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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29198-8.txt b/29198-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6cb2bb --- /dev/null +++ b/29198-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10338 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930, by Various + +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: Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: June 23, 2009 [EBook #29198] +[Last updated: March 20, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + 20¢ + + ASTOUNDING + STORIES + OF SUPER-SCIENCE + + _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher + + HARRY BATES, Editor + + DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + * * * * * + + [Illustration] + + The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees + + _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading + writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the + Authors' League of America; + + _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American + workmen; + + _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; + + _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. + + _The other Clayton magazines are_: + + ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS + MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY + MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES, and FOREST AND STREAM. + + _More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for + Clayton Magazines._ + + * * * * * + + VOL. III, No. 1 CONTENTS JULY, 1930 + + + COVER DESIGN + + _Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Earth, the Marauder."_ + + + BEYOND THE HEAVISIDE LAYER CAPT. S. P. MEEK 5 + + _For Eighty Vertical Miles Carpenter and Bond Blasted Their + Way--Only to Be Trapped by the Extraordinary Monsters of the + Heaviside Layer._ + + + EARTH, THE MARAUDER ARTHUR J. BURKS 18 + + _Out of Her Orbit Sped the Teeming Earth--A Marauding Planet Bent on + Starry Conquest._ (Beginning a Three-part Novel.) + + + FROM AN AMBER BLOCK TOM CURRY 50 + + _A Giant Amber Block at Last Gives Up Its Living, Ravenous Prey._ + + + THE TERROR OF AIR-LEVEL SIX HARL VINCENT 62 + + _From Some Far Reach of Leagueless Space Came a Great Pillar of + Flame to Lay Waste and Terrorize the Earth._ (A Novelet.) + + + THE FORGOTTEN PLANET SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT 88 + + _The Authentic Account of Why Cosmic Man Damned an Outlaw World to + Be, Forever, a Leper of Space._ + + + THE POWER AND THE GLORY CHARLES W. DIFFIN 104 + + _Sadly, Sternly, the Old Professor Reveals to His Brilliant Pupil + the Greater Path to Glory._ + + + MURDER MADNESS MURRAY LEINSTER 109 + + _More and More South Americans Are Stricken with the Horrible + "Murder Madness" That Lies in the Master's Fearful Poison. And Bell + Is Their One Last Hope as He Fights to Stem the Swiftly Rising Tide + of a Continent's Utter Enslavement._ (Part Three of a Four-part + Novel.) + + + THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 134 + + _A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories._ + + * * * * * + + Single Copies, 20 Cents (In Canada, 25 Cents) + + Yearly Subscription, $2.00 + + Issued monthly by Publishers' Fiscal Corporation, 80 Lafayette St., + New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President: Nathan Goldmann, + Secretary. Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the + Post Office at New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title + registered as a Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member + Newsstand Group--Men's List. For advertising rates address E. R. + Crowe & Co., Inc., 25 Vanderbilt Ave., New York; or 225 North + Michigan Ave., Chicago. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _They were moving sluggishly along the red light, seeming +to flow rather than crawl._] + + + + +Beyond the Heaviside Layer + +_By Capt S. P. Meek_ + + +McQuarrie, the City Editor, looked up as I entered his office. + +"Bond," he asked, "do you know Jim Carpenter?" + +[Sidenote: For eighty vertical miles Carpenter and +Bond blasted their way--only to be +trapped by the extraordinary monsters +of the heaviside layer.] + +"I know him slightly," I replied cautiously. "I have met him several +times and I interviewed him some years ago when he improved the Hadley +rocket motor. I can't claim a very extensive acquaintance with him." + +"I thought you knew him well. It is a surprise to me to find that there +is any prominent man who is not an especial friend of yours. At any rate +you know him as well as anyone of the staff, so I'll give you the +assignment." + +"What's he up to now?" I asked. + +"He's going to try to punch a hole in the heaviside layer." + +"But that's impossible," I cried. "How can anyone...." + +My voice died away in silence. True enough, the idea of trying to make a +permanent hole in a field of magnetic force was absurd, but even as I +spoke I remembered that Jim Carpenter had never agreed to the opinion +almost unanimously held by our scientists as to the true nature of the +heaviside layer. + +"It may be impossible," replied McQuarrie dryly, "but you are not hired +by this paper as a scientific consultant. For some reason, God alone +knows why, the owner thinks that you are a reporter. Get down there and +try to prove he is right by digging up a few facts about Carpenter's +attempt. Wire your stuff in and Peavey will write it up. On this one +occasion, please try to conceal your erudition and send in your story in +simple words of one syllable which uneducated men like Peavey and me can +comprehend. That's all." + + * * * * * + +He turned again to his desk and I left the room. At one time I would +have come from such an interview with my face burning, but McQuarrie's +vitriol slid off me like water off a duck's back. He didn't really mean +half of what he said, and he knew as well as I did that his crack about +my holding my job with the Clarion as a matter of pull was grossly +unjust. It is true that I knew Trimble, the owner of the Clarion, fairly +well, but I got my job without any aid from him. McQuarrie himself hired +me and I held my job because he hadn't fired me, despite the caustic +remarks which he addressed to me. I had made the mistake when I first +got on the paper of letting McQuarrie know that I was a graduate +electrical engineer from Leland University, and he had held it against +me from that day on. I don't know whether he really held it seriously +against me or not, but what I have written above is a fair sample of his +usual manner toward me. + +In point of fact I had greatly minimized the extent of my acquaintance +with Jim Carpenter. I had been in Leland at the same time that he was +and had known him quite well. When I graduated, which was two years +after he did, I worked for about a year in his laboratory, and my +knowledge of the improvement which had made the Hadley rocket motor a +practicability came from first hand knowledge and not from an interview. +That was several years before but I knew that he never forgot an +acquaintance, let alone a friend, and while I had left him to take up +other work our parting had been pleasant, and I looked forward with real +pleasure to seeing him again. + + * * * * * + +Jim Carpenter, the stormy petrel of modern science! The eternal +iconoclast: the perpetual opponent! He was probably as deeply versed in +the theory of electricity and physical chemistry as any man alive, but +it pleased him to pose as a "practical" man who knew next to nothing of +theory and who despised the little he did know. His great delight was to +experimentally smash the most beautifully constructed theories which +were advanced and taught in the colleges and universities of the world, +and when he couldn't smash them by experimental evidence, to attack them +from the standpoint of philosophical reasoning and to twist around the +data on which they were built and make it prove, or seem to prove, the +exact opposite of what was generally accepted. + +No one questioned his ability. When the ill-fated Hadley had first +constructed the rocket motor which bears his name it was Jim Carpenter +who made it practical. Hadley had tried to disintegrate lead in order to +get his back thrust from the atomic energy which it contained and proved +by apparently unimpeachable mathematics that lead was the only substance +which could be used. Jim Carpenter had snorted through the pages of the +electrical journals and had turned out a modification of Hadley's +invention which disintegrated aluminum. The main difference in +performance was that, while Hadley's original motor would not develop +enough power to lift itself from the ground, Carpenter's modification +produced twenty times the horsepower per pound of weight of any +previously known generator of power and changed the rocket ship from a +wild dream to an everyday commonplace. + + * * * * * + +When Hadley later constructed his space flyer and proposed to visit the +moon, it was Jim Carpenter who ridiculed the idea of the attempt being +successful. He proposed the novel and weird idea that the path to space +was not open, but that the earth and the atmosphere were enclosed in a +hollow sphere of impenetrable substance through which Hadley's space +flyer could not pass. How accurate were his prognostications was soon +known to everyone. Hadley built and equipped his flyer and started off +on what he hoped would be an epoch making flight. It was one, but not in +the way which he had hoped. His ship took off readily enough, being +powered with four rocket motors working on Carpenter's principle, and +rose to a height of about fifty miles, gaining velocity rapidly. At that +point his velocity suddenly began to drop. + +He was in constant radio communication with the earth and he reported +his difficulty. Carpenter advised him to turn back while he could, but +Hadley kept on. Slower and slower became his progress, and after he had +penetrated ten miles into the substance which hindered him, his ship +stuck fast. Instead of using his bow motors and trying to back out, he +had moved them to the rear, and with the combined force of his four +motors he had penetrated for another two miles. There he insanely tried +to force his motors to drive him on until his fuel was exhausted. + +He had lived for over a year in his space flyer, but all of his efforts +did not serve to materially change his position. He had tried, of +course, to go out through his air locks and explore space, but his +strength, even although aided by powerful levers, could not open the +outer doors of the locks against the force which was holding them shut. +Careful observations were continuously made of the position of his +flyer and it was found that it was gradually returning toward the earth. +Its motion was very slight, not enough to give any hope for the +occupant. Starting from a motion so slow that it could hardly be +detected, the velocity of return gradually accelerated; and three years +after Hadley's death, the flyer was suddenly released from the force +which held it, and it plunged to the earth, to be reduced by the force +of its fall to a twisted, pitiful mass of unrecognizable junk. + + * * * * * + +The remains were examined, and the iron steel parts were found to be +highly magnetized. This fact was seized upon by the scientists of the +world and a theory was built up of a magnetic field of force surrounding +the earth through which nothing of a magnetic nature could pass. This +theory received almost universal acceptance, Jim Carpenter alone of the +more prominent men of learning refusing to admit the validity of it. He +gravely stated it as his belief that no magnetic field existed, but that +the heaviside layer was composed of some liquid of high viscosity whose +density and consequent resistance to the passage of a body through it +increased in the ratio of the square of the distance to which one +penetrated into it. + +There was a moment of stunned surprise when he announced his radical +idea, and then a burst of Jovian laughter shook the scientific press. +Carpenter was in his glory. For months he waged a bitter controversy in +the scientific journals and when he failed to win converts by this +method, he announced that he would prove it by blasting a way into space +through the heaviside layer, a thing which would be patently impossible +were it a field of force. He had lapsed into silence for two years and +his curt note to the Associated Press to the effect that he was now +ready to demonstrate his experiment was the first intimation the world +had received of his progress. + + * * * * * + +I drew expense money from the cashier and boarded the Lark for Los +Angeles. When I arrived I went to a hotel and at once called Carpenter +on the telephone. + +"Jim Carpenter speaking," came his voice presently. + +"Good evening, Mr. Carpenter," I replied, "this is Bond of the San +Francisco Clarion." + +I would be ashamed to repeat the language which came over that +telephone. I was informed that all reporters were pests and that I was a +doubly obnoxious specimen and that were I within reach I would be +promptly assaulted and that reporters would be received at nine the next +morning and no earlier or later. + +"Just a minute, Mr. Carpenter," I cried as he neared the end of his +peroration and was, I fancied, about to slam up the receiver. "Don't you +remember me? I was at Leland with you and used to work in your +laboratory in the atomic disintegration section." + +"What's your name?" he demanded. + +"Bond, Mr. Carpenter." + +"Oh, First Mortgage! Certainly I remember you. Mighty glad to hear your +voice. How are you?" + +"Fine, thank you, Mr. Carpenter. I would not have ventured to call you +had I not known you. I didn't mean to impose and I'll be glad to see you +in the morning at nine." + +"Not by a long shot," he cried. "You'll come up right away. Where are +you staying?" + +"At the El Rey." + +"Well, check out and come right up here. There's lots of room for you +here at the plant and I'll be glad to have you. I want at least one +intelligent report of this experiment and you should be able to write +it. I'll look for you in an hour." + +"I don't want to impose--" I began; but he interrupted. + +"Nonsense, glad to have you. I needed someone like you badly and you +have come just in the nick of time. I'll expect you in an hour." + + * * * * * + +The receiver clicked and I hastened to follow his instructions. A +ringside seat was just what I was looking for. It took my taxi a little +over an hour to get to the Carpenter laboratory and I chuckled when I +thought of how McQuarrie's face would look when he saw my expense +account. Presently we reached the edge of the grounds which surrounded +the Carpenter laboratory and were stopped at the high gate I remembered +so well. + +"Are you sure you'll get in, buddy?" asked my driver. + +"Certainly," I replied. "What made you ask?" + +"I've brought three chaps out here to-day and none of them got in," he +answered with a grin. "I'm glad you're so sure, but I'll just wait +around until you are inside before I drive away." + +I laughed and advanced to the gate. Tim, the old guard, was still there, +and he remembered and welcomed me. + +"Me ordhers wuz t' let yez roight in, sor," he said as he greeted me. +"Jist lave ye'er bag here and Oi'll have ut sint roight up." + +I dropped my bag and trudged up the well remembered path to the +laboratory. It had been enlarged somewhat since I saw it last and, late +though the hour was, there was a bustle in the air and I could see a +number of men working in the building. From an area in the rear, which +was lighted by huge flood lights, came the staccato tattoo of a riveter. +I walked up to the front of the laboratory and entered. I knew the way +to Carpenter's office and I went directly there and knocked. + +"Hello, First Mortgage!" cried Jim Carpenter as I entered in response to +his call. "I'm glad to see you. Excuse the bruskness of my first +greeting to you over the telephone, but the press have been deviling me +all day, every man jack of them trying to steal a march on the rest. I +am going to open the whole shebang at nine to-morrow and give them all +an equal chance to look things over before I turn the current on at +noon. As soon as we have a little chat, I'll show you over the works." + + * * * * * + +After half an hour's chat he rose. "Come along, First Mortgage," he +said, "we'll go out and look the place over and I'll explain everything. +If my ideas work out, you'll have no chance to go over it to-morrow, so +I want you to see it now." + +I had no chance to ask him what he meant by this remark, for he walked +rapidly from the laboratory and I perforce followed him. He led the way +to the patch of lighted ground behind the building where the riveting +machine was still beating out its monotonous cacaphony and paused by the +first of a series of huge reflectors, which were arranged in a circle. + +"Here is the start of the thing," he said. "There are two hundred and +fifty of these reflectors arranged in a circle four hundred yards in +diameter. Each of them is an opened parabola of such spread that their +beams will cover an area ten yards in diameter at fifty miles above the +earth. If my calculations are correct they should penetrate through the +layer at an average speed of fifteen miles per hour per unit, and by two +o'clock to-morrow afternoon, the road to space should be open." + +"What is your power?" I asked. + +"Nothing but a concentration of infra-red rays. The heaviside layer, as +you doubtless know, is a liquid and, I think, an organic liquid. If I am +right in that thought, the infra-red will cut through it like a knife +through cheese." + +"If it is a liquid, how will you prevent it from flowing back into the +hole you have opened?" I asked. + +"When the current is first turned on, each reflector will bear on the +same point. Notice that they are moveable. They are arranged so that +they move together. As soon as the first hole is bored through, they +will move by clockwork, extending the opening until each points +vertically upward and the hole is four hundred yards in diameter. I am +positive that there will be no rapid flow even after the current is +turned off, for I believe that the liquid is about as mobile as +petroleum jelley. Should it close, however, it would take only a couple +of hours to open it again to allow the space flyer to return." + +"What space flyer?" I demanded quickly. + +"The one we are going to be on, First Mortgage," he replied with a +slight chuckle. + + * * * * * + +"We?" I cried, aghast. + +"Certainly. We. You and I. You didn't think I was going to send you +alone, did you?" + +"I didn't know that anyone was going." + +"Of course. Someone has to go; otherwise, how could I prove my point? I +might cut through a hundred holes and yet these stiff-necked old +fossils, seeing nothing, would not believe. No, First Mortgage, when +those arcs start working to-morrow, you and I will be in a Hadley space +ship up at the bottom of the layer, and as soon as the road has been +opened, two of the lamps will cut off to allow us through. Then the +battery will hold the road open while we pass out into space and +return." + +"Suppose we meet with Hadley's fate?" I demanded. + +"We won't. Even if I am wrong--which is very unlikely--we won't meet +with any such fate. We have two stern motors and four bow motors. As +soon as we meet with the slightest resistance to our forward progress we +will stop and have twice the power plus gravity to send us earthwards. +There is no danger connected with the trip." + +"All the same--" I began. + +"All the same, you're going," he replied. "Man alive, think of the +chance to make a world scoop for your paper! No other press man has the +slightest inkling of my plan and even if they had, there isn't another +space flyer in the world that I know of. If you don't want to go, I'll +give some one else the chance, but I prefer you, for you know something +of my work." + + * * * * * + +I thought rapidly for a moment. The chance was a unique one and one that +half the press men in San Francisco would have given their shirts to +get. I had had my doubts of the accuracy of Jim Carpenter's reasoning +while I was away from him, but there was no resisting the dynamic +personality of the man when in his presence. + +"You win," I said with a laugh. "Your threat of offering some of my +hated rivals a chance settled it." + +"Good boy!" he exclaimed, pounding me on the back. "I knew you'd come. I +had intended to take one of my assistants with me, but as soon as I knew +you were here I decided that you were the man. There really ought to be +a press representative along. Come with me and I'll show you our flyer." + +The flyer proved to be of the same general type as had been used by +Hadley. It was equipped with six rocket motors, four discharging to the +bow and two to the stern. Any one of them, Carpenter said, was ample for +motive power. Equilibrium was maintained by means of a heavy gyroscope +which would prevent any turning of the axis of its rotation. The entire +flyer shell could be revolved about the axis so that oblique motion with +our bow and stern motors was readily possible. Direct lateral movement +was provided for by valves which would divert a portion of the discharge +of either a bow or stern motor out through side vents in any direction. +The motive power, of course, was furnished by the atomic disintegration +of powdered aluminum. The whole interior, except for the portion of the +walls, roof and floor, which was taken up by vitriolene windows, was +heavily padded. + + * * * * * + +At nine the next morning the gates to the enclosure were thrown open and +the representatives of the press admitted. Jim Carpenter mounted a +platform and explained briefly what he proposed to do and then broke the +crowd up into small groups and sent them over the works with guides. +When all had been taken around they were reassembled and Carpenter +announced to them his intention of going up in a space flyer and prove, +by going through the heaviside layer, that he had actually destroyed a +portion of it. There was an immediate clamor of applications to go with +him. He laughingly announced that one reporter was all that he could +stand on the ship and that he was taking one of his former associates +with him. I could tell by the envious looks with which I was favored +that any popularity I had ever had among my associates was gone forever. +There was little time to think of such things, however, for the hour for +our departure was approaching, and the photographers were clamoring for +pictures of us and the flyer. + +We satisfied them at last, and I entered the flyer after Carpenter. We +sealed the car up, started the air conditioner, and were ready for +departure. + +"Scared, Pete?" asked Carpenter, his hand on the starting lever. + +I gulped a little as I looked at him. He was perfectly calm to a casual +inspection, but I knew him well enough to interpret the small spots of +red which appeared on his high cheekbones and the glitter in his eye. He +may not have been as frightened as I was but he was laboring under an +enormous nervous strain. The mere fact that he called me "Pete" instead +of his usual "First Mortgage" showed that he was feeling pretty serious. + +"Not exactly scared," I replied, "but rather uneasy, so to speak." + + * * * * * + +He laughed nervously. + +"Cheer up, old man! If anything goes wrong, we won't know it. Sit down +and get comfortable; this thing will start with a jerk." + +He pulled the starting lever forward suddenly and I felt as though an +intolerable weight were pressed against me, glueing me to my seat. The +feeling lasted only for a moment, for he quickly eased up on the motor, +and in a few moments I felt quite normal. + +"How fast are we going?" I asked. + +"Only two hundred miles an hour," he replied. "We will reach the layer +in plenty of time at this rate and I don't want to jam into it. You can +get up now." + +I rose, moved over to the observation glass in the floor, and looked +down. We were already five or ten miles above the earth and were +ascending rapidly. I could still detect the great circle of reflectors +with which our way was to be opened. + +"How can you tell where these heat beams are when they are turned on?" I +asked. "Infra-red rays are not visible, and we will soon be out of sight +of the reflectors." + +"I forgot to mention that I am having a small portion of visible red +rays mixed with the infra-red so that we can spot them. I have a radio +telephone here, working on my private wavelength, so that I can direct +operations from here as well as from the ground--in fact, better. If +you're cold, turn on the heater." + + * * * * * + +The friction of the flyer against the air had so far made up for the +decreasing temperature of the air surrounding us, but a glance at the +outside thermometer warned me that his suggestion was a wise one. I +turned a valve which diverted a small portion of our exhaust through a +heating coil in the flyer. It was hard to realize that I was actually in +a rocket space ship, the second one to be flown and that, with the +exception of the ill-fated Hadley, farther from the earth than any man +had been before. There was no sensation of movement in that hermetically +sealed flyer, and, after the first few moments, the steady drone of the +rocket motor failed to register on my senses. I was surprised to see +that there was no trail of detritus behind us. + +"You can see our trail at night," replied Carpenter when I asked him +about it, "but in daylight, there is nothing to see. The slight +luminosity of the gasses is hidden by the sun's rays. We may be able to +see it when we get out in space beyond the layer, but I don't know. We +have arrived at the bottom of the layer now, I believe. At any rate, we +are losing velocity." + + * * * * * + +I moved over to the instrument board and looked. Our speed had dropped +to one hundred and ten miles an hour and was steadily falling off. +Carpenter pulled the control lever and reduced our power. Gradually the +flyer came to a stop and hung poised in space. He shut off the power an +instant and at once our indicator showed that we were falling, although +very slowly. He promptly reapplied the power, and by careful adjustment +brought us again to a dead stop. + +"Ready to go," he remarked looking at his watch, "and just on time, too. +Take a glass and watch the ground. I am going to have the heat turned +on." + +I took the binoculars he indicated and turned them toward the ground +while he gave a few crisp orders into his telephone. Presently from the +ground beneath us burst out a circle of red dots from which long beams +stabbed up into the heavens. The beams converged as they mounted until +at a point slightly below us, and a half-mile away they became one solid +beam of red. One peculiarity I noticed was that, while they were plainly +visible near the ground, they faded out, and it was not until they were +a few miles below us that they again became apparent. I followed their +path upward into the heavens. + +"Look here, Jim!" I cried as I did so. "Something's happening!" + +He sprang to my side and glanced at the beam. + +"Hurrah!" he shouted, pounding me on the back. "I was right! Look! And +the fools called it a magnetic field!" + +Upward the beam was boring its way, but it was almost concealed by a +rain of fine particles of black which were falling around it. + +"It's even more spectacular than I had hoped," he chortled. "I had +expected to reduce the layer to such fluidity that we could penetrate +it or even to vaporize it, but we are actually destroying it! That stuff +is soot and is proof, if proof be needed, that the layer is an organic +liquid." + + * * * * * + +He turned to his telephone and communicated the momentous news to the +earth and then rejoined me at the window. For ten minutes we watched and +a slight diminution of the black cloud became apparent. + +"They're through the layer," exclaimed Carpenter. "Now watch, and you'll +see something. I'm going to start spreading the beam." + +He turned again to his telephone, and presently the beam began to widen +and spread out. As it did so the dark cloud became more dense than it +had been before. The earth below us was hidden and we could see the red +only as a dim murky glow through the falling soot. Carpenter inquired of +the laboratory and found that we were completely invisible to the +ground, half the heavens being hidden by the black pall. For an hour the +beam worked its way toward us. + +"The hole is about four hundred yards in diameter right now," said +Carpenter as he turned from the telephone. "I have told them to stop the +movement of the reflectors, and as soon as the air clears a little, +we'll start through." + +It took another hour for the soot to clear enough that we could plainly +detect the ring of red light before us. Carpenter gave some orders to +the ground, and a gap thirty yards wide opened in the wall before us. +Toward this gap the flyer moved slowly under the side thrust of the +diverted motor discharge. The temperature rose rapidly as we neared the +wall of red light before us. Nearer we drew until the light was on both +sides of us. Another few feet and the flyer shot forward with a jerk +that threw me sprawling on the floor. Carpenter fell too, but he +maintained his hold on the controls and tore at them desperately to +check us. + + * * * * * + +I scrambled to my feet and watched. The red wall was alarmingly close. +Nearer we drove and then came another jerk which threw me sprawling +again. The wall retreated. In another moment we were standing still, +with the red all around us at a distance of about two hundred yards. + +"We had a narrow escape from being cremated," said Carpenter with a +shaky laugh. "I knew that our speed would increase as soon as we got +clear of the layer but it caught me by surprise just the same. I had no +idea how great the holding effect of the stuff was. Well, First +Mortgage, the road to space is open for us. May I invite you to be my +guest on a little week-end jaunt to the Moon?" + +"No thanks, Jim," I said with a wry smile. "I think a little trip to the +edge of the layer will quite satisfy me." + +"Quitter," he laughed. "Well, say good-by to familiar things. Here we +go!" + +He turned to the controls of the flyer, and presently we were moving +again, this time directly away from the earth. There was no jerk at +starting this time, merely a feeling as though the floor were pressing +against my feet, a great deal like the feeling a person gets when they +rise rapidly in an express elevator. The indicator showed that we were +traveling only sixty miles an hour. For half an hour we continued +monotonously on our way with nothing to divert us. Carpenter yawned. + +"Now that it's all over, I feel let down and sleepy," he announced. "We +are well beyond the point to which Hadley penetrated and so far we have +met with no resistance. We are probably nearly at the outer edge of the +layer. I think I'll shoot up a few miles more and then call it a day and +go home. We are about eighty miles from the earth now." + + * * * * * + +I looked down, but could see nothing below us but the dense cloud of +black soot resulting from the destruction of the heaviside layer. Like +Carpenter, I felt sleepy, and I suppressed a yawn as I turned again to +the window. + +"Look here, Jim!" I cried suddenly. "What's that?" + +He moved in a leisurely manner to my side and looked out. As he did so I +felt his hand tighten on my shoulder with a desperate grip. Down the +wall of red which surrounded us was coming an object of some kind. The +thing was fully seventy-five yards long and half as wide at its main +portion, while long irregular streams extended for a hundred yards on +each side of it. There seemed to be dozens of them. + +"What is it, Jim?" I asked in a voice which sounded high and unnatural +to me. + +"I don't know," he muttered, half to me and half to himself. "Good Lord, +there's another of them!" + +He pointed. Not far from the first of the things came another, even +larger than the first. They were moving sluggishly along the red light, +seeming to flow rather than to crawl. I had a horrible feeling that they +were alive and malignant. Carpenter stepped back to the controls of the +flyer and stopped our movement; we hung in space, watching them. The +things were almost level with us, but their sluggish movement was +downward toward the earth. In color, they were a brilliant crimson, +deepening into purple near the center. Just as the first of them came +opposite us it paused, and slowly a portion of the mass extended itself +from the main bulk; and then, like doors opening, four huge eyes, each +of them twenty feet in diameter, opened and stared at us. + +"It's alive, Jim," I quavered. I hardly knew my own voice as I spoke. + + * * * * * + +Jim stepped back to the controls with a white face, and slowly we moved +closer to the mass. As we approached I thought that I could detect a +fleeting passage of expression in those huge eyes. Then they disappeared +and only a huge crimson and purple blob lay before us. Jim moved the +controls again and the flyer came to a stop. + +Two long streamers moved out from the mass. Suddenly there was a jerk to +the ship which threw us both to the floor. It started upward at express +train speed. Jim staggered to his feet, grasped the controls and started +all four bow motors at full capacity, but even this enormous force had +not the slightest effect in diminishing our speed. + +"Well, the thing's got us, whatever it is," said Jim as he pulled his +controls to neutral, shutting off all power. Now that the danger had +assumed a tangible form, he appeared as cool and collected as ever, to +my surprise, I found that I had recovered control of my muscle and of my +voice. I became aware that the shoulder which Jim had gripped was aching +badly, and I rubbed it absently. + +"What is it, Jim?" I asked for the third time. + +"I don't know," he replied. "It is some horrible inhabitant of space, +something unknown to us on earth. From its appearance and actions, I +think it must be a huge single-celled animal of the type of the earthly +amoeba. If an amoeba is that large here, what must an elephant look +like? However, I expect that we'll learn more about the matter later +because it's taking us with it, wherever it's going." + + * * * * * + +Suddenly the flyer became dark inside. I looked at the nearest window, +but I could not even detect its outline. I reached for the light switch, +but a sudden change in direction threw me against the wall. There was an +instant of intense heat in the flyer. + +"We have passed the heaviside layer," said Jim. "The brute has changed +direction, and we felt that heat when he took us through the infra-red +wall." + +I reached again for the light switch, but before I could find it our +motion ceased and an instant later the flyer was filled with glaring +sunlight. We both turned to the window. + +We lay on a glistening plain of bluish hue which stretched without a +break as far as we could see. Not a thing broke the monotony of our +vision. We turned to the opposite window. How can I describe the sight +which met our horrified gaze? On the plain before us lay a huge purple +monstrosity of gargantuan dimensions. The thing was a shapeless mass, +only the four huge eyes standing out regarding us balefully. The mass +was continually changing its outline and, as we watched, a long streamer +extended itself from the body toward us. Over and around the flyer the +feeler went, while green and red colors played over first one and then +another of the huge eyes before us. The feeler wrapped itself around the +flyer and we were lifted into the air toward those horrible eyes. We had +almost reached them when the thing dropped us. We fell to the plain with +a crash. We staggered to our feet again and looked out. Our captor was +battling for its life. + + * * * * * + +Its attacker was a smaller thing of a brilliant green hue, striped and +mottled with blue and yellow. While our captor was almost formless, the +newcomer had a very definite shape. It resembled a cross between a bird +and a lizard, its shape resembling a bird, as did tiny rudimentary wings +and a long beak, while the scaly covering and the fact that it had four +legs instead of two bore out the idea that it might be a lizard. Its +huge birdlike beak was armed with three rows of long sharp teeth with +which it was tearing at our captor. The purple amoeba was holding its +assailant with a dozen of its thrown out feelers which were wrapped +about the body and legs of the green horror. The whole battle was +conducted in absolute silence. + +"Now's our chance, Jim!" I cried. "Get away from here while that dragon +has the amoeba busy!" + +He jumped to the control levers of the flyer and pulled the starting +switch well forward. The shock of the sudden start hurled me to the +floor, but from where I fell I was able to watch the battle on the +plain below us. It raged with uninterrupted fury and I felt certain of +our escape when, with a shock which hurled both Jim and me to the +ceiling, the flyer stopped. We fell back to the floor and I reflected +that it was well for us that the interior of the flyer was so well +padded. Had it not been, our bones would have been broken a dozen times +by the shocks to which we had been subjected. + +"What now?" I asked as I painfully struggled to my feet. + +"Another of those purple amoebas," replied Jim from the vantage point of +a window. "He's looking us over as if he were trying to decide whether +we are edible or not." + + * * * * * + +I joined him at the window. The thing which had us was a replica of the +monster we had left below us engaged in battle with the green dragon +which had attacked it. The same indefinite and ever changing outline was +evident, as well as the four huge eyes. The thing regarded us for a +moment and slowly moved us up against its bulk until we touched it. +Deeper and deeper into the mass of the body we penetrated until we were +in a deep cavern with the light coming to us only from the entrance. I +watched the entrance and horror possessed my soul. + +"The hole's closing. Jim!" I gasped. "The thing is swallowing us!" + +"I expected that," he replied grimly. "The amoeba has no mouth, you +know. Nourishment is passed into the body through the skin, which closes +behind it. We are a modern version of Jonah and the whale, First +Mortgage." + +"Well, Jonah got out," I ventured. + +"We'll try to," he replied. "When that critter swallowed us, he got +something that will prove pretty indigestible. Let's try to give him a +stomach ache. I don't suppose that a machine-gun will affect him, but +we'll try it." + +"I didn't know that you had any guns on board." + +"Oh yes, I've got two machine-guns. We'll turn one of them loose, but I +don't expect much effect from it." + + * * * * * + +He moved over to one of the guns and threw off the cover which had +hidden it from my gaze. He fed in a belt of ammunition and pulled his +trigger. For half a minute he held it down, and two hundred and fifty +caliber thirty bullets tore their way into space. There was no evidence +of movement on the part of our host. + +"Just as I thought," remarked Jim as he threw aside the empty belt and +covered the gun again. "The thing has no nervous organization to speak +of and probably never felt that. We'll have to rig up a disintegrating +ray for him." + +"What?" I gasped. + +"A disintegrating ray," he replied. "Oh yes, I know how to make the +fabulous 'death ray' that you journalists are always raving about. I +have never announced my discovery, for war is horrible enough without +it, but I have generated it and used it in my work a number of times. +Did it never occur to you that the rocket motor is built on a +disintegrating ray principle?" + +"Of course it is, Jim. I never thought of it in that light before, but +it must be. How can you use it? The discharge from the motors is a +harmless stream of energy particles." + +"Instead of turning the ray into powdered aluminum and breaking it down, +what is to prevent me from turning it against the body of our captor and +blasting my way out?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well, nothing is. I'll have to modify one of the motors a little, but +it's not a hard job. Get some wrenches from the tool box and we'll +start." + + * * * * * + +An hour of hard work enabled us to disconnect one of the reserve bow +motors and, after the modifications Jim had mentioned, turn the ray out +through the port through which the products of disintegration were meant +to go. When we had bolted it in place with an improvised coupling, Jim +opened the vitriolene screen which held in our air and turned to his +control board. + +"Here goes," he said. + +He pulled the lever to full power and with a roar which almost deafened +us in the small flyer, the ray leaped out to do its deadly work. I +watched through a port beside the motor. There was a flash of intense +light for an instant and then the motor died away in silence. A path to +freedom lay open before us. Jim started one of the stern motors and +slowly we forced our way through the hole torn in the living mass. When +we were almost at the surface, he threw in full power and we shot free +from the amoeba and into the open. Again we were stopped in midair and +drawn back toward the huge bulk. The eyes looked at us and we were +turned around. As the ray swung into a position to point directly toward +one of the eyes, Jim pulled the controlling lever. With the flash of +light which ensued, the eye and a portion of the surrounding tissue +disappeared. The amoeba writhed and changed shape rapidly, while flashes +of brilliant crimson played over the remaining eyes. Again the ray was +brought into play and another of the eyes disappeared. This was +evidently enough for our captor, for it suddenly released us and +instantly we started to fall. Jim caught the control levers and turned +on our power in time to halt us only a few feet above the plain toward +which we were falling. We were close to the point whence we had started +up and we could see that the battle below us was still raging. + + * * * * * + +The green dragon was partially engulfed by the amoeba, but it still +relentlessly tore off huge chunks and devoured them. The amoeba was +greatly reduced in bulk but it still fought gamely. Even as we +approached the dragon was evidently satiated, for it slowly withdrew +from the purple bulk and back away. Long feelers shot out from the +amoeba's bulk toward the dragon but they were bitten off before they +could grasp their prey. + +"Let's get away from here, Jim," I cried, but I spoke too late. Even as +the words left my mouth the green dragon saw us and raised itself in the +air, and with gaping jaws launched itself at us. It took Jim only a +moment to shoot the flyer up into space, and the charge passed +harmlessly beneath us. The dragon checked its headway and turned again +toward us. + +"Use the machine-gun, Pete!" cried Jim. "I've got to run the ship." + +I threw the cover off the gun and fed in a fresh belt of ammunition. As +the green monster dashed toward us I hastily aligned the gun and pulled +the trigger. My aim was good and at least fifty of the bullets plowed +through the approaching bulk before Jim dropped the ship and allowed it +to pass above us. Again the dragon turned and charged, and again I met +it with a hail of bullets. They had no apparent effect and Jim dropped +the ship again and let the huge bulk shoot by above us. Twice more the +dragon rushed but the last rush was less violent than had been the first +three. + +"The bullets are affecting him, Pete!" cried Jim as he shot the flyer +upward. "Give him another dose!" + +I hastily fed in another belt, but it was not needed. The dragon rushed +the fifth time, but before it reached us its velocity fell off and it +passed harmlessly below us and fell on a long curve to the plain below. +It fell near the purple amoeba which it had battled and a long feeler +shot out and grasped it. Straight into the purple mass it was drawn, and +vanished into the huge bulk. + +Jim started one of the stern motors. In a few seconds we were far from +the scene. + +"Have you any idea of which direction to go?" he asked. I shook my head. + +"Have you a radio beacon?" I asked. + +He withered me with a glance. + +"We're beyond the heaviside layer," he reminded me. + + * * * * * + +For a moment I was stunned. + +"We can't be very far from the hole," he said consolingly as he fumbled +with the controls. "But before we try to find it, we had better +disconnect one of the stern motors and rig it as a disintegrating ray so +that we will have one bearing in each direction. We may meet more +denizens of space who like our looks, and we haven't much ammunition +left." + +We landed on the plain and in an hour had a second disintegrating ray +ready for action. Thus armed, we rose from the blue plain and started at +random on our way. For ten minutes we went forward. Then Jim stopped the +flyer and turned back. We had gone only a short distance when I called +to him to stop. + +"What is it?" he demanded as he brought the flyer to a standstill. + +"There's another creature ahead of us," I replied. "A red one." + +"Red?" he asked excitedly as he joined me. About a mile ahead of us a +huge mass hung in the air. It resembled the amoeba which had attacked +us, except that the newcomer was red. As we watched, it moved toward us. +As it did so its color changed to purple. + +"Hurrah!" cried Jim. "Don't you remember, Pete, that the one which +captured us and took us out of the hole was red while in the hole and +then turned purple? That thing just came out of the hole!" + +"Then why can't we see the red beam?" I demanded. + +"Because there's no air or anything to reflect it," he replied. "We +can't see it until we are right in it." + +I devoutly hoped that he was right as he headed the ship toward the +waiting monster. As we approached the amoeba came rapidly to meet us and +a long feeler shot out. As it did so there was a flash of intense light +ahead of us as Jim turned loose the ray, and the feeler disappeared. +Another and another met the same fate. Then Jim rotated the ship +slightly and let out the full force of the ray toward the monster. A +huge hole was torn in it, and as we approached with our ray blazing, the +amoeba slowly retreated and our path was open before us. Again there was +an instant of intense heat as we passed through the red wall, and we +were again in the hole which Jim's lamps had blasted through the layer. +Below us still lay the fog which had obscured the earth when we had +started on our upward trip. + + * * * * * + +Down toward the distant earth we dropped. We had gone about thirty miles +before we saw on the side of the hole one of the huge amoeba which were +so thick above. + +"We might stop and pick that fellow off," said Jim, "but, on the whole, +I think we'll experiment with him." + +He drove the ship nearer and turned it on its axis, holding it in +position by one of the auxiliary discharges. A flash came from our +forward ray and a portion of the amoeba disappeared. A long arm moved +out toward us, but it moved slowly and sluggishly instead of with the +lightninglike swiftness which had characterized the movements of the +others. Jimmy easily eluded it and dropped the ship a few yards. The +creature pursued it, but it moved slowly. For a mile we kept our +distance ahead of it, but we had to constantly decrease our speed to +keep from leaving it behind. Soon we were almost at a standstill, and +Jim reversed our direction and drew nearer. A feeler came slowly and +feebly out a few feet toward us and then stopped. We dropped the ship a +few feet but the amoeba did not follow. Jim glanced at the altimeter. + +"Just as I thought," he exclaimed. "We are about forty-five miles above +the earth and already the air is so dense that the thing cannot move +lower. They are fashioned for existence in the regions of space and in +even the most rarified air they are helpless. There is no chance of one +ever reaching the surface of the earth without years of gradual +acclimation, and even if it did, it would be practically immobile. In a +few years the layer will flow enough to plug the hole I have made, but +even so, I'll build a couple of space flyers equipped with +disintegrating rays as soon as we get down and station them alongside +the hole to wipe out any of that space vermin which tries to come +through. Let's go home. We've put in a good day's work." + +Hundreds of the purple amoeba have been destroyed by the guarding ships +during the past five years. The hole is filling in as Jim predicted, and +in another ten years the earth will be as securely walled in as it ever +was. But in the mean time, no one knows what unrevealed horrors space +holds, and the world will never rest entirely easy until the slow +process of time again heals the broken protective layer. + + * * * * * + +Everyone Is Invited + +_To_ "_Come Over in_ + +'THE READERS' CORNER'"! + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska._] + + + + +Earth, the Marauder + +BEGINNING A THREE-PART NOVEL + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + + +FOREWORD + + +_Despite the fact that for centuries the Secret of Life had been the +possession of children of men, the Earth was dying. She was dying +because the warmth of the sun was fading; because, with the obliteration +of the oceans in order to find new land upon which men might live, her +seasons had become stormy, unbearably cold and dreary: and the very fact +of her knowledge of the Secret of Life, in which men numbered their ages +by centuries instead of by years, was her undoing._ + +[Sidenote: Out of her orbit sped +the teeming Earth--a +marauding planet bent on starry +conquest.] + +[Illustration] + +_For when men did not die, they multiplied beyond all counting, beyond +all possibility of securing permanent abiding places. One man, in the +days when the earth was young, and man lived at best to the age of three +score years and ten, could have, given time and opportunity, populated a +nation. Now, when men lived for centuries, eternally youthful, their +living descendants ran into incalculable numbers._ + +_The earth--strange paradox--was dying because it had learned the Secret +of Life. Twenty centuries before, the last war of aggression had been +fought, in order that an over-populated nation might find room in which +to live. Now all the earth was one nation, speaking one tongue--and +there were no more lands to conquer._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Sarka_ + + +In his laboratory atop the highest peak in the venerable Himalayas, +lived Sarka, conceded by the world to be its greatest scientist, despite +his youth. His grandfather, who had watched the passing of eighteen +centuries, had discovered the Secret of Life and thoughtlessly, in the +light of later developments, broadcast his discovery to the world. The +genius of this man, who was also called Sarka, had been passed on to his +son, Sarka the Second, and by him in even greater degree to Sarka the +Third ... called merely Sarka for the purposes of this history. + +Had Sarka lived in the days before the discovery of the Secret of Life, +people of that day would have judged him a young man of twenty. His real +age was four centuries. + +Behind him as he sat moodily staring at the gigantic Revolving Beryl +stood a woman of most striking appearance. Her name was Jaska, and +according to ideas of the Days Before the Discovery, she seemed a trifle +younger than Sarka. Her hand, unadorned by jewelry of any kind, rested +on Sarka's shoulder as he studied the Revolving Beryl, while her eyes, +whose lashes, matching her raven hair, were like the wings of tiny +blackbirds, noted afresh the wonder of this man. + +"What is to be done?" she asked him at last, and her voice was like +music there in the room where science performed its miracles for Sarka. + + * * * * * + +Wearily Sarka turned to face her, and she was struck anew, as she had +been down the years since she had known this man, every time their +glances met, at the mighty curve of his brow, which rendered +insignificant his mouth, his delicate nose of the twitching nostrils, +the well-deep eyes of him. + +"Something must be done," he said gloomily, "and that soon! For, unless +the children of men are provided with some manner of territorial +expansion, they will destroy one another, only the strongest will +survive, and we shall return to the days when the waters covered the +earth, and monstrous creatures bellowed from the primeval slime!" + +"You are working on something?" she asked softly. + +For a moment he did not answer. While she waited, Jaska peered into the +depths of the Revolving Beryl, which represented the earth. It was fifty +feet in diameter, and in its curved surface and entrancing depths was +mirrored, in this latest development of teleview, all the earth and the +doings of its people. But Jaska scarcely saw the fleeting images, the +men locked in conflict for the right to live, the screaming, +terror-stricken women. This was now a century-old story, and the +civilization of Earth had almost reached the breaking point. + +No, she scarcely saw the things in the Beryl, for she had read the hint +of a vast, awesome secret in the eyes of Sarka--and wondered if he dared +even tell her. + + * * * * * + +"If the people knew," he whispered, "they would do one of two things! +They would tear me limb from limb, and hurl the parts of me outward into +space forever--or they would demand that I move before I am ready--and +cause a catastrophe which could never be rectified; and this grand old +Earth of ours would be dead, indeed!" + +"And this secret of yours?" Jaska now spoke in the sign language which +only these two knew, for there were billions of other Revolving Beryls +in the world, and words could be heard by universal radio by any who +cared to listen. And always, they knew, the legions of enemies of Sarka +kept their ears open for words of Sarka which could be twisted around to +his undoing. + +"I should not tell even you," he answered, his fingers working swiftly +in their secret, silent language, which all the world could see, but +which only these two understood. "For if my enemies knew that you +possessed the information, there is nothing they would stop at to make +you tell." + +"But I would not tell, Sarka," she said softly. "You know that!" + +He patted her hands, and the ghost of a smile touched his lips. + +"No," he said, "you would not tell. Some day soon--and it must be soon +if the children of men are not to destroy themselves, I will tell you! +It is a secret that lies heavily on my heart. If I should make a +mistake.... Chaos! Catastrophe! Eternal, perpetual dark, the children +of men reduced to nothingness!" + + * * * * * + +A little gasp from Jaska, for it was plain that this thing Sarka hinted +at was far and away beyond anything he had hitherto done--and Sarka had +already performed miracles beyond any that had ever been done by his +predecessors. + +"When my grandfather," went on Sarka moodily, "perfected, in this +self-same laboratory, the machinery by which the waters of the oceans +could be disintegrated, our enemies called him mad, and fought their way +up these mountain slopes to destroy him! With the pack at his doors, he +did as he had told them he would do. Though they hurried swiftly into +the great valleys to colonize them--where oceans had been--they were +like ravening beasts, and gave my grandfather no thanks. Our people have +always fought against progress, have always been disparaging of its +advocates! When the first Sarka discovered the Secret they would have +destroyed him, though he made them immortal...." + +"If only the Secret," interrupted Jaska, "could be returned to him who +discovered it! That would solve our problem, for men then would die and +be buried, leaving their places for others." + +Again that weary smile on the face of Sarka. + +"Take back the Secret which is known to-day to every son and daughter of +woman? Impossible! More nearly impossible than the attainment of my most +ambitious dream!" + +"And that dream?" spoke Jaska with speeding fingers. + +"I have wondered about you," said Sarka softly, while those eyes of his +bored deeply into hers. "We have been the best of friends, the best of +comrades; but there are times when it comes to me that I do not know you +entirely! And I have many enemies!" + +"You mean," gasped the woman, for the moment forgetting the secret sign +manual, "you think it possible that I--I--might be one of your enemies, +in secret?" + +"Jaska, I do not know; but in this matter in my mind I trust no one. I +am afraid even that people will read my very thoughts, though I have +learned to so concentrate upon them that not the slightest hint of them +shall go forth telepathically to my enemies! I do not mind death for +myself; but our people must be saved! It is hideous to think that we +have been given the Secret of Life, only to perish in the end because of +it! I am sorry, Jaska, but I can tell no one!" + +But Jaska, one of the most beautiful and intelligent of Earth's +beautiful and intelligent women, seemed not to be listening to Sarka at +all, and when he had finished, she shrugged her shoulders slightly and +prepared to leave. + + * * * * * + +He followed her to the nearest Exit Dome, built solidly into the side of +his laboratory, and watched her as she slipped swiftly into the white, +skin-tight clothing--marked on breast and back with the Red Lily of the +House of Cleric. His eyes still were deeply moody. + +He helped her don the gleaming metal helmet in whose skull-pan was set +the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid--invented by Sarka the Second, used now of +necessity by every human creature--and strode with her to the Outer +Exit, a door of ponderous metal sufficiently strong to prevent the inner +warmth of the laboratory getting out, or the biting cold of the heights +to enter, and studied her still as she buckled about her hips her own +personal Sarka-Belt, which automatically encased her, through contact +with her tight clothing, with the warmth and balanced pressure of the +laboratory, which would remain constant as long as she wore it. + +With a nod and a brief smile, she stepped to the metal door and vanished +through it. Sarka turned gloomily back to his laboratory. Looking into +the depths of the Revolving Beryl and adjusting the enlarging device +which brought back, life size, the infinitesmal individuals mirrored in +the Beryl, he watched her go--a trim white figure which flashed across +the void, from mountain-top to her valley home, like a very white +projectile from another world. Very white, and very precious, but.... + +When she was home, and had waved to him that she had arrived safely, he +forgot her for a time, and allowed his eyes to study the inner workings +of this vast, crowded world whose on-rushing fate was so filling his +brain with doubt, with fear--and something of horror! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The People of the Hives_ + + +Moodily Sarka stared into the depths of the Beryl, which represented the +Earth, and in which he could see everything that earthlings did, after +visually enlarging them, through use of a microscope that could be +adjusted, with relation to the Beryl, to bring out in detail any section +of the world he wished to study. His face was utterly sad. The people at +last truly possessed the Earth--all of it that was, even with the aid of +every miracle known to science, habitable. + +The surface of the Earth was one vast building, like a hive, and to each +human being was allotted by law a certain abiding place. But men no +longer died, unless they desired to do so, and then only when the +Spokesmen of the Gens saw fit to grant permission; and there soon would +be no place for the newborn to live. Even now that point had practically +been reached throughout the world, and in the greater portion it _had_ +been reached, and passed, and men knew that while men did not die, they +could be killed! + +The vast building, towering above what had once been the surface of the +earth, to heights undreamed of before the discovery, was irregular on +its top, to fit the contour of the earth, and its roof, constructed of +materials raped from the earth's core, was so designed as to catch and +concentrate the yearly more feeble rays of the sun, so that its +life-giving warmth might continue to be the boon of living people. + + * * * * * + +It had been found as Earth cooled that life was possible to a depth of +eight miles below the one-time surface, so that the one huge building +extended below the surface to this great depth, and was divided and +re-divided to make homes for men, their wives, and their progeny. But +even so, space was limited. Neighboring families outgrew their +surroundings, overflowed into the habitations of their neighbors--and +every family was at constant war against its neighbors. + +Men did not die, but they could be slain, and there was scarcely a home, +above or below, in all the vast building, which had not planned and +executed murder, times and times--or which had not left its own blood in +the dwelling places of neighbors. + +No law could cope with this intolerable situation, for men, down the +ages, had changed in their essential characteristics but little--and +recognized one law only in their extremity, that of self-preservation. + +So there was murder rampant, and mothers who wept for children, +husbands, fathers or mothers, who would never return to their homes. + +"My grandfather," whispered Sarka, his eyes peering deeply into a +certain area beyond that assigned by law to the House of Cleric, where +men of two neighboring families were locked in mortal, silent conflict, +"should not have frustrated the mad scheme of Dalis! It was slaughter, +wholesale and terrible, but it would have cleansed the souls of the +survivors!" + + * * * * * + +Mentally Sarka was looking back now to that red day when Dalis, the +closest scientific rival of Sarka the First, had come to Sarka the +First with his proposal which at the time had seemed so hideous. Sarka +remembered that interval in all its details, for he had heard it many +times. + +"Sarka," Dalis had said in his high-pitched voice, staring at Sarka the +First out of red-rimmed, fiery eyes, "unless something is done the world +will rush on to self-destruction! Men will slay one another! Fathers +will kill their sons, and sons their fathers, if something is not done! +For always there is marrying and giving in marriage, and each family is +reaching out in all directions, seeking merely space in which to live. +Formerly there were wars which automatically took thought of the +overplus of men; but to-day the world is at peace, as men regard the +term--and every man's hand is against his neighbor! There will be no +more wars, when there should be! There is but one alternative!" + +"And that?" Sarka the First had queried suspiciously. + +"The segregation of the fittest! The destruction, swiftly, painlessly, +of all the others! And when the survivors have again re-populated the +earth to overflowing--a repetition of the same corrective! Men will die, +yes, by millions; but those who are left will be a stronger, sturdier +race, and by this process of elimination, century by century, men will +evolve and become super-men!" + +"And this plan of yours?" + + * * * * * + +For a moment Dalis had paused, breathing heavily, as though almost +afraid to continue. Then, while Sarka the First had listened in frozen +terror, Dalis had explained his ghastly scheme. + +"If it were not for the mountains and the valleys," said Dalis, "and the +world were perfectly round and smooth of surface, that surface would be +covered by water to the depth of one mile! Is that not correct! The +Earth, rotating on its axis, travels about the sun at the rate of +something like nineteen miles per second, so perfectly balanced that +the oceans remain almost quiescent in their beds! But, Sarka, mark me +well! If we could, together, devise a way to halt this rotation for as +much as a few seconds, what would happen?" + +"What would happen?" repeated Sarka the First, dropping his own voice to +a husky, frightened whisper. "Why, the oceans would be hurled out of +their beds, and a wall of water a mile high or more--it is all +guesswork!--would rush eastward around the world, bearing everything +before it! It would uproot and destroy buildings, sweep the rocky +covering of the earth free of soil; and humanity, caught on the earth +below the highest level of the world's greatest tidal wave, would be +engulfed!" + +"Exactly!" Dalis had said with a grin. "Exactly! Only--the people we +wish to survive could be warned, and these could either be aloft when +the tidal wave swept the face of the earth, or could be safely out of +reach of the waters on the sides of the highest mountains!" + + * * * * * + +Sarka the First, wanly smiling, catching his breath at last, now that he +realized the utter impossibility of this mad scheme, had been minded to +humor the fancies of a man whom he had believed not quite sane. + +"Why not," he began, "take away from men the Secret of Life, so that +they will die, as formerly, when the world was young?" + +"When all the world knows the Secret, when even children learn it before +they are capable of walking?" demanded Dalis sarcastically. "You could +only remove knowledge of the Secret from the brains of men by removing +those brains themselves! Your thought is more terrible even than mine, +because it leads to this inescapable conclusion!" + +"But supposing for a moment your mad scheme were possible, who should +say whom, of all the earth's people, should be saved, whom sacrificed?" + +"What better test could be given than that which I am proposing?" Dalis +had snarled. "Those worthy of being saved would save themselves! Those +who would perish would not be worth saving! As natural, as inescapable +as the law of the survival of the fittest, which has been an axiom of +life since men first crawled out of the slime and asked each other +questions as they caught their first glimpses of the stars and pondered +the reasons for them!" + +"But where, then, was there any point in my giving to people the Secret +of Life?" + +"Had you paused to think," snapped Dalis, "you would never have done so! +Your lust for power, and for fame, destroyed your foresight!" + + * * * * * + +"And is it not, Dalis," replied Sarka the First, softly, "for this, +really, that you have come to me? To berate me? To throw at my head mad +schemes impossible of accomplishment? I have always known you for an +enemy, Dalis, because you are envious of what I have accomplished, what +you sense that I will accomplish as time passes!" + +"I do not love you, Sarka!" retorted Dalis frankly. "I despise you! Hate +you! But I need the aid of that keen brain of yours! You see, hate you +though I may, I do you honor still. I have something up here," tapping +the dome of his brow, only less lofty than that of Sarka, "which you +lack. You have something I have not, never can attain! But together we +are complements, each of the other, and to the two of us this scheme is +possible!" + +"I am very busy, Dalis," Sarka the First had replied coldly. "I must ask +you to leave me! What you propose is impossible, unthinkable!" + +"So," retorted Dalis, "you think me mad? You think me incapable of +perfecting this plan about whose details you have not even yet been +informed! You would show me the door as though you were a king and I a +slave--when kings and slaves vanished from the earth millenniums ago! +Then listen to me, Sarka! I know how to do this thing about which I have +told you. I can halt, for a brief moment only, the whirl of the earth +about its axis. And by so doing I can flood the earth with the waters of +the oceans! If you will not listen to me, I shall do it myself! You +shall have two days in which to give me an answer, for I admit that I +need you, who would balance me, make sure I made no fatal mistakes! But +if you do not, I will act ... along the lines I have hinted!" + + * * * * * + +Apparently as unconcerned as though he had not just listened to a scheme +for almost total depopulation of the world, the destruction of millions +upon millions of lives, Sarka the First had dismissed Dalis--who had +straightway used all his offices to arouse the world of science against +the first Sarka. + +But, when the two days of grace given by Dalis had passed, there were no +oceans--for Sarka the First had been planning for a century against the +time when the earth must of necessity be over-populated, and had worked +and slaved in his laboratory against the contingency which had +developed. + +He had smiled, though there was a trace of fear on his face after Dalis +had left, for _his_ scheme had been worked out--not to destroy, but to +save! + +And from this same laboratory in which Sarka now sat and pondered on the +next step in man's expansion, Sarka the First had, in fear and trembling +at first, but with his confidence growing by leaps and bounds, worked +his own miracle. Untold millions and billions of rays, whose any portion +of which, coming in contact with water, immediately separated its +hydrogen and oxygen, thus disintegrating its molecules, were hurled +forth from their store-houses beneath the laboratory, across the faces +of the mighty oceans of Earth.... + +And when men saw the miracle, they rushed into the mighty valleys where +the oceans had been, and began to build new homes! + + * * * * * + +That had been centuries ago--scores of centuries. + +Now all the earth, all the livable part of the earth, above its +surface--and below it to the depths of miles--was filled with people, +like bees in a monster hive, like ants of antiquity in their warrened +hills. And there was no place now that they could go. + +So they fought among themselves for the right to live. + +"But my grandfather was right!" Sarka almost screamed it, speaking aloud +in the silence of his laboratory. "My grandfather was right! Dalis was +wrong! Science should be the science of Life, not of Death! Yet whither +shall we go! Where now shall we find places for our people who are daily +being born in myriads, to live, and love and flourish?" + +But there was no answer. Only the humming of the perpetually revolving +Beryl, which showed to the sad eyes of Sarka that the people of his +beloved earth were rushing onward to Chaos, unless.... + +"If only I could be sure about Jaska!" he moaned. "If only my courage +were as great as that of which I stand in need! For if I fail, even +Dalis, had he succeeded with that scheme of his in grandfather's time, +would be less a monster, less a criminal!" + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Spokesmen of the Gens_ + +For a long moment Sarka looked broodingly out across the world beyond +the metalized glass which formed the curving dome of his laboratory +roof. There was little that could be seen, for always the mighty, cold +winds, ruffed with flurries of snow and particles of ice, swept over +this artificial roof of the world. Here and there huge portions of the +area within the range of his normal vision were swept clear and clean of +snow and ice--and looked bluely, bitterly cold and hostile. + +Without the Sarka-Belts, people who ventured forth from their hives +would instantly freeze to the consistency of marble in those winds and +storms. For the people of Earth had built their monster habitation +toward the stars until they reached up into the altitude of perpetual +cold. + +Only under that gleaming roof was there warmth. Many of the men, and +women, and children who had lost in the now century-old fight for +survival had merely been tossed out of the hives. A painless, swift +death--but each death, in a world so highly specialized that each grown +person fitted into his niche naturally and easily, was a distinct loss, +not much, perhaps, but enough for the loss to be felt. + + * * * * * + +Sarka, closing his eyes for a moment as though to shut out a horror +which in his mind he could visualize, turned back to the Revolving +Beryl, in which he kept in constant touch with all parts of the world at +will. + +"It _must_ be done!" he muttered. "I must take action. It means the loss +of thousands, perhaps millions of lives, in such a war as the mind of +man has not hitherto conceived; but for a Cause greater than any which +has ever hitherto been an excuse for armed conflict. But I must discuss +it with the Spokesmen of the Gens!" + +On the table before Sarka was a row of vari-colored lights, whose source +was beneath the floor of the laboratory, out of the heart of the +master-mountain, part of the intricate machinery of this laboratory +which had been almost twenty centuries in the perfecting. In the +dwelling place of each of the Spokesmen was a single light, colored like +one of the lights on Sarka's table. To speak with any one of the +Spokesmen Sarka had but to dim the properly colored light by covering it +with the palm of his hand. The light in the home of the thus signalled +Spokesman was dimmed, and the Spokesman would know that Sarka desired +to converse with him. + +Sarka noted the blue light, and shuddered. For if he covered it with his +palm it would summon Dalis, a great scientist, but an erratic one, as +Sarka the First had so clearly shown. + +Sarka turned again to the Beryl. The area of which Dalis was Spokesman +was, roughly speaking, that part of what had once been the Pacific +Ocean, north of a line drawn east and west through the southernmost of +the Hawaiian Islands, northward to the Pole. The home of Dalis was in +the heart of what had once been an island historians claimed had been +called Oahu, now a mountain peak still retaining a hint of the +pre-Discovery name: Ohi. + + * * * * * + +The total number of the Spokesmen, the oldest of earth's inhabitants, +was twelve, and the remainder of the Earth not under the tutelary rule +of Dalis was divided up among the other eleven Spokesmen. Cleric, for +example, father of Jaska, was Spokesman of that area which men had once +called Asia, the vast valleys of the once Indian Ocean and the +Mediterranean; while the youngest of the Spokesmen, in a manner serving +his apprenticeship, was tutelary head of the vast plateau once called +Africa. The name of this man was Gerd. + +"He, at least," thought Sarka, thinking of each Spokesman in turn and +cataloguing each in his mind, "will be with me. I wonder about the +others, and especially Dalis. He has always hated us!" + +Then, with the air of a man who has made up his mind and crosses his +particular Rubicon in a single step, Sarka rose to his feet and passed +along the row of vari-colored lights, covering each one with his hand in +rapid succession. + +Then he sat down again, almost holding his breath, and waited. As he +stared at the row of lights his eyes lingered longest on two which were +almost golden in color--and his face was very gentle, almost reverent. +For those two lights were signals to Sarka the First and Sarka the +Second, his grandfather and his father! + + * * * * * + +It was Dalis, the irascible, the fiery tempered, the erratic, who first +made answer. + +"Yes! What is it now?" + +Sarka smiled a trifle grimly as he spoke a single word. + +"Wait!" + +The voice of Dalis, which Sarka had good cause to remember, had sounded +as loudly in the laboratory as though Dalis had been present there in +person, for men had learned to communicate by voice almost without the +aid of radio and its appurtenances though the principle upon which the +first crude beginnings of radio were fashioned still applied. Each man's +dwelling place was both a "sender" and a "receiver," and men could talk +and be talked to no matter where they lived--individuals telepathically +summoned at desire of anyone wishing verbal contact. + +"Gerd is here!" came the voice of that Spokesman. + +To him also Sarka spoke one word. + +"Wait!" + +"I am here, Sarka!" came a musical voice. "And Jaska is with me, +listening!" + +That would be Cleric, loyal friend, master scientist, but always shy of +contact with people, though swift to anger and self-forgetfulness when +he knew himself right and was opposed. Sarka darted a look back at the +Revolving Beryl, adjusted swiftly the Beryl-microscope, and smiled into +the faces of Jaska and Cleric, who looked enough alike that they might +have been brother and sister, though Cleric had been born ten centuries +before his daughter Jaska. They smiled back at him. + + * * * * * + +He shifted the Beryl-microscope and stared for a second at Dalis, there +in the Beryl, and marked the antagonism Dalis was at no pains to hide. + +One by one the Spokesmen reported. + +Klaser, from the Americas; Durce from the valleys of the vanished +Atlantic; Boler from that part of the Artic Circle not included in the +wedge which the Gens of Dalis thrust northward to the Pole: Vardee; +Prull; Yuta; Aal; Vance and Hime. Each from his appointed area, each +from the official headquarters of his Gens, the name given to those +people who acknowledged the tutelage of a Spokesman. Each Spokesman, +therefore, was the mouthpiece of millions of men, women and children. +And over the Spokesmen, and not themselves Spokesmen, were three +scientists: The Sarkas, First, Second and Third. + +When all twelve of the Spokesmen had reported and been bidden by Sarka +to wait, a smile touched the face of Sarka for an instant as two other +voices, so nearly alike they might have been the voice of a single +person, reported themselves. + +"I am here, son! What is it?" + +Oddly enough, Sarka's father and grandfather reported with exactly the +same words. Sarka smiled at a whimsical thought of his own. It had been +some time since the three scientist Sarkas had been together, and +despite the vast differences in their ages they might have been +triplets! + + * * * * * + +The reports were in and the Spokesmen were waiting; but for almost a +minute Sarka waited still. Then he spoke swiftly those words for which +there could be no recall: + +"Gentlemen, the time is come when we must go to war!" + +For a long moment after he had spoken there was no answer. Then it came, +in the jeering laughter of the antagonistic Dalis. + +"War? Against whom? The Sarkas are always dreaming!" + +"And Dalis," continued Sarka, "shall be one of the leaders of Earthlings +in this war which I am about to propose! You doubtless recall a proposal +you once made to Sarka the First? Your proposal to halt for a few +moments the headlong whirl of the earth about its axis, thus to +flood--" + +"Stop!" interrupted Dalis. "Stop! Immediately!" + +And Sarka stopped. He had forgotten, in the excitement of his urge to +explain his plans, that the millions of people who gave official +allegiance to Dalis had never been informed of the hideous proposal he +had made, back there centuries ago, as a corrective for a world rapidly +approaching over-population. Had his people known, never again would the +voice of Dalis be heard in life. The Spokesmen knew, and the Sarkas; but +no others. Sarka understood the protest of Dalis; honored it. + +"Dalis," he went on, more softly, "after I have explained what I wish to +do, you will come to me here, prepared to explain to me exactly how you +planned doing what you proposed to my grandfather--for your knowledge +will be necessary to me...." + +"Isn't it enough that your grandfather stole from me, and amplified, an +idea that would have made me forever famous, without his grandson also +stealing the fruit of my brains?" + +"Your brains," said Sarka sharply, "belong to your people. What I plan +is for their betterment. But it means war, war which may last a century, +two centuries, in which lives of countless thousands may be lost." + + * * * * * + +Sarka's last words were almost drowned out by the humming sound that +came out of the Revolving Beryl, that perfected device which was the +ultimate in the evolution of television and vibration-transference. +Sarka's heart sank, for he knew the meaning of that sound. So did the +Spokesmen. + +"You see?" came the rasping voice of Dalis. "You hear? Look into your +Beryl! See the clenched fists of the earth's myriads being shaken at +you! Listen to the protests of the millions who hear your every word! +See what Earthlings think of the prospect of war!" + +For a moment Sarka spoke directly to the people. + +"Be silent and listen! It will be war, yes; but not such a skulking, +hideous war as ye wage among yourselves for a place to live! You, +fathers, are guilty of slaying your sons! You, sons, of slaying your +fathers! Merely by thrusting them forth from the hives, into the Outer +Cold! This war I propose shall be a war that shall match your manhood, +if ye indeed be men! Listen to me, and I will find for you new lands to +conquer, new homes for your holding, if ye can take them!" + +"But where," interrupted the sarcastic voice of Dalis, "are these new +lands of which you speak? Inside the Earth? Already our hives reach into +the Earth a distance of eight miles. Where else, then?" + +"For shame, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, "and you a scientist! Every bit of +habitable land on this globe is some man's dwelling place! Spokesmen of +the Gens of Earth, look out your windows! Look out and upward--and read +Dalis' answer in the stars!" + + * * * * * + +For a full minute there was silence throughout the earth, and Sarka saw +that the Spokesmen were doing his bidding. He himself looked out, out +through the swirling storm which tore at the crest of the Himalayas, a +dark and forbidding Outside, in the starred dome of which rode the pale +orbed moon! + +"It is obvious, son," came the voice of Sarka the First, "what you mean. +But how accomplish it?" + +"Fifteen centuries ago, my father's father," cried Sarka, "Dalis told +you that he possessed the power to halt for a moment the headlong whirl +of the world on its axis about the sun! He could do it then--and no man, +whatever he may think of Dalis as a man, has ever known him to lie! If, +fifteen centuries ago, he could bring the whirling world to pause, why +can we not, now...." + +And, even though he had thought of this for years upon end, had spoken +over and over to himself the words he was now using, rehearsing his +proposed argument to the Spokesmen of the Gens, Sarka found himself for +a moment almost afraid to continue and speak them. + +"I understand, Sarka!" came the excited voice of Gerd, youngest of the +Spokesmen. "And I follow wherever you think it best to lead! You mean +... you mean...." + +"Exactly!" Sarka managed at last. "If the Earth can be stayed on its +axis, it can be diverted from its orbit entirely! I know, for I have +found the manner of its doing, though I need the genius of Dalis to +check my work and my calculations! We have no new land on this Earth to +conquer; but the Universe is filled with countless other worlds! What +say ye, Spokesmen of the Gens? What say ye, Gens of Earth?" + +But for the time of a thousand heartbeats neither the Spokesmen or the +Gens made answer to Sarka, and all the world fell utterly silent, +absorbing this unbelievable thing of which Sarka had hinted. + + * * * * * + +Over the metalized roof of the world the snows and storms, the winds and +the wraiths of the long dead moaned and screamed as with an icy voice of +abysmal warning. + +And for the time of those thousand heartbeats, the world was pausing to +listen. + +When realization came, the answer would come from the Spokesmen and from +the Gens; and here in the Sarka laboratory, his Rubicon crossed at last, +sat Sarka, staring through the Beryl-microscope into the depths of the +Revolving Beryl. His face was dead white, his eyes narrowed. + +The first voice which came startled him. + +"It is mad, Sarka! Mad! Mad! But I am with you, always!" + +It was the voice of Jaska, daughter of Cleric! + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Earthlings Make Ready_ + +"I too, am with you!" came the voice of Gerd. + +"Spoken like a child!" snapped Dalis. "For you are as much a child as +this third of the dreaming Sarkas! The scheme is mad, madder even than +Jaska intimates! The scheme I once proposed, in which I was cheated by +the grandfather of this madman, was times and times more feasible and +practicable!" + +"Suppose," came the soft voice of Sarka the First, interrupting Dalis, +"that you put the matter up to your Gens, O wise and noble Dalis, and +see which scheme they would endorse if given the choice in the +matter--and were your scheme still possible!" + +This quickly silenced the vituperation of Dalis, but in no wise +prevented his continuance as a rather loud antagonist of the plan. + +"How," he demanded, "can you return the Earth to its orbit, even +granting you are able to take this initial step? How keep life on the +Earth during its flight on this rainbow-chasing voyage you propose?" + +"All these things have been taken into consideration, O Dalis!" retorted +Sarka. "All of my scheme is practicable, as I think you will agree when +I have told you its details. What think you of the plan, Klaser? And +you, Durce? Boler? Vardee? Prull? Yuta? Aal? Vance? Hime?" + +When the Spokesmen had answered, some of them hesitantly, for the people +all this time had remained silent--and none of the Spokesmen could be +sure how his own Gens would feel in the matter--it developed that seven +of the Spokesmen were for the scheme, if it should prove to be possible. + +"If this is the voice of the majority of the Gens," snapped Dalis, +"given thus by their Spokesmen, then I vote with the majority! I shall +call upon you immediately, Sarka, for a conference!" + + * * * * * + +"I am glad," said Sarka softly, "that the majority of the Spokesmen are +with me. Especially am I glad that Dalis and Cleric vote with me. For +the others I have only this to say: I have thought this matter over for +almost a century, and I know that the time has come when we must act, to +save ourselves from self-destruction. Had you not decided with me, I +should have acted alone!" + +"Yes?" snapped Dalis. "How?" + +"I have, here in my laboratory," replied Sarka, "the power whereby to +accomplish the scheme of which I have told you! Had all the Gens defied +me, I would have nevertheless sent the Earth outward on its voyage, +bringing it within reach of the denizens, first of the Moon, second of +Mars--and you people of little courage would have been compelled to +fight to save yourselves!" + +"You would have forced us into war?" came the quavering voice of Prull, +the first Spokesman aside from Dalis to take active part in the +discussion. "Then why, if you had the means in the beginning to enforce +your will upon us, confer with us at all?" + +Sarka thrilled with satisfaction, for this question gave him the excuse +he sought. He had been wondering and scheming how to compel the +Spokesmen of the Gens to obey his will. + +"I wanted your opinions," he said shortly. "But I also wish you to know +that I have the power to go on, whether you wish it or not--_and you +must obey me!_" + + * * * * * + +How would the twelve Gens take this ultimatum of Sarka? For breathless +moments after he had spoken he waited, and the Spokesmen with him. Then +came the voice of Cleric, addressing his people, yet leaving the +contacts open so that Sarka and the other Spokesmen might hear. + +"What say you, O Gens of Cleric?" he cried, his voice an exultant, +clarioning paean of rejoicing. "Do we follow this man who promises us +life again? Do we follow this man who promises us that once again we +shall dwell in plenty, without the blood of relatives and neighbors on +our hands? Answer this man, O Gens--for I say unto you that wheresoever +he leads I would follow him!" + +Silence for a heartbeat. Then a murmuring like the sound of the waves of +the long-vanished seas sounded in the laboratory, wherein all things +were seen, all sounds were heard. A monster voice, loud and savage, from +the Gens of Cleric. + +"We follow Cleric wherever he leads!" Finally the words became +intelligible. "It matters not to us whom Cleric follows, so long as we +may follow Cleric!" + +"Well spoken, O Gens of Cleric!" snapped Sarka when the murmuring died +down to a whisper, then faded out entirely. "Deck yourselves in the +white garments of Cleric! Emblazon upon your backs and breast the Red +Lily of his House! Prepare for war! These are your orders; the details I +leave to Cleric!" + +There came the voice Dalis. + +"Give your orders to my Gens direct, O Sarka!" rasped Dalis. "For I +leave this very moment to come to you!" + +"Thank you," said Sarka, a great wave of exaltation sweeping over him. +He had expected Dalis to be the last and most difficult to manage. Then +to the Gens of Dalis, as the blue light on the table in the laboratory +showed Sarka that Dalis was already winging toward him: "Deck yourselves +in the green garments of Dalis! Wear as your insignia the yellow star of +his House, and prepare for war! Make new and modern Ray Directors! +Refurbish your rotting machines of destruction! Make ready, and make +haste! For the Gens of Dalis will be the first of all the Gens to move +in attack against the Dwellers Outside! When the time comes I shall tell +you where you shall dwell--if you win the land I shall show you!" + + * * * * * + +The humming of myriad voices inside the laboratory was now almost +continuous, but ever the words of Sarka went out to the Spokesmen and to +the Gens, though, save in the case of Cleric and of Dalis, he did not +speak to the Gens direct, because he did not wish in one iota to usurp +the authority of the Spokesmen themselves. + +But when less than an hour had passed, he realized that the first step +had been successfully taken, and that from now on the success or failure +of the scheme rested in his own hands. Perspiration bedewed his +forehead, and for a second he prayed. + +"God of our fathers! Grant that we be not mistaken! Grant that we be +right in what we plan! Grant that success attend our arms! Grant that +this scheme of mine lead us not to catastrophe--for if this should +develop, only I am guilty, and only I should be punished!" + +"Amen!" + +As one voice, the Spokesmen of the Gens spoke the word, and Sarka heard +it. He had forgotten for the moment that the Spokesmen still could hear +him. + +"That is all," he said huskily. "Prepare your Gens, each of you, for +such battle as even our histories never have recorded! For we go against +foemen whose strength we do not know, whose manner of life we do not +know, and we must not fail! Make haste with your preparations! Your time +is short! And Spokesmen, counsel your Gens that they put aside at once +all personal differences, all family quarrels, all quarrels with their +neighbors! That each adult individual, each unmarried woman, and such +married woman as have all their children grown, and who no longer need +them, prepare to go forth to battle! From this laboratory, within a +brief space, Dalis and the Sarkas will give you further word!" + + * * * * * + +Then he dimmed the lights, and severed contact with the Spokesmen of the +Gens. Only two lights he did not dim, at the moment, and to two men he +spoke softly. + +"My father and my father's father! Come to me at once! For there shall +be need of the combined genius of the Sarkas if my scheme is to +succeed!" + +From both Sarkas, as though they had rehearsed the words against this +need of them, came answer: + +"Aye, son, we come!" + +From that moment on until Dalis and the Sarkas were ready to take the +most momentous step ever taken in the history of the world, the humming +within the laboratory did not cease. For the people, the millions and +billions of people of the hives, were busy, eagerly and feverishly busy, +preparing new armament, new engines of destruction, against the time +when there should be need of them. And for perhaps the first time in +centuries, the people were happy. + +For not even the passage of a thousand centuries, or a thousand thousand +centuries, could flush from the warm hearts of men the love of conflict! + +Sarka smiled wanly, his face very pale. He had spoken, his people were +busy with preparations, and now there could be no turning back. The +world, when he spoke the word, would rush outward to glorious +conflict--or to destruction! + +A buzzer sounded near the Exit Dome. Sarka raced to give the "Enter" +Signal--and Dalis, he of the hawk-eyes, the sharp nose and sharper +tongue, entered the presence of the man who, in a twinkling, had made +himself master of the world. + +"Well," he said harshly, "I am here! What do you wish of me?" + +"We Sarkas," said Sarka easily, "wish to assure ourselves that you will +do nothing to obstruct our plans! Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, you are +prisoner of the Sarkas until you have passed your word!" + +"That I will never do!" said Dalis calmly. "I have passed my word to go +forward with you; but I meant, and you knew I meant, to go forward only +as far as to me seemed right and reasonable!" + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Betrayal of Dalis_ + +And until the arrival of the other two Sarkas, Dalis said nothing. His +face flushed an angry red as Sarka the First received the "Enter" Signal +and stepped into the laboratory which had once been his--which he had +delivered into the capable hands of Sarka the Second, in order to find +new channels for his genius, as a worker for the betterment of the +world's people. This he had found in organization, so that the people +worked and labored, despite their personal quarrels, in closer harmony +than they ever had before. But now Sarka the Third had called, and the +two Sarkas responded. Dalis snarled at his ancient enemy, who looked to +be the image of Sarka the Third and not one whit older, though one had +preceded the other into the world by many centuries. + +"Still the pleasant, congenial Dalis, I see!" smiled Sarka the First. + + * * * * * + +For the moment it seemed that Dalis would die there of his seething +anger; but he answered no word for all of a minute. Then: + +"This mad grandson of yours has made me a prisoner, until such time as I +concur in all his plans!" + +"If he says you are a prisoner, that you are!" snapped the elder Sarka +angrily. "Son, what is this thing you plan?" + +"For almost a century," replied Sarka, "I have been planning this. I +knew, when father told me that Dalis had sworn he was able to halt for a +moment the headlong flight of the Earth in its orbit, that Dalis did not +lie or bluff! In your day, even, that was possible, and I continued with +the knotty problem until I deduced the manner of its doing. I, too, can +halt the Earth's rotation, or throw it out of its orbit! I took your +idea, Dalis, _independently_ of you, knowing you would never reveal +your secret to a Sarka, and amplified it until I can not only halt the +Earth in its orbit, but throw it out of its orbit entirely!" + +For a moment Sarka studied the angry face of Dalis, and his own was very +thoughtful. + +"Dalis," he said at last, "I wish you were not our enemy! For you are a +genius, and the world has need of all the knowledge of such genius as it +possesses. Why do you oppose us?" + +"Because," snarled Dalis, "I guessed something of your plan that I do +not like! I do not like the Sarkas, never have; but neither have the +Sarkas any love for me! When you spoke to us all, I knew that somehow +you had discovered the secret! You spoke, when you delivered your +ultimatum, of attacking the Moon, and after it Mars! You also granted to +my Gens what would have seemed a great honor--to anyone who did not +fathom the tricky scheming of the Sarkas!--that of being the first into +the fray! If we are to be first, and the Moon is to be the first +attacked, then you plan to relieve the world forever of me, your +arch-enemy, by exiling me and all my Gens upon the Moon! A dead world, +covered with ashes, whose people dwell in dank caverns, like gnomes of +the underworld...." + + * * * * * + +"Stay!" snapped Sarka. "But I granted you a greater honor even than +that, Dalis! I planned on your Gens, led by you, making a successful +conquest of the Moon--because only such a genius as Dalis could force +from this dead world a living for his Gens! Because you are the wisest +of the Spokesmen, I planned for you the greatest task! Because I need +you ... I do not slay you!" + +"I thank you," bowing low, with the deepest sarcasm, "but you honor me +too much! And tell me, pray, if it is not true that you plan for the +Sarkas their choice of the best and newest worlds of the Universe?" + +Sarka did not answer for a second, while his sensitive nostrils quivered +with fury. The Sarkas had not noticed, but Jaska, daughter of Cleric, +had admitted herself through the Exit Dome, in a way known only to Sarka +and to herself, as she had entered many times before so as not to +disturb Sarka at his labors. She now stood silently there, divesting +herself of her Belt and outer clothing, beneath which was the golden +toga worn by all the women of the earth. Dalis, however, had seen her, +and his eyes narrowed craftily as he awaited the answer of Sarka. + +"Dalis," said Sarka softly, "it is not for you to question me, but to +obey me! I have not undertaken this step without mastering all its +details, and I refuse to allow you to swerve me in a single one of them +from my plan." + + * * * * * + +Dalis straightened, standing stiffly at savage attention, and met the +angry eyes of Sarka without flinching. There was no fear in Dalis, as +all the world knew. But he was a schemer, and selfish. + +"After all," he said, "I have known Sarkas to make promises they could +not keep! How do I know, how does the world know, that you can do what +you say you can do?" + +"If," said Sarka, "I close all contact of this laboratory with the world +outside, so that none may hear what I say save we four, and I then +whisper here the secret you never told, Dalis, when my father's father +refused to help you--will you then believe?" + +The face of Dalis went suddenly white, but he nodded, his eyes burning +redly. Jaska moved closer to the men, who stood near the table of the +vari-colored lights. + +"You needed my father's father," said Sarka softly, "because the secret +of your scheme rested here in this laboratory, which is the highest +point in the world! You pretended to need him in your scheme; but you +did not need my father's father, though you _did_ need his laboratory, +and some of the facts of science that _he_ discovered. So you came to +him with your scheme, discovered that he believed, though he denied it, +your scheme was possible--because he refused to aid you in it! Then, as +an excuse to re-enter this laboratory, you told him you would return +within two days! Now, shall I tell you your secret?" + + * * * * * + +The lips of Dalis were moving soundlessly. His right hand started to +rise, as though he would make it signal the negative he was unable for a +moment to speak. But even as he stood there, swaying slightly on his +feet, Sarka dashed to the lights on the table, disconnecting them one by +one; to the Revolving Beryl, which then ceased to revolve for the first +time in centuries--whirled when he had finished, and stepped to the very +center of the room. + +"Now," he whispered, "your secret, Dalis!" + +Still the hand upraised, still Dalis tried to speak, and could not. + +Sarka spoke, in a hoarse, almost terrified whisper, four words: + +"The Beryl! The Ovoids!" + +Gasps of surprise from the other two Sarkas, whose eyes for a second +flashed to the huge Beryl, which now was still, silent--and blind. +Dawning comprehension was evident in their faces. + +"The success of the Revolving Beryl," whispered Sarka, "which sees all +that transpires in this world, depends on one fact: that its revolving +is proportionately timed to infinite exactness with the revolution of +the Earth about its axis! This Beryl is the Master Beryl of the Earth, +which was why Dalis needed this Beryl, and could use no other!" + + * * * * * + +"Suppose that for a period of two days, uniformly progressive, this +Beryl were forced to revolve in sharp jerks at an increasing rate of +speed! With all connections in place, and all the world's Beryls attuned +to the speed of this one--what would happen? What would happen if a +single Gens were marshalled in warlike array atop the area of the Gens, +and kept up a steady, rhythmic march for a period of hours?" + +"In a few hours," whispered Sarka the First, "the roof of the Gens area +would begin to vibrate, to vibrate throughout all the area, and even +into all surrounding Gens areas--and in time the roof would collapse!" + +"Exactly!" said Sarka, breathing heavily. "This Beryl, when attuned to +all other Beryls in the world, would have this vibratory effect, not +only on a certain area of the world--but upon the entire world!--Force +the speed of the Beryls to the uttermost limit, and you sway the world +to your will! As a marching horde would sway the roof of a vast section +of the world if the horde's commander willed! + +"But that is not enough! The world would tremble, but nothing more! The +Earth's store of Ovidum, which is Anti-Gravitational, and used in minute +quantities in our Anti-Gravitational Ovoids, is evenly distributed +throughout the world. By vibration of the Beryls I can control it, +scatter it or gather it all together wherever I will! By shifting +through vibration this Anti-Gravitational material, I can disrupt, make +uneven, or nullify the pull of gravity on the Earth!" + +"That would do it," said Dalis, finding his voice at last; "but how +would you control the course the Earth would take, thus thrown out of +its orbit?" + +"That, my dear Dalis, is for the moment my secret!" + +"But is it?" Dalis suddenly shouted. + + * * * * * + +Before the three Sarkas could recover from their surprise at the man's +sudden vehemence, he made a swift, terrifying move. He leaped away from +them to stand beside Jaska, daughter of Cleric. + +"Sarka," he shrieked, "I know you love this woman! Note this little tube +I hold against her side. With it I can cause her to vanish for all time, +merely by a slight pressure of the fingers! And that will I do, unless +you immediately open all contacts with the world and remain silent while +I tell the people of Earth how you would betray them!" + +The three Sarkas were petrified with amazement and horror, for they +recognized the slender tube in the hand of Dalis as a Ray Director, the +world's greatest engine of destruction, and knew that it would do +exactly as Dalis had said it would. + +Automatically, because they were brave men, they had stepped a trifle +closer to Jaska and Dalis. Perspiration poured from their cheeks as they +stared at this rebel. But their fears were for Jaska, who now spoke for +the first time. + +"Let him do as he wills," she said smilingly, "since for the good of the +world I do not fear to die! Refuse him, Sarka, and know that I go into +Death's Darkness loving you always, and knowing that you will succeed in +the end, in spite of the opposition of men like Dalis!" + + * * * * * + +A man of unexpected actions, this Dalis, for while the attentions of the +Sarkas were on the little tableau he had staged, his eyes had darted to +the Beryl, to the control which Sarka had touched to still its +revolving. Now he sprang away from Jaska, was free of her and the Sarkas +before any could move to intercept him. + +He dashed to the Beryl. Instantly it swept into motion, while Dalis +whirled to face the Sarkas, and from his lips came a burst of triumphant +laughter. One hand was on the Beryl Control, the other still held the +Ray Director. + +"Fools!" he cried. "Fools! Duped like children! And now it is Dalis who +is master of the world! Move closer to me, and I will turn my Ray +Director upon this Beryl, which you have so kindly informed me is master +of all the Beryls and of all Ovidum deposits! Be glad that I do not turn +it upon you; but for you I have a kinder, more honorable fate! I now am +master, and will direct the destiny of the world! But I will never +leave it, because I suspect that it is the most pleasant of all the +worlds! I will, however, choose for the Sarkas a world that shall be the +dreariest in all the Universe!" + +The Sarkas whirled as soft laughter came from Jaska, daughter of Cleric. +Strange, lilting laughter. They turned in time to see her vanish through +the Exit Dome; but for a long moment her jeering laughter seemed to +sound in the laboratory she had left-and, to judge by her laughter, had +betrayed! For Dalis, arch-traitor, echoed her laughter! + + +CHAPTER VI + +_The Beryls in Tune_ + +"Remember," said Dalis, as the Beryl began to revolve and its humming +mounted moment by moment to normal, "that you must concur in whatever I +say to the people of the Earth--for if you do not, I swear that I will +destroy this Master Beryl! Then what happens to your scheme, Sarka the +Third? You see, there is no change in the plans, save one: I am the +master, not you!" + +Dalis was not a madman, for the world conceded him place in its list of +geniuses next below the three Sarkas, which was high honor indeed; but +Dalis possessed in abundance that most universal of all human +emotions--jealousy. For centuries he had been nursing it, watching the +Sarkas always in the niches just above him, yet never being able to +attain to their eminence. Now.... + +He had outwitted them. It might be for a moment only, but while his +mastery lasted he would drink deeply of personal satisfaction. Now, +however, there was no gloating in his face, for he realized, as Sarka +had realized, the infinite gravity of the whole situation. If a mistake +were made, the world would plunge to destruction--or go cooling forever +in a headlong race through space. + +"I keep the Ray Director hidden," he whispered, while the murmuring of +the Master Beryl mounted as it gained speed again, "but know you, +Sarkas, that its muzzle points at the Master Beryl, always!" + + * * * * * + +Now the forms of Earth were appearing on the Beryl. Men in countless +hordes were maneuvering in myriads, legions and armies, across the face +of the globe. There was no marching, but an effortless, swift as light +almost, aerial maneuvering. For each human being possessed the +tight-fitting metalized cloth, with the gleaming helmet in whose +skull-pan was the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid, which was the "outside" +garment of earthlings. With the Ovoid sitting exactly against the skull, +man had but to will himself in any direction, at any livable height, and +the action took place. In the same way, one man, to whom others in an +organization gave allegiance by appointment, could will all his +underlings into whatever formation he desired. + +As beautiful and effortless at the flight of those birds which had +vanished from the earth centuries before. + +"Remember, Dalis," said Sarka, "that while the speed of the Earth in its +orbit is between eighteen and nineteen miles per second, once thrown out +of its orbit, and forced to follow a straight or nearly straight line, +the speed may be many times that-or much less!" + +"The simplest facts of science," snarled Dalis, "were known to me a +thousand years before you were born! Now I shall tell the Spokesmen of +the Gens, and be sure that you second what I say!" + +He paused. Then, raising his voice impressively, he spoke. + +"O Spokesmen of the Gens, O Gens of Earth, hark ye to the words of Dalis +and of Sarka! The time has come to try the experiment of which Sarka +told you, and which I, Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, have found good, and +hereby certify! See that all your Beryls are mathematically tuned to +catch every sound, every vibration, every picture, from this Beryl of +Sarka, henceforth to be known as the Master Beryl! + + * * * * * + +"No matter what happens, no matter what changes take place in the +temperature of your homes, no matter what storms may come, touch not +your Beryls until instructed from this laboratory! Tune your Beryls, +then leave them, and hasten faster with your preparations for war! Each +Spokesman of a Gens will at once instruct the members of his Gens that +all partitions between families shall immediately be removed, outward +from a common center in each case, until one hundred families occupy a +single dwelling place. Materials from destroyed partitions shall be +carefully hoarded, and the newer and bigger areas shall become +maneuvering places for the hundred families which will occupy each given +area! + +"Facing a crisis as we are, no thought can be given to privacy, and +neighborly quarrels must be forgotten! This move is necessary because no +single dwelling place is large enough to be used as a place of +maneuver--and from now on until the command is given, maneuvers must not +be held Outside! For hark ye, O Spokesmen, O Gens of Earth, we are about +to start upon our voyage into outer space! Spokesmen, call in your +maneuvering myriads! You have five minutes!" + +In five minutes not a flying man could be seen in all the cold, stormy +outside. Dalis spoke again. + +"Tune your Beryls and remove partitions, taking care that in reducing +partitions you so estimate your stresses and strains that the roof of +the world be not endangered by weight that is unsupported, or improperly +supported! + +"Food Conservers, redouble your production and rush your transportation +of Food Capsules! + +"Mothers of men, take over the labors of your sons and your husbands! +Sisters and sweethearts of men, join the myriads in maneuvers, for you, +too, may require knowledge of fighting!" + + * * * * * + +In spite of himself, an ejaculation of admiration escaped the lips of +Sarka. Hearing it, Dalis turned to him, and a flush of pleasure tinged +his cheeks as Sarka shaped one word with his lips: + +"Excellent!" + +Then, after a pause, Sarka spoke directly to the Gens of Earth. + +"Take heed of the words of Dalis, for they are also the words of the +Sarkas!" + +Then an expression of surprise flashed across the face of Sarka as +Dalis' fingers began to move in a swift sort of pantomime--for the sign +manual he used was the secret manual of Jaska and Sarka! His heart cold +within him at this new proof of her betrayal, Sarka nevertheless noted +the words which dropped silently off the fingers of this enemy of the +Sarkas. + +"You are wise to resist no further! Together we can do much, and if you +give your word not to oppose me, we can work together; but I will be the +master!" + +"But, if we grant you the mastery, will you heed our advice if it is +good?" + +"I will, but I alone will be the judge of its worth!" + +"Then we work together henceforth. Let us begin! In the time required to +move from here to the Moon, our people will have ample opportunity to +perfect themselves in maneuvers! Are you ready, O my father, and +father's father?" + +"Ready!" they said together. + + * * * * * + +But for a moment Dalis hesitated. "Your word!" he snapped, looking at +each Sarka in turn, and each in his turn nodded. They had given their +word, but not their love, to Dalis. Dalis bowed low to Sarka the +Youngest, who darted to the onyx base in which revolved the Master +Beryl, and pressed a small lever of metalized jade, set in a slot on the +southern side of the base of onyx. The humming sound within the Beryl +became perceptibly louder, and as the minutes passed, and Sarka stood, +arms folded, watching the Revolving Beryl, it continued to increase. + +Here was the crisis, and as they watched its sure, certain approach, +they forgot their enmities, Dalis and the Sarkas, and watched the +whirling Beryl. Minute by minute its humming increased. The figures +still were plain to be seen within the Beryl, but were becoming blurred +of outline. Partitions had been removed all over the earth, increasing +the size of rooms a hundredfold, reducing their number a hundredfold. +The Gens of Earth, by hundred-families, were maneuvering under the Heads +of Hundreds. The depths of the Master Beryl, therefore, was a maze of +flying men, with their extremities slightly blurred, and becoming more +so as the Master Beryl increased its speed. + + * * * * * + +Here now was shown the value of the organization fostered by Sarka the +First--for in all the world there was no single Beryl out of tune with +the Master Beryl; and as the Master Beryl increased the speed of its +revolving, so increased at the same time the speed of all the other +Beryls. Minute by minute the humming of the Master, and with it the +others, increased in volume. + +"Father!" spoke Sarka. "To the Observatory, behind the Beryl, please, to +watch the stars, and from them to note the direction we take when the +combined vibrations of the Beryls have affected the quiescence of +Earth's deposits of Ovidum and, through its shifting, disturbed the +flight of the Earth in its orbit!" + +With a brief nod Sarka's father hurried around the Master Beryl to the +tiny Observatory beyond, from which, through the Micro-Telescopes, those +who knew could read the secrets of the planets, the stars--the Universe. +Sarka watched him go, wondering if Dalis might not forbid him. But Dalis +merely watched him go and said nothing. + + * * * * * + +Now that the time of Change was upon the world, Dalis realized his +responsibility. It was little wonder that he began to be for the first +time a little bit afraid. + +"Note, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, and Dalis started nervously as his name +was spoken. "Feel the trembling of the laboratory, just as the same +trembling affects all the other buildings in the world in which Beryls +are located. As the minutes pass the trembling will go deeper and +deeper, and by to-morrow the first tremors will be reaching into the +Earth to several miles below the last habitable Inner Level! And +then.... + +"Then," repeated Sarka tersely, "my father will know by his study of the +stars in which new direction we are traveling! For within twenty-four +hours the Earth will have started on its voyage of conquest!" + +"Is there no way, Sarka," queried Dalis, "by which we can control the +direction of our flight!" + +"There _is_ a way, O wise and gallant Dalis! But since you do not know +it, who now is master?" + +Dalis' face became as pale as chalk, and Sarka smiled a little as he +watched him. Then, wondering what new resolve stirred the depths of this +master egotist of the earth, he watched emotions flash to and fro across +the face of Dalis, watched the color return to his cheeks. The cold of +death gripped at his heart when Dalis spoke. + +"I do not fear death, O wise and gallant Sarka!" he mocked. "For I have +lived fully and well, and for many, many centuries! You know that I do +not fear to slay people of the Earth, for did I not propose to your +father's father that a flood would be beneficial to unfit earthlings? +Hear, then! Keep your secret, and I shall allow the Earth to go outward +into space, out of control, in whatever direction it will. If any other +worlds happen to lie in our pathway...." + + * * * * * + +Dalis shrugged indifferently, turning his back on Sarka, to peer again +into the depths of the Master Beryl, whose voice had risen to a vaster +murmur, whose pictures were becoming moment by moment more blurred as +time fled irrevocably into eternity. + +Sarka the First took advantage of his opportunity, and leaped at the +back of Dalis, hands extended to fasten them in the throat of his +ancient enemy. Dalis whirled, with a burst of laughter, and the muzzle +of his Ray Director covered the person of the First Sarka. In a flash +the spot where Sarka the First had been was vacant, and there was no +single sign to show that he had ever stood there! + +Silence then in the laboratory, save for the mounting murmur of the +Master Beryl! + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Outer Space_ + +"He only proved a belief I have entertained for centuries!" snarled +Dalis. "That all the male Sarkas are fools--and the females for bearing +them!" + +Sarka said nothing, but within his breast a deep hatred was forming for +Dalis. He had disliked him before, and had been amused by him; but in +the busy life of Sarka there had been no time for hatred of anyone. Busy +people had no time for hatreds. + +"You should be torn to pieces for that, Dalis!" was all he said. "We +needed my father's father in our efforts! But the loss to the world of +one super-genius cannot be balanced by slaying another--so you are safe! + +"What he could do, I can do!" snapped Dalis. + +Sarka turned away from him, seating himself beside the table of the +vari-colored lights, and his heart was heavy as lead in his breast. He +blamed Jaska for much of this, and his heart was burdened, despite her +treachery, by the fact that he loved her, always would love her. Love +was the one possession which made centuries of life desirable to men of +the Earth. For men could spend centuries in seeking a true mate, knowing +that there were other centuries still in which to enjoy her. Woman was +man's greatest boon, his excuse for living, as was man excuse for woman. +Through the centuries, when humankind remained forever young, the joy in +each other of those truly mated grew as their knowledge grew.... + + * * * * * + +And now Jaska had failed Sarka, when for half a century they had loved +each other! Why had she done it? He had given her no reason to do so. +Had there been some other reason? Why had she laughed, and left them, +after the betrayal of the Master Beryl into the hands of Dalis? + +"Before God," whispered Sarka, "I believe that you, Jaska, were playing +a game to dupe Dalis, as he played a game to dupe us!" + +Down in his heart he was not sure. But somehow, just to whisper to +himself his faith in Jaska, gave it back to him in some measure, and by +so much lightened the weight upon his heart. For now his +responsibilities were greater than they had ever been before, and he had +need of all his faculties. + +"She'll come back, or somehow communicate with me, and explain +everything," he told himself. But he refused to ponder on how Dalis the +betrayer had gained possession of the secret sign manual he had believed +known only to Jaska and himself. That, too, might be explained +satisfactorily, for Dalis was cunning. + +From the side of the laboratory opposite the Revolving Beryl came a soft +tinkling sound, like the striking of a musical bell. Sarka rose wearily, +strode to the wall, where a narrow aperture opened, in which rested Food +Capsules sufficient for one meal for three men. He smiled wryly. They +knew then, the Food Conservers deep in the earth as they were, that +Sarka the First was no more--and sent food for three men! All the world +knew, perhaps, yet no single person had raised voice in protest--or if +any had, the mounting murmur of the Beryls had drowned it out. + + * * * * * + +"Sarka!" spoke Dalis suddenly. "At what time do you estimate that the +flight of the Earth in its orbit will be materially affected?" + +"It is being affected this moment, Dalis, shifting the Ovidum store!" +said Sarka shortly. "Within twelve hours we will be in readiness to +start our journey!" + +Remaining absolutely motionless within the domed laboratory, it was now +possible to feel the ever so slight motion, not only of the laboratory, +but of the mountain crest upon which it rested. Not so much a to-and-fro +motion as a round-about motion. + +Just as the slightest sound flies outward through space endlessly, and +the slightest vibration moves outward until the end of time and of +space, Sarka knew that the vibration set up by the Beryl, slight though +it was, was already being felt at the Poles of the Earth. Not enough to +be noticed there, but existant, just the same. + +"In twelve hours the world will be fighting against this combined +vibration and Anti-Gravitational Force we are starting, and second by +second accelerating," Sarka explained to Dalis: "fighting to remain on +its pathway about the Sun! But we will win against it, and with each new +vibration, each succeeding one being more strongly felt, we will force +the Earth that much more against the _pull_ which holds it in its +orbit!" + +The laboratory was trembling. The mountain beneath it was trembling. +Both in accordance with scientific design. There was no element of +chance in it, for the mountain moved, and the laboratory on its crest +moved, as science willed. It was now difficult for Sarka to remain still +where he sat, for the trembling was exciting his heart action, and +causing the blood to rush to his cheeks, making him feverish. He rose +to his feet and began pacing the floor. + +He strode to the jade lever, moved it ahead a fraction of a fraction of +an inch, and perceptibly the murmuring of the Beryl increased, as did +the trembling of the laboratory and of the mountain. + + * * * * * + +Twelve hours later exactly, Sarka shouted a single word to Dalis. + +"Now!" + +The laboratory was swinging about in a sort of circle in a way that made +one dizzy if one remained still for the merest second. Sarka, glancing +out into the Outside, across which blew the storms of the heights, and +noting that no cracks appeared in the surface of the world's vast roof, +knew that this swaying motion had been transmitted evenly to all the +Earth, and that, so far at least, his calculations had been correct. + +But Dalis was in a cold sweat of fear, and deathly sick. The motion of +the laboratory, like the inside of a whirling top, made him ill, though +Sarka could tell that he fought against it with all his great will. + +Sarka strode to him, looked him in the eyes for a moment. Dalis looked +back, glaring defiance. + +"Are you afraid, Dalis?" he shouted, to be heard above the screaming of +the Master Beryl. + +"I am not afraid," croaked Dalis. "Has the time arrived?" + +Sarka paused, as though for dramatic effect, and raised his right hand +high, while his left hand dropped to the metalized jade lever. There +still was room in the slot in the onyx base for the lever to move +forward ever so little. + + * * * * * + +"We have reached the exact place," cried Sarka, "where the Earth can, by +pressure upon this lever, be continued on in its orbit--or forced out of +it--out into space! Which shall it be, Dalis? If I move the lever +forward we start our voyage, and may not be able to return!" + +For a moment the nostrils of Dalis quivered as though with fear. His +face was white with his illness; but out of his eyes peered the fanatic +self-confidence of the man. + +"Push it forward, O Sarka!" he managed. + +Sarka, smiling slightly, pushed the lever to its uttermost limit, still +with his right arm upraised. For full five minutes he stood thus, and +then.... + +"Now!" he shouted, bringing down his arm. "We have begun our journey +into space! Come, let us look Outside, and await the first reports from +my father!" + +The two men, forgetting again for a moment the fact of their enmity, +strode to the southern wall of the laboratory and looked out across the +roof of the world. + +"You will note, Dalis," said Sarka conversationally, "that in a matter +of hours, the roaring of the Etheric winds will possess everything! We +will have passed into the infinite reaches of Outer Space, where, if I +may make so bold as to say so, it were better if Dalis, self-named +master of the world, knew whither he was going!" + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Moon Minions Prepare_ + +"It is time," said Sarka softly, "that we who have urged the world to +forget its quarrels should forget our own. What difference who is +master, so long as success attend our efforts?" + +"Then tell me your secret of control of our flight!" snapped Dalis. + +Before Sarka could answer, however, Sarka the Second entered the +laboratory area before the Master Beryl. He looked a question at his +son, and Sarka knew that his father was asking what had become of Sarka +the First. He shrugged his shoulders, and nodded his head toward Dalis. +Sarka the Second gave no more sign of perturbation than had his son, but +deep within his eyes were signal fires of fury which centuries of +penance on the part of Dalis would not erase. But now, with Sarka the +First gone, Dalis must live. + +"We are headed," said Sarka's father softly, "in the general direction +of the Moon! If we could travel toward it in a straight line, we would +reach it, if we kept our pace of about eighteen miles per second, in +approximately four hours! But since we are out of control, I fear we +will pass it too far away for our fighters to fly across the intervening +space! Or we may be drawn against it, in planetary collision, which of +course means annihilation. We are traveling noticeably faster than while +in the earth's orbit. I am able to see something of the preparation of +Moon-men to receive us!" + + * * * * * + +Dalis turned to Sarka, and the perspiration bedewed his forehead. In +order to make this mad mission successful, he must know Sarka's secret +of control. Had he been in Sarka's place, _he_ would have kept his +secret, no matter what happened, and he believed in his heart that Sarka +would do the same. It never occurred to him that Sarka, no matter who +the master, would divulge his secret in order to save humanity from +destruction. + +"We have approximately four hours, Dalis!" Sarka prompted the betrayer. +"I need at least an hour for my experiments! Do you, knowing as you do +that I have planned all this out, know exactly what course our voyage +should take, still insist on holding the reins yourself?" + +"I agree, for this time, to listen to your advice, as I promised you!" + +"Then let me suggest that you do some of the work which I had planned +should be done by my father's father! It is time that the world's +Induction Conduits be placed in operation, in order that our people be +supplied with equable temperature from the Earth's Core, as our +temperature changes due to our position with relation to the sun! Stand +back and give me the controls!" + + * * * * * + +For a moment Dalis stared at the two Sarkas. Would they seize power the +moment he moved away from the Beryl Control? In their places he knew he +would have done it. In their places he knew he would never have +submerged self in the good of the people. But, somewhat diffidently, he +moved away. Sarka the Second returned to the Observatory, behind the +Beryl, while Sarka stopped before the table where the lights were. + +After a moment of thought-conversation with Sarka the Second in the +Observatory, he dimmed the light which connected his laboratory with the +headquarters of Klaser, in the Americas. + +"Klaser," he barked, "for the period of one second cut the speed of +every Beryl within your Gens to half its present speed!" + +"I obey, O Sarka!" came the voice of Klaser. + +"Have we changed direction?" Sarka mentally questioned his father. + +"Slightly, but we are curving away, instead of toward the Moon! Try +again!" + +Sarka dimmed the light of Cleric, who instantly made answer. + +"I am here, Sarka!" + +"Stop the Beryls of your Gens for two seconds, but be prepared to speed +them up immediately afterward, if ordered, to the speed at which they +are now revolving! Klaser, hold the speed of your Beryls as they are!" + +"I obey, O Sarka!" came the musical tones of Cleric. + +"I hear, O Sarka!" replied Klaser. + +"Now, my father," queried Sarka again, telepathically, "what direction +do we travel?" + +"We are heading in a direction which will cause us to pass the Moon at a +distance of approximately fifty thousand miles!" + +"From which point our fighters can reach the Moon in exactly two hours, +after they have passed through our atmosphere!" cried Sarka exultantly, +aloud. + +"True, son!" replied Sarka the Second, mentally. "I suggest you hold +our course steady as it is!" + + * * * * * + +The motion of the earth now was as that of a steadily falling body, and +the shifting of the Ovidum store caused by vibrations set up by the +Beryls had set the Earth on its course toward the Moon. Sarka now gave +instructions to Klaser and to Cleric to return the speed of the Beryls +to that which they had attained at the moment the journey of the Earth +had begun--thus bringing them once more into harmony with the Master +Beryl, and rendering the Ovidum static. + +Dalis re-entered the laboratory from the Wall Tube, near the Dome Exit, +by which he had passed down to the lowest Inner Level, and stared +suspiciously at the two Sarkas. He found them half-smiling their +satisfaction. + +"We pass the Moon within fifty thousand miles!" exulted Sarka. "A flight +of two hours for the Gens which attacks the Moon! Do you refuse, O +Dalis, to send your Gens against the Moon?" + +"Why not send the Gens of Gerd!" demanded Dalis. "He is the youngest of +the Spokesmen, and what better test is there for him than this?" + +"It is because he is so young that we do not wish to send him," replied +Sarka coldly. "The colonization of the Moon by Earthlings requires the +guiding genius of a Spokesman who has the experience of a Dalis--or a +Sarka, else you would now be dead!" + +"Then let it be a Sarka!" barked Dalis. + +"Who, then, will control the further flight of the Earth?" + +"You! Let your father lead my Gens against the Moon!" + +"What will your Gens say, O Dalis? That their revered Spokesman feared +to lead them in person?" + +"Enough of this squabbling," snapped Sarka the Second. "Do you not +realize that within a matter of hours, some Gens must be sent into +battle? Come with me to the Observatory, where you will be given +something beside squabbling with which to occupy your minds!" + + * * * * * + +Leaving the earth on its lonely flight through space, the three men +hurried to the Observatory, where they seated themselves before the +eye-pieces of the Micro-Telescopes, whose outer circles had been aimed +at the Moon. + +For a moment the three stared breathlessly at the surface of this dead +sister of the Earth. They noted her valleys, her craters which seemed +bottomless, and saw that even as they watched, valleys and craters +became sharper of outline, proving that they were approaching the Moon +at a tremendous speed. It seemed, too, as though they were heading +toward sure collision, though Sarka the Second had said that they would +pass the Moon at a distance of fifty thousand miles. + +"You will note activity at the very rims of the craters!" said the Elder +Sarka easily. "The craters are man-made, not volcanic, as some +scientists believe, and are shaped to converge the rays of the sun, as +our roof is created for the same purpose. But note the activity at the +rims of the craters!" + + * * * * * + +Closer the men peered, studying the rims as instructed by Sarka the +Second. All about them--and as they watched, activity became apparent on +the inner slopes of the craters--winged creatures seemed to be flying. +They looked like tiny oblate spheroids, and they were in swift action, +darting to and fro like bees which have been disturbed in their hives. + +"Those spheres are of metal," said Sarka the Second, "and they are the +fighting Aircars of the Moon-men!" + +Neither Dalis nor Sarka denied this statement, for they knew it to be +fact. It became apparent that the movement of the Aircars was not a +movement of chance, but as skillfully ordered as any maneuvers which +had, during the last few hours, been executed by any of the Gens of +Earth. That they were of metal became apparent when, through the +Micro-Telescopes, the watchers caught the glint of the sun on the +surfaces of the cars. + +Sarka did a swift mental calculation, and announced the result. + +"Those Aircars average something like four hundred feet in length, and +are doubtless filled with fighting Moon-men!" + +"That's right," said Dalis, who also had been calculating this very +thing, "but our Ray Directors will disintegrate the Aircars as easily as +my Ray Director disintegrated Sarka the First!" + + * * * * * + +"The remaining Sarkas received this statement in silence, for Dalis' +choice of a comparison had been an unhappy one, to say the least. + +"I am wondering," said Sarka, "if you, my father, and you Dalis, have +noted the peculiar appendages of the Aircars?" + +"I saw them some minutes ago," said his father moodily, "and I am almost +afraid to guess their use! If they are what I fear they are, then the +Moon-men have been expecting this attack of ours for years and years, +and have been preparing for it! If they have known, and have been +preparing, then we are facing a race of super-Beings indeed--for we have +known but little of their activities!" + +"What, then," said Dalis, "do you think is the purpose of those +appendages?" + +"Those appendages, cilia, flagella, call them whatever you wish, are +man-made tentacles, created for the purpose of seizing, crushing and +destroying--then discarding...." + +For a full two minutes the three men sat there, and horrible doubts +flooded their brains. For the conclusion was obvious. The Gens of Earth +would go into action flying, not as organizations, inside an Aircar, but +as individuals, in swarms, myriads, legions and hordes. In order to do +the utmost damage with their Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators, +they must approach within a reasonable distance--and the picture of +those mighty tentacles, hurled like leashed lightning bolts into the +midst of the attackers, folding in individuals by scores and hundreds, +crushing them and dropping them contemptuously, was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate! + + * * * * * + +It was difficult to estimate the possible speed of the Aircars of the +Moon-men, at least at this distance. Besides, perhaps not a single one +of them was traveling at top speed, because of the fact of their crowded +traffic. + +This thought passed through the minds of the three men. + +"But we'll know," said Sarka dully, "when they get into action. For if I +am not mistaken, those Aircars are being mustered on the rims of those +craters to await orders, not to resist our attack, but to launch their +own attack before we are ready! Dalis, are you going to allow your Gens +to go into action against these Outsiders, without the inspiration of +your personal leadership?" + +The nostrils of Dalis were quivering with the intensity of his emotion. +His vast egotism told him that he, Dalis, could successfully combat +these Aircars of the Moon-men, and he wished with all his heart to issue +the orders to his Gens. But, vain as he was, he did not even wish to +have the appearance of acceding to the original plan of Sarka! Sarka had +planned for Dalis to attack the dwellers of the Moon, and Dalis had +refused. Now, when this challenge of the Aircars was a direct challenge +to his genius as a potential warlord of earth and he wished to accept +the challenge, he was torn two ways. + +Should he go ahead under the common leadership of the Sarkas? Or should +he still refuse battle--and perhaps see some lesser Spokesman go forth +to win glory and imperishable renown to himself? + + * * * * * + +A thought message, a command almost, impinged on the brains of the +three. + +"I wish to speak with you aloud!" The message was from Jaska! + +The three men rose and darted into the room of the Master Beryl. They +had no sooner entered than the clear voice of Jaska sounded in the +laboratory. + +"Sarka, I am no traitor! I am Jaska, who loves you! I am in the +headquarters of Dalis at Ohi, and the Gens of Dalis has indicated its +allegiance to me, having been informed by me that it is the wish of +Dalis, whose presence is needed at the place of the Master Beryl! +Command us, O Sarka, for we are ready to attack!" + +There the voice ended, while the two Sarkas turned again to face Dalis. + +Sarka now was glad that Dalis knew the secret sign manual, and his +fingers worked swiftly as he spoke to the rebel. + +"Will you, then, Dalis, allow your Gens to be led to glory by a woman? A +woman, moreover, who has duped you?" + +"The woman is a fool!" said Dalis. "She will lead the Gens to +destruction!" + +"Who, then, will be blamed if she does? Your Gens believe she is their +new Spokesman at your wish! If they are told otherwise, they will think +that Dalis himself is afraid to lead them!" + +"We shall see," said Dalis, "if I could win honor by leading my Gens in +a successful attack against the Moon-men, how much greater will be my +glory if Jaska attacks, is repulsed--and I go in to turn defeat into +victory!" + +Thus spake the colossal selfishness of Dalis, who took no thought of the +possible, nay, certain, loss of countless lives because of his +obstinancy. + +"I suggest," he said, "that you instruct your beloved Jaska to make +ready; for if I am not mistaken, when we return to the Observatory we +will discover that the Aircars of the Moon-men have left their craters +and are racing outward from the Moon to meet us! Or perhaps you would +lead my Gens, to safeguard Jaska!" + + +CHAPTER IX + +_The Attack of the Yellow Stars_ + +"Why should I safeguard Jaska?" asked Sarka quietly. "She is a true +daughter of Cleric! If Cleric does not fear for her to be Spokesman of a +Gens, why should I? He is her father. If she wins, the more glory will +be hers! If she loses, she will at least have tried!" + +"Meaning," snarled Dalis, "that I have refused even to try!" + +Sarka shrugged expressively, and the three stepped once more into the +Observatory, took their places before the Micro-Telescopes. For a moment +they could not see the outline of the Moon, for during their brief +sojourn in the laboratory the Moon seemed to have disintegrated, flying +into countless spheroidal pieces. + +"You see?" said Dalis. "The Moon-men do not wait for us! They attack!" + +It was all too true that the Aircars which had been mustered at the rims +of the Moon's craters had been hurled outward into space, outward toward +the on-rushing Earth, and the myriad numbers of them for a time shut out +all view of the surface of the Moon. + +"God!" spoke Sarka, and it was like a prayer. His cheeks were pale as +death, for in a moment he would speak the word which would send the Gens +of Dalis, under the leadership of Jaska, out against these formidable +Aircars of the Moon-men, and the appearance of the on-rushing cars was +terrifying. That their flying radius, outward, was a great one, was +manifest by the fact that the Earth would not for another hour reach its +closest estimated point with the Moon. + + * * * * * + +Sarka, exchanging glances with his father, rose and stepped again into +the laboratory. Even as he entered the room of the Master Beryl, +Jaska's broken signal came through. + +"I am ready, Sarka!" came her soft voice, vibrant with confidence. "The +Gens is ready, and the Gens believes in me!" + +For a moment Sarka hesitated before taking the plunge. Then he spoke the +fatal words. + +"Go, Jaska, and my love goes with you!" + +As the Earth approached closer to the Moon, the revolving of the Beryls +had been decreased, so that the motion of the Master Beryl was almost +normal--normal being that speed with which it revolved when it was +necessary to use it for visual contact with the people of the Earth. + +Out of the area of the Gens of Dalis darted the green specks which were +the flying people of Dalis! Sarka, staring in among them, focussing the +Beryl-microscope, sought for some way of identifying Jaska, who led +them. A thrill coursed through him when he made her out, +unmistakably--dressed still in the tight white clothing of her own Gens, +with the Red Lily of the house of Cleric on her breast and on her back! +The daughter of Cleric was leading the Gens of Dalis into combat under +her own colors and her father's insignia! + + * * * * * + +Sarka raced back to the Observatory, seated himself again to watch the +attack, which must of necessity be joined within a matter almost of +minutes. Those myriads of Aircars flying outward from the Moon, had +seemed invincible; but up until now he had never seen an entire Gens +mustered at one time. His whole being thrilled with the awesome grandeur +of the spectacle; it seemed that not an able-bodied individual of the +Gens of Dalis had failed to answer the muster of the Gens. + +Millions upon millions of people, taking off the icy roof of that part +of the Earth lying between Ohi and the North Pole, from the heart of +what had once been part of the Pacific Ocean. + +So many of them were there that when they were free of the Earth, +flashing outward at two thousand miles an hour, it was impossible to see +the Moon or those formidable Aircars--and still, out of the heart of the +area of the Gens of Dalis, came other myriads, each flight waiting only +for the preceding flight to clear! + +The green, tight fitting clothing of the Gens of Dalis, each individual +wearing the yellow star of the Spokesman of the Gens! A marvelous, +awe-inspiring sight! + +And this was but a single area, and the earth was divided into twelve +such areas, some smaller, none larger, which showed Sarka for the first +time a hint of the mighty man-power, and fighting woman-power which he +controlled. However, once free of the Earth, conduct of the fight would +be in the hands of the Spokesman--Jaska, acting for Dalis. + + * * * * * + +Sarka turned to Dalis, his eyes flashing. + +"Does it not thrill you, O Dalis?" he demanded. "Do you not wish now +that you had gone out with your people as their leader?" + +"They follow Jaska like sheep," he stated with a snort. "But wait! My +Gens seem invincible, because it bulks between us and the Aircars of the +Moon-Dwellers! Wait, see how the battle goes! The Gens may yet have need +of Dalis!" + +Sarka studied those outgoing hosts, which were dwindling away to mere +specks with vast speed, for through the cordons and cordons of them he +could now see the Aircars more plainly. It was still possible, when one +looked through the Micro-Telescopes, to see the slim figure of Jaska +leading the attack. She was in the vanguard of the Gens of Dalis leading +her people onward as though she had been born to command--utterly +fearless. + +"And I was small enough," whispered Sarka, "to doubt you! I even told +you that I doubted you! Forgive me, Jaska! Forgive me!" + +And still, as Level after Level gave up its myriads, the Gens of Dalis +shot forth from the Gens area, and winged away, following the lead of +Jaska. Millions of people, armed with Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators. How tiny the individuals seemed, against the mighty bulk +of those Aircars of the Moon! + +But Sarka did not fear, save for the safety of Jaska, as he was +realizing anew that he had scarcely skimmed the surface of the man-might +of the Earth. + + * * * * * + +Now, seen through the myriads of the Dalis Gens, he could see again the +on-rushing Aircars, and his heart misgave him for a moment as he could +tell, by estimation, that at least a hundred families were outlined +against each individual car, which moment by moment grew larger. + +Those tentacles were now much in evidence, rising and falling under and +around the racing Aircars like serpents, or dragging ropes; but seeming +like living things in the sentient manner of their moving--eager to come +in contact with the first of the earthlings, and to wrap those tentacles +about them, crush them, hurl them into space. + +Sarka went back into the laboratory only long enough to attune the +Beryls of the Earth to a point where the Earth would remain almost +stationary, comparatively speaking, taking a curving course about the +surface of the Moon, as it had for countless millions of years coursed +about the Sun. + +Then, back to the Observatory, to see how went the battle. Through the +Micro-Telescopes the first meeting was plain to be seen. The Gens of +Dalis rushed headlong to meet the Aircars and many of them rushed +headlong to their destruction. + +Sarka noted a group of perhaps a hundred people break forth from the +vanguard of the attackers, and mount to a safe height above the Aircars +against which the Gens were hurling themselves. A sigh of relief escaped +him, and he wished there were some way in which he could learn the +individual identities of the ninety and nine who had taken Jaska +forcibly out of danger! For her white clothing, and her Red Lily of +Cleric were plainly visible and recognizable! The men of the Gens of +Dalis might permit the leadership of a woman, but they would not permit +her to be needlessly endangered. + + * * * * * + +Sarka turned to Dalis, and noted that the face of the master egotist was +pale and drawn, his nostrils quivering with emotion, as he watched his +Gens go into battle, and a feeling of satisfaction coursed through Sarka +like a little white flame. Dalis was proud of his Gens, and now was +wishing that he, and not Jaska, were leading them onward. + +"I would wager something," whispered Sarka to himself, "that Dalis will +not be able to stand it! That before battle has been joined for ten +minutes, he will have gone out to take over the leadership of the Gens! +Jaska must have guessed that, too! Wise, clever Jaska!" + +With a fearless massing of forces, the people of the yellow stars joined +battle with the Aircars! The manner of men who flew the Aircars was +still unknown to the people of Earth. + +But in a trice they would know. + +In a matter of minutes Earth would realize the horror of what faced the +Gens of Dalis, whom Jaska led! + +For with the sending out of their Aircars the Moon-men had given but the +merest hint of their ponderous, devastating might! + + +CHAPTER X + +_Tentacles of Terror_ + +Dalis had always been a stormy petrel, but as he sat before his +Micro-Telescope, watching his Gens go into battle against the Moon-men, +not even Sarka the Second guessed the depth of infamy of which Dalis +was capable. + +Dalis had given a hint, but Sarka had, in his sudden realization of the +fact that Jaska really loved him, and was no traitor, forgotten that +hint. How had Dalis learned the secret sign-manual of Jaska and Sarka? +Therein lay the hint. + +Dalis, in common with all other Earth's scientists, possessed the +ability to think deeply, yet to so mask his thoughts that no one else +could grasp them telepathically--and it was well for the peace of mind +of the Sarkas that they could not read the black thought of the man, or +look into the future, even so far as a dozen years. + +The Gens of the yellow stars moved into contact with the Aircars of the +Moon. Earth and Moon were gripped in the horror of war, the war between +worlds, where no quarter might be asked or given, because fought between +alien peoples who did not so much as comprehend each other's languages, +or even their signals. + +The people of the Gens swarmed about the Aircars like myriad swarms of +angry bees, but it was only to Dalis that this simile came, for only +Dalis, of these three, had ever seen a swarm of bees. + + * * * * * + +Sweeping in closely, the Gens brought forth from their resting places in +their Sarka-Belts their Ray Directors and their Atom-Disintegrators, and +turned the blighting rays of them against the gleaming, ice-colored +sides of the aerial monsters. + +But even as the Gens brought their instruments of destruction into play, +the mighty tentacles of the first hundred Aircars had got into action. +Down they whirled to catch at the flying bodies of the pigmylike +individuals of the Gens, and hundreds of Earthlings were caught in those +tentacles in the first moment of conflict. + +Sarka studied the reaction of the people, thus captured. He could see +the expressions of unutterable agony on their faces, could see their +cheeks turn black with--what? There was no way of knowing; but all sorts +of guesses were possible. Those tentacles, from their action upon the +human beings which they encompassed, might be charged with electricity. +For the people they captured turned black, then shriveled slowly--and +were released by the tentacles.... + +They fell sluggishly away, through the great space which yet separated +the Earth and the Moon. But the people who fell, fell aimlessly, going +neither toward the Earth or the Moon, like black feathers in a vagrant +breeze. + +"Great God, do you see father?" cried Sarka. "The--whatever it is--that +turns our people into cinders and drops them, has no effect on the +Anti-Gravitational Ovoids in the skull-pans of the helmets, and without +mental direction, the Ovoids neither rise nor fall but wander aimlessly! + +"See? As the fight continues, those who still live, as they dart here +and there through the battle area, will be confronted continually by the +blackened faces and shriveled figures of their departed friends, +relatives and neighbors, and will see at first hand what will happen to +themselves if they are caught by the tentacles!" + + * * * * * + +From the lips of Dalis came one single burst of laughter, filled with +bitterness. No other word came from his lips, no other sign. He merely +sat and stared, and masked his hell-black thoughts so that neither of +the Sarkas might read them. But in the fertile mind of Dalis a plan was +being born--a plan that, he knew, had always been growing back in his +mental depths, somewhere, down the centuries, since first he had become +an enemy of the Sarkas. The Sarkas ruled the Earth, and.... + +But he would spring his surprise when he believed the time right, for +Dalis possessed a faculty which neither of the Sarkas possessed--an +example of it being his incomprehensible knowledge of the secret code +of moving fingers used by Sarka and Jaska. + +The Gens of Dalis drew back in consternation at this wholesale taking +off of the first line of attack. Out of that first line, comprising +perhaps a thousand families, scarcely a hundred had escaped the groping +of those mighty tentacles of the Aircars--and the black, shriveled +things which had been men floated all about the Aircars which had +destroyed them, warnings to those who followed them into the fray. Those +who had somehow escaped the wrath of the tentacles in the first +engagement fled back into the heart of the next line of sky-skirmishers, +fear and horror in their faces. + +Here, answering to the will of Jaska, a mile or so above the heart of +the conflict, they reformed with their people, and prepared again to +attack. But how to attack these formidable Aircars successfully? + + * * * * * + +That was the question. Ray Directors had been turned against them, but +something was decidedly wrong. The first car to feel the blast of even +one of those Ray Directors should have vanished, become as nothing, as +had the body of Sarka the First before the Ray Director of Dalis. + +But apparently nothing had happened. Why? + +Grimly Dalis and the two remaining Sarkas pondered the problem, +wondering at the same time what Jaska would now do, how reform her Gens, +how send it again to an attack that seemed hopeless. + +"There they go again!" whispered Sarka. + +The first two myriads of the Gens of Dalis had now crowded together +until they formed a veritable cloud which masked, for a moment, the +Aircars of the Moon. Then, as one person, answering to the will of +Jaska, they swept in to the attack again. + +But as they approached the Aircars, they divided four ways--up, down, +to right and to left, and smashed into the Aircars from four directions +at once. Jaska, knowing that countless lives must be lost to destroy +these monsters of the Moon, was trying to down them by mass attack, +hoping that, while the inner groups gave their lives, those who followed +after them would get in close enough to use their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators. + +"She is wasting lives to no avail!" cried Dalis. "There is a way to beat +these people!" + +"It is really your responsibility, O Dalis!" snapped Sarka. "Why do you +not go out and lead your Gens? If you know, why remain here and watch +the destruction of all the people of your Gens?" + +"You know why our Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators do not work, or +work but poorly? Because our fighters are within the gravitational pull +of the Moon, instead of the Earth, and machines which work perfectly on +Earth are thrown out of balance when under the influence of the Moon!" + +"Then," cried Sarka, "we must sweep in close enough to our people...." + + * * * * * + +Without waiting to say another word, for thousands of men were dying +each breath-space, Sarka raced into the laboratory and gave the signal +to race up the speed of the Beryls, to attune them with the increasing +speed of the Master Beryl, whose jade lever now was set at the halfway +mark in the onyx slot. + +When he returned to the Observatory, Dalis was gone, and Sarka the +Second sat alone. + +"I knew he would go," said Sarka, "for he cannot endure to see someone +else take credit for winning this first victory--if it is even possible +to win it! I knew that, vain though he is, Dalis is yet a man!" + +"I am not so sure of that, son!" replied the Elder Sarka. "For I have +known him longer than you have! There's something else in that brain of +his which takes no thought of the death of people of his Gens--or for +the betterment of the other people of the Earth! I wonder...." + +But even as he spoke, Dalis was away, flying free and fast toward the +scene of battle. In a few minutes his will would be felt by his Gens, +and Jaska could return again. Sarka sought for her. She was still safe, +high above the battle. Thousands and thousands of those shriveled things +now floated in the space about the cars, above them, below them, +everywhere. But the Gens of Dalis had at last caused some trouble to the +Aircars of the Moon. + +A hundred of them, like stricken birds, were falling downward toward the +Moon, great holes torn in their sides. But as they fell, their +tentacles, which whipped here and there like snakes in their +death-throes, carried with them their full capacity in people of the +Gens of Dalis! + + * * * * * + +With the partial destruction of the Aircars which were falling, the +force that actuated the death-dealing of those tentacles seemed to have +gone out of them. For the people now held in the grip of the mighty +tentacles were still alive! Their squirmings could be plainly seen, and +their cries could have been heard, had it not been that the noise of +battle drowned out all other sounds. + +A hundred Aircars falling, and the men and fighting women of the Gens of +Dalis, with new courage in them now they realized that the Aircars were +not entirely invincible, renewed the attack with savage vigor. + +Taking no thought of the death which must surely come to them, they +circled and pressed the Aircars; and when the tentacles caught at some +of them, others climbed to the very body of the Aircars, over the +shriveling bodies of the dying, and turned their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators against the gray sides of the monsters. + +Even before Dalis had reached the vanguard of his Gens another hundred +Aircars were falling, each with its tentacles wrapped tightly about such +of the earthlings as they could grasp. Falling ... falling ... still +living, plunging down. + +Now Dalis had reached the scene of the fray, and was assuming command. + +As he did so a single white-robed figure, life-size when seen through +the Micro-Telescopes, darted out of the fray and headed at top speed for +the dwelling place of Sarka. Jaska, relieved, was returning home! + +But though Jaska flew at top speed, she did not seem to grow larger, or +draw nearer to the Earth! + + * * * * * + +Out of the ruck of the defenders of the Moon, a single Aircar, whose +gleaming gray side was marked with queer crimson splashes, broke free to +pursue Jaska! + +She fled at top speed, yet the Aircar was gaining, proof that the Moon +had developed speed greater than Earth had attained. + +"But why," queried Sarka, "does she draw no nearer?" + +"Great God!" ejaculated Sarka the Second, after a brief examination of +certain chartographs beside his Micro-Telescope. "We are moving away +from the Moon! Something is forcing us away! The people of the Moon have +something whose nature we do not know, capable of forcing them away from +us--while they pull our people toward them! You see? If they pulled us +toward them, we could overthrow them, for we outnumber them perhaps +thousands to one; but if they force themselves away faster than the Gens +of Dalis, if defeated, can follow us, they can destroy, or capture, the +Gens at their leisure!" + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, out of the Earth, past the all-seeing eyes of the +Micro-Telescopes, swept a new myriad. Men in white, wearing the Red Lily +of the House of Cleric! Cleric was sending out men to rescue Jaska from +the Aircar which pursued her! But would Jaska or these who went forth +to fetch her ever be able again to attain landing place upon the Earth! + +It looked doubtful. + +Even as Sarka asked himself this question fresh Aircars shot from the +rims of Moon craters, rushing outward to add their weight in the battle +against the Gens of Dalis. The Gens of Dalis was doomed! + +In the mind of Sarka the Second there still loomed a hellish doubt that +would not down. + +The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska now, protecting her with their +lives against the tentacles of that lone Aircar splashed with +crimson--and all were flying a losing race with the Earth, which was +still being forced outward from the Moon! + + * * * * * + + _IN THE NEXT ISSUE_ + + + ON THE PLANET OF DREAD + + _An Exciting Interplanetary Story_ + + By R. F. Starzl + + + EARTH, THE MARAUDER + + _Part Two of the Thrilling Novel_ + + By Arthur J. Burks + + + THE FLYING CITY + + _A Novelet Concerning an + Amazing Aerial Metropolis_ + + By H. Thompson Rich + + + MURDER MADNESS + + _The Conclusion of the + Gripping Continued Novel_ + + By Murray Leinster + + ----And Others! + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: Marable, in a desperate frenzy, hacked at the reptile's +awful head.] + + + + +From An Amber Block + +_By Tom Curry_ + + +"These should prove especially valuable and interesting without a doubt, +Marable," said the tall, slightly stooped man. He waved a long hand +toward the masses of yellow brown which filled the floor of the spacious +workrooms, towering almost to the skylights, high above their heads. + +[Sidenote: A giant amber block at last gives up its living, ravenous +prey.] + +"Is that coal in the biggest one with the dark center?" asked an +attractive young woman who stood beside the elder of the men. + +"I am inclined to believe it will prove to be some sort of black +liquid," said Marable, a big man of thirty-five. + +There were other people about the immense rooms, the laboratories of the +famous Museum of Natural History. Light streamed in from the skylights +and windows; fossils of all kinds, some immense in size, were +distributed about. Skilled specialists were chipping away at matrices +other artists were reconstructing, doing a thousand things necessary to +the work. + +A hum of low talking, accompanied by the irregular tapping of chisels +on stone, came to their ears, though they took no heed of this, since +they worked here day after day, and it was but the usual sound of the +paleontologists' laboratory. + +Marable threw back his blond head. He glanced again toward the dark +haired, blue eyed young woman, but when he caught her eye, he looked +away and spoke to her father, Professor Young. + +"I think that big one will turn out to be the largest single piece of +amber ever mined," he said. "There were many difficulties in getting it +out, for the workmen seemed afraid of it, did not want to handle it for +some silly reason or other." + + * * * * * + +Professor Young, curator, was an expert in his line, but young Marable +had charge of these particular fossil blocks, the amber being pure +because it was mixed with lignite. The particular block which held the +interest of the three was a huge yellow brown mass of irregular shape. +Vaguely, through the outer shell of impure amber, could be seen the +heart of ink. The chunk weighed many tons, and its crate had just been +removed by some workmen and was being taken away, piece by piece. + +The three gazed at the immense mass, which filled the greater part of +one end of the laboratory and towered almost to the skylights. It was a +small mountain, compared to the size of the room, and in this case the +mountain had come to man. + +"Miss Betty, I think we had better begin by drawing a rough sketch of +the block," said Marable. + +Betty Young, daughter of the curator, nodded. She was working as +assistant and secretary to Marable. + +"Well--what do you think of them?" + +The voice behind them caused them to turn, and they looked into the face +of Andrew Leffler, the millionaire paleontologist, whose wealth and +interest in the museum had made it possible for the institution to +acquire the amber. + + * * * * * + +Leffler, a keen, quick moving little man, whose chin was decorated with +a white Van Dyke beard, was very proud of the new acquisition. + +"Everybody is talking about the big one," he continued, putting his hand +on Marable's shoulder. "Orling is coming to see, and many others. As I +told you, the workmen who handled it feared the big one. There were +rumors about some unknown devil which lay hidden in the inklike +substance, caught there like the proverbial fly in the amber. Well, let +us hope there is something good in there, something that will make worth +while all our effort." + +Leffler wandered away, to speak to others who inspected the amber +blocks. + +"Superstition is curious, isn't it?" said Marable. "How can anyone think +that a fossil creature, penned in such a cell for thousands and +thousands of years, could do any harm?" + +Professor Young shrugged. "It is just as you say. Superstition is not +reasonable. These amber blocks were mined in the Manchurian lignite +deposits by Chinese coolies under Japanese masters. They believe +anything, the coolies. I remember working once with a crew of them that +thought--" + +The professor stopped suddenly, for his daughter had uttered a little +cry of alarm. He felt her hand upon his arm, and turned toward her. + +"What is it, dear?" he asked. + +She was pointing toward the biggest amber block, and her eyes were wide +open and showed she had seen something, or imagined that she had seen +something, that frightened her. + + * * * * * + +Professor Young followed the direction of her finger. He saw that she +was staring at the black heart of the amber block; but when he looked he +could see nothing but the vague, irregular outline of the inky +substance. + +"What is it, dear?" asked Young again. + +"I--I thought I saw it looking out, eyes that stared at us--" + +The girl broke off, laughed shortly, and added, "I suppose it was Mr. +Leffler's talking. There's nothing there now." + +"Probably the Manchurian devil shows itself only to you," said her +father jokingly. "Well, be careful, dear. If it takes a notion to jump +out at you, call me and I'll exorcise it for you." + +Betty blushed and laughed again. She looked at Marable, expecting to see +a smile of derision on the young man's face, but his expression was +grave. + +The light from above was diminishing; outside sounded the roar of +home-going traffic. + +"Well, we must go home," said Professor Young. "There's a hard and +interesting day ahead of us to-morrow, and I want to read Orling's new +work on matrices before we begin chipping at the amber." + +Young turned on his heel and strode toward the locker at the end of the +room where he kept his coat and hat. Betty, about to follow him, was +aware of a hand on her arm, and she turned to find Marable staring at +her. + +"I saw them, too," he whispered. "Could it have been just imagination? +Was it some refraction of the light?" + + * * * * * + +The girl paled. "I--I don't know," she replied, in a low voice. "I +thought I saw two terrible eyes glaring at me from the inky heart. But +when father laughed at me, I was ashamed of myself and thought it was +just my fancy." + +"The center is liquid, I'm sure," said Marable. "We will find that out +soon enough, when we get started." + +"Anyway, you must be careful, and so must father," declared the girl. + +She looked at the block again, as it towered there above them, as though +she expected it to open and the monster of the coolies' imagination leap +out. + +"Come along, Betty," called her father. + +She realized then that Marable was holding her hand. She pulled away and +went to join her father. + +It was slow work, chipping away the matrix. Only a bit at a time could +be cut into, for they came upon many insects imbedded in the amber. +These small creatures proved intensely interesting to the +paleontologists, for some were new to science and had to be carefully +preserved for study later on. + +Marable and her father labored all day. Betty, aiding them, was +obviously nervous. She kept begging her father to take care, and +finally, when he stopped work and asked her what ailed her, she could +not tell him. + +"Be careful," she said, again and again. + + * * * * * + +Her father realized that she was afraid of the amber block, and he poked +fun at her ceaselessly. Marable said nothing. + +"It's getting much softer, now the outside shell is pierced," said +Young, late in the day. + +"Yes," said Marable, pausing in his work of chipping away a portion of +matrix. "Soon we will strike the heart, and then we will find out +whether we are right about it being liquid. We must make some +preparations for catching it, if it proves to be so." + +The light was fading. Outside, it was cold, but the laboratories were +well heated by steam. Close by where they worked was a radiator, so that +they had been kept warm all day. + +Most of the workers in the room were making ready to leave. Young and +Marable, loath to leave such interesting material, put down their +chisels last of all. Throughout the day various scientific visitors had +interrupted them to inspect the immense amber block, and hear the +history of it. + +All day, Betty Young had stared fascinatedly at the inky center. + +"I think it must have been imagination," she whispered to Marable, when +Young had gone to don his coat and hat. "I saw nothing to-day." + +"Nor did I," confessed Marable. "But I thought I heard dull scrapings +inside the block. My brain tells me I'm an imaginative fool, that +nothing could be alive inside there, but just the same, I keep thinking +about those eyes we thought we saw. It shows how far the imagination +will take one." + +"It's getting dark, Betty," said her father. "Better not stay here in +the shadows or the devil will get you. I wonder if it will be Chinese or +up-to-date American!" + + * * * * * + +The girl laughed, said good night to Marable, and followed her father +from the laboratory. As they crossed the threshold a stout, red-faced +man in a gray uniform, a watchman's clock hanging at his side, raised +his hat and smiled at the young woman and her father. + +"Hello, Rooney," cried Betty. + +"How d'ye do, Miss Young! Stayin' late this evenin'?" + +"No, we're leaving now, Rooney. Good night." + +"G' night, Miss Young. Sleep happy." + +"Thanks, Rooney." + +The old night watchman was a jolly fellow, and everybody liked him. He +was very fond of Betty, and the young woman always passed a pleasant +word with him. + +Rooney entered the room where the amber blocks were. The girl walked +with her father down the long corridor. She heard Marable's step behind +them. + +"Wait for me a moment, father," she said. + +She went back, smiling at Marable as she passed him, and entered the +door, but remained in the portal and called to Rooney, who was down the +laboratory. + +He came hurrying to her side at her nervous hail. + +"What is it, ma'am?" asked Rooney. + +"You'll be careful, won't you, Rooney?" she asked in a low voice. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm always careful. Nobody can get in to harm anything +while Rooney's about." + +"I don't mean that. I want you to be careful yourself, when you're in +this room to-night." + +"Why, miss, what is there to be wary of? Nothin' but some funny lookin' +stones, far as I can see." + + * * * * * + +The young woman was embarrassed by her own impalpable fears, and she +took leave of Rooney and rejoined her father, determined to overcome +them and dismiss them from her mind. + +All the way home and during their evening meal and afterwards, Professor +Young poked fun at Betty. She took it good-naturedly, and laughed to see +her father in such fine humor. Professor Young was a widower, and Betty +was housekeeper in their flat; though a maid did the cooking for them +and cleaned the rooms, the young woman planned the meals and saw to it +that everything was homelike for them. + +After a pleasant evening together, reading, and discussing the new +additions to the collection, they went to bed. + +Betty Young slept fitfully. She was harassed by dreams, dreams of huge +eyes that came closer and closer to her, that at last seemed to engulf +her. + +She awakened finally from a nap, and started up in her bed. The sun was +up, but the clock on the bureau said it was only seven o'clock, too +early to arise for the day's work. But then the sound of the telephone +bell ringing in the hall caused her to get up and don her slippers and +dressing gown and hurry out into the living room. + + * * * * * + +Before she reached the phone, however, she heard her father's voice +answering. + +"Hello.... Yes, speaking. Good morning, Smythe." + +Smythe was the janitor of the museum. Betty, standing behind her father, +wondered what he could want that he should phone so early in the +morning. Her father's next words sent a thrill of fright through her +heart. + +"My God! I--I can't believe it!" cried Young. "Is he dead?" + +There was a pause; Betty caught the sound of the excited Smythe's tones +through the receiver. + +"Who--who is it?" she whispered, clasping her parent's arm. + +"I'll be right down, yes." + +Young hung up, turned to his daughter. His face was sad, heavily lined +with shadows of sorrow. + +"Dear, there's been a tragedy at the museum during the night. Poor +Rooney has been murdered--at least so they believe--and Smythe, who +found him, wants me to come down and see if anything has been stolen. I +must go at once. The body is in our laboratory." + +"Rooney? Ah, poor fellow." + +The girl wept a little, but braced herself to assist her father. + +"I'm going with you," she said. + +"No, no. You'd better remain here: you can come along later," said +Young. "I don't like to have you see such sights, dear. It wouldn't be +good for you." + +"I'll be all right. I promise you I will." + +She insisted and he was forced to let her accompany him to the museum. +They hailed a cab and were soon at the door. The elevator took them to +the top floor, and swiftly they passed along the corridors and came to +the portal which led into the rooms where the amber blocks were. + + * * * * * + +Smythe greeted them, a worried look on his seamed face. "I've sent for +an ambulance, Professor," he said. + +Young nodded, brushed past him, and entered the laboratory. In the +morning light the amber blocks had taken on a reddish tinge. Now, they +seemed to oppress the young woman, who had bravely remained at her +father's side as he walked quickly to the base of the biggest block. + +A vague shape lay in the shadows between the wall and the largest amber +mass. Professor Young bent over the body of Rooney, and felt the pulse. + +"He's been dead some time," he said. + +She nodded, stricken to the heart by this terrible end of her old friend +Rooney. + +"There's nothing we can do for him, now," went on her father soberly. +"It looks as though he had been set upon and stabbed time after time by +his assailant or assailants, whoever they were." + +"How--how pale he is," said Betty. "Poor Rooney was so jolly and +red-faced, but his skin is like chalk." + +"And he's shrunken, too. It seems there's no blood left in his veins," +said her father. + + * * * * * + +Marable, who had been called also, came in then and aided in the +examination. He said good morning to Betty and her father, and then went +to bend over Rooney's body. + +"See the look of abject terror on his face," Betty heard Marable say to +her father as the two examined the corpse. "He must have been very much +afraid of whoever killed him." + +"They beat him up frightfully," said Young. "There must have been +several of the assassins; it would take more than one man to do such +damage." + +"Yes. His ribs are crushed in--see, this gash, Professor, would be +enough to cause death without any of the other wounds." + +Betty Young could not take her eyes from the ghastly sight. She steeled +herself to bear it, and prayed for strength that she should not faint +and cause her father trouble. She could see the two men examining a +large blistered area under the corpse's armpit, in the center of which +was a sharp vertical slit which had without doubt punctured the artery +near the surface of the axilla. Perhaps it had pierced even to the +heart. + +"Bloodless," exclaimed Marable, noticing the same thing as her father +had spoken of. "It is as if the blood had been pumped out of his body!" + +"Yes, I think it has drained out." + +"There is not much of a pool here where he lies, though," said Marable, +in a low voice. "See, there are only splotches about, from various cuts +he received." + +"Maybe he was dragged here from another room," said Young. "When the +others come, we will soon know if anything is missing. It seems that men +desperate enough to commit such a murder would not leave without trying +to get what they came after. Unless, of course, the killing of Rooney +frightened them away before they could get their booty." + + * * * * * + +Smythe approached the group, with a physician in tow. The latter +confirmed the facts which Marable and Young had found: that Rooney had +been killed by the deep gash near the heart and that most of the blood +was drained from the body. + +"They seem like the slashes from an extremely sharp and large razor," +said the medical man. + +Others were coming in to look at Rooney, and the museum was buzzing with +activity as various curators, alarmed about the safety of their valuable +collections, feverishly examined their charges. + +"He punched his clock in here at two A.M.," said Smythe. "I seen that. +It's the last time he'll ever do his duty, poor feller." + +"Curious odor," said the doctor, sniffing. "It smells like musk, but is +fetid. I suppose it's some chemical you use." + +"I noticed that, too," said Professor Young. "I don't recognize it, +myself." + +Marable, who had been looking at the floor between the great block of +amber and the body, uttered an exclamation which caused the two men to +look up. + +"There are wavy lines leading around back of the block," said Marable, +in answer to their questions. + +The young man disappeared behind the block, and then he called to them +excitedly to join him. Betty Young pressed closer, and finally slipped +past the corpse and stood by her father. + + * * * * * + +Before her, she saw a large pool of black liquid. It had been hidden by +the corner of the block, so that they had not noticed it, so busy were +they looking at Rooney. + +And there was a great cavity in the heart of the amber block. Pieces of +the yellow brown mass lay about, as though they had fallen off and +allowed the inky substance to escape. + +"It's hardened or dried out in the air," said Young. + +"It looks like black lacquer," said Betty. + +The musky smell was stronger here. The great amber block seemed to +stifle them with its size. + +"Our chipping and hammering and the heat of the radiator causing it to +expand must have forced out the sepia, or whatever it is," said Young. +There was a disappointed note in his voice "I had hoped that inside the +liquid we would discover a fossil of value," he went on. + +Marable looked at Betty Young. They stared at one another for some +seconds, and both knew that the same thought had occurred to the other. +The frightful eyes--had they then been but figments of the imagination? + +Marable began looking around carefully, here and there. Betty realized +what he was doing, and she was frightened. She went to his side. "Oh, be +careful," she whispered. + +"The giant block has been moved a little," he replied, looking into her +pretty face. "Have you noticed that?" + +Now that she was told to look, she could see the extremely heavy amber +block was no longer in the position it had been in. Marks on the floor +showed where it had been dragged or shifted from its original resting +place. + + * * * * * + +Betty Young gasped. What force could be so powerful that it could even +budge so many tons? A derrick had been used, and rollers placed under +the block when men had moved it. + +Reason tried to assert itself. "It--it must have exploded. That would +cause it to shift," she said faintly. + +Marable shrugged. His examination was interrupted by the arrival of the +museum's chemist, sent for by Young. The chemist took a sample of the +black liquid for analysis. Reports were coming in from all over the +museum, different departments declaring, one after another, that nothing +had been disturbed or stolen from their sections. + +Betty Young went again to Marable's side. She followed the direction of +his eyes, and saw long, clawlike marks on the floor, radiating from the +sepia. + +"Doctor Marable," she said, "please don't--don't look any longer. Leave +this terrible place for the day, anyway, until we see what happens in +the next twenty-four hours." + +He smiled and shook his head. "I must make a search," he replied. "My +brain calls me a fool, but just the same, I'm worried." + +"Do you really think ...?" + +He nodded, divining her thought. The girl shivered. She felt terror +mounting to her heart, and the matter-of-fact attitudes of the others in +the great laboratory did not allay her fears. + +Rooney's body was removed. The place was cleaned up by workmen, and +Marable's search--if that was what his constant roving about the +laboratory could be called--ceased for a time. The chemist's report came +in. The black liquid was some sort of animal secretion, melonotic +probably. + + * * * * * + +In spite of the fact that they had learned so many facts about the +murder, they as yet had not solved the mystery. Who had murdered Rooney, +and why? And where had his blood gone to? In no other rooms could be +found any traces of a struggle. + +"If you won't do anything else, please carry a gun," begged Betty of +Marable. "I'm going to try to take father home, right after lunch, if +he'll go. He's so stubborn. I can't make him take care. I've got to +watch him and stay beside him." + +"Very well," replied Marable. "I'll get a revolver. Not that I think it +would be of much use, if I did find--" He broke off, and shrugged his +broad shoulders. + +Leffler came storming into the room. "What's this I hear?" he cried, +approaching Marable. "A watchman killed in the night? Carelessness, man, +carelessness! The authorities here are absurd! They hold priceless +treasures and allow thieves to enter and wreak their will. You, Marable, +what's all this mean?" + +Leffler was angry. Marable looked into his red face coolly. "We do the +best we can, Mr. Leffler," he said. "It is unlikely that anyone would +wish to steal such a thing as that block of amber." + +He waved toward the giant mass. + +Leffler made a gesture of impatience. "It cost me many thousands of +dollars," he cried. + +"It is time for lunch, Professor," said Betty. + +Marable bowed to Leffler and left the millionaire sputtering away, +inspecting the various specimens he had contributed. + +The one o'clock gong had struck, and all the workers and investigators +were leaving in paleontological laboratories for a bite to eat. + + * * * * * + +Marable, with Betty, went out last. Leffler was over in one corner of +the room, hidden from their sight by a corner of an amber block. They +could hear Leffler still uttering complaints about the carelessness of +the men in charge of that section of the museum, and Marable smiled at +Betty sadly. + +"Poor Rooney," he said. "Betty, I feel more or less responsible, in a +way." + +"No, no," cried the girl. "How could you have foreseen such a thing?" + +Marable shook his head. "Those eyes, you know. I should have taken +precautions. But I had no idea it could burst from its prison so." + +For the first time Marable had definitely mentioned his idea of what +had occurred. The girl had understood it all along, from their broken +conversation and from the look in the young scientist's eyes. + +She sighed deeply. "You will get a revolver before you search further?" +she said. "I'm going to. Smythe has one, and I know he'll lend it to +me." + +"I will," he promised. "You know, Leffler has the same idea we have, I +think. That's why he keeps talking about it being our fault. I believe +he has seen something, too. His talk about the devil inside the block +was half in earnest. I suppose he put it down to imagination, or perhaps +he did not think this fossil to be dangerous." + +They went out together, and walked toward the restaurant they +frequented. Her father was there, lunching with one of the +superintendents of the museum. He smiled and waved to Betty. + +Everyone, of course, was discussing the killing of Rooney. + + * * * * * + +After an hour, during which the two young people spoke little, Marable +and Betty Young left the restaurant and started back toward the museum. +Her father was still at his table. + +They walked up the driveway entrance, and then Marable uttered an +exclamation. "Something's wrong," he said. + +There was a small crowd of people collected on the steps. The outer +doors, instead of being open as usual, were closed and guards stood +peering out. + +Marable and Betty were admitted, after they had pushed their way to the +doors. + +"Museum's closed to the public, sir," replied a guard to Marable's +question. + +"Why?" asked Marable. + +"Somethin's happened up in the paleontological laboratories," answered +the guard. "Dunno just what, but orders come to clear the rooms and not +let anybody in but members of the staff, sir." + +Marable hurried forward. Betty was at his heels. "Please get yourself a +gun," she said, clutching his arm and holding him back. + +"All right. I'll borrow one from a guard." + +He returned to the front doors, and came back, slipping a large pistol +into his side pocket. + +"I want you to wait here," he said. + +"No. I'm going with you." + +"Please," he said. "As your superior, I order you to remain downstairs." + +The girl shrugged. She allowed him to climb the stairs to the first +floor, and then she hurried back in search of Smythe. + + * * * * * + +Smythe obtained a gun for her, and as she did not wish to wait for the +slow elevator, she ran up the steps. Smythe could not tell her +definitely what had occurred in the upper laboratory that had caused the +museum to be closed for the day. + +Her heart beating swiftly, Betty Young hurried up the second flight of +stairs to the third floor. A workman, whom the girl recognized as a +manual laborer in the paleontological rooms, came running down, passing +her in full flight, a look of abject terror on his face. + +"What is it?" she cried. + +He was so frightened he could not talk logically. "There was a black +fog--I saw a red snake with legs--" + +She waited for no more. A pang of fear for the safety of Marable shot +through her heart, and she forced herself on to the top floor. + +Up there was a haze, faintly black, which filled the corridors. As Betty +Young drew closer to the door of the paleontological laboratories, the +mist grew more opaque. It was as though a sooty fog permeated the air, +and the girl could see it was pouring from the door of the laboratory in +heavy coils. And her nostrils caught the strange odor of fetid musk. + +She was greatly frightened; but she gripped the gun and pushed on. + + * * * * * + +Then to her ears came the sound of a scream, the terrible scream of a +mortally wounded man. Instinctively she knew it was not Marable, but she +feared for the young professor, and with an answering cry she rushed +into the smoky atmosphere of the outer laboratories. + +"Walter!" she called. + +But evidently he did not hear her, for no reply came. Or was it that +something had happened to him? + +She paused on the threshold of the big room where were the amber blocks. + +About the vast floor space stood the numerous masses of stone and amber, +some covered with immense canvas shrouds which made them look like ghost +hillocks in the dimness. Betty Young stood, gasping in fright, clutching +the pistol in her hand, trying to catch the sounds of men in that +chamber of horror. + +She heard, then, a faint whimpering, and then noises which she +identified in her mind as something being dragged along the marble +flooring. A muffled scream, weak, reached her ears, and as she took a +step forward, silence came. + +She listened longer, but now the sunlight coming through the window to +make murky patches in the opaque black fog was her chief sensation. + +"Walter!" she called. + +"Go back, Betty, go back!" + +The mist seemed to muffle voices as well as obscure the vision. She +advanced farther into the laboratory, trying to locate Marable. Bravely +the girl pushed toward the biggest amber block. It was here that she +felt instinctively that she would find the source of danger. + +"Leffler!" she heard Marable say, almost at her elbow, and the young man +groaned. The girl came upon him, bending over something on the floor. + + * * * * * + +She knelt beside him, gripping his arm. Now she could see the outline of +Leffler's body at her feet. The wealthy collector was doubled up on the +ground, shrivelled as had been Rooney. His feet, moving as though by +reflex action, patted the floor from time to time, making a curious +clicking sound as the buttons of his gray spats struck the marble. + +But it was obvious, even in the murky light, that Leffler was dead, that +he had been sucked dry of blood. + +Betty Young screamed. She could not help it. The black fog choked her +and she gasped for breath. Leaving Marable, she ran toward the windows +to throw them open. + +The first one she tried was heavy, and she smashed the glass with the +butt of the gun. She broke several panes in two of the windows, and the +mist rolled out from the laboratory. + +She started to return to the side of Marable. He uttered a sudden shout, +and she hurried back to where she had left him, stumbling over Leffler's +body, recoiling at this touch of death. + +Marable was not there, but she could hear him nearby. + +Cool air was rushing in from the windows, and gradually the fog was +disappearing. Betty Young saw Marable now, standing nearby, staring at +the bulk of an amber block which was still covered by its canvas shroud. +Though not as large as the prize exhibit, this block of amber was large +and filled many yards of space. + +"Betty, please go outside and call some of the men," begged Marable. + +But he did not look at her, and she caught his fascinated stare. +Following the direction of his gaze, the girl saw that a whisp of smoky +mist was curling up from under the edge of the canvas cover. + +"It is there," whispered Betty. + + * * * * * + +Marable had a knife which he had picked up from a bench, and with this +he began quietly to cut the canvas case of the block, keeping several +feet to each side of the spot where the fog showed from beneath the +shroud. + +Marable cut swiftly and efficiently, though the cloth was heavy and he +was forced to climb up several feet on the block to make his work +effective. The girl watched, fascinated with horror and curiosity. + +To their ears came a curious, sucking sound, and once a vague tentacle +form showed from the bottom of the canvas. + +At last Marable seized the edge of the cut he had made and, with a +violent heave, sent the canvas flap flying over the big block. + +Betty Young screamed. At last she had a sight of the terrible creature +which her imagination had painted in loathing and horror. A flash of +brilliant scarlet, dabbed with black patches, was her impression of the +beast. A head flat and reptilian, long, tubular, with movable nostrils +and antennae at the end, framed two eyes which were familiar enough to +her, for they were the orbs which had stared from the inside of the +amber block. She had dreamed of those eyes. + +But the reptile moved like a flash of red light, though she knew its +bulk was great; it sprayed forth black mist from the appendages at the +end of its nose, and the crumpling of canvas reached her ears as the +beast endeavored to conceal itself on the opposite side of the block. + + * * * * * + +Marable had run to the other side of the mass. The air, rushing in from +the windows, had cleared the mist, in spite of the new clouds the +creature had emitted, and Betty could see for some feet in either +direction now. + +She walked, with stiff, frozen muscles, around to join Marable. As she +came near to him, she saw him jerking off the entire canvas cover of the +block to expose the horrible reptile to the light of day. + +And now the two stood staring at the awful sight. The creature had +flattened itself into the crevices and irregular surfaces of the block, +but it was too large to hide in anything but a huge space. They saw +before them its great bulk, bright red skin blotched with black, which +rose and fell with the breathing of the reptile. Its long, powerful +tail, tapering off from the fat, loathsome body, was curled around the +bottom of the block. + +"That's where it's been hidden, under the shroud. We've been within a +few feet of it every moment we've been at work," said Marable, his voice +dry. "There were many hiding places for it, but it chose the best. It +came out only when there was comparative quiet, to get its food...." + +"We--we must kill it," stammered the girl. + +But she could not move. She was looking at the immense, cruel, lidless +eyes, which balefully held her as a serpent paralyzes a bird. The +tubular nostrils and antennae seemed to be sniffing at them, waving to +and fro. + +"See the white expanse of cornea, how large it is," whispered Marable. +"The pupils are nothing but black slits now." The interest excited by +this living fossil was almost enough to stifle the dread of the creature +in the man. + +But the girl saw the huge flat head and the crinkled tissue of the +frilled mouth with its sucker disks. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, from the central portion of the sucker-cup mouth issued a +long, straight red fang. + +The two drew back as the living fossil raised a short clawed leg. + +"It has the thick body of an immense python and the clawed legs of a +dinosaur," said Marable, speaking as though he were delivering a +lecture. The sight, without doubt, fascinated him as a scientist. He +almost forgot the danger. + +"Oh, it's horrible," whispered the girl. + +She clung to his arm. He went on talking. "It is some sort of +terrestrial octopus...." + +To the girl, it seemed that the living fossil was endless in length. +Coil after coil showed as the ripples passed along its body and the +straight fang threatened them with destruction. + +"See, it is armored," said Marable. + +"Betty, no one has ever had such an experience as this, seen such a +sight, and lived to tell of it. It must be ravenous with hunger, shut up +in its amber cell inside the black fluid. I--" + +A sharp, whistling hiss interrupted his speech. The reptile was puffing +and swelling, and as it grew in bulk with the intake of the air, its +enamel-like scales stood out like bosses on the great body. It spat +forth a cloud of black, oily mist, and Marable came to himself at last. + +He raised his revolver and fired at the creature, sending shot after +shot from the heavy revolver into the head. + + * * * * * + +Betty Young screamed as the reptile reared up and made a movement toward +them. Marable and the girl retreated swiftly, as the beast thumped to +the floor with a thud and started at them, advancing with a queer, +crawling movement. + +It was between them and the door. Betty thrust her gun into Marable's +hands, for his own was empty and he had hurled it at the monster. + +"Hurry! Run for your life!" ordered Marable, placing himself between +Betty and the reptile. + +She would not leave him till he swerved to one side, going dangerously +close to the beast and firing into its head. The rush of the flowing +body stopped; it turned and pursued him, leaving the girl safe for the +moment, but separated from Marable. + +Luckily, on the smooth marble it could not get an efficient grip with +its clawlike arms. It was clumsy in its gait, and for a time the man +eluded it. + +Betty Young, looking about for a weapon, calling for help at the top of +her lungs, caught sight of a fireman's ax in a glass case on the wall. +She ran over, smashed the glass with the small hammer, and took out the +heavy ax. + +Shot after shot reverberated through the big laboratory as Marable tried +to stop the monster. Betty, bravely closing in from the rear, saw +Marable leaping from side to side as the brute struck viciously at him +time and again. + +The creature had been emitting cloud after cloud of black fog, and the +atmosphere, in spite of the open windows, was dim in its vicinity. +Vaguely Betty heard shouts from the far hall, but all she could do was +to call out in return and run toward the horror. + + * * * * * + +Marable, out of breath, had climbed to the top of an amber block. Betty, +close by, saw the reptile rear its bulk up into the air, until it was +high enough to strike the man. + +Before it could send forth its death-dealing fang to pin Marable to the +block, however, Betty Young brought the ax down on its back with all her +strength. + +There was a sickening thud as the sharp weapon sunk deep into the fleshy +back. She struck again, and the creature fell in folds, like a +collapsing spring. It lashed back at her, but she leaped clear as it +slashed in agony, thrashing about so that the whole room seemed to rock. + +Marable came scrambling down the side of the block to help her. He was +breathing hard, and she turned toward him; as Betty looked away, a +portion of the scarlet tail hit her in the body and she fell, striking +her head on the floor. + +Marable reached down, seized the ax, and in a desperate frenzy hacked at +the reptile's awful head. He leaped in and out like a terrier, sinking +the ax deep into the neck and head of the beast. He gave the impression +of slashing at heavy rubber, and Betty Young, trying to drag herself +away from that dangerous body, heard his whistling breath. + +They were almost hidden from one another now, in the mist which came +from the thing's nostrils. + +"Help, help!" screamed the girl, mustering her last strength in the +despairing cry. + +She saw Marable go down, then, as the reptile hit him a glancing blow +with its body. When the powerful young fellow did not rise, the girl +thought it was all over. The air really became black to her; she fainted +and lay still. + + * * * * * + +When Betty Young opened her eyes, the air had cleared greatly, and she +could see the familiar outlines of the paleontological laboratory and +the bulks of the amber blocks. Her father was holding her head in his +lap, and was bathing her temples with water. + +"Darling," he said, "are you badly hurt?" + +"No," she murmured faintly. "I'm--I'm all right. But--but Walter--did +it--" + +"He's all right," said her father. "The reptile was dying, and could do +him no damage. We finished it off." + +Then, Marable, covered with blood, which he was trying to wipe from his +hands and clothes, came and smiled down at her. + +"Well," said Professor Young, "you two have mutilated a marvelous and +unique specimen between you." + +There were several men examining something nearby. Turning her eyes in +their direction, Betty saw they were viewing the remains of the reptile. + + * * * * * + +Marable helped her to her feet, and stood with one arm about her. +Professor Orling, the famous specialist on fossil reptiles, was speaking +now, and the others listened. + +"I think we will find it to be some sort of missing link between the +dinosaurs and mososaurs. It is surely unbelievable that such a creature +should be found alive; but perhaps it can be explained. It is related to +the amphibians and was able to live in or out of the water. Now, we have +many instances of reptiles such as lizards and toads penned up in solid +rock but surviving for hundreds of years. Evidently this great reptile +went through the same sort of experience. I would say that there has +been some great upheaval of nature, that the reptile was caught in its +prison of amber thousands and thousands of years ago. Through +hibernation and perhaps a preservative drug it emitted in the black +fluid, this creature has been able to survive its long imprisonment. +Naturally, when it was released by the cutting away of part of the amber +which penned it in, it burst its cell, ravenous with hunger. The +fanglike tooth we see was its main weapon of attack, and it set upon the +unfortunate watchman. After knocking him unconscious, its sucker-like +fringe glued the mouth near the heart while the fang shot into the +arteries and drew forth the body fluids. There is a great deal to be +done with this valuable find, gentlemen. I would suggest that--" + + * * * * * + +Marable grunted. "Oh, hell," he murmured in Betty Young's ear. "To the +devil with paleontology, Betty. You saved my life. Come out and let's +get married. I love you." + +The girl smiled up into his eyes. The scientists close by were listening +fascinatedly to Orling's words, and had no time to watch the two young +people, for they stared at the reptile's body as the great man went from +section to section, lecturing upon one point after another. + +"You've forgotten paleontology for a moment, thank goodness," said +Betty. "I'm glad." + +"Yes, Betty dear. This terrible experience has shaken me, and I realized +how much I love you when I saw you in danger. What an awful few minutes! +If I had to live them over again, I don't think I could face them." + +"Never mind," she murmured. "We are safe, Walter. After all, it's not +every woman who is helped by a living fossil to make the man she loves +realize he loves her!" + +[Illustration: The SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays.] + + + + +The Terror of Air-Level Six + +_By Harl Vincent_ + + +It was a sweltering evening in mid-August, during that unprecedented +heat wave which broke Weather Bureau records in 2011. New York City had +simmered under a blazing sun for more than three weeks, and all who were +able had deserted the city for spots of lesser torridity. But I was one +of those unfortunates who could not leave on account of the pressing +urgency of business matters and, there being nothing else to do, kept +doggedly at my work until it seemed that nerves and body must soon give +way under the strain. To-night, as I boarded the pneumatic tube, I +dropped into the nearest seat and could not even summon the energy to +open my newspaper. + +[Sidenote: From some far reach of leagueless Space +came a great pillar of flame to lay waste +and terrorize the Earth.] + +For some minutes I sat as in a daze, wishing merely that the journey was +over, and that I was on my own front porch out in Rutherford. After +awhile I stirred and looked around. Seeing none of my acquaintances in +the car, I finally opened the newspaper and was considerably startled by +the screaming headlines that confronted me from its usually conservative +first page: + + SECOND COAST TRANSPORT + PLANE LOST! + + Disaster Like First in Air-Level + Six! + +No wonder the newsboys had been crying an extra on Broadway! I had given +no heed to the import of their shoutings, but this was real news and +well worthy of an extra edition. Since the mysterious loss of the SF-61, +only four days previously, the facilities of the several air +transportation systems were seriously handicapped on account of the +shaken confidence of the general public. It was not surprising that +there was widespread reluctance at trusting human lives and valuable +merchandise to the mercies of the inexplicable power which had +apparently wiped out of existence the SF-61, together with its +twenty-eight passengers and the consignment of one-half million dollars +in gold. And now the NY-18 had gone the way of the other! + +Details were meager. Both ships had failed to reply to the regular +ten-minute radio calls from headquarters and had not since been seen or +heard from. In both cases the last call had been answered when the ship +was proceeding at full speed on its regular course in air-level six. The +SF-61 last reported from a position over Mora in New Mexico, and four +days of intensive search by thousands of planes had failed to locate +ship or passengers. To-day, in the early hours of the morning, the NY-18 +reported over Colorado Springs, on the northern route, and then, like +the SF-61, dropped out of existence insofar as any attempts at +communicating with or locating her were concerned. She, too, carried a +heavy consignment of specie, though only eleven passengers had risked +the westward journey. + + * * * * * + +Someone had dropped into a seat at my side, and I looked up from my +reading to meet the solemn eyes of Hartley Jones, a young friend whom I +had not seen for several months. + +"Why, hello, Hart," I greeted him. "Glad to see you, old man. Where in +Sam Hill have you been keeping yourself?" + +"Glad to see you, too, Jack," he returned warmly. "Been spending most of +my time out at the hangar." + +"Oh, that's right. You fellows built a new one at Newark Airport, didn't +you?" + +"Yeah. Got a great outfit there now, too. Why don't you drop around and +see us one of these days?" + +"I will, Hart, and I want you to take me up some time. You know I have +never been in one of these new ships of yours. But what do you think of +this mess?" I pointed to the black headlines. + +He grinned joyously and flipped back the lapel of his coat, displaying a +nickeled badge. "George and I are starting out to-night to look around a +little," he gloated. "Just been appointed deputy air commissioners; and +we got a couple of guns on our newest plane. Air Traffic Bureau thinks +there's dirty work afoot. Twelve-motored planes don't disappear without +leaving a trace. Anyhow, we've got a job, and we're going to try and +find out what's wrong. How'd you like to come along?" + +"What?" I replied. "You know darn well I'm too busy. Besides, I'd be no +good to you. Just extra load, and not pay load at that. And then, I'm +broke--as usual." + + * * * * * + +Hartley Jones grinned in his engaging way. "You'd be good company," he +parried; "and, what's more, I think the trip would do you a lot of good. +You look all shot to pieces." + +"Forget it," I laughed. "It's just the heat. And I'll have to leave you +here, Hart. Drop in and see us, will you? The wife was asking for you +only yesterday." + +"Jack, dear," my wife greeted me at the door of my modest suburban home, +"Mr. Preston just called, and he wants you to call him right back." + +"Oh, Lord," I groaned, "can't I forget the office for one evening?" +Preston was manager of the concern for which I worked. + +Nevertheless, though our two fine youngsters were clamoring for their +dinner, I made the telephone call at once. + +"Makely," came the voice of the boss, when the connection was completed, +"I want you to take the night plane for Frisco. Hate to ask you, but it +must be done. Townley is sick and someone has to take those Canadian Ex. +bonds out to Farnsworth. You're the only one to do it, and after you get +there, you can start on that vacation you need. Take a month if you +wish." + +The thought of Hartley Jones' offer flashed through my mind. "But have +you read of the loss of the NY-18?" I asked Preston. + +"I have, Makely. There'll be another hundred a month in your check, too, +to make up for the worry of your family. But the government is sending +thirty Secret Service men along on the SF-22, which leaves to-night. In +addition, there will be a convoy of seven fighting planes, so there is +not likely to be a repetition of the previous disasters." + +That hundred a month sounded mighty good, for expenses had been mounting +rapidly of late. "All right, Mr. Preston," I agreed. "I will be at the +airport before midnight. But how about the bonds?" + +"I'll drive around after dinner and deliver them to you. And thanks for +your willingness, Makely. You'll not be sorry." + + * * * * * + +My wife had listened intently and, from my words, she knew what to +expect. Her face was a tragic mask when I replaced the receiver on its +hook, and my heart sank at her expression. + +Then there came the ring of the telephone and, for some reason, my pulse +raced as I went to the hall to answer it. Hartley Jones' cheerful voice +greeted me and he was positively gleeful when I told him of my +projected trip. + +"Hooray!" he shouted. "But you'll not take the SF-22. You'll take the +trip with me as I wanted. I tell you what: You be out at Newark Airport +at eleven-thirty, but come to my hangar instead of to that of the +transportation company. We'll leave at the same time as the regular +liner, and we'll get your old bonds to Frisco, regardless of what might +happen to the big ship. Also we might learn something mighty +interesting." + +I argued with him, but to no avail. And the more I argued, the greater +appeal was presented by his proposition. Finally there was nothing to do +but agree. + + * * * * * + +Preston arrived with the bonds shortly after the children were tucked in +their beds. I did not tell him of my change in plans. He did not stay +long, and I could see that he was uncomfortable under the accusing eyes +of Marie, for all his own confidence in the safety of the trip in the +closely-guarded SF-22. + +At precisely eleven-thirty I reached the great steel and glass hangar +where Hart Jones and George Boehm carried on their experiments with +super-modern types of aircraft. Hart Jones had inherited more than two +million dollars, and was in a fair way to spend it all on his favorite +hobby, though those who knew him best vowed that he would make many +times that amount through royalties on his ever-growing number of +valuable inventions. + +The immense doors were open, and I gazed for the first time into the +hangar whose spacious interior provided storage and manufacturing +facilities for a dozen or more planes of Hart Jones' design. A curiously +constructed example of his handiwork stood directly before me, and +several mechanics were engaged in making it ready for flight. My friend +advanced from their midst to meet me, a broad smile on his grease +smeared countenance. + +"Greetings, Jack," he said, taking my small bag from my hands. "Right on +time, I see. And I can't tell you how glad I am that you are coming with +us. So is George." + +"Well, I didn't expect to," I admitted; "but there is no need of telling +you that I had far rather be in your ship than in the big one." + + * * * * * + +George Boehm, the same jolly chap I had several times met in Hart's +company, but fatter than ever, crawled from beneath the shiny metal body +of the plane and scrambled to his feet at my side. + +"Going in for a bit of adventuring, Mr. Makely?" he asked, wiping his +hand with a piece of cotton waste before extending it. + +"Yes," I replied, as I squeezed his chubby fingers. "Can't stick in the +mud all my life, George. And I wouldn't want to be in better company for +my first attempt either." + +"Nor we," he returned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Rather have a +greenhorn on the Pioneer than some government agent, who'd be butting in +and trying to run everything. Think you'll be scared?" + +"Probably," I admitted; "but I guess I can stand it." + +"Hear the latest news broadcast?" interrupted Hart Jones. + +"No. What was it?" I asked. + +"There has been a report from out near Cripple Creek," said Hart +solemnly, "that a pillar of fire was observed in the mountains shortly +after the time the NY-18 last reported. The time and the location +coincide with her probable position and the report was confirmed by no +less than three of the natives of that locality. Of course the +statements are probably extravagant, but they claim this pillar of fire +extended for miles into the heavens and was accompanied by a tremendous +roaring sound that ceased abruptly as the light of the flame +disappeared, leaving nothing but blackness and awe-inspiring silence +behind." + + * * * * * + +"Lot of bunk!" grunted George, who was vigorously scrubbing the back of +his neck. + +"Sounds like a fairy tale," I commented. + +"Nevertheless, there may be something in it. In fact, there must be. +Three of these mountaineers observed practically the same phenomenon +from quite widely separated points, though one of them said there were +three pillars of fire and that these looked more like the beams of +powerful search-lights. All agreed on the terrific roar. And, after all, +these two liners did disappear. There must be something quite out of the +ordinary about the way in which they were captured or destroyed, and +this occurrence may well be supposed to have a bearing on the matter." + +"Possibly they were destroyed by some freak electrical storm," I +suggested. + +"Where then are the wrecked vessels?" asked Hart. "No, Jack, electrical +storms do not destroy huge air liners and then suck them out into space +beyond our vision. These two ships are no longer on the surface of the +earth, else they would have been long since located. The magnetic +direction finders of the transportation people have covered every inch +of the United States, as well as Mexico and Canada." + +"Of course they might have been carried halfway around the world by a +wind of unprecedented velocity." I commenced a silly argument in favor +of the theory that the elements had accounted for the two vessels, but +was interrupted by the mounting roar of great engines throbbing +overhead. + +"Hurry up there, George!" shouted Hart. "It's the SF-22 coming in. We +have to be ready for the take-off in five minutes!" + + * * * * * + +He hastened to take George's place at the washbowl and all was activity +within the confines of our hangar. George and I left the office and went +out to the landing field, which was now brilliant with the glare of +floodlights. The _Pioneer_ had been trundled into the open and stood +ready for the flight. Not a hundred feet above the field, the huge +silver moth that was the SF-22 swept by in a wide circle that would +bring her into the wind. The roar of her engines died as she swung out +of the circle of light into the surrounding darkness. + +The crowds which had gathered to witness her landing buzzed with excited +comment and speculation. Her nose brought slightly up, she dropped to a +perfect three-point landing, the brakes screeching as she was brought to +a standstill at the hangar of the transportation company. + +"Come on now, you fellows," came the voice of Hart Jones from the hangar +entrance, "there's no time to lose. The _Pioneer_ takes off immediately +after the big fellow." + +We hurried to the waiting ship, which seemed like a tiny toy when +compared with the giant SF-22. I had observed very little of the +construction of the _Pioneer_, but I could now see that she was quite +different in design from the ordinary plane. A monoplane she was, but +the wing structure was abnormally short and of great thickness, and +there were a number of tubes projecting from the leading edge that gave +the appearance of a battery of small cannon. The body, like all planes +designed for travel in air-level six, was cigar-shaped, and had +hermetically sealed ports and entrance manholes. A cluster of the +cannon-shaped tubes enclosed the tail just back of the fins and rudder +and, behind the wing structure atop the curved upper surface of the +body, there was a sphere of gleaming metal that was probably three feet +in diameter. + + * * * * * + +Before I could formulate questions regarding the unusual features of the +design, we were within the _Pioneer's_ cabin and Hart Jones was engaged +in clamping the entrance manhole cover to its rubber seat. A throbbing +roar that penetrated our double hull attracted my attention and, looking +through a nearby porthole, I saw that the convoy of army planes had +taken off and was circling over the SF-22 in anticipation of her start. +Trim, speedy fighting ships these were, with heavy caliber machine-guns +in turrets fore and aft and normally manned by crews of twelve each. The +under surfaces of their bodies glistened smooth and sleek in the light +from the field, for the landing gears had been drawn within and the +openings sealed by the close-fitted armor plate that protected these +ordinarily vulnerable portions when in flight. + +The SF-22 was ready to take off and the crowds were drawing back into +the obscurity beyond the huge circle of blinding light. One after +another her twelve engines sputtered into life, and ponderously she +moved over the field, gathering speed as the staccato barking of the +exhausts gradually blended into a smooth though deafening purr. The tail +of the great vessel came up, then the wheels, and she was off into the +night. + + * * * * * + +Hart Jones sat at a bewildering array of instruments that covered almost +the entire forward partition of the cabin. He pressed a button and the +starting motor whined for a moment. Then the single engine of the +_Pioneer_ coughed and roared. Slowly we taxied in the direction taken by +the SF-22, whose lights were now vanishing in the darkness. I saw George +open a valve on the wall and Hart stretched the fingers of his left hand +to what appeared to be the keyboard of a typewriter set into the +instrument board. He pressed several of the keys and pulled back his +stick. There was a whistling scream from astern and I was thrown back in +my seat with painful force. With that, the motor roared into full speed +and we had left the airport far behind. + +"What on earth?" I gasped. + +"Rocket propulsion," laughed Hart. "I should have warned you. Those +tubes you saw outside at the tail and along the leading edge of the +wings. Only used three of them, but that was sufficient for the +take-off." + +"But I thought this rocket business was not feasible on account of the +wastage of fuel due to its low efficiency," I objected. + +"We should worry about fuel," said Hart. + +I looked about me and saw that there was very little space for the +storage of this essential commodity. "Why?" I inquired. "What fuel do +you use?" + +"Make our own," he replied shortly. He was busy at the moment, +maneuvering the _Pioneer_ into a position above and behind the SF-22 and +her convoy. + +"You make your own fuel enroute?" I asked in astonishment. + +"Yes. That sphere you saw on top. It is the collecting end of an +electrical system for extracting nitrogen and other elements, from the +air. This extraction goes on constantly while we are in the atmosphere +and my fuel is an extremely powerful explosive of which nitrates are the +base. The supply is replenished continuously, so we have no fear of +running short even in the upper levels." + + * * * * * + +George had crawled through a small opening into some inaccessible region +in the stern of the vessel. I pondered over what Hart had just told me, +still keeping my eyes glued to the port, through which could be seen the +fleet we were following. The altimeter registered thirty-five thousand +feet. We were entering air-level six--the stratosphere! Below us the +troposphere, divided into five levels, each of seven thousand feet, +teemed with the life of the air. The regular lanes were filled with +traffic, the lights of the speeding thousands of freight and pleasure +craft moving in orderly procession along their prescribed routes. + +Up here in the sixth level, which was entirely for high-speed traffic of +commercial and government vessels making transcontinental or +transoceanic voyages, we were the only adventurers in sight--we and the +convoyed liner we were following. The speed indicator showed six hundred +miles an hour, and the tiny spot of light that traveled over the chart +to indicate our position showed that we were nearing Buffalo. + +Glancing through one of the lower ports, I saw the lights of the city +shining dimly through a light mist that fringed the shore of Lake Erie +and extended northward along the Niagara. Then we were out over the +lake, and the luminous hue was slipping rapidly behind. I looked ahead +and saw that the distance to the SF-22 and her convoy had somewhat +increased. We were a mile behind and some two thousand feet above them. +Evidently Hart was figuring on keeping at a safe distance for +observation of anything that might happen. + + * * * * * + +Our motor was running smoothly and the angle of the propeller blades had +been altered to take care of the change in air density from the lower +altitudes. It flashed across my mind that this was an ideal location for +an attack, if such was to be made on the SF-22. + +Then, far ahead, I saw a beam of light stab through the darkness and +strike the tossing surface of the lake. Another and another followed, +and I could see that the SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays. They converged from high above to outline a brilliant +circle where they met on the surface of the waters, and in the midst of +the cone formed by the beams, the liner and its seven tiny followers +could be seen to falter, and huddle more closely together. + +It all happened in the twinkling of an eye--so quickly, in fact, that +Hart and I had not the time to exchange remarks over the strange +occurrence. For a moment the eight vessels hovered, halted suddenly by +this inexplicable force from out the heavens. Then there rose from the +apex of the inverted cone of light a blinding column of blue-white +radiance that poured skyward an instant and was gone. To our ears came a +terrific roaring that could be likened to nothing we had heard on earth. +The _Pioneer_ was tossed and buffeted as by a cyclone, and George came +tumbling from the opening he had entered, his round face grown solemn. +Then came eery silence, for the _Pioneer's_ motor had gone dead. Ahead +there was utter darkness. The liner and her convoy had completely +vanished and the _Pioneer_ was slipping into a spin! + + * * * * * + +"What's up?" asked George of Hart, who was tugging frantically at the +controls. + +"The liner has gone the way of the first two," he replied: "and the yarn +about the pillar of fire was not so far wrong after all." + +"You saw the same thing?" asked George incredulously. + +"Yes, and so did Jack. There came some beams of light from the sky; then +the pillar of fire and the roaring you heard, after which the vessels +were gone and our electrical system paralyzed." + +"Holy smoke!" ejaculated George. "What to do now?" + +As he spoke, the _Pioneer_ came out of the spin, and we were able to +resume our positions in the seats. None of us was strapped in, and we +had been clinging to whatever was handiest to keep from being tossed +about in the cabin. Hart wiped his forehead and growled out an oath. The +instrument board was still illuminated, for its tiny lamps were supplied +with current from the storage battery. But the main lights of the cabin +and the ignition system refused to function. We were gliding now, but +losing altitude rapidly, having already dropped to the lower limits of +level five. + +"Can't you use the rocket tubes?" I inquired hesitatingly. + +"They are fired in the same manner as the motor," replied Hart; "but we +might try an emergency connection from the storage battery, which is +ordinarily used only in starting and for the panel lights." + + * * * * * + +George was already fussing with the connections in a small junction box +from which he had removed the cover. Meanwhile, the black waters of Lake +Erie were rushing upward to meet us, and the needle of the altimeter +registered twelve thousand feet. + +"Here's the trouble!" shouted George, triumphantly holding up a small +object he had removed from the junction box. "Ignition fuse is blown." + +"Probably by some radiations from the cone of light and the column that +destroyed the liner. Lucky we were no closer," were Hart's muttered +comments. + +George produced a spare fuse and inserted it in its proper place. The +cabin lights glowed instantly and the motor started at once. + +"Well, I'm going up after the generators of this mysterious force that +is destroying our cross-country ships and killing our people," asserted +Hart. "The rays came from high above, but the _Pioneer_ can go as high +as anything that ever flew--_higher_." + +He snapped a switch and a beam of light that rivalled the so-called +pillar of fire bored far into the night, dimming the stars by its +brilliance. Again his fingers strayed to the rows of white keys and the +rocket tubes shrieked in response to his pressure. This time I was +prepared for the shock of acceleration, but the action was maintained +for several seconds and I found the pressure against my back growing +painful. Then it was relieved, and I glanced at the altimeter. Its +needle had reached the end of the scale, which was graduated to eighty +thousand feet! + +"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that we are more than +sixteen miles in the air?" + +"Nearly thirty," replied Hart, pointing to another dial which I had not +seen. This one was graduated in miles above sea-level, and its needle +wavered between the twenty-nine and thirty mark! + + * * * * * + +Again Hart pressed the rocket buttons, and we shot still higher into the +heavens. Thirty, forty, fifty miles registered the meter, and still we +climbed. + +"Great Scott!" blurted a voice I knew was my own, though I had no +consciousness of willing the speech. "At this rate we'll reach the +moon!" + +"We could, if we wished," was Hart's astounding reply; "I wish you +wouldn't say too much about it when we return. We have oxygen to breathe +and an air-tight vessel to retain it. With the fuel we are using, we +could easily do it, provided a sufficient supply were available. +However, the _Pioneer_ does not have large enough storage tanks as yet, +and, of course, we cannot now replenish our supply with sufficient +rapidity, for the atmosphere has become very rare indeed--where we are. +My ultimate object, though, in building the _Pioneer_, was to construct +a vessel that is capable of a trip to the moon." + +"You think you could reach a great enough velocity to escape the +gravitational pull of the earth?" I asked, marveling more and more at +the temerity and resourcefulness of my science-minded friend. + +"Absolutely," he replied. "The speed required is less than seven miles a +second, and I have calculated that the _Pioneer_ can do no less than +twenty." + +Mentally I multiplied by sixty. I could hardly credit the result. Twelve +hundred miles a minute! + +"But, how about the acceleration?" I ventured. "Could the human body +stand up under the strain?" + +"That is the one problem remaining," he replied; "and I am now working +on a method of neutralizing it. From the latest results of our +experiments, George and I are certain of its feasibility." + + * * * * * + +The _Pioneer_ was now losing altitude once more, and Hart played the +beam of the searchlight in all directions as we descended. He and George +watched through one of the floor ports and I followed suit. We were +falling, unhampered by air resistance, and our bodies were practically +weightless with reference to the _Pioneer_. It was a strange sensation: +there was the feeling of exhilaration one experiences when inhaling the +first whiff of nitrous oxide in the dentist's chair--a feeling of +absolute detachment and care-free confidence in the ultimate result of +our precipitous descent. + +I found considerable amusement in pushing myself from side to side of +the cabin with a mere touch of a finger. There was no up nor down, and +sometimes it seemed to me that we were drifting sideways, sometimes that +we fell upward rather than downward. Hart and George were unconcerned. +Evidently they were quite accustomed to the sensations. They bent their +every energy toward discovering what had caused the disaster to the +SF-22 and its convoy. + +For several hours we cruised about on the strangest search ever made in +the air. Alternately shooting skyward to unconscionable altitudes and +dropping to levels five and six to replenish our fuel supply, we covered +the greater portion of the United States before the night was over. But +the powerful searchlight of the _Pioneer_ failed to disclose anything +that might be remotely connected with the disappearance of the SF-22. + +For me it was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Lightning dashes from +coast to coast which required but a few minutes of time--circling many +miles above New York or Washington or Savannah in broad daylight with +the sun low on the up-curved horizon; then shooting westward into the +darkness and skirting the Pacific coast less than fifteen minutes later, +but with four hours' actual time difference. Space and time were almost +one. + + * * * * * + +Hart had not provided the _Pioneer_ with a radio or television +transmitter, but there was an excellent receiver, and, through its +agency we learned that the world was in a veritable uproar over the +latest visitation of the mysterious terror of the sixth air level. All +commercial traffic in levels four, five and six was ordered +discontinued, and the government air control stations were flashing long +messages in code, the import of which could but be guessed. Vision +flashes showed immense gatherings at the large airports and in the +public squares of the great cities, where the general populace become +more and more excited and terrified by the awful possibilities pictured +by various prominent speakers. + +The governments of all foreign powers made haste to disclaim +responsibility for the air attacks or for any attempt at making war on +the United States. News broadcasts failed to mention Hart Jones or the +_Pioneer_, since the mission had been kept secret. The phenomenon of the +rays and the roaring column of light had been observed from many points +on this occasion and there was no longer any doubt as to the nature of +the terror as visible to the eye, though theories as to the action and +source of the rays conflicted greatly and formed the basis of much +heated discussion. + +Eventually the advancing dawn reached San Francisco, and with its advent +Hart decided to make a landing in that city so that my bonds could be +delivered. + + * * * * * + +Jones was apparently a very much mystified and discouraged man. "Jack," +he said, "it seems to me that this thing is but the beginning of some +tremendous campaign that is being waged against our country by a clever +and powerful enemy. And I feel that our work in connection with the +unraveling of the mystery and overcoming the enemy or enemies is but +begun. It's a cinch that the thing is organized by human minds and is +not any sort of a freak of the elements. Our work is cut out for us, all +right, and I wish you would stick to George and me through the mess. +Will you?" + +"Sure," I agreed, readily enough. "After these bonds are delivered I am +free for a month." + +"Ha! Ha!" cackled George, without mirth. "A month! We're doggoned lucky +if we get to the bottom of this in a year." + +"Nonsense!" snapped Hart, who was considerably upset by the failure to +locate the source of the disastrous rays. "There is nothing supernatural +about this, and anything that can be explained on a scientific basis can +be run to earth in short order. These rays are man-made and, as such, +can be accounted for by man. Our greatest scientists must be put to work +on the problem at once--in fact, they have quite probably been called in +by the government already." + + * * * * * + +He was maneuvering the _Pioneer_ to a landing on the broad field of the +San Francisco airport. Hundreds of idle planes of all sizes lined the +field, and, unmindful of the earliness the hour, a great crowd was +collected in expectation of sensational reports from the occupants of +arriving ships. The unusual construction of the _Pioneer_ attracted +considerable attention and it was with difficulty that the police kept +back the crowd when she rolled to a stop near the office of the local +government supervisor. We hustled inside and were greeted by that +official with open arms. + +"Glory be!" he exclaimed. "Hart Jones and the _Pioneer_. Every airport +in the land has been on the lookout for you all night. It was feared you +had been lost with the SF-22 and the others. Code messages to the +supervisors of all districts advised of your mission, though it has been +kept out of the general news, as has the message from the enemy." + +"Message from the enemy!" gasped Hart, George and I, echoing the words +like parrots. + +"Yes. A demand that the United States surrender, and a threat to descend +into the lower levels if the demand is not complied with in twenty-four +hours!" + +"Who is this enemy?" asked Hart, "and where?" + +"Who they are is not known," replied the official gravely; "and as to +the location, the War Department is puzzled. Direction finders +throughout the country took readings on the position of their radio +transmitter and these readings differed widely in result. But the +consensus of opinion is that the messages originate somewhere out in +space, probably between fifty and one hundred thousand miles from our +earth." + +"Great guns!" Hart glanced at George and me, where we stood with +stupidly hanging jaws. "And what does the government want of me now?" + +"You are considered to be the one man who might be able to cope with the +problem, and are ordered to report to the Secretary of War, in person, +immediately." + + * * * * * + +Hart was electrified into instant activity. "Here," he said in a voice +of authority that commanded the official's attention and respect, "see +that this package of bonds is delivered at once to the addressee and +that the addressor is advised of its safe arrival. We're off at once." + +Suiting action to the words, he thrust my packet into the hands of the +astonished supervisor. Then, turning sharply on his heel, he flung back, +"Advise the Secretary of War that I shall report to him in person in +less than one hour." + +As we stepped through the entrance of the _Pioneer_, he shot a final +look at the official and laughed heartily at his sudden accession of +energy. We had not the slightest doubt that Hart's orders would be +immediately and efficiently carried out. + + * * * * * + +In precisely forty-five minutes, we stood before the desk of Lawrence +Simler, then Secretary of War, in Washington. + +"You are Mr. Hartley Jones?" inquired the stern-visaged little man. + +"I am, Mr. Secretary, and these are my friends and co-workers, George +Boehm and John Makely." + +The Secretary acknowledged the introduction gravely, then plunged into +the heart of the matter at hand with the quick energy for which he was +famed. + +"It may or may not be a serious situation," he said, "but certainly it +has thus far been quite alarming. In any event, we have taken the matter +out of the hands of the Air Traffic Bureau. We are prepared to defy the +ultimatum of the enemy, whoever he may be. But we want your help, Mr. +Jones. Every ship of the Air Navy will be in the upper levels within the +prescribed twenty-four hours, and we will endeavor to stave off their +attacks until such time as you can fit the _Pioneer_ for a journey to +their headquarters." + +"How can your antiquated war vessels, capable of hurling a high +explosive shell no more than fifty miles, fight off an enemy that is +thousands of miles distant?" asked Hart. + +"It is believed by the research engineers of the government that, though +their headquarters may be located at a great distance, the raiders drop +to a comparatively low altitude at the time of one of their attacks, +returning immediately thereafter to their base." + +Hart Jones shook his head. "The engineers may be correct," he stated; +"but how on earth can you expect a little vessel like the _Pioneer_ to +battle an enemy who is possessed of these terribly destructive weapons +and who has sufficient confidence in his own invulnerability to declare +war on the greatest country on earth?" + + * * * * * + +Secretary Simler dropped his voice to a confidential tone, and his keen +gray eyes flashed excitement as he unfolded the details of the +discoveries and plans of the War Department. We three listened in +undisguised amazement to a tale of the unceasing labors of our Secret +Service agents in foreign countries, of elaborate experiments with +deadly weapons and the chemicals of warfare. + +We heard of marvelous new rays that could be projected for many miles +and destroy whole armies at a single blast; rays that would, in less +time than that required to tell of the feat, reduce to a mass of fused +metal the greatest firstline battleships of the old days of ocean +warfare. We heard of preparations for defensive warfare throughout the +civilized world, preparedness that insured so terrible and final a war +that it was literally impossible for a great world conflagration to +again break out. We learned that the present mysterious signs of a +coming war could not possibly have originated in any country on earth, +else they would have been known of long in advance, due to the network +of the Secret Service system. This war, so unexpectedly thrust upon us, +was undoubtedly a war of planets! + +"But," objected Hart, "the messages were in English, were they not?" + +"They were," continued Secretary Simler, "and that puzzled our experts +in the beginning. But, it may well be that our enemy from out the skies +has had spies among us for many years and could thus have learned our +languages and radio codes. In any event, we are to meet destructive rays +with others equally destructive, and you, Hartley Jones, are the man who +can make our effectiveness certain." + +"I?" + +"Yes. How long a time will be required in fitting out the _Pioneer_ for +reliable space flying?" + + * * * * * + +Hart Jones pondered the matter and I could see that he was overjoyed at +the prospect of getting into the thing in earnest. "About one week," he +replied, "providing you can send a force of fifty expert mechanics to my +hangar at once and supply all material as fast as I shall require it." + +"Excellent," said the Secretary. "We'll have the men there in a few +hours and will obtain whatever you need, regardless of cost, for +immediate delivery. Incidentally, there will be several scientists as +well, who will supervise the installation of two types of ray generators +and their projecting mechanisms on the _Pioneer_. You will need them +later." + +"I don't doubt we shall," said Hart. "And now, with your permission, we +shall leave for the hangar. I'm ready to start work." + +"Capital!" Secretary Simler pressed every one of a row of buttons set in +his desk top. We were dismissed. + +"Well," said I, when we reached the outside, "he has given you quite a +job, Hart!" + +"You said something," he replied. "But, if this threat from the skies +proves as real and as calamitous as I think it will, we all have our +work cut out for us." + +"Do you really believe this enemy comes from another planet?" asked +George as we entered the _Pioneer_ for the trip home. + +"Where else can they be from?" countered Hart. "But, really it makes no +difference to us now. We have to go after them in earnest. Don't want to +quit, do you, George?" + +"Wha-a-at?" shouted George, as he jerked savagely at the main switch of +the _Pioneer_. "You know me better than that, Hart. Did I ever let you +down in anything?" + +"No," admitted the smiling Hart, "you never did, bless your heart. But +Jack here is another matter. He has a wife and two kids to look after. +That lets him out automatically." + + * * * * * + +My heart sank at the words, for I knew that he meant what he said. And, +truth to tell, I saw the justice in his remarks. + +"But, Hart," I faltered, "I'd like to be in on this thing." + +"I know you would, old man. But I think it's out of the question, for +the present at least. You can help with the reconstruction of the +_Pioneer_, however." + +And meekly I accepted his dictum, though with secretly conflicting +emotions. Little did I realize at the time that Hart knew far more than +he pretended and that he had merely attempted to salve his own +conscience in this manner. + +I was very anxious to return to my family, and, as I sped homeward in a +taxicab after the _Pioneer_ landed at her own hangar, my mind was filled +with doubts and fears. Secretary Simler had been very brief in his talk, +but his every word carried home the gravity of the situation. What if +these invaders carried the war to the surface? Suppose they seared the +countryside and the cities and suburbs with rays of horrible nature that +would shrivel and blast all that lay in their path? My heart chilled at +the thought and it was a distinct relief when I gazed on my little home +and saw that it was safe--so far. I paid the driver with a much too +large bank note and dashed up my own front steps two at a time. + +A few hours later I tore myself away and returned to the hangar, where +the _Pioneer_ now reposed in a scaffolded cradle. The sight which met my +eyes was astonishing in the extreme, for the hangar had been transformed +into a huge workshop with seemingly hundreds of men already at work. It +was a scene of furious activity, and, to my utter amazement, I observed +that the _Pioneer_ was already in an advanced stage of disassembly. + + * * * * * + +I had no difficulty in locating Hart Jones, for he was striding from +lathe to workbench to boring mill, issuing his orders with the sureness +and decision of a born leader of men. He welcomed me in his most brisk +manner and immediately assigned me to a portion of the work in the +chemical laboratory--something I was at least partly fitted for. + +We labored far into the night, when a siren called us to rest and food. +This was to be a night and day job, and not a man of those on duty gave +thought to the intense nervous and physical strain. Sixty-five of us I +learned there were, though it had seemed there were several times that +number. + +During the rest period, Hart switched on the large television and sound +mechanism of the public news broadcasts. Great excitement prevailed +throughout the United States, for there had been a leak and the news had +gone abroad regarding the message from the enemy. There was widespread +panic and disorder and the government was besieged with demands for +authentic news. The twenty-four hours of grace had nearly expired. + +Finally the public was told of what actually was happening. Our entire +fleet of one thousand air cruisers was in air-level six, waiting for the +enemy. America was going to fight in earnest! + + * * * * * + +Flashes of our air cruisers in construction and in action came over the +screen; voice-vision records of the popular officers of the fleet +followed in quick succession. Then came the blow--the first of the +strange war. + +Two vessels of the air fleet had been destroyed by the triple rays and +pillar of fire! Fifty cruisers rushing to the scene had been unable to +find any traces of the source of the deadly rays. And, this time, there +was an alarming added element. The pillar of fire had risen from a point +near Gadsden in Alabama and, in its wake, there spread a sulphurous, +smoldering fire that crept along the ground and destroyed all in its +path. Farms, factories, and even the steel rails of the railroads were +consumed and burned into the ground as if by the breath of some +tremendous blast furnace. Hundreds of inhabitants of the section +perished, and it was reported that the fumes from the strange fires were +drifting in the direction of Birmingham, terrifyingly visible in +blue-green clouds of searing vapor. + +With the first news of the disaster came a wave of fear that spread over +the country with the rapidity of the ether waves that carried the news. +Then came stern determination. This enemy must be swept from the skies! +Gatherings in public places volunteered en masse for whatever service +the government might ask of them. The entire world was in an uproar, and +from Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia, came immediate offers of +their air fleets to assist in fighting off the Terror. + + * * * * * + +In less than an hour there were nearly five thousand cruisers in +air-level six, patroling its entire depth from thirty-five thousand to +one hundred thousand feet altitude. + +We resumed work in the hangar, but the news service was kept in +operation as far as the amplifiers were concerned, though the television +screen was switched off on account of the likelihood of its distracting +the workers. + +Again came the report of a major disaster, this time over Butte in +Montana. Four American vessels and one British were the victims in level +six. And the city of Butte was in flames; blue, horrible flames that +literally melted the city into the ground. Again there was no trace of +the invaders. + +How puny were the efforts of the five thousand air cruisers! Marvels of +engineering and mechanical skill, these vessels were. Deadly as were the +weapons they carried--weapons so terrible that war on earth was +considered impossible since their development--they were helpless +against an enemy who could not be located. Though our vessels were +capable of boring high into the stratosphere, the enemy worked from +still higher. + +"Holy smoke!" gasped Hart Jones, who had stopped at my side. "What a +contract I have on my hands!" + + * * * * * + +He looked in the direction of the partly dismantled _Pioneer_, and I +could see by the fixedness of his stare that he was thinking of her +insignificant size in comparison with the job she was to undertake. + +Above the din of the machines in the hangar rang the startled voice of a +news announcer. Panic-stricken he seemed, and we stopped to listen. +Another blow of the terror of the skies--and now close by! Over +Westchester County in New York State there was a repetition of the +previous attacks. Only two of the cruisers had vanished this time; but +several towns, including Larchmont and Scarsdale, were pools of molten +fire! + +Sick at heart, I thought of my little home in Rutherford and of the dear +ones it contained. I thought of telephoning, but, what was the use? +There was no warding off of this terrible thing that had so suddenly +come to our portion of the world. It was the blowing of the last +trumpet, the way things looked. + +The announcer had calmed himself. His voice droned tonelessly now, as +was the custom. Another raid, on the Mexican Border now. We were +stupefied by the rapidity of the enemy's attacks; then electrified once +more by the most astounding news of all. Alexandria, in Egypt, was the +base of a pillar of fire! Fully half of the city was wiped out, and the +remainder in a mortal funk, terrorized and riotous. The United States +was not alone in the war! + +The foreign fleets which reinforced our own were ordered home +immediately. But to what avail? The world was doomed! + + * * * * * + +In the morning, after nine fearful attacks during the night, there came +another message from the enemy and this was repeated in five languages +and addressed to the entire world: + +"People of Earth," it read, "this is our final warning. One chance has +been given and you have proved stubborn. Consider well that your +civilization be not entirely destroyed, and answer as the expiration of +forty-eight hours, using our transmitting frequency. Our hand is to be +withheld for that period only, when, unless our demands are met, all of +your large cities and towns will be destroyed. Our terms for peace are +that we be permitted to land without resistance on your part; that you +surrender farm and forest lands, cities and towns, able-bodied men of +twenty to forty, selected women of seventeen to thirty, and tribute in +the form of such supplies and precious metals as we may specify, all to +the extent of forty per cent of your resources. No compromise will be +accepted." + +That was all. It was during a rest period at the Jones hangar and I had +brought Hart and George to my home for breakfast. We sat at the table +when the news instrument brought the message. Marie was pouring the +coffee, and my two small boys, Jim and Jack, had gone to the playroom, +from whence their joyous voices could be heard. We four were struck dumb +at the announcement, and Marie looked at me with so awful an expression +of dread that my coffee turned bitter in my mouth. Marie was just +twenty-eight! + +"What beasts!" cried Hart. "Allow them to land without resistance? I +should say not! Rather we should fight them off until all of us perish." + + * * * * * + +He had risen from his chair in his anger. Now he sat down suddenly and +shook a forefinger in my face. + +"Say!" he exploded. "You can't tell me that some master mind of our own +world is not back of this!" + +"I'm not telling you," I replied, startled at the fierce fire that +flashed from his eyes. + +"I know. I'm just trying to think aloud and I'm liable to say anything. +But this sort of business is the work of humans as sure as you're born. +Still I believe that what Simler says is true. I can't believe that any +country on earth is back of the thing. It must be an attack from beings +of another planet, but I think they have as a leader a man who is of +our own earth." + +Marie's eyes opened wide at this. "But how could that be?" she asked. +"Surely no one from our earth has made the trip to one of the other +planets?" + +"It may be that someone has," replied Hart. "Do you remember Professor +Oradel? Remember, about ten years ago, I think it was, when he and a +half dozen or more of extremely radical scientists built a rocket they +claimed would reach the moon? They were ridiculed and hissed and +relegated to the position of half-baked, crazy inventors. But Oradel had +a large private fortune, and he and his crowd built themselves a +workshop and laboratory in a secluded region in the Ozarks. Here they +labored and experimented and eventually the rocket ship was constructed. +No person was in their confidence, but when the machine was completed +they issued a statement to the press to the effect that they were ready +for the voyage to the moon, and that, when they returned, a reckoning +with the world was to be made for its disbelief and total lack of +sympathy. Again the press subjected Oradel to a series of scathing +denunciations, and the scientific publications refused to take +cognizance of his claims in any way, shape or form." + + * * * * * + +"Then, one night, a great rocket roared into the heavens, leaving a +terror-stricken countryside in the wake of its brilliantly visible tail. +Several observatories whose telescopes picked up and followed the trail +of the contraption reported that it described a huge parabola, mounting +high into the stratosphere and falling back to earth, where it was lost +in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. There the thing ended and it was +soon forgotten. But I believe that this rocket ship of Oradel's reached +Mars or Venus and that the peoples of whichever planet they reached have +been prevailed upon and prepared to war upon the world." + +"That would explain their knowledge of our languages and codes." I +ventured, "and would likewise account for the fact that the first of our +ships to be attacked were those carrying large shipments of currency. +Though if these were destroyed by the fire columns, I can not see what +good the money would do them." + +"Don't believe the first three were destroyed," grunted Hart. "You'll +remember that in these cases the pillars of fire, or whatever you want +to call them, were of a cold light, whereas now they are viciously hot +and leave behind them the terrible destructive fires that spread and +spread and seemingly never are extinguished. No, I think that the force +used is something of the nature of an atom-disrupting triad of beams and +that these set up the column as a veritable tornado, a whirling column +of roaring wind rushing skyward with tremendous velocity. The first +ships, I believe, were carried into the stratosphere and captured intact +by the enemy. + +"Since the declaration of war the nature of the column has altered. The +three beams, instead of meeting at or near the surface of the earth, now +join high in the heavens and the column strikes downward instead of +expending its force upward. An added energy is used which produces the +terribly destructive force below. And now we are able to locate +fragments of the ships destroyed above, whereas previously there were no +traces." + + * * * * * + +"Sounds reasonable," commented George. "But why have they not landed and +waged their war right here without warning, if that is what they now +intend to do?" + +"A natural question, George. But I have a hunch that the space flier or +fliers of the enemy are conserving fuel by remaining beyond gravity. You +know, in space flying, the greatest expenditures of energy are in +leaving or landing on a body and, once landed, they might not have +sufficient fuel for a getaway. They know we are not exactly helpless, +once they are in our midst, and are taking this means of reducing us to +the point of complete subjection before risking their precious selves +among us." + +The telephone startled us by its insistent ring. It was a call from the +hangar for Hart. The news broadcast announcer was in the midst of a long +dissertation regarding the discovery only this morning that there were +certain apparent discrepancies in the movements of the tides and +unwonted perturbations of the moon's orbit. There flashed on the screen +a view of the great observatory at Mount Wilson, and Professor Laughlin +of that institution stepped into the foreground of the scene to take up +the discussion so mechanically repeated by the announcer. + +"Must leave for the hangar at once," declared Hart, returning from the +telephone. "Simler and his staff are there and we are wanted +immediately." + +"Oh, Jack!" Marie begged with her eyes. + +"Got to be done, Honey," I responded, "and, believe me, I am going to do +what little I can to help. Suppose we surrendered!" + + * * * * * + +I shuddered anew at the very thought and took hurried leave of my +family, Hart and George awaiting me in the hall. Had I known what was to +transpire before the end of the war, I am certain I would have been in +much less of a hurry. + +We rushed to the hangar, where Secretary Simler and his party awaited us +in the office. Rather, I should say, they waited for Hart Jones. + +"Mr. Jones," said the Secretary of War, when the introductions were +over, "it is up to you to get the _Pioneer_ in shape to go out after +these terrible creatures before the forty-eight hours have expired. We +have replied to their ultimatum and have told them we will have our +answer ready within the appointed time, but it is already agreed between +the nations of the World Alliance that our reply is to be negative. +Better far that we submit to the utter destruction of our civilization +than agree to their terms." + +"I believe I can do it, Mr. Secretary," was Hart Jones' simple comment. +"At least I will try. But you must let me have an experienced astronomer +at once with whom to consult." + +"Astronomer?" + +"Yes--immediately. I have a theory, but am not enough of a student of +astronomy myself to work it out." + +"You shall have the best man in the Air Naval Observatory at once." +Secretary Simler chewed his cigar savagely. "And anything else you might +need," he concluded. + +"There is nothing else, sir." Hart turned from the great men who +regarded him solemnly, some with expressions of hope, others with plain +distrust written large on their countenances. + + * * * * * + +They left in silence and we returned to our work with renewed vigor. +Within an hour there arrived by fast plane an undersized, +thick-spectacled man who presented himself as Professor Linquist +from the government observatory. He was immediately taken into the +office by Hart and the two remained behind closed doors for the best +part of four hours. + +Meanwhile the hangar hummed with activity as usual. We in the chemical +laboratory were engaged in compounding the high explosive used as fuel +in the _Pioneer_. This was being compressed to its absolute limit and +was stored in long steel cylinders in the form of a liquid of extremely +low temperature. These cylinders were at once transferred to a special +steel vault where the temperature was kept at a low enough point to +prevent expansion and consequent loss of the explosive, not to speak of +the danger of destroying the entire lot of us in its escape. + +The generating apparatus of the _Pioneer_ was to be dispensed with for +this trip, since it was of no value outside the atmosphere where there +was no air from which to extract the elements necessary for the +production of the explosive. Instead, the entire supply of fuel for the +trip was to be carried aboard the vessel in the cylinders we were +engaged in filling. Hart had calculated that there was just sufficient +room to store fuel for a trip of about two hundred thousand miles from +the earth and a safe return. We hoped this would be enough. + + * * * * * + +On the scaffolding around the _Pioneer_ there were now so many workers +that it seemed they must forever be in one another's way. But the work +was progressing with extreme rapidity. Already there projected from her +blunt nose a slender rod of shining metal which was the projector of one +of the destructive rays whose generator and auxiliaries were being +installed under the supervision of the government experts. The force had +been trebled and was now working in shifts of two hours each, the pace +being so exhausting that highest efficiency was obtained by using these +short periods. + +Additional rocket tubes were being installed, and the steel framework of +a bulge now showed on the hull, this bulge being an additional fuel +storage compartment that would provide a slight additional resistance +and consequently lower speed in the lower levels, but would prove little +hindrance in level six and none at all in outer space. + +When Hart emerged from his office he appeared to be very tired, indeed, +but his face bore an expression of triumph that could not be mistaken. +He and this little scientist from Washington had evidently arrived at +some momentous conclusion regarding the enemy. + +"Jack," he said, when he reached my bench during his first round of the +hanger, "celestial mechanics is a wonderful thing. I had a hunch, and +this astronomer chap has proved it correct with his mathematics. Our +friend the enemy is out there in space at a point where his own mass and +velocity are exactly counteracted by those of the earth and its +satellite, the moon. He is just floating around in space, doing no work +whatsoever to maintain his own position. He has temporarily assumed the +rôle of a second satellite to us and is revolving around us at a +definite period that was calculated by Lindquist. The gravitational pull +of the moon keeps him from falling to the earth and that of the earth +keeps him from approaching the moon. The resultant of the set of forces +is what determines his orbit and the disturbance in the normal balance +is what has been observed by the astronomers who reported changes in the +tides and in the moon's orbit." + + * * * * * + +"But Lindquist's figures prove that the vessel or fleet of the enemy +must be of tremendous size to produce such discrepancies, +infinitesimally small though they might seem. We have a big fellow with +whom to deal, but we know where to find him now." + +"How can he work from a fixed position to make his attacks on the earth +at such widely separated points?" I asked. + +"It isn't a fixed position in the first place, and besides the earth +rotates once in twenty-four hours, while the moon travels around the +earth once in about twenty-eight days. But, even so, the widespread +destruction could not be accounted for. He must send out scouting +parties or something of that sort. That is one of the things we are to +learn when we get out there. We'll have some fun, Jack." + +"Will the _Pioneer_ be ready?" I asked. Evidently I was to go. + +"She will, with the exception of the acceleration neutralizers. But I'm +having some heavily-cushioned and elastic supports made that will, I +believe, save us from injury. And I guess we can stand the discomfort +for once." + +"Yes," I agreed, "in such a cause, I, for one, am willing to go through +anything to help keep this overwhelming disaster from our good old +world." + +"Jack," he whispered, "we must prevent it. We've got to!" + +Then he was gone, and I watched him for a moment as he dashed headlong +from one task to another. He was a whirlwind of energy once more. + + * * * * * + +Forty-three hours and twenty minutes had passed since the receipt of the +enemy's ultimatum. The last bolt was being tightened in the remodeled +_Pioneer_, and Secretary Simler and his staff were on hand to witness +the take-off of the vessel on which the hopes of the world were pinned. +The news of our attempt had been spread by cable and printed news only, +for there was fear that the enemy might be able to pick up the +broadcasts of the news service and thus be able to anticipate us. As +usual, there were many scoffers, but the consensus of opinion was in +favor of the project. At any rate, what better expedient was there to +offer? + +The huge airport, now unused on account of the complete cessation of air +traffic, was closed to the public. But there was quite a crowd to +witness the take-off, the visitors from Washington, the officials of the +field, and the two hundred workers who had enabled us to make ready for +the adventure in time. There were four to enter the _Pioneer_: Hart, +George, Professor Lindquist, and myself. And when the entrance manhole +was bolted home behind us, the watchers stood in silence, waiting for +the roar of the _Pioneer's_ motor. As the starter took hold, Hart waved +his hand at one of the ports and every man of those two hundred and some +watchers stood at attention and saluted is if he were a born soldier and +Hart a born commander-in-chief. + + * * * * * + +We taxied heavily across the field, for the _Pioneer_ was much +overloaded for a quick take-off. She bumped and bounced for a +quarter-mile before taking to the air and then climbed very slowly +indeed, for several minutes. Our speed was a scant two hundred miles an +hour when we swung out over New York and headed for the Atlantic. And +then Hart made first use of the rocket tubes, not daring to discharge +the hot gases below while over populated land at so low an altitude. He +touched one button, maintaining the pressure for but a fraction of a +second. The ocean slipped more rapidly away from beneath our feet and he +touched the button once more. Our speed was now nearly seven hundred +miles an hour and we made haste to buckle ourselves into the padded, +hammocklike contrivances which had been substituted for the former +seats. In a very few minutes we entered level six and the motor was cut +off entirely. + +A blast from a number of the tail rockets drove me into my supporting +hammock so heavily that I found difficulty in breathing, and could +scarcely move a muscle to change position. The rate of acceleration was +terrific, and I am still unable to understand how Hart was able to +manipulate the controls. For myself, I could not even turn my head from +its position in the padding and I felt as if I were being crushed by +thousands of tons of pressure. Then, the pressure was somewhat relieved +and I glanced to the instruments. We were more than a thousand miles +from our starting point and the speed indicator read seven thousand +miles an hour. We were traveling at the rate of nearly two miles a +second! + + * * * * * + +Another blast from the rockets, this one of interminable length, and I +must have lost consciousness. For when I next took note of things I +found that we had been out for nearly two hours and that the tremendous +pressure of acceleration was relieved. I moved my head, experimentally +and found that my senses were normal, though there was a strange and +alarming sensation of being wrong side up. Then I remembered that I had +experienced the same thing when we first searched the upper levels of +the atmosphere for the origin of the destructive rays of the enemy. + +But this was different! I gazed through a nearby port and saw that the +sky was entirely black, the stars shining magnificently brilliant +against their velvet background. Streamers of brilliant sunlight from +the floor ports struck across the cabin and patterned the ceiling. +Looking between my feet I saw the sun as a flaming orb with streamers of +incandescence that spread in every direction with such blinding +luminosity that I could not bear the sight for more than a few seconds. +Off to what I was pleased to think of as our left side, there was a huge +globe that I quickly made out as our own earth. Eerily green it shone, +and, though a considerable portion of the surface was obscured by +patches of white that I recognized as clouds, I could clearly make out +the continents of the eastern hemisphere. It was a marvelous sight and I +lost several minutes in awed contemplation of the wonder. Then I heard +Hart laugh. + +"Just coming out of it, Jack?" he asked. + + * * * * * + +I stared at him foolishly. It had seemed to me that I was alone in this +vast universe, and the sound of his voice startled me. "Guess I'm not +fully out of it yet," I said. "Where are we?" + +"Oh, about sixty thousand miles out," he replied carelessly; "and we are +traveling at our maximum speed--that is, the maximum we need for this +little voyage." + +"Little voyage!" I gasped. And then I looked at George and the professor +and saw that they, too, were grinning at my discomfiture. I laughed +crazily, I suppose, for they all sobered at once. + +Traveling through space at more than forty thousand miles an hour, it +seemed that we were stationary. Movement was now easy--too easy, in +fact, for we were practically weightless. The professor was having a +time of it manipulating a pencil and a pad of paper on which he had a +mass of small figures that were absolutely meaningless to me. He was +calculating and plotting our course and, without him, we should never +have reached the object we sought. + +Time passed rapidly, for the wonders of the naked universe were a +never-ending source of fascination. Occasionally a series of rocket +charges was fired to keep our direction and velocity, but these were +light, and the acceleration so insignificant that we were put to no +discomfort whatever. But it was necessary that we keep our straps +buckled, for, in the weightless condition, even the slightest increase +or decrease in speed or change in direction was sufficient to throw us +the length of the cabin, from which painful bruises might be received. + + * * * * * + +The supports to which we were strapped and which saved us from being +crushed by the acceleration and deceleration, were similar to hammocks, +being hooked to the floor and ceiling of the cabin rather than suspended +horizontally in the conventional manner. This was for the reason that +the energy of the rockets was expended fore and aft, except for +steering, and the forces were therefore along the horizontal axis of the +vessel. The supports were elastic and the padding deep and soft. Being +swiveled at top and bottom, they could swing around so that deceleration +as well as acceleration was relieved. For this reason the controls had +been altered so that the flexible support in which Hart was suspended +could rotate about their pedestal, thus allowing for their operation by +the pilot either when accelerating or decelerating. How he could control +the muscles of his arms and hands under the extreme conditions is still +a mystery to me, however, and George agrees with me in this. We found +ourselves to be utterly helpless. + +My next impression of the trip is that of swinging rapidly around and +finding myself facing the rear wall of the cabin. Then the tremendous +pressure once more at a burst from the forward tubes. We had commenced +deceleration. For me there were alternate periods of full and +semi-consciousness and, to this day, I can remember no more than the +high spots of that historical expedition. + + * * * * * + +Then we were free to move once more, and I turned to face the instrument +board. Our relative velocity had become practically zero; that is, we +were traveling through space at about the same speed and in the same +direction as the earth. The professor and Hart were consulting a pencil +chart and excitedly looking first through the forward ports and then +into the screen of the periscope. + +"This is the approximate location," averred the professor. + +"But they are not here," replied Hart. + +George and I peered in all directions and could see nothing excepting +the marvels of the universe we had been viewing. The moon now seemed +very close and its craters and so-called seas were as plainly visible as +in a four-inch telescope on earth. But we saw nothing of the enemy. + +The earth was a huge ball still, but much smaller than when I had first +observed it from the heavens. The sun's corona--the flaming streamers +which the professor declared extended as much as five million miles into +space--was partly hidden behind the rim of the earth and the effect was +blinding. A thin crescent of brilliant light marked the rim of our +planet and the rest was in shadow, but a shadow that was lighted +awesomely in cold green by reflected light from her satellite. + +"I have it!" suddenly shouted the professor. "We are all in very nearly +the same line with reference to the sun, and the enemy is between the +blazing body and ourselves. We must shift our position, move into the +shadow of the earth. We have missed our calculation by a few hundred +miles, that is all." + +All! I thought. These astronomers, so accustomed to dealing in +tremendous distances that must be measured in light-years, thought +nothing of an error of several hundred miles. But I suppose it was +really an inconsiderable amount, at that. + +At any rate, we shifted position and looked around a bit more. We saw +nothing at first. Then Hart consulted the chronometer. + +"Time is up!" he shouted. + + * * * * * + +On the instant there was a flash of dazzling green light from a point +not a hundred miles from our position, a flash that was followed by a +streaking pencil of the same light shooting earthward with terrific +velocity. Breathlessly we followed its length, saw it burst like a bomb +and hurl three green balls from itself which sped at equally spaced +angles to form a perfect triangle. They hovered a moment at about two +thousand miles above the surface of the earth, according to the +professor, who was using the telescope at the time, and shot their +deadly rays toward our world. We were too late to prevent the renewal of +hostilities! + +Another and another streak of green light followed and we knew that +great havoc was being wrought back home. But these served to locate the +enemy's position definitely and we immediately set about to draw nearer. +We were still somewhat on the dark side of the object, which had +prevented our seeing it. Now we swung about so that it was plainly +visible. And, what a strange appearance it presented, out here in space! + +Fully fifteen miles in diameter, it was a huge doughnut, a great ring of +tubing with a center-opening that was at least eighty per cent of its +maximum diameter. There it hovered, sending out those deadly missiles in +a continuous stream toward our poor world. As we approached the weird +space flier, we saw that a number of objects floated about within the +great circle of its inner circumference. The NY-18, the SF-61 and the +SF-22, without doubt! The theory of Hart's was correct in every detail. + + * * * * * + +We were still at about ten miles distance from the great ring and the +streaking light pencils were speeding earthward at the rate of one a +minute now. There was no time to lose. Already there was more +destruction on its way than had been previously wrought--several times +over. + +Hart was sighting along a tiny tube that projected into the forward +partition and he maneuvered the _Pioneer_ until she was nose on to the +great ring. He pulled a switch and there came a purring that was +entirely new. A row of huge vacuum tubes along the wall lighted to vivid +brilliancy and a throbbing vibration filled the artificial air of the +cabin. + +He pulled a small lever at the side of the tube and the vessel rocked to +the energy that was released from those vacuum tubes. The thin rod which +had been installed at the _Pioneer's_ nose burst into brilliant +flame--orange tinted luminescence that grew to a sphere of probably ten +feet in diameter. Then there was a heavy shock and the ball of fire left +its position and, with inconceivable velocity, sprang straight for the +side of the great ring. It was a fair hit and, when the weird missile +found its mark, it simply vanished--swallowed up in the metal walls of +the monster vessel. For a moment we thought nothing was to result. Then +we burst into shouts of joy, for a great section of the ring fused into +nothingness and was gone! Fully a quarter of the circumference of the +ring had disappeared into the vacuum of space. Truly, the governments of +Earth had developed some terrible weapons of their own! + +We watched, breathless. + + * * * * * + +The green light pencils no longer streaked their paths of death in the +direction of our world, which now seemed so remote. The great ring with +the vacant space in its rim wabbled uncertainly for a moment as though +some terrific upheaval from within was tearing it asunder. Then it +lurched directly for the _Pioneer_. We had been observed! + +But Hart was equal to the occasion and he shot the _Pioneer_ in the +direction of the earth with such acceleration that we all were flattened +into our supports with the same old violence. Then, with equal violence, +we decelerated. The ring was following so closely that it actually +rushed many hundreds of miles past us before it was brought to rest. +From it there sprang one of the light pencils, and the _Pioneer_ was +rocked as by a heavy gale when it rushed past on its harmless way into +infinity. The enemy had missed. + +Meanwhile, Hart was operating another mechanism that was new to the +_Pioneer_ and again he sighted along the tiny tube. This time there was +no sound within, no ball of fire without, no visible ray. But, when he +had pressed the release of this second energy, the ring seemed to +shrivel and twist as if gripped by a giant's hand. It reeled and spun. +Then, no longer in a balance of forces, it commenced its long drop +earthward. + +His job finished and finished well, Hart Jones collapsed. + + * * * * * + +Following his more than three days and four nights of superhuman +endeavor, it seemed strange to see Hart slumped white and still over the +control pedestal. He who had energy far in excess of that of any of the +rest of us had worn himself out. Having had no rest or sleep in nearly a +hundred hours, the body that housed so wonderful a spirit simply refused +to carry on. Tenderly we stretched him on the cabin floor, the _Pioneer_ +drifting in space the while. The professor, who was likewise something +of a physician, listened to his heart, drew back his eyelids, and +pronounced him in no danger whatever. + +We slapped his wrists, sprinkled his face and neck with cold water from +the drinking supply, and were soon rewarded by his return to +consciousness. He smiled weakly and fell sound asleep. No war in the +universe could have wakened him then, so we lifted him to his +feet--rather I should say, we guided his practically floating body--and +strapped him in George's hammock, preparing for the homeward journey. +Though dangling from the straps in a position that would be vertical +were we on earth, he slept like a baby. George took the controls in +Hart's place and the professor and I returned to our accustomed +supports. + +The return trip was considerably slower, as George did not wish to push +the _Pioneer_ to its limit as had been necessary when coming out to meet +the enemy, nor was he able to keep control of the ship against a +too-rapid acceleration. Consequently, the rate of acceleration was much +lower and we were not nearly as uncomfortable as on the outgoing trip. +Thus, nearly ten hours were required for the return. And Hart slept +through it all. + + * * * * * + +In order to make best use of the small amount of fuel still in the +cylinders, George circled the earth five times before we entered the +upper limits of the atmosphere, the circles becoming of smaller diameter +at each revolution and the speed of the ship proportionately reduced. An +occasional discharge from one of the forward rocket tubes assisted +materially in the deceleration, yet, when we slipped into level five, +our speed was so great that the temperature of the cabin rose +alarmingly, due to the friction of the air against the hull of the +vessel. It was necessary to use the last remaining ounce of fuel to +reduce the velocity to a safe value. A long glide to earth was then our +only means of landing and, since we were over the Gulf of Mexico at the +time, we had no recourse other than landing in the State of Texas. + +Passing over Galveston in level three, we found that the Humble oil +fields and a great section of the surrounding country had been the +center of one of the enemy bombardments. All was blackness and ruin for +many miles between this point and Houston. At Houston Airport we landed, +unheralded but welcome. + +The lower levels were once more filled with traffic, and one of the +southern route transcontinental liners had just made its stop at this +point. The arrival of the _Pioneer_ was thus witnessed by an unusually +large crowd, and, when the news was spread to the city, their numbers +increased with all the rapidity made possible by the various means of +transportation from the city. + +So it was that Hart Jones, after we finally succeeded in awakening him +and getting him to his feet, was hailed by a veritable multitude as the +greatest hero of all time. The demonstrations become so enthusiastic +that police reserves, hastily summoned from the city, were helpless in +their attempts to keep the crowd in order. + + * * * * * + +It was with greatest difficulty that Hart was finally extricated from +the clutches of the mob and conveyed to the new Rice Hotel in Houston, +where it was necessary to obtain medical attention for him immediately. +He was in no condition at the time to receive the richly deserved +plaudits of the multitude, and, truth to tell, we others from the +_Pioneer_ were in much the same shape. + +To me that night will always be the most terrible of nightmares. My +first thought was of my family and, when I had been assigned to a room, +I immediately asked the switchboard operator for a long-distance +connection to my home in Rutherford. There was complete silence for a +minute and I jangled the hook impatiently, my head throbbing with a +thousand aches and pains. Then, to my surprise, the voice of the hotel +manager greeted me. + +"Mr. Makely," he said softly, and I thought there was a peculiar ring in +his voice, "I think you had better not try to get Rutherford this +evening. We are sending the house physician to your room at once +and--there are orders from Washington, you know--you are to think of +nothing at the present but sleep and a long rest." + +"Why--why--" I stammered, "can't you see? I must communicate with my +family. They must know of my return. I must know if they're safe and +well." + +"I'm sorry, sir," apologized the manager, "Government orders, you know." +And he hung up. + +Something in that soft voice brought to me an inkling of the truth. An +icy hand gripped my heart as I heard a knock at the door. With palsied +fingers I turned the key and admitted the professor and a kindly-faced +elderly gentleman with a small black bag. One look at the professor told +me the truth. I seized his two arms in a grip that made him wince. + +"Tell me! Tell me!" I demanded, "Has anything happened to my family?" + +"Jack," said the professor slowly, "while we were out there watching +Hart destroy the enemy vessel, Rutherford was destroyed!" + + * * * * * + +It must be that I frightened him by my answering stare, for he backed +away from me in apparent fear. I noticed that the doctor was rummaging +in his bag. I know I did not speak, did not cry out, for my tongue clove +to the roof of my mouth. It seemed I must go mad. The professor still +backed away from me; then, wiry little athlete that he was, he sprang +directly for my knees in a beautiful football tackle. I remember that +point clearly and how I admired his agility at the time. I remember the +glint of a small instrument in the doctor's hand. Then all was +blackness. + +Eight days later, they tell me it was, I returned to painful +consciousness in a hospital bed. But let me skip the agony of mind I +experienced then. Suffice it to say that, when I was able, I set forth +for Washington. Hart Jones was there and he had sent for me. But I took +little interest in the going; did not even bother to speculate as to the +reason for his summons. I had devoured the news during my convalescence +and now, more than two weeks after the destruction of the Terror, I knew +the extent of the damage wrought upon our earth by those deadly green +light pencils we had seen issuing from the huge ring up there in the +skies. The horror of it all was fresh in my mind, but my own private +horror overshadowed all. + + * * * * * + +I was glad that Hart had been so signally honored by the World Peace +Board, that he was now the most famous and popular man in the entire +world. He deserved it all and more. But what cared I--I who had done +least of all to help in his great work--that the Terror had been found +where it buried itself in the sand of the Sahara when falling to earth? +What cared I that the discoveries made in the excavating of the huge +metal ring were of inestimable value to science? + +It gave me passing satisfaction to note that all of Hart Jones' theories +were borne out by the discoveries; that Oradel and his minions were +responsible for this terrible war; that the planet they aligned against +us was Venus and that more than a hundred thousand of the Venerians had +been carried in that weird engine of destruction which had been brought +down by Hart. + +It was interesting to read of the fall of that huge ring; how it was +heated to incandescence when it entered our atmosphere at such +tremendous velocity; of the tidal waves of concentric billows in the +sand that led to its discovery by Egyptian Government planes. The +broadcast descriptions and the television views of the stunted and +twisted Venerians whose bodies were recovered from the partly consumed +wreckage were interesting. But it all left me cold. I had no further +interest in life. That the world had escaped an overwhelming disaster +was clear, and it gave me a certain pleasure. But for me it might as +well have been completely destroyed. + +Nevertheless, I went to Washington. I felt somehow that I owed it to +Hart Jones, the greatest world hero since Lindbergh. I would at least +listen to what he had to say. + + * * * * * + +A fast plane carried me, a plane chartered by the government. To me it +seemed that it crawled, though it was a sixth-level ship, and made the +trip in record time. Why I was impatient to reach Washington I do not +know, for I was absolutely disinterested in anything that might occur +there. It was merely that my nerves were on edge, I suppose, and +everything annoyed me. + +Hart met me at the airport and greeted me like a long-lost brother. He +talked incessantly and jumped from one subject to the other with the +obvious intention of trying to get my mind off my troubles until we +reached his office in the Air Traffic building. + +On his door there was the legend, "Director of Research," and, when we +had entered, I observed that the office was furnished with all the +luxury that suited his new position. I dropped into a deeply upholstered +chair at the side of his mahogany desk, and, for the space of several +minutes, Hart regarded me with concern, speaking not a word. + +"Jack, old man," he finally ventured. "I can't talk to you of this +thing. But it makes me feel very badly to see you take it so hard. There +are many things you have to live for, old top, and it is to talk about +these that I sent for you." + +"You mean work?" I asked. + +"Yes. That is the best thing for us all, in any emergency or under any +circumstances whatever. Preston wants you back for one thing, and he +authorized me to tell you that the job of office manager is waiting for +you at double your former salary." + + * * * * * + +My eyes misted at this. Preston was a good old scout! But I could never +bear it to return to the old surroundings, even in the city. "No, Hart," +I said, "I'd rather be away from New York and from that part of the +country. Associations, you know." + +"I understand," he replied, "and that is just what I had hoped you would +decide. Because I have a job for you in the Air Service. A good one, +too. + +"You know there is much reconstruction work to be done on earth. More +than forty cities and towns have been wiped out of existence and these +must be rebuilt. That will occupy the minds and energies of thousands +who have been bereaved as you have. But, in the Air Service, we have a +program that I believe will be more to your liking. The log of the +_Terror_, in Oradel's handwriting, was found intact, as were a number of +manuscripts pertaining to plans of the Venerians. + +"These misshapen creatures were quite evidently educated by Oradel to a +hatred of our world. We have reason to believe that other attacks may +follow, for they were obviously intending to migrate here in millions. +And, according to records found aboard the _Terror_, they are of +advanced scientific accomplishment. We may expect them to construct +other vessels similar to the _Terror_ and to come here again. We must