricken with surprise and awe, Elza and I sat there motionless. Our
+encampment was in a turmoil of confusion--chaos, out of which very soon
+order came. The skeleton figures in the air--I saw now that there were
+nearer two hundred than one hundred--were perhaps two thousand feet
+away, and at an altitude of about the cliff-ledge where Elza and I were
+sitting.
+
+They swept forward, bathed in the Zed-ray with all our other
+search-beams darkened to give it full sway. Momentarily I saw them
+clearer; metallic cylinders in bony fingers, and a metal mechanism of
+flight encasing, yet not touching the ribs.
+
+"Jac! Why don't our rays--"
+
+As though to answer Elza's unfinished question, one of our towers turned
+a disintegrating ray upon them. A narrow pencil-point of light, barely
+visible in this flat daylight. It swung up into our Zed-ray, searched
+and clung to one of the skeleton figures. Had it penetrated, the man
+would have been dissipated like a puff of vapor. But it did not; and
+then I knew that for that distance at least, this enemy's isolation
+power--individual barrage--was too great.
+
+Yet the assailed figure wavered! Our amplifier gave out his shout--half
+fear, half admonition. The line of skeletons swung upward. Came on, but
+mounted so that I saw that they were making for the summit of the cliff
+above us--above our power house.
+
+Their defense--invisibility, and a mere isolation barrage so that we
+could not harm them with our tower rays while they kept beyond range.
+But what was their means of attack? Why would Tarrano....
+
+"The power house," Elza answered; and I realized then that she had read
+my thoughts. The power house, if they could demolish it....
+
+Our thoughts, questions and answers unspoken, flew fast; but the drama
+before us unfolded faster. With the knowledge that we could see them,
+these invaders cast aside a portion of their equipment to give them
+greater freedom. We could see the metal portions of the trappings
+falling like plummets. The skeleton images faded; and then as our tower
+withdrew the Zed-ray and our search-beams picked them up, we saw our
+enemies as they really were. Men clothed in a casing of cylindrical
+garments with the flying mechanisms strapped to their chests; some with
+visors and headpieces, nearly all with small weapons in their hands.
+
+Keeping well away, they continued to mount. They were striving for the
+pinnacle of cliff-tops above us; but as our rays darted at them they
+halted, wavered; and now when nearly above the camp, they began mounting
+straight up.
+
+"Jac! Look there!"
+
+One of our tower vehicles was preparing to rise. Its ray, following the
+search-beams upward, was aimed at the invaders, but they were beyond its
+effective range. Their weapons of attack? I knew now.
+
+"Suicides!"
+
+Whether Elza said it, or merely thought it I do not know. One of the
+figures came down as though falling. A few seconds only; but though our
+search-beam showed it, the smaller rays for those seconds missed it.
+Down--until no more than five hundred feet above us it checked its fall.
+A giant of a man; and with his hand cylinder--in range now--he shot a
+bolt at our power house. It struck; I could see the flash, saw an aerial
+shatter before the charge went harmlessly into the body of the building.
+Then one of our rays caught the man; his figure crumpled; the shower of
+sparks as his barrage was broken, exploded like a tiny bursting bomb;
+and as the sparks died, there was nothing where the man had been.
+
+A suicide; but one of our aerials was shattered. And then others came
+down--not many, for it was grim business and the courage of them must
+have failed at the last. Falling bodies; tiny bolts striking the power
+house; the sparks--then empty air where living men had been.
+
+Our tower left the ground. Some of our men, with small flying platforms
+strapped to them, were crowding its top. Its beams preceded it--but I
+saw the beams breaking intermittently as the bolts struck the power
+house. The invaders wavered with indecision. Some of them came down to
+voluntary death; others strove for the cliff-top; some took flight. Our
+tower swept into them; one of them, injured but not annihilated, fell
+with a crash into the encampment.
+
+Above Elza and me was a maze of flashing beams; futile bolts; the puffs
+of myriad sparks. A bolt seemed to strike quite near where we were
+sitting; I drew Elza back and we crouched in the hollow of a rock. A
+body came hurtling down, crashed to the cliff-ledge almost at our feet
+with the sickening thump of mangled flesh and broken bones--hung an
+instant to give me a momentary glimpse of a face contorted in death
+agony; then rolled over and fell further down the jagged cliff.