be +prepared to fight them off, to carry the war to their own planet if +necessary. My work is to organize a world fleet of space ships for this +purpose, and I'd like you to help me in this. The work will take you all +over the world and will keep you too busy to think about--things." + +It was just like Hart, and I thanked him wordlessly, but from the bottom +of my heart. Yes, I would accept his generous offer. Though I was no +engineer, I had a knowledge of scientific subjects a little above the +average, and I could follow instructions. By George, it was the very +thing! Suddenly I grew enthusiastic. + + * * * * * + +There was the sound of voices in the outer office, and Hart's secretary +entered to announce the arrival of George Boehm and Professor Lindquist. +This was great! + +Chubby George, red-faced and smiling as ever, embraced me with one short +arm and pounded me on the back with his other fist in his jovial, joking +manner. It was good to have friends like these! The professor held forth +his hand timidly. He was thinking of that tackle and the half-Nelson he +had used on me while the doctor slipped that needle into my arm back +there in Houston. + +"Don't remove your glasses, Professor," I laughed; "I'm not going to hit +you. That was a swell tackle of yours, and you did me a big service down +there in the Rice Hotel." + +He beamed with pleasure and gripped my hand--mightily, for such a little +fellow. George was whispering to Hart, and I could see that they were +greatly excited over something. + +"Jack," said Hart, when the professor and I finished talking things +over, "George here wants you to take a little trip over to Philly with +him. He has something there he wants to show you." + +I looked from one to the other for signs of a hoax. These two, under +normal circumstances, were always up to something. But what I saw in +their expressions convinced me that I had better go, and somehow, there +rose in my breast a forlorn hope. + +"All right," I agreed. "Let's go!" + + * * * * * + +Once more we four took off together, this time in a speedy little +first-level cabin plane of Hart's design, piloted by the irrepressible +George. I was brimming with questions, but George kept up such a +running fire of small talk that I was unable to get in a single word +throughout the short trip to the Quaker City. It was quite evident that +something was in the wind. + +Instead of landing at the airport, George swung across the city and +dropped to the roof landing space of a large building which I recognized +as the Germantown Hospital. We had no sooner landed when I was rushed +from the plane to the penthouse over the elevator shafts. We were soon +on the main floor and George went immediately to the desk at the +receiving office, where he engaged in earnest conversation with the +nurse in charge. + +"What are you doing--committing me?" I asked, half joking only. For, +from the mysterious expression of my friends' faces, I was not sure what +to expect. + +"No," laughed Hart. "George learned of the existence of a patient here +who may turn out to be a very good friend of yours." + +I turned this over in my mind, which did not yet function quite +normally. A friend? Why, I had very few that could really be termed good +friends outside of those that accompanied me. It could mean but one +thing. Possibly one of my children--or even my dear wife--might have +escaped somehow. I followed in a daze as a white-capped and gowned nurse +led us along the corridor and into a ward where there were dozens of +high, white beds. + + * * * * * + +Some of the patients were swathed in bandages; some sat up in their +beds, reading or just staring; others lay inert and pale. The reek of +iodoform pervaded the large room. + +We stopped at the bedside of one of the staring patients, a young woman +who looked unseeingly at our party. Great heavens, it was Marie! + +A physician stood at the other side of her bed, finger on her pulse. The +others drew back as I approached her side, raised her free hand to my +lips and spoke to her. + +"Marie, dear," I asked gently, forcing the lump from my throat as best I +could, "don't you know me? It's Jack, Honey." + +The fixed stare of the great blue eyes shifted in my direction. It +seemed that they looked through and past me into some terrible realm +where only horror held sway. She drew her hand from my grasp and passed +it before those staring, unnatural eyes. There was an audible gulp from +George. But the doctor smiled encouragement to me. I tried once more. + +"Marie," I said, "where are Jim and Jackie?" + + * * * * * + +The hand fluttered to her lap, where it lay, blue-veined and pitifully +thin. The stare focussed on me, seemed to concentrate. Then the film was +gone from the eyes and she saw--she knew me! + +"Oh, Jack!" she wailed, "I have been away. Don't you know where they +are?" + +My heart nearly stopped at this, but I sat on the edge of the bed and +took her in my arms, looking at the doctor for approval. He nodded his +head brightly and beckoned to the nurse. + +"Bring the children," I heard him whisper. + +My cup was full. But I must be calm for Marie's sake. She had closed her +eyes now and great tears coursed down her waxen cheeks. Her body shook +with sobs. + +"She'll recover?" I asked the doctor. + +"You bet. Just an aggravated case of amnesia. Hasn't eaten. Didn't even +know her children. Cured now, but she'll need a few weeks to build up." +He snapped shut the lid of his watch. + +Those succinct sentences were the finest I had ever heard. + +Marie clung to me like an infant to its mother. Her sobs gradually +ceased and she looked into my eyes. Little Jim and Jack had come in and +were clamoring for recognition. + +"Oh, Jack," Marie whispered, "I'm so happy." + +She relinquished me and turned her attention to the children. I saw that +my friends had left and that an orderly was placing screens about us. So +I'll close the screen on the remainder of this most happy reunion. + + * * * * * + +It was several days before I had the complete story. Being lonesome +during my absence when we were preparing for the voyage into space, and +not knowing just when I would return, Marie had packed a grip and taken +the train for Philadelphia, deciding to spend a few days with her Aunt +Margaret, or at least to remain there with the children until I +returned. + +She had boarded the train at Manhattan Transfer at about the time we +reached the location of the _Terror_ and the train was just pulling out +of the station when there came the first of the new attacks of the +enemy. She thought that the pillar of fire rose from the approximate +location of Rutherford, but was not sure until they reached Newark, when +the news was spread throughout the train by passengers who boarded it +there. She worried and cried over the loss of our little home and had +worked herself into a state of extreme nervousness and near-hysteria by +the time they reached New Brunswick. + +Then, as the long train left New Brunswick, there was another attack, +this one on the town they had just left. The last two cars of the train +were blown from the track by the initial concussion, and the remainder +of the train brought to a grinding, jerking stop that threw the +passengers into a panic. + +Already hysterical, Marie was in no condition to bear up under the +shock, and the loss of memory followed. Jack and Jim clung to her, of +course, and were taken to the Germantown Hospital with her when the +wreck victims were transferred to that point. She had no identification +on her person, and it was by sheerest luck that George, who was visiting +a friend in the same hospital, chanced to see her and thought he +recognized her. + +That was all of it, but to me it was more than enough. From the depths +of despondency, I rose to the peaks of elation. It was true that we +would have to establish a new home, but this would be a joy as never +before. Those I had given up as lost were restored to me and I was +content. Hart would have to make some changes in the duties of that new +job--the world travel was out of the picture. I had had my fill of +adventure. + +Besides, the hot spell was over. + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Forgotten Planet + +_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_ + + +I have been asked to record, plainly and without prejudice, a brief +history of the Forgotten Planet. + +[Sidenote: The authentic account of why cosmic man damned an outlaw +world to be, forever, a leper of Space.] + +That this record, when completed, will be sealed in the archives of the +Interplanetary Alliance and remain there, a secret and rather dreadful +bit of history, is no concern of mine. I am an old man, well past the +century mark, and what disposal is made of my work is of little +importance to me. I grow weary of life and living, which is good. The +fear of death was lost when our scientists showed us how to live until +we grew weary of life. But I am digressing--an old man's failing. + +[Illustration: "It's nothing. Close the exit; we depart at once."] + +The Forgotten Planet was not always so named. The name that it once bore +had been, as every child knows, stricken from the records, actual and +mental, of the Universe. It is well that evil should not be remembered. +But in order that this history may be clear in the centuries to come, my +record should go back to beginnings. + +So far as the Universe is concerned, the history of the Forgotten Planet +begins with the visit of the first craft ever to span the space between +the worlds: the crude, adventuresome _Edorn_, whose name, as well as +the names of the nine Zenians who manned her, occupy the highest places +in the roll of honor of the Universe. + +Ame Baove, the commander and historian of the _Edorn_, made but brief +comment on his stop at the Forgotten Planet. I shall record it in full: + + "We came to rest upon the surface of this, the fourth of the + planets visited during the first trip of the _Edorn_, eighteen + spaces before the height of the sun. We found ourselves surrounded + immediately by vast numbers of creatures very different from + ourselves, and from their expressions and gestures, we gathered + that they were both curious and unfriendly. + + "Careful analysis of the atmosphere proved it to be sufficiently + similar to our own to make it possible for us to again stretch our + legs outside the rather cramped quarters of the _Edorn_, and tread + the soil of still another world. + + "No sooner had we emerged, however, than we were angrily beset by + the people of this unfriendly planet, and rather than do them + injury, we retired immediately, and concluded our brief + observations through our ports. + + "The topography of this planet is similar to our own, save that + there are no mountains, and the flora is highly colored almost + without exception, and apparently quite largely parasitical in + nature. The people are rather short in stature, with hairless heads + and high foreheads. Instead of being round or oval, however, the + heads of these people rise to a rounded ridge which runs back from + a point between and just above the eyes, nearly to the nape of the + neck behind. They give evidence of a fair order of intelligence, + but are suspicious and unfriendly. From the number and size of the + cities we saw, this planet is evidently thickly populated. + + "We left about sixteen spaces before the height of the sun, and + continued towards the fifth and last planet before our return to + Zenia." + + * * * * * + +This report, quite naturally, caused other explorers in space to +hesitate. There were so many friendly, eager worlds to visit, during the +years that relations between the planets were being established, that an +unfriendly people were ignored. + +However, from time to time, as space-ships became perfected and more +common, parties from many of the more progressive planets did call. Each +of them met with the same hostile reception, and at last, shortly after +the second War of the Planets, the victorious Alliance sent a fleet of +the small but terrible Deuber Spheres, convoyed by four of the largest +of the disintegrator ray-ships, to subjugate the Forgotten Planet. + +Five great cities were destroyed, and the Control City, the seat of the +government, was menaced before the surly inhabitants conceded allegiance +to the Alliance. Parties of scientists, fabricators, and workmen were +then landed, and a dictator was appointed. + +From all the worlds of the Alliance, instruments and equipment were +brought to the Forgotten Planet. A great educational system was planned +and executed, the benign and kindly influence of the Alliance made every +effort to improve the conditions existing on the Forgotten Planet, and +to win the friendship and allegiance of these people. + +For two centuries the work went on. Two centuries of bloodshed, strife, +hate and disturbance. No where else within the known Universe was there +ill feeling. The second awful War of the Planets had at last succeeded +in teaching the lesson of peace. + +Two centuries of effort--wasted effort. It was near the end of the +second century that my own story begins. + +Commander at that time of the super-cruiser _Tamon_, a Special Patrol +ship of the Alliance, I was not at all surprised to receive orders from +the Central Council to report at emergency speed. Special Patrol work in +those days, before the advent of the present de-centralized system, was +a succession of false starts, hurried recalls, and urgent, emergency +orders. + + * * * * * + +I obeyed at once. In the Special Patrol service, there is no questioning +orders. The planet Earth, from which I sprang, is and always has been +proud of the fact that from the very beginning, her men have been picked +to command the ships of the Special Patrol. No matter how dangerous, how +forlorn and hopeless the mission given to a commander of a Special +Patrol ship, history has never recorded that any commander has ever +hesitated. That is why our uniform of blue and silver commands the +respect that it does even in this day and age of softening and +decadence, when men--but again an old man digresses. And perhaps it is +not for me to judge. + +I pointed the blunt nose of the _Tamon_ at Zenia, seat of the Central +Council, and in four hours, Earth time, the great craft swept over the +gleaming city of the Central Council and settled swiftly to the court +before the mighty, columned Hall of the Planets. + +Four pages of the Council, in their white and scarlet livery, met me and +conducted me instantly to a little anteroom behind the great council +chamber. + +There were three men awaiting me there; three men whose faces, at that +time, were familiar to every person in the known Universe. + +Kellen, the oldest of the three, and the spokesman, rose as I entered +the room. The others did likewise, as the pages closed the heavy doors +behind me. + +"You are prompt, and that is good," thought Kellen. "I welcome you. +Remove now thy menore." + +I glanced up at him swiftly. This must surely be an important matter, +that I was asked to remove my menore band. + +It will, of course, be understood that at that time we had but a bulky +and clumsy instrument to enable us to convey and receive thought; a +device consisting of a heavy band of metal, in which were imbedded the +necessary instruments and a tiny atomic energy generator, the whole +being worn as a circlet or crown upon the head. + +Wonderingly, I removed my menore, placed it upon the long, dark table +around which the three men were standing, and bowed. Each of the three, +in turn, lifted their gleaming circlets from their heads, and placed +them likewise upon the table before them. + + * * * * * + +"You wonder," said Kellen, speaking of course, in the soft and liquid +universal language, which is, I understand, still disseminated in our +schools, as it should be. "I shall explain as quickly and as briefly as +possible. + +"We have called you here on a dangerous mission. A mission that will +require tact and quickness of mind as well as bravery. We have selected +you, have called you, because we are agreed that you possess the +qualities required. Is it not so?" He glanced at his two companions, and +they nodded gravely, solemnly, without speaking. + +"You are a young man, John Hanson," continued Kellen, "but your record +in your service is one of which you can be proud. We trust you--with +knowledge that is so secret, so precious, that we must revert to speech +in order to convey it; we dare not trust it, even in this protected and +guarded place, to the menore's quicker but less discreet communication." + +He paused for a moment, frowning thoughtfully as though dreading to +begin. I waited silently, and at last he spoke again. + +"There is a world"--and he named a name which I shall not repeat, the +name of the Forgotten Planet--"that is a festering sore upon the body of +the Universe. As you know, for two centuries we have tried to pass on to +these people an understanding of peace and friendship. I believe that +nothing has been left undone. The Council and the forces behind it have +done everything within their power. And now--" + +He stopped again, and there was an expression of deepest pain written +upon his wise and kindly face. The pause was for but an instant. + +"And now," he went on firmly, "it is at an end. Our work has been +undone. Two centuries of effort--undone. They have risen in revolt, they +have killed all those sent by the Alliance of which this Council is the +governing body and the mouthpiece, and they have sent us an ultimatum--a +threat of war!" + +"_What?_" + + * * * * * + +Kellen nodded his magnificent old head gravely. + +"I do not wonder that you start," he said heavily. "War! It must not be. +It cannot be! And yet, war is what they threaten." + +"But, sir!" I put in eagerly. I was young and rash in those days. "Who +are they, to make war against a united Universe?" + +"I have visited your planet, Earth," said Kellen, smiling very faintly. +"You have a tiny winged insect you call _bee_. Is it not so?" + +"Yes." + +"The bee is a tiny thing, of little strength. A man, a little child, +might crush one to death between a thumb and finger. But the bee may +sting before he is crushed, and the sting may linger on for days, a +painful and unpleasant thing. Is that not so?" + +"I see, sir," I replied, somewhat abashed before the tolerant, kindly +wisdom of this great man. "They cannot hope to wage successful war, but +they may bring much suffering to others." + +"Much suffering," nodded Kellen, still gently smiling. "And we are +determined that this thing shall not be. Not"--and his face grew gray +with a terrible and bitter resolve--"not if we have to bring to bear +upon that dark and unwilling world the disintegrating rays of every ship +of the Alliance, so that the very shell of the planet shall disappear, +and no life ever again shall move upon its surface. + +"But this," and he seemed to shudder at the thought, "is a terrible and +a ruthless thing to even contemplate. We must first try once again to +point out to them the folly of their ways. It is with this mission that +we would burden you, John Hanson." + + * * * * * + +"It is no burden, but an honor, sir," I said quietly. + +"Youth! Youth!" Kellen chided me gently. "Foolish, yet rather glorious. +Let me tell you the rest, and then we shall ask for your reply again. + +"The news came to us by a small scout ship attached to that unhappy +world. It barely made the journey to Jaron, the nearest planet, and +crashed so badly, from lack of power, that all save one man were killed. + +"He, luckily, tore off his menore, and insisted in speech that he be +brought here. He was obeyed, and, in a dying condition, was brought to +this very chamber." Kellen glanced swiftly, sadly, around the room, as +though he could still visualize that scene. + +"Every agent of the Alliance upon that hateful planet was set upon and +killed, following the working out of some gigantic and perfectly +executed plan--all save the crew of this one tiny scout ship, which was +spared to act as a messenger. + +"'Tell your great Council,' was the message these people sent to us, +'that here is rebellion. We do not want, nor will we tolerate, your +peace. We have learned now that upon other worlds than ours there are +great riches. These we shall take. If there is resistance, we have a +new and a terrible death to deal. A death that your great scientists +will be helpless against; a horrible and irresistable death that will +make desolate and devoid of intelligent life any world where we are +forced to sow the seeds of ultimate disaster. + +"'We are not yet ready. If we were, we would not move, for we prefer +that your Council have time to think about what is surely to come. If +you doubt that we have the power to do what we have threatened to do, +send one ship, commanded by a man whose word you will trust, and we will +prove to him that these are no empty words.'" + + * * * * * + +"That, as nearly as I can remember it," concluded Kellen, "is the +message. The man who brought it died almost before he had finished. + +"That is the message. You are the man we have picked to accept their +challenge. Remember, though, that there are but the four of us in this +room. There are but four of us who know these things. If you for any +reason do not wish to accept this mission, there will be none to judge +you, least of all, any one of us, who know best of all the perils." + +"You say, sir," I said quietly, although my heart was pounding in my +throat, and roaring in my ears, "that there would be none to judge me. + +"Sir, there would be myself. There could be no more merciless judge. I +am honored that I have been selected for this task, and I accept the +responsibility willingly, gladly. When is it your wish that we should +start?" + +The three presiding members of the Council glanced at each other, +faintly smiling, as though they would say, as Kellen had said a short +time before: "Youth! Youth!" Yet I believe they were glad and somewhat +proud that I had replied as I did. + +"You may start," said Kellen, "as soon as you can complete the necessary +preparations. Detailed instructions will be given you later." + +He bowed to me, and the others did likewise. Then Kellen picked up his +menore and adjusted it. + +The interview was over. + + * * * * * + +"What do you make it?" I asked the observer. He glanced up from his +instrument. + +"Jaron, sir. Three degrees to port; elevation between five and six +degrees. Approximate only, of course, sir." + +"Good enough. Please ask Mr. Barry to hold to his present course. We +shall not stop at Jaron." + +The observer glanced at me curiously, but he was too well disciplined to +hesitate or ask questions. + +"Yes, sir!" he said crisply, and spoke into the microphone beside him. + +None of us wore menores when on duty, for several reasons. Our +instruments were not nearly as perfect as those in use to-day, and +verbal orders were clearer and carried more authority than mental +instructions. The delicate and powerful electrical and atomic mechanism +of our ship interfered with the functioning of the menores, and at that +time the old habit of speech was far more firmly entrenched, due to +hereditary influence, than it is now. + +I nodded to the man, and made my way to my own quarters. I wished most +heartily that I could talk over my plans with someone, but this had been +expressly forbidden. + +"I realize that you trust your men, and more particularly your +officers," Kellen had told me during the course of his parting +conversation with me. "I trust them also--yet we must remember that the +peace of mind of the Universe is concerned. If news, even a rumor, of +this threatened disaster should become known, it is impossible to +predict the disturbance it might create. + +"Say nothing to anyone. It is your problem. You alone should leave the +ship when you land; you alone shall hear or see the evidence they have +to present, and you alone shall bring word of it to us. That is the wish +of the Council." + +"Then it is my wish," I had said, and so it had been settled. + + * * * * * + +Aft, in the crew's quarters, a gong sounded sharply: the signal for +changing watches, and the beginning of a sleep period. I glanced at the +remote control dials that glowed behind their glass panel on one side of +my room. From the registered attraction of Jaron, at our present speed, +we should be passing her within, according to Earth time, about two +hours. That meant that their outer patrols might be seeking our +business, and I touched Barry's attention button, and spoke into the +microphone beside my bunk. + +"Mr. Barry? I am turning in for a little sleep. Before you turn over the +watch to Eitel, will you see that the nose rays are set for the Special +Patrol code signal for this enar. We shall be close to Jaron shortly." + +"Yes, sir! Any other orders?" + +"No. Keep her on her present course. I shall take the watch from Mr. +Eitel." + +Since there have been changes since those days, and will undoubtedly be +others in the future, it might be well to make clear, in a document such +is this, that at this period, all ships of the Special Patrol Service +identified themselves by means of invisible rays flashed in certain +sequences, from the two nose, or forward, projectors. These code signals +were changed every enar, a period of time arbitrarily set by the +Council; about eighteen days, as time is measured on the Earth, and +divided into ten periods, as at present, known as enarens. These were +further divided into enaros, thus giving us a time-reckoning system for +use in space, corresponding roughly to the months, days and hours of the +Earth. + +I retired, but not to sleep. Sleep would not come. I knew, of course, +that if curious outer patrol ships from Jaron did investigate us, they +would be able to detect our invisible ray code signal, and thus satisfy +themselves that we were on the Council's business. There would be no +difficulty on that score. But what I should do after landing upon the +rebellious sphere, I had not the slightest idea. + + * * * * * + +"Be stern, indifferent to their threats," Kellen, had counseled me, "but +do everything within your power to make them see the folly of their +attitude. Do not threaten them, for they are a surly people and you +might precipitate matters. Swallow your pride if you must; remember that +yours is a gigantic responsibility, and upon the information you bring +us may depend the salvation of millions. I am convinced that they are +not--you have a word in your language that fits exactly. Not pretending +... what is the word?" + +"Bluffing?" I had supplied in English, smiling. + +"Right! Bluffing. It is a very descriptive word. I am sure they are not +bluffing." + +I was sure of it also. They knew the power of the Alliance; they had +been made to feel it more than once. A bluff would have been a foolish +thing, and these people were not fools. In some lines of research they +were extraordinarily brilliant. + +But what could their new, terrible weapon be? Rays we had; at least half +a dozen rays of destruction; the terrible dehydrating ray of the Deuber +Spheres, the disintegrating ray that dated back before Ame Baove and his +first voyage into space, the concentrated ultra-violet ray that struck +men down in fiery torment.... No, it could hardly be a new ray that was +their boasted weapon. + +What, then? Electricity had even then been exhausted of its +possibilities. Atomic energy had been released, harnessed, and directed. +Yet it would take fabulous time and expense to make these machines of +destruction do what they claimed they would do. + +Still pondering the problem, I did fall at last into a fitful travesty +of sleep. + + * * * * * + +I was glad when the soft clamor of the bell aft announced the next +change of watch. I rose, cleared the cobwebs from my brain with an icy +shower, and made my way directly to the navigating room. + +"Everything tidy, sir," said Eitel, my second officer, and a Zenian. He +was thin and very dark, like all Zenians, and had the high, effeminate +voice of that people. But he was cool and fearless and had the uncanny +cerebration of his kind; I trusted him as completely as I trusted Barry, +my first officer, who, like myself, was a native of Earth. "Will you +take over?" + +"Yes," I nodded, glancing at the twin charts beneath the ground glass +top of the control table. "Get what sleep you can the next few enaros. +Presently I shall want every man on duty and at his station." + +He glanced at me curiously, as the observer had done, but saluted and +left with only a brief, "Yes, sir!" I returned the salute and turned my +attention again to the charts. + +The navigating room of an interplanetary ship is without doubt +unfamiliar ground to most, so it might be well for me to say that such +ships have, for the most part, twin charts, showing progress in two +dimensions; to use land terms, lateral and vertical. These charts are +really no more than large sheets of ground glass, ruled in both +directions with fine black lines, representing all relatively close +heavenly bodies by green lights of varying sizes. The ship itself is +represented by a red spark and the whole is, of course, entirely +automatic in action, the instruments comprising the chart being operated +by super-radio reflexes. + + * * * * * + +Jaron, the charts showed me at a glance, was now far behind. Almost +directly above--it is necessary to resort to these unscientific terms to +make my meaning clear--was the tiny world Elon, home of the friendly but +impossibly dull winged people, the only ones in the known Universe. I +was there but once, and found them almost laughably like our common +dragon-flies on Earth; dragon-flies that grow some seven feet long, and +with gauzy wings of amazing strength. + +Directly ahead, on both charts, was a brilliantly glowing sphere of +green--our destination. I made some rapid mental calculations, studying +the few fine black lines between the red spark that was our ship, and +the nearest edge of the great green sphere. I glanced at our speed +indicator and the attraction meter. The little red slide that moved +around the rim of the attraction meter was squarely at the top, showing +that the attraction was from straight ahead; the great black hand was +nearly a third of the way around the face. + +We were very close; two hours would bring us into the atmospheric +envelope. In less than two hours and a half, we would be in the Control +City of what is now called the Forgotten Planet! + +I glanced forward, through the thick glass partitions, into the +operating room. Three men stood there, watching intently; they too, were +wondering why we visited the unfriendly world. + +The planet itself loomed up straight ahead, a great half-circle, its +curved rim sharp and bright against the empty blackness of space; the +chord ragged and blurred. In two hours ... I turned away and began a +restless pacing. + + * * * * * + +An hour went by; an hour and a half. I pressed the attention button to +the operating room, and gave orders to reduce our speed by half. We were +very close to the outer fringe of the atmospheric envelope. Then, +keeping my eye on the big surface-temperature gauge, with its stubby red +hand, I resumed my nervous pacing. + +Slowly the thick red hand of the surface-temperature gauge began to +move; slowly, and then more rapidly, until the eyes could catch its +creeping. + +"Reduce to atmospheric speed," I ordered curtly, and glanced down +through a side port at one end of the long navigating room. + +We were, at the moment, directly above the twilight belt. To my right, +as I looked down, I could see a portion of the glistening antarctic ice +cap. Here and there were the great flat lakes, almost seas, of the +planet. + +Our geographies of the Universe to-day do not show the topography of +the Forgotten Planet: I might say, therefore, that the entire sphere was +land area, with numerous great lakes embedded in its surface, together +with many broad, very crooked rivers. As Ame Baove had reported, there +were no mountains, and no high land. + +"Altitude constant," I ordered. "Port three degrees. Stand by for +further orders." + +The earth seemed to whirl slowly beneath us. Great cities drifted +astern, and I compared the scene below me with the great maps I took +from our chart-case. The Control City should be just beyond the visible +rim; well in the daylight area. + +"Port five degrees," I said, and pressed the attention button to Barry's +quarters. + +"Mr. Barry, please call all men to quarters, including the off-duty +watch, and then report to the navigating room. Mr. Eitel will be under +my direct orders. We shall descend within the next few minutes." + +"Very well, sir." + +I pressed the attention button to Eitel's room. + +"Mr. Eitel, please pick ten of your best men and have them report at the +forward exit. Await me, with the men, at that place. I shall be with you +as soon as I turn the command over to Mr. Barry. We are descending +immediately." + +"Right, sir!" said Eitel. + + * * * * * + +I turned from the microphone to find that Barry had just entered the +navigating room. + +"We will descend into the Great Court of the Control City, Mr. Barry," +I said. "I have a mission here. I am sorry, but these are the only +instructions I can leave you. + +"I do not know how long I shall be gone from the ship, but if I do not +return within three hours, depart without me, and report directly to +Kellen of the Council. To him, and no other. Tell him, verbally, what +took place. Should there be any concerted action against the _Tamon_, +use your own judgment as to the action to be taken, remembering that the +safety of the ship and its crew, and the report of the Council, are +infinitely more important than my personal welfare. Is that clear?" + +"Yes, sir. Too damned clear." + +I smiled and shook my head. + +"Don't worry," I said lightly. "I'll be back well within the appointed +time." + +"I hope so. But there's something wrong as hell here. I'm talking now as +man to man; not to my commanding officer. I've been watching below, and +I have seen at least two spots where large numbers of our ships have +been destroyed. The remaining ships bear their own damned emblem where +the crest of the Alliance should be--and was. What does it mean?" + +"It means," I said slowly, "that I shall have to rely upon every man and +officer to forget himself and myself, and obey orders without hesitation +and without flinching. The orders are not mine, but direct from the +Council itself." I held out my hand to him--an ancient Earth gesture of +greeting, good-will and farewell--and he shook it vigorously. + +"God go with you," he said softly, and with a little nod of thanks I +turned and quickly left the room. + + * * * * * + +Eitel, with his ten men, were waiting for me at the forward exit. The +men fell back a few paces and came to attention; Eitel saluted smartly. + +"We are ready, sir. What are your orders?" + +"You are to guard this opening. Under no circumstances is anyone to +enter save myself. I shall be gone not longer than three hours; if I am +not back within that time, Mr. Barry has his orders. The exit will be +sealed, and the _Tamon_ will depart immediately, without me." + +"Yes, sir. You will pardon me, but I gather that your mission is a +dangerous one. May I not accompany you?" + +I shook my head. + +"I shall need you here." + +"But, sir, they are very excited and angry; I have been watching them +from the observation ports. And there is a vast crowd of them around the +ship." + +"I had expected that. I thank you for your concern, but I must go alone. +Those are the orders. Will you unseal the exit?" + +His "Yes, sir!" was brisk and efficient, but there was a worried frown +on his features as he unlocked and released the switch that opened the +exit. + +The huge plug of metal, some ten feet in diameter, revolved swiftly and +noiselessly, backing slowly in its fine threads into the interior of the +ship, gripped by the ponderous gimbals which, as the last threads +disengaged, swung the mighty disc to one side, like the door of some +great safe. + +"Remember your orders," I smiled, and with a little gesture to convey an +assurance which I certainly did not feel, I strode through the circular +opening out into the crowd. The heavy glass secondary door shot down +behind me, and I was in the hands of the enemy. + + * * * * * + +The first thing I observed was that my menore, which I had picked up on +my way to the exit, was not functioning. Not a person in all that vast +multitude wore a menore; the five black-robed dignitaries who marched to +meet me wore none. + +Nothing could have showed more clearly that I was in for trouble. To +invite a visitor, as Kellen had done, to remove his menore first, was, +of course, a polite and courteous thing to do if one wished to +communicate by speech; to remove the menore before greeting a visitor +wearing one, was a tacit admission of rank enmity; a confession that +one's thoughts were to be concealed. + +My first impulse was to snatch off my own instrument and fling it in the +solemn, ugly faces of the nearest of the five dignataries; I remembered +Kellen's warning just in time. Quietly, I removed the metal circlet and +tucked it under my arm, bowing slightly to the committee of five as I +did so. + +"I am Ja Ben," said the first of the five, with an evil grin. "You are +the representative of the Council that we commanded to appear?" + +"I am John Hanson, commander of the ship _Tamon_ of the Special Patrol +Service. I am here to represent the Central Council," I replied with +dignity. + +"As we commanded," grinned Ja Ben. "That is good. Follow us and you +shall have the evidence you were promised." + +Ja Ben led the way with two of his black-robed followers. The other two +fell in behind me. A virtual prisoner, I marched between them, through +the vast crowd that made way grudgingly to let us pass. + + * * * * * + +I have seen the people of most of the planets of the known Universe. +Many of them, to Earth notions, are odd. But these people, so much like +us in many respects, were strangely repulsive. + +Their heads, as Ame Baove had recorded, were not round like ours, but +possessed a high bony crest that ran from between their lashless, +browless eyes, down to the very nape of their necks. Their skin, even +that covering their hairless heads, was a dull and papery white, like +parchment, and their eyes were abnormally small, and nearly round. A +hateful, ugly people, perpetually scowling, snarling; their very voices +resembled more the growl of wild beasts than the speech of intelligent +beings. + +Ja Ben led the way straight to the low but vast building of dun-colored +stone that I knew was the administration building of the Control City. +We marched up the broad, crowded steps, through the muttering, jeering +multitude into the building itself. The guards at the doors stood aside +to let us through and the crowd at last was left behind. + +A swift, cylindrical elevator shot us upward, into a great glass-walled +laboratory, built like a sort of penthouse on the roof. Ja Ben walked +quickly across the room towards a long, glass-topped table; the other +four closed in on me silently but suggestively. + +"That is unnecessary," I said quietly. "See, I am unarmed and completely +in your power. I am here as an ambassador of the Central Council, not as +a warrior." + +"Which is as well for you," grinned Ja Ben. "What I have to show you, +you can see quickly, and then depart." + +From a great cabinet in one corner of the room he took a shining +cylinder of dark red metal, and held it up before him, stroking its +sleek sides with an affectionate hand. + + * * * * * + +"Here it is," he said, chuckling. "The secret of our power. In here, +safely imprisoned now, but capable of being released at our command, is +death for every living thing upon any planet we choose to destroy." He +replaced the great cylinder in the cabinet, and picked up in its stead a +tiny vial of the same metal, no larger than my little finger, and not so +long. "Here," he said, turning again towards me, "is the means of +proving our power to you. Come closer!" + +With my bodyguard of four watching every move, I approached. + +Ja Ben selected a large hollow hemisphere of crystal glass and placed it +upon a smooth sheet of flat glass. Next he picked a few blossoms from a +bowl that stood, incongruously enough, on the table, and threw them +under the glass hemisphere. + +"Flora," he grinned. + +Hurrying to the other end of the room, he reached into a large flat +metal cage and brought forth three small rodent like animals, natives of +that world. These he also tossed carelessly under the glass. + +"Fauna," he grunted, and picked up the tiny metal vial. + +One end of the vial unscrewed. He turned the cap gently, carefully, a +strained, anxious look upon his face. My four guards watched him +breathlessly, fearfully. + + * * * * * + +The cap came loose at last, disclosing the end of the tube, sealed with +a grayish substance that looked like wax. Very quickly Ja Ben rolled the +little cylinder under the glass hemisphere, and picked up a beaker that +had been bubbling gently on an electric plate close by. Swiftly he +poured the thick contents of the beaker around the base of the glass +bell. The stuff hardened almost instantly, forming an air-tight seal +between the glass hemisphere and the flat plate of glass upon which it +rested. Then, with an evil, triumphant smile, Ja Ben looked up. + +"_Flora_," he repeated. "_Fauna._ And _death_. Watch! The little metal +cylinder is plugged still, but in a moment that plug will +disappear--simply a volatile solid, you understand. It is going rapidly +... rapidly ... it is almost gone now! Watch ... In an instant now ... +_ah!_" + +I saw the gray substance that stopped the entrance of the little metal +vial disappear. The rodents ran around and over it, trying to find a +crevice by which they might escape. The flowers, bright and beautiful, +lay untidily on the bottom of the glass prison. + +Then, just as the last vestige of the gray plug vanished; an amazing, a +terrible thing happened. At the mouth of the tiny metal vial a greenish +cloud appeared. I call it a cloud, but it was not that. It was solid, +and it spread in every direction, sending out little needles that lashed +about and ran together into a solid mass while millions of little +needles reached out swiftly. + +One of these little needles touched a scurrying animal. Instantly the +tiny brute stiffened, and from his entire body the greenish needles +spread swiftly. One of the flowers turned suddenly thick and pulpy with +the soft green mass, then another, another of the rodents ... _God!_ + +In the space of two heart beats, the entire hemisphere was filled with +the green mass, that still moved and writhed and seemed to press against +the glass sides as though the urge to expand was insistent, +imperative.... + + * * * * * + +"What is it?" I whispered, still staring at the thing. + +"_Death!_" grunted Ja Ben, thrusting his hateful face close to mine, his +tiny round eyes, with their lashless lids glinting. "Death, my friend. +Go and tell your great Council of this death that we have created for +every planet that will not obey us. + +"We have gone back into the history of dealing death and have come back +with a death such as the Universe has never known before! + +"Here is a rapacious, deadly fungus we have been two centuries in +developing. The spores contained in that tiny metal tube would be +invisible to the naked eye--and yet given but a little time to grow, +with air and vegetation and flesh to feed upon, and even that small +capsule would wipe out a world. And in the cabinet,"--he pointed +grinning triumphantly--"we have, ready for instant use, enough of the +spores of this deadly fungas to wipe out all the worlds of your great +Alliance. + +"To wipe them out utterly!" he repeated, his voice shaking with a sort +of frenzy now. "Every living thing upon their faces, wrapped in that +thin, hungry green stuff you see there under that glass. All life wiped +out; made uninhabitable so long as the Universe shall endure. And +we--_we_ shall be rulers, unquestioned, of that Universe. Tell your +doddering Council _that_!" He leaned back against the table, panting +with hate. + +"I shall tell them all I have seen; all you have said," I nodded. + +"You believe we have the power to do all this?" + +"I do--God help me, and the Universe," I said solemnly. + + * * * * * + +There was no doubt in my mind. I could see all too clearly how well +their plans had been laid; how quickly this hellish growth would +strangle all life, once its spores began to develop. + +The only possible chance was to get back to the Council and make my +report, with all possible speed, so that every available armed ship of +the universe might concentrate here, and wipe out these people before +they had time to-- + +"I know what you are thinking, my friend," broke in Ja Ben mockingly. +"You might as well have worn the menore! You would have the ships of the +Alliance destroy us before we have time to act. We had foreseen that, +and have provided for the possibility. + +"As soon as you leave here, ships, provided with many tubes like the one +just used for our little demonstration, will be dispersed in every +direction. We shall be in constant communication with those ships, and +at the least sign of hostility, they will be ordered to depart and +spread their death upon every world they can reach. Some of them you may +be able to locate and eliminate; a number of them are certain to elude +capture in infinite space--and if only one, one lone ship, should +escape, the doom of the Alliance and millions upon millions of people +will be pronounced. + +"I warn you, it will be better, much better, to bow to our wishes, and +pay us the tribute we shall demand. Any attempt at resistance will +precipitate certain disaster for your Council and all the worlds the +Council governs." + +"At least, we would wipe you out first," I said hoarsely. + +"True," nodded Ja Ben. "But the vengeance of our ships would be a +terrible thing! You would not dare to take the chance!" + +I stood there, staring at him in a sort of daze. What he had said was so +true; terribly, damnably true. + +If only-- + + * * * * * + +There was but one chance I could see, and desperate as it was, I took +it. Whirling the heavy metal ring of my menore in my hand, I sprang +towards the table. + +If I could break the sealed glass hemisphere, and loose the fungus upon +its creators; deal to them the doom they had planned for the universe, +then perhaps all might yet be well. + +Ja Ben understood instantly what was in my mind. He and his four aides +leaped between me and the table, their tiny round eyes blazing with +anger. I struck one of the four viciously with the menore, and with a +gasp he fell back and slumped to the floor. + +Before I could break through the opening, however, Ja Ben struck me full +in the face with his mighty fist; a blow that sent me, dazed and +reeling, into a corner of the room. I brought up with a crash against +the cabinet there, groped wildly in an effort to steady myself, and fell +to the floor. Almost before I struck, all four of them were upon me. + +They hammered me viciously, shouted at me, cursed me in the universal +tongue, but I paid no heed. I pretended to be unconscious, but my heart +was beating high with sudden, glorious hope, and in my brain a terrible, +merciless plan was forming. + +When I had groped against the cabinet in an effort to regain my balance, +my fingers had closed upon one of the little metal vials. As I fell, I +covered that hand with my body and hastily hid the tiny tube in a deep +pocket of my blue and silver Service uniform. + + * * * * * + +Slowly, after a few seconds, I opened my eyes and looked up at them, +helplessly. + +"Go, now!" snarled Ja Ben, dragging me to my feet. "Go, and tell your +Council we are more than a match for you--and for them." He thrust me, +reeling, towards his three assistants. "Take him to his ship, and send +aid for Ife Rance, here." He glanced at the still unconscious figure of +the victim of my menore, and then turned to me with a last warning. + +"Remember, one thing more, my friend: you have disintegrator ray +equipment upon your ship. You have the little atomic bombs that won for +the Alliance the Second War of the Planets. I know that. But if you make +the slightest effort to use them, I shall dispatch a supply of the green +death to our ships, and they will depart upon their missions at once. +You would take upon yourself a terrible responsibility by making the +smallest hostile move. + +"Go, now--and when you return, bring with you members of your great +Council who will have the power to hear our demands, and see that they +are obeyed. And do not keep us waiting over long, for we are an +impatient race." He bowed, mockingly, and passed his left hand swiftly +before his face, his people's sign of parting. + +I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and, hemmed in by my three +black-robed conductors, was hurried down the elevator and back through +the jeering mob to my ship. + + * * * * * + +The glass secondary door shot up to permit me to enter, and Eitel +gripped my shoulder anxiously, his eyes smoldering angrily. + +"You're hurt, sir!" he said in his odd, high-pitched voice, staring into +my bruised face. "What--" + +"It's nothing," I assured him. "Close the exit immediately; we depart at +once." + +"Yes, sir!" He closed the switch, and the great threaded plug swung +gently on its gimbals and began to revolve, swiftly and silently. A +little bell sounded sharply, and the great door ceased its motion. Eitel +locked the switch and returned the key to his pocket. + +"Good. All men are at their stations?" I asked briskly. + +"Yes, sir! All except these ten, detailed to guard the exit." + +"Have them report to their regular stations. Issue orders to the ray +operators that they are to instantly, and without further orders, +destroy any ship that may leave the surface of this planet. Have every +atomic bomb crew ready for an instant and concentrated offensive +directed at the Control City, but command them not to act under any +circumstances unless I give the order. Is that clear, Mr. Eitel?" + +"Yes, sir!" + +I nodded, and turned away, making my way immediately to the navigating +room. + +"Mr. Barry," I said quickly and gravely, "I believe that the fate of the +known Universe depends upon us at this moment. We will ascend +vertically, at once--slowly--until we are just outside the envelope, +maintaining only sufficient horizontal motion to keep us directly over +the Control City. Will you give the necessary orders?" + +"Immediately, sir!" He pressed the attention button to the operating +room and spoke swiftly into the microphone; before he completed the +order I had left. + + * * * * * + +We were already ascending when I reached the port forward atomic bomb +station. The man in charge, a Zenian, saluted with automatic precision +and awaited orders. + +"You have a bomb in readiness?" I asked, returning the salute. + +"Those were my orders, sir." + +"Correct. Remove it, please." + +I waited impatiently while the crew removed the bomb from the releasing +trap. It was withdrawn at last; a fish-shaped affair, very much like the +ancient airplane bombs save that it was no larger than my two fists, +placed one upon the other, and that it had four silvery wires running +along its sides, from rounded nose to pointed tail, held at a distance +from the body by a series of insulating struts. + +"Now," I said, "how quickly can you put another object in the trap, +re-seal the opening, and release the object?" + +"While the Commander counts ten with reasonable speed," said the Zenian +with pride. "We won first honors in the Special Patrol Service contests +at the last Examination, the Commander may remember." + +"I do remember. That is why I selected you for this duty." + +With hands that trembled a little, I think, I drew forth the little vial +of gleaming red metal, while the bombing crew watched me curiously. + +"I shall unscrew the cap from this little vial," I explained, "and drop +it immediately into the releasing trap. Re-seal the trap and release +this object as quickly as it is possible to do so. If you can better the +time you made to win the honors at the Examination--in God's name, do +so!" + +"Yes, sir!" replied the Zenian. He gave brisk orders to his crew, and +each of the three men sprang alertly into position. + + * * * * * + +As quickly as I could, I turned off the cap of the little metal vial and +dropped it into the trap. The heavy plug, a tiny duplicate of the exit +door, clicked shut upon it and spun, whining gently, into the opening. +Something clicked sharply, and one of the crew dropped a bar into place. +As it shot home, the Zenian in command of the crew pulled the release +plunger. + +"Done, sir!" he said proudly. + +I did not reply. My eye fixed upon the observation tube that was +following the tiny missile to the ground. + +The Control City was directly below us. I lost sight of the vial almost +instantly, but the indicating cross-hairs showed me exactly where the +vial would strike; at a point approximately half way between the edge of +the city and the great squat pile of the administrating building, with +its gleaming glass penthouse--the laboratory in which, only a few +minutes before, I had witnessed the demonstration of the death which +awaited the Universe. + +"Excellent!" I exclaimed. "Smartly done, men!" I turned and hurried to +the navigating room, where the most powerful of our television discs was +located. + +The disc was not as perfect as those we have to-day; it was hooded to +keep out exterior light, which is not necessary with the later +instruments, and it was more unwieldy. However, it did its work, and did +it well, in the hands of an experienced operator. + +With only a nod to Barry, I turned the range band to maximum, and +brought it swiftly to bear upon that portion of the city in which the +little vial had fallen. As I drew the focusing lever towards me, the +scene leaped at me through the clear, glowing glass disc. + + * * * * * + +Froth! Green, billowing froth that grew and boiled and spread +unceasingly. In places it reached high into the air, and it moved with +an eager, inner life that was somehow terrible and revolting. I moved +the range hand back, and the view seemed to drop away from me swiftly. + +I could see the whole city now. All one side of it was covered with the +spreading green stain that moved and flowed so swiftly. Thousands of +tiny black figures were running in the streets, crowding away from the +awful danger that menaced them. + +The green patch spread more swiftly always. When I had first seen it, +the edges were advancing as rapidly as a man could run; now they were +fairly racing, and the speed grew constantly. + +A ship, two of them, three of them came darting from somewhere, towards +the administration building, with its glass cupola. I held my breath as +the deep, sudden humming from the _Tamon_ told me that our rays were +busy. Would they-- + +One of the enemy ships disappeared suddenly in a little cloud of dirty, +heavy dust that settled swiftly. Another ... and the third. Three little +streaks of dust, falling, falling.... + +A fourth ship, and a fifth came rushing up, their sides faintly glowing +from the speed they had made. The green flood, thick and insistent, was +racing up and over the administration building now. It reached the roof, +ran swiftly.... + +The fourth ship shattered into dust. The fifth settled swiftly--and then +that ship also disappeared, together with a corner of the building. Then +the thick green stuff flowed over the whole building and there was +nothing to be seen there but a mound of soft, flowing, gray-green stuff +that rushed on now with the swiftness of the wind. + + * * * * * + +I looked up, into Barry's face. + +"You're ill!" he said quickly. "Is there anything I can do, sir?" + +"Yes," I said, forming the words with difficulty. "Give orders to ascend +at emergency speed!" + +For once my first officer hesitated. He glanced at the attraction meter +and then turned to me again, wondering. + +"At this height, sir, emergency speed will mean dangerous heating of the +surface; perhaps--" + +"I want it white hot, Mr. Barry. She is built to stand it. Emergency +speed, please--immediately!" + +"Right, sir!" he said briskly, and gave the order. + +I felt my weight increase as the order was obeyed; gradually the +familiar, uncomfortable feeling left me. Silently, Barry and I watched +the big surface temperature gauge as it started to move. The heat inside +became uncomfortable, grew intense. The sweat poured from us. In the +operating room forward, I could see the men casting quick, wondering +glances up at us through the heavy glass partition that lay between. + +The thick, stubby red hand of the surface temperature gauge moved slowly +but steadily towards the heavy red line that marked the temperature at +which the outer shell of our hull would become incandescent. The hand +was within three or four degrees of that mark when I gave Barry the +order to arrest our motion. + +When he had given the order, I turned to him and motioned towards the +television disc. + +"Look," I said. + + * * * * * + +He looked, and when at last he tore his face away from the hood, he +seemed ten years older. + +"What is it?" he asked in a choked whisper. "Why--they're being wiped +out; the whole of that world--" + +"True. And some of the seeds of that terrible death might have drifted +upward, and found a lodging place upon the surface of our ship. That is +why I ordered the emergency speed while we were still within the +atmospheric envelope, Barry. To burn away that contamination, if it +existed. Now we are safe, unless--" + +I pressed the attention button to the station of the chief of the ray +operators. + +"Your report," I ordered. + +"Nine ships disintegrated, sir," he replied instantly. "Five before the +city was destroyed, four later." + +"You are certain that none escaped?" + +"Positive, sir." + +"Very good." + +I turned to Barry, smiling. + +"Point her nose for Zenia, Mr. Barry," I said. "As soon as it is +feasible, resume emergency speed. There are some very anxious gentlemen +there awaiting our report, and I dare not convey it except in person." + +"Yes, sir!" said Barry crisply. + + * * * * * + +This, then, is the history of the Forgotten Planet. On the charts of the +Universe it appears as an unnamed world. No ship is permitted to pass +close enough to it so that its attraction is greater than that of the +nearest other mass. A permanent outpost of fixed-station ships, with +headquarters upon Jaron, the closest world, is maintained by the +Council. + +There are millions of people who might be greatly disturbed if they knew +of this potential menace that lurks in the midst of our Universe, but +they do not know. The wisdom of the Council made certain of that. + +But, in order that in the ages to come there might be a record of this +matter, I have been asked to prepare this document for the sealed +archives of the Alliance. It has been a pleasant task; I have relived, +for a little time, a part of my youth. + +The work is done, now, and that is well. I am an old man, and weary. +Sometimes I wish I might live to see the wonders that the next +generation or so will witness, but my years are heavy upon me. + +My work is done. + + * * * * * + +ASTOUNDING STORIES + +_Appears on Newsstands_ + +THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: "_And I would have been the greatest man in the world._"] + + + + +The Power and the Glory + +_By Charles W. Diffin_ + + +There were papers on the desk, a litter of papers scrawled over, in the +careless writing of indifferent students, with the symbols of chemistry +and long mathematical computations. The man at the desk pushed them +aside to rest his lean, lined face on one thin hand. The other arm, +ending at the wrist, was on the desk before him. + +[Sidenote: Sadly, sternly, the old professor reveals to his brilliant +pupil the greater path to glory.] + +Students of a great university had long since ceased to speculate about +the missing hand. The result of an experiment, they knew--a hand that +was a mass of lifeless cells, amputated quickly that the living arm +might be saved--but that was some several years ago, ancient history to +those who came and went through Professor Eddinger's class room. + +And now Professor Eddinger was weary--weary and old, he told himself--as +he closed his eyes to shut out the sight of the interminable papers and +the stubby wrist that had ended forever his experiments and the delicate +manipulations which only he could do. + +He reached slowly for a buzzing phone, but his eyes brightened at the +voice that came to him. + +"I've got it--I've got it!" The words were almost incoherent. "This is +Avery, Professor--Avery! You must come at once. You will share in it; I +owe it all to you ... you will be the first to see ... I am sending a +taxi for you--" + +Professor Eddinger's tired eyes crinkled to a smile. Enthusiasm like +this was rare among his youngsters. But Avery--with the face of a poet, +a dreamer's eyes and the mind of a scientist--good boy, Avery!--a long +time since he had seen him--had him in his own laboratory for two +years.... + +"What's this all about?" he asked. + +"No--no!" said a voice; "I can't tell you--it is too big--greater than +the induction motor--greater than the electric light--it is the greatest +thing in the world. The taxi should be there now--you must come--" + +A knock at the office door where a voice said, "Car for Professor +Eddinger," confirmed the excited words. + +"I'll come," said the Professor, "right away." + + * * * * * + +He pondered, as the car whirled him across the city, on what this +greatest thing in the world might be. And he hoped with gentle +skepticism that the enthusiasm was warranted. A young man opened the car +door as they stopped. His face was flushed, Eddinger noted, hair pushed +back in disarray, his shirt torn open at the throat. + +"Wait here," he told the driver and took the Professor by the arm to +hurry him into a dilapidated building. + +"Not much of a laboratory," he said, "but we'll have better, you and I; +we'll have better--" + +The room seemed bare with its meager equipment, but it was neat, as +became the best student of Professor Eddinger. Rows of reagent bottles +stood on the shelves, but the tables were a litter of misplaced +instruments and broken glassware where trembling hands had fumbled in +heedless excitement. + +"Glad to see you again, Avery." The gentle voice of Professor Eddinger +had lost its tired tone. "It's been two years you've been working, I +judge. Now what is this great discovery, boy? What have you found?" + +The younger man, in whose face the color came and went, and whose eyes +were shining from dark hollows that marked long days and sleepless +nights, still clung to the other's arm. + +"It's real," he said; "it's great! It means fortune and fame, and you're +in on that, Professor. The old master," he said and clapped a hand +affectionately upon a thin shoulder; "I owe it all to you. And now I +have--I have learned.... No, you shall see for yourself. Wait--" + + * * * * * + +He crossed quickly to a table. On it was an apparatus; the eyes of the +older man widened as he saw it. It was intricate--a maze of tubing. +There was a glass bulb above--the generator of a cathode ray, +obviously--and electro-magnets below and on each side. Beneath was a +crude sphere of heavy lead--a retort, it might be--and from this there +passed two massive, insulated cables. The understanding eyes of the +Professor followed them, one to a terminal on a great insulating block +upon the floor, the other to a similarly protected terminal of carbon +some feet above it in the air. + +The trembling fingers of the young man made some few adjustments, then +he left the instrument to take his place by an electric switch. "Stand +back," he warned, and closed the switch. + +There was a gentle hissing from within glass tubes, the faint glow of a +blue-green light. And that was all, until--with a crash like the ripping +crackle of lightning, a white flame arced between the terminals of the +heavy cables. It hissed ceaselessly through the air where now the tang +of ozone was apparent. The carbon blocks glowed with a brilliant +incandescence when the flame ceased with the motion of a hand where +Avery pulled a switch. + +The man's voice was quiet now. "You do not know, yet, what you have +seen, but there was a tremendous potential there--an amperage I can't +measure with my limited facilities." He waved a deprecating hand about +the ill-furnished laboratory. "But you have seen--" His voice trembled +and failed at the forming of the words. + +"--The disintegration of the atom," said Professor Eddinger quietly, +"and the release of power unlimited. Did you use thorium?" he inquired. + +The other looked at him in amazement. Then: "I should have known you +would understand," he said humbly. "And you know what it means"--again +his voice rose--"power without end to do the work of the world--great +vessels driven a lifetime on a mere ounce of matter--a revolution in +transportation--in living...." He paused. "The liberation of mankind," +he added, and his voice was reverent. "This will do the work of the +world: it will make a new heaven and a new earth! Oh, I have dreamed +dreams," he exclaimed, "I have seen visions. And it has been given to +me--me!--to liberate man from the curse of Adam ... the sweat of his +brow.... I can't realize it even yet. I--I am not worthy...." + + * * * * * + +He raised his eyes slowly in the silence to gaze in wondering +astonishment at the older man. There was no answering light, no +exaltation on the lined face. Only sadness in the tired eyes that looked +at him and through him as if focused upon something in a dim future--or +past. + +"Don't you see?" asked the wondering man. "The freedom of men--the +liberation of a race. No more poverty, no endless, grinding labor." His +young eyes, too, were looking into the future, a future of blinding +light. "Culture," he said, "instead of heart-breaking toil, a chance to +grow mentally, spiritually; it is another world, a new life--" And again +he asked: "Surely, you see?" + +"I see," said the other; "I see--plainly." + +"The new world," said Avery. "It--it dazzles me; it rings like music in +my ears." + +"I see no new world," was the slow response. + +The young face was plainly perplexed. "Don't you believe?" he stammered. +"After you have seen ... I thought you would have the vision, would help +me emancipate the world, save it--" His voice failed. + +"Men have a way of crucifying their saviors," said the tired voice. + +The inventor was suddenly indignant. "You are blind," he said harshly; +"it is too big for you. And I would have had you stand beside me in the +great work.... I shall announce it alone.... There will be +laboratories--enormous!--and factories. My invention will be perfected, +simplified, compressed. A generator will be made--thousands of +horsepower to do the work of a city, free thousands of men--made so +small you can hold it in one hand." + +The sensitive face was proudly alight, proud and a trifle arrogant. The +exaltation of his coming power was strong upon him. + +"Yes," said Professor Eddinger, "in one hand." And he raised his right +arm that he might see where the end of a sleeve was empty. + +"I am sorry," said the inventor abruptly; "I didn't mean ... but you +will excuse me now; there is so much to be done--" But the thin figure +of Professor Eddinger had crossed to the far table to examine the +apparatus there. + +"Crude," he said beneath his breath, "crude--but efficient!" + + * * * * * + +In the silence a rat had appeared in the distant corner. The Professor +nodded as he saw it. The animal stopped as the man's eyes came upon it; +then sat squirrellike on one of the shelves as it ate a crumb of food. +Some morsel from a hurried lunch of Avery's, the Professor +reflected--poor Avery! Yes, there was much to be done. + +He spoke as much to himself as to the man who was now beside him. "It +enters here," he said and peered downward toward the lead bulb. He +placed a finger on the side of the metal. "About here, I should +think.... Have you a drill? And a bit of quartz?" + +The inventor's eyes were puzzled, but the assurance of his old +instructor claimed obedience. He produced a small drill and a fragment +like broken glass. And he started visibly as the one hand worked +awkwardly to make a small hole in the side of the lead. But he withdrew +his own restraining hand, and he watched in mystified silence while the +quartz was fitted to make a tiny window and the thin figure stooped to +sight as if aiming the opening toward a far corner where a brown rat sat +upright in earnest munching of a dry crust. + +The Professor drew Avery with him as he retreated noiselessly from the +instrument. "Will you close the switch," he whispered. + +The young man hesitated, bewildered, at this unexpected demonstration, +and the Professor himself reached with his one hand for the black lever. +Again the arc crashed into life, to hold for a brief instant until +Professor Eddinger opened the switch. + +"Well," demanded Avery, "what's all the show? Do you think you are +teaching me anything--about my own instrument?" There was hurt pride and +jealous resentment in his voice. + +"See," said Professor Eddinger quietly. And his one thin hand pointed to +a far shelf, where, in the shadow, was a huddle of brown fur and a bit +of crust. It fell as they watched, and the "plop" of the soft body upon +the floor sounded loud in the silent room. + +"The law of compensation," said Professor Eddinger. "Two sides to the +medal! Darkness and light--good and evil--life ... and death!" + + * * * * * + +The young man was stammering. "What do you mean?--a death ray evolved?" +And: "What of it?" he demanded; "what of it? What's that got to do with +it?" + +"A death ray," the other agreed. "You have dreamed, Avery--one must in +order to create--but it is only a dream. You dreamed of life--a fuller +life--for the world, but you would have given them, as you have just +seen, death." + +The face of Avery was white as wax; his eyes glared savagely from dark +hollows. + +"A rat!" he protested. "You have killed a rat ... and you say--you +say--" He raised one trembling hand to his lips to hold them from +forming the unspeakable words. + +"A rat," said the Professor--"or a man ... or a million men." + +"We will control it." + +"All men will have it--the best and the worst ... and there is no +defence." + +"It will free the world--" + +"It will destroy it." + +"No!"--and the white-faced man was shouting now--"you don't +understand--you can't see--" + +The lean figure of the scientist straightened to its full height. His +eyes met those of the younger man, silent now before him, but Avery knew +the eyes never saw him; they were looking far off, following the wings +of thought. In the stillness the man's words came harsh and commanding-- + +"Do you see the cities," he said, "crumbling to ruins under the cold +stars? The fields? They are rank with wild growth, torn and gullied by +the waters; a desolate land where animals prowl. And the people--the +people!--wandering bands, lower, as the years drag on, than the beasts +themselves; the children dying, forgotten, in the forgotten lands; a +people to whom the progress of our civilization is one with the ages +past, for whom there is again the slow, toiling road toward the light. + +"And somewhere, perhaps, a conquering race, the most brutal and callous +of mankind, rioting in their sense of power and dragging themselves down +to oblivion...." + + * * * * * + +His gaze came slowly back to the room and the figure of the man still +fighting for his dream. + +"They would not," said Avery hoarsely; "they'd use it for good." + +"Would they?" asked Professor Eddinger. He spoke simply as one stating +simple facts. "I love my fellow men," he said, "and I killed them in +thousands in the last war--I, and my science, and my poison gas." + +The figure of Avery slumped suddenly upon a chair; his face was buried +in his hands. "And I would have been," he groaned, "the greatest man in +the world." + +"You shall be greater," said the Professor, "though only we shall know +it--you and I.... You will save the world--from itself." + +The figure, bowed and sunken in the chair, made no move; the man was +heedless of the kindly hand upon his shoulder. His voice, when he spoke, +was that of one afar off, speaking out of a great loneliness. "You don't +understand," he said dully; "you can't--" + +But Professor Eddinger, a cog in the wheels of a great educational +machine, glanced at the watch on his wrist. Again his thin shoulders +were stooped, his voice tired. "My classes," he said. "I must be +going...." + + * * * * * + +In the gathering dusk Professor Eddinger locked carefully the door of +his office. He crossed beyond his desk and fumbled with his one hand for +his keys. + +There was a cabinet to be opened, and he stared long in the dim light at +the object he withdrew. He looked approvingly at the exquisite +workmanship of an instrument where a generator of the cathode ray and an +intricate maze of tubing surmounted electro-magnets and a round lead +bulb. There were terminals for attaching heavy cables; it was a +beautiful thing.... His useless arm moved to bring an imaginary hand +before the window of quartz in the lead sphere. + +"Power," he whispered and repeated Avery's words; "power, to build a +city--or destroy a civilization ... and I hold it in one hand." + +He replaced the apparatus in the safety of its case. "The saviors of +mankind!" he said, and his tone was harsh and bitter. + +But a smile, whimsical, kindly, crinkled his tired eyes as he turned to +his desk and its usual litter of examination papers. + +"It is something, Avery," he whispered to that distant man, "to belong +in so distinguished a group." + + + + +A STAR THAT BREATHES + + +Beta Cephei, the mysterious Milky Way star which expands and contracts +as though it were breathing, at last has a biography. + +A summary of known facts concerning the star, interpreted in the light +of recent observations at the Lick Observatory at the University of +California was completed recently by H. S. Mendenhall, graduate student. + +Mendenhall's interpretations were said to lend weight to the theory that +Beta Cephei is contracting and expanding once in every four and one-half +hours. This is such a terrific rate of speed from a terrestrial point of +view that it appears to be moving toward and away from the earth at a +velocity reaching a maximum of about nine and one-half miles per second. + +Beta Cephei is a variable star in the Constellation Cepheus. It is best +visible in the northern sky during July or August. Its distance from the +earth is estimated roughly at 2,000,000,000,000,000 miles, and +Mendenhall estimates its diameter at almost 2,000,000 miles, more than +twice that of the sun. + +In addition to the apparent velocity caused by contraction and expansion +of its surface five times a day, Beta Cephei seems to have another +motion. This was said by Mendenhall to be a rotation around some other +star in a period of 20 years. Velocity of this rotation is something +over three miles a second. + +Variable stars are of particular interest to astronomers because the +light from them pulsates regularly, flaring and dying as though fuel +were replenished at regular intervals. The rate of this pulsation has +been found to be a measure to the candle power of the star. Its distance +then can be determined by contrasting its actual candle power with the +apparent magnitude as seen from the earth. + +[Illustration: _"Oh my God!" gasped Bell. He'd known this man before. A +Secret Service man--one of the seven who had vanished._] + + + + +Murder Madness + +PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Murray Leinster_ + + +Seven United States Secret Service men have disappeared in South +America. Another is found--a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored +that they are victims of a diabolical poison which produces "murder +madness." + +[Sidenote: More and more South Americans are stricken with the horrible +"murder madness" that lies in The Master's fearful poison. And Bell is +their one last hope as he fights to stem the swiftly rising tide of a +continent's utter enslavement.] + +Charley Bell of the "Trade"--a secret service organization which does +not officially exist--discovers that a sinister system of slavery is +flourishing in South America, headed by a mysterious man known only as +The Master. This slavery is accomplished by means of a poison which +causes its victims to experience a horrible writhing of the hands, +followed by a madness to do murder, two weeks after it is taken. + +The victims get relief only with an antidote supplied through Ribiera, +The Master's Chief Deputy; but in the antidote there is more of the +poison, which again in two weeks will take effect. And so it is that a +person who once receives the poison is forever enslaved. + +Ribiera kidnaps Paula Canalejas, daughter of a Brazilian cabinet +minister who, on becoming a victim, has killed himself, preferring +death to "murder madness." Bell rescues Paula, and they flee from +Ribiera in a plane. They find The Master's hidden jungle stronghold, and +Bell destroys it with a bomb attack from the air. As he is getting away +his motor quits. Paula jumps for her life, and shortly afterwards Bell +follows, drifting straight down towards his enemies below. + + +CHAPTER XI + +Bell was falling head-first when the 'chute opened, and the jerk was +terrific, the more so as he had counted not the customary ten, but +fifteen before pulling out the ring. But very suddenly he seemed to be +floating down with an amazing gentleness, with the ruddy blossom of a +parachute swaying against a background of lustrous stars very far indeed +over his head. Below him were masses of smoke and at least one huge +dancing mass of flame, where the storage tank for airplane gas had +exploded. It was unlikely in the extreme, he saw now, that anyone under +that canopy of smoke could look up to see plane or parachute against the +sky. + +Clumsily enough, dangling as he was, Bell twisted about to look for +Paula. Sheer panic came to him before he saw her a little above him but +a long distance off. She looked horribly alone with the glare of the +fires upon her parachute, and smoke that trailed away into darkness +below her. She was farther from the flames than Bell, too. The light +upon her was dimmer. And Bell cursed that he had stayed in the plane to +make sure it would dive clear of her before he stepped off himself. + + * * * * * + +The glow on the blossom of silk above her faded out. The sky still +glared behind, but a thick and acrid fog enveloped Bell as he descended. +Still straining his eyes hopelessly, he crossed his feet and waited. + +Branches reached up and lashed at him. Vines scraped against his sides. +He was hurled against a tree trunk with stunning force, and rebounded, +and swung clear, and then dangled halfway between earth and the jungle +roof. It was minutes before his head cleared, and then he felt at once +despairing and a fool. Dangling in his parachute harness when Paula +needed him. + +The light in the sky behind him penetrated even the jungle growth as a +faint luminosity. Presently he writhed to a position in which he could +strike a match. A thick, matted mass of climbing vines swung from the +upper branches not a yard from his fingertips. Bell cursed again, +frantically, and clutched at it wildly. Presently his absurd kickings +set him to swaying. He redoubled his efforts and increased the arc in +which he swung. But it was a long time before his fingers closed upon +leaves which came away in his grasp, and longer still before he caught +hold of a wrist-thick liana which oozed sticky sap upon his hands. + +But he clung desperately, and presently got his whole weight on it. He +unsnapped the parachute and partly let himself down, partly slid, and +partly tumbled to the solid earth below. + +He had barely reached it when, muffled and many times reechoed among the +tree trunks, he heard two shots. He cursed, and sprang toward the sound, +plunging headlong into underbrush that strove to tear the flesh from his +bones. He fought madly, savagely, fiercely. + + * * * * * + +He heard two more shots. He fought the jungle in the darkness like a +madman, ploughing insanely through masses of creepers that should have +been parted by a machete, and which would have been much more easily +slipped through by separating them, but which he strove to penetrate by +sheer strength. + +And then he heard two shots again. + +Bell stopped short and swore disgustedly. + +"What a fool I am!" he growled. "She's telling me where she is, and +I--" + +He drew one of the weapons that seemed to bulge in every pocket of his +flying suit and fired two shots in the air in reply. A single one +answered him. + +From that time Bell moved more sanely. The jungle is not designed, +apparently, for men to travel in. It is assuredly not intended for them +to travel in by night, and especially it is not planned, by whoever +planned it, for a man to penetrate without either machete or lights. + +As nearly as he could estimate it afterward, it took Bell over an hour +to cover one mile in the blackness under the jungle roof. Once he +blundered into fire-ants. They were somnolent in the darkness, but one +hand stung as if in white-hot metal as he went on. And thorns tore at +him. The heavy flying suit protected him somewhat, but after the first +hundred yards he blundered on almost blindly, with his arms across his +face, stopping now and then to try to orient himself. Three times he +fired in the air, and three times an answering shot came instantly, to +guide him. + + * * * * * + +And then a voice called in the blackness, and he ploughed toward it, and +it called again, and again, and at last he struck a match with trembling +fingers and saw her, dangling as he had dangled, some fifteen feet from +the ground. She smiled waveringly, with a little gasp of relief, and he +heard something go slithering away, very furtively. + +She clung to him desperately when he had gotten her down to solid earth. +But he was savage. + +"Those shots--though I'm glad you fired them--may have been a tip-off to +the town. We've got to keep moving, Paula." + +Her breath was coming quickly. + +"They could trail us, Charles. By daylight we might not leave signs, but +forcing our way through the night...." + +"Right, as usual," admitted Bell. "How about shells? Did you use all +you had?" + +"Nearly. But I was afraid, Charles." + +Bell felt in his pockets. Half a box. Perhaps twenty-five shells. With +the town nearby and almost certainly having heard their signals to each +other. Black rage invaded Bell. They would be hunted for, of course. +Dogs, perhaps, would trail them. And the thing would end when they were +at bay, ringed about by The Master's slaves, with twenty-five shells +only to expend. + +The dim little glow in the sky between the jungle leaves kept up. It was +bright, and slowly growing brighter. There was a sudden flickering and +even the jungle grew light for an instant. A few seconds later there was +a heavy concussion. + +"Something else went up then," growled Bell. "It's some satisfaction, +anyway, to know I did a lot of damage." + + * * * * * + +And then, quite abruptly, there was an obscure murmuring sound. It grew +stronger, and stronger still. If Bell had been aloft, he would have seen +the planes from The Master's hangars being rushed out of their shelters. +One of the long row of buildings had caught. And the plateau of Cuyaba +is very, very far from civilization. Tools, and even dynamos and +engines, could be brought toilsomely to it, but the task would be +terrific. Buildings would be made from materials on the spot, even the +shelters for the planes. It would be much more practical to carry the +parts for a saw mill and saw out the lumber on the spot than to attempt +to freight roofing materials and the like to Cuyaba. So that the +structures Bell had seen in the wing lights' glow were of wood, and +inflammable. The powerhouse that lighted the landing field was already +ablaze. The smaller shacks of the laborers perhaps would not be burnt +down, but the elaborate depot for communication by plane and wireless +was rapidly being destroyed. The reserve of gasoline had gone up in +smoke almost at the beginning, and in spreading out had extended the +disaster to nearly all the compact nerve-center of the whole conspiracy. + +Presently the droning noise was tumultuous. Every plane in a condition +to fly was out on the landing field, now brightly lighted by the burning +buildings all about. There was frantic, hectic activity everywhere. The +secretaries of The Master were rescuing what records they could, and +growing cold with terror. In the confusion of spreading flames and the +noise of roaring conflagrations the stopping of the motor up aloft had +passed unnoticed. In the headquarters of The Master there was panic. An +attack had been made upon The Master. A person who could not be one of +his slaves had found his stronghold and attacked it terribly. And if one +man knew that location and dared attack it, then.... + + * * * * * + +The hold of The Master upon all his slaves was based on one fact and its +corollary. The fact was, that those who had been given his poison would +go murder mad without its antidote. The corollary was that those who +obeyed him would be given that antidote and be safe. True, the antidote +was but a temporary one, and mixed with it for administration was a +further dosage of the poison itself. But the whole power of The Master +was based on his slaves' belief that as long as they obeyed him abjectly +there would be no failure of the antidote's supply. And Bell had given +that belief a sudden and horrible shock. + +Orders came from one frightened man, who cursed much more from terror +than from rage. Ribiera had advised him. To do him justice, Ribiera felt +less fear than most. Nephew to The Master, and destined successor to The +Master's power, Ribiera dared not revolt, but at least he had little +fear of punishment for incompetence. It was his advice that set the many +aircraft motors warming up. It was his direction that assorted out the +brainwork staff. And Ribiera himself curtly took control, indifferently +abandoned the enslaved workers to the madness that would come upon them, +and took wing in the last of a stream of roaring things that swept +upward above the smoke and flame and vanished in the sky. + + * * * * * + +Bell and Paula were huddled in between the buttress roots of a jungle +giant, protected on three sides by the monster uprearings of solid wood, +and Bell was absorbedly feeding a tiny smudge fire. The smoke was thick +and choking, but it did keep off the plague of insects which make jungle +travel much less than the romantic adventure it is pictured. Bell heard +the heavy, thunderous buzzing from the town change timbre suddenly. A +single note of it grew loud and soared overhead. + +He stared up instinctively, but saw nothing but leaves and branches and +many climbing things above him, dimly lighted by the smoky little blaze. +The roaring overhead went on, and dimmed. A second roaring came from the +town and rose to a monstrous growling and diminished. A third did +likewise, and a fourth. + +At stated, even intervals the planes at headquarters of The Master took +off from the landing field, ringed about with blazing buildings, and +plunged through the darkness in a straight line. The steadier droning +from the town grew lighter as the jungles echoed for many miles with the +sounds of aircraft motors overhead. + + * * * * * + +At last a single plane rose upward and thundered over the jungle roof. +It went away, and away.... The town was silent, then, and only a faint +and dwindling murmur came from the line of aircraft headed south. + +"They've deserted the town, by God!" said Bell, his eyes gleaming. +"Scared off!" + +"And--and we--" said Paula, gazing at him. + +"You can bet that every man who could crowd into a plane did so," said +Bell grimly. "Those that couldn't, if they have any brains, will be +trying to make it some other way to where they can subject themselves to +one of The Master's deputies and have a little longer time of sanity. +The poor devils that are left--well--they'll be _camaradas_, _peons_, +laborers, without the intelligence to know what they can do. They'll +wait patiently for their masters to come back. And presently their hands +will writhe.... And the town will be a hell." + +"Then they won't be looking for us?" + +Bell considered. And suddenly he laughed. + +"If the fire has burned out before dawn," he said coldly, "I'll go +looking for them. It's going to be cold-blooded, and it's going to be +rather pitiful, I think, but there's nothing else to do. You try to get +some rest. You'll need it." + +And for all the rest of the dark hours he crouched in the little angle +formed by the roots of the forest giant, and kept a thickly smoking +little fire going, and listened to the noises of the jungle all about +him. + + * * * * * + +It was more than a mile back to the town. It was nearer two. But it was +vastly less difficult to force a way through the thick growths by +daylight, even though then it was not easy. With machetes, of course, +Bell and Paula would have had no trouble, but theirs had been left in +the plane. Bell made a huge club and battered openings by sheer strength +where it was necessary. Sweat streamed down his face before he had +covered five hundred yards, but then something occurred to him and he +went more easily. If there were any of the intelligent class of The +Master's subjects left in the little settlement, he wanted to allow time +enough for them to start their flight. He wanted to find the place empty +of all but laborers, who would be accustomed to obey any man who spoke +arrogantly and in the manner of a deputy of The Master. Yet he did not +want to wait too long. Panic spreads among the _camarada_ class as +swiftly as among more intelligent folk, and it is even more blind and +hysterical. + +It was nearly eleven o'clock before they emerged upon a cleared field +where brightly blooming plants grew hugely. Bell regarded these grimly. + +"These," he observed, "will be The Master's stock." + +Paula touched his arm. + +"I have heard," she said, and shuddered, "that the men who gather the +plants that go to make the poisons of the _Indios_ do not--do not dare +to sleep near the fresh-picked plants. They say that the odor is +dangerous, even the perfume of the blossoms." + +"Very probably," said Bell. "I wish I could destroy the damned things. +But since we can't, why, we'll go around the edge of the field." + + * * * * * + +He went upwind, skirting the edge of the planted things. A path showed, +winding over half-heartedly cleared ground. He followed it, with Paula +close behind him. Smoke still curled heavily upward from the heaps of +ashes which he reached first of all. He looked upon them with an +unpleasant satisfaction. He had to pick his way between still smoking +heaps of embers to reach the huts about which laborers stood listlessly, +not working because not ordered to work, not yet frightened because not +yet realizing fully the catastrophe that had come upon them. + +He was moving toward them, deliberately adopting an air of suppressed +rage, when a voice called whiningly. + +"Senhor! Senhor!" And then pleadingly, in Portuguese, "I have news for +The Master! I have news for The Master!" + +Bell jerked his head about. Bars of thick wood, cemented into heavy +timbers at top and bottom. A building that was solid wall on three +sides, and the fourth was bars. A white man in it, unshaven, haggard, +ragged, filthy. And on the floor of the cage.... + +There had been another such cage on a _fazenda_ back toward Rio. Bell +had looked into it, and had shot the gibbering Thing that had been its +occupant, as an act of pure mercy. But this man had been through horrors +and yet was sane. + +"Don't look," said Bell sharply to Paula. He went close. + +The figure pressed against the bars, whining. And suddenly it stopped +its fawning. + +"The devil!" said the white man in the cage. "What in hell are you doing +here, Bell? Has that fiend caught you too?" + + * * * * * + +"Oh, my God!" gasped Bell. He went white with a cold rage. He'd known +this man before. A Secret Service man--one of the seven who had +vanished. "How's this place opened? I'll let you out." + +"It may be dangerous," said the white man with a ghastly grin. "I'm one +of The Master's little victims. I've been trying to work a little game +in hopes of getting within arm's reach of him. How'd you get here? Has +he got you too?" + +"I burned the damned town last night," snarled Bell, "and crashed up +after it. Where's that door?" + +He found it, a solid mass of planks with a log bar fitted in such a way +that it could not possibly be opened from within. He dragged it wide. +The white man came out, holding to his self-control with an obvious +effort. + +"I want to dance and sing because I'm out of there," he told Bell +queerly, "but I know you've done me no good. I've been fed The Master's +little medicine. I've been in that cage for weeks." + +Bell, quivering with rage, handed him a revolver. + +"I'm going to get some supplies and stuff and try to make it to +civilization," he said shortly. "If you want to help...." + +"Hell, yes," said the white man drearily. "I might as well. Number +One-Fourteen was here.... He's The Master's little pet, now. Turned +traitor. Report it, if you ever get out." + +"No," said Bell briefly. "He didn't turn." He told in a very few words +of the finding of the body of a man who had fallen or been thrown from a +plane into the jungle. + + * * * * * + +They were moving toward the rows of still standing shacks, then, and +faces were beginning to turn toward them, and there was a little stir of +apathetic puzzlement at sight of the white man who had been set free. + +That white man looked suddenly at Paula, and then at Bell. + +"I've been turned into a beast," he said wryly. "Look here, Bell. There +were as many as ten and fifteen of us in that cage at one time--men the +deputies sent up for the purpose. We were allowed to go mad, one and two +at a time, for the edification of the populace, to keep the _camaradas_ +scared. And those of us who weren't going mad just then used to have to +band together and kill them. That cage has been the most awful hell on +earth that any devil ever contrived. They put three women in there once, +with their hands already writhing.... Ugh!..." + +Bell's face was cold and hard is if carved from marble. + +"I haven't lived through it," said the white man harshly, "by being +soft. And I've got less than no time to live--sane, anyhow. I was +thinking of shooting you in the back, because the young lady--" + +He laughed as Bell's revolver muzzle stirred. + +"I'm telling you," said the white man in ghastly merriment, "because I +thought--I thought One-Fourteen had set me the example of ditching the +Service for his own life. But now it's different." + + * * * * * + +He pointed. + +"There's a launch in that house, with one of these outboard motors. It +was used to keep up communication with the boat gangs that sweat the +heavy supplies up the river. It'll float in three inches of water, and +you can pole it where the water's too shallow to let the propeller turn. +This rabble will mob you if you try to take it, because it'll have taken +them just about this long to realize that they're deserted. They'll +think you are a deputy, at least, to have dared release me. I'm going to +convince them of it, and use this gun to give you a start. I give you +two hours. It ought to be enough. And then...." + +Bell nodded. + +"I'm not Service," he said curtly, "but I'll see it's known." + +The white man laughed again. + +"'Some sigh for the glories of this world, and some for a prophet's +paradise to come,'" he quoted derisively. "I thought I was hard, Bell, +but I find I prefer to have my record clean in the Service--where nobody +will ever see it--than to take what pleasure I might snatch before I +die. Queer, isn't it? Old Omar was wrong. Now watch me bluff, flinging +away the cash for credit of doubtful value, and all for the rumble of a +distant drum--which will be muted!" + + * * * * * + +They were surrounded by swarming, fawning, frightened _camaradas_ who +implored the Senhor to tell them if he were a deputy of The Master, and +if he were here to make sure nothing evil befell them. They worked for +The Master, and they desired nothing save to labor all their lives for +The Master, only--only--The Master would allow no evil to befall them? + +The white man waved his arms grandiloquently. + +"The Senhor you behold," he proclaimed in the barbarous Portugese of the +hinterland of Brazil, "has released me from the cage in which you saw +me. He is the deputy of The Master himself, and is enraged because the +landing lights on the field were not burning, so that his airplane fell +down into the jungle. He bears news of great value from me to The +Master, which will make me finally a sub-deputy of The Master. And I +have a revolver, as you see, with which I could kill him, but he dares +not permit me to die, since I have given him news for The Master. I +shall wait here and he will go and send back an airplane with the grace +of The Master for me and for all of you." + +Bell snarled an assent, in the arrogant fashion of the deputies of The +Master. He waited furiously while the Service man argued eloquently and +fluently. He fingered his revolver suggestively when a wave of panic +swept over the swarming mob for no especial reason. And then he watched +grimly while the light little metal-bottomed boat was carried to the +water's edge and loaded with food, and fuel, and arms, and ammunition, +and even mosquito bars. + +The white man grinned queerly at Bell as he extended his hand in a last +handshake. + +"'I, who am about to die, salute you!'" he said mockingly. "Isn't this a +hell of a world, Bell? I'm sure we could design a better one in some +ways." + + * * * * * + +Bell felt a horrible, a ghastly shock. The hand that gripped his was +writhing in his grasp. + +"Quite so," said the white man. "It started about five minutes ago. In +theory, I've about forty-eight hours. Actually, I don't dare wait that +long, if I'm to die like a white man. And a lingering vanity insists on +that. I hope you get out, Bell.... And if you want to do me a +favor,"--he grinned again, mirthlessly--"you might see that The Master +and as many of his deputies as you can manage join me in hell at the +earliest possible moment. I shan't mind so much if I can watch them." + +He put his hands quickly in his pockets as the little outboard motor +caught and the launch went on down-river. He did not even look after +them. The last Bell saw of him he was swaggering back up the little +hillside above the river edge, surrounded by scared inhabitants of the +workmen's shacks, and scoffing in a superior fashion at their fears. + + +CHAPTER XII + +It took Bell just eight days to reach the Paraguay, and those eight days +were like an age-long nightmare of toil and discomfort and more than a +little danger. The launch was headed downstream, of course, and with the +current behind it, it made good time. But the distances of Brazil are +infinite, and the jungles of Brazil are malevolent, and the route down +the Rio Laurenço was designed by the architect of hell. _Raudales_ lay +in wait to destroy the little boat. Insects swarmed about to destroy its +voyagers. And the jungle loomed above them, passively malignant, and +waited for them to die. + +And as if physical sufferings were not enough, Bell saw Paula wilt and +grow pale. All the way down the river they passed little clearings at +nearly equal distances. And men came trembling out of the little houses +upon those _fazendas_ and fawned upon the Senhor who was in the launch +that had come from up-river and so must be in the service of The Master +himself. The clearings and the tiny houses had been placed upon the +river for the service of the terribly laboring boat gangs who brought +the heavier supplies up the river to The Master's central depot. Men at +these clearings had been enslaved and ordered to remain at their posts, +serving all those upon the business of The Master. They fawned abjectly +upon Bell, because he was of _os gentes_ and so presumably was +empowered, as The Master had empowered his more intelligent subjects, to +exact the most degraded of submission from all beneath him in the +horrible conspiracy. Once, indeed, Bell was humbly implored by a panic +stricken man to administer "the grace of The Master" to a moody and +irritable child of twelve or so. + +"She sees the red spots, Senhor. It is the first sign. And I have served +The Master faithfully...." + + * * * * * + +And Bell could do nothing. He went on savagely. And once he passed a +gang of _camaradas_ laboring to get heavily loaded dugouts up a fiendish +_raudal_. They had ropes out and were hauling at them from the bank, +while some of their number were breast-deep in the rushing water, +pushing the dugouts against the stream. + +"They're headed for the plantation," said Bell grimly, "and they'll need +the grace of The Master by the time they get there. And it's abandoned. +But if I tell them...." + +Men with no hope at all are not to be trusted. Not when they are +mixtures of three or more races--white and black and red--and steeped in +ignorance and superstition and, moreover, long subject to such masters +as these men had had. Bell had to think of Paula. + +He could have landed and haughtily ordered them to float or even carry +the light boat to the calmer waters below. They would have obeyed and +cringed before him. But he shot the rapids from above, with the little +motor roaring past rocks and walls of jungle beside the foaming water, +at a speed that chilled his blood. + + * * * * * + +Paula said nothing. She was white and listless. Bell, himself, was being +preyed upon by a bitter blend of horror and a deep-seated rage that +consumed him like a fever. He had fever itself, of course. He was +taking, and forcing Paula to take, five grains of quinine a day. It had +been included among his stores as a matter of course by those who had +loaded his boat. And with the fever working in his brain he found +himself holding long, imaginary conversations, in which one part of his +brain reproached the other part for having destroyed the plantation of +The Master. The laborers upon that plantation had been abandoned to the +murder madness because of his deed. The caretakers of the tiny _fazenda_ +on the river bank were now ignored. Bell felt himself a murderer because +he had caused The Master's deputies to cast them off in a callous +indifference to their inevitable fate. + +He suffered the tortures of the damned, and grew morose and bitter, and +could only escape that self torture by coddling his hatred of Ribiera +and The Master. He imagined torments to be inflicted upon them which +would adequately repay them for their crimes, and racked his feverish +brain for memories of the appalling atrocities which can be committed +upon the human body without destroying its capacity to suffer. + +It was not normal. It was not sane. But it filled Bell's mind and +somehow kept him from suicide during the horrible passage of the river. +He hardly dared speak to Paula. There was a time when he counted the +days since he had been a guest at Ribiera's estate outside of Rio, and +frenziedly persuaded himself that he saw red spots before his eyes and +soon would have the murder madness come upon him. And then he thought of +the supplies in Ribiera's plane, in which they had escaped from Rio. +They had eaten that food. + + * * * * * + +It was almost unconsciously, then, that he saw the narrow water on which +the launch floated valiantly grow wider day by day. When at last it +debouched suddenly into a vast stream whereon a clumsy steamer plied +beneath a self made cloud of smoke, he stared dully at it for minutes +before he realized. + +"Paula," he said suddenly, and listened in amazement to his voice. It +was hoarse and harsh and croaking. "Paula, we've made it. This must be +the Paraguay." + +She roused herself and looked about like a person waking from a +lethargic sleep. And then her lips quivered, and she tried to speak and +could not, and tears fell silently from her eyes, and all at once she +was sobbing bitterly. + +That sign of the terrific strain she had been under served more than +anything else to jolt Bell out of his abnormal state of mind. He moved +over to her and clumsily put his arm about her, and comforted her as +best he could. And she sat sobbing with her head on his shoulder, +gasping in a form of hysterical relief, until the engine behind them +sputtered, and coughed, and died. + +When Bell looked, the last drop of gasoline was gone. But the motor had +served its purpose. It had run manfully on an almost infinitesimal +consumption of gasoline for eight days. It had not missed an explosion +save when its wiring was wetted by spray. And now.... + + * * * * * + +Bell hauled the engine inboard and got out the oars from under the +seats. He got the little boat out to mid-stream, and they floated down +until a village of squalid huts appeared on the eastern bank. He landed, +there, and with much bargaining and a haughty demeanor disposed of the +boat to the skipper of a _batelao_ in exchange for passage down-river as +far as Corumba. The rate was outrageously high. But he had little +currency with him and dared go no farther on a vessel which carried a +boat of The Master's ownership conspicuously towed behind. + +At Corumba he purchased clothes less obviously of _os gentes_, both for +himself and for Paula, and that same afternoon was able to arrange for +their passage to Asunción as deck passengers on a river steamer going +downstream. + +It was as two peasants, then, that they rode in sweltering heat amid a +swarming and odorous mass of fellow humanity downstream. But it was a +curious relief, in some ways. The people about them were gross and +unwashed and stupid, but they were human. There was none of that +diabolical feeling of terror all about. There were no strained, fear +haunted faces upon the deck reserved for deck passengers and other +cattle. The talk was ungrammatical and literal and of the earth. The +women were stolid-faced and reserved. But when the long rows of hammocks +were slung out in the open air, in the casual fashion of sleeping +arrangements in the back-country of all South America, it was blessedly +peaceful to realize that the folk who snored so lustily were merely +human; human animals, it might be, with no thought above their _farinha_ +and _feijos_ on the morrow, but human. + + * * * * * + +And the second day they passed the old fort at Coimbra, and went on. The +passage into Paraguayan territory was signalized by an elaborate customs +inspection, and three days later Asunción itself displayed its red-tiled +roofs and adobe walls upon the shore. + +Bell had felt some confidence in his ability to pass muster with his +Spanish, though his Portuguese was limited, and it was a shock when the +captain of the steamer summoned him to his cabin with a gesture, before +the steamer docked. Bell left Paula among the other deck passengers and +went with the peasant's air of suspicious humility into the captain's +quarters. But the captain's pose of grandeur vanished at once when the +door closed. + +"Señor," said the steamer captain humbly, "I have not spoken to you +before. I knew you would not wish it. But tell me, senor! Have you any +news of what The Master plans?" + +Bell's eyes flickered, at the same time that a cold apprehension filled +him. + +"Why do you speak to me of The Master?" he demanded sharply. + +The steamer captain stammered. The man was plainly frightened at Bell's +tone. Bell relaxed, his flash of panic for Paula gone. + +"I know," said the captain imploringly, "that the great _fazenda_ has +been deserted. On my last trip, down, senor, I brought many of the high +deputies who had been there. They warned me not to speak, senor, but I +saw that you were not what you seemed, and I thought you might be going +about to see who obeyed The Master's orders...." + + * * * * * + +Bell nodded. + +"That is my mission," he said curtly. "Do not speak of it further--not +even to the deputy in Asunción." + +The captain stammered again. + +"But I must see the Señor Francia," he said humbly. "I report to him +after every trip, and if he thought that I did not report all that I +learn...." + +"It is my order," snapped Bell angrily. "If he reproaches you, say that +one who has orders from The Master himself gave them to you. And do not +speak of the destruction of the _fazenda_. I am searching especially for +the man who caused it. And--wait! I will take your name, and you shall +give me--say--a thousand pesos. I had need of money to bribe a fool I +could not waste time on, up-country. It will be returned to you." + +And again the captain stammered, but Bell stared at him haughtily, and +he knelt abjectly before the ship's safe. + + * * * * * + +Asunción, as everybody knows, is a city of sixty thousand people, and +the capital of a republic which enjoyed the rule of a family of +hereditary dictators for sixty years; which rule ended in a war wherein +four-fifths of the population was wiped out. And since that beginning it +has averaged eight revolutions to Mexico's three, has had the joy of +knowing seven separate presidents in five years--none of them +elected--and now boasts a population approximately two-thirds +illegitimate and full of pride in its intellectual and artistic tastes. + +Bell and Paula made their way along the cobbled streets away from the +river, surrounded by other similarly peasant-seeming folk. Bell told her +curtly what had happened with the steamer captain. + +"It's the devil," he said coldly, "because this whole republic is under +The Master's thumb. Except among the peasants we can count on nearly +everybody being on the lookout for us, if they so much as suspect we're +alive. And they may because I burned their damned _fazenda_. So...." + +Paula smiled at him, rather wanly. + +"What are you going to do, Charles?" + +"Get a boat," said Bell curtly. "One with three or four men, if I can. +If I can buy it with the skipper's money, I will. But I can't take you +to go bargaining. It would look suspicious." + +They had reached the central plaza of the town. The market swarmed with +brown skinned folk and seemed to overflow with fruits. A man was +unconcernedly shoveling oranges out of a cart with a shovel, as if they +had been so much coal. A market woman as unconcernedly dropped some of +the same golden fruit within a small pen where a piglet awaited a +purchaser. To the left, there were rows of unshaded stalls where the +infinitely delicate handmade Paraguayan lace was exposed for sale. + +"I--think," said Paula, "I think I will go in the cathedral. I will be +very devout, Charles, and you will find me there when you return. I will +be safe there, certainly." + + * * * * * + +He walked with her across the crowded plaza. He should have known that +your peasant does not stride with head up, but regarding the ground. +That a man who works heavily droops his shoulders with weariness at the +end of a day. And especially he should have realized that Paraguay is +not, strictly speaking, a Latin-American nation. It is Latin-Indian, in +which the population graduates very definitely from a sub-stratum of +nearly or quite pure Indian race to an aristocracy of nearly or quite +pure Spanish descent, and that the color of a man's skin fixes his place +in society. Both Bell and Paula were too light of skin for the peasant's +clothes they wore. They aroused curiosity at once. If it was not an +active curiosity, it was nevertheless curiosity of a sort. + +But Bell left her in the shadowy, cool interior of the cathedral which +seems so pitifully small to be the center of religion for a nation. He +saw her move toward one of the little candle-lit niches in the wall and +fall quite simply on her knees there. + +And he moved off, to wander aimlessly down to the river shore and stare +about and presently begin a desultory conversation with sleepy boatmen. + + * * * * * + +It was three hours and more before he returned to the Cathedral, and +Paula was talking to someone. More, talking to a woman in the most +discreet of mantilla'd church-going costumes. Paula saw him in the +doorway, and uttered a little cry of relief. She came hurrying to him. + +"Charles! I have found a friend! Isabella Ybarra. We were schoolmates in +the United States and she has just come back from Paris! So you see, she +cannot--" + +"I see," said Bell very quietly. + +Paula was speaking swiftly and very softly. + +"We went to school together, Charles. I trust her. You must trust her +also. There is no danger, this time. Isabella has never even heard of +The Master. So you see...." + +"I see that you need someone you can trust," said Bell grimly. "_I_ +found that the captain of the steamer had gone to The Master's deputy +here. While I was talking to some boatmen a warning was given to look +out for a man and woman, together, who may try to buy a boat. We're +described, and only the fact that I was alone kept me from being +suspected. Police, soldiers--everybody is looking out for us. Paraguay's +under The Master's thumb more completely than any other nation on the +continent." + +The figure to which Paula had been talking was moving slowly toward +them. A smiling, brown-eyed face twinkled at them. + +"You must be Charles!" said a warm and cluckling voice. "Paula has +raved, Señor. Now I am going to take her off in my carriage. She is my +maid. And you will follow the carriage on foot and I will have the +major-domo let you in the servants' entrance, and the three of us will +conspire." + + * * * * * + +It was incongruous to hear the English of a girl's finishing school from +the mantilla'd young woman who beamed mischievously at him. She had the +delighted air of one aiding a romance. It was doubly incongruous because +of the dark and shadowy Cathedral in which they were, and the raucous +noises of the market in the plaza without. Bell had a sense of utter +unreality as Isabella's good humored voice went on: + +"Do you remember, Paula, the time the French teacher caught us in the +pantry? I shall feel just like that time." + +"This is dangerous," said Bell, steadily, "and it is very serious +indeed." + +"Pooh!" said Isabella comfortably. "Paula, you didn't even know I was +married! A whole year and a half! And he's a darling, really. I'm the +Señora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga, if you please! Bow gracefully!" She +chuckled. "Jaime came all the way to Rio to meet me last month. I'm wild +about him, Paula.... But come on! Follow me humbly, like a nice little +_mestizo_ girl who wants to be my maid, and I'll let you ride with the +_cochero_ and Charles shall follow behind us." + +She swept out of the Cathedral with the air of a grande dame suppressing +a giggle, and Paula went humbly behind her. + +And Bell trudged through the dust and the blistering sun while the +highly polished carriage jolted over cobble stones and the youthful +Señora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga beamed blissfully at the universe +which did not realize that she was a conspirator, and Paula sat modestly +beside the brown skinned _cochero_. + + * * * * * + +It was not a long ride nor a long walk, though the sun was insufferable. +The capital of Paraguay is not large. It is a sleepy, somnolent little +town in which the most pretentious building was begun as the +Presidential Palace and wound up as the home of a bank. But there are +bullet marks on the façade of the _Museo Nacionál_, and there is still +an empty pedestal here and there throughout the city where the heroes of +last year's revolution, in bronze, have been pulled down and the heroes +of this year's uprising of the people have not yet been set up. Red +tiled roofs give the city color, and the varying shades of its populace +give it variety, and the fact that below the whiter class of inhabitants +_Guarani_ is spoken instead of Spanish adds to the individuality of its +effect. + +But the house into which the carriage turned could have been built in +Rio or Buenos Aires without comment on its architecture. It had the +outer bleakness of most private homes of South America, but if it was +huge and its windows were barred, the patio into which Bell was ushered +by a bewildered and suspicious major-domo made up in color and in charm +for all that the exterior lacked. + +A fountain played amid flowers, and macaws and parrots and myriad other +caged birds hung in their cages about the colonnade around the court, +and Bell found Paula being introduced to a pale young man in the stiff +collar and unspeakably formal morning clothes of the South American who +is of the upper class. + +"Jaime," said Isabella, beaming. "And this is Charles, whom Paula is to +marry! It is romantic! It is fascinating! And I depend on you to give +him clothes so that all our servants won't stare goggle-eyed at him, and +I am going to take Paula off at once and dress her! They are our guests! +And, Jaime, you must threaten all the servants terribly so they will +keep it very secret--that we have two such terrible people with us." + + * * * * * + +Paula smiled at Bell, and he saw that she felt utterly safe and wholly +at peace. Something was hammering at Bell's brain, warning him, and he +could not understand what it was. But he exchanged the decorous limp +handshake which is conventional south of Panama, and followed his +unsmiling host to rooms where a servant laid out a bewildering +assortment of garments. They were all rather formal, the sort of +clothing that is held to be fitting for a man of position where Spanish +is the official if not the common tongue. + +His host retired, without words, and Bell came out later to find him +sipping moodily at a drink, waiting for him. He wiped his forehead. + +"Be seated, Señor," he said heavily, "until the ladies join us." + +He wiped his forehead again and watched somberly while Bell poured out a +drink. + +"Isabella...." He seemed to find it difficult to speak. "She has told me +a little, but there has been no time for more than a little: I do not +wish to have her tell me too much. She does not understand. She was +educated in North America, where customs are different. She demands that +I assist you and the senorita--it is the senorita?" + +Bell stiffened. In all Spanish America the conventions are strict. For a +man and woman to travel together, even perforce and for a short +distance, automatically damns the woman. + +"Go on," said Bell grimly. + +His host was very pale indeed. + +"She demands that I assist you and the senorita to escape the police and +the government. Provided that you do not tell me who you are, I will +attempt it. But--" + +"I wonder," said Bell quietly, "if you have ever seen red spots dancing +before your eyes." + +His host went utterly livid. + + * * * * * + +Zuloaga looked down at his hands, as if expecting unguessable things of +them. And then he shrugged, and said harshly: + +"I have, Señor. So you see that Isabella, who does not know, is asking +me to risk, not only my life, but her honor." + +Bell said nothing for a moment. He was a little pale. + +"And your honor?" he asked quietly. + +The pallor on the face of the Señor Jaime Zuloaga was horrible. He tried +to speak, and could not. He stood up, and managed to say: + +"So much I will risk, because you have been my guest. Until to-morrow +morning you are safe, unless the Señor Francia has his spies within my +own house. I--I will attempt, even to procure a boat. But--" + +Something made Bell turn. The major-domo was moving quickly out of +sight. Like a flash Bell was upon him, and like a flash a knife came +out. + +Bell's host gasped. The fact that his servant had spied was more than +obvious, and he had spoke treason against The Master. He leaned against +the table, sick and trembling and mumbling of despair, while there were +crashes in the room into which Bell had plunged, while bodies thrashed +about on the floor, and while stertorous breathing grew less, and +stopped.... + +Bell came back, breathing hard. The front of his coat was slashed open. + +"He's dead," he said harshly. "He'd have reported what you said, so I +killed him.... And now we've got to do something with his body." + +He helped in the horrible task, while his host grew more and more +shaken. No other servants came near. And Bell could almost read the +thoughts that went through Zuloaga's brain. One servant had spied, to +report his treason. And that meant assassination for himself, as the +least of punishments, and for his wife.... + +But there would be no punishment if he went first to the deputy and said +that Bell had killed the major-domo. + +Bell left the house before dusk, desperately determined to steal a craft +of some sort, return for Paula, and get away from Asunción before dawn. + +He returned after an hour. In the morning a man would be found bound and +gagged, with five hundred pesos stuffed into his pockets. His boat would +have vanished. + +But there was a commotion before the house where Paula waited fearfully. +A carriage stood there, with a company of mounted soldiers about it. +Someone was being put into it. As Bell broke into a run toward the house +the carriage started up and the soldiers trotted after it. + +Paula was taken. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +That night Bell turned burglar. To attempt a rescue of Paula was simply +out of the question. He was entirely aware that he would be expected to +do just such a thing, and that it would be adequately guarded against. +Therefore he prepared for a much more desperate enterprise by +burglarizing a bookstore in the particularly neat method in which +members of The Trade are instructed. The method was invented by a member +of The Trade who was an ex-cabinet maker, and who perished disreputably. +He killed a certain courier of a certain foreign government, thereby +preventing a minor war and irritating two governments excessively, and +was hanged. + +The method, of course, is simplicity itself. One removes the small nails +which hold the molding of a door panel in place. The molding comes out. +So does the panel. One enters through the panel, commits one's burglary, +and comes out, replacing the molding and the nails with reasonable care. +Depending upon the care with which the replacing is done, the means of +entrance is more or less undiscoverable. But it is usually used when it +is not intended that the burglary ever be discussed. + +Bell abstracted two books, wrapping paper and twine. He departed, using +great care. He walked three miles out of town and to the banks of the +Paraguay. There he carefully saturated the pages of both books in +water, carefully keeping the bindings from being wetted. Then he tore +one book to pieces, saving the leaves and inserting them between the +leaves of the other book. Then, with a brazil nut candle for +illumination, he began to write. + + * * * * * + +You see, when two thoroughly wetted pieces of paper are placed one above +the other with a hard surface such as the cover of another book under +them, you can write upon the top one with a stick. The writing will show +dark against the gray of the saturated paper. You then remove the top +sheet and end the writing reproduced on the bottom sheet. And then you +can dry the second sheet and find the marking vanished--until it is +wetted again. It is, in fact, a method of water-marking paper. And it is +the simplest of all methods of invisible writing. + +Bell wrote grimly for hours. The book he had chosen was an old one, an +ancient copy of one of Lope de Vega's plays, and the pages were wrinkled +and yellow from age alone. When, by dawn, the last page was dried out, +there was no sign that anything other than antiquity had affected the +paper. And Bell wrapped it carefully, and addressed it to an elderly +senora of literary tastes in San Juan, Porto Rico, and enclosed an +affectionate letter to his very dear aunt, and signed it with an +entirely improbable name. + +It was mailed before sunrise, the necessary stamps having been filched +from the burglarized bookstore and the price thereof being carefully +inserted in the till. Bell had made a complete and painstaking report of +every fact he had himself come upon in the matter of The Master and his +slaves and appended to it a copy of the report of the dead Secret +Service operative Number One-Fourteen. He destroyed that after copying +it. And he concluded that since he had been given dismissal by Jamison +in Rio, he considered himself at liberty to take whatever steps he saw +fit. And since the Senhorina Paula Canalejas had been kidnapped by +agents of The Master, he intended to take steps which might possibly +bring about her safety, but would almost certainly cause his death. + +The report should at least be of assistance if the Trade set to work to +combat The Master. Bell had no information whatever about that still +mysterious and still more horrible person himself. But what he knew +about The Master's agents he sent to a lady in Porto Rico who has an +astonishingly large number of far ranging nephews. And then Bell got +himself adequately shaved, bought a hearty breakfast, and, after one or +two heartening drinks, was driven grandly to the residence of the Señor +Francia, deputy of The Master for the republic of Paraguay. + + * * * * * + +The servants who admitted him gazed blankly when he gave his name. A +door was hastily closed behind him. He was ushered into an elaborate +reception room and, after an agitated pause, no less than six separate +frock-coated persons appeared and pointed large revolvers at him while a +seventh searched him exhaustively. Bell submitted amusedly. + +"And now," he said dryly, "I suppose the Señor Francia will receive me?" + +There was more agitation. The six men remained; with their weapons +pointed at him. The seventh departed, and Bell re-dressed himself in a +leisurely fashion. + +Ten minutes later a slender, dark skinned man with impeccably waxed +moustaches entered, regarded Bell with an entirely impersonal interest, +took one of the revolvers from one of the six frock-coated gentlemen, +and seated himself comfortably. He waved his hand and they filed +uneasily from the room. So far, not one word had been spoken. + + * * * * * + +Bell retrieved his cigarette case and lighted up with every appearance +of ease. + +"I have come," he said casually, "to request that I be sent to The +Master. I believe that he is anxious to meet me." + +The dark eyes scrutinized him coldly. Then Francia smiled. + +"_Pero si_," he said negligently, "he is very anxious to see you. I +suppose you know what fate awaits you?" + +His smile was amiable and apparently quite friendly, but Bell shrugged. + +"I suppose," he said dryly, "he wants to converse with me. I have been +his most successful opponent to date, I think." + +Francia smiled again. It was curious how his smile, which at first +seemed so genuine and so friendly, became unspeakably unpleasant on its +repetition. + +"Yes." Francia seemed to debate some matter of no great importance. "You +have been very annoying, Señor Bell. The Senhor Ribiera asked that you +be sent to him. It was his intention to execute you, privately. He +described a rather amusing method to me. And I must confess that you +have annoyed me, likewise. Since the Cuyaba plantation was destroyed my +subjects have been much upset. They have been frightened, and even +stubborn. Only last week"--he smiled pleasantly, and the effect was +horrible--"only last week I desired the society of a lady who is my +subject. And her husband considered that, since the _fazenda_ was +destroyed, The Master would be powerless to extend his grace before +long, in any event. So he shot his wife and himself. It annoyed me +enough to make me feel that it would be a pleasure to kill you." + + * * * * * + +He raised the revolver meditatively. + +"Well?" said Bell coldly. + +Francia lowered the weapon and laughed. + +"Oh, I shall not do it. I think The Master would be displeased. You seem +to have the type of courage he most desires in his deputies. And it may +yet be that I shall greet you as my fellow deputy or perhaps my fellow +viceroy. So I shall send you to him. I would say that you have about an +even chance of dying very unpleasantly or of being a deputy. Therefore I +offer you such courtesies as I may." + +Bell puffed a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. + +"I'm about out of cigarettes," he said mildly. + +"They shall be supplied. And--er--if you would desire feminine society, +I will have some of my pretty subjects...." + +"No," said Bell bluntly. "I would like to speak to the Senhorina +Canalejas, though." + +Francia chuckled. + +"She left for Buenos Aires last night. The Senhor Ribiera sent a most +impatient message for her to be sent on at once. I regretted it, but he +had The Master's authority. I thought her charming, myself." + +The skin about Bell's knuckles was white. His hands had clenched +savagely. + +"In that event," he said coldly, "the only other courtesy I would ask is +that of following her as soon as possible." + +Francia rose languidly. The revolver dangled by his side, but his grip +upon it was firm. He smiled at Bell with the same effect of a horrible, +ghastly geniality. + +"Within the hour, Señor," he said urbanely. "With the guard I shall +place over you it is no harm, I am sure, to observe that The Master is +at his retreat in Punta Arenas. You will go there to-morrow, as I go +to-night." + +He moved toward the door, and smiled again, and added pleasantly: + +"The Senhorina was delivered to the Senhor Ribiera this morning." + + * * * * * + +Matters moved swiftly after that. A servant brought cigarettes and a +tray of liquors--which Bell did not touch. There was the sound of +movement, the scurrying, furtive haste which seems always to imply a +desperate sort of fear. Bell waited in a terrible calmness, while rage +hammered at his temples. + +Then the clattering of horses' hoofs outside. A carriage was being +brought. Soldiers came in and a man beckoned curtly. Bell stuffed his +pockets with smokes and followed languidly. He was realizing that there +was little pretense of secrecy about the power of The Master's deputy +here. Police and soldiers.... But Paraguay, of all the nations of the +southern continent, has learned a certain calm realism about +governmental matters. + +The man who has power is obeyed. The man who has not power is not +obeyed. Titles are of little importance, though it is the custom for the +man with the actual power eventually to assume the official rank of +authority. Since the President in Asunción was no more than a figurehead +who called anxiously upon the Señor Francia every morning for +instructions concerning the management of the nation, Francia +indifferently ignored him whenever he chose and gave orders directly. +There would be very little surprise and no disorder whatever when The +Master proclaimed Paraguay a viceroyalty of his intended empire. + + * * * * * + +The carriage went smartly through the cobbled streets with a cavalry +escort all about it. An officer sat opposite Bell with his hand on his +revolver. + +"I am receiving at least the honors of royalty," Bell commented coldly +to him, in Spanish. + +"Señor," said the officer harshly, "this is the state in which the +deputies of The Master were escorted." + +He watched Bell heavily, but with the desperate intentness of a man who +knows no excuses will be received if his prisoner escapes. + +Out of the town to a flying field, where a multi-engined plane was +warming up. It was one of the ships that had been at The Master's +_fazenda_ of Cuyaba, one of the ships that had fled from the burning +plantation. Bell was ushered into it with a ceremonious suspicion. +Almost immediately he was handcuffed to his seat. Two men took their +place behind him. The big ship rolled forward, lifted, steadied, and +after a single circling set out to the southeast for Buenos Aires. + + * * * * * + +The whole performance had been run off with the smoothly oiled +precision of an iron discipline exercised upon men in the grip of deadly +fear. + +"One man, at least," reflected Bell grimly, "has some qualities that fit +him for his job." + +And then, for hour after hour, the big ship went steadily southeast. It +flew over Paraguayan territory for two hours, soaring high over the Lago +Ypoa and on over the swampy country that extends to the Argentine +border. It ignored that border and all customs formalities. It went on, +through long hours of flight, while mountains rose before it. It rose +over those mountains and passed over the first railroad line--the first +real sign of civilization since leaving Asunción--at Mercedes, and +reached the Uruguay river where the Mirinjay joins it. It went roaring +on down above the valley of the Rio Uruguay for long and tedious hours +more. At about noon, lunch was produced. The two men who guarded Bell +ate. Then, with drawn revolvers, they unlocked his handcuffs and offered +him food. + + * * * * * + +He ate, of exactly those foods he had seen them eat. He submitted +indifferently to the re-application of his fetters. He had reached a +state which was curiously emotionless. If Paula had been turned over to +Ribiera that morning, Paula was dead. And just as there is a state of +grief which stuns the mind past the realization of its loss, so there is +a condition of hatred which leads to an enormous calmness and an +unnatural absence of any tremor. Bell had reached that state. The +instinct of self-preservation had gone lax. Where a man normally thinks +first, if unconsciously, of the protection of his body from injury or +pain, Bell had come to think first, and with the same terrible clarity, +of the accomplishment of revenge. + +He would accept The Master's terms, if The Master offered them. He would +become The Master's subject, accepting the poison of madness without a +qualm. He would act and speak and think as a subject of The Master, +until his opportunity came. And then.... + +His absolute calmness would have deceived most men. It may have deceived +his guards. Time passed. The Rio de la Plata spread out widely below the +roaring multi-engined plane and the vast expanse of buildings which is +Buenos Aires appeared far ahead in the gathering dusk. Little twinkling +lights blinked into being upon the water and the earth far away. Then +one of the two guards touched Bell on the shoulder. + +"Señor," he said sharply above the motors' muffled roar, "we shall land. +A car will draw up beside the plane. There will be no customs +inspection. That has been arranged for. You can have no hope of escape. +I ask you if you will go quietly into the car?" + +"Why not?" asked Bell evenly. "I went to Señor Francia of my own +accord." + + * * * * * + +The guard leaned back. The city of Buenos Aires spread out below them. +The tumbled, congested old business quarter glittered in all its +offices, and the broad Avenida de Mayo cut its way as a straight slash +of glittering light through the section of the city to eastward. By +contrast, from above, the far-flung suburbs seemed dark and somber. + +The big plane roared above the city, settling slowly; banked steeply and +circled upon its farther side, and dipped down toward what seemed an +absurdly small area, which sprang into a pinkish glow on their descent. +That area spread out as the descent continued, though, and was a wide +and level field when the ship flattened out and checked and lumbered to +a stop. + +A glistening black car came swiftly, humming into place alongside almost +before the clumsy aircraft ceased to roll. Its door opened. Two men got +out and waited. The hangars were quite two hundred yards away, and Bell +saw the glitter of weapons held inconspicuously but quite ready. + +He stepped out of the cabin of the plane with a revolver muzzle pressing +into his spine. Other revolver muzzles pressed sharply into his sides as +he reached earth. + +Smiling faintly, he took four steps, clambered up into the glistening +black car, and settled down comfortably into the seat. The two men who +had waited by the car followed him. The door closed, and Bell was in a +padded silence that was acutely uncomfortable for a moment. A dome light +glowed brightly, however, and he lighted nearly the last of the +cigarettes from Asunción with every appearance of composure as the car +started off with a lurch. + + * * * * * + +The windows were blank. Thick, upholstered padding covered the spaces +where openings should have been, and there was only the muffled +vibration of the motor and the occasional curiously distinct noise of a +flexing spring. + +"Just as a matter of curiosity," said Bell mildly, "what is the excuse +given on the flying field for this performance? Or is the entire staff +subject to The Master?" + +Two revolvers were bearing steadily upon him and the two men watched him +with the unwavering attention of men whose lives depend upon their +vigilance. + +"You, Señor," said one of them without expression or a smile, "are the +corpse of a prominent politician who died yesterday at his country +home." + +And then for half an hour or more the car drove swiftly, and stopped, +and drove swiftly forward again as if in traffic. Then there were many +turns, and then a slow and cautious traverse of a relatively few feet. +It stopped, and then the engine vibration ceased. + +"I advise you, Señor," said the same man who had spoken before, and in +the same emotionless voice, "not to have hope of escape in the moment of +alighting. We are in an enclosed court and there are two gates locked +behind us." + +Bell shrugged as there was the clatter of a lock operating. The door +swung wide. + + * * * * * + +He stepped down into a courtyard surrounded by nearly bare walls. It had +once been the _patio_ of a private home of some charm. Now, however, it +was bleak and empty. A few discouraged flowers grew weedily in one +corner. The glow of light in the sky overhead assured Bell that he was +in the very heart of Buenos Aires, but only the most subdued of rumbles +spoke of the activity and the traffic of the city going on without. + +"This way," said the man with the expressionless voice. + +The other man followed. The chauffeur of the car stood aside as if some +formality required him neither to start the motor or return to his seat +until Bell was clear of the courtyard. + +Through a heavy timber door. Along a passageway with the odor of +neglect. Up stairs which once had been impressive and ornamental. Into a +room without windows. + +"You will have an interview with the Señorita Canalejas in five +minutes," said the emotionless voice. + +The door closed, while Bell found every separate muscle in his body draw +taut. And while his brain at first was dazed with incredulous relief, +then it went dark with a new and ghastly terror. + +"They know _yagué_," he heard himself saying coldly, "which makes any +person obey any command. They may know other and more hellish ones yet." + + * * * * * + +He fought for self control, which meant the ability to conceal +absolutely any form of shock that might await him. That one was in store +he was certain. He paced grimly the length of the room and back +again.... + +Something on the carpet caught his eye. A bit of string. He stared at it +incredulously. The end was tied into a curious and an individual knot, +which looked like it might be the pastime of a sailor, and which looked +like it ought to be fairly easy to tie. But it was one of those knots +which wandering men sometimes tie absent mindedly in the presence of +stirring events. It was the recognition-knot of the Trade, one of those +signs by which men may know each other in strange and peculiar +situations. And there were many other knots tied along the trailing +length of the string. It seemed as if some nervous and distraught +prisoner in this room might have toyed abstractedly with a bit of cord. + +Only, Bell drew it through his fingers. Double knot, single knot, double +knot.... They spelled out letters in the entirely simple Morse code of +the telegrapher, if one noticed. + +"RBRA GN ON PLA HRE ST TGT J." + +Your old-time telegrapher uses many abbreviations. Your short-wave fan +uses more. Mostly they are made by a simple omission of vowels in normal +English words. And when the recognition sign at the beginning was +considered, the apparently cryptic letters leaped into meaning. + +"RiBeRA GoNe ON PauLA HeRe SiT TiGhT Jamison." + +When the door opened again and a terribly pale Paula was ushered in, +Bell gave no sign of surprise. He simply took her in his arms and kissed +her, holding her very, very close. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Paula remained in the room with Bell for perhaps twenty minutes, and +Bell had the feeling of eyes upon them and of ears listening to their +every word. In their first embrace, in fact, he murmured a warning in +her ear and she gasped a little whispered word of comprehension. But it +was at least a relief to be sure that she was alive and yet unharmed. +Francia had been in error when he told Bell of Paula's delivery to the +Brazilian to be enslaved or killed as Ribiera found most amusing. Or +perhaps, of course, Francia had merely wanted to cause Bell all possible +discomfort. + +It was clear, however, blessedly clear and evident, that Paula's pallor +was due to nothing more than terror--a terror which was now redoubled +because Bell was in The Master's toils with her. Forgetting his warning, +she whispered to him desperately that he must try to escape, somehow, +before The Master's poison was administered to him. Outside, he might do +something to release her. Here, a prisoner, he was helpless. + +Bell soothed her, not daring either to confess the plan he had formed of +a feigned submission in order to wreak revenge, or to offer +encouragement because of the message knotted in the piece of string by +Jamison. And because of that caution she came to look at him with a +queer doubt, and presently with a terrible quiet grief. + +"Charles--you--you have been poisoned like the rest?" + + * * * * * + +The feeling of watching eyes and listening ears was strong. Bell had a +part to play, and the necessity for playing that part was the greater +because now he was forced to hope. He hesitated, torn between the need +to play his rôle for the invisible eavesdroppers and the desire to spare +Paula. + +Her hand closed convulsively upon his. + +"V-very well, Charles," she said quietly, though her lips quivered. +"If--if you are going to serve The Master, I--I will serve him too, if +he will let me stay always near you. But if he--will not, then I can +always--die...." + +Bell groaned. And the door opened silently, and there were men standing +without. An emotionless voice said: + +"Señorita, the Señor Ortiz will interview the Señor Bell." + +"I'm coming," said Paula quietly. + +She went, walking steadily. Two men detached themselves from the group +about the door and followed her. The others waited for Bell. And Bell +clenched his hands and squared his shoulders and marched grimly with +them. + + * * * * * + +Again long passages, descending to what must have been a good deal below +the surface of the earth. And then a massive door was opened, and light +shone through, and Bell found himself standing on a rug of the thickest +possible pile in a room of quite barbaric luxury, and facing a desk from +which a young man was rising to greet him. This young man was no older +than Bell himself, and he greeted Bell in a manner in which mockery was +entirely absent, but in which defiance was peculiarly strong. A bulky, +round shouldered figure wrote laboriously at a smaller desk to one side. + +"Señor Bell," said the young man bitterly, "I do not ask you to shake +hands with me. I am Julio Ortiz, the son of the man you befriended upon +the steamer _Almirante Gomez_. I am also, by the command of The Master, +your jailer. Will you be seated?" + +Bell's eyes flickered. The older Ortiz had died by his own hand in the +first stages of the murder madness The Master's poison produced. He had +died gladly and, in Bell's view, very gallantly. And yet his son.... But +of course The Master's deputies made a point of enslaving whole families +when it was at all possible. It gave a stronger hold upon each member. + +"I beg of you," said young Ortiz bitterly, "to accept my invitation. I +wish to offer you a much qualified friendship, which I expect you to +refuse." + +Bell sat down and crossed his knees. He lit a cigarette thoughtfully, +thinking swiftly. + +"I remember, and admired, your father," he said slowly. "I think that +any man who died as bravely as he did is to be envied." + + * * * * * + +The younger Ortiz had reseated himself as Bell sat down, and now he +fingered nervously, wretchedly, the objects on his desk. A penholder +broke between his fingers and he flung it irritably into the +wastebasket. + +"You understand," he said harshly, "the obligations upon me. I am the +subject of The Master. You will realize that if you desire to escape, I +cannot permit it. But you did my father a very great kindness. Much of +it I was able to discover from persons on the boat. More, from the +wireless operator who is also the subject of The Master. You were not +acting, Señor, as a secret service operative in your attempt to help my +father. You bore yourself as a very honorable gentleman. I wish to thank +you." + +"I imagine," said Bell dryly, "that anyone would have done what I did." + +He seemed to be quite at ease, but he was very tense indeed. The bulky, +round shouldered figure at the other desk was writing busily with a very +scratchy pen. It was an abominable pen. Its sputtering was loud enough +to be noticeable under any circumstances, but Bell was unusually alert, +just now, and suddenly he added still more drily: + +"Helping a man in trouble is quite natural. One always gets it back. +It's a sort of dealing with the future in which there is a profit on +every trade." + +He put the slightest emphasis on the last word and waited, looking at +young Ortiz, but listening with all his soul to the scratching of the +pen. And that scratching sound ceased abruptly. The pen seemed to write +smoothly all of an instant. Bell drew a deep breath of satisfaction. In +the Trade, when in doubt, one should use the word "Trade" in one's first +remark to the other man. Then the other man will ask your trade, and you +reply impossibly. It is then up to the other man to speak frankly, +first. But circumstances alter even recognition-signs. + +Ortiz had not noticed any by-play, of course. It would have been rather +extraordinary if he had. A pen that scratches so that the sound is +Morse code for "Bell, play up. J." is just unlikely enough to avoid all +notice. + + * * * * * + +Ortiz drummed upon the desk. "Now, Señor, what can I do that will serve +you? I cannot release you. You know that. I am not the deputy here. +There has been a set-back to The Master's plans and all the deputies are +called to his retreat to receive instructions and to discuss. I have +merely been ordered to carry out the deputy's routine labors until he +returns. However, I will be obeyed in any matter. I can, and will, do +anything that will make you more comfortable or will amuse you, from a +change in your accommodations to providing you with companions. You +observe," he added with exquisite bitterness, "that the limit of my +capacity to prove my friendship is to offer my services as a pander." + +Bell gazed at the tip of his cigarette, letting his eyes wander about +the room for an instant, and permitting them to rest for the fraction of +a second upon the round shouldered, writing form by the side wall. + +"I am sufficiently amused," he said mildly. "I asked to be sent to The +Master. He intends to make me an offer, I understand. Or he did. He may +have changed his mind. But I am curious. Your father told me a certain +thing that seemed to indicate he did not enjoy the service of The +Master. Your tone is quite loyal, but unhappy. Why do you serve him? +Aside, of course, from the fact of having been poisoned by his deputy." + + * * * * * + +Internally, Bell was damning Jamison feverishly. If he was to play up to +Ortiz, why didn't Jamison give him some sign of how he was to do it? +Some tip.... + +"Herr Wiedkind," said Ortiz wearily, "perhaps you can explain." + +The round shouldered figure swung about and bowed profoundly to Bell. + +"Der Señor Ortiz," he said gutturally, and in a sepulchral profundity, +"he does not understand himself. I haff nefer said it before. But he +serfs Der Master because he despairs, andt he will cease to serf Der +Master when he hopes. And I--I serf Der Master because I hope, andt I +will cease to serf him when I despair." + +Ortiz looked curiously and almost suspiciously at the Germanic figure +which regarded him soberly through thick spectacles. + +"It is not customary, Herr Wiedkind," he said slowly, "to speak of +ceasing to serve The Master." + +"Idt is not customary to speak of many necessary things," said the round +shouldered figure dryly. "Of our religions, for example. Of der women we +lofe. Of our gonsciences. Of various necessary biological functions. But +in der presence of der young man who is der enemy of Der Master we can +speak freely, you and I who serf him. We know that maybe der deputies +serf because they enjoy it. But der subjects? Dey serf because dey fear. +Andt fear is intolerable. A man who is afraid is in an unstable +gondition. Sooner or later he is going to stop fearing because he gets +used to it--when Der Master will haff no more hold on him--or else he is +going to stop fearing because he will kill himself." + + * * * * * + +To an outsider the spectacle of the three men in their talk would have +been very odd indeed. Two men who served The Master, and one who had +been his only annoying opponent, talking of the service of The Master +quite amicably and without marked disagreement. + +Ortiz stirred and drummed nervously on the desk. The round shouldered +figure put the tips of its fingers together. + +"How did you know," demanded Ortiz suddenly, "that I serve because I +despair?" + +Bell watched keenly. He began to see where the talk was trending, and +waited alertly for the moment for him to speak. This was a battlefield, +this too luxurious room in which young Ortiz seemed an alien. Rhetoric +was the weapon which now would serve the best. + +"Let us talk frankly," said the placid German voice. "You andt I, Señor +Ortiz, haff worked together. You are not a defil like most of the +deputies, and I do not regret hafing been sent here to help you. And I +am not a scoundtrel like most of those who help the deputies, so you +haff liked me a little. Let us talk frankly. I was trapped. I am a +capable segretary. I speak seferal languages. I haff no particular +ambitions or any loyalties. I am useful. So I was trapped. But you, +Señor Ortiz, you are different." + +Ortiz suddenly smiled bitterly. + +"It is a saying in Brazil, if I recall the words, '_A cauda do demonio e +de rendas._' 'The devil's tail is made of lace.' That is the story." + +Bell said quietly: + +"No." + +Ortiz stared at him. He was very pale. And suddenly he laughed without +any amusement whatever. + +"True," said Ortiz. He smiled in the same bitterness. "I had forgotten. +I am a slave, and the Herr Wiedkind is a slave, and you, Señor Bell, are +the enemy of our master. But I had forgotten that we are gentlemen. In +the service of The Master one does forget that there are gentlemen." + + * * * * * + +He laughed again and lighted a cigarette with hands that shook a little. + +"I loved a girl," he said in a cynical amusement. "It is peculiar that +one should love any woman, _señores_--or do you, Señor Bell, find it +natural? I loved this girl. It pleased my father. She was of a family +fully equal to my own: their wealth, their position, their traditions +were quite equal, and it was a most suitable match. Most remarkable of +all, I loved her as one commonly loves only when no such considerations +exist. It is amusing to me now, to think how deeply, and how truly, and +how terribly I loved her...." + +Young Ortiz's pallor deepened as he smiled at them. His eyes, so dark as +to be almost black, looked at them from a smiling mask of whiteness. + +"There was no flaw anywhere. A romance of the most romantic, my father +very happy, her family most satisfied and pleased, and I--I walked upon +air. And then my father suddenly departed for the United States, quite +without warning. He left a memorandum for me, saying that it was a +matter of government, a secret matter. He would explain upon his return. +I did not worry. I haunted the house of my fiancée. The habits of her +family are of the most liberal. I saw her daily, almost hourly, and my +infatuation grew. And suddenly I grew irritable and saw red spots before +my eyes.... + +"Her father took me to task about my nervousness. He led me kindly to a +man of high position, who poured out for me a little potion.... And +within an hour all my terrible unease had vanished. And then they told +me of The Master, of the poison I had been given in the house of my +fiancée herself. They informed me that if I served The Master I would be +provided with the antidote which would keep me sane. I raged.... And +then the father of my fiancée told me that he and all his family served +The Master. That the girl I loved, herself, owed him allegiance. And +while I would possibly have defied them and death itself, the thought of +that girl not daring to wed me because of the poison in her veins.... I +saw, then, that she was in terror. I imagined the two of us comforting +each other beneath the shadow of the most horrible of fates...." + + * * * * * + +Ortiz was silent for what seemed to be a long time, smiling mirthlessly +at nothing. When his lips parted, it was to laugh, a horribly discordant +laughter. + +"I agreed," he said in ghastly amusement. "For the sake of my loved +one, I agreed to serve The Master that I might comfort her. And plans +for our wedding, which had been often and inexplicably delayed, were set +in train at once. And the deputy of The Master entertained me often. I +plied him with drink, striving to learn all that I could, hoping against +hope that there would be some way of befooling him and securing the +antidote without the poison.... And at last, when very drunken, he +laughed at me for my intention of marriage. He advised me tipsily to +serve The Master zealously and receive promotion in his service. Then, +he told me amusedly, I would not care for marriage. My fiancée would be +at my disposal without such formalities. In fact--while I stood rigid +with horror--he sent a command for her to attend him immediately. He +commanded me to go to an apartment in his dwelling. And soon--within +minutes, it seemed--the girl I loved came there to me...." + +Bell did not move. This was no moment to interrupt. Ortiz's fixed and +cynical smile wavered and vanished. His voice was harsh. + +"She was at my disposal, as an act of drunken friendship by the deputy +of The Master. She confessed to me, weeping, that she had been at the +disposal of the deputy himself. Of any other person he cared to divert +or amuse.... Oh! _Dios!_" + +Ortiz stopped short and said, in forced calmness: + +"That also was the night that my father died." + + * * * * * + +Silence fell. Bell sat very still. The Teutonic figure spoke quietly +after the clock had ticked for what seemed an interminable period. + +"You didt know, then, that your father's death was arranged?" + +Ortiz turned stiffly to look at him. + +"Here," said the placid voice, quaintly sympathetic. "Look at these." + +A hand extended a thick envelope. Ortiz took it, staring with wide, +distended eyes. The round shouldered figure stood up and seemed to +shake itself. The stoop of its shoulders straightened out. One of the +seemingly pudgy hands reached up and removed the thick spectacles. A +bushy gray eyebrow peeled off. A straggly beard was removed. The other +eyebrow.... Jamison nodded briefly to Bell, and turned to watch Ortiz. + +And Ortiz was reading the contents of the envelope. His hands began to +shake violently. He rested them on the desk-top so that he could +continue to read. When he looked up his eyes were flaming. + +"The real Herr Wiedkind," said Jamison dryly, "came up from Punta Arenas +with special instructions from The Master. You have talents, Señor +Ortiz, which The Master wished to use. Also you have considerable wealth +and the prestige of an honorable family. But you were afflicted with +ideas of honor and decency, which are disadvantageous in deputies of The +Master. The real Herr Wiedkind had remarkable gifts in eradicating those +ideas." + + * * * * * + +Jamison sat down and crossed his knees carefully. + +"I looked you up because I knew The Master had killed your father," he +added mildly, "and I thought you'd either be hunting The Master or he'd +be hunting you. My name's Jamison. I killed the real Wiedkind and took +his identification papers. He was a singularly unpleasant beast. His +idea of pleasure made him seem a fatherly sort of person, very much like +my make-up. He was constantly petting children, and appeared very +benign. I am very, very glad that I killed him." + +Ortiz tore at his collar, suddenly. He seemed to be choking. + +"This--this says.... It is The Master's handwriting! I know it! And it +says--" + +"It says," Jamison observed calmly, "that since your father killed the +previous deputy in an attempt to save you from The Master's poison, that +you are to be prepared for the work your father had been assigned. Herr +Wiedkind is given special orders about your--ah--moral education. In +passing, I might say that your father was sent to the United States +because it was known he'd killed the previous deputy. He told Bell he'd +done that killing. And he was allowed to grow horribly nervous on his +return. He was permitted to see the red spots, because he was +officially--even as far as you were concerned--to commit suicide. + +"It was intended that his nervousness was to be noticed. And a plane +tried to deliver a message to him. Your father thought the parcel +contained the antidote to the poison that was driving him mad. Actually, +it was very conventional prussic acid. Your father would have drunk it +and dropped dead, a suicide, after a conspicuous period of nervousness +and worry." + + * * * * * + +Bell felt his cigarette burning his fingers. He had sat rigid until the +thing burned short. He crushed out the coal, looking at Ortiz. + +And Ortiz seemed to gasp for breath. But with an almost superhuman +effort he calmed himself outwardly. + +"I--think," he said with some difficulty, "that I should thank you. I +do. But I do not think that you told me all of this without some motive. +I abandon the service of The Master. But what is it that you wish me to +do? You know, of course, that I can order both of you killed...." + +Bell put down the stub of his cigarette very carefully. + +"The only thing you can do," he said quietly, "is to die." + +"True," said Ortiz with a ghastly smile. "But I would like my death to +perform some service. The Master has no enemies save you two, and those +of us who die on becoming his enemies. I would like, in dying, to do him +some harm." + +"I will promise," said Jamison grimly, "to see that The Master dies +himself if you will have Bell and myself put in a plane with fuel to +Punta Arenas and a reasonable supply of weapons. I include the Señorita +Canalejas as a matter of course." + + * * * * * + +Ortiz looked from one to the other. And suddenly he smiled once more. It +was queer, that smile. It was not quite mirthless. + +"You were right, just now," he observed calmly, "when as the Herr +Wiedkind you said that I would quit the service of The Master when I +ceased to despair. I begin to have hopes. You two men have done the +impossible. You have fought The Master, you have learned many of his +secrets, and you have corrupted a man to treason when treason means +suicide. Perhaps, Señores, you will continue to achieve the impossible, +and assassinate The Master." + +He stood up, and though deathly pale continued to smile. + +"I suggest, Señor, that you resume your complexion. And you, Señor Bell, +you will be returned to your confinement. I will make the necessarily +elaborate arrangements for my death." + +Bell rose. He liked this young man. He said quietly: + +"You said just now you wouldn't ask me to shake hands. May I ask +you?..." He added almost apologetically as Ortiz's fingers closed upon +his: "You see, when your father died I thought that I would be very glad +if I felt that I would die as well. But I think"--he smiled wryly--"I +think I'll have two examples to think of when my time comes." + + * * * * * + +In the morning a bulky, round shouldered figure entered the room in +which Bell was confined. + +"You will follow me," said a harsh voice. + +Bell shrugged. He was marched down long passageways and many steps. He +came out into the courtyard, where the glistening black car with the +blank windows waited. At an imperious gesture, he got in and sat down +with every appearance of composure, as of a man resignedly submitting +to force he cannot resist. The thick spectacles of the Herr Wiedkind +regarded him with a gogglelike effect. There was a long pause. Then the +sound of footsteps. Paula appeared, deathly pale. She was ushered into +the vehicle--and only Bell's swift gesture of a finger to his lips +checked her cry of relief. + +Voices outside. The guttural Spanish of the Herr Wiedkind. Other, +emotionless voices replying. The Herr Wiedkind climbed heavily into the +car and sat down, producing a huge revolver which bore steadily upon +Bell. The door closed, and he made a swift gesture of caution. + +"Idt may be," said the Germanic voice harshly, "that you and the young +ladty haff much to say to each other. But idt can wait. And I warn you, +_mein Herr_, that at the first movement I shall fire." + +Bell relaxed. There was the purring of the motor. The car moved off. +Obviously there was some microphonic attachment inside the tonneau which +carried every word within the locked vehicle to the ears of the two men +upon the chauffeur's seat. An excellent idea for protection against +treachery. Bell smiled, and moved so that his lips were a bare half-inch +from Paula's ears. + +"Try to weep, loudly," he said in the faintest of whispers. "This man is +a friend." + + * * * * * + +But Paula could only stare at the bulky figure sitting opposite until he +suddenly removed the spectacles, and smiled dryly, and then reached in +his pockets and handed Bell two automatic pistols, and extended a tiny +but very wicked weapon to Paula. He motioned to her to conceal it. + +Jamison--moving to make the minimum of noise--handed Bell a sheet of +stiff cardboard. It passed into Bell's fingers without a rustle. He +showed it silently to Paula. + + We were overheard last night by someone. We don't know who or how + much he heard. Dictaphone in the room we talked in. Can't find out + who it was or what action he's taken. We may be riding into a trap + now. Ortiz has disappeared. He may be dead. We can only wait and + see. + +The car was moving as if in city traffic, a swift dash forward and a +sudden stop, and then another swift dash. But the walls within were +padded so that no sound came from without save the faint vibration of +the motor and now and then the distinct flexing of a spring. Then the +car turned a corner. It went more rapidly. It turned another corner. And +another.... + +In the light of the bright dome light, Bell saw beads of sweat coming +out on Jamison's face. He did not dare to speak, but he formed words +with his lips. + +"He's turning wrong! This isn't the way to the field!" + +Bell's jaws clenched. He took out his two automatics and looked at them +carefully. And then, much too short a time from the departure for the +flying field to have been reached, the car checked. It went over rough +cobblestones, and Bell himself knew well that there had been no cobbled +roadway between the flying field and his prison. And then the car went +up a sort of ramp, a fairly steep incline which by the feel of the motor +was taken in low, and on for a short distance more. Then the car stopped +and the motor was cut off. + +Keys rattled in the lock outside. The door opened. The blunt barrel of +an automatic pistol peered in. + +(_To be concluded in the next issue._) + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _The Readers' Corner_ + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of_ Astounding Stories] + + +_About Reprints_ + +From time to time the Editors of Astounding Stories receive letters, +like the two that follow, in which Readers beg us to run reprints, and +now we feel it is time to call attention to the very good reasons why we +must refuse. + +We admit, right off, that some splendid Science Fiction stories have +been published in the past--but are those now being printed in any way +inferior to them? Aren't even _better_ ones being written to-day?--since +a whole civilization now stirs with active interest in science?--since +three or five times as many writers are now supplying us with stories to +choose from?--since science and scientific theory have reached so +immeasurably much farther into the Realm of the Unknown Possible? + +The answer is an emphatic _Yes_. We all know it. + +"A Trip to the Moon"--for instance--was a good story, but shall we keep +reprinting it to-day, when recent revolutionary theories of space-time +scream to modern authors for Science-Fiction treatment? In the last ten +years the whole aspect, the whole future of science has broadened; we +have sensed an infinity beyond infinity; and who would be so un-modern +as to cling to the oft-told stories of the older science and neglect the +thrilling reaches of the new! + +_The Saturday Evening Post_--again, for instance--has been publishing +good stories for years, but who would have them reprint the old ones +instead of keep giving us good new ones? + +Would it be fair to 99% of our Readers to force on them reprint novels +they have already read, or had a chance to read, to favor the 1% who +have missed them? Of course it wouldn't, and all of our Readers in that +1% will gladly admit it. + +And how about our authors? Contrary to the old-fashioned opinion, +authors must eat--and how will they eat, and lead respectable lives, and +keep out of jail, if we keep reprinting their _old_ stories and turning +down their _new_ ones? After all, eating is very important; those who +wouldn't simply refrain from eating would have to get jobs as +messengers, and errand boys, etc.--with the result that much of our +fascinating modern Science Fiction would never be written! + +It would be much cheaper for us to buy once-used material. It would +greatly reduce our task of carefully reading every story that comes to +our office, in hopes to finding a fine, new story, or a potentially good +author. But it would be very unwise, and very unfair, as you have seen. + +Many more reasons could be given, but these few are the more important +ones back of our policy of avoiding reprints. Enough said!--_The +Editor._ + + +_Wants Reprints_ + + Dear Editor: + + In you April issue, in answer to a correspondent, you stated that + you were avoiding reprints. Now, that's too bad. Some of the best + Science-Fiction tales are reprints. Witness: + + "The Blind Spot," by Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall; "The War In + The Air," by H. G. Wells; "The Purple Sapphire," by John Taine; + "The Conquest of Mars," by Garrett P. Serviss; "Darkness and Dawn," + and "Into the Great Oblivion," and "The After-Glow," and "The + Air-Trust"--all by George Allan England. + + You are proud--and rightfully so--of your great author, Ray + Cummings. Why not give us several stories which helped to build his + glory? Here are several: + + "Tarranto the Conqueror," "The Man on the Meteor," "The Girl in the + Golden Atom," "The Man Who Mastered Time," "The Fire People." + + Guess I'll sign off now and give the other fellows a + chance.--Isidore Manyon, 544 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. + + +_What Think You All?_ + + Dear Editor: + + There is one question I would like to ask. Perhaps some of the + other readers of Astounding Stories can answer it. + + Could a person remember his own death in a former incarnation? + Some say "no," and some say "yes." If it is true that you can't, + the whole fabric of the wonderful story, one of the most beautiful, + if not the most beautiful I have ever read, "The Moon Maid," by + Edgar Rice Burroughs, is built on a fallacy. You see, I am a + believer in reincarnation and I would surely like to correspond + with others who are also! Would not that also disprove the whole + theory of reincarnation if it is true? I think it is not true, but + I may be wrong. Is reincarnation a proven theory, or unproven? + + You say you are going to avoid reprints. Now that is a mistake. Of + course, some you might avoid, such as those of Wells, Verne, etc., + though I would like you to publish Wells' short stories. There are + many that have not been published in any magazine for a long time, + or at all. + + But please, oh please, do publish A. Merritt's "Through the Dragon + Glass," and give it a cover illustration. It is the only one, I + think, that I want particularly, but I do want it! If you publish + any of H. G. Wells' works, give them cover illustrations, too. + + And publish a lot by Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and authors + like that; you haven't as yet printed a story of the type that A. + Merritt writes, and that is one thing this magazine needs, and lots + of them, as they are the cream of Science Fiction, and the more of + them you have, the better! They are my favorites, and next come + those that Edgar Rice Burroughs writes; also John Taine.--Worth K. + Bryant, 406 No. Third St., Yakima, Wash. + + +_The S: Lynn Rhorer Society_ + + Dear Editor: + + This is to inform you that we have organized a society known as the + S. Lynn Rhorer Society of Greater Atlanta, a branch of the Science + Correspondence Club. + + This Society's purpose is to first assist the Science + Correspondence Club and its affiliated branches in the promotion of + science and Scientific Fiction. Second, to create a greater + interest in science and Science Fiction among the laymen who are + already interested, and to create an interest among those who are + not at the present interested, and to hold their interest. + + At the present time we have in our library over three hundred + scientific books; a large collection of ores and rocks from + different states and countries, classified; a large collection of + fossilized bones; a three-inch refracting telescope, and a ten-inch + one in the course of construction; and a large club-house. + + Any information regarding this society can be obtained by + addressing R. A. Marks, Jr., 893 York Ave., S. W., Atlanta, + Georgia, or the undersigned.--F. B. Eason, 400 Jefferson Avenue, E. + Point, Ga. + + +_Unused to the Smaller Size_ + + Dear Editor: + + I have but one comment on your magazine and that is: Having + complete sets of other Science Fiction magazines I would also like + to save Astounding Stories, but in its present size and condition + it looks like trash. Why not have a ballot to what size the + magazine shall be? By having the price raised to 25 cents it can + cover the extra expense. I would surely like to add another + magazine to my collection. Am hereby hoping you will do this for + the sake of Science Fiction lovers all over the country.--Sidney + Mack, 1676 59th Street, Brooklyn, New York. + + +_"The Scienceers" Broadcasts_ + + Dear Editor: + + For the benefit of the readers of Astounding Stories who live in + New York, a club known as The Scienceers has recently been formed. + Its purpose is to promote informal fellowship among Science Fiction + fans and to foster discussion of modern developments, theories and + projects in the realm of science. + + The organization is open to all persons over sixteen years of age + who are interested in Science Fiction and its relation to the + various fields of present day science. Since regular weekly + meetings are held, the membership is necessarily restricted to + residents of New York City and vicinity. + + A cordial invitation to join the Scienceers is hereby extended to + all interested. Further information may be obtained by writing to + the undersigned.--Allen Glasser, 961 Forest Avenue, New York, N. Y. + + +"_Congratulations for Both_" + + Dear Editor: + + Congratulations for us both. Your company for publishing this + magazine, myself for being able to buy same. + + Have just finished reading the second issue. It is very good. I + read every story in both issues. You bet I am going to be a steady + reader from now on. I like this type of story very much--in fact, + read two other magazines that publish stories of this type every + month. I note with great pleasure that in the March issue you are + starting to publish the first quarter of an interplanetary story by + Ray Cummings. This is, indeed, good news. I have had the pleasure + of reading five of his novels this past year and I greatly enjoyed + all of them. Along with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings is an + "ace high" author on these "unpredictable-future" stories. + + Some four or fives years ago I read in a magazine a portion of two + interplanetary stories by Ray Cummings. Now to the point, I wonder + if it is possible for you to obtain Mr. Cummings' permission to + have your company publish these two stories? Their names I believe + are "Tarranto the Conquerer" and "Into the Fourth Dimension." I, + for one, would greatly appreciate this favor. Please do your best + to try and publish these novels this coming year. Thanks.--Wm. L. + Ebelan, 3906 Springdale Avenue, Baltimore, Md. + + +_Likes the Small Size_ + + Dear Editor: + + I received a pleasant surprise when I first bought your wonderful + magazine. I started in with the second issue, but I wish I could + get the first. + + All the stories are good. The best of them, I think, is Ray + Cummings' story, "Brigands of the Moon." I have read the first + three parts and am eagerly waiting for the last. + + And now for something about the make-up of the magazine. I like the + small size, and holding the magazine together with two staples is + good. + + The cover designs are very good, but the pictures inside could be + improved on. H. Wesso is a good artist. + + How about publishing the magazine twice a month?--Charles Barrett, + 135 Spring St., Woodbury, N. J. + + +_Thanks, Anyhow!_ + + Dear Editor: + + I hope that you are not going to have a blue cover every month. I + would like to see a different colored background every month. The + cover on the March issue should have been black because space is + black. + + I wish that you would have a full-page picture for each story. + Wesso is the best artist you have. The others haven't enough + imagination. + + I gave "Brigands of the Moon" by Ray Cummings first place in the + March issue of Astounding Stories. It promises to be his best story + since "Tarrano the Conqueror." + + The places of other stories are as follows: 2. "Vandals of the + Stars"; 3. "The Soul Master"; 4. "Cold Light"; 5. "From the Ocean's + Depths." + + If you would enlarge Astounding Stories to 11-3/4 by 8-1/2 it would + be seen more easily on the newsstands and its circulation would + increase. Please publish it on the first of the month instead of + the first Thursday.--Jack Darrow, 4225 N. Spaulding Avenue, + Chicago, Ill. + + +"_The Readers' Corner_" + +All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come over +in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of stories, +authors, scientific principles and possibilities--everything that's of +common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories. + +Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this is +a department primarily for _Readers_, and we want you to make full use +of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, brickbats, +suggestions--everything's welcome here: so "come over in 'The Readers' +Corner'" and discuss it with all of us! + + --_The Editor._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +July 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29198-8.txt or 29198-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/9/29198/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: June 23, 2009 [EBook #29198] +[Last updated: March 20, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007001.jpg" width="350" height="506" alt="" title="cover" /> +</div> + + + + <h1>ASTOUNDING</h1> + <h2>STORIES<br /> + OF SUPER-SCIENCE</h2> + +<h3>20¢</h3> + + <p class="center"><i>On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month</i><br /><br /> + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher<br /> + + HARRY BATES, Editor<br /> + + DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor</p> + + +<h4>The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees</h4> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 184px;"> +<img src="images/banner.jpg" width="108" height="180" alt="" title="banner" /> +</div> +<p><br /><br /><i>That</i> the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading +writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the +Authors' League of America;</p> + +<p><i>That</i> such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American +workmen;</p> + +<p><i>That</i> each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;</p> + +<p><i>That</i> an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages.</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><br /><i>The other Clayton magazines are</i>:</p> + + <p class="center">ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS + MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY + MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES, and FOREST AND STREAM.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for +Clayton Magazines.</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class='centered'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="85%" cellspacing="0" summary="contents"> +<tr><td style="width: 30%;"><b>VOL. III, No. 1</b></td><td align="center" style="width: 50%;"><b>CONTENTS</b></td><td align="right" style="width: 20%;"><b>JULY, 1930</b></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>COVER DESIGN</td><td><i>Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Earth, the Marauder."</i></td><td align="right"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>BEYOND THE HEAVISIDE LAYER</td><td align="center">CAPT. S. P. MEEK</td><td align="right"><a href='#beyond'><b>5</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>For Eighty Vertical Miles Carpenter and Bond Blasted Their + Way—Only to Be Trapped by the Extraordinary Monsters of the + Heaviside Layer.</i></td><td align="right"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>EARTH, THE MARAUDER</td><td align="center">ARTHUR J. BURKS</td><td align="right"><a href='#marauder'><b>18</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>Out of Her Orbit Sped the Teeming Earth—A Marauding Planet Bent on + Starry Conquest.</i><br /> (Beginning a Three-part Novel.)</td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>FROM AN AMBER BLOCK</td><td align="center">TOM CURRY</td><td align="right"><a href='#amber'><b>50</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>A Giant Amber Block at Last Gives Up Its Living, Ravenous Prey.</i></td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>THE TERROR OF AIR-LEVEL SIX</td><td align="center">HARL VINCENT</td><td align="right"><a href='#flame'><b>62</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>From Some Far Reach of Leagueless Space Came a Great Pillar of + Flame to Lay Waste and Terrorize the Earth.</i><br /> (A Novelet.)</td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>THE FORGOTTEN PLANET</td><td align="center">SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT</td><td align="right"><a href='#leper'><b>88</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>The Authentic Account of Why Cosmic Man Damned an Outlaw World to + Be, Forever, a Leper of Space.</i></td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>THE POWER AND THE GLORY</td><td align="center">CHARLES W. DIFFIN</td><td align="right"><a href='#pupil'><b>104</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>Sadly, Sternly, the Old Professor Reveals to His Brilliant Pupil + the Greater Path to Glory.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>MURDER MADNESS</td><td align="center">MURRAY LEINSTER</td><td align="right"><a href='#madness'><b>109</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>More and More South Americans Are Stricken with the Horrible + "Murder Madness" That Lies in the Master's Fearful Poison. And Bell + Is Their One Last Hope as He Fights to Stem the Swiftly Rising Tide + of a Continent's Utter Enslavement.</i><br /> (Part Three of a Four-part + Novel.)</td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>THE READERS' CORNER</td><td align="center">ALL OF US</td><td align="right"><a href='#readers'><b>134</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><i>A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories.</i></td></tr> + + + +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + + <h4>Single Copies, 20 Cents (In Canada, 25 Cents)</h4> + + <h4>Yearly Subscription, $2.00</h4> + + +<div class="centerbox"> + <p>Issued monthly by Publishers' Fiscal Corporation, 80 Lafayette St., + New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President: Nathan Goldmann, + Secretary. Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the + Post Office at New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title + registered as a Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member + Newsstand Group—Men's List. For advertising rates address E. R. + Crowe & Co., Inc., 25 Vanderbilt Ave., New York; or 225 North + Michigan Ave., Chicago.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<h2><a name="beyond" id="beyond"></a>Beyond the Heaviside Layer</h2> + +<h4><i>By Capt S. P. Meek</i></h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007005.jpg" width="550" height="503" alt="They were moving sluggishly along the red light, seeming +to flow rather than crawl." title="" /> +<span class="caption">They were moving sluggishly along the red light, seeming +to flow rather than crawl.</span> +</div> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">M</span><sup>c</sup><span class="smcap">Quarrie</span>, the City Editor, looked up as I entered his office.</p> + +<p>"Bond," he asked, "do you know Jim Carpenter?"</p> + + + +<p>"I know him slightly," I replied cautiously. "I have met him several +times and I interviewed him some years ago when he improved the Hadley +rocket motor. I can't claim a very extensive acquaintance with him."</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew him well. It is a surprise to me to find that there +is any prominent man who is not an especial friend of yours. At any rate +you know him as well as anyone of the staff, so I'll give you the +assignment."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">For eighty vertical miles Carpenter and +Bond blasted their way—only to be +trapped by the extraordinary monsters +of the heaviside layer.</div> + +<p>"What's he up to now?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"He's going to try to punch a hole in the heaviside layer."</p> + +<p>"But that's impossible," I cried. "How can anyone...."</p> + +<p>My voice died away in silence. True enough, the idea of trying to make a +permanent hole in a field of magnetic force was absurd, but even as I +spoke I remem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>bered that Jim Carpenter had never agreed to the opinion +almost unanimously held by our scientists as to the true nature of the +heaviside layer.</p> + +<p>"It may be impossible," replied McQuarrie dryly, "but you are not hired +by this paper as a scientific consultant. For some reason, God alone +knows why, the owner thinks that you are a reporter. Get down there and +try to prove he is right by digging up a few facts about Carpenter's +attempt. Wire your stuff in and Peavey will write it up. On this one +occasion, please try to conceal your erudition and send in your story in +simple words of one syllable which uneducated men like Peavey and me can +comprehend. That's all."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> turned again to his desk and I left the room. At one time I would +have come from such an interview with my face burning, but McQuarrie's +vitriol slid off me like water off a duck's back. He didn't really mean +half of what he said, and he knew as well as I did that his crack about +my holding my job with the Clarion as a matter of pull was grossly +unjust. It is true that I knew Trimble, the owner of the Clarion, fairly +well, but I got my job without any aid from him. McQuarrie himself hired +me and I held my job because he hadn't fired me, despite the caustic +remarks which he addressed to me. I had made the mistake when I first +got on the paper of letting McQuarrie know that I was a graduate +electrical engineer from Leland University, and he had held it against +me from that day on. I don't know whether he really held it seriously +against me or not, but what I have written above is a fair sample of his +usual manner toward me.</p> + +<p>In point of fact I had greatly minimized the extent of my acquaintance +with Jim Carpenter. I had been in Leland at the same time that he was +and had known him quite well. When I graduated, which was two years +after he did, I worked for about a year in his laboratory, and my +knowledge of the improvement which had made the Hadley rocket motor a +practicability came from first hand knowledge and not from an interview. +That was several years before but I knew that he never forgot an +acquaintance, let alone a friend, and while I had left him to take up +other work our parting had been pleasant, and I looked forward with real +pleasure to seeing him again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Jim</span> Carpenter, the stormy petrel of modern science! The eternal +iconoclast: the perpetual opponent! He was probably as deeply versed in +the theory of electricity and physical chemistry as any man alive, but +it pleased him to pose as a "practical" man who knew next to nothing of +theory and who despised the little he did know. His great delight was to +experimentally smash the most beautifully constructed theories which +were advanced and taught in the colleges and universities of the world, +and when he couldn't smash them by experimental evidence, to attack them +from the standpoint of philosophical reasoning and to twist around the +data on which they were built and make it prove, or seem to prove, the +exact opposite of what was generally accepted.</p> + +<p>No one questioned his ability. When the ill-fated Hadley had first +constructed the rocket motor which bears his name it was Jim Carpenter +who made it practical. Hadley had tried to disintegrate lead in order to +get his back thrust from the atomic energy which it contained and proved +by apparently unimpeachable mathematics that lead was the only substance +which could be used. Jim Carpenter had snorted through the pages of the +electrical journals and had turned out a modification of Hadley's +invention which disintegrated aluminum. The main difference in +performance was that, while Hadley's original motor would not develop +enough power to lift itself from the ground, Carpenter's modification +produced twenty times the horsepower per pound of weight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> of any +previously known generator of power and changed the rocket ship from a +wild dream to an everyday commonplace.