+
+Then above us presently there was silence and the drab empty sky. Our
+tower was back beyond the cliff-top. Soon it appeared; apparently
+unharmed, it came dropping down to its former place on the ground.
+
+The first attack was over. And off in the distance a few solitary
+figures were winging their way back to the City of Ice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+_City of Ice Besieged_
+
+
+We were not greatly harmed by this surprise attack; the power house was
+superficially damaged, but soon repaired. That night--I call it that
+though the constant weak daylight made the term incongruous--activity
+showed in the City of Ice.
+
+It came with a vertical spray of light rising from the ice wall which
+encircled the city. Spreading light beams rising from points a hundred
+feet apart along the wall. The beams spread fan-shape, so that within
+fifty feet above their source they met and merged into a thin sheet of
+effulgence rising into the sky. Tarrano's barrage.
+
+It seemed then that beyond suicidal sorties of the kind we had just
+repulsed, Tarrano was planning to stand purely on the defensive. It was
+our own plan to surround the city with our towers; even those on the
+further side would be within range of our power house; and with the city
+thus beleaguered, we would attack the wall from every side at once.
+
+We tested now this barrage Tarrano had thrown up. Sprays of its
+insulated area came down to protect the wall in front; and protected
+also the triangular spaces between the sources of the main beams.
+Tentatively one of our towers approached within range; but our rays only
+beat into the barrage with the hiss of molten metal plunged into water,
+and with a burst of interference sparks. Even at a horizontal thousand
+feet we could do nothing. Then we tried altitude. Our projectors,
+mounted individually on small platforms automatically controlled to fly
+without human pilot, went up and we strove to get them over the barrage.
+
+At five thousand feet one went over safely. But the electronic bomb it
+dropped into the city was an easy mark for Tarrano's watchful defense
+rays. He exploded it harmlessly when it was still high above him.
+
+After the next time of sleep we invested the city. Our towers were set
+in a ring about it, two thousand feet from the wall. They were mobile
+units, ready to sail forward or back or upward at any moment. Georg
+stayed in command of the instrument room. It was never placed, but
+sailed continuously in slow circular flight around the city above our
+line. The power house remained in its place, with our largest projector
+mounted on the cliff beside it in order to frustrate any further
+attacks.
+
+They were solemn moments as we broke our encampment. The girls, far more
+agile in the air than men, were lightly dressed, with the supporting
+mechanism strapped to them. The heating units enveloped them in an
+invisible cloak of warm air. To their left arms a strapped cylinder gave
+off a fan-shape area of insulation--an almost invisible shield of
+protective barrage some five feet long. It showed as a faint glow of
+light; and in flight their left arms could swing it like a shield to
+protect their bodies. They had telephonic ear-pieces available; a tiny
+mirror fastened to their chests to face them, upon which Georg or
+Geno-Rhaalton could project images; a mouthpiece for talking to Georg;
+and a belt of offensive weapons, useful within a range of five hundred
+feet but no further.
+
+Very alert and agile, twisting and turning in the air were these girls.
+We men were similarly equipped, but our movements in the air were
+heavier, clumsier. Elza and I had practiced with the others for days;
+and with our harmless duelling rays I had found that I could never hope
+to hit her while she dealt me mortal blows.
+
+Elza, commanding a squad of twenty girls, was assigned to a portion of
+the line some helans from me. My own place, with a hundred men under me,
+was near a tower almost on the opposite side from the power house.
+
+It was a solemn parting from Elza. I wrapped her in my arms, tried to
+smile. "Be very--careful, Elza."
+
+She kissed me, clung to me; then cast me off and was gone.
+
+With the city invested, we rested idly for another time of sleep.
+Occasionally we made a tentative tower attack which came to nothing.
+Tarrano waited; his barrage remained the same. We tried to provoke a
+move from him, but could not.