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">When</span> Hadley later constructed his space flyer and proposed to visit the +moon, it was Jim Carpenter who ridiculed the idea of the attempt being +successful. He proposed the novel and weird idea that the path to space +was not open, but that the earth and the atmosphere were enclosed in a +hollow sphere of impenetrable substance through which Hadley's space +flyer could not pass. How accurate were his prognostications was soon +known to everyone. Hadley built and equipped his flyer and started off +on what he hoped would be an epoch making flight. It was one, but not in +the way which he had hoped. His ship took off readily enough, being +powered with four rocket motors working on Carpenter's principle, and +rose to a height of about fifty miles, gaining velocity rapidly. At that +point his velocity suddenly began to drop.</p> + +<p>He was in constant radio communication with the earth and he reported +his difficulty. Carpenter advised him to turn back while he could, but +Hadley kept on. Slower and slower became his progress, and after he had +penetrated ten miles into the substance which hindered him, his ship +stuck fast. Instead of using his bow motors and trying to back out, he +had moved them to the rear, and with the combined force of his four +motors he had penetrated for another two miles. There he insanely tried +to force his motors to drive him on until his fuel was exhausted.</p> + +<p>He had lived for over a year in his space flyer, but all of his efforts +did not serve to materially change his position. He had tried, of +course, to go out through his air locks and explore space, but his +strength, even although aided by powerful levers, could not open the +outer doors of the locks against the force which was holding them shut. +Careful observations were continuously made of the position of his +flyer and it was found that it was gradually returning toward the earth. +Its motion was very slight, not enough to give any hope for the +occupant. Starting from a motion so slow that it could hardly be +detected, the velocity of return gradually accelerated; and three years +after Hadley's death, the flyer was suddenly released from the force +which held it, and it plunged to the earth, to be reduced by the force +of its fall to a twisted, pitiful mass of unrecognizable junk.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> remains were examined, and the iron steel parts were found to be +highly magnetized. This fact was seized upon by the scientists of the +world and a theory was built up of a magnetic field of force surrounding +the earth through which nothing of a magnetic nature could pass. This +theory received almost universal acceptance, Jim Carpenter alone of the +more prominent men of learning refusing to admit the validity of it. He +gravely stated it as his belief that no magnetic field existed, but that +the heaviside layer was composed of some liquid of high viscosity whose +density and consequent resistance to the passage of a body through it +increased in the ratio of the square of the distance to which one +penetrated into it.</p> + +<p>There was a moment of stunned surprise when he announced his radical +idea, and then a burst of Jovian laughter shook the scientific press. +Carpenter was in his glory. For months he waged a bitter controversy in +the scientific journals and when he failed to win converts by this +method, he announced that he would prove it by blasting a way into space +through the heaviside layer, a thing which would be patently impossible +were it a field of force. He had lapsed into silence for two years and +his curt note to the Associated Press to the effect that he was now +ready to demonstrate his experiment was the first intimation the world +had received of his progress.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I drew</span> expense money from the cashier and boarded the Lark for Los +Angeles. When I arrived I went to a hotel and at once called Carpenter +on the telephone.</p> + +<p>"Jim Carpenter speaking," came his voice presently.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Mr. Carpenter," I replied, "this is Bond of the San +Francisco Clarion."</p> + +<p>I would be ashamed to repeat the language which came over that +telephone. I was informed that all reporters were pests and that I was a +doubly obnoxious specimen and that were I within reach I would be +promptly assaulted and that reporters would be received at nine the next +morning and no earlier or later.</p> + +<p>"Just a minute, Mr. Carpenter," I cried as he neared the end of his +peroration and was, I fancied, about to slam up the receiver. "Don't you +remember me? I was at Leland with you and used to work in your +laboratory in the atomic disintegration section."</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Bond, Mr. Carpenter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, First Mortgage! Certainly I remember you. Mighty glad to hear your +voice. How are you?"</p> + +<p>"Fine, thank you, Mr. Carpenter. I would not have ventured to call you +had I not known you. I didn't mean to impose and I'll be glad to see you +in the morning at nine."</p> + +<p>"Not by a long shot," he cried. "You'll come up right away. Where are +you staying?"</p> + +<p>"At the El Rey."</p> + +<p>"Well, check out and come right up here. There's lots of room for you +here at the plant and I'll be glad to have you. I want at least one +intelligent report of this experiment and you should be able to write +it. I'll look for you in an hour."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to impose—" I began; but he interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, glad to have you. I needed someone like you badly and you +have come just in the nick of time. I'll expect you in an hour."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> receiver clicked and I hastened to follow his instructions. A +ringside seat was just what I was looking for. It took my taxi a little +over an hour to get to the Carpenter laboratory and I chuckled when I +thought of how McQuarrie's face would look when he saw my expense +account. Presently we reached the edge of the grounds which surrounded +the Carpenter laboratory and were stopped at the high gate I remembered +so well.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you'll get in, buddy?" asked my driver.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," I replied. "What made you ask?"</p> + +<p>"I've brought three chaps out here to-day and none of them got in," he +answered with a grin. "I'm glad you're so sure, but I'll just wait +around until you are inside before I drive away."</p> + +<p>I laughed and advanced to the gate. Tim, the old guard, was still there, +and he remembered and welcomed me.</p> + +<p>"Me ordhers wuz t' let yez roight in, sor," he said as he greeted me. +"Jist lave ye'er bag here and Oi'll have ut sint roight up."</p> + +<p>I dropped my bag and trudged up the well remembered path to the +laboratory. It had been enlarged somewhat since I saw it last and, late +though the hour was, there was a bustle in the air and I could see a +number of men working in the building. From an area in the rear, which +was lighted by huge flood lights, came the staccato tattoo of a riveter. +I walked up to the front of the laboratory and entered. I knew the way +to Carpenter's office and I went directly there and knocked.</p> + +<p>"Hello, First Mortgage!" cried Jim Carpenter as I entered in response to +his call. "I'm glad to see you. Excuse the bruskness of my first +greeting to you over the telephone, but the press have been deviling me +all day, every man jack of them trying to steal a march on the rest. I +am going to open the whole shebang at nine to-morrow and give them all +an equal chance to look things over before I turn the current on at +noon. As soon as we have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> little chat, I'll show you over the works."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">After</span> half an hour's chat he rose. "Come along, First Mortgage," he +said, "we'll go out and look the place over and I'll explain everything. +If my ideas work out, you'll have no chance to go over it to-morrow, so +I want you to see it now."</p> + +<p>I had no chance to ask him what he meant by this remark, for he walked +rapidly from the laboratory and I perforce followed him. He led the way +to the patch of lighted ground behind the building where the riveting +machine was still beating out its monotonous cacaphony and paused by the +first of a series of huge reflectors, which were arranged in a circle.</p> + +<p>"Here is the start of the thing," he said. "There are two hundred and +fifty of these reflectors arranged in a circle four hundred yards in +diameter. Each of them is an opened parabola of such spread that their +beams will cover an area ten yards in diameter at fifty miles above the +earth. If my calculations are correct they should penetrate through the +layer at an average speed of fifteen miles per hour per unit, and by two +o'clock to-morrow afternoon, the road to space should be open."</p> + +<p>"What is your power?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but a concentration of infra-red rays. The heaviside layer, as +you doubtless know, is a liquid and, I think, an organic liquid. If I am +right in that thought, the infra-red will cut through it like a knife +through cheese."</p> + +<p>"If it is a liquid, how will you prevent it from flowing back into the +hole you have opened?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"When the current is first turned on, each reflector will bear on the +same point. Notice that they are moveable. They are arranged so that +they move together. As soon as the first hole is bored through, they +will move by clockwork, extending the opening until each points +vertically upward and the hole is four hundred yards in diameter. I am +positive that there will be no rapid flow even after the current is +turned off, for I believe that the liquid is about as mobile as +petroleum jelley. Should it close, however, it would take only a couple +of hours to open it again to allow the space flyer to return."</p> + +<p>"What space flyer?" I demanded quickly.</p> + +<p>"The one we are going to be on, First Mortgage," he replied with a +slight chuckle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">We</span>?" I cried, aghast.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. We. You and I. You didn't think I was going to send you +alone, did you?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that anyone was going."</p> + +<p>"Of course. Someone has to go; otherwise, how could I prove my point? I +might cut through a hundred holes and yet these stiff-necked old +fossils, seeing nothing, would not believe. No, First Mortgage, when +those arcs start working to-morrow, you and I will be in a Hadley space +ship up at the bottom of the layer, and as soon as the road has been +opened, two of the lamps will cut off to allow us through. Then the +battery will hold the road open while we pass out into space and +return."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we meet with Hadley's fate?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"We won't. Even if I am wrong—which is very unlikely—we won't meet +with any such fate. We have two stern motors and four bow motors. As +soon as we meet with the slightest resistance to our forward progress we +will stop and have twice the power plus gravity to send us earthwards. +There is no danger connected with the trip."</p> + +<p>"All the same—" I began.</p> + +<p>"All the same, you're going," he replied. "Man alive, think of the +chance to make a world scoop for your paper! No other press man has the +slightest inkling of my plan and even if they had, there isn't another +space flyer in the world that I know of. If you don't want to go, I'll +give some one else the chance, but I prefer you, for you know something +of my work."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I thought</span> rapidly for a moment. The chance was a unique one and one that +half the press men in San Francisco would have given their shirts to +get. I had had my doubts of the accuracy of Jim Carpenter's reasoning +while I was away from him, but there was no resisting the dynamic +personality of the man when in his presence.</p> + +<p>"You win," I said with a laugh. "Your threat of offering some of my +hated rivals a chance settled it."</p> + +<p>"Good boy!" he exclaimed, pounding me on the back. "I knew you'd come. I +had intended to take one of my assistants with me, but as soon as I knew +you were here I decided that you were the man. There really ought to be +a press representative along. Come with me and I'll show you our flyer."</p> + +<p>The flyer proved to be of the same general type as had been used by +Hadley. It was equipped with six rocket motors, four discharging to the +bow and two to the stern. Any one of them, Carpenter said, was ample for +motive power. Equilibrium was maintained by means of a heavy gyroscope +which would prevent any turning of the axis of its rotation. The entire +flyer shell could be revolved about the axis so that oblique motion with +our bow and stern motors was readily possible. Direct lateral movement +was provided for by valves which would divert a portion of the discharge +of either a bow or stern motor out through side vents in any direction. +The motive power, of course, was furnished by the atomic disintegration +of powdered aluminum. The whole interior, except for the portion of the +walls, roof and floor, which was taken up by vitriolene windows, was +heavily padded.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">At</span> nine the next morning the gates to the enclosure were thrown open and +the representatives of the press admitted. Jim Carpenter mounted a +platform and explained briefly what he proposed to do and then broke the +crowd up into small groups and sent them over the works with guides. +When all had been taken around they were reassembled and Carpenter +announced to them his intention of going up in a space flyer and prove, +by going through the heaviside layer, that he had actually destroyed a +portion of it. There was an immediate clamor of applications to go with +him. He laughingly announced that one reporter was all that he could +stand on the ship and that he was taking one of his former associates +with him. I could tell by the envious looks with which I was favored +that any popularity I had ever had among my associates was gone forever. +There was little time to think of such things, however, for the hour for +our departure was approaching, and the photographers were clamoring for +pictures of us and the flyer.</p> + +<p>We satisfied them at last, and I entered the flyer after Carpenter. We +sealed the car up, started the air conditioner, and were ready for +departure.</p> + +<p>"Scared, Pete?" asked Carpenter, his hand on the starting lever.</p> + +<p>I gulped a little as I looked at him. He was perfectly calm to a casual +inspection, but I knew him well enough to interpret the small spots of +red which appeared on his high cheekbones and the glitter in his eye. He +may not have been as frightened as I was but he was laboring under an +enormous nervous strain. The mere fact that he called me "Pete" instead +of his usual "First Mortgage" showed that he was feeling pretty serious.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly scared," I replied, "but rather uneasy, so to speak."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> laughed nervously.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, old man! If anything goes wrong, we won't know it. Sit down +and get comfortable; this thing will start with a jerk."</p> + +<p>He pulled the starting lever forward suddenly and I felt as though an +intolerable weight were pressed against me, glueing me to my seat. The +feeling lasted only for a moment, for he quickly eased up on the motor, +and in a few moments I felt quite normal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How fast are we going?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Only two hundred miles an hour," he replied. "We will reach the layer +in plenty of time at this rate and I don't want to jam into it. You can +get up now."</p> + +<p>I rose, moved over to the observation glass in the floor, and looked +down. We were already five or ten miles above the earth and were +ascending rapidly. I could still detect the great circle of reflectors +with which our way was to be opened.</p> + +<p>"How can you tell where these heat beams are when they are turned on?" I +asked. "Infra-red rays are not visible, and we will soon be out of sight +of the reflectors."</p> + +<p>"I forgot to mention that I am having a small portion of visible red +rays mixed with the infra-red so that we can spot them. I have a radio +telephone here, working on my private wavelength, so that I can direct +operations from here as well as from the ground—in fact, better. If +you're cold, turn on the heater."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> friction of the flyer against the air had so far made up for the +decreasing temperature of the air surrounding us, but a glance at the +outside thermometer warned me that his suggestion was a wise one. I +turned a valve which diverted a small portion of our exhaust through a +heating coil in the flyer. It was hard to realize that I was actually in +a rocket space ship, the second one to be flown and that, with the +exception of the ill-fated Hadley, farther from the earth than any man +had been before. There was no sensation of movement in that hermetically +sealed flyer, and, after the first few moments, the steady drone of the +rocket motor failed to register on my senses. I was surprised to see +that there was no trail of detritus behind us.</p> + +<p>"You can see our trail at night," replied Carpenter when I asked him +about it, "but in daylight, there is nothing to see. The slight +luminosity of the gasses is hidden by the sun's rays. We may be able to +see it when we get out in space beyond the layer, but I don't know. We +have arrived at the bottom of the layer now, I believe. At any rate, we +are losing velocity."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I moved</span> over to the instrument board and looked. Our speed had dropped +to one hundred and ten miles an hour and was steadily falling off. +Carpenter pulled the control lever and reduced our power. Gradually the +flyer came to a stop and hung poised in space. He shut off the power an +instant and at once our indicator showed that we were falling, although +very slowly. He promptly reapplied the power, and by careful adjustment +brought us again to a dead stop.</p> + +<p>"Ready to go," he remarked looking at his watch, "and just on time, too. +Take a glass and watch the ground. I am going to have the heat turned +on."</p> + +<p>I took the binoculars he indicated and turned them toward the ground +while he gave a few crisp orders into his telephone. Presently from the +ground beneath us burst out a circle of red dots from which long beams +stabbed up into the heavens. The beams converged as they mounted until +at a point slightly below us, and a half-mile away they became one solid +beam of red. One peculiarity I noticed was that, while they were plainly +visible near the ground, they faded out, and it was not until they were +a few miles below us that they again became apparent. I followed their +path upward into the heavens.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Jim!" I cried as I did so. "Something's happening!"</p> + +<p>He sprang to my side and glanced at the beam.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" he shouted, pounding me on the back. "I was right! Look! And +the fools called it a magnetic field!"</p> + +<p>Upward the beam was boring its way, but it was almost concealed by a +rain of fine particles of black which were falling around it.</p> + +<p>"It's even more spectacular than I had hoped," he chortled. "I had +expected to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> reduce the layer to such fluidity that we could penetrate +it or even to vaporize it, but we are actually destroying it! That stuff +is soot and is proof, if proof be needed, that the layer is an organic +liquid."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> turned to his telephone and communicated the momentous news to the +earth and then rejoined me at the window. For ten minutes we watched and +a slight diminution of the black cloud became apparent.</p> + +<p>"They're through the layer," exclaimed Carpenter. "Now watch, and you'll +see something. I'm going to start spreading the beam."</p> + +<p>He turned again to his telephone, and presently the beam began to widen +and spread out. As it did so the dark cloud became more dense than it +had been before. The earth below us was hidden and we could see the red +only as a dim murky glow through the falling soot. Carpenter inquired of +the laboratory and found that we were completely invisible to the +ground, half the heavens being hidden by the black pall. For an hour the +beam worked its way toward us.</p> + +<p>"The hole is about four hundred yards in diameter right now," said +Carpenter as he turned from the telephone. "I have told them to stop the +movement of the reflectors, and as soon as the air clears a little, +we'll start through."</p> + +<p>It took another hour for the soot to clear enough that we could plainly +detect the ring of red light before us. Carpenter gave some orders to +the ground, and a gap thirty yards wide opened in the wall before us. +Toward this gap the flyer moved slowly under the side thrust of the +diverted motor discharge. The temperature rose rapidly as we neared the +wall of red light before us. Nearer we drew until the light was on both +sides of us. Another few feet and the flyer shot forward with a jerk +that threw me sprawling on the floor. Carpenter fell too, but he +maintained his hold on the controls and tore at them desperately to +check us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I scrambled</span> to my feet and watched. The red wall was alarmingly close. +Nearer we drove and then came another jerk which threw me sprawling +again. The wall retreated. In another moment we were standing still, +with the red all around us at a distance of about two hundred yards.</p> + +<p>"We had a narrow escape from being cremated," said Carpenter with a +shaky laugh. "I knew that our speed would increase as soon as we got +clear of the layer but it caught me by surprise just the same. I had no +idea how great the holding effect of the stuff was. Well, First +Mortgage, the road to space is open for us. May I invite you to be my +guest on a little week-end jaunt to the Moon?"</p> + +<p>"No thanks, Jim," I said with a wry smile. "I think a little trip to the +edge of the layer will quite satisfy me."</p> + +<p>"Quitter," he laughed. "Well, say good-by to familiar things. Here we +go!"</p> + +<p>He turned to the controls of the flyer, and presently we were moving +again, this time directly away from the earth. There was no jerk at +starting this time, merely a feeling as though the floor were pressing +against my feet, a great deal like the feeling a person gets when they +rise rapidly in an express elevator. The indicator showed that we were +traveling only sixty miles an hour. For half an hour we continued +monotonously on our way with nothing to divert us. Carpenter yawned.</p> + +<p>"Now that it's all over, I feel let down and sleepy," he announced. "We +are well beyond the point to which Hadley penetrated and so far we have +met with no resistance. We are probably nearly at the outer edge of the +layer. I think I'll shoot up a few miles more and then call it a day and +go home. We are about eighty miles from the earth now."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I looked</span> down, but could see nothing below us but the dense cloud of +black soot resulting from the destruction of the heaviside layer. Like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +Carpenter, I felt sleepy, and I suppressed a yawn as I turned again to +the window.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Jim!" I cried suddenly. "What's that?"</p> + +<p>He moved in a leisurely manner to my side and looked out. As he did so I +felt his hand tighten on my shoulder with a desperate grip. Down the +wall of red which surrounded us was coming an object of some kind. The +thing was fully seventy-five yards long and half as wide at its main +portion, while long irregular streams extended for a hundred yards on +each side of it. There seemed to be dozens of them.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Jim?" I asked in a voice which sounded high and unnatural +to me.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he muttered, half to me and half to himself. "Good Lord, +there's another of them!"</p> + +<p>He pointed. Not far from the first of the things came another, even +larger than the first. They were moving sluggishly along the red light, +seeming to flow rather than to crawl. I had a horrible feeling that they +were alive and malignant. Carpenter stepped back to the controls of the +flyer and stopped our movement; we hung in space, watching them. The +things were almost level with us, but their sluggish movement was +downward toward the earth. In color, they were a brilliant crimson, +deepening into purple near the center. Just as the first of them came +opposite us it paused, and slowly a portion of the mass extended itself +from the main bulk; and then, like doors opening, four huge eyes, each +of them twenty feet in diameter, opened and stared at us.</p> + +<p>"It's alive, Jim," I quavered. I hardly knew my own voice as I spoke.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Jim</span> stepped back to the controls with a white face, and slowly we moved +closer to the mass. As we approached I thought that I could detect a +fleeting passage of expression in those huge eyes. Then they disappeared +and only a huge crimson and purple blob lay before us. Jim moved the +controls again and the flyer came to a stop.</p> + +<p>Two long streamers moved out from the mass. Suddenly there was a jerk to +the ship which threw us both to the floor. It started upward at express +train speed. Jim staggered to his feet, grasped the controls and started +all four bow motors at full capacity, but even this enormous force had +not the slightest effect in diminishing our speed.</p> + +<p>"Well, the thing's got us, whatever it is," said Jim as he pulled his +controls to neutral, shutting off all power. Now that the danger had +assumed a tangible form, he appeared as cool and collected as ever, to +my surprise, I found that I had recovered control of my muscle and of my +voice. I became aware that the shoulder which Jim had gripped was aching +badly, and I rubbed it absently.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Jim?" I asked for the third time.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he replied. "It is some horrible inhabitant of space, +something unknown to us on earth. From its appearance and actions, I +think it must be a huge single-celled animal of the type of the earthly +amoeba. If an amoeba is that large here, what must an elephant look +like? However, I expect that we'll learn more about the matter later +because it's taking us with it, wherever it's going."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Suddenly</span> the flyer became dark inside. I looked at the nearest window, +but I could not even detect its outline. I reached for the light switch, +but a sudden change in direction threw me against the wall. There was an +instant of intense heat in the flyer.</p> + +<p>"We have passed the heaviside layer," said Jim. "The brute has changed +direction, and we felt that heat when he took us through the infra-red +wall."</p> + +<p>I reached again for the light switch, but before I could find it our +motion ceased and an instant later the flyer was filled with glaring +sunlight. We both turned to the window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>We lay on a glistening plain of bluish hue which stretched without a +break as far as we could see. Not a thing broke the monotony of our +vision. We turned to the opposite window. How can I describe the sight +which met our horrified gaze? On the plain before us lay a huge purple +monstrosity of gargantuan dimensions. The thing was a shapeless mass, +only the four huge eyes standing out regarding us balefully. The mass +was continually changing its outline and, as we watched, a long streamer +extended itself from the body toward us. Over and around the flyer the +feeler went, while green and red colors played over first one and then +another of the huge eyes before us. The feeler wrapped itself around the +flyer and we were lifted into the air toward those horrible eyes. We had +almost reached them when the thing dropped us. We fell to the plain with +a crash. We staggered to our feet again and looked out. Our captor was +battling for its life.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Its</span> attacker was a smaller thing of a brilliant green hue, striped and +mottled with blue and yellow. While our captor was almost formless, the +newcomer had a very definite shape. It resembled a cross between a bird +and a lizard, its shape resembling a bird, as did tiny rudimentary wings +and a long beak, while the scaly covering and the fact that it had four +legs instead of two bore out the idea that it might be a lizard. Its +huge birdlike beak was armed with three rows of long sharp teeth with +which it was tearing at our captor. The purple amoeba was holding its +assailant with a dozen of its thrown out feelers which were wrapped +about the body and legs of the green horror. The whole battle was +conducted in absolute silence.</p> + +<p>"Now's our chance, Jim!" I cried. "Get away from here while that dragon +has the amoeba busy!"</p> + +<p>He jumped to the control levers of the flyer and pulled the starting +switch well forward. The shock of the sudden start hurled me to the +floor, but from where I fell I was able to watch the battle on the +plain below us. It raged with uninterrupted fury and I felt certain of +our escape when, with a shock which hurled both Jim and me to the +ceiling, the flyer stopped. We fell back to the floor and I reflected +that it was well for us that the interior of the flyer was so well +padded. Had it not been, our bones would have been broken a dozen times +by the shocks to which we had been subjected.</p> + +<p>"What now?" I asked as I painfully struggled to my feet.</p> + +<p>"Another of those purple amoebas," replied Jim from the vantage point of +a window. "He's looking us over as if he were trying to decide whether +we are edible or not."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I joined</span> him at the window. The thing which had us was a replica of the +monster we had left below us engaged in battle with the green dragon +which had attacked it. The same indefinite and ever changing outline was +evident, as well as the four huge eyes. The thing regarded us for a +moment and slowly moved us up against its bulk until we touched it. +Deeper and deeper into the mass of the body we penetrated until we were +in a deep cavern with the light coming to us only from the entrance. I +watched the entrance and horror possessed my soul.</p> + +<p>"The hole's closing. Jim!" I gasped. "The thing is swallowing us!"</p> + +<p>"I expected that," he replied grimly. "The amoeba has no mouth, you +know. Nourishment is passed into the body through the skin, which closes +behind it. We are a modern version of Jonah and the whale, First +Mortgage."</p> + +<p>"Well, Jonah got out," I ventured.</p> + +<p>"We'll try to," he replied. "When that critter swallowed us, he got +something that will prove pretty indigestible. Let's try to give him a +stomach ache. I don't suppose that a machine-gun will affect him, but +we'll try it."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that you had any guns on board."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I've got two machine-guns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> We'll turn one of them loose, but I +don't expect much effect from it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> moved over to one of the guns and threw off the cover which had +hidden it from my gaze. He fed in a belt of ammunition and pulled his +trigger. For half a minute he held it down, and two hundred and fifty +caliber thirty bullets tore their way into space. There was no evidence +of movement on the part of our host.</p> + +<p>"Just as I thought," remarked Jim as he threw aside the empty belt and +covered the gun again. "The thing has no nervous organization to speak +of and probably never felt that. We'll have to rig up a disintegrating +ray for him."</p> + +<p>"What?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"A disintegrating ray," he replied. "Oh yes, I know how to make the +fabulous 'death ray' that you journalists are always raving about. I +have never announced my discovery, for war is horrible enough without +it, but I have generated it and used it in my work a number of times. +Did it never occur to you that the rocket motor is built on a +disintegrating ray principle?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is, Jim. I never thought of it in that light before, but +it must be. How can you use it? The discharge from the motors is a +harmless stream of energy particles."</p> + +<p>"Instead of turning the ray into powdered aluminum and breaking it down, +what is to prevent me from turning it against the body of our captor and +blasting my way out?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Well, nothing is. I'll have to modify one of the motors a little, but +it's not a hard job. Get some wrenches from the tool box and we'll +start."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">An</span> hour of hard work enabled us to disconnect one of the reserve bow +motors and, after the modifications Jim had mentioned, turn the ray out +through the port through which the products of disintegration were meant +to go. When we had bolted it in place with an improvised coupling, Jim +opened the vitriolene screen which held in our air and turned to his +control board.</p> + +<p>"Here goes," he said.</p> + +<p>He pulled the lever to full power and with a roar which almost deafened +us in the small flyer, the ray leaped out to do its deadly work. I +watched through a port beside the motor. There was a flash of intense +light for an instant and then the motor died away in silence. A path to +freedom lay open before us. Jim started one of the stern motors and +slowly we forced our way through the hole torn in the living mass. When +we were almost at the surface, he threw in full power and we shot free +from the amoeba and into the open. Again we were stopped in midair and +drawn back toward the huge bulk. The eyes looked at us and we were +turned around. As the ray swung into a position to point directly toward +one of the eyes, Jim pulled the controlling lever. With the flash of +light which ensued, the eye and a portion of the surrounding tissue +disappeared. The amoeba writhed and changed shape rapidly, while flashes +of brilliant crimson played over the remaining eyes. Again the ray was +brought into play and another of the eyes disappeared. This was +evidently enough for our captor, for it suddenly released us and +instantly we started to fall. Jim caught the control levers and turned +on our power in time to halt us only a few feet above the plain toward +which we were falling. We were close to the point whence we had started +up and we could see that the battle below us was still raging.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> green dragon was partially engulfed by the amoeba, but it still +relentlessly tore off huge chunks and devoured them. The amoeba was +greatly reduced in bulk but it still fought gamely. Even as we +approached the dragon was evidently satiated, for it slowly withdrew +from the purple bulk and back away. Long feelers shot out from the +amoeba's bulk toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> dragon but they were bitten off before they +could grasp their prey.</p> + +<p>"Let's get away from here, Jim," I cried, but I spoke too late. Even as +the words left my mouth the green dragon saw us and raised itself in the +air, and with gaping jaws launched itself at us. It took Jim only a +moment to shoot the flyer up into space, and the charge passed +harmlessly beneath us. The dragon checked its headway and turned again +toward us.</p> + +<p>"Use the machine-gun, Pete!" cried Jim. "I've got to run the ship."</p> + +<p>I threw the cover off the gun and fed in a fresh belt of ammunition. As +the green monster dashed toward us I hastily aligned the gun and pulled +the trigger. My aim was good and at least fifty of the bullets plowed +through the approaching bulk before Jim dropped the ship and allowed it +to pass above us. Again the dragon turned and charged, and again I met +it with a hail of bullets. They had no apparent effect and Jim dropped +the ship again and let the huge bulk shoot by above us. Twice more the +dragon rushed but the last rush was less violent than had been the first +three.</p> + +<p>"The bullets are affecting him, Pete!" cried Jim as he shot the flyer +upward. "Give him another dose!"</p> + +<p>I hastily fed in another belt, but it was not needed. The dragon rushed +the fifth time, but before it reached us its velocity fell off and it +passed harmlessly below us and fell on a long curve to the plain below. +It fell near the purple amoeba which it had battled and a long feeler +shot out and grasped it. Straight into the purple mass it was drawn, and +vanished into the huge bulk.</p> + +<p>Jim started one of the stern motors. In a few seconds we were far from +the scene.</p> + +<p>"Have you any idea of which direction to go?" he asked. I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Have you a radio beacon?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He withered me with a glance.</p> + +<p>"We're beyond the heaviside layer," he reminded me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> a moment I was stunned.</p> + +<p>"We can't be very far from the hole," he said consolingly as he fumbled +with the controls. "But before we try to find it, we had better +disconnect one of the stern motors and rig it as a disintegrating ray so +that we will have one bearing in each direction. We may meet more +denizens of space who like our looks, and we haven't much ammunition +left."</p> + +<p>We landed on the plain and in an hour had a second disintegrating ray +ready for action. Thus armed, we rose from the blue plain and started at +random on our way. For ten minutes we went forward. Then Jim stopped the +flyer and turned back. We had gone only a short distance when I called +to him to stop.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he demanded as he brought the flyer to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"There's another creature ahead of us," I replied. "A red one."</p> + +<p>"Red?" he asked excitedly as he joined me. About a mile ahead of us a +huge mass hung in the air. It resembled the amoeba which had attacked +us, except that the newcomer was red. As we watched, it moved toward us. +As it did so its color changed to purple.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" cried Jim. "Don't you remember, Pete, that the one which +captured us and took us out of the hole was red while in the hole and +then turned purple? That thing just came out of the hole!"</p> + +<p>"Then why can't we see the red beam?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"Because there's no air or anything to reflect it," he replied. "We +can't see it until we are right in it."</p> + +<p>I devoutly hoped that he was right as he headed the ship toward the +waiting monster. As we approached the amoeba came rapidly to meet us and +a long feeler shot out. As it did so there was a flash of intense light +ahead of us as Jim turned loose the ray, and the feeler disappeared. +Another and another met the same fate. Then Jim rotated the ship +slightly and let out the full force of the ray toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> monster. A +huge hole was torn in it, and as we approached with our ray blazing, the +amoeba slowly retreated and our path was open before us. Again there was +an instant of intense heat as we passed through the red wall, and we +were again in the hole which Jim's lamps had blasted through the layer. +Below us still lay the fog which had obscured the earth when we had +started on our upward trip.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Down</span> toward the distant earth we dropped. We had gone about thirty miles +before we saw on the side of the hole one of the huge amoeba which were +so thick above.</p> + +<p>"We might stop and pick that fellow off," said Jim, "but, on the whole, +I think we'll experiment with him."</p> + +<p>He drove the ship nearer and turned it on its axis, holding it in +position by one of the auxiliary discharges. A flash came from our +forward ray and a portion of the amoeba disappeared. A long arm moved +out toward us, but it moved slowly and sluggishly instead of with the +lightninglike swiftness which had characterized the movements of the +others. Jimmy easily eluded it and dropped the ship a few yards. The +creature pursued it, but it moved slowly. For a mile we kept our +distance ahead of it, but we had to constantly decrease our speed to +keep from leaving it behind. Soon we were almost at a standstill, and +Jim reversed our direction and drew nearer. A feeler came slowly and +feebly out a few feet toward us and then stopped. We dropped the ship a +few feet but the amoeba did not follow. Jim glanced at the altimeter.</p> + +<p>"Just as I thought," he exclaimed. "We are about forty-five miles above +the earth and already the air is so dense that the thing cannot move +lower. They are fashioned for existence in the regions of space and in +even the most rarified air they are helpless. There is no chance of one +ever reaching the surface of the earth without years of gradual +acclimation, and even if it did, it would be practically immobile. In a +few years the layer will flow enough to plug the hole I have made, but +even so, I'll build a couple of space flyers equipped with +disintegrating rays as soon as we get down and station them alongside +the hole to wipe out any of that space vermin which tries to come +through. Let's go home. We've put in a good day's work."</p> + +<p>Hundreds of the purple amoeba have been destroyed by the guarding ships +during the past five years. The hole is filling in as Jim predicted, and +in another ten years the earth will be as securely walled in as it ever +was. But in the mean time, no one knows what unrevealed horrors space +holds, and the world will never rest entirely easy until the slow +process of time again heals the broken protective layer.</p> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> + <h3>Everyone Is Invited</h3> + + <h4><i>To</i> "<i>Come Over in</i></h4> + + <h3>'THE READERS' CORNER'"!</h3> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="marauder" id="marauder"></a>Earth, the Marauder</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007018.jpg" width="550" height="569" alt="The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska.</span> +</div> + +<h4>BEGINNING A THREE-PART NOVEL</h4> + +<h3><i>By Arthur J. Burks</i><br /><br /></h3> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p><i>Despite the fact that for centuries the Secret of Life had been the +possession of children of men, the Earth was dying. She was dying +because the warmth of the sun was fading; because, with the obliteration +of the oceans in order to find new land upon which men might live, her +seasons had become stormy, unbearably cold and dreary: and the very fact +of her knowledge of the Secret of Life, in which men numbered their ages +by centuries instead of by years, was her undoing.</i></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="sidenote">Out of her orbit sped +the teeming Earth--a +marauding planet bent on starry +conquest.</div> + +<p><i>For when men did not die, they multiplied beyond all counting, beyond +all possibility of securing permanent abiding places. One man, in the +days when the earth was young, and man lived at best to the age of three +score years and ten, could have, given time and opportunity, populated a +nation. Now, when men lived for centuries, eternally youthful, their +living descendants ran into incalculable numbers.</i></p> + + +<p><i>The earth—strange paradox—was dying because it had learned the Secret +of Life. Twenty centuries before, the last war of aggression had been +fought, in order that an over-populated nation might find room in which +to live. Now all the earth was one nation, speaking one tongue—and +there were no more lands to conquer.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3><i>Sarka</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007019.jpg" width="550" height="588" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> his laboratory atop the highest peak in the venerable Himalayas, +lived Sarka, conceded by the world to be its greatest scientist, despite +his youth. His grandfather, who had watched the passing of eighteen +centuries, had discovered the Secret of Life and thoughtlessly, in the +light of later developments, broadcast his discovery to the world. The +genius of this man, who was also called Sarka, had been passed on to his +son, Sarka the Second, and by him in even greater degree to Sarka the +Third ... called merely Sarka for the purposes of this history.</p> + +<p>Had Sarka lived in the days before the discovery of the Secret of Life, +people of that day would have judged him a young man of twenty. His real +age was four centuries.</p> + +<p>Behind him as he sat moodily staring at the gigantic Revolving Beryl +stood a woman of most striking appearance. Her name was Jaska, and +according to ideas of the Days Before the Discovery, she seemed a trifle +younger than Sarka. Her hand, unadorned by jewelry of any kind, rested +on Sarka's shoulder as he studied the Revolving Beryl, while her eyes, +whose lashes, matching her raven hair, were like the wings of tiny +blackbirds, noted afresh the wonder of this man.</p> + +<p>"What is to be done?" she asked him at last, and her voice was like +music there in the room where science performed its miracles for Sarka.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Wearily</span> Sarka turned to face her, and she was struck anew, as she had +been down the years since she had known this man, every time their +glances met, at the mighty curve of his brow, which rendered +insignificant his mouth, his delicate nose of the twitching nostrils, +the well-deep eyes of him.</p> + +<p>"Something must be done," he said gloomily, "and that soon! For, unless +the children of men are provided with some manner of territorial +expansion, they will destroy one another, only the strongest will +survive, and we shall return to the days when the waters covered the +earth, and monstrous creatures bellowed from the primeval slime!"</p> + +<p>"You are working on something?" she asked softly.</p> + +<p>For a moment he did not answer. While she waited, Jaska peered into the +depths of the Revolving Beryl, which represented the earth. It was fifty +feet in diameter, and in its curved surface and entrancing depths was +mirrored, in this latest development of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> teleview, all the earth and the +doings of its people. But Jaska scarcely saw the fleeting images, the +men locked in conflict for the right to live, the screaming, +terror-stricken women. This was now a century-old story, and the +civilization of Earth had almost reached the breaking point.</p> + +<p>No, she scarcely saw the things in the Beryl, for she had read the hint +of a vast, awesome secret in the eyes of Sarka—and wondered if he dared +even tell her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">If</span> the people knew," he whispered, "they would do one of two things! +They would tear me limb from limb, and hurl the parts of me outward into +space forever—or they would demand that I move before I am ready—and +cause a catastrophe which could never be rectified; and this grand old +Earth of ours would be dead, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"And this secret of yours?" Jaska now spoke in the sign language which +only these two knew, for there were billions of other Revolving Beryls +in the world, and words could be heard by universal radio by any who +cared to listen. And always, they knew, the legions of enemies of Sarka +kept their ears open for words of Sarka which could be twisted around to +his undoing.</p> + +<p>"I should not tell even you," he answered, his fingers working swiftly +in their secret, silent language, which all the world could see, but +which only these two understood. "For if my enemies knew that you +possessed the information, there is nothing they would stop at to make +you tell."</p> + +<p>"But I would not tell, Sarka," she said softly. "You know that!"</p> + +<p>He patted her hands, and the ghost of a smile touched his lips.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "you would not tell. Some day soon—and it must be soon +if the children of men are not to destroy themselves, I will tell you! +It is a secret that lies heavily on my heart. If I should make a +mistake.... Chaos! Catastrophe! Eternal, perpetual dark, the children +of men reduced to nothingness!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">A little</span> gasp from Jaska, for it was plain that this thing Sarka hinted +at was far and away beyond anything he had hitherto done—and Sarka had +already performed miracles beyond any that had ever been done by his +predecessors.</p> + +<p>"When my grandfather," went on Sarka moodily, "perfected, in this +self-same laboratory, the machinery by which the waters of the oceans +could be disintegrated, our enemies called him mad, and fought their way +up these mountain slopes to destroy him! With the pack at his doors, he +did as he had told them he would do. Though they hurried swiftly into +the great valleys to colonize them—where oceans had been—they were +like ravening beasts, and gave my grandfather no thanks. Our people have +always fought against progress, have always been disparaging of its +advocates! When the first Sarka discovered the Secret they would have +destroyed him, though he made them immortal...."</p> + +<p>"If only the Secret," interrupted Jaska, "could be returned to him who +discovered it! That would solve our problem, for men then would die and +be buried, leaving their places for others."</p> + +<p>Again that weary smile on the face of Sarka.</p> + +<p>"Take back the Secret which is known to-day to every son and daughter of +woman? Impossible! More nearly impossible than the attainment of my most +ambitious dream!"</p> + +<p>"And that dream?" spoke Jaska with speeding fingers.</p> + +<p>"I have wondered about you," said Sarka softly, while those eyes of his +bored deeply into hers. "We have been the best of friends, the best of +comrades; but there are times when it comes to me that I do not know you +entirely! And I have many enemies!"</p> + +<p>"You mean," gasped the woman, for the moment forgetting the secret sign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +manual, "you think it possible that I—I—might be one of your enemies, +in secret?"</p> + +<p>"Jaska, I do not know; but in this matter in my mind I trust no one. I +am afraid even that people will read my very thoughts, though I have +learned to so concentrate upon them that not the slightest hint of them +shall go forth telepathically to my enemies! I do not mind death for +myself; but our people must be saved! It is hideous to think that we +have been given the Secret of Life, only to perish in the end because of +it! I am sorry, Jaska, but I can tell no one!"</p> + +<p>But Jaska, one of the most beautiful and intelligent of Earth's +beautiful and intelligent women, seemed not to be listening to Sarka at +all, and when he had finished, she shrugged her shoulders slightly and +prepared to leave.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> followed her to the nearest Exit Dome, built solidly into the side of +his laboratory, and watched her as she slipped swiftly into the white, +skin-tight clothing—marked on breast and back with the Red Lily of the +House of Cleric. His eyes still were deeply moody.</p> + +<p>He helped her don the gleaming metal helmet in whose skull-pan was set +the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid—invented by Sarka the Second, used now of +necessity by every human creature—and strode with her to the Outer +Exit, a door of ponderous metal sufficiently strong to prevent the inner +warmth of the laboratory getting out, or the biting cold of the heights +to enter, and studied her still as she buckled about her hips her own +personal Sarka-Belt, which automatically encased her, through contact +with her tight clothing, with the warmth and balanced pressure of the +laboratory, which would remain constant as long as she wore it.</p> + +<p>With a nod and a brief smile, she stepped to the metal door and vanished +through it. Sarka turned gloomily back to his laboratory. Looking into +the depths of the Revolving Beryl and adjusting the enlarging device +which brought back, life size, the infinitesmal individuals mirrored in +the Beryl, he watched her go—a trim white figure which flashed across +the void, from mountain-top to her valley home, like a very white +projectile from another world. Very white, and very precious, but....</p> + +<p>When she was home, and had waved to him that she had arrived safely, he +forgot her for a time, and allowed his eyes to study the inner workings +of this vast, crowded world whose on-rushing fate was so filling his +brain with doubt, with fear—and something of horror!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3><i>The People of the Hives</i></h3> + + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Moodily</span> Sarka stared into the depths of the Beryl, which represented the +Earth, and in which he could see everything that earthlings did, after +visually enlarging them, through use of a microscope that could be +adjusted, with relation to the Beryl, to bring out in detail any section +of the world he wished to study. His face was utterly sad. The people at +last truly possessed the Earth—all of it that was, even with the aid of +every miracle known to science, habitable.</p> + +<p>The surface of the Earth was one vast building, like a hive, and to each +human being was allotted by law a certain abiding place. But men no +longer died, unless they desired to do so, and then only when the +Spokesmen of the Gens saw fit to grant permission; and there soon would +be no place for the newborn to live. Even now that point had practically +been reached throughout the world, and in the greater portion it <i>had</i> +been reached, and passed, and men knew that while men did not die, they +could be killed!</p> + +<p>The vast building, towering above what had once been the surface of the +earth, to heights undreamed of before the discovery, was irregular on +its top,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to fit the contour of the earth, and its roof, constructed of +materials raped from the earth's core, was so designed as to catch and +concentrate the yearly more feeble rays of the sun, so that its +life-giving warmth might continue to be the boon of living people.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> had been found as Earth cooled that life was possible to a depth of +eight miles below the one-time surface, so that the one huge building +extended below the surface to this great depth, and was divided and +re-divided to make homes for men, their wives, and their progeny. But +even so, space was limited. Neighboring families outgrew their +surroundings, overflowed into the habitations of their neighbors—and +every family was at constant war against its neighbors.</p> + +<p>Men did not die, but they could be slain, and there was scarcely a home, +above or below, in all the vast building, which had not planned and +executed murder, times and times—or which had not left its own blood in +the dwelling places of neighbors.</p> + +<p>No law could cope with this intolerable situation, for men, down the +ages, had changed in their essential characteristics but little—and +recognized one law only in their extremity, that of self-preservation.</p> + +<p>So there was murder rampant, and mothers who wept for children, +husbands, fathers or mothers, who would never return to their homes.</p> + +<p>"My grandfather," whispered Sarka, his eyes peering deeply into a +certain area beyond that assigned by law to the House of Cleric, where +men of two neighboring families were locked in mortal, silent conflict, +"should not have frustrated the mad scheme of Dalis! It was slaughter, +wholesale and terrible, but it would have cleansed the souls of the +survivors!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Mentally</span> Sarka was looking back now to that red day when Dalis, the +closest scientific rival of Sarka the First, had come to Sarka the +First with his proposal which at the time had seemed so hideous. Sarka +remembered that interval in all its details, for he had heard it many +times.</p> + +<p>"Sarka," Dalis had said in his high-pitched voice, staring at Sarka the +First out of red-rimmed, fiery eyes, "unless something is done the world +will rush on to self-destruction! Men will slay one another! Fathers +will kill their sons, and sons their fathers, if something is not done! +For always there is marrying and giving in marriage, and each family is +reaching out in all directions, seeking merely space in which to live. +Formerly there were wars which automatically took thought of the +overplus of men; but to-day the world is at peace, as men regard the +term—and every man's hand is against his neighbor! There will be no +more wars, when there should be! There is but one alternative!"</p> + +<p>"And that?" Sarka the First had queried suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"The segregation of the fittest! The destruction, swiftly, painlessly, +of all the others! And when the survivors have again re-populated the +earth to overflowing—a repetition of the same corrective! Men will die, +yes, by millions; but those who are left will be a stronger, sturdier +race, and by this process of elimination, century by century, men will +evolve and become super-men!"</p> + +<p>"And this plan of yours?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> a moment Dalis had paused, breathing heavily, as though almost +afraid to continue. Then, while Sarka the First had listened in frozen +terror, Dalis had explained his ghastly scheme.</p> + +<p>"If it were not for the mountains and the valleys," said Dalis, "and the +world were perfectly round and smooth of surface, that surface would be +covered by water to the depth of one mile! Is that not correct! The +Earth, rotating on its axis, travels about the sun at the rate of +something like nineteen miles per second, so perfectly balanced that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +the oceans remain almost quiescent in their beds! But, Sarka, mark me +well! If we could, together, devise a way to halt this rotation for as +much as a few seconds, what would happen?"</p> + +<p>"What would happen?" repeated Sarka the First, dropping his own voice to +a husky, frightened whisper. "Why, the oceans would be hurled out of +their beds, and a wall of water a mile high or more—it is all +guesswork!—would rush eastward around the world, bearing everything +before it! It would uproot and destroy buildings, sweep the rocky +covering of the earth free of soil; and humanity, caught on the earth +below the highest level of the world's greatest tidal wave, would be +engulfed!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly!" Dalis had said with a grin. "Exactly! Only—the people we +wish to survive could be warned, and these could either be aloft when +the tidal wave swept the face of the earth, or could be safely out of +reach of the waters on the sides of the highest mountains!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span> the First, wanly smiling, catching his breath at last, now that he +realized the utter impossibility of this mad scheme, had been minded to +humor the fancies of a man whom he had believed not quite sane.</p> + +<p>"Why not," he began, "take away from men the Secret of Life, so that +they will die, as formerly, when the world was young?"</p> + +<p>"When all the world knows the Secret, when even children learn it before +they are capable of walking?" demanded Dalis sarcastically. "You could +only remove knowledge of the Secret from the brains of men by removing +those brains themselves! Your thought is more terrible even than mine, +because it leads to this inescapable conclusion!"</p> + +<p>"But supposing for a moment your mad scheme were possible, who should +say whom, of all the earth's people, should be saved, whom sacrificed?"</p> + +<p>"What better test could be given than that which I am proposing?" Dalis +had snarled. "Those worthy of being saved would save themselves! Those +who would perish would not be worth saving! As natural, as inescapable +as the law of the survival of the fittest, which has been an axiom of +life since men first crawled out of the slime and asked each other +questions as they caught their first glimpses of the stars and pondered +the reasons for them!"</p> + +<p>"But where, then, was there any point in my giving to people the Secret +of Life?"</p> + +<p>"Had you paused to think," snapped Dalis, "you would never have done so! +Your lust for power, and for fame, destroyed your foresight!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: 0em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> is it not, Dalis," replied Sarka the First, softly, "for this, +really, that you have come to me? To berate me? To throw at my head mad +schemes impossible of accomplishment? I have always known you for an +enemy, Dalis, because you are envious of what I have accomplished, what +you sense that I will accomplish as time passes!"</p> + +<p>"I do not love you, Sarka!" retorted Dalis frankly. "I despise you! Hate +you! But I need the aid of that keen brain of yours! You see, hate you +though I may, I do you honor still. I have something up here," tapping +the dome of his brow, only less lofty than that of Sarka, "which you +lack. You have something I have not, never can attain! But together we +are complements, each of the other, and to the two of us this scheme is +possible!"</p> + +<p>"I am very busy, Dalis," Sarka the First had replied coldly. "I must ask +you to leave me! What you propose is impossible, unthinkable!"</p> + +<p>"So," retorted Dalis, "you think me mad? You think me incapable of +perfecting this plan about whose details you have not even yet been +informed! You would show me the door as though you were a king and I a +slave—when kings and slaves vanished from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> earth millenniums ago! +Then listen to me, Sarka! I know how to do this thing about which I have +told you. I can halt, for a brief moment only, the whirl of the earth +about its axis. And by so doing I can flood the earth with the waters of +the oceans! If you will not listen to me, I shall do it myself! You +shall have two days in which to give me an answer, for I admit that I +need you, who would balance me, make sure I made no fatal mistakes! But +if you do not, I will act ... along the lines I have hinted!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Apparently</span> as unconcerned as though he had not just listened to a scheme +for almost total depopulation of the world, the destruction of millions +upon millions of lives, Sarka the First had dismissed Dalis—who had +straightway used all his offices to arouse the world of science against +the first Sarka.</p> + +<p>But, when the two days of grace given by Dalis had passed, there were no +oceans—for Sarka the First had been planning for a century against the +time when the earth must of necessity be over-populated, and had worked +and slaved in his laboratory against the contingency which had +developed.</p> + +<p>He had smiled, though there was a trace of fear on his face after Dalis +had left, for <i>his</i> scheme had been worked out—not to destroy, but to +save!</p> + +<p>And from this same laboratory in which Sarka now sat and pondered on the +next step in man's expansion, Sarka the First had, in fear and trembling +at first, but with his confidence growing by leaps and bounds, worked +his own miracle. Untold millions and billions of rays, whose any portion +of which, coming in contact with water, immediately separated its +hydrogen and oxygen, thus disintegrating its molecules, were hurled +forth from their store-houses beneath the laboratory, across the faces +of the mighty oceans of Earth....</p> + +<p>And when men saw the miracle, they rushed into the mighty valleys where +the oceans had been, and began to build new homes!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">That</span> had been centuries ago—scores of centuries.</p> + +<p>Now all the earth, all the livable part of the earth, above its +surface—and below it to the depths of miles—was filled with people, +like bees in a monster hive, like ants of antiquity in their warrened +hills. And there was no place now that they could go.</p> + +<p>So they fought among themselves for the right to live.</p> + +<p>"But my grandfather was right!" Sarka almost screamed it, speaking aloud +in the silence of his laboratory. "My grandfather was right! Dalis was +wrong! Science should be the science of Life, not of Death! Yet whither +shall we go! Where now shall we find places for our people who are daily +being born in myriads, to live, and love and flourish?"</p> + +<p>But there was no answer. Only the humming of the perpetually revolving +Beryl, which showed to the sad eyes of Sarka that the people of his +beloved earth were rushing onward to Chaos, unless....</p> + +<p>"If only I could be sure about Jaska!" he moaned. "If only my courage +were as great as that of which I stand in need! For if I fail, even +Dalis, had he succeeded with that scheme of his in grandfather's time, +would be less a monster, less a criminal!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<h3><i>The Spokesmen of the Gens</i></h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> a long moment Sarka looked broodingly out across the world beyond +the metalized glass which formed the curving dome of his laboratory +roof. There was little that could be seen, for always the mighty, cold +winds, ruffed with flurries of snow and particles of ice, swept over +this artificial roof of the world. Here and there huge portions of the +area within the range of his normal vision were swept clear and clean of +snow and ice—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> looked bluely, bitterly cold and hostile.</p> + +<p>Without the Sarka-Belts, people who ventured forth from their hives +would instantly freeze to the consistency of marble in those winds and +storms. For the people of Earth had built their monster habitation +toward the stars until they reached up into the altitude of perpetual +cold.</p> + +<p>Only under that gleaming roof was there warmth. Many of the men, and +women, and children who had lost in the now century-old fight for +survival had merely been tossed out of the hives. A painless, swift +death—but each death, in a world so highly specialized that each grown +person fitted into his niche naturally and easily, was a distinct loss, +not much, perhaps, but enough for the loss to be felt.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span>, closing his eyes for a moment as though to shut out a horror +which in his mind he could visualize, turned back to the Revolving +Beryl, in which he kept in constant touch with all parts of the world at +will.</p> + +<p>"It <i>must</i> be done!" he muttered. "I must take action. It means the loss +of thousands, perhaps millions of lives, in such a war as the mind of +man has not hitherto conceived; but for a Cause greater than any which +has ever hitherto been an excuse for armed conflict. But I must discuss +it with the Spokesmen of the Gens!"</p> + +<p>On the table before Sarka was a row of vari-colored lights, whose source +was beneath the floor of the laboratory, out of the heart of the +master-mountain, part of the intricate machinery of this laboratory +which had been almost twenty centuries in the perfecting. In the +dwelling place of each of the Spokesmen was a single light, colored like +one of the lights on Sarka's table. To speak with any one of the +Spokesmen Sarka had but to dim the properly colored light by covering it +with the palm of his hand. The light in the home of the thus signalled +Spokesman was dimmed, and the Spokesman would know that Sarka desired +to converse with him.</p> + +<p>Sarka noted the blue light, and shuddered. For if he covered it with his +palm it would summon Dalis, a great scientist, but an erratic one, as +Sarka the First had so clearly shown.</p> + +<p>Sarka turned again to the Beryl. The area of which Dalis was Spokesman +was, roughly speaking, that part of what had once been the Pacific +Ocean, north of a line drawn east and west through the southernmost of +the Hawaiian Islands, northward to the Pole. The home of Dalis was in +the heart of what had once been an island historians claimed had been +called Oahu, now a mountain peak still retaining a hint of the +pre-Discovery name: Ohi.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> total number of the Spokesmen, the oldest of earth's inhabitants, +was twelve, and the remainder of the Earth not under the tutelary rule +of Dalis was divided up among the other eleven Spokesmen. Cleric, for +example, father of Jaska, was Spokesman of that area which men had once +called Asia, the vast valleys of the once Indian Ocean and the +Mediterranean; while the youngest of the Spokesmen, in a manner serving +his apprenticeship, was tutelary head of the vast plateau once called +Africa. The name of this man was Gerd.</p> + +<p>"He, at least," thought Sarka, thinking of each Spokesman in turn and +cataloguing each in his mind, "will be with me. I wonder about the +others, and especially Dalis. He has always hated us!"</p> + +<p>Then, with the air of a man who has made up his mind and crosses his +particular Rubicon in a single step, Sarka rose to his feet and passed +along the row of vari-colored lights, covering each one with his hand in +rapid succession.</p> + +<p>Then he sat down again, almost holding his breath, and waited. As he +stared at the row of lights his eyes lingered longest on two which were +almost golden in color—and his face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> was very gentle, almost reverent. +For those two lights were signals to Sarka the First and Sarka the +Second, his grandfather and his father!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was Dalis, the irascible, the fiery tempered, the erratic, who first +made answer.</p> + +<p>"Yes! What is it now?"</p> + +<p>Sarka smiled a trifle grimly as he spoke a single word.</p> + +<p>"Wait!"</p> + +<p>The voice of Dalis, which Sarka had good cause to remember, had sounded +as loudly in the laboratory as though Dalis had been present there in +person, for men had learned to communicate by voice almost without the +aid of radio and its appurtenances though the principle upon which the +first crude beginnings of radio were fashioned still applied. Each man's +dwelling place was both a "sender" and a "receiver," and men could talk +and be talked to no matter where they lived—individuals telepathically +summoned at desire of anyone wishing verbal contact.</p> + +<p>"Gerd is here!" came the voice of that Spokesman.</p> + +<p>To him also Sarka spoke one word.</p> + +<p>"Wait!"</p> + +<p>"I am here, Sarka!" came a musical voice. "And Jaska is with me, +listening!"</p> + +<p>That would be Cleric, loyal friend, master scientist, but always shy of +contact with people, though swift to anger and self-forgetfulness when +he knew himself right and was opposed. Sarka darted a look back at the +Revolving Beryl, adjusted swiftly the Beryl-microscope, and smiled into +the faces of Jaska and Cleric, who looked enough alike that they might +have been brother and sister, though Cleric had been born ten centuries +before his daughter Jaska. They smiled back at him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> shifted the Beryl-microscope and stared for a second at Dalis, there +in the Beryl, and marked the antagonism Dalis was at no pains to hide.</p> + +<p>One by one the Spokesmen reported.</p> + +<p>Klaser, from the Americas; Durce from the valleys of the vanished +Atlantic; Boler from that part of the Artic Circle not included in the +wedge which the Gens of Dalis thrust northward to the Pole: Vardee; +Prull; Yuta; Aal; Vance and Hime. Each from his appointed area, each +from the official headquarters of his Gens, the name given to those +people who acknowledged the tutelage of a Spokesman. Each Spokesman, +therefore, was the mouthpiece of millions of men, women and children. +And over the Spokesmen, and not themselves Spokesmen, were three +scientists: The Sarkas, First, Second and Third.</p> + +<p>When all twelve of the Spokesmen had reported and been bidden by Sarka +to wait, a smile touched the face of Sarka for an instant as two other +voices, so nearly alike they might have been the voice of a single +person, reported themselves.</p> + +<p>"I am here, son! What is it?"</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, Sarka's father and grandfather reported with exactly the +same words. Sarka smiled at a whimsical thought of his own. It had been +some time since the three scientist Sarkas had been together, and +despite the vast differences in their ages they might have been +triplets!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> reports were in and the Spokesmen were waiting; but for almost a +minute Sarka waited still. Then he spoke swiftly those words for which +there could be no recall:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, the time is come when we must go to war!"</p> + +<p>For a long moment after he had spoken there was no answer. Then it came, +in the jeering laughter of the antagonistic Dalis.</p> + +<p>"War? Against whom? The Sarkas are always dreaming!"</p> + +<p>"And Dalis," continued Sarka, "shall be one of the leaders of Earthlings +in this war which I am about to propose! You doubtless recall a proposal +you once made to Sarka the First? Your proposal to halt for a few +moments the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> headlong whirl of the earth about its axis, thus to +flood—"</p> + +<p>"Stop!" interrupted Dalis. "Stop! Immediately!"</p> + +<p>And Sarka stopped. He had forgotten, in the excitement of his urge to +explain his plans, that the millions of people who gave official +allegiance to Dalis had never been informed of the hideous proposal he +had made, back there centuries ago, as a corrective for a world rapidly +approaching over-population. Had his people known, never again would the +voice of Dalis be heard in life. The Spokesmen knew, and the Sarkas; but +no others. Sarka understood the protest of Dalis; honored it.</p> + +<p>"Dalis," he went on, more softly, "after I have explained what I wish to +do, you will come to me here, prepared to explain to me exactly how you +planned doing what you proposed to my grandfather—for your knowledge +will be necessary to me...."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it enough that your grandfather stole from me, and amplified, an +idea that would have made me forever famous, without his grandson also +stealing the fruit of my brains?"</p> + +<p>"Your brains," said Sarka sharply, "belong to your people. What I plan +is for their betterment. But it means war, war which may last a century, +two centuries, in which lives of countless thousands may be lost."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span>'s last words were almost drowned out by the humming sound that +came out of the Revolving Beryl, that perfected device which was the +ultimate in the evolution of television and vibration-transference. +Sarka's heart sank, for he knew the meaning of that sound. So did the +Spokesmen.</p> + +<p>"You see?" came the rasping voice of Dalis. "You hear? Look into your +Beryl! See the clenched fists of the earth's myriads being shaken at +you! Listen to the protests of the millions who hear your every word! +See what Earthlings think of the prospect of war!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Sarka spoke directly to the people.</p> + +<p>"Be silent and listen! It will be war, yes; but not such a skulking, +hideous war as ye wage among yourselves for a place to live! You, +fathers, are guilty of slaying your sons! You, sons, of slaying your +fathers! Merely by thrusting them forth from the hives, into the Outer +Cold! This war I propose shall be a war that shall match your manhood, +if ye indeed be men! Listen to me, and I will find for you new lands to +conquer, new homes for your holding, if ye can take them!"</p> + +<p>"But where," interrupted the sarcastic voice of Dalis, "are these new +lands of which you speak? Inside the Earth? Already our hives reach into +the Earth a distance of eight miles. Where else, then?"</p> + +<p>"For shame, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, "and you a scientist! Every bit of +habitable land on this globe is some man's dwelling place! Spokesmen of +the Gens of Earth, look out your windows! Look out and upward—and read +Dalis' answer in the stars!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> a full minute there was silence throughout the earth, and Sarka saw +that the Spokesmen were doing his bidding. He himself looked out, out +through the swirling storm which tore at the crest of the Himalayas, a +dark and forbidding Outside, in the starred dome of which rode the pale +orbed moon!</p> + +<p>"It is obvious, son," came the voice of Sarka the First, "what you mean. +But how accomplish it?"</p> + +<p>"Fifteen centuries ago, my father's father," cried Sarka, "Dalis told +you that he possessed the power to halt for a moment the headlong whirl +of the world on its axis about the sun! He could do it then—and no man, +whatever he may think of Dalis as a man, has ever known him to lie! If, +fifteen centuries ago, he could bring the whirling world to pause, why +can we not, now...."</p> + +<p>And, even though he had thought of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> this for years upon end, had spoken +over and over to himself the words he was now using, rehearsing his +proposed argument to the Spokesmen of the Gens, Sarka found himself for +a moment almost afraid to continue and speak them.</p> + +<p>"I understand, Sarka!" came the excited voice of Gerd, youngest of the +Spokesmen. "And I follow wherever you think it best to lead! You mean +... you mean...."</p> + +<p>"Exactly!" Sarka managed at last. "If the Earth can be stayed on its +axis, it can be diverted from its orbit entirely! I know, for I have +found the manner of its doing, though I need the genius of Dalis to +check my work and my calculations! We have no new land on this Earth to +conquer; but the Universe is filled with countless other worlds! What +say ye, Spokesmen of the Gens? What say ye, Gens of Earth?"</p> + +<p>But for the time of a thousand heartbeats neither the Spokesmen or the +Gens made answer to Sarka, and all the world fell utterly silent, +absorbing this unbelievable thing of which Sarka had hinted.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Over</span> the metalized roof of the world the snows and storms, the winds and +the wraiths of the long dead moaned and screamed as with an icy voice of +abysmal warning.</p> + +<p>And for the time of those thousand heartbeats, the world was pausing to +listen.</p> + +<p>When realization came, the answer would come from the Spokesmen and from +the Gens; and here in the Sarka laboratory, his Rubicon crossed at last, +sat Sarka, staring through the Beryl-microscope into the depths of the +Revolving Beryl. His face was dead white, his eyes narrowed.</p> + +<p>The first voice which came startled him.</p> + +<p>"It is mad, Sarka! Mad! Mad! But I am with you, always!"</p> + +<p>It was the voice of Jaska, daughter of Cleric!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3><i>The Earthlings Make Ready</i></h3> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em;">" </p><p class="dropcap" style="margin-left: 0.5em;" ><span class="dcap">I too</span>, am with you!" came the voice of Gerd.</p> + +<p>"Spoken like a child!" snapped Dalis. "For you are as much a child as +this third of the dreaming Sarkas! The scheme is mad, madder even than +Jaska intimates! The scheme I once proposed, in which I was cheated by +the grandfather of this madman, was times and times more feasible and +practicable!"</p> + +<p>"Suppose," came the soft voice of Sarka the First, interrupting Dalis, +"that you put the matter up to your Gens, O wise and noble Dalis, and +see which scheme they would endorse if given the choice in the +matter—and were your scheme still possible!"</p> + +<p>This quickly silenced the vituperation of Dalis, but in no wise +prevented his continuance as a rather loud antagonist of the plan.</p> + +<p>"How," he demanded, "can you return the Earth to its orbit, even +granting you are able to take this initial step? How keep life on the +Earth during its flight on this rainbow-chasing voyage you propose?"</p> + +<p>"All these things have been taken into consideration, O Dalis!" retorted +Sarka. "All of my scheme is practicable, as I think you will agree when +I have told you its details. What think you of the plan, Klaser? And +you, Durce? Boler? Vardee? Prull? Yuta? Aal? Vance? Hime?"</p> + +<p>When the Spokesmen had answered, some of them hesitantly, for the people +all this time had remained silent—and none of the Spokesmen could be +sure how his own Gens would feel in the matter—it developed that seven +of the Spokesmen were for the scheme, if it should prove to be possible.</p> + +<p>"If this is the voice of the majority of the Gens," snapped Dalis, +"given thus by their Spokesmen, then I vote with the majority! I shall +call upon you immediately, Sarka, for a conference!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I am</span> glad," said Sarka softly, "that the majority of the Spokesmen are +with me. Especially am I glad that Dalis and Cleric vote with me. For +the others I have only this to say: I have thought this matter over for +almost a century, and I know that the time has come when we must act, to +save ourselves from self-destruction. Had you not decided with me, I +should have acted alone!"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" snapped Dalis. "How?"</p> + +<p>"I have, here in my laboratory," replied Sarka, "the power whereby to +accomplish the scheme of which I have told you! Had all the Gens defied +me, I would have nevertheless sent the Earth outward on its voyage, +bringing it within reach of the denizens, first of the Moon, second of +Mars—and you people of little courage would have been compelled to +fight to save yourselves!"</p> + +<p>"You would have forced us into war?" came the quavering voice of Prull, +the first Spokesman aside from Dalis to take active part in the +discussion. "Then why, if you had the means in the beginning to enforce +your will upon us, confer with us at all?"</p> + +<p>Sarka thrilled with satisfaction, for this question gave him the excuse +he sought. He had been wondering and scheming how to compel the +Spokesmen of the Gens to obey his will.</p> + +<p>"I wanted your opinions," he said shortly. "But I also wish you to know +that I have the power to go on, whether you wish it or not—<i>and you +must obey me!</i>"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">How</span> would the twelve Gens take this ultimatum of Sarka? For breathless +moments after he had spoken he waited, and the Spokesmen with him. Then +came the voice of Cleric, addressing his people, yet leaving the +contacts open so that Sarka and the other Spokesmen might hear.</p> + +<p>"What say you, O Gens of Cleric?" he cried, his voice an exultant, +clarioning paean of rejoicing. "Do we follow this man who promises us +life again? Do we follow this man who promises us that once again we +shall dwell in plenty, without the blood of relatives and neighbors on +our hands? Answer this man, O Gens—for I say unto you that wheresoever +he leads I would follow him!"</p> + +<p>Silence for a heartbeat. Then a murmuring like the sound of the waves of +the long-vanished seas sounded in the laboratory, wherein all things +were seen, all sounds were heard. A monster voice, loud and savage, from +the Gens of Cleric.</p> + +<p>"We follow Cleric wherever he leads!" Finally the words became +intelligible. "It matters not to us whom Cleric follows, so long as we +may follow Cleric!"</p> + +<p>"Well spoken, O Gens of Cleric!" snapped Sarka when the murmuring died +down to a whisper, then faded out entirely. "Deck yourselves in the +white garments of Cleric! Emblazon upon your backs and breast the Red +Lily of his House! Prepare for war! These are your orders; the details I +leave to Cleric!"</p> + +<p>There came the voice Dalis.</p> + +<p>"Give your orders to my Gens direct, O Sarka!" rasped Dalis. "For I +leave this very moment to come to you!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Sarka, a great wave of exaltation sweeping over him. +He had expected Dalis to be the last and most difficult to manage. Then +to the Gens of Dalis, as the blue light on the table in the laboratory +showed Sarka that Dalis was already winging toward him: "Deck yourselves +in the green garments of Dalis! Wear as your insignia the yellow star of +his House, and prepare for war! Make new and modern Ray Directors! +Refurbish your rotting machines of destruction! Make ready, and make +haste! For the Gens of Dalis will be the first of all the Gens to move +in attack against the Dwellers Outside! When the time comes I shall tell +you where you shall dwell—if you win the land I shall show you!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> humming of myriad voices inside the laboratory was now almost +continuous, but ever the words of Sarka went out to the Spokesmen and to +the Gens, though, save in the case of Cleric and of Dalis, he did not +speak to the Gens direct, because he did not wish in one iota to usurp +the authority of the Spokesmen themselves.</p> + +<p>But when less than an hour had passed, he realized that the first step +had been successfully taken, and that from now on the success or failure +of the scheme rested in his own hands. Perspiration bedewed his +forehead, and for a second he prayed.</p> + +<p>"God of our fathers! Grant that we be not mistaken! Grant that we be +right in what we plan! Grant that success attend our arms! Grant that +this scheme of mine lead us not to catastrophe—for if this should +develop, only I am guilty, and only I should be punished!"</p> + +<p>"Amen!"</p> + +<p>As one voice, the Spokesmen of the Gens spoke the word, and Sarka heard +it. He had forgotten for the moment that the Spokesmen still could hear +him.</p> + +<p>"That is all," he said huskily. "Prepare your Gens, each of you, for +such battle as even our histories never have recorded! For we go against +foemen whose strength we do not know, whose manner of life we do not +know, and we must not fail! Make haste with your preparations! Your time +is short! And Spokesmen, counsel your Gens that they put aside at once +all personal differences, all family quarrels, all quarrels with their +neighbors! That each adult individual, each unmarried woman, and such +married woman as have all their children grown, and who no longer need +them, prepare to go forth to battle! From this laboratory, within a +brief space, Dalis and the Sarkas will give you further word!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Then</span> he dimmed the lights, and severed contact with the Spokesmen of the +Gens. Only two lights he did not dim, at the moment, and to two men he +spoke softly.</p> + +<p>"My father and my father's father! Come to me at once! For there shall +be need of the combined genius of the Sarkas if my scheme is to +succeed!"</p> + +<p>From both Sarkas, as though they had rehearsed the words against this +need of them, came answer:</p> + +<p>"Aye, son, we come!"</p> + +<p>From that moment on until Dalis and the Sarkas were ready to take the +most momentous step ever taken in the history of the world, the humming +within the laboratory did not cease. For the people, the millions and +billions of people of the hives, were busy, eagerly and feverishly busy, +preparing new armament, new engines of destruction, against the time +when there should be need of them. And for perhaps the first time in +centuries, the people were happy.</p> + +<p>For not even the passage of a thousand centuries, or a thousand thousand +centuries, could flush from the warm hearts of men the love of conflict!</p> + +<p>Sarka smiled wanly, his face very pale. He had spoken, his people were +busy with preparations, and now there could be no turning back. The +world, when he spoke the word, would rush outward to glorious +conflict—or to destruction!</p> + +<p>A buzzer sounded near the Exit Dome. Sarka raced to give the "Enter" +Signal—and Dalis, he of the hawk-eyes, the sharp nose and sharper +tongue, entered the presence of the man who, in a twinkling, had made +himself master of the world.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said harshly, "I am here! What do you wish of me?"</p> + +<p>"We Sarkas," said Sarka easily, "wish to assure ourselves that you will +do nothing to obstruct our plans! Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, you are +prisoner of the Sarkas until you have passed your word!"</p> + +<p>"That I will never do!" said Dalis calmly. "I have passed my word to go +forward with you; but I meant, and you knew I meant, to go forward only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +as far as to me seemed right and reasonable!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3><i>The Betrayal of Dalis</i></h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> until the arrival of the other two Sarkas, Dalis said nothing. His +face flushed an angry red as Sarka the First received the "Enter" Signal +and stepped into the laboratory which had once been his—which he had +delivered into the capable hands of Sarka the Second, in order to find +new channels for his genius, as a worker for the betterment of the +world's people. This he had found in organization, so that the people +worked and labored, despite their personal quarrels, in closer harmony +than they ever had before. But now Sarka the Third had called, and the +two Sarkas responded. Dalis snarled at his ancient enemy, who looked to +be the image of Sarka the Third and not one whit older, though one had +preceded the other into the world by many centuries.</p> + +<p>"Still the pleasant, congenial Dalis, I see!" smiled Sarka the First.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> the moment it seemed that Dalis would die there of his seething +anger; but he answered no word for all of a minute. Then:</p> + +<p>"This mad grandson of yours has made me a prisoner, until such time as I +concur in all his plans!"</p> + +<p>"If he says you are a prisoner, that you are!" snapped the elder Sarka +angrily. "Son, what is this thing you plan?"</p> + +<p>"For almost a century," replied Sarka, "I have been planning this. I +knew, when father told me that Dalis had sworn he was able to halt for a +moment the headlong flight of the Earth in its orbit, that Dalis did not +lie or bluff! In your day, even, that was possible, and I continued with +the knotty problem until I deduced the manner of its doing. I, too, can +halt the Earth's rotation, or throw it out of its orbit! I took your +idea, Dalis, <i>independently</i> of you, knowing you would never reveal +your secret to a Sarka, and amplified it until I can not only halt the +Earth in its orbit, but throw it out of its orbit entirely!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Sarka studied the angry face of Dalis, and his own was very +thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Dalis," he said at last, "I wish you were not our enemy! For you are a +genius, and the world has need of all the knowledge of such genius as it +possesses. Why do you oppose us?"</p> + +<p>"Because," snarled Dalis, "I guessed something of your plan that I do +not like! I do not like the Sarkas, never have; but neither have the +Sarkas any love for me! When you spoke to us all, I knew that somehow +you had discovered the secret! You spoke, when you delivered your +ultimatum, of attacking the Moon, and after it Mars! You also granted to +my Gens what would have seemed a great honor—to anyone who did not +fathom the tricky scheming of the Sarkas!—that of being the first into +the fray! If we are to be first, and the Moon is to be the first +attacked, then you plan to relieve the world forever of me, your +arch-enemy, by exiling me and all my Gens upon the Moon! A dead world, +covered with ashes, whose people dwell in dank caverns, like gnomes of +the underworld...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.3em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Stay</span>!" snapped Sarka. "But I granted you a greater honor even than +that, Dalis! I planned on your Gens, led by you, making a successful +conquest of the Moon—because only such a genius as Dalis could force +from this dead world a living for his Gens! Because you are the wisest +of the Spokesmen, I planned for you the greatest task! Because I need +you ... I do not slay you!"</p> + +<p>"I thank you," bowing low, with the deepest sarcasm, "but you honor me +too much! And tell me, pray, if it is not true that you plan for the +Sarkas their choice of the best and newest worlds of the Universe?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sarka did not answer for a second, while his sensitive nostrils quivered +with fury. The Sarkas had not noticed, but Jaska, daughter of Cleric, +had admitted herself through the Exit Dome, in a way known only to Sarka +and to herself, as she had entered many times before so as not to +disturb Sarka at his labors. She now stood silently there, divesting +herself of her Belt and outer clothing, beneath which was the golden +toga worn by all the women of the earth. Dalis, however, had seen her, +and his eyes narrowed craftily as he awaited the answer of Sarka.</p> + +<p>"Dalis," said Sarka softly, "it is not for you to question me, but to +obey me! I have not undertaken this step without mastering all its +details, and I refuse to allow you to swerve me in a single one of them +from my plan."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Dalis</span> straightened, standing stiffly at savage attention, and met the +angry eyes of Sarka without flinching. There was no fear in Dalis, as +all the world knew. But he was a schemer, and selfish.</p> + +<p>"After all," he said, "I have known Sarkas to make promises they could +not keep! How do I know, how does the world know, that you can do what +you say you can do?"</p> + +<p>"If," said Sarka, "I close all contact of this laboratory with the world +outside, so that none may hear what I say save we four, and I then +whisper here the secret you never told, Dalis, when my father's father +refused to help you—will you then believe?"</p> + +<p>The face of Dalis went suddenly white, but he nodded, his eyes burning +redly. Jaska moved closer to the men, who stood near the table of the +vari-colored lights.</p> + +<p>"You needed my father's father," said Sarka softly, "because the secret +of your scheme rested here in this laboratory, which is the highest +point in the world! You pretended to need him in your scheme; but you +did not need my father's father, though you <i>did</i> need his laboratory, +and some of the facts of science that <i>he</i> discovered. So you came to +him with your scheme, discovered that he believed, though he denied it, +your scheme was possible—because he refused to aid you in it! Then, as +an excuse to re-enter this laboratory, you told him you would return +within two days! Now, shall I tell you your secret?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> lips of Dalis were moving soundlessly. His right hand started to +rise, as though he would make it signal the negative he was unable for a +moment to speak. But even as he stood there, swaying slightly on his +feet, Sarka dashed to the lights on the table, disconnecting them one by +one; to the Revolving Beryl, which then ceased to revolve for the first +time in centuries—whirled when he had finished, and stepped to the very +center of the room.</p> + +<p>"Now," he whispered, "your secret, Dalis!"</p> + +<p>Still the hand upraised, still Dalis tried to speak, and could not.</p> + +<p>Sarka spoke, in a hoarse, almost terrified whisper, four words:</p> + +<p>"The Beryl! The Ovoids!"</p> + +<p>Gasps of surprise from the other two Sarkas, whose eyes for a second +flashed to the huge Beryl, which now was still, silent—and blind. +Dawning comprehension was evident in their faces.</p> + +<p>"The success of the Revolving Beryl," whispered Sarka, "which sees all +that transpires in this world, depends on one fact: that its revolving +is proportionately timed to infinite exactness with the revolution of +the Earth about its axis! This Beryl is the Master Beryl of the Earth, +which was why Dalis needed this Beryl, and could use no other!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.3em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Suppose</span> that for a period of two days, uniformly progressive, this +Beryl were forced to revolve in sharp jerks at an increasing rate of +speed! With all connections in place, and all the world's Beryls attuned +to the speed of this one—what would happen?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> What would happen if a +single Gens were marshalled in warlike array atop the area of the Gens, +and kept up a steady, rhythmic march for a period of hours?"</p> + +<p>"In a few hours," whispered Sarka the First, "the roof of the Gens area +would begin to vibrate, to vibrate throughout all the area, and even +into all surrounding Gens areas—and in time the roof would collapse!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly!" said Sarka, breathing heavily. "This Beryl, when attuned to +all other Beryls in the world, would have this vibratory effect, not +only on a certain area of the world—but upon the entire world!—Force +the speed of the Beryls to the uttermost limit, and you sway the world +to your will! As a marching horde would sway the roof of a vast section +of the world if the horde's commander willed!</p> + +<p>"But that is not enough! The world would tremble, but nothing more! The +Earth's store of Ovidum, which is Anti-Gravitational, and used in minute +quantities in our Anti-Gravitational Ovoids, is evenly distributed +throughout the world. By vibration of the Beryls I can control it, +scatter it or gather it all together wherever I will! By shifting +through vibration this Anti-Gravitational material, I can disrupt, make +uneven, or nullify the pull of gravity on the Earth!"</p> + +<p>"That would do it," said Dalis, finding his voice at last; "but how +would you control the course the Earth would take, thus thrown out of +its orbit?"</p> + +<p>"That, my dear Dalis, is for the moment my secret!"</p> + +<p>"But is it?" Dalis suddenly shouted.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Before</span> the three Sarkas could recover from their surprise at the man's +sudden vehemence, he made a swift, terrifying move. He leaped away from +them to stand beside Jaska, daughter of Cleric.</p> + +<p>"Sarka," he shrieked, "I know you love this woman! Note this little tube +I hold against her side. With it I can cause her to vanish for all time, +merely by a slight pressure of the fingers! And that will I do, unless +you immediately open all contacts with the world and remain silent while +I tell the people of Earth how you would betray them!"</p> + +<p>The three Sarkas were petrified with amazement and horror, for they +recognized the slender tube in the hand of Dalis as a Ray Director, the +world's greatest engine of destruction, and knew that it would do +exactly as Dalis had said it would.</p> + +<p>Automatically, because they were brave men, they had stepped a trifle +closer to Jaska and Dalis. Perspiration poured from their cheeks as they +stared at this rebel. But their fears were for Jaska, who now spoke for +the first time.</p> + +<p>"Let him do as he wills," she said smilingly, "since for the good of the +world I do not fear to die! Refuse him, Sarka, and know that I go into +Death's Darkness loving you always, and knowing that you will succeed in +the end, in spite of the opposition of men like Dalis!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">A man</span> of unexpected actions, this Dalis, for while the attentions of the +Sarkas were on the little tableau he had staged, his eyes had darted to +the Beryl, to the control which Sarka had touched to still its +revolving. Now he sprang away from Jaska, was free of her and the Sarkas +before any could move to intercept him.</p> + +<p>He dashed to the Beryl. Instantly it swept into motion, while Dalis +whirled to face the Sarkas, and from his lips came a burst of triumphant +laughter. One hand was on the Beryl Control, the other still held the +Ray Director.</p> + +<p>"Fools!" he cried. "Fools! Duped like children! And now it is Dalis who +is master of the world! Move closer to me, and I will turn my Ray +Director upon this Beryl, which you have so kindly informed me is master +of all the Beryls and of all Ovidum deposits! Be glad that I do not turn +it upon you; but for you I have a kinder, more honorable fate! I now am +master, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> will direct the destiny of the world! But I will never +leave it, because I suspect that it is the most pleasant of all the +worlds! I will, however, choose for the Sarkas a world that shall be the +dreariest in all the Universe!"</p> + +<p>The Sarkas whirled as soft laughter came from Jaska, daughter of Cleric. +Strange, lilting laughter. They turned in time to see her vanish through +the Exit Dome; but for a long moment her jeering laughter seemed to +sound in the laboratory she had left-and, to judge by her laughter, had +betrayed! For Dalis, arch-traitor, echoed her laughter!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3><i>The Beryls in Tune</i></h3> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Remember</span>," said Dalis, as the Beryl began to revolve and its humming +mounted moment by moment to normal, "that you must concur in whatever I +say to the people of the Earth—for if you do not, I swear that I will +destroy this Master Beryl! Then what happens to your scheme, Sarka the +Third? You see, there is no change in the plans, save one: I am the +master, not you!"</p> + +<p>Dalis was not a madman, for the world conceded him place in its list of +geniuses next below the three Sarkas, which was high honor indeed; but +Dalis possessed in abundance that most universal of all human +emotions—jealousy. For centuries he had been nursing it, watching the +Sarkas always in the niches just above him, yet never being able to +attain to their eminence. Now....</p> + +<p>He had outwitted them. It might be for a moment only, but while his +mastery lasted he would drink deeply of personal satisfaction. Now, +however, there was no gloating in his face, for he realized, as Sarka +had realized, the infinite gravity of the whole situation. If a mistake +were made, the world would plunge to destruction—or go cooling forever +in a headlong race through space.</p> + +<p>"I keep the Ray Director hidden," he whispered, while the murmuring of +the Master Beryl mounted as it gained speed again, "but know you, +Sarkas, that its muzzle points at the Master Beryl, always!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Now</span> the forms of Earth were appearing on the Beryl. Men in countless +hordes were maneuvering in myriads, legions and armies, across the face +of the globe. There was no marching, but an effortless, swift as light +almost, aerial maneuvering. For each human being possessed the +tight-fitting metalized cloth, with the gleaming helmet in whose +skull-pan was the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid, which was the "outside" +garment of earthlings. With the Ovoid sitting exactly against the skull, +man had but to will himself in any direction, at any livable height, and +the action took place. In the same way, one man, to whom others in an +organization gave allegiance by appointment, could will all his +underlings into whatever formation he desired.</p> + +<p>As beautiful and effortless at the flight of those birds which had +vanished from the earth centuries before.</p> + +<p>"Remember, Dalis," said Sarka, "that while the speed of the Earth in its +orbit is between eighteen and nineteen miles per second, once thrown out +of its orbit, and forced to follow a straight or nearly straight line, +the speed may be many times that-or much less!"</p> + +<p>"The simplest facts of science," snarled Dalis, "were known to me a +thousand years before you were born! Now I shall tell the Spokesmen of +the Gens, and be sure that you second what I say!"</p> + +<p>He paused. Then, raising his voice impressively, he spoke.</p> + +<p>"O Spokesmen of the Gens, O Gens of Earth, hark ye to the words of Dalis +and of Sarka! The time has come to try the experiment of which Sarka +told you, and which I, Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, have found good, and +hereby certify! See that all your Beryls are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> mathematically tuned to +catch every sound, every vibration, every picture, from this Beryl of +Sarka, henceforth to be known as the Master Beryl!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">No</span> matter what happens, no matter what changes take place in the +temperature of your homes, no matter what storms may come, touch not +your Beryls until instructed from this laboratory! Tune your Beryls, +then leave them, and hasten faster with your preparations for war! Each +Spokesman of a Gens will at once instruct the members of his Gens that +all partitions between families shall immediately be removed, outward +from a common center in each case, until one hundred families occupy a +single dwelling place. Materials from destroyed partitions shall be +carefully hoarded, and the newer and bigger areas shall become +maneuvering places for the hundred families which will occupy each given +area!</p> + +<p>"Facing a crisis as we are, no thought can be given to privacy, and +neighborly quarrels must be forgotten! This move is necessary because no +single dwelling place is large enough to be used as a place of +maneuver—and from now on until the command is given, maneuvers must not +be held Outside! For hark ye, O Spokesmen, O Gens of Earth, we are about +to start upon our voyage into outer space! Spokesmen, call in your +maneuvering myriads! You have five minutes!"</p> + +<p>In five minutes not a flying man could be seen in all the cold, stormy +outside. Dalis spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Tune your Beryls and remove partitions, taking care that in reducing +partitions you so estimate your stresses and strains that the roof of +the world be not endangered by weight that is unsupported, or improperly +supported!</p> + +<p>"Food Conservers, redouble your production and rush your transportation +of Food Capsules!</p> + +<p>"Mothers of men, take over the labors of your sons and your husbands! +Sisters and sweethearts of men, join the myriads in maneuvers, for you, +too, may require knowledge of fighting!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> spite of himself, an ejaculation of admiration escaped the lips of +Sarka. Hearing it, Dalis turned to him, and a flush of pleasure tinged +his cheeks as Sarka shaped one word with his lips:</p> + +<p>"Excellent!"</p> + +<p>Then, after a pause, Sarka spoke directly to the Gens of Earth.</p> + +<p>"Take heed of the words of Dalis, for they are also the words of the +Sarkas!"</p> + +<p>Then an expression of surprise flashed across the face of Sarka as +Dalis' fingers began to move in a swift sort of pantomime—for the sign +manual he used was the secret manual of Jaska and Sarka! His heart cold +within him at this new proof of her betrayal, Sarka nevertheless noted +the words which dropped silently off the fingers of this enemy of the +Sarkas.</p> + +<p>"You are wise to resist no further! Together we can do much, and if you +give your word not to oppose me, we can work together; but I will be the +master!"</p> + +<p>"But, if we grant you the mastery, will you heed our advice if it is +good?"</p> + +<p>"I will, but I alone will be the judge of its worth!"</p> + +<p>"Then we work together henceforth. Let us begin! In the time required to +move from here to the Moon, our people will have ample opportunity to +perfect themselves in maneuvers! Are you ready, O my father, and +father's father?"</p> + +<p>"Ready!" they said together.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">But</span> for a moment Dalis hesitated. "Your word!" he snapped, looking at +each Sarka in turn, and each in his turn nodded. They had given their +word, but not their love, to Dalis. Dalis bowed low to Sarka the +Youngest, who darted to the onyx base in which revolved the Master +Beryl, and pressed a small lever of metalized jade, set in a slot on the +southern side of the base<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> of onyx. The humming sound within the Beryl +became perceptibly louder, and as the minutes passed, and Sarka stood, +arms folded, watching the Revolving Beryl, it continued to increase.</p> + +<p>Here was the crisis, and as they watched its sure, certain approach, +they forgot their enmities, Dalis and the Sarkas, and watched the +whirling Beryl. Minute by minute its humming increased. The figures +still were plain to be seen within the Beryl, but were becoming blurred +of outline. Partitions had been removed all over the earth, increasing +the size of rooms a hundredfold, reducing their number a hundredfold. +The Gens of Earth, by hundred-families, were maneuvering under the Heads +of Hundreds. The depths of the Master Beryl, therefore, was a maze of +flying men, with their extremities slightly blurred, and becoming more +so as the Master Beryl increased its speed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Here</span> now was shown the value of the organization fostered by Sarka the +First—for in all the world there was no single Beryl out of tune with +the Master Beryl; and as the Master Beryl increased the speed of its +revolving, so increased at the same time the speed of all the other +Beryls. Minute by minute the humming of the Master, and with it the +others, increased in volume.</p> + +<p>"Father!" spoke Sarka. "To the Observatory, behind the Beryl, please, to +watch the stars, and from them to note the direction we take when the +combined vibrations of the Beryls have affected the quiescence of +Earth's deposits of Ovidum and, through its shifting, disturbed the +flight of the Earth in its orbit!"</p> + +<p>With a brief nod Sarka's father hurried around the Master Beryl to the +tiny Observatory beyond, from which, through the Micro-Telescopes, those +who knew could read the secrets of the planets, the stars—the Universe. +Sarka watched him go, wondering if Dalis might not forbid him. But Dalis +merely watched him go and said nothing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Now</span> that the time of Change was upon the world, Dalis realized his +responsibility. It was little wonder that he began to be for the first +time a little bit afraid.</p> + +<p>"Note, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, and Dalis started nervously as his name +was spoken. "Feel the trembling of the laboratory, just as the same +trembling affects all the other buildings in the world in which Beryls +are located. As the minutes pass the trembling will go deeper and +deeper, and by to-morrow the first tremors will be reaching into the +Earth to several miles below the last habitable Inner Level! And +then....</p> + +<p>"Then," repeated Sarka tersely, "my father will know by his study of the +stars in which new direction we are traveling! For within twenty-four +hours the Earth will have started on its voyage of conquest!"</p> + +<p>"Is there no way, Sarka," queried Dalis, "by which we can control the +direction of our flight!"</p> + +<p>"There <i>is</i> a way, O wise and gallant Dalis! But since you do not know +it, who now is master?"</p> + +<p>Dalis' face became as pale as chalk, and Sarka smiled a little as he +watched him. Then, wondering what new resolve stirred the depths of this +master egotist of the earth, he watched emotions flash to and fro across +the face of Dalis, watched the color return to his cheeks. The cold of +death gripped at his heart when Dalis spoke.</p> + +<p>"I do not fear death, O wise and gallant Sarka!" he mocked. "For I have +lived fully and well, and for many, many centuries! You know that I do +not fear to slay people of the Earth, for did I not propose to your +father's father that a flood would be beneficial to unfit earthlings? +Hear, then! Keep your secret, and I shall allow the Earth to go outward +into space, out of control, in whatever direction it will. If any other +worlds happen to lie in our pathway...."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Dalis</span> shrugged indifferently, turning his back on Sarka, to peer again +into the depths of the Master Beryl, whose voice had risen to a vaster +murmur, whose pictures were becoming moment by moment more blurred as +time fled irrevocably into eternity.</p> + +<p>Sarka the First took advantage of his opportunity, and leaped at the +back of Dalis, hands extended to fasten them in the throat of his +ancient enemy. Dalis whirled, with a burst of laughter, and the muzzle +of his Ray Director covered the person of the First Sarka. In a flash +the spot where Sarka the First had been was vacant, and there was no +single sign to show that he had ever stood there!</p> + +<p>Silence then in the laboratory, save for the mounting murmur of the +Master Beryl!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3><i>Outer Space</i></h3> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> only proved a belief I have entertained for centuries!" snarled +Dalis. "That all the male Sarkas are fools—and the females for bearing +them!"</p> + +<p>Sarka said nothing, but within his breast a deep hatred was forming for +Dalis. He had disliked him before, and had been amused by him; but in +the busy life of Sarka there had been no time for hatred of anyone. Busy +people had no time for hatreds.</p> + +<p>"You should be torn to pieces for that, Dalis!" was all he said. "We +needed my father's father in our efforts! But the loss to the world of +one super-genius cannot be balanced by slaying another—so you are safe!</p> + +<p>"What he could do, I can do!" snapped Dalis.</p> + +<p>Sarka turned away from him, seating himself beside the table of the +vari-colored lights, and his heart was heavy as lead in his breast. He +blamed Jaska for much of this, and his heart was burdened, despite her +treachery, by the fact that he loved her, always would love her. Love +was the one possession which made centuries of life desirable to men of +the Earth. For men could spend centuries in seeking a true mate, knowing +that there were other centuries still in which to enjoy her. Woman was +man's greatest boon, his excuse for living, as was man excuse for woman. +Through the centuries, when humankind remained forever young, the joy in +each other of those truly mated grew as their knowledge grew....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> now Jaska had failed Sarka, when for half a century they had loved +each other! Why had she done it? He had given her no reason to do so. +Had there been some other reason? Why had she laughed, and left them, +after the betrayal of the Master Beryl into the hands of Dalis?</p> + +<p>"Before God," whispered Sarka, "I believe that you, Jaska, were playing +a game to dupe Dalis, as he played a game to dupe us!"</p> + +<p>Down in his heart he was not sure. But somehow, just to whisper to +himself his faith in Jaska, gave it back to him in some measure, and by +so much lightened the weight upon his heart. For now his +responsibilities were greater than they had ever been before, and he had +need of all his faculties.</p> + +<p>"She'll come back, or somehow communicate with me, and explain +everything," he told himself. But he refused to ponder on how Dalis the +betrayer had gained possession of the secret sign manual he had believed +known only to Jaska and himself. That, too, might be explained +satisfactorily, for Dalis was cunning.</p> + +<p>From the side of the laboratory opposite the Revolving Beryl came a soft +tinkling sound, like the striking of a musical bell. Sarka rose wearily, +strode to the wall, where a narrow aperture opened, in which rested Food +Capsules sufficient for one meal for three men. He smiled wryly. They +knew then, the Food Conservers deep in the earth as they were, that +Sarka the First was no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> more—and sent food for three men! All the world +knew, perhaps, yet no single person had raised voice in protest—or if +any had, the mounting murmur of the Beryls had drowned it out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span>!" spoke Dalis suddenly. "At what time do you estimate that the +flight of the Earth in its orbit will be materially affected?"</p> + +<p>"It is being affected this moment, Dalis, shifting the Ovidum store!" +said Sarka shortly. "Within twelve hours we will be in readiness to +start our journey!"</p> + +<p>Remaining absolutely motionless within the domed laboratory, it was now +possible to feel the ever so slight motion, not only of the laboratory, +but of the mountain crest upon which it rested. Not so much a to-and-fro +motion as a round-about motion.</p> + +<p>Just as the slightest sound flies outward through space endlessly, and +the slightest vibration moves outward until the end of time and of +space, Sarka knew that the vibration set up by the Beryl, slight though +it was, was already being felt at the Poles of the Earth. Not enough to +be noticed there, but existant, just the same.</p> + +<p>"In twelve hours the world will be fighting against this combined +vibration and Anti-Gravitational Force we are starting, and second by +second accelerating," Sarka explained to Dalis: "fighting to remain on +its pathway about the Sun! But we will win against it, and with each new +vibration, each succeeding one being more strongly felt, we will force +the Earth that much more against the <i>pull</i> which holds it in its +orbit!"</p> + +<p>The laboratory was trembling. The mountain beneath it was trembling. +Both in accordance with scientific design. There was no element of +chance in it, for the mountain moved, and the laboratory on its crest +moved, as science willed. It was now difficult for Sarka to remain still +where he sat, for the trembling was exciting his heart action, and +causing the blood to rush to his cheeks, making him feverish. He rose +to his feet and began pacing the floor.</p> + +<p>He strode to the jade lever, moved it ahead a fraction of a fraction of +an inch, and perceptibly the murmuring of the Beryl increased, as did +the trembling of the laboratory and of the mountain.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Twelve</span> hours later exactly, Sarka shouted a single word to Dalis.</p> + +<p>"Now!"</p> + +<p>The laboratory was swinging about in a sort of circle in a way that made +one dizzy if one remained still for the merest second. Sarka, glancing +out into the Outside, across which blew the storms of the heights, and +noting that no cracks appeared in the surface of the world's vast roof, +knew that this swaying motion had been transmitted evenly to all the +Earth, and that, so far at least, his calculations had been correct.</p> + +<p>But Dalis was in a cold sweat of fear, and deathly sick. The motion of +the laboratory, like the inside of a whirling top, made him ill, though +Sarka could tell that he fought against it with all his great will.</p> + +<p>Sarka strode to him, looked him in the eyes for a moment. Dalis looked +back, glaring defiance.</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid, Dalis?" he shouted, to be heard above the screaming of +the Master Beryl.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid," croaked Dalis. "Has the time arrived?"</p> + +<p>Sarka paused, as though for dramatic effect, and raised his right hand +high, while his left hand dropped to the metalized jade lever. There +still was room in the slot in the onyx base for the lever to move +forward ever so little.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">We</span> have reached the exact place," cried Sarka, "where the Earth can, by +pressure upon this lever, be continued on in its orbit—or forced out of +it—out into space! Which shall it be, Dalis? If I move the lever +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>ward we start our voyage, and may not be able to return!"</p> + +<p>For a moment the nostrils of Dalis quivered as though with fear. His +face was white with his illness; but out of his eyes peered the fanatic +self-confidence of the man.</p> + +<p>"Push it forward, O Sarka!" he managed.</p> + +<p>Sarka, smiling slightly, pushed the lever to its uttermost limit, still +with his right arm upraised. For full five minutes he stood thus, and +then....</p> + +<p>"Now!" he shouted, bringing down his arm. "We have begun our journey +into space! Come, let us look Outside, and await the first reports from +my father!"</p> + +<p>The two men, forgetting again for a moment the fact of their enmity, +strode to the southern wall of the laboratory and looked out across the +roof of the world.</p> + +<p>"You will note, Dalis," said Sarka conversationally, "that in a matter +of hours, the roaring of the Etheric winds will possess everything! We +will have passed into the infinite reaches of Outer Space, where, if I +may make so bold as to say so, it were better if Dalis, self-named +master of the world, knew whither he was going!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3><i>Moon Minions Prepare</i></h3> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> is time," said Sarka softly, "that we who have urged the world to +forget its quarrels should forget our own. What difference who is +master, so long as success attend our efforts?"</p> + +<p>"Then tell me your secret of control of our flight!" snapped Dalis.</p> + +<p>Before Sarka could answer, however, Sarka the Second entered the +laboratory area before the Master Beryl. He looked a question at his +son, and Sarka knew that his father was asking what had become of Sarka +the First. He shrugged his shoulders, and nodded his head toward Dalis. +Sarka the Second gave no more sign of perturbation than had his son, but +deep within his eyes were signal fires of fury which centuries of +penance on the part of Dalis would not erase. But now, with Sarka the +First gone, Dalis must live.</p> + +<p>"We are headed," said Sarka's father softly, "in the general direction +of the Moon! If we could travel toward it in a straight line, we would +reach it, if we kept our pace of about eighteen miles per second, in +approximately four hours! But since we are out of control, I fear we +will pass it too far away for our fighters to fly across the intervening +space! Or we may be drawn against it, in planetary collision, which of +course means annihilation. We are traveling noticeably faster than while +in the earth's orbit. I am able to see something of the preparation of +Moon-men to receive us!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Dalis</span> turned to Sarka, and the perspiration bedewed his forehead. In +order to make this mad mission successful, he must know Sarka's secret +of control. Had he been in Sarka's place, <i>he</i> would have kept his +secret, no matter what happened, and he believed in his heart that Sarka +would do the same. It never occurred to him that Sarka, no matter who +the master, would divulge his secret in order to save humanity from +destruction.</p> + +<p>"We have approximately four hours, Dalis!" Sarka prompted the betrayer. +"I need at least an hour for my experiments! Do you, knowing as you do +that I have planned all this out, know exactly what course our voyage +should take, still insist on holding the reins yourself?"</p> + +<p>"I agree, for this time, to listen to your advice, as I promised you!"</p> + +<p>"Then let me suggest that you do some of the work which I had planned +should be done by my father's father! It is time that the world's +Induction Conduits be placed in operation, in order that our people be +supplied with equable temperature from the Earth's Core, as our +temperature changes due to our position with relation to the sun! Stand +back and give me the controls!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">For</span> a moment Dalis stared at the two Sarkas. Would they seize power the +moment he moved away from the Beryl Control? In their places he knew he +would have done it. In their places he knew he would never have +submerged self in the good of the people. But, somewhat diffidently, he +moved away. Sarka the Second returned to the Observatory, behind the +Beryl, while Sarka stopped before the table where the lights were.</p> + +<p>After a moment of thought-conversation with Sarka the Second in the +Observatory, he dimmed the light which connected his laboratory with the +headquarters of Klaser, in the Americas.</p> + +<p>"Klaser," he barked, "for the period of one second cut the speed of +every Beryl within your Gens to half its present speed!"</p> + +<p>"I obey, O Sarka!" came the voice of Klaser.</p> + +<p>"Have we changed direction?" Sarka mentally questioned his father.</p> + +<p>"Slightly, but we are curving away, instead of toward the Moon! Try +again!"</p> + +<p>Sarka dimmed the light of Cleric, who instantly made answer.</p> + +<p>"I am here, Sarka!"</p> + +<p>"Stop the Beryls of your Gens for two seconds, but be prepared to speed +them up immediately afterward, if ordered, to the speed at which they +are now revolving! Klaser, hold the speed of your Beryls as they are!"</p> + +<p>"I obey, O Sarka!" came the musical tones of Cleric.</p> + +<p>"I hear, O Sarka!" replied Klaser.</p> + +<p>"Now, my father," queried Sarka again, telepathically, "what direction +do we travel?"</p> + +<p>"We are heading in a direction which will cause us to pass the Moon at a +distance of approximately fifty thousand miles!"</p> + +<p>"From which point our fighters can reach the Moon in exactly two hours, +after they have passed through our atmosphere!" cried Sarka exultantly, +aloud.</p> + +<p>"True, son!" replied Sarka the Second, mentally. "I suggest you hold +our course steady as it is!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> motion of the earth now was as that of a steadily falling body, and +the shifting of the Ovidum store caused by vibrations set up by the +Beryls had set the Earth on its course toward the Moon. Sarka now gave +instructions to Klaser and to Cleric to return the speed of the Beryls +to that which they had attained at the moment the journey of the Earth +had begun—thus bringing them once more into harmony with the Master +Beryl, and rendering the Ovidum static.</p> + +<p>Dalis re-entered the laboratory from the Wall Tube, near the Dome Exit, +by which he had passed down to the lowest Inner Level, and stared +suspiciously at the two Sarkas. He found them half-smiling their +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"We pass the Moon within fifty thousand miles!" exulted Sarka. "A flight +of two hours for the Gens which attacks the Moon! Do you refuse, O +Dalis, to send your Gens against the Moon?"</p> + +<p>"Why not send the Gens of Gerd!" demanded Dalis. "He is the youngest of +the Spokesmen, and what better test is there for him than this?"</p> + +<p>"It is because he is so young that we do not wish to send him," replied +Sarka coldly. "The colonization of the Moon by Earthlings requires the +guiding genius of a Spokesman who has the experience of a Dalis—or a +Sarka, else you would now be dead!"</p> + +<p>"Then let it be a Sarka!" barked Dalis.</p> + +<p>"Who, then, will control the further flight of the Earth?"</p> + +<p>"You! Let your father lead my Gens against the Moon!"</p> + +<p>"What will your Gens say, O Dalis? That their revered Spokesman feared +to lead them in person?"</p> + +<p>"Enough of this squabbling," snapped Sarka the Second. "Do you not +realize that within a matter of hours, some Gens must be sent into +battle? Come with me to the Observatory, where you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> will be given +something beside squabbling with which to occupy your minds!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Leaving</span> the earth on its lonely flight through space, the three men +hurried to the Observatory, where they seated themselves before the +eye-pieces of the Micro-Telescopes, whose outer circles had been aimed +at the Moon.</p> + +<p>For a moment the three stared breathlessly at the surface of this dead +sister of the Earth. They noted her valleys, her craters which seemed +bottomless, and saw that even as they watched, valleys and craters +became sharper of outline, proving that they were approaching the Moon +at a tremendous speed. It seemed, too, as though they were heading +toward sure collision, though Sarka the Second had said that they would +pass the Moon at a distance of fifty thousand miles.</p> + +<p>"You will note activity at the very rims of the craters!" said the Elder +Sarka easily. "The craters are man-made, not volcanic, as some +scientists believe, and are shaped to converge the rays of the sun, as +our roof is created for the same purpose. But note the activity at the +rims of the craters!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Closer</span> the men peered, studying the rims as instructed by Sarka the +Second. All about them—and as they watched, activity became apparent on +the inner slopes of the craters—winged creatures seemed to be flying. +They looked like tiny oblate spheroids, and they were in swift action, +darting to and fro like bees which have been disturbed in their hives.</p> + +<p>"Those spheres are of metal," said Sarka the Second, "and they are the +fighting Aircars of the Moon-men!"</p> + +<p>Neither Dalis nor Sarka denied this statement, for they knew it to be +fact. It became apparent that the movement of the Aircars was not a +movement of chance, but as skillfully ordered as any maneuvers which +had, during the last few hours, been executed by any of the Gens of +Earth. That they were of metal became apparent when, through the +Micro-Telescopes, the watchers caught the glint of the sun on the +surfaces of the cars.</p> + +<p>Sarka did a swift mental calculation, and announced the result.</p> + +<p>"Those Aircars average something like four hundred feet in length, and +are doubtless filled with fighting Moon-men!"</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Dalis, who also had been calculating this very +thing, "but our Ray Directors will disintegrate the Aircars as easily as +my Ray Director disintegrated Sarka the First!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> remaining Sarkas received this statement in silence, for Dalis' +choice of a comparison had been an unhappy one, to say the least.</p> + +<p>"I am wondering," said Sarka, "if you, my father, and you Dalis, have +noted the peculiar appendages of the Aircars?"</p> + +<p>"I saw them some minutes ago," said his father moodily, "and I am almost +afraid to guess their use! If they are what I fear they are, then the +Moon-men have been expecting this attack of ours for years and years, +and have been preparing for it! If they have known, and have been +preparing, then we are facing a race of super-Beings indeed—for we have +known but little of their activities!"</p> + +<p>"What, then," said Dalis, "do you think is the purpose of those +appendages?"</p> + +<p>"Those appendages, cilia, flagella, call them whatever you wish, are +man-made tentacles, created for the purpose of seizing, crushing and +destroying—then discarding...."</p> + +<p>For a full two minutes the three men sat there, and horrible doubts +flooded their brains. For the conclusion was obvious. The Gens of Earth +would go into action flying, not as organizations, inside an Aircar, but +as individuals, in swarms, myriads, legions and hordes. In order to do +the utmost damage with their Ray Directors and Atom Disin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>tegrators, +they must approach within a reasonable distance—and the picture of +those mighty tentacles, hurled like leashed lightning bolts into the +midst of the attackers, folding in individuals by scores and hundreds, +crushing them and dropping them contemptuously, was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was difficult to estimate the possible speed of the Aircars of the +Moon-men, at least at this distance. Besides, perhaps not a single one +of them was traveling at top speed, because of the fact of their crowded +traffic.</p> + +<p>This thought passed through the minds of the three men.</p> + +<p>"But we'll know," said Sarka dully, "when they get into action. For if I +am not mistaken, those Aircars are being mustered on the rims of those +craters to await orders, not to resist our attack, but to launch their +own attack before we are ready! Dalis, are you going to allow your Gens +to go into action against these Outsiders, without the inspiration of +your personal leadership?"</p> + +<p>The nostrils of Dalis were quivering with the intensity of his emotion. +His vast egotism told him that he, Dalis, could successfully combat +these Aircars of the Moon-men, and he wished with all his heart to issue +the orders to his Gens. But, vain as he was, he did not even wish to +have the appearance of acceding to the original plan of Sarka! Sarka had +planned for Dalis to attack the dwellers of the Moon, and Dalis had +refused. Now, when this challenge of the Aircars was a direct challenge +to his genius as a potential warlord of earth and he wished to accept +the challenge, he was torn two ways.</p> + +<p>Should he go ahead under the common leadership of the Sarkas? Or should +he still refuse battle—and perhaps see some lesser Spokesman go forth +to win glory and imperishable renown to himself?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">A thought</span> message, a command almost, impinged on the brains of the +three.</p> + +<p>"I wish to speak with you aloud!" The message was from Jaska!</p> + +<p>The three men rose and darted into the room of the Master Beryl. They +had no sooner entered than the clear voice of Jaska sounded in the +laboratory.</p> + +<p>"Sarka, I am no traitor! I am Jaska, who loves you! I am in the +headquarters of Dalis at Ohi, and the Gens of Dalis has indicated its +allegiance to me, having been informed by me that it is the wish of +Dalis, whose presence is needed at the place of the Master Beryl! +Command us, O Sarka, for we are ready to attack!"</p> + +<p>There the voice ended, while the two Sarkas turned again to face Dalis.</p> + +<p>Sarka now was glad that Dalis knew the secret sign manual, and his +fingers worked swiftly as he spoke to the rebel.</p> + +<p>"Will you, then, Dalis, allow your Gens to be led to glory by a woman? A +woman, moreover, who has duped you?"</p> + +<p>"The woman is a fool!" said Dalis. "She will lead the Gens to +destruction!"</p> + +<p>"Who, then, will be blamed if she does? Your Gens believe she is their +new Spokesman at your wish! If they are told otherwise, they will think +that Dalis himself is afraid to lead them!"</p> + +<p>"We shall see," said Dalis, "if I could win honor by leading my Gens in +a successful attack against the Moon-men, how much greater will be my +glory if Jaska attacks, is repulsed—and I go in to turn defeat into +victory!"</p> + +<p>Thus spake the colossal selfishness of Dalis, who took no thought of the +possible, nay, certain, loss of countless lives because of his +obstinancy.</p> + +<p>"I suggest," he said, "that you instruct your beloved Jaska to make +ready; for if I am not mistaken, when we return to the Observatory we +will discover that the Aircars of the Moon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>-men have left their craters +and are racing outward from the Moon to meet us! Or perhaps you would +lead my Gens, to safeguard Jaska!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3><i>The Attack of the Yellow Stars</i></h3> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Why</span> should I safeguard Jaska?" asked Sarka quietly. "She is a true +daughter of Cleric! If Cleric does not fear for her to be Spokesman of a +Gens, why should I? He is her father. If she wins, the more glory will +be hers! If she loses, she will at least have tried!"</p> + +<p>"Meaning," snarled Dalis, "that I have refused even to try!"</p> + +<p>Sarka shrugged expressively, and the three stepped once more into the +Observatory, took their places before the Micro-Telescopes. For a moment +they could not see the outline of the Moon, for during their brief +sojourn in the laboratory the Moon seemed to have disintegrated, flying +into countless spheroidal pieces.</p> + +<p>"You see?" said Dalis. "The Moon-men do not wait for us! They attack!"</p> + +<p>It was all too true that the Aircars which had been mustered at the rims +of the Moon's craters had been hurled outward into space, outward toward +the on-rushing Earth, and the myriad numbers of them for a time shut out +all view of the surface of the Moon.</p> + +<p>"God!" spoke Sarka, and it was like a prayer. His cheeks were pale as +death, for in a moment he would speak the word which would send the Gens +of Dalis, under the leadership of Jaska, out against these formidable +Aircars of the Moon-men, and the appearance of the on-rushing cars was +terrifying. That their flying radius, outward, was a great one, was +manifest by the fact that the Earth would not for another hour reach its +closest estimated point with the Moon.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span>, exchanging glances with his father, rose and stepped again into +the laboratory. Even as he entered the room of the Master Beryl, +Jaska's broken signal came through.</p> + +<p>"I am ready, Sarka!" came her soft voice, vibrant with confidence. "The +Gens is ready, and the Gens believes in me!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Sarka hesitated before taking the plunge. Then he spoke the +fatal words.</p> + +<p>"Go, Jaska, and my love goes with you!"</p> + +<p>As the Earth approached closer to the Moon, the revolving of the Beryls +had been decreased, so that the motion of the Master Beryl was almost +normal—normal being that speed with which it revolved when it was +necessary to use it for visual contact with the people of the Earth.</p> + +<p>Out of the area of the Gens of Dalis darted the green specks which were +the flying people of Dalis! Sarka, staring in among them, focussing the +Beryl-microscope, sought for some way of identifying Jaska, who led +them. A thrill coursed through him when he made her out, +unmistakably—dressed still in the tight white clothing of her own Gens, +with the Red Lily of the house of Cleric on her breast and on her back! +The daughter of Cleric was leading the Gens of Dalis into combat under +her own colors and her father's insignia!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span> raced back to the Observatory, seated himself again to watch the +attack, which must of necessity be joined within a matter almost of +minutes. Those myriads of Aircars flying outward from the Moon, had +seemed invincible; but up until now he had never seen an entire Gens +mustered at one time. His whole being thrilled with the awesome grandeur +of the spectacle; it seemed that not an able-bodied individual of the +Gens of Dalis had failed to answer the muster of the Gens.</p> + +<p>Millions upon millions of people, taking off the icy roof of that part +of the Earth lying between Ohi and the North Pole, from the heart of +what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> had once been part of the Pacific Ocean.</p> + +<p>So many of them were there that when they were free of the Earth, +flashing outward at two thousand miles an hour, it was impossible to see +the Moon or those formidable Aircars—and still, out of the heart of the +area of the Gens of Dalis, came other myriads, each flight waiting only +for the preceding flight to clear!</p> + +<p>The green, tight fitting clothing of the Gens of Dalis, each individual +wearing the yellow star of the Spokesman of the Gens! A marvelous, +awe-inspiring sight!</p> + +<p>And this was but a single area, and the earth was divided into twelve +such areas, some smaller, none larger, which showed Sarka for the first +time a hint of the mighty man-power, and fighting woman-power which he +controlled. However, once free of the Earth, conduct of the fight would +be in the hands of the Spokesman—Jaska, acting for Dalis.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span> turned to Dalis, his eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"Does it not thrill you, O Dalis?" he demanded. "Do you not wish now +that you had gone out with your people as their leader?"</p> + +<p>"They follow Jaska like sheep," he stated with a snort. "But wait! My +Gens seem invincible, because it bulks between us and the Aircars of the +Moon-Dwellers! Wait, see how the battle goes! The Gens may yet have need +of Dalis!"</p> + +<p>Sarka studied those outgoing hosts, which were dwindling away to mere +specks with vast speed, for through the cordons and cordons of them he +could now see the Aircars more plainly. It was still possible, when one +looked through the Micro-Telescopes, to see the slim figure of Jaska +leading the attack. She was in the vanguard of the Gens of Dalis leading +her people onward as though she had been born to command—utterly +fearless.</p> + +<p>"And I was small enough," whispered Sarka, "to doubt you! I even told +you that I doubted you! Forgive me, Jaska! Forgive me!"</p> + +<p>And still, as Level after Level gave up its myriads, the Gens of Dalis +shot forth from the Gens area, and winged away, following the lead of +Jaska. Millions of people, armed with Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators. How tiny the individuals seemed, against the mighty bulk +of those Aircars of the Moon!</p> + +<p>But Sarka did not fear, save for the safety of Jaska, as he was +realizing anew that he had scarcely skimmed the surface of the man-might +of the Earth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Now</span>, seen through the myriads of the Dalis Gens, he could see again the +on-rushing Aircars, and his heart misgave him for a moment as he could +tell, by estimation, that at least a hundred families were outlined +against each individual car, which moment by moment grew larger.</p> + +<p>Those tentacles were now much in evidence, rising and falling under and +around the racing Aircars like serpents, or dragging ropes; but seeming +like living things in the sentient manner of their moving—eager to come +in contact with the first of the earthlings, and to wrap those tentacles +about them, crush them, hurl them into space.</p> + +<p>Sarka went back into the laboratory only long enough to attune the +Beryls of the Earth to a point where the Earth would remain almost +stationary, comparatively speaking, taking a curving course about the +surface of the Moon, as it had for countless millions of years coursed +about the Sun.</p> + +<p>Then, back to the Observatory, to see how went the battle. Through the +Micro-Telescopes the first meeting was plain to be seen. The Gens of +Dalis rushed headlong to meet the Aircars and many of them rushed +headlong to their destruction.</p> + +<p>Sarka noted a group of perhaps a hundred people break forth from the +vanguard of the attackers, and mount to a safe height above the Aircars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +against which the Gens were hurling themselves. A sigh of relief escaped +him, and he wished there were some way in which he could learn the +individual identities of the ninety and nine who had taken Jaska +forcibly out of danger! For her white clothing, and her Red Lily of +Cleric were plainly visible and recognizable! The men of the Gens of +Dalis might permit the leadership of a woman, but they would not permit +her to be needlessly endangered.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sarka</span> turned to Dalis, and noted that the face of the master egotist was +pale and drawn, his nostrils quivering with emotion, as he watched his +Gens go into battle, and a feeling of satisfaction coursed through Sarka +like a little white flame. Dalis was proud of his Gens, and now was +wishing that he, and not Jaska, were leading them onward.</p> + +<p>"I would wager something," whispered Sarka to himself, "that Dalis will +not be able to stand it! That before battle has been joined for ten +minutes, he will have gone out to take over the leadership of the Gens! +Jaska must have guessed that, too! Wise, clever Jaska!"</p> + +<p>With a fearless massing of forces, the people of the yellow stars joined +battle with the Aircars! The manner of men who flew the Aircars was +still unknown to the people of Earth.</p> + +<p>But in a trice they would know.</p> + +<p>In a matter of minutes Earth would realize the horror of what faced the +Gens of Dalis, whom Jaska led!</p> + +<p>For with the sending out of their Aircars the Moon-men had given but the +merest hint of their ponderous, devastating might!</p> + +<hr style="width: 695%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3><i>Tentacles of Terror</i></h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Dalis</span> had always been a stormy petrel, but as he sat before his +Micro-Telescope, watching his Gens go into battle against the Moon-men, +not even Sarka the Second guessed the depth of infamy of which Dalis +was capable.</p> + +<p>Dalis had given a hint, but Sarka had, in his sudden realization of the +fact that Jaska really loved him, and was no traitor, forgotten that +hint. How had Dalis learned the secret sign-manual of Jaska and Sarka? +Therein lay the hint.</p> + +<p>Dalis, in common with all other Earth's scientists, possessed the +ability to think deeply, yet to so mask his thoughts that no one else +could grasp them telepathically—and it was well for the peace of mind +of the Sarkas that they could not read the black thought of the man, or +look into the future, even so far as a dozen years.</p> + +<p>The Gens of the yellow stars moved into contact with the Aircars of the +Moon. Earth and Moon were gripped in the horror of war, the war between +worlds, where no quarter might be asked or given, because fought between +alien peoples who did not so much as comprehend each other's languages, +or even their signals.</p> + +<p>The people of the Gens swarmed about the Aircars like myriad swarms of +angry bees, but it was only to Dalis that this simile came, for only +Dalis, of these three, had ever seen a swarm of bees.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sweeping</span> in closely, the Gens brought forth from their resting places in +their Sarka-Belts their Ray Directors and their Atom-Disintegrators, and +turned the blighting rays of them against the gleaming, ice-colored +sides of the aerial monsters.</p> + +<p>But even as the Gens brought their instruments of destruction into play, +the mighty tentacles of the first hundred Aircars had got into action. +Down they whirled to catch at the flying bodies of the pigmylike +individuals of the Gens, and hundreds of Earthlings were caught in those +tentacles in the first moment of conflict.</p> + +<p>Sarka studied the reaction of the people, thus captured. He could see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +the expressions of unutterable agony on their faces, could see their +cheeks turn black with—what? There was no way of knowing; but all sorts +of guesses were possible. Those tentacles, from their action upon the +human beings which they encompassed, might be charged with electricity. +For the people they captured turned black, then shriveled slowly—and +were released by the tentacles....</p> + +<p>They fell sluggishly away, through the great space which yet separated +the Earth and the Moon. But the people who fell, fell aimlessly, going +neither toward the Earth or the Moon, like black feathers in a vagrant +breeze.</p> + +<p>"Great God, do you see father?" cried Sarka. "The—whatever it is—that +turns our people into cinders and drops them, has no effect on the +Anti-Gravitational Ovoids in the skull-pans of the helmets, and without +mental direction, the Ovoids neither rise nor fall but wander aimlessly!</p> + +<p>"See? As the fight continues, those who still live, as they dart here +and there through the battle area, will be confronted continually by the +blackened faces and shriveled figures of their departed friends, +relatives and neighbors, and will see at first hand what will happen to +themselves if they are caught by the tentacles!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">From</span> the lips of Dalis came one single burst of laughter, filled with +bitterness. No other word came from his lips, no other sign. He merely +sat and stared, and masked his hell-black thoughts so that neither of +the Sarkas might read them. But in the fertile mind of Dalis a plan was +being born—a plan that, he knew, had always been growing back in his +mental depths, somewhere, down the centuries, since first he had become +an enemy of the Sarkas. The Sarkas ruled the Earth, and....</p> + +<p>But he would spring his surprise when he believed the time right, for +Dalis possessed a faculty which neither of the Sarkas possessed—an +example of it being his incomprehensible knowledge of the secret code +of moving fingers used by Sarka and Jaska.</p> + +<p>The Gens of Dalis drew back in consternation at this wholesale taking +off of the first line of attack. Out of that first line, comprising +perhaps a thousand families, scarcely a hundred had escaped the groping +of those mighty tentacles of the Aircars—and the black, shriveled +things which had been men floated all about the Aircars which had +destroyed them, warnings to those who followed them into the fray. Those +who had somehow escaped the wrath of the tentacles in the first +engagement fled back into the heart of the next line of sky-skirmishers, +fear and horror in their faces.</p> + +<p>Here, answering to the will of Jaska, a mile or so above the heart of +the conflict, they reformed with their people, and prepared again to +attack. But how to attack these formidable Aircars successfully?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">That</span> was the question. Ray Directors had been turned against them, but +something was decidedly wrong. The first car to feel the blast of even +one of those Ray Directors should have vanished, become as nothing, as +had the body of Sarka the First before the Ray Director of Dalis.</p> + +<p>But apparently nothing had happened. Why?</p> + +<p>Grimly Dalis and the two remaining Sarkas pondered the problem, +wondering at the same time what Jaska would now do, how reform her Gens, +how send it again to an attack that seemed hopeless.</p> + +<p>"There they go again!" whispered Sarka.</p> + +<p>The first two myriads of the Gens of Dalis had now crowded together +until they formed a veritable cloud which masked, for a moment, the +Aircars of the Moon. Then, as one person, answering to the will of +Jaska, they swept in to the attack again.</p> + +<p>But as they approached the Aircars, they divided four ways—up, down, +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> right and to left, and smashed into the Aircars from four directions +at once. Jaska, knowing that countless lives must be lost to destroy +these monsters of the Moon, was trying to down them by mass attack, +hoping that, while the inner groups gave their lives, those who followed +after them would get in close enough to use their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators.</p> + +<p>"She is wasting lives to no avail!" cried Dalis. "There is a way to beat +these people!"</p> + +<p>"It is really your responsibility, O Dalis!" snapped Sarka. "Why do you +not go out and lead your Gens? If you know, why remain here and watch +the destruction of all the people of your Gens?"</p> + +<p>"You know why our Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators do not work, or +work but poorly? Because our fighters are within the gravitational pull +of the Moon, instead of the Earth, and machines which work perfectly on +Earth are thrown out of balance when under the influence of the Moon!"</p> + +<p>"Then," cried Sarka, "we must sweep in close enough to our people...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Without</span> waiting to say another word, for thousands of men were dying +each breath-space, Sarka raced into the laboratory and gave the signal +to race up the speed of the Beryls, to attune them with the increasing +speed of the Master Beryl, whose jade lever now was set at the halfway +mark in the onyx slot.</p> + +<p>When he returned to the Observatory, Dalis was gone, and Sarka the +Second sat alone.</p> + +<p>"I knew he would go," said Sarka, "for he cannot endure to see someone +else take credit for winning this first victory—if it is even possible +to win it! I knew that, vain though he is, Dalis is yet a man!"</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that, son!" replied the Elder Sarka. "For I have +known him longer than you have! There's something else in that brain of +his which takes no thought of the death of people of his Gens—or for +the betterment of the other people of the Earth! I wonder...."</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke, Dalis was away, flying free and fast toward the +scene of battle. In a few minutes his will would be felt by his Gens, +and Jaska could return again. Sarka sought for her. She was still safe, +high above the battle. Thousands and thousands of those shriveled things +now floated in the space about the cars, above them, below them, +everywhere. But the Gens of Dalis had at last caused some trouble to the +Aircars of the Moon.</p> + +<p>A hundred of them, like stricken birds, were falling downward toward the +Moon, great holes torn in their sides. But as they fell, their +tentacles, which whipped here and there like snakes in their +death-throes, carried with them their full capacity in people of the +Gens of Dalis!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">With</span> the partial destruction of the Aircars which were falling, the +force that actuated the death-dealing of those tentacles seemed to have +gone out of them. For the people now held in the grip of the mighty +tentacles were still alive! Their squirmings could be plainly seen, and +their cries could have been heard, had it not been that the noise of +battle drowned out all other sounds.</p> + +<p>A hundred Aircars falling, and the men and fighting women of the Gens of +Dalis, with new courage in them now they realized that the Aircars were +not entirely invincible, renewed the attack with savage vigor.</p> + +<p>Taking no thought of the death which must surely come to them, they +circled and pressed the Aircars; and when the tentacles caught at some +of them, others climbed to the very body of the Aircars, over the +shriveling bodies of the dying, and turned their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators against the gray sides of the monsters.</p> + +<p>Even before Dalis had reached the vanguard of his Gens another hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +Aircars were falling, each with its tentacles wrapped tightly about such +of the earthlings as they could grasp. Falling ... falling ... still +living, plunging down.</p> + +<p>Now Dalis had reached the scene of the fray, and was assuming command.</p> + +<p>As he did so a single white-robed figure, life-size when seen through +the Micro-Telescopes, darted out of the fray and headed at top speed for +the dwelling place of Sarka. Jaska, relieved, was returning home!</p> + +<p>But though Jaska flew at top speed, she did not seem to grow larger, or +draw nearer to the Earth!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Out</span> of the ruck of the defenders of the Moon, a single Aircar, whose +gleaming gray side was marked with queer crimson splashes, broke free to +pursue Jaska!</p> + +<p>She fled at top speed, yet the Aircar was gaining, proof that the Moon +had developed speed greater than Earth had attained.</p> + +<p>"But why," queried Sarka, "does she draw no nearer?"</p> + +<p>"Great God!" ejaculated Sarka the Second, after a brief examination of +certain chartographs beside his Micro-Telescope. "We are moving away +from the Moon! Something is forcing us away! The people of the Moon have +something whose nature we do not know, capable of forcing them away from +us—while they pull our people toward them! You see? If they pulled us +toward them, we could overthrow them, for we outnumber them perhaps +thousands to one; but if they force themselves away faster than the Gens +of Dalis, if defeated, can follow us, they can destroy, or capture, the +Gens at their leisure!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Suddenly</span>, out of the Earth, past the all-seeing eyes of the +Micro-Telescopes, swept a new myriad. Men in white, wearing the Red Lily +of the House of Cleric! Cleric was sending out men to rescue Jaska from +the Aircar which pursued her! But would Jaska or these who went forth +to fetch her ever be able again to attain landing place upon the Earth!</p> + +<p>It looked doubtful.</p> + +<p>Even as Sarka asked himself this question fresh Aircars shot from the +rims of Moon craters, rushing outward to add their weight in the battle +against the Gens of Dalis. The Gens of Dalis was doomed!</p> + +<p>In the mind of Sarka the Second there still loomed a hellish doubt that +would not down.</p> + +<p>The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska now, protecting her with their +lives against the tentacles of that lone Aircar splashed with +crimson—and all were flying a losing race with the Earth, which was +still being forced outward from the Moon!</p> + + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> + <h3><i>IN THE NEXT ISSUE</i></h3> + + + <h3>ON THE PLANET OF DREAD</h3> + + <p class="center"><i>An Exciting Interplanetary Story</i></p> + + <h4>By R. F. Starzl</h4> + + + <h3>EARTH, THE MARAUDER</h3> + + <p class="center"><i>Part Two of the Thrilling Novel</i></p> + + <h4>By Arthur J. Burks</h4> + + <h3>THE FLYING CITY</h3> + + <p class="center"><i>A Novelet Concerning an + Amazing Aerial Metropolis</i></p> + + <h4>By H. Thompson Rich</h4> + + + <h3>MURDER MADNESS</h3> + + <p class="center"><i>The Conclusion of the + Gripping Continued Novel</i></p> + + <h4>By Murray Leinster</h4> + + <p class="center">——And Others!</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="amber" id="amber"></a>From An Amber Block</h2> + +<h3><i>By Tom Curry</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007050.jpg" width="550" height="478" alt="Marable, in a desperate frenzy, hacked at the reptile's +awful head." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Marable, in a desperate frenzy, hacked at the reptile's +awful head.</span> +</div> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.4em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">These</span> should prove especially valuable and interesting without a doubt, +Marable," said the tall, slightly stooped man. He waved a long hand +toward the masses of yellow brown which filled the floor of the spacious +workrooms, towering almost to the skylights, high above their heads.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A giant amber block at last gives up its living, ravenous +prey.</div> +<p>"Is that coal in the biggest one with the dark center?" asked an +attractive young woman who stood beside the elder of the men.</p> + +<p>"I am inclined to believe it will prove to be some sort of black +liquid," said Marable, a big man of thirty-five.</p> + +<p>There were other people about the immense rooms, the laboratories of the +famous Museum of Natural History. Light streamed in from the skylights +and windows; fossils of all kinds, some immense in size, were +distributed about. Skilled specialists were chipping away at matrices +other artists were reconstructing, doing a thousand things necessary to +the work.</p> + +<p>A hum of low talking, accompanied by the irregular tapping of chisels +on stone, came to their ears, though they took no heed of this, since +they worked here day after day, and it was but the usual sound of the +paleontologists' laboratory.</p> + +<p>Marable threw back his blond head. He glanced again toward the dark +haired, blue eyed young woman, but when he caught her eye, he looked +away and spoke to her father, Professor Young.</p> + +<p>"I think that big one will turn out to be the largest single piece of +amber ever mined," he said. "There were many difficulties in getting it +out, for the workmen seemed afraid of it, did not want to handle it for +some silly reason or other."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Professor</span> Young, curator, was an expert in his line, but young Marable +had charge of these particular fossil blocks, the amber being pure +because it was mixed with lignite. The particular block which held the +interest of the three was a huge yellow brown mass of irregular shape. +Vaguely, through the outer shell of impure amber, could be seen the +heart of ink. The chunk weighed many tons, and its crate had just been +removed by some workmen and was being taken away, piece by piece.</p> + +<p>The three gazed at the immense mass, which filled the greater part of +one end of the laboratory and towered almost to the skylights. It was a +small mountain, compared to the size of the room, and in this case the +mountain had come to man.</p> + +<p>"Miss Betty, I think we had better begin by drawing a rough sketch of +the block," said Marable.</p> + +<p>Betty Young, daughter of the curator, nodded. She was working as +assistant and secretary to Marable.</p> + +<p>"Well—what do you think of them?"</p> + +<p>The voice behind them caused them to turn, and they looked into the face +of Andrew Leffler, the millionaire paleontologist, whose wealth and +interest in the museum had made it possible for the institution to +acquire the amber.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Leffler</span>, a keen, quick moving little man, whose chin was decorated with +a white Van Dyke beard, was very proud of the new acquisition.</p> + +<p>"Everybody is talking about the big one," he continued, putting his hand +on Marable's shoulder. "Orling is coming to see, and many others. As I +told you, the workmen who handled it feared the big one. There were +rumors about some unknown devil which lay hidden in the inklike +substance, caught there like the proverbial fly in the amber. Well, let +us hope there is something good in there, something that will make worth +while all our effort."</p> + +<p>Leffler wandered away, to speak to others who inspected the amber +blocks.</p> + +<p>"Superstition is curious, isn't it?" said Marable. "How can anyone think +that a fossil creature, penned in such a cell for thousands and +thousands of years, could do any harm?"</p> + +<p>Professor Young shrugged. "It is just as you say. Superstition is not +reasonable. These amber blocks were mined in the Manchurian lignite +deposits by Chinese coolies under Japanese masters. They believe +anything, the coolies. I remember working once with a crew of them that +thought—"</p> + +<p>The professor stopped suddenly, for his daughter had uttered a little +cry of alarm. He felt her hand upon his arm, and turned toward her.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She was pointing toward the biggest amber block, and her eyes were wide +open and showed she had seen something, or imagined that she had seen +something, that frightened her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Professor</span> Young followed the direction of her finger. He saw that she +was staring at the black heart of the amber block; but when he looked he +could see nothing but the vague, irregular outline of the inky +substance.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear?" asked Young again.</p> + +<p>"I—I thought I saw it looking out, eyes that stared at us—"</p> + +<p>The girl broke off, laughed shortly, and added, "I suppose it was Mr. +Leffler's talking. There's nothing there now."</p> + +<p>"Probably the Manchurian devil shows itself only to you," said her +father jokingly. "Well, be careful, dear. If it takes a notion to jump +out at you, call me and I'll exorcise it for you."</p> + +<p>Betty blushed and laughed again. She looked at Marable, expecting to see +a smile of derision on the young man's face, but his expression was +grave.</p> + +<p>The light from above was diminishing; outside sounded the roar of +home-going traffic.</p> + +<p>"Well, we must go home," said Professor Young. "There's a hard and +interesting day ahead of us to-morrow, and I want to read Orling's new +work on matrices before we begin chipping at the amber."</p> + +<p>Young turned on his heel and strode toward the locker at the end of the +room where he kept his coat and hat. Betty, about to follow him, was +aware of a hand on her arm, and she turned to find Marable staring at +her.</p> + +<p>"I saw them, too," he whispered. "Could it have been just imagination? +Was it some refraction of the light?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> girl paled. "I—I don't know," she replied, in a low voice. "I +thought I saw two terrible eyes glaring at me from the inky heart. But +when father laughed at me, I was ashamed of myself and thought it was +just my fancy."</p> + +<p>"The center is liquid, I'm sure," said Marable. "We will find that out +soon enough, when we get started."</p> + +<p>"Anyway, you must be careful, and so must father," declared the girl.</p> + +<p>She looked at the block again, as it towered there above them, as though +she expected it to open and the monster of the coolies' imagination leap +out.</p> + +<p>"Come along, Betty," called her father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>She realized then that Marable was holding her hand. She pulled away and +went to join her father.</p> + +<p>It was slow work, chipping away the matrix. Only a bit at a time could +be cut into, for they came upon many insects imbedded in the amber. +These small creatures proved intensely interesting to the +paleontologists, for some were new to science and had to be carefully +preserved for study later on.</p> + +<p>Marable and her father labored all day. Betty, aiding them, was +obviously nervous. She kept begging her father to take care, and +finally, when he stopped work and asked her what ailed her, she could +not tell him.</p> + +<p>"Be careful," she said, again and again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Her</span> father realized that she was afraid of the amber block, and he poked +fun at her ceaselessly. Marable said nothing.</p> + +<p>"It's getting much softer, now the outside shell is pierced," said +Young, late in the day.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Marable, pausing in his work of chipping away a portion of +matrix. "Soon we will strike the heart, and then we will find out +whether we are right about it being liquid. We must make some +preparations for catching it, if it proves to be so."</p> + +<p>The light was fading. Outside, it was cold, but the laboratories were +well heated by steam. Close by where they worked was a radiator, so that +they had been kept warm all day.</p> + +<p>Most of the workers in the room were making ready to leave. Young and +Marable, loath to leave such interesting material, put down their +chisels last of all. Throughout the day various scientific visitors had +interrupted them to inspect the immense amber block, and hear the +history of it.</p> + +<p>All day, Betty Young had stared fascinatedly at the inky center.</p> + +<p>"I think it must have been imagination," she whispered to Marable, when +Young had gone to don his coat and hat. "I saw nothing to-day."</p> + +<p>"Nor did I," confessed Marable. "But I thought I heard dull scrapings +inside the block. My brain tells me I'm an imaginative fool, that +nothing could be alive inside there, but just the same, I keep thinking +about those eyes we thought we saw. It shows how far the imagination +will take one."</p> + +<p>"It's getting dark, Betty," said her father. "Better not stay here in +the shadows or the devil will get you. I wonder if it will be Chinese or +up-to-date American!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> girl laughed, said good night to Marable, and followed her father +from the laboratory. As they crossed the threshold a stout, red-faced +man in a gray uniform, a watchman's clock hanging at his side, raised +his hat and smiled at the young woman and her father.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Rooney," cried Betty.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do, Miss Young! Stayin' late this evenin'?"</p> + +<p>"No, we're leaving now, Rooney. Good night."</p> + +<p>"G' night, Miss Young. Sleep happy."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Rooney."</p> + +<p>The old night watchman was a jolly fellow, and everybody liked him. He +was very fond of Betty, and the young woman always passed a pleasant +word with him.</p> + +<p>Rooney entered the room where the amber blocks were. The girl walked +with her father down the long corridor. She heard Marable's step behind +them.</p> + +<p>"Wait for me a moment, father," she said.</p> + +<p>She went back, smiling at Marable as she passed him, and entered the +door, but remained in the portal and called to Rooney, who was down the +laboratory.</p> + +<p>He came hurrying to her side at her nervous hail.</p> + +<p>"What is it, ma'am?" asked Rooney.</p> + +<p>"You'll be careful, won't you, Rooney?" she asked in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm always careful. Nobody can get in to harm anything +while Rooney's about."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't mean that. I want you to be careful yourself, when you're in +this room to-night."</p> + +<p>"Why, miss, what is there to be wary of? Nothin' but some funny lookin' +stones, far as I can see."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> young woman was embarrassed by her own impalpable fears, and she +took leave of Rooney and rejoined her father, determined to overcome +them and dismiss them from her mind.</p> + +<p>All the way home and during their evening meal and afterwards, Professor +Young poked fun at Betty. She took it good-naturedly, and laughed to see +her father in such fine humor. Professor Young was a widower, and Betty +was housekeeper in their flat; though a maid did the cooking for them +and cleaned the rooms, the young woman planned the meals and saw to it +that everything was homelike for them.</p> + +<p>After a pleasant evening together, reading, and discussing the new +additions to the collection, they went to bed.</p> + +<p>Betty Young slept fitfully. She was harassed by dreams, dreams of huge +eyes that came closer and closer to her, that at last seemed to engulf +her.</p> + +<p>She awakened finally from a nap, and started up in her bed. The sun was +up, but the clock on the bureau said it was only seven o'clock, too +early to arise for the day's work. But then the sound of the telephone +bell ringing in the hall caused her to get up and don her slippers and +dressing gown and hurry out into the living room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Before</span> she reached the phone, however, she heard her father's voice +answering.</p> + +<p>"Hello.... Yes, speaking. Good morning, Smythe."</p> + +<p>Smythe was the janitor of the museum. Betty, standing behind her father, +wondered what he could want that he should phone so early in the +morning. Her father's next words sent a thrill of fright through her +heart.</p> + +<p>"My God! I—I can't believe it!" cried Young. "Is he dead?"</p> + +<p>There was a pause; Betty caught the sound of the excited Smythe's tones +through the receiver.</p> + +<p>"Who—who is it?" she whispered, clasping her parent's arm.</p> + +<p>"I'll be right down, yes."</p> + +<p>Young hung up, turned to his daughter. His face was sad, heavily lined +with shadows of sorrow.</p> + +<p>"Dear, there's been a tragedy at the museum during the night. Poor +Rooney has been murdered—at least so they believe—and Smythe, who +found him, wants me to come down and see if anything has been stolen. I +must go at once. The body is in our laboratory."</p> + +<p>"Rooney? Ah, poor fellow."</p> + +<p>The girl wept a little, but braced herself to assist her father.</p> + +<p>"I'm going with you," she said.</p> + +<p>"No, no. You'd better remain here: you can come along later," said +Young. "I don't like to have you see such sights, dear. It wouldn't be +good for you."</p> + +<p>"I'll be all right. I promise you I will."</p> + +<p>She insisted and he was forced to let her accompany him to the museum. +They hailed a cab and were soon at the door. The elevator took them to +the top floor, and swiftly they passed along the corridors and came to +the portal which led into the rooms where the amber blocks were.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Smythe</span> greeted them, a worried look on his seamed face. "I've sent for +an ambulance, Professor," he said.</p> + +<p>Young nodded, brushed past him, and entered the laboratory. In the +morning light the amber blocks had taken on a reddish tinge. Now, they +seemed to oppress the young woman, who had bravely remained at her +father's side as he walked quickly to the base of the biggest block.</p> + +<p>A vague shape lay in the shadows between the wall and the largest amber +mass. Professor Young bent over the body of Rooney, and felt the pulse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's been dead some time," he said.</p> + +<p>She nodded, stricken to the heart by this terrible end of her old friend +Rooney.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing we can do for him, now," went on her father soberly. +"It looks as though he had been set upon and stabbed time after time by +his assailant or assailants, whoever they were."</p> + +<p>"How—how pale he is," said Betty. "Poor Rooney was so jolly and +red-faced, but his skin is like chalk."</p> + +<p>"And he's shrunken, too. It seems there's no blood left in his veins," +said her father.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span>, who had been called also, came in then and aided in the +examination. He said good morning to Betty and her father, and then went +to bend over Rooney's body.</p> + +<p>"See the look of abject terror on his face," Betty heard Marable say to +her father as the two examined the corpse. "He must have been very much +afraid of whoever killed him."</p> + +<p>"They beat him up frightfully," said Young. "There must have been +several of the assassins; it would take more than one man to do such +damage."</p> + +<p>"Yes. His ribs are crushed in—see, this gash, Professor, would be +enough to cause death without any of the other wounds."</p> + +<p>Betty Young could not take her eyes from the ghastly sight. She steeled +herself to bear it, and prayed for strength that she should not faint +and cause her father trouble. She could see the two men examining a +large blistered area under the corpse's armpit, in the center of which +was a sharp vertical slit which had without doubt punctured the artery +near the surface of the axilla. Perhaps it had pierced even to the +heart.</p> + +<p>"Bloodless," exclaimed Marable, noticing the same thing as her father +had spoken of. "It is as if the blood had been pumped out of his body!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think it has drained out."</p> + +<p>"There is not much of a pool here where he lies, though," said Marable, +in a low voice. "See, there are only splotches about, from various cuts +he received."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he was dragged here from another room," said Young. "When the +others come, we will soon know if anything is missing. It seems that men +desperate enough to commit such a murder would not leave without trying +to get what they came after. Unless, of course, the killing of Rooney +frightened them away before they could get their booty."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Smythe</span> approached the group, with a physician in tow. The latter +confirmed the facts which Marable and Young had found: that Rooney had +been killed by the deep gash near the heart and that most of the blood +was drained from the body.</p> + +<p>"They seem like the slashes from an extremely sharp and large razor," +said the medical man.</p> + +<p>Others were coming in to look at Rooney, and the museum was buzzing with +activity as various curators, alarmed about the safety of their valuable +collections, feverishly examined their charges.</p> + +<p>"He punched his clock in here at two A.M.," said Smythe. "I seen that. +It's the last time he'll ever do his duty, poor feller."</p> + +<p>"Curious odor," said the doctor, sniffing. "It smells like musk, but is +fetid. I suppose it's some chemical you use."</p> + +<p>"I noticed that, too," said Professor Young. "I don't recognize it, +myself."</p> + +<p>Marable, who had been looking at the floor between the great block of +amber and the body, uttered an exclamation which caused the two men to +look up.</p> + +<p>"There are wavy lines leading around back of the block," said Marable, +in answer to their questions.</p> + +<p>The young man disappeared behind the block, and then he called to them +excitedly to join him. Betty Young pressed closer, and finally slipped +past the corpse and stood by her father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Before</span> her, she saw a large pool of black liquid. It had been hidden by +the corner of the block, so that they had not noticed it, so busy were +they looking at Rooney.</p> + +<p>And there was a great cavity in the heart of the amber block. Pieces of +the yellow brown mass lay about, as though they had fallen off and +allowed the inky substance to escape.</p> + +<p>"It's hardened or dried out in the air," said Young.</p> + +<p>"It looks like black lacquer," said Betty.</p> + +<p>The musky smell was stronger here. The great amber block seemed to +stifle them with its size.</p> + +<p>"Our chipping and hammering and the heat of the radiator causing it to +expand must have forced out the sepia, or whatever it is," said Young. +There was a disappointed note in his voice "I had hoped that inside the +liquid we would discover a fossil of value," he went on.</p> + +<p>Marable looked at Betty Young. They stared at one another for some +seconds, and both knew that the same thought had occurred to the other. +The frightful eyes—had they then been but figments of the imagination?</p> + +<p>Marable began looking around carefully, here and there. Betty realized +what he was doing, and she was frightened. She went to his side. "Oh, be +careful," she whispered.</p> + +<p>"The giant block has been moved a little," he replied, looking into her +pretty face. "Have you noticed that?"</p> + +<p>Now that she was told to look, she could see the extremely heavy amber +block was no longer in the position it had been in. Marks on the floor +showed where it had been dragged or shifted from its original resting +place.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Betty</span> Young gasped. What force could be so powerful that it could even +budge so many tons? A derrick had been used, and rollers placed under +the block when men had moved it.</p> + +<p>Reason tried to assert itself. "It—it must have exploded. That would +cause it to shift," she said faintly.</p> + +<p>Marable shrugged. His examination was interrupted by the arrival of the +museum's chemist, sent for by Young. The chemist took a sample of the +black liquid for analysis. Reports were coming in from all over the +museum, different departments declaring, one after another, that nothing +had been disturbed or stolen from their sections.</p> + +<p>Betty Young went again to Marable's side. She followed the direction of +his eyes, and saw long, clawlike marks on the floor, radiating from the +sepia.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Marable," she said, "please don't—don't look any longer. Leave +this terrible place for the day, anyway, until we see what happens in +the next twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p>He smiled and shook his head. "I must make a search," he replied. "My +brain calls me a fool, but just the same, I'm worried."</p> + +<p>"Do you really think ...?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, divining her thought. The girl shivered. She felt terror +mounting to her heart, and the matter-of-fact attitudes of the others in +the great laboratory did not allay her fears.</p> + +<p>Rooney's body was removed. The place was cleaned up by workmen, and +Marable's search—if that was what his constant roving about the +laboratory could be called—ceased for a time. The chemist's report came +in. The black liquid was some sort of animal secretion, melonotic +probably.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> spite of the fact that they had learned so many facts about the +murder, they as yet had not solved the mystery. Who had murdered Rooney, +and why? And where had his blood gone to? In no other rooms could be +found any traces of a struggle.</p> + +<p>"If you won't do anything else, please carry a gun," begged Betty of +Marable. "I'm going to try to take father home, right after lunch, if +he'll go. He's so stubborn. I can't make him take care. I've got to +watch him and stay beside him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Very well," replied Marable. "I'll get a revolver. Not that I think it +would be of much use, if I did find—" He broke off, and shrugged his +broad shoulders.</p> + +<p>Leffler came storming into the room. "What's this I hear?" he cried, +approaching Marable. "A watchman killed in the night? Carelessness, man, +carelessness! The authorities here are absurd! They hold priceless +treasures and allow thieves to enter and wreak their will. You, Marable, +what's all this mean?"</p> + +<p>Leffler was angry. Marable looked into his red face coolly. "We do the +best we can, Mr. Leffler," he said. "It is unlikely that anyone would +wish to steal such a thing as that block of amber."</p> + +<p>He waved toward the giant mass.</p> + +<p>Leffler made a gesture of impatience. "It cost me many thousands of +dollars," he cried.</p> + +<p>"It is time for lunch, Professor," said Betty.</p> + +<p>Marable bowed to Leffler and left the millionaire sputtering away, +inspecting the various specimens he had contributed.</p> + +<p>The one o'clock gong had struck, and all the workers and investigators +were leaving in paleontological laboratories for a bite to eat.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span>, with Betty, went out last. Leffler was over in one corner of +the room, hidden from their sight by a corner of an amber block. They +could hear Leffler still uttering complaints about the carelessness of +the men in charge of that section of the museum, and Marable smiled at +Betty sadly.</p> + +<p>"Poor Rooney," he said. "Betty, I feel more or less responsible, in a +way."</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried the girl. "How could you have foreseen such a thing?"</p> + +<p>Marable shook his head. "Those eyes, you know. I should have taken +precautions. But I had no idea it could burst from its prison so."</p> + +<p>For the first time Marable had definitely mentioned his idea of what +had occurred. The girl had understood it all along, from their broken +conversation and from the look in the young scientist's eyes.</p> + +<p>She sighed deeply. "You will get a revolver before you search further?" +she said. "I'm going to. Smythe has one, and I know he'll lend it to +me."</p> + +<p>"I will," he promised. "You know, Leffler has the same idea we have, I +think. That's why he keeps talking about it being our fault. I believe +he has seen something, too. His talk about the devil inside the block +was half in earnest. I suppose he put it down to imagination, or perhaps +he did not think this fossil to be dangerous."</p> + +<p>They went out together, and walked toward the restaurant they +frequented. Her father was there, lunching with one of the +superintendents of the museum. He smiled and waved to Betty.</p> + +<p>Everyone, of course, was discussing the killing of Rooney.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">After</span> an hour, during which the two young people spoke little, Marable +and Betty Young left the restaurant and started back toward the museum. +Her father was still at his table.</p> + +<p>They walked up the driveway entrance, and then Marable uttered an +exclamation. "Something's wrong," he said.</p> + +<p>There was a small crowd of people collected on the steps. The outer +doors, instead of being open as usual, were closed and guards stood +peering out.</p> + +<p>Marable and Betty were admitted, after they had pushed their way to the +doors.</p> + +<p>"Museum's closed to the public, sir," replied a guard to Marable's +question.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Marable.</p> + +<p>"Somethin's happened up in the paleontological laboratories," answered +the guard. "Dunno just what, but orders come to clear the rooms and not +let anybody in but members of the staff, sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>Marable hurried forward. Betty was at his heels. "Please get yourself a +gun," she said, clutching his arm and holding him back.</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll borrow one from a guard."</p> + +<p>He returned to the front doors, and came back, slipping a large pistol +into his side pocket.</p> + +<p>"I want you to wait here," he said.</p> + +<p>"No. I'm going with you."</p> + +<p>"Please," he said. "As your superior, I order you to remain downstairs."</p> + +<p>The girl shrugged. She allowed him to climb the stairs to the first +floor, and then she hurried back in search of Smythe.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Smythe</span> obtained a gun for her, and as she did not wish to wait for the +slow elevator, she ran up the steps. Smythe could not tell her +definitely what had occurred in the upper laboratory that had caused the +museum to be closed for the day.</p> + +<p>Her heart beating swiftly, Betty Young hurried up the second flight of +stairs to the third floor. A workman, whom the girl recognized as a +manual laborer in the paleontological rooms, came running down, passing +her in full flight, a look of abject terror on his face.