+
+The snow-plain where I was stationed here was similar to the other side,
+save that there were no mountains. From the power house to Tarrano's
+wall there was a dip, so that the wall stood upon higher ground. On my
+side, however, the reverse was true. The wall lay in a hollow in one
+place, with a steady upward slope back from it to uplands behind us, as
+though in some better day a broad watercourse had flowed down here, now
+long since buried in solid ice and snow.
+
+I mention this topography because it had a vital bearing upon what so
+soon was to transpire.
+
+Rhaalton desired that Tarrano come out and attack us; but Tarrano would
+not. We thought perhaps that his offense was inadequate and the one move
+that he made strengthened that belief. From the city beside the palace,
+a rectangle of black metal some fifty feet square, rose slowly up. In
+aspect it was a square, windowless room--a room without a ceiling, open
+at the top. It rose to a height of five hundred feet and hung level. And
+from it depended dangling power cables connecting it with the ground.
+
+It was the presence of these cables that made us feel Tarrano was
+offensively weak. He could not aerially transport his power; hence, for
+offense he could only rely upon individual batteries which, unless
+permanently stationed within the city, we knew would have a short range
+at best. We watched this thing in the air for hours. It did not move; it
+was soundless. What was its purpose? We could not guess.
+
+And then at last, Geno-Rhaalton ordered us all to the attack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+_Battle_
+
+
+I found myself in the air; with my men around me we hovered. Then
+Georg's command from the instrument room sounded in my ears. I gave the
+signal; and flying wedge-shaped, we hurled ourselves forward. It was
+like lying on the air, diving head foremost. The rush of wind sang past
+me; the ground, a hundred feet below, was a white surface flowing
+backward.
+
+We were heading for the base of one of Tarrano's barrage projectors. It
+was mounted within the wall; but the wall itself was protected merely by
+a fan-shaped subsidiary beam--a weaker barrage over that small area,
+which by concentrated effort we hoped to break.
+
+From a helan away on both sides of me I saw other wedges of our men
+coming slanting in to assail the same point; overhead a corps of girls
+was hovering. Our towers, three of them concentrated here, had risen to
+a moderate height; their rays were playing upon the threatened area; a
+steady fountain of sparks showed where they were striking the barrage.
+
+A silent bombardment of flashing beams and sparks. At five hundred feet
+we added our own smaller rays to the turmoil. If the barrage would break
+at this point....
+
+The instrument room, watchful of everything, sailed over me. On my
+mirror I saw Georg's intent face; his voice said:
+
+"Careful, Jac! They may come out."
+
+Prophetic words! The segment of barrage here suddenly vanished. A ray
+darted out. Beside it, a cloud of flying figures came out of the city
+like insects from a hive.
+
+An inferno of almost hand to hand fighting. It was everyone for himself;
+and I gave the order for my men to break formation. Ordered them to get
+up close to the wall if they could ... to strike, with the closest
+possible range at the base of the enemy ray....
+
+I flung myself forward. Tarrano's men soon were around me. Twisting,
+darting figures ... tiny beams of death to be fended off with my
+shield....
+
+A body fell past me in the air ... others, while I looked at them, in
+the blink of an eyelid, vanished into nothingness ... One of our towers
+sailing high, suddenly went dark, turned over, wavered down, dismembered
+with leprous missing parts--and then in a puff was obliterated.
+
+I found myself nearly up to the wall, and higher than its top. The
+segment of barrage remained broken. I could see into the city--the Ice
+Palace, still seemingly deserted. And near it, the base of the powerful
+ground ray which was assailing our towers ... If I could get past the
+wall, unnoticed, get within range of that projector....
+
+Most of the fighting was now behind me. We seemed to be holding our
+own ... the squad of girls was coming down; I prayed that Elza might not
+be among them....
+
+The instrument room had vanished beyond my sight; but Georg's voice
+said:
+
+"We're sending reinforcements! Gather your men--hold off for a moment!"
+
+From every pan of our line other units of men and towers were coming. We
+had broken through the barrage here. If we could now, by a concerted
+rush, get our force over the wall, into the city....
+
+Within the instrument room, Georg sat watching. The inactivity of his
+own part, the comparative lack of personal danger, galled him. But he
+was too occupied with his duties to give it more than passing thought.
+We had broken the barrage at one point ... from every quarter he was
+rushing reinforcements there to take advantage of the break....
+
+And then Tarrano's trickery became apparent. We had not broken his
+barrage; he had deliberately withdrawn it, to encourage us, to bring our
+other units to the spot.... Our power house, neglected, was momentarily
+comparatively defenseless. The enemy barrage at the point of the wall
+nearest it, suddenly lifted. Beams darted from the opening ... men came
+out in a cloud....
+
+I held back momentarily from the wall and gathered my remnant of men
+about me. Only half my former strength; but with sinking heart I tried
+to assure myself that the others had not heeded my call. The fighting
+here had slackened; Tarrano's men had risen high, engaged at long range
+by our girls, from whom they were slowly, trickily retreating as though
+to lure the girls above the city; and my heart was thankful when I heard
+the relayed order from Rhaalton for the girls to withdraw--not to pass
+above the wall, even at high altitude. The order came just in time; the
+barrage here flashed on again, trapping a few of our men behind it.
+
+I was aware of this new attack on the power house. Our units were
+hurriedly being ordered back. Georg, in desperation, had flung his
+instrument vehicle at the enemy ray ... My connection broke; and then
+another connection brought me someone's voice with the report that the
+instrument room had darkened that main enemy ray, but had itself crashed
+to the ground ... I wondered if Georg were killed ... later, I heard
+someone say that he was safe within the power house....
+
+I disobeyed my final orders; I did not swing back toward the power
+house; instead, with my men around me, we fled back from this segment of
+the wall to the higher lying white plain behind it.
+
+I have spoken of the down-grade of this land here, culminating in the
+depression which marked this part of the wall. It was that depression
+which gave me my idea. Our heat-ray cylinders had so far been useless.
+They had a range of only two hundred feet, and no power to attack a
+barrage. Some of them had futilely been used; the snow and ice on the
+ground above our recent fighting was melted in patches--pools of boiling
+water lay on the naked rock; and the water, flowing down the depression,
+had reached the ice-wall--a tiny stream of it, eating into the wall,
+slowly, surely....
+
+With my men I flew up the slope. The ice and snow here melted under
+the close-range play of our heat-cylinders. Rivulets of boiling water
+began creeping toward the city. Other men at my call joined us. Two
+hundred of us soon were melting the ice. The rivulets merged into
+brooks, to streams--and soon a river torrent of hissing, boiling water
+gathering volume as it went, was surging at the wall. The wall
+began melting--itself feeding this monster which was eating at its
+vitals ... a yawning hole began opening at the base of the wall ... it
+began sagging at the top ... crumbling....
+
+The segment of barrage here went dark. No trickery now; the barrage at
+this point actually was broken. The boiling river went through the wall,
+swept down the slope into the city. Through the great clouds of steam I
+could see the Ice Palace with its brittle outlines softening under the
+heat ... one of its thin spires broke off and fell....
+
+Feverishly we added to the river source. The whole area here was grey
+with steam. Girls had joined us ... Elza was not among them ... Elza!
+With my triumph there lay always in the background of my consciousness
+the weight of my fear for Elza....
+
+The fighting in the other sector had continued desperately. Our power
+house was hopelessly damaged; the towers, with their power gone, were
+using their batteries; soon they would be exhausted. But now we
+abandoned that sector; our remaining towers--all our flying forces--came
+to this melting area where the vanishing city lay defenseless before
+us.... We hurled ourselves into it, using only our heat-rays. Everywhere
+we added to the boiling torrent; even the interference heat of the
+fighting was to our advantage. This brittle city which owed its very
+existence to the congealing cold, lay enveloped in a cloud of steam.
+
+Then Tarrano played his last card. The cubical building of metal with
+the cables depending from it, still hung motionless. It now burst into
+sound. A low electrical hum; then louder to a whine--a scream. Our men
+and girls were in the air around it. I too was there. Tarrano's men--the
+remaining few who were desperately fighting--had suddenly withdrawn.
+
+And then we knew the purpose of this hanging room. A strange form of
+some tremendous electro-magnet. I could feel it pulling at me. My power
+to guide myself in the air was wavering.
+
+From my height I could see down into this ceilingless rectangle. It was
+un-manned by humans. A room of whirling, flashing knives! Above it, even
+then some of our men were struggling in its magnetic grip ... being
+drawn down into it ... a girl's power must suddenly have collapsed; she
+was sucked in with a rush--torn to fragments by the whirling knives....
+
+The area of magnetism seemed to spread for a helan or more. Everywhere
+around me I saw our men and girls struggling with it, fighting to keep
+away, but closing in a ring around it ... faster, continually more
+helpless until at last, their bodies out of control whirling end over
+end, they were sucked in like water rushing into a turbine.... One of
+our weakened towers attacked it; but some of the remnants of Tarrano's
+projectors caught the tower and darkened it.
+
+Through the rising clouds of steam I could see the magnet vaguely now.
+But I could feel it pulling; and soon, in spite of myself, I was fairly
+close above it. I strove to keep my wits. The others who were meeting
+their death lost control of their bodies at the last and could not use
+their cylinders. I had some battery power remaining; I snapped on my
+disintegrating ray to test it. It was my last desperate recourse.
+
+I righted my body, and yielding to the magnetic pull, ceasing to
+struggle, I dove head first at that yawning rectangle. A gleaming blur
+of knives ... blood-stained now ... within these rectangular walls
+horrible carnage....
+
+A second of despair; but my ray struck true ... Around me was chaos; my
+senses reeled, went black for an instant. But I recovered, found myself
+whirling in the empty air....
+
+The city was melting into a turmoil of boiling water and surging steam.
+The fighting everywhere had ceased. Wavering figures were
+rising--fugitives struggling away. With my senses still confused, I
+righted myself, undecided where to go or what to do. Above me two
+figures were still in combat. One of them--a man--assailed by a
+heat-ray, came hurtling down past me. The other wavered--a girl with her
+flying mechanism out of control. She was a hundred feet or more above
+me, wavering downward. Elza! I shot myself up to her, seized her in my
+arms, my own supporting mechanism sustaining us both. Elza, spent, but
+uninjured, I held her close.
+
+"Elza dear! My Elza!"
+
+We hung there in the air. From out the vanishing city, rising through
+the steam came a small metal vehicle. A pointed cylinder, in height no
+more than twice that of a man. It came up slowly. Its rectangular door
+was open. As it reached our level and went past us quite close, I saw a
+man's figure standing there. Tarrano! Tarrano alone! From the wreckage
+of his city, making his escape alone!
+
+Without thought--holding Elza tightly within my arms--I flung us upward.
+Tarrano saw us, recognized us. He slackened his upward pace. With my
+sober reason gone, I strove to overtake him; saw the sardonic leer on
+his face but did not realize that he was waiting for us. We caught up
+with his vehicle; he pulled us through the doorway, to the floor of the
+narrow circular room with its heavy translucent panes.
+
+He was bending over me, leering. "Jac Hallen! And my little Lady Elza!
+How fortunate!"
+
+I cast off Elza and gained my feet. For an instant we stood--Tarrano and
+I--measuring each other. He seemed calm; his face bore a slow sardonic
+smile; he was unarmed, drawn back against the concavity of the wall,
+watching me with his steady, keen eyes. Behind him through the low
+window, I saw the white ground now far below us; we were rising swiftly.
+
+"So you brought my Lady Elza back to me, Jac Hallen?"
+
+He got no further, for with a leap I was upon him. To use my weapons in
+these narrow quarters would have been suicide. My body pinned him
+against the wall as I lunged; my fingers strove for his throat.
+
+He was no larger than I, but the strength of him was extraordinary. His
+body stiffened to resist my impact; one of his hands gripped my wrist;
+his other hand--the heel of it--came up beneath my chin, forcing my head
+back.
+
+He fought silently, with movements that seemed almost deliberate. Into
+the center of the room we struggled. I saw that Elza was upon her feet,
+a hand pressed to her mouth in terror.
+
+"Elza!"
+
+I had meant to tell her to use the control levers which were on a small
+table nearby--to bring us back to the ground; but with this momentary
+diverting of my attention, Tarrano's fist struck me full in the face. I
+staggered back. Elza screamed--called something to Tarrano. I staggered,
+but I did not fall; and as Tarrano stood there, still with his slow
+smile, I recovered myself and was again upon him. Locked together we
+swayed to the control table. My back was to it. Tarrano's slender
+fingers with a grip like alemite, had found my throat. Slowly,
+irresistibly he forced me backward over the table. I was helpless; my
+breath was stopped; Tarrano's triumphant face bending over me was fading
+with my senses.
+
+"In just a moment, Lady Elza...."
+
+He was telling her calmly that in a moment he would be finished with me.
+Did the man's egotism, here at the last, delude him into the belief that
+Elza wanted him to conquer me? With all the weapons of science
+discarded--this primitive struggle of man against man with the woman as
+prize--did the thought of that delude him into the belief that her love
+was his, now that he was killing me?
+
+I never knew. But beneath the roaring of my head, I heard his gentle
+words to her. And then, behind him, I saw her coming forward. A heavy
+metal object which she had picked up from the floor was in her hand.
+Tarrano saw her also--in a mirror on the table--saw her raise the jagged
+weapon. Raise it to strike; not at me--at himself. His face was close
+above mine. In that second, I saw in his expression the realization that
+Elza was attacking him.
+
+Whatever his emotions, like a flash he acted. His grip on my throat
+loosened. His arm, swinging backward, warded off Elza's trembling,
+hesitant blow. The metal block, intended for his head, was knocked from
+her hand; it fell clattering to the floor. And reaching over, Tarrano
+gripped the vehicle's control lever, wrenched it bodily from its
+fastenings! Control of the vehicle was irrevocably lost! We were
+falling!
+
+Breathless moments! Tarrano idly stood apart; his face a mask. My breath
+restored, I was recovering. I drew myself erect.
+
+Death! But my confused thoughts went to Elza. Her flying mechanism was
+partially sustaining; my own probably was still effective. Before
+Tarrano was aware of my purpose, I had pushed Elza forcibly through the
+doorway. Into the rush of air her figure disappeared. But Tarrano
+gripped me as I tried to follow her. Gripped me and clung. A breathless,
+dizzy instant. Locked together, our bodies shifted crazily. I
+tried to get him out the doorway with me, but he fought against
+it.... Smiling--always smiling....
+
+Elza fell safely. But they told me that Tarrano and I hovered for days
+unconscious on the borderland between life and death, living finally,
+for our vehicle had plunged into a tremendous snow-bank, to break its
+fall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Last scene of all ... They would not have Tarrano on any of the three
+worlds. While still living, the very personality of him was a menace.
+With his woman Tara, who refused to leave him and whom he tolerated,
+they banished him to that tiny asteroid which pursued its solitary way
+between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
+
+A lonely, barren little world, with its single, primitive race of
+spindly beings--timid, frail beings, half-human, half insect. We took
+him there--Maida and Georg, Elza and I. He anticipated his dislike of
+the asteroid's slight gravity, and demanded weighted shoes so that he
+might walk with the normal feeling of Earth and Venus.
+
+"You give me too much freedom," he told us solemnly.
+
+And there amid the rocks, with Tara we set him down. As we parted, he
+turned to Elza. She and I were joined in marriage by then. He faced her,
+took one of her hands and pressed its palm to his forehead, the gesture
+of homage and respect.
+
+"Goodbye, Lady Elza. I wish for you all life's happiness." He smiled,
+but it was a very wistful smile. And then he swung away abruptly.
+
+"Tara! Prepare me food. Leave me--I would be alone." His imperious
+gesture dispersed also the crowd of natives who were curiously regarding
+him. Here, in his last little domain, he would still be master.
+
+Our vehicle slowly rose. From its windows we watched him. Ignoring us
+utterly, weighted down by his heavy shoes, he paced his barren rocks,
+head lowered, alone with those thoughts he never shared with anyone.
+
+Tarrano, the Conqueror!
+
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings
+
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