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she cried.</p> + +<p>He was so frightened he could not talk logically. "There was a black +fog—I saw a red snake with legs—"</p> + +<p>She waited for no more. A pang of fear for the safety of Marable shot +through her heart, and she forced herself on to the top floor.</p> + +<p>Up there was a haze, faintly black, which filled the corridors. As Betty +Young drew closer to the door of the paleontological laboratories, the +mist grew more opaque. It was as though a sooty fog permeated the air, +and the girl could see it was pouring from the door of the laboratory in +heavy coils. And her nostrils caught the strange odor of fetid musk.</p> + +<p>She was greatly frightened; but she gripped the gun and pushed on.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Then</span> to her ears came the sound of a scream, the terrible scream of a +mortally wounded man. Instinctively she knew it was not Marable, but she +feared for the young professor, and with an answering cry she rushed +into the smoky atmosphere of the outer laboratories.</p> + +<p>"Walter!" she called.</p> + +<p>But evidently he did not hear her, for no reply came. Or was it that +something had happened to him?</p> + +<p>She paused on the threshold of the big room where were the amber blocks.</p> + +<p>About the vast floor space stood the numerous masses of stone and amber, +some covered with immense canvas shrouds which made them look like ghost +hillocks in the dimness. Betty Young stood, gasping in fright, clutching +the pistol in her hand, trying to catch the sounds of men in that +chamber of horror.</p> + +<p>She heard, then, a faint whimpering, and then noises which she +identified in her mind as something being dragged along the marble +flooring. A muffled scream, weak, reached her ears, and as she took a +step forward, silence came.</p> + +<p>She listened longer, but now the sunlight coming through the window to +make murky patches in the opaque black fog was her chief sensation.</p> + +<p>"Walter!" she called.</p> + +<p>"Go back, Betty, go back!"</p> + +<p>The mist seemed to muffle voices as well as obscure the vision. She +advanced farther into the laboratory, trying to locate Marable. Bravely +the girl pushed toward the biggest amber block. It was here that she +felt instinctively that she would find the source of danger.</p> + +<p>"Leffler!" she heard Marable say, almost at her elbow, and the young man +groaned. The girl came upon him, bending over something on the floor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">She</span> knelt beside him, gripping his arm. Now she could see the outline of +Leffler's body at her feet. The wealthy collector was doubled up on the +ground, shrivelled as had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> Rooney. His feet, moving as though by +reflex action, patted the floor from time to time, making a curious +clicking sound as the buttons of his gray spats struck the marble.</p> + +<p>But it was obvious, even in the murky light, that Leffler was dead, that +he had been sucked dry of blood.</p> + +<p>Betty Young screamed. She could not help it. The black fog choked her +and she gasped for breath. Leaving Marable, she ran toward the windows +to throw them open.</p> + +<p>The first one she tried was heavy, and she smashed the glass with the +butt of the gun. She broke several panes in two of the windows, and the +mist rolled out from the laboratory.</p> + +<p>She started to return to the side of Marable. He uttered a sudden shout, +and she hurried back to where she had left him, stumbling over Leffler's +body, recoiling at this touch of death.</p> + +<p>Marable was not there, but she could hear him nearby.</p> + +<p>Cool air was rushing in from the windows, and gradually the fog was +disappearing. Betty Young saw Marable now, standing nearby, staring at +the bulk of an amber block which was still covered by its canvas shroud. +Though not as large as the prize exhibit, this block of amber was large +and filled many yards of space.</p> + +<p>"Betty, please go outside and call some of the men," begged Marable.</p> + +<p>But he did not look at her, and she caught his fascinated stare. +Following the direction of his gaze, the girl saw that a whisp of smoky +mist was curling up from under the edge of the canvas cover.</p> + +<p>"It is there," whispered Betty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span> had a knife which he had picked up from a bench, and with this +he began quietly to cut the canvas case of the block, keeping several +feet to each side of the spot where the fog showed from beneath the +shroud.</p> + +<p>Marable cut swiftly and efficiently, though the cloth was heavy and he +was forced to climb up several feet on the block to make his work +effective. The girl watched, fascinated with horror and curiosity.</p> + +<p>To their ears came a curious, sucking sound, and once a vague tentacle +form showed from the bottom of the canvas.</p> + +<p>At last Marable seized the edge of the cut he had made and, with a +violent heave, sent the canvas flap flying over the big block.</p> + +<p>Betty Young screamed. At last she had a sight of the terrible creature +which her imagination had painted in loathing and horror. A flash of +brilliant scarlet, dabbed with black patches, was her impression of the +beast. A head flat and reptilian, long, tubular, with movable nostrils +and antennae at the end, framed two eyes which were familiar enough to +her, for they were the orbs which had stared from the inside of the +amber block. She had dreamed of those eyes.</p> + +<p>But the reptile moved like a flash of red light, though she knew its +bulk was great; it sprayed forth black mist from the appendages at the +end of its nose, and the crumpling of canvas reached her ears as the +beast endeavored to conceal itself on the opposite side of the block.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span> had run to the other side of the mass. The air, rushing in from +the windows, had cleared the mist, in spite of the new clouds the +creature had emitted, and Betty could see for some feet in either +direction now.</p> + +<p>She walked, with stiff, frozen muscles, around to join Marable. As she +came near to him, she saw him jerking off the entire canvas cover of the +block to expose the horrible reptile to the light of day.</p> + +<p>And now the two stood staring at the awful sight. The creature had +flattened itself into the crevices and irregular surfaces of the block, +but it was too large to hide in anything but a huge space. They saw +before them its great bulk, bright red skin blotched with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> black, which +rose and fell with the breathing of the reptile. Its long, powerful +tail, tapering off from the fat, loathsome body, was curled around the +bottom of the block.</p> + +<p>"That's where it's been hidden, under the shroud. We've been within a +few feet of it every moment we've been at work," said Marable, his voice +dry. "There were many hiding places for it, but it chose the best. It +came out only when there was comparative quiet, to get its food...."</p> + +<p>"We—we must kill it," stammered the girl.</p> + +<p>But she could not move. She was looking at the immense, cruel, lidless +eyes, which balefully held her as a serpent paralyzes a bird. The +tubular nostrils and antennae seemed to be sniffing at them, waving to +and fro.</p> + +<p>"See the white expanse of cornea, how large it is," whispered Marable. +"The pupils are nothing but black slits now." The interest excited by +this living fossil was almost enough to stifle the dread of the creature +in the man.</p> + +<p>But the girl saw the huge flat head and the crinkled tissue of the +frilled mouth with its sucker disks.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Suddenly</span>, from the central portion of the sucker-cup mouth issued a +long, straight red fang.</p> + +<p>The two drew back as the living fossil raised a short clawed leg.</p> + +<p>"It has the thick body of an immense python and the clawed legs of a +dinosaur," said Marable, speaking as though he were delivering a +lecture. The sight, without doubt, fascinated him as a scientist. He +almost forgot the danger.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's horrible," whispered the girl.</p> + +<p>She clung to his arm. He went on talking. "It is some sort of +terrestrial octopus...."</p> + +<p>To the girl, it seemed that the living fossil was endless in length. +Coil after coil showed as the ripples passed along its body and the +straight fang threatened them with destruction.</p> + +<p>"See, it is armored," said Marable.</p> + +<p>"Betty, no one has ever had such an experience as this, seen such a +sight, and lived to tell of it. It must be ravenous with hunger, shut up +in its amber cell inside the black fluid. I—"</p> + +<p>A sharp, whistling hiss interrupted his speech. The reptile was puffing +and swelling, and as it grew in bulk with the intake of the air, its +enamel-like scales stood out like bosses on the great body. It spat +forth a cloud of black, oily mist, and Marable came to himself at last.</p> + +<p>He raised his revolver and fired at the creature, sending shot after +shot from the heavy revolver into the head.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Betty</span> Young screamed as the reptile reared up and made a movement toward +them. Marable and the girl retreated swiftly, as the beast thumped to +the floor with a thud and started at them, advancing with a queer, +crawling movement.</p> + +<p>It was between them and the door. Betty thrust her gun into Marable's +hands, for his own was empty and he had hurled it at the monster.</p> + +<p>"Hurry! Run for your life!" ordered Marable, placing himself between +Betty and the reptile.</p> + +<p>She would not leave him till he swerved to one side, going dangerously +close to the beast and firing into its head. The rush of the flowing +body stopped; it turned and pursued him, leaving the girl safe for the +moment, but separated from Marable.</p> + +<p>Luckily, on the smooth marble it could not get an efficient grip with +its clawlike arms. It was clumsy in its gait, and for a time the man +eluded it.</p> + +<p>Betty Young, looking about for a weapon, calling for help at the top of +her lungs, caught sight of a fireman's ax in a glass case on the wall. +She ran over, smashed the glass with the small hammer, and took out the +heavy ax.</p> + +<p>Shot after shot reverberated through the big laboratory as Marable tried +to stop the monster. Betty, bravely closing in from the rear, saw +Marable leaping from side to side as the brute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> struck viciously at him +time and again.</p> + +<p>The creature had been emitting cloud after cloud of black fog, and the +atmosphere, in spite of the open windows, was dim in its vicinity. +Vaguely Betty heard shouts from the far hall, but all she could do was +to call out in return and run toward the horror.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span>, out of breath, had climbed to the top of an amber block. Betty, +close by, saw the reptile rear its bulk up into the air, until it was +high enough to strike the man.</p> + +<p>Before it could send forth its death-dealing fang to pin Marable to the +block, however, Betty Young brought the ax down on its back with all her +strength.</p> + +<p>There was a sickening thud as the sharp weapon sunk deep into the fleshy +back. She struck again, and the creature fell in folds, like a +collapsing spring. It lashed back at her, but she leaped clear as it +slashed in agony, thrashing about so that the whole room seemed to rock.</p> + +<p>Marable came scrambling down the side of the block to help her. He was +breathing hard, and she turned toward him; as Betty looked away, a +portion of the scarlet tail hit her in the body and she fell, striking +her head on the floor.</p> + +<p>Marable reached down, seized the ax, and in a desperate frenzy hacked at +the reptile's awful head. He leaped in and out like a terrier, sinking +the ax deep into the neck and head of the beast. He gave the impression +of slashing at heavy rubber, and Betty Young, trying to drag herself +away from that dangerous body, heard his whistling breath.</p> + +<p>They were almost hidden from one another now, in the mist which came +from the thing's nostrils.</p> + +<p>"Help, help!" screamed the girl, mustering her last strength in the +despairing cry.</p> + +<p>She saw Marable go down, then, as the reptile hit him a glancing blow +with its body. When the powerful young fellow did not rise, the girl +thought it was all over. The air really became black to her; she fainted +and lay still.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">When</span> Betty Young opened her eyes, the air had cleared greatly, and she +could see the familiar outlines of the paleontological laboratory and +the bulks of the amber blocks. Her father was holding her head in his +lap, and was bathing her temples with water.</p> + +<p>"Darling," he said, "are you badly hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No," she murmured faintly. "I'm—I'm all right. But—but Walter—did +it—"</p> + +<p>"He's all right," said her father. "The reptile was dying, and could do +him no damage. We finished it off."</p> + +<p>Then, Marable, covered with blood, which he was trying to wipe from his +hands and clothes, came and smiled down at her.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Professor Young, "you two have mutilated a marvelous and +unique specimen between you."</p> + +<p>There were several men examining something nearby. Turning her eyes in +their direction, Betty saw they were viewing the remains of the reptile.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span> helped her to her feet, and stood with one arm about her. +Professor Orling, the famous specialist on fossil reptiles, was speaking +now, and the others listened.</p> + +<p>"I think we will find it to be some sort of missing link between the +dinosaurs and mososaurs. It is surely unbelievable that such a creature +should be found alive; but perhaps it can be explained. It is related to +the amphibians and was able to live in or out of the water. Now, we have +many instances of reptiles such as lizards and toads penned up in solid +rock but surviving for hundreds of years. Evidently this great reptile +went through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> same sort of experience. I would say that there has +been some great upheaval of nature, that the reptile was caught in its +prison of amber thousands and thousands of years ago. Through +hibernation and perhaps a preservative drug it emitted in the black +fluid, this creature has been able to survive its long imprisonment. +Naturally, when it was released by the cutting away of part of the amber +which penned it in, it burst its cell, ravenous with hunger. The +fanglike tooth we see was its main weapon of attack, and it set upon the +unfortunate watchman. After knocking him unconscious, its sucker-like +fringe glued the mouth near the heart while the fang shot into the +arteries and drew forth the body fluids. There is a great deal to be +done with this valuable find, gentlemen. I would suggest that—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Marable</span> grunted. "Oh, hell," he murmured in Betty Young's ear. "To the +devil with paleontology, Betty. You saved my life. Come out and let's +get married. I love you."</p> + +<p>The girl smiled up into his eyes. The scientists close by were listening +fascinatedly to Orling's words, and had no time to watch the two young +people, for they stared at the reptile's body as the great man went from +section to section, lecturing upon one point after another.</p> + +<p>"You've forgotten paleontology for a moment, thank goodness," said +Betty. "I'm glad."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">From some far reach of leagueless Space +came a great pillar of flame to lay waste +and terrorize the Earth.</div> + +<p>"Yes, Betty dear. This terrible experience has shaken me, and I realized +how much I love you when I saw you in danger. What an awful few minutes! +If I had to live them over again, I don't think I could face them."</p> + +<p>"Never mind," she murmured. "We are safe, Walter. After all, it's not +every woman who is helped by a living fossil to make the man she loves +realize he loves her!"</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="flame" id="flame"></a>The Terror of Air-Level Six</h2> + +<h3><i>By Harl Vincent</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007062.jpg" width="550" height="453" alt="The SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays.</span> +</div> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was a sweltering evening in mid-August, during that unprecedented +heat wave which broke Weather Bureau records in 2011. New York City had +simmered under a blazing sun for more than three weeks, and all who were +able had deserted the city for spots of lesser torridity. But I was one +of those unfortunates who could not leave on account of the pressing +urgency of business matters and, there being nothing else to do, kept +doggedly at my work until it seemed that nerves and body must soon give +way under the strain. To-night, as I boarded the pneumatic tube, I +dropped into the nearest seat and could not even summon the energy to +open my newspaper.</p> + +<p>For some minutes I sat as in a daze, wishing merely that the journey was +over, and that I was on my own front porch out in Rutherford. After +awhile I stirred and looked around. Seeing none of my acquaintances in +the car, I finally opened the newspaper and was considerably startled by +the screaming headlines that confronted me from its usually conservative +first page:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centerbox"> + <h4>SECOND COAST TRANSPORT<br /> + PLANE LOST!</h4> + + <p class="center">Disaster Like First in Air-Level + Six!</p></div> + + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">No</span> wonder the newsboys had been crying an extra on Broadway! I had given +no heed to the import of their shoutings, but this was real news and +well worthy of an extra edition. Since the mysterious loss of the SP-61, +only four days previously, the facilities of the several air +transportation systems were seriously handicapped on account of the +shaken confidence of the general public. It was not surprising that +there was widespread reluctance at trusting human lives and valuable +merchandise to the mercies of the inexplicable power which had +apparently wiped out of existence the SP-61, together with its +twenty-eight passengers and the consignment of one-half million dollars +in gold. And now the NY-18 had gone the way of the other!</p> + +<p>Details were meager. Both ships had failed to reply to the regular +ten-minute radio calls from headquarters and had not since been seen or +heard from. In both cases the last call had been answered when the ship +was proceeding at full speed on its regular course in air-level six. The +SF-61 last reported from a position over Mora in New Mexico, and four +days of intensive search by thousands of planes had failed to locate +ship or passengers. To-day, in the early hours of the morning, the NY-18 +reported over Colorado Springs, on the northern route, and then, like +the SF-61, dropped out of existence insofar as any attempts at +communicating with or locating her were concerned. She, too, carried a +heavy consignment of specie, though only eleven passengers had risked +the westward journey.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Someone</span> had dropped into a seat at my side, and I looked up from my +reading to meet the solemn eyes of Hartley Jones, a young friend whom I +had not seen for several months.</p> + +<p>"Why, hello, Hart," I greeted him. "Glad to see you, old man. Where in +Sam Hill have you been keeping yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, too, Jack," he returned warmly. "Been spending most of +my time out at the hangar."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's right. You fellows built a new one at Newark Airport, didn't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yeah. Got a great outfit there now, too. Why don't you drop around and +see us one of these days?"</p> + +<p>"I will, Hart, and I want you to take me up some time. You know I have +never been in one of these new ships of yours. But what do you think of +this mess?" I pointed to the black headlines.</p> + +<p>He grinned joyously and flipped back the lapel of his coat, displaying a +nickeled badge. "George and I are starting out to-night to look around a +little," he gloated. "Just been appointed deputy air commissioners; and +we got a couple of guns on our newest plane. Air Traffic Bureau thinks +there's dirty work afoot. Twelve-motored planes don't disappear without +leaving a trace. Anyhow, we've got a job, and we're going to try and +find out what's wrong. How'd you like to come along?"</p> + +<p>"What?" I replied. "You know darn well I'm too busy. Besides, I'd be no +good to you. Just extra load, and not pay load at that. And then, I'm +broke—as usual."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Hartley</span> Jones grinned in his engaging way. "You'd be good company," he +parried; "and, what's more, I think the trip would do you a lot of good. +You look all shot to pieces."</p> + +<p>"Forget it," I laughed. "It's just the heat. And I'll have to leave you +here, Hart. Drop in and see us, will you? The wife was asking for you +only yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Jack, dear," my wife greeted me at the door of my modest suburban home, +"Mr. Preston just called, and he wants you to call him right back."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, Lord," I groaned, "can't I forget the office for one evening?" +Preston was manager of the concern for which I worked.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, though our two fine youngsters were clamoring for their +dinner, I made the telephone call at once.</p> + +<p>"Makely," came the voice of the boss, when the connection was completed, +"I want you to take the night plane for Frisco. Hate to ask you, but it +must be done. Townley is sick and someone has to take those Canadian Ex. +bonds out to Farnsworth. You're the only one to do it, and after you get +there, you can start on that vacation you need. Take a month if you +wish."</p> + +<p>The thought of Hartley Jones' offer flashed through my mind. "But have +you read of the loss of the NY-18?" I asked Preston.</p> + +<p>"I have, Makely. There'll be another hundred a month in your check, too, +to make up for the worry of your family. But the government is sending +thirty Secret Service men along on the SF-22, which leaves to-night. In +addition, there will be a convoy of seven fighting planes, so there is +not likely to be a repetition of the previous disasters."</p> + +<p>That hundred a month sounded mighty good, for expenses had been mounting +rapidly of late. "All right, Mr. Preston," I agreed. "I will be at the +airport before midnight. But how about the bonds?"</p> + +<p>"I'll drive around after dinner and deliver them to you. And thanks for +your willingness, Makely. You'll not be sorry."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">My</span> wife had listened intently and, from my words, she knew what to +expect. Her face was a tragic mask when I replaced the receiver on its +hook, and my heart sank at her expression.</p> + +<p>Then there came the ring of the telephone and, for some reason, my pulse +raced as I went to the hall to answer it. Hartley Jones' cheerful voice +greeted me and he was positively gleeful when I told him of my +projected trip.</p> + +<p>"Hooray!" he shouted. "But you'll not take the SF-22. You'll take the +trip with me as I wanted. I tell you what: You be out at Newark Airport +at eleven-thirty, but come to my hangar instead of to that of the +transportation company. We'll leave at the same time as the regular +liner, and we'll get your old bonds to Frisco, regardless of what might +happen to the big ship. Also we might learn something mighty +interesting."</p> + +<p>I argued with him, but to no avail. And the more I argued, the greater +appeal was presented by his proposition. Finally there was nothing to do +but agree.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Preston</span> arrived with the bonds shortly after the children were tucked in +their beds. I did not tell him of my change in plans. He did not stay +long, and I could see that he was uncomfortable under the accusing eyes +of Marie, for all his own confidence in the safety of the trip in the +closely-guarded SF-22.</p> + +<p>At precisely eleven-thirty I reached the great steel and glass hangar +where Hart Jones and George Boehm carried on their experiments with +super-modern types of aircraft. Hart Jones had inherited more than two +million dollars, and was in a fair way to spend it all on his favorite +hobby, though those who knew him best vowed that he would make many +times that amount through royalties on his ever-growing number of +valuable inventions.</p> + +<p>The immense doors were open, and I gazed for the first time into the +hangar whose spacious interior provided storage and manufacturing +facilities for a dozen or more planes of Hart Jones' design. A curiously +constructed example of his handiwork stood directly before me, and +several mechanics were engaged in making it ready for flight. My friend +advanced from their midst to meet me, a broad smile on his grease +smeared countenance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Greetings, Jack," he said, taking my small bag from my hands. "Right on +time, I see. And I can't tell you how glad I am that you are coming with +us. So is George."</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't expect to," I admitted; "but there is no need of telling +you that I had far rather be in your ship than in the big one."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">George</span> Boehm, the same jolly chap I had several times met in Hart's +company, but fatter than ever, crawled from beneath the shiny metal body +of the plane and scrambled to his feet at my side.</p> + +<p>"Going in for a bit of adventuring, Mr. Makely?" he asked, wiping his +hand with a piece of cotton waste before extending it.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied, as I squeezed his chubby fingers. "Can't stick in the +mud all my life, George. And I wouldn't want to be in better company for +my first attempt either."</p> + +<p>"Nor we," he returned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Rather have a +greenhorn on the Pioneer than some government agent, who'd be butting in +and trying to run everything. Think you'll be scared?"</p> + +<p>"Probably," I admitted; "but I guess I can stand it."</p> + +<p>"Hear the latest news broadcast?" interrupted Hart Jones.</p> + +<p>"No. What was it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"There has been a report from out near Cripple Creek," said Hart +solemnly, "that a pillar of fire was observed in the mountains shortly +after the time the NY-18 last reported. The time and the location +coincide with her probable position and the report was confirmed by no +less than three of the natives of that locality. Of course the +statements are probably extravagant, but they claim this pillar of fire +extended for miles into the heavens and was accompanied by a tremendous +roaring sound that ceased abruptly as the light of the flame +disappeared, leaving nothing but blackness and awe-inspiring silence +behind."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Lot</span> of bunk!" grunted George, who was vigorously scrubbing the back of +his neck.</p> + +<p>"Sounds like a fairy tale," I commented.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, there may be something in it. In fact, there must be. +Three of these mountaineers observed practically the same phenomenon +from quite widely separated points, though one of them said there were +three pillars of fire and that these looked more like the beams of +powerful search-lights. All agreed on the terrific roar. And, after all, +these two liners did disappear. There must be something quite out of the +ordinary about the way in which they were captured or destroyed, and +this occurrence may well be supposed to have a bearing on the matter."</p> + +<p>"Possibly they were destroyed by some freak electrical storm," I +suggested.</p> + +<p>"Where then are the wrecked vessels?" asked Hart. "No, Jack, electrical +storms do not destroy huge air liners and then suck them out into space +beyond our vision. These two ships are no longer on the surface of the +earth, else they would have been long since located. The magnetic +direction finders of the transportation people have covered every inch +of the United States, as well as Mexico and Canada."</p> + +<p>"Of course they might have been carried halfway around the world by a +wind of unprecedented velocity." I commenced a silly argument in favor +of the theory that the elements had accounted for the two vessels, but +was interrupted by the mounting roar of great engines throbbing +overhead.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up there, George!" shouted Hart. "It's the SF-22 coming in. We +have to be ready for the take-off in five minutes!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> hastened to take George's place at the washbowl and all was activity +within the confines of our hangar. George and I left the office and went +out to the landing field, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> was now brilliant with the glare of +floodlights. The <i>Pioneer</i> had been trundled into the open and stood +ready for the flight. Not a hundred feet above the field, the huge +silver moth that was the SF-22 swept by in a wide circle that would +bring her into the wind. The roar of her engines died as she swung out +of the circle of light into the surrounding darkness.</p> + +<p>The crowds which had gathered to witness her landing buzzed with excited +comment and speculation. Her nose brought slightly up, she dropped to a +perfect three-point landing, the brakes screeching as she was brought to +a standstill at the hangar of the transportation company.</p> + +<p>"Come on now, you fellows," came the voice of Hart Jones from the hangar +entrance, "there's no time to lose. The <i>Pioneer</i> takes off immediately +after the big fellow."</p> + +<p>We hurried to the waiting ship, which seemed like a tiny toy when +compared with the giant SF-22. I had observed very little of the +construction of the <i>Pioneer</i>, but I could now see that she was quite +different in design from the ordinary plane. A monoplane she was, but +the wing structure was abnormally short and of great thickness, and +there were a number of tubes projecting from the leading edge that gave +the appearance of a battery of small cannon. The body, like all planes +designed for travel in air-level six, was cigar-shaped, and had +hermetically sealed ports and entrance manholes. A cluster of the +cannon-shaped tubes enclosed the tail just back of the fins and rudder +and, behind the wing structure atop the curved upper surface of the +body, there was a sphere of gleaming metal that was probably three feet +in diameter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Before</span> I could formulate questions regarding the unusual features of the +design, we were within the <i>Pioneer's</i> cabin and Hart Jones was engaged +in clamping the entrance manhole cover to its rubber seat. A throbbing +roar that penetrated our double hull attracted my attention and, looking +through a nearby porthole, I saw that the convoy of army planes had +taken off and was circling over the SF-22 in anticipation of her start. +Trim, speedy fighting ships these were, with heavy caliber machine-guns +in turrets fore and aft and normally manned by crews of twelve each. The +under surfaces of their bodies glistened smooth and sleek in the light +from the field, for the landing gears had been drawn within and the +openings sealed by the close-fitted armor plate that protected these +ordinarily vulnerable portions when in flight.</p> + +<p>The SF-22 was ready to take off and the crowds were drawing back into +the obscurity beyond the huge circle of blinding light. One after +another her twelve engines sputtered into life, and ponderously she +moved over the field, gathering speed as the staccato barking of the +exhausts gradually blended into a smooth though deafening purr. The tail +of the great vessel came up, then the wheels, and she was off into the +night.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Hart</span> Jones sat at a bewildering array of instruments that covered almost +the entire forward partition of the cabin. He pressed a button and the +starting motor whined for a moment. Then the single engine of the +<i>Pioneer</i> coughed and roared. Slowly we taxied in the direction taken by +the SF-22, whose lights were now vanishing in the darkness. I saw George +open a valve on the wall and Hart stretched the fingers of his left hand +to what appeared to be the keyboard of a typewriter set into the +instrument board. He pressed several of the keys and pulled back his +stick. There was a whistling scream from astern and I was thrown back in +my seat with painful force. With that, the motor roared into full speed +and we had left the airport far behind.</p> + +<p>"What on earth?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"Rocket propulsion," laughed Hart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> "I should have warned you. Those +tubes you saw outside at the tail and along the leading edge of the +wings. Only used three of them, but that was sufficient for the +take-off."</p> + +<p>"But I thought this rocket business was not feasible on account of the +wastage of fuel due to its low efficiency," I objected.</p> + +<p>"We should worry about fuel," said Hart.</p> + +<p>I looked about me and saw that there was very little space for the +storage of this essential commodity. "Why?" I inquired. "What fuel do +you use?"</p> + +<p>"Make our own," he replied shortly. He was busy at the moment, +maneuvering the <i>Pioneer</i> into a position above and behind the SF-22 and +her convoy.</p> + +<p>"You make your own fuel enroute?" I asked in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Yes. That sphere you saw on top. It is the collecting end of an +electrical system for extracting nitrogen and other elements, from the +air. This extraction goes on constantly while we are in the atmosphere +and my fuel is an extremely powerful explosive of which nitrates are the +base. The supply is replenished continuously, so we have no fear of +running short even in the upper levels."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">George</span> had crawled through a small opening into some inaccessible region +in the stern of the vessel. I pondered over what Hart had just told me, +still keeping my eyes glued to the port, through which could be seen the +fleet we were following. The altimeter registered thirty-five thousand +feet. We were entering air-level six—the stratosphere! Below us the +troposphere, divided into five levels, each of seven thousand feet, +teemed with the life of the air. The regular lanes were filled with +traffic, the lights of the speeding thousands of freight and pleasure +craft moving in orderly procession along their prescribed routes.</p> + +<p>Up here in the sixth level, which was entirely for high-speed traffic of +commercial and government vessels making transcontinental or +transoceanic voyages, we were the only adventurers in sight—we and the +convoyed liner we were following. The speed indicator showed six hundred +miles an hour, and the tiny spot of light that traveled over the chart +to indicate our position showed that we were nearing Buffalo.</p> + +<p>Glancing through one of the lower ports, I saw the lights of the city +shining dimly through a light mist that fringed the shore of Lake Erie +and extended northward along the Niagara. Then we were out over the +lake, and the luminous hue was slipping rapidly behind. I looked ahead +and saw that the distance to the SF-22 and her convoy had somewhat +increased. We were a mile behind and some two thousand feet above them. +Evidently Hart was figuring on keeping at a safe distance for +observation of anything that might happen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Our</span> motor was running smoothly and the angle of the propeller blades had +been altered to take care of the change in air density from the lower +altitudes. It flashed across my mind that this was an ideal location for +an attack, if such was to be made on the SF-22.</p> + +<p>Then, far ahead, I saw a beam of light stab through the darkness and +strike the tossing surface of the lake. Another and another followed, +and I could see that the SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays. They converged from high above to outline a brilliant +circle where they met on the surface of the waters, and in the midst of +the cone formed by the beams, the liner and its seven tiny followers +could be seen to falter, and huddle more closely together.</p> + +<p>It all happened in the twinkling of an eye—so quickly, in fact, that +Hart and I had not the time to exchange remarks over the strange +occurrence. For a moment the eight vessels hovered, halted suddenly by +this inexplicable force from out the heavens. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> there rose from the +apex of the inverted cone of light a blinding column of blue-white +radiance that poured skyward an instant and was gone. To our ears came a +terrific roaring that could be likened to nothing we had heard on earth. +The <i>Pioneer</i> was tossed and buffeted as by a cyclone, and George came +tumbling from the opening he had entered, his round face grown solemn. +Then came eery silence, for the <i>Pioneer's</i> motor had gone dead. Ahead +there was utter darkness. The liner and her convoy had completely +vanished and the <i>Pioneer</i> was slipping into a spin!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">What</span>'s up?" asked George of Hart, who was tugging frantically at the +controls.</p> + +<p>"The liner has gone the way of the first two," he replied: "and the yarn +about the pillar of fire was not so far wrong after all."</p> + +<p>"You saw the same thing?" asked George incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so did Jack. There came some beams of light from the sky; then +the pillar of fire and the roaring you heard, after which the vessels +were gone and our electrical system paralyzed."</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke!" ejaculated George. "What to do now?"</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the <i>Pioneer</i> came out of the spin, and we were able to +resume our positions in the seats. None of us was strapped in, and we +had been clinging to whatever was handiest to keep from being tossed +about in the cabin. Hart wiped his forehead and growled out an oath. The +instrument board was still illuminated, for its tiny lamps were supplied +with current from the storage battery. But the main lights of the cabin +and the ignition system refused to function. We were gliding now, but +losing altitude rapidly, having already dropped to the lower limits of +level five.</p> + +<p>"Can't you use the rocket tubes?" I inquired hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"They are fired in the same manner as the motor," replied Hart; "but we +might try an emergency connection from the storage battery, which is +ordinarily used only in starting and for the panel lights."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">George</span> was already fussing with the connections in a small junction box +from which he had removed the cover. Meanwhile, the black waters of Lake +Erie were rushing upward to meet us, and the needle of the altimeter +registered twelve thousand feet.</p> + +<p>"Here's the trouble!" shouted George, triumphantly holding up a small +object he had removed from the junction box. "Ignition fuse is blown."</p> + +<p>"Probably by some radiations from the cone of light and the column that +destroyed the liner. Lucky we were no closer," were Hart's muttered +comments.</p> + +<p>George produced a spare fuse and inserted it in its proper place. The +cabin lights glowed instantly and the motor started at once.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going up after the generators of this mysterious force that +is destroying our cross-country ships and killing our people," asserted +Hart. "The rays came from high above, but the <i>Pioneer</i> can go as high +as anything that ever flew—<i>higher</i>."</p> + +<p>He snapped a switch and a beam of light that rivalled the so-called +pillar of fire bored far into the night, dimming the stars by its +brilliance. Again his fingers strayed to the rows of white keys and the +rocket tubes shrieked in response to his pressure. This time I was +prepared for the shock of acceleration, but the action was maintained +for several seconds and I found the pressure against my back growing +painful. Then it was relieved, and I glanced at the altimeter. Its +needle had reached the end of the scale, which was graduated to eighty +thousand feet!</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that we are more than +sixteen miles in the air?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly thirty," replied Hart, pointing to another dial which I had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +seen. This one was graduated in miles above sea-level, and its needle +wavered between the twenty-nine and thirty mark!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Again</span> Hart pressed the rocket buttons, and we shot still higher into the +heavens. Thirty, forty, fifty miles registered the meter, and still we +climbed.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" blurted a voice I knew was my own, though I had no +consciousness of willing the speech. "At this rate we'll reach the +moon!"</p> + +<p>"We could, if we wished," was Hart's astounding reply; "I wish you +wouldn't say too much about it when we return. We have oxygen to breathe +and an air-tight vessel to retain it. With the fuel we are using, we +could easily do it, provided a sufficient supply were available. +However, the <i>Pioneer</i> does not have large enough storage tanks as yet, +and, of course, we cannot now replenish our supply with sufficient +rapidity, for the atmosphere has become very rare indeed—where we are. +My ultimate object, though, in building the <i>Pioneer</i>, was to construct +a vessel that is capable of a trip to the moon."</p> + +<p>"You think you could reach a great enough velocity to escape the +gravitational pull of the earth?" I asked, marveling more and more at +the temerity and resourcefulness of my science-minded friend.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely," he replied. "The speed required is less than seven miles a +second, and I have calculated that the <i>Pioneer</i> can do no less than +twenty."</p> + +<p>Mentally I multiplied by sixty. I could hardly credit the result. Twelve +hundred miles a minute!</p> + +<p>"But, how about the acceleration?" I ventured. "Could the human body +stand up under the strain?"</p> + +<p>"That is the one problem remaining," he replied; "and I am now working +on a method of neutralizing it. From the latest results of our +experiments, George and I are certain of its feasibility."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> <i>Pioneer</i> was now losing altitude once more, and Hart played the +beam of the searchlight in all directions as we descended. He and George +watched through one of the floor ports and I followed suit. We were +falling, unhampered by air resistance, and our bodies were practically +weightless with reference to the <i>Pioneer</i>. It was a strange sensation: +there was the feeling of exhilaration one experiences when inhaling the +first whiff of nitrous oxide in the dentist's chair—a feeling of +absolute detachment and care-free confidence in the ultimate result of +our precipitous descent.</p> + +<p>I found considerable amusement in pushing myself from side to side of +the cabin with a mere touch of a finger. There was no up nor down, and +sometimes it seemed to me that we were drifting sideways, sometimes that +we fell upward rather than downward. Hart and George were unconcerned. +Evidently they were quite accustomed to the sensations. They bent their +every energy toward discovering what had caused the disaster to the +SF-22 and its convoy.</p> + +<p>For several hours we cruised about on the strangest search ever made in +the air. Alternately shooting skyward to unconscionable altitudes and +dropping to levels five and six to replenish our fuel supply, we covered +the greater portion of the United States before the night was over. But +the powerful searchlight of the <i>Pioneer</i> failed to disclose anything +that might be remotely connected with the disappearance of the SF-22.</p> + +<p>For me it was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Lightning dashes from +coast to coast which required but a few minutes of time—circling many +miles above New York or Washington or Savannah in broad daylight with +the sun low on the up-curved horizon; then shooting westward into the +darkness and skirting the Pacific coast less than fifteen minutes later, +but with four hours' actual time difference. Space and time were almost +one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Hart</span> had not provided the <i>Pioneer</i> with a radio or television +transmitter, but there was an excellent receiver, and, through its +agency we learned that the world was in a veritable uproar over the +latest visitation of the mysterious terror of the sixth air level. All +commercial traffic in levels four, five and six was ordered +discontinued, and the government air control stations were flashing long +messages in code, the import of which could but be guessed. Vision +flashes showed immense gatherings at the large airports and in the +public squares of the great cities, where the general populace become +more and more excited and terrified by the awful possibilities pictured +by various prominent speakers.</p> + +<p>The governments of all foreign powers made haste to disclaim +responsibility for the air attacks or for any attempt at making war on +the United States. News broadcasts failed to mention Hart Jones or the +<i>Pioneer</i>, since the mission had been kept secret. The phenomenon of the +rays and the roaring column of light had been observed from many points +on this occasion and there was no longer any doubt as to the nature of +the terror as visible to the eye, though theories as to the action and +source of the rays conflicted greatly and formed the basis of much +heated discussion.</p> + +<p>Eventually the advancing dawn reached San Francisco, and with its advent +Hart decided to make a landing in that city so that my bonds could be +delivered.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Jones</span> was apparently a very much mystified and discouraged man. "Jack," +he said, "it seems to me that this thing is but the beginning of some +tremendous campaign that is being waged against our country by a clever +and powerful enemy. And I feel that our work in connection with the +unraveling of the mystery and overcoming the enemy or enemies is but +begun. It's a cinch that the thing is organized by human minds and is +not any sort of a freak of the elements. Our work is cut out for us, all +right, and I wish you would stick to George and me through the mess. +Will you?"</p> + +<p>"Sure," I agreed, readily enough. "After these bonds are delivered I am +free for a month."</p> + +<p>"Ha! Ha!" cackled George, without mirth. "A month! We're doggoned lucky +if we get to the bottom of this in a year."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" snapped Hart, who was considerably upset by the failure to +locate the source of the disastrous rays. "There is nothing supernatural +about this, and anything that can be explained on a scientific basis can +be run to earth in short order. These rays are man-made and, as such, +can be accounted for by man. Our greatest scientists must be put to work +on the problem at once—in fact, they have quite probably been called in +by the government already."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> was maneuvering the <i>Pioneer</i> to a landing on the broad field of the +San Francisco airport. Hundreds of idle planes of all sizes lined the +field, and, unmindful of the earliness the hour, a great crowd was +collected in expectation of sensational reports from the occupants of +arriving ships. The unusual construction of the <i>Pioneer</i> attracted +considerable attention and it was with difficulty that the police kept +back the crowd when she rolled to a stop near the office of the local +government supervisor. We hustled inside and were greeted by that +official with open arms.</p> + +<p>"Glory be!" he exclaimed. "Hart Jones and the <i>Pioneer</i>. Every airport +in the land has been on the lookout for you all night. It was feared you +had been lost with the SF-22 and the others. Code messages to the +supervisors of all districts advised of your mission, though it has been +kept out of the general news, as has the message from the enemy."</p> + +<p>"Message from the enemy!" gasped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Hart, George and I, echoing the words +like parrots.</p> + +<p>"Yes. A demand that the United States surrender, and a threat to descend +into the lower levels if the demand is not complied with in twenty-four +hours!"</p> + +<p>"Who is this enemy?" asked Hart, "and where?"</p> + +<p>"Who they are is not known," replied the official gravely; "and as to +the location, the War Department is puzzled. Direction finders +throughout the country took readings on the position of their radio +transmitter and these readings differed widely in result. But the +consensus of opinion is that the messages originate somewhere out in +space, probably between fifty and one hundred thousand miles from our +earth."</p> + +<p>"Great guns!" Hart glanced at George and me, where we stood with +stupidly hanging jaws. "And what does the government want of me now?"</p> + +<p>"You are considered to be the one man who might be able to cope with the +problem, and are ordered to report to the Secretary of War, in person, +immediately."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Hart</span> was electrified into instant activity. "Here," he said in a voice +of authority that commanded the official's attention and respect, "see +that this package of bonds is delivered at once to the addressee and +that the addressor is advised of its safe arrival. We're off at once."</p> + +<p>Suiting action to the words, he thrust my packet into the hands of the +astonished supervisor. Then, turning sharply on his heel, he flung back, +"Advise the Secretary of War that I shall report to him in person in +less than one hour."</p> + +<p>As we stepped through the entrance of the <i>Pioneer</i>, he shot a final +look at the official and laughed heartily at his sudden accession of +energy. We had not the slightest doubt that Hart's orders would be +immediately and efficiently carried out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> precisely forty-five minutes, we stood before the desk of Lawrence +Simler, then Secretary of War, in Washington.</p> + +<p>"You are Mr. Hartley Jones?" inquired the stern-visaged little man.</p> + +<p>"I am, Mr. Secretary, and these are my friends and co-workers, George +Boehm and John Makely."</p> + +<p>The Secretary acknowledged the introduction gravely, then plunged into +the heart of the matter at hand with the quick energy for which he was +famed.</p> + +<p>"It may or may not be a serious situation," he said, "but certainly it +has thus far been quite alarming. In any event, we have taken the matter +out of the hands of the Air Traffic Bureau. We are prepared to defy the +ultimatum of the enemy, whoever he may be. But we want your help, Mr. +Jones. Every ship of the Air Navy will be in the upper levels within the +prescribed twenty-four hours, and we will endeavor to stave off their +attacks until such time as you can fit the <i>Pioneer</i> for a journey to +their headquarters."</p> + +<p>"How can your antiquated war vessels, capable of hurling a high +explosive shell no more than fifty miles, fight off an enemy that is +thousands of miles distant?" asked Hart.</p> + +<p>"It is believed by the research engineers of the government that, though +their headquarters may be located at a great distance, the raiders drop +to a comparatively low altitude at the time of one of their attacks, +returning immediately thereafter to their base."</p> + +<p>Hart Jones shook his head. "The engineers may be correct," he stated; +"but how on earth can you expect a little vessel like the <i>Pioneer</i> to +battle an enemy who is possessed of these terribly destructive weapons +and who has sufficient confidence in his own invulnerability to declare +war on the greatest country on earth?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Secretary</span> Simler dropped his voice to a confidential tone, and his keen +gray eyes flashed excitement as he unfolded the details of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +discoveries and plans of the War Department. We three listened in +undisguised amazement to a tale of the unceasing labors of our Secret +Service agents in foreign countries, of elaborate experiments with +deadly weapons and the chemicals of warfare.</p> + +<p>We heard of marvelous new rays that could be projected for many miles +and destroy whole armies at a single blast; rays that would, in less +time than that required to tell of the feat, reduce to a mass of fused +metal the greatest firstline battleships of the old days of ocean +warfare. We heard of preparations for defensive warfare throughout the +civilized world, preparedness that insured so terrible and final a war +that it was literally impossible for a great world conflagration to +again break out. We learned that the present mysterious signs of a +coming war could not possibly have originated in any country on earth, +else they would have been known of long in advance, due to the network +of the Secret Service system. This war, so unexpectedly thrust upon us, +was undoubtedly a war of planets!</p> + +<p>"But," objected Hart, "the messages were in English, were they not?"</p> + +<p>"They were," continued Secretary Simler, "and that puzzled our experts +in the beginning. But, it may well be that our enemy from out the skies +has had spies among us for many years and could thus have learned our +languages and radio codes. In any event, we are to meet destructive rays +with others equally destructive, and you, Hartley Jones, are the man who +can make our effectiveness certain."</p> + +<p>"I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. How long a time will be required in fitting out the <i>Pioneer</i> for +reliable space flying?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Hart</span> Jones pondered the matter and I could see that he was overjoyed at +the prospect of getting into the thing in earnest. "About one week," he +replied, "providing you can send a force of fifty expert mechanics to my +hangar at once and supply all material as fast as I shall require it."</p> + +<p>"Excellent," said the Secretary. "We'll have the men there in a few +hours and will obtain whatever you need, regardless of cost, for +immediate delivery. Incidentally, there will be several scientists as +well, who will supervise the installation of two types of ray generators +and their projecting mechanisms on the <i>Pioneer</i>. You will need them +later."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt we shall," said Hart. "And now, with your permission, we +shall leave for the hangar. I'm ready to start work."</p> + +<p>"Capital!" Secretary Simler pressed every one of a row of buttons set in +his desk top. We were dismissed.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, when we reached the outside, "he has given you quite a +job, Hart!"</p> + +<p>"You said something," he replied. "But, if this threat from the skies +proves as real and as calamitous as I think it will, we all have our +work cut out for us."</p> + +<p>"Do you really believe this enemy comes from another planet?" asked +George as we entered the <i>Pioneer</i> for the trip home.</p> + +<p>"Where else can they be from?" countered Hart. "But, really it makes no +difference to us now. We have to go after them in earnest. Don't want to +quit, do you, George?"</p> + +<p>"Wha-a-at?" shouted George, as he jerked savagely at the main switch of +the <i>Pioneer</i>. "You know me better than that, Hart. Did I ever let you +down in anything?"</p> + +<p>"No," admitted the smiling Hart, "you never did, bless your heart. But +Jack here is another matter. He has a wife and two kids to look after. +That lets him out automatically."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">My</span> heart sank at the words, for I knew that he meant what he said. And, +truth to tell, I saw the justice in his remarks.</p> + +<p>"But, Hart," I faltered, "I'd like to be in on this thing."</p> + +<p>"I know you would, old man. But I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> think it's out of the question, for +the present at least. You can help with the reconstruction of the +<i>Pioneer</i>, however."</p> + +<p>And meekly I accepted his dictum, though with secretly conflicting +emotions. Little did I realize at the time that Hart knew far more than +he pretended and that he had merely attempted to salve his own +conscience in this manner.</p> + +<p>I was very anxious to return to my family, and, as I sped homeward in a +taxicab after the <i>Pioneer</i> landed at her own hangar, my mind was filled +with doubts and fears. Secretary Simler had been very brief in his talk, +but his every word carried home the gravity of the situation. What if +these invaders carried the war to the surface? Suppose they seared the +countryside and the cities and suburbs with rays of horrible nature that +would shrivel and blast all that lay in their path? My heart chilled at +the thought and it was a distinct relief when I gazed on my little home +and saw that it was safe—so far. I paid the driver with a much too +large bank note and dashed up my own front steps two at a time.</p> + +<p>A few hours later I tore myself away and returned to the hangar, where +the <i>Pioneer</i> now reposed in a scaffolded cradle. The sight which met my +eyes was astonishing in the extreme, for the hangar had been transformed +into a huge workshop with seemingly hundreds of men already at work. It +was a scene of furious activity, and, to my utter amazement, I observed +that the <i>Pioneer</i> was already in an advanced stage of disassembly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I had</span> no difficulty in locating Hart Jones, for he was striding from +lathe to workbench to boring mill, issuing his orders with the sureness +and decision of a born leader of men. He welcomed me in his most brisk +manner and immediately assigned me to a portion of the work in the +chemical laboratory—something I was at least partly fitted for.</p> + +<p>We labored far into the night, when a siren called us to rest and food. +This was to be a night and day job, and not a man of those on duty gave +thought to the intense nervous and physical strain. Sixty-five of us I +learned there were, though it had seemed there were several times that +number.</p> + +<p>During the rest period, Hart switched on the large television and sound +mechanism of the public news broadcasts. Great excitement prevailed +throughout the United States, for there had been a leak and the news had +gone abroad regarding the message from the enemy. There was widespread +panic and disorder and the government was besieged with demands for +authentic news. The twenty-four hours of grace had nearly expired.</p> + +<p>Finally the public was told of what actually was happening. Our entire +fleet of one thousand air cruisers was in air-level six, waiting for the +enemy. America was going to fight in earnest!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Flashes</span> of our air cruisers in construction and in action came over the +screen; voice-vision records of the popular officers of the fleet +followed in quick succession. Then came the blow—the first of the +strange war.</p> + +<p>Two vessels of the air fleet had been destroyed by the triple rays and +pillar of fire! Fifty cruisers rushing to the scene had been unable to +find any traces of the source of the deadly rays. And, this time, there +was an alarming added element. The pillar of fire had risen from a point +near Gadsden in Alabama and, in its wake, there spread a sulphurous, +smoldering fire that crept along the ground and destroyed all in its +path. Farms, factories, and even the steel rails of the railroads were +consumed and burned into the ground as if by the breath of some +tremendous blast furnace. Hundreds of inhabitants of the section +perished, and it was reported that the fumes from the strange fires were +drifting in the direction of Birmingham, terrifyingly visible in +blue-green clouds of searing vapor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<p>With the first news of the disaster came a wave of fear that spread over +the country with the rapidity of the ether waves that carried the news. +Then came stern determination. This enemy must be swept from the skies! +Gatherings in public places volunteered en masse for whatever service +the government might ask of them. The entire world was in an uproar, and +from Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia, came immediate offers of +their air fleets to assist in fighting off the Terror.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> less than an hour there were nearly five thousand cruisers in +air-level six, patroling its entire depth from thirty-five thousand to +one hundred thousand feet altitude.</p> + +<p>We resumed work in the hangar, but the news service was kept in +operation as far as the amplifiers were concerned, though the television +screen was switched off on account of the likelihood of its distracting +the workers.</p> + +<p>Again came the report of a major disaster, this time over Butte in +Montana. Four American vessels and one British were the victims in level +six. And the city of Butte was in flames; blue, horrible flames that +literally melted the city into the ground. Again there was no trace of +the invaders.</p> + +<p>How puny were the efforts of the five thousand air cruisers! Marvels of +engineering and mechanical skill, these vessels were. Deadly as were the +weapons they carried—weapons so terrible that war on earth was +considered impossible since their development—they were helpless +against an enemy who could not be located. Though our vessels were +capable of boring high into the stratosphere, the enemy worked from +still higher.</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke!" gasped Hart Jones, who had stopped at my side. "What a +contract I have on my hands!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> looked in the direction of the partly dismantled <i>Pioneer</i>, and I +could see by the fixedness of his stare that he was thinking of her +insignificant size in comparison with the job she was to undertake.</p> + +<p>Above the din of the machines in the hangar rang the startled voice of a +news announcer. Panic-stricken he seemed, and we stopped to listen. +Another blow of the terror of the skies—and now close by! Over +Westchester County in New York State there was a repetition of the +previous attacks. Only two of the cruisers had vanished this time; but +several towns, including Larchmont and Scarsdale, were pools of molten +fire!</p> + +<p>Sick at heart, I thought of my little home in Rutherford and of the dear +ones it contained. I thought of telephoning, but, what was the use? +There was no warding off of this terrible thing that had so suddenly +come to our portion of the world. It was the blowing of the last +trumpet, the way things looked.</p> + +<p>The announcer had calmed himself. His voice droned tonelessly now, as +was the custom. Another raid, on the Mexican Border now. We were +stupefied by the rapidity of the enemy's attacks; then electrified once +more by the most astounding news of all. Alexandria, in Egypt, was the +base of a pillar of fire! Fully half of the city was wiped out, and the +remainder in a mortal funk, terrorized and riotous. The United States +was not alone in the war!</p> + +<p>The foreign fleets which reinforced our own were ordered home +immediately. But to what avail? The world was doomed!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> the morning, after nine fearful attacks during the night, there came +another message from the enemy and this was repeated in five languages +and addressed to the entire world:</p> + +<p>"People of Earth," it read, "this is our final warning. One chance has +been given and you have proved stubborn. Consider well that your +civilization be not entirely destroyed, and answer as the expiration of +forty-eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> hours, using our transmitting frequency. Our hand is to be +withheld for that period only, when, unless our demands are met, all of +your large cities and towns will be destroyed. Our terms for peace are +that we be permitted to land without resistance on your part; that you +surrender farm and forest lands, cities and towns, able-bodied men of +twenty to forty, selected women of seventeen to thirty, and tribute in +the form of such supplies and precious metals as we may specify, all to +the extent of forty per cent of your resources. No compromise will be +accepted."</p> + +<p>That was all. It was during a rest period at the Jones hangar and I had +brought Hart and George to my home for breakfast. We sat at the table +when the news instrument brought the message. Marie was pouring the +coffee, and my two small boys, Jim and Jack, had gone to the playroom, +from whence their joyous voices could be heard. We four were struck dumb +at the announcement, and Marie looked at me with so awful an expression +of dread that my coffee turned bitter in my mouth. Marie was just +twenty-eight!</p> + +<p>"What beasts!" cried Hart. "Allow them to land without resistance? I +should say not! Rather we should fight them off until all of us perish."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> had risen from his chair in his anger. Now he sat down suddenly and +shook a forefinger in my face.</p> + +<p>"Say!" he exploded. "You can't tell me that some master mind of our own +world is not back of this!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not telling you," I replied, startled at the fierce fire that +flashed from his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I know. I'm just trying to think aloud and I'm liable to say anything. +But this sort of business is the work of humans as sure as you're born. +Still I believe that what Simler says is true. I can't believe that any +country on earth is back of the thing. It must be an attack from beings +of another planet, but I think they have as a leader a man who is of +our own earth."</p> + +<p>Marie's eyes opened wide at this. "But how could that be?" she asked. +"Surely no one from our earth has made the trip to one of the other +planets?"</p> + +<p>"It may be that someone has," replied Hart. "Do you remember Professor +Oradel? Remember, about ten years ago, I think it was, when he and a +half dozen or more of extremely radical scientists built a rocket they +claimed would reach the moon? They were ridiculed and hissed and +relegated to the position of half-baked, crazy inventors. But Oradel had +a large private fortune, and he and his crowd built themselves a +workshop and laboratory in a secluded region in the Ozarks. Here they +labored and experimented and eventually the rocket ship was constructed. +No person was in their confidence, but when the machine was completed +they issued a statement to the press to the effect that they were ready +for the voyage to the moon, and that, when they returned, a reckoning +with the world was to be made for its disbelief and total lack of +sympathy. Again the press subjected Oradel to a series of scathing +denunciations, and the scientific publications refused to take +cognizance of his claims in any way, shape or form."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Then</span>, one night, a great rocket roared into the heavens, leaving a +terror-stricken countryside in the wake of its brilliantly visible tail. +Several observatories whose telescopes picked up and followed the trail +of the contraption reported that it described a huge parabola, mounting +high into the stratosphere and falling back to earth, where it was lost +in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. There the thing ended and it was +soon forgotten. But I believe that this rocket ship of Oradel's reached +Mars or Venus and that the peoples of whichever planet they reached have +been prevailed upon and prepared to war upon the world."</p> + +<p>"That would explain their knowl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>edge of our languages and codes." I +ventured, "and would likewise account for the fact that the first of our +ships to be attacked were those carrying large shipments of currency. +Though if these were destroyed by the fire columns, I can not see what +good the money would do them."</p> + +<p>"Don't believe the first three were destroyed," grunted Hart. "You'll +remember that in these cases the pillars of fire, or whatever you want +to call them, were of a cold light, whereas now they are viciously hot +and leave behind them the terrible destructive fires that spread and +spread and seemingly never are extinguished. No, I think that the force +used is something of the nature of an atom-disrupting triad of beams and +that these set up the column as a veritable tornado, a whirling column +of roaring wind rushing skyward with tremendous velocity. The first +ships, I believe, were carried into the stratosphere and captured intact +by the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Since the declaration of war the nature of the column has altered. The +three beams, instead of meeting at or near the surface of the earth, now +join high in the heavens and the column strikes downward instead of +expending its force upward. An added energy is used which produces the +terribly destructive force below. And now we are able to locate +fragments of the ships destroyed above, whereas previously there were no +traces."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Sounds</span> reasonable," commented George. "But why have they not landed and +waged their war right here without warning, if that is what they now +intend to do?"</p> + +<p>"A natural question, George. But I have a hunch that the space flier or +fliers of the enemy are conserving fuel by remaining beyond gravity. You +know, in space flying, the greatest expenditures of energy are in +leaving or landing on a body and, once landed, they might not have +sufficient fuel for a getaway. They know we are not exactly helpless, +once they are in our midst, and are taking this means of reducing us to +the point of complete subjection before risking their precious selves +among us."</p> + +<p>The telephone startled us by its insistent ring. It was a call from the +hangar for Hart. The news broadcast announcer was in the midst of a long +dissertation regarding the discovery only this morning that there were +certain apparent discrepancies in the movements of the tides and +unwonted perturbations of the moon's orbit. There flashed on the screen +a view of the great observatory at Mount Wilson, and Professor Laughlin +of that institution stepped into the foreground of the scene to take up +the discussion so mechanically repeated by the announcer.</p> + +<p>"Must leave for the hangar at once," declared Hart, returning from the +telephone. "Simler and his staff are there and we are wanted +immediately."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack!" Marie begged with her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Got to be done, Honey," I responded, "and, believe me, I am going to do +what little I can to help. Suppose we surrendered!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I shuddered</span> anew at the very thought and took hurried leave of my +family, Hart and George awaiting me in the hall. Had I known what was to +transpire before the end of the war, I am certain I would have been in +much less of a hurry.</p> + +<p>We rushed to the hangar, where Secretary Simler and his party awaited us +in the office. Rather, I should say, they waited for Hart Jones.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jones," said the Secretary of War, when the introductions were +over, "it is up to you to get the <i>Pioneer</i> in shape to go out after +these terrible creatures before the forty-eight hours have expired. We +have replied to their ultimatum and have told them we will have our +answer ready within the appointed time, but it is already agreed between +the nations of the World Al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>liance that our reply is to be negative. +Better far that we submit to the utter destruction of our civilization +than agree to their terms."</p> + +<p>"I believe I can do it, Mr. Secretary," was Hart Jones' simple comment. +"At least I will try. But you must let me have an experienced astronomer +at once with whom to consult."</p> + +<p>"Astronomer?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—immediately. I have a theory, but am not enough of a student of +astronomy myself to work it out."</p> + +<p>"You shall have the best man in the Air Naval Observatory at once." +Secretary Simler chewed his cigar savagely. "And anything else you might +need," he concluded.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing else, sir." Hart turned from the great men who +regarded him solemnly, some with expressions of hope, others with plain +distrust written large on their countenances.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">They</span> left in silence and we returned to our work with renewed vigor. +Within an hour there arrived by fast plane an undersized, +thick-spectacled man who presented himself as Professor Linquist +from the government observatory. He was immediately taken into the +office by Hart and the two remained behind closed doors for the best +part of four hours.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the hangar hummed with activity as usual. We in the chemical +laboratory were engaged in compounding the high explosive used as fuel +in the <i>Pioneer</i>. This was being compressed to its absolute limit and +was stored in long steel cylinders in the form of a liquid of extremely +low temperature. These cylinders were at once transferred to a special +steel vault where the temperature was kept at a low enough point to +prevent expansion and consequent loss of the explosive, not to speak of +the danger of destroying the entire lot of us in its escape.</p> + +<p>The generating apparatus of the <i>Pioneer</i> was to be dispensed with for +this trip, since it was of no value outside the atmosphere where there +was no air from which to extract the elements necessary for the +production of the explosive. Instead, the entire supply of fuel for the +trip was to be carried aboard the vessel in the cylinders we were +engaged in filling. Hart had calculated that there was just sufficient +room to store fuel for a trip of about two hundred thousand miles from +the earth and a safe return. We hoped this would be enough.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">On</span> the scaffolding around the <i>Pioneer</i> there were now so many workers +that it seemed they must forever be in one another's way. But the work +was progressing with extreme rapidity. Already there projected from her +blunt nose a slender rod of shining metal which was the projector of one +of the destructive rays whose generator and auxiliaries were being +installed under the supervision of the government experts. The force had +been trebled and was now working in shifts of two hours each, the pace +being so exhausting that highest efficiency was obtained by using these +short periods.</p> + +<p>Additional rocket tubes were being installed, and the steel framework of +a bulge now showed on the hull, this bulge being an additional fuel +storage compartment that would provide a slight additional resistance +and consequently lower speed in the lower levels, but would prove little +hindrance in level six and none at all in outer space.</p> + +<p>When Hart emerged from his office he appeared to be very tired, indeed, +but his face bore an expression of triumph that could not be mistaken. +He and this little scientist from Washington had evidently arrived at +some momentous conclusion regarding the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Jack," he said, when he reached my bench during his first round of the +hanger, "celestial mechanics is a wonderful thing. I had a hunch, and +this astronomer chap has proved it correct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> with his mathematics. Our +friend the enemy is out there in space at a point where his own mass and +velocity are exactly counteracted by those of the earth and its +satellite, the moon. He is just floating around in space, doing no work +whatsoever to maintain his own position. He has temporarily assumed the +rôle of a second satellite to us and is revolving around us at a +definite period that was calculated by Lindquist. The gravitational pull +of the moon keeps him from falling to the earth and that of the earth +keeps him from approaching the moon. The resultant of the set of forces +is what determines his orbit and the disturbance in the normal balance +is what has been observed by the astronomers who reported changes in the +tides and in the moon's orbit."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">But</span> Lindquist's figures prove that the vessel or fleet of the enemy +must be of tremendous size to produce such discrepancies, +infinitesimally small though they might seem. We have a big fellow with +whom to deal, but we know where to find him now."</p> + +<p>"How can he work from a fixed position to make his attacks on the earth +at such widely separated points?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a fixed position in the first place, and besides the earth +rotates once in twenty-four hours, while the moon travels around the +earth once in about twenty-eight days. But, even so, the widespread +destruction could not be accounted for. He must send out scouting +parties or something of that sort. That is one of the things we are to +learn when we get out there. We'll have some fun, Jack."</p> + +<p>"Will the <i>Pioneer</i> be ready?" I asked. Evidently I was to go.</p> + +<p>"She will, with the exception of the acceleration neutralizers. But I'm +having some heavily-cushioned and elastic supports made that will, I +believe, save us from injury. And I guess we can stand the discomfort +for once."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I agreed, "in such a cause, I, for one, am willing to go through +anything to help keep this overwhelming disaster from our good old +world."</p> + +<p>"Jack," he whispered, "we must prevent it. We've got to!"</p> + +<p>Then he was gone, and I watched him for a moment as he dashed headlong +from one task to another. He was a whirlwind of energy once more.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Forty</span>-three hours and twenty minutes had passed since the receipt of the +enemy's ultimatum. The last bolt was being tightened in the remodeled +<i>Pioneer</i>, and Secretary Simler and his staff were on hand to witness +the take-off of the vessel on which the hopes of the world were pinned. +The news of our attempt had been spread by cable and printed news only, +for there was fear that the enemy might be able to pick up the +broadcasts of the news service and thus be able to anticipate us. As +usual, there were many scoffers, but the consensus of opinion was in +favor of the project. At any rate, what better expedient was there to +offer?</p> + +<p>The huge airport, now unused on account of the complete cessation of air +traffic, was closed to the public. But there was quite a crowd to +witness the take-off, the visitors from Washington, the officials of the +field, and the two hundred workers who had enabled us to make ready for +the adventure in time. There were four to enter the <i>Pioneer</i>: Hart, +George, Professor Lindquist, and myself. And when the entrance manhole +was bolted home behind us, the watchers stood in silence, waiting for +the roar of the <i>Pioneer's</i> motor. As the starter took hold, Hart waved +his hand at one of the ports and every man of those two hundred and some +watchers stood at attention and saluted is if he were a born soldier and +Hart a born commander-in-chief.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">We</span> taxied heavily across the field, for the <i>Pioneer</i> was much +overloaded for a quick take-off. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> bumped and bounced for a +quarter-mile before taking to the air and then climbed very slowly +indeed, for several minutes. Our speed was a scant two hundred miles an +hour when we swung out over New York and headed for the Atlantic. And +then Hart made first use of the rocket tubes, not daring to discharge +the hot gases below while over populated land at so low an altitude. He +touched one button, maintaining the pressure for but a fraction of a +second. The ocean slipped more rapidly away from beneath our feet and he +touched the button once more. Our speed was now nearly seven hundred +miles an hour and we made haste to buckle ourselves into the padded, +hammocklike contrivances which had been substituted for the former +seats. In a very few minutes we entered level six and the motor was cut +off entirely.</p> + +<p>A blast from a number of the tail rockets drove me into my supporting +hammock so heavily that I found difficulty in breathing, and could +scarcely move a muscle to change position. The rate of acceleration was +terrific, and I am still unable to understand how Hart was able to +manipulate the controls. For myself, I could not even turn my head from +its position in the padding and I felt as if I were being crushed by +thousands of tons of pressure. Then, the pressure was somewhat relieved +and I glanced to the instruments. We were more than a thousand miles +from our starting point and the speed indicator read seven thousand +miles an hour. We were traveling at the rate of nearly two miles a +second!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Another</span> blast from the rockets, this one of interminable length, and I +must have lost consciousness. For when I next took note of things I +found that we had been out for nearly two hours and that the tremendous +pressure of acceleration was relieved. I moved my head, experimentally +and found that my senses were normal, though there was a strange and +alarming sensation of being wrong side up. Then I remembered that I had +experienced the same thing when we first searched the upper levels of +the atmosphere for the origin of the destructive rays of the enemy.</p> + +<p>But this was different! I gazed through a nearby port and saw that the +sky was entirely black, the stars shining magnificently brilliant +against their velvet background. Streamers of brilliant sunlight from +the floor ports struck across the cabin and patterned the ceiling. +Looking between my feet I saw the sun as a flaming orb with streamers of +incandescence that spread in every direction with such blinding +luminosity that I could not bear the sight for more than a few seconds. +Off to what I was pleased to think of as our left side, there was a huge +globe that I quickly made out as our own earth. Eerily green it shone, +and, though a considerable portion of the surface was obscured by +patches of white that I recognized as clouds, I could clearly make out +the continents of the eastern hemisphere. It was a marvelous sight and I +lost several minutes in awed contemplation of the wonder. Then I heard +Hart laugh.</p> + +<p>"Just coming out of it, Jack?" he asked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I stared</span> at him foolishly. It had seemed to me that I was alone in this +vast universe, and the sound of his voice startled me. "Guess I'm not +fully out of it yet," I said. "Where are we?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about sixty thousand miles out," he replied carelessly; "and we are +traveling at our maximum speed—that is, the maximum we need for this +little voyage."</p> + +<p>"Little voyage!" I gasped. And then I looked at George and the professor +and saw that they, too, were grinning at my discomfiture. I laughed +crazily, I suppose, for they all sobered at once.</p> + +<p>Traveling through space at more than forty thousand miles an hour, it +seemed that we were stationary. Move<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>ment was now easy—too easy, in +fact, for we were practically weightless. The professor was having a +time of it manipulating a pencil and a pad of paper on which he had a +mass of small figures that were absolutely meaningless to me. He was +calculating and plotting our course and, without him, we should never +have reached the object we sought.</p> + +<p>Time passed rapidly, for the wonders of the naked universe were a +never-ending source of fascination. Occasionally a series of rocket +charges was fired to keep our direction and velocity, but these were +light, and the acceleration so insignificant that we were put to no +discomfort whatever. But it was necessary that we keep our straps +buckled, for, in the weightless condition, even the slightest increase +or decrease in speed or change in direction was sufficient to throw us +the length of the cabin, from which painful bruises might be received.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> supports to which we were strapped and which saved us from being +crushed by the acceleration and deceleration, were similar to hammocks, +being hooked to the floor and ceiling of the cabin rather than suspended +horizontally in the conventional manner. This was for the reason that +the energy of the rockets was expended fore and aft, except for +steering, and the forces were therefore along the horizontal axis of the +vessel. The supports were elastic and the padding deep and soft. Being +swiveled at top and bottom, they could swing around so that deceleration +as well as acceleration was relieved. For this reason the controls had +been altered so that the flexible support in which Hart was suspended +could rotate about their pedestal, thus allowing for their operation by +the pilot either when accelerating or decelerating. How he could control +the muscles of his arms and hands under the extreme conditions is still +a mystery to me, however, and George agrees with me in this. We found +ourselves to be utterly helpless.</p> + +<p>My next impression of the trip is that of swinging rapidly around and +finding myself facing the rear wall of the cabin. Then the tremendous +pressure once more at a burst from the forward tubes. We had commenced +deceleration. For me there were alternate periods of full and +semi-consciousness and, to this day, I can remember no more than the +high spots of that historical expedition.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Then</span> we were free to move once more, and I turned to face the instrument +board. Our relative velocity had become practically zero; that is, we +were traveling through space at about the same speed and in the same +direction as the earth. The professor and Hart were consulting a pencil +chart and excitedly looking first through the forward ports and then +into the screen of the periscope.</p> + +<p>"This is the approximate location," averred the professor.</p> + +<p>"But they are not here," replied Hart.</p> + +<p>George and I peered in all directions and could see nothing excepting +the marvels of the universe we had been viewing. The moon now seemed +very close and its craters and so-called seas were as plainly visible as +in a four-inch telescope on earth. But we saw nothing of the enemy.</p> + +<p>The earth was a huge ball still, but much smaller than when I had first +observed it from the heavens. The sun's corona—the flaming streamers +which the professor declared extended as much as five million miles into +space—was partly hidden behind the rim of the earth and the effect was +blinding. A thin crescent of brilliant light marked the rim of our +planet and the rest was in shadow, but a shadow that was lighted +awesomely in cold green by reflected light from her satellite.</p> + +<p>"I have it!" suddenly shouted the professor. "We are all in very nearly +the same line with reference to the sun, and the enemy is between the +blazing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> body and ourselves. We must shift our position, move into the +shadow of the earth. We have missed our calculation by a few hundred +miles, that is all."</p> + +<p>All! I thought. These astronomers, so accustomed to dealing in +tremendous distances that must be measured in light-years, thought +nothing of an error of several hundred miles. But I suppose it was +really an inconsiderable amount, at that.</p> + +<p>At any rate, we shifted position and looked around a bit more. We saw +nothing at first. Then Hart consulted the chronometer.</p> + +<p>"Time is up!" he shouted.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">On</span> the instant there was a flash of dazzling green light from a point +not a hundred miles from our position, a flash that was followed by a +streaking pencil of the same light shooting earthward with terrific +velocity. Breathlessly we followed its length, saw it burst like a bomb +and hurl three green balls from itself which sped at equally spaced +angles to form a perfect triangle. They hovered a moment at about two +thousand miles above the surface of the earth, according to the +professor, who was using the telescope at the time, and shot their +deadly rays toward our world. We were too late to prevent the renewal of +hostilities!</p> + +<p>Another and another streak of green light followed and we knew that +great havoc was being wrought back home. But these served to locate the +enemy's position definitely and we immediately set about to draw nearer. +We were still somewhat on the dark side of the object, which had +prevented our seeing it. Now we swung about so that it was plainly +visible. And, what a strange appearance it presented, out here in space!</p> + +<p>Fully fifteen miles in diameter, it was a huge doughnut, a great ring of +tubing with a center-opening that was at least eighty per cent of its +maximum diameter. There it hovered, sending out those deadly missiles in +a continuous stream toward our poor world. As we approached the weird +space flier, we saw that a number of objects floated about within the +great circle of its inner circumference. The NY-18, the SF-61 and the +SF-22, without doubt! The theory of Hart's was correct in every detail.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">We</span> were still at about ten miles distance from the great ring and the +streaking light pencils were speeding earthward at the rate of one a +minute now. There was no time to lose. Already there was more +destruction on its way than had been previously wrought—several times +over.</p> + +<p>Hart was sighting along a tiny tube that projected into the forward +partition and he maneuvered the <i>Pioneer</i> until she was nose on to the +great ring. He pulled a switch and there came a purring that was +entirely new. A row of huge vacuum tubes along the wall lighted to vivid +brilliancy and a throbbing vibration filled the artificial air of the +cabin.</p> + +<p>He pulled a small lever at the side of the tube and the vessel rocked to +the energy that was released from those vacuum tubes. The thin rod which +had been installed at the <i>Pioneer's</i> nose burst into brilliant +flame—orange tinted luminescence that grew to a sphere of probably ten +feet in diameter. Then there was a heavy shock and the ball of fire left +its position and, with inconceivable velocity, sprang straight for the +side of the great ring. It was a fair hit and, when the weird missile +found its mark, it simply vanished—swallowed up in the metal walls of +the monster vessel. For a moment we thought nothing was to result. Then +we burst into shouts of joy, for a great section of the ring fused into +nothingness and was gone! Fully a quarter of the circumference of the +ring had disappeared into the vacuum of space. Truly, the governments of +Earth had developed some terrible weapons of their own!</p> + +<p>We watched, breathless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> green light pencils no longer streaked their paths of death in the +direction of our world, which now seemed so remote. The great ring with +the vacant space in its rim wabbled uncertainly for a moment as though +some terrific upheaval from within was tearing it asunder. Then it +lurched directly for the <i>Pioneer</i>. We had been observed!</p> + +<p>But Hart was equal to the occasion and he shot the <i>Pioneer</i> in the +direction of the earth with such acceleration that we all were flattened +into our supports with the same old violence. Then, with equal violence, +we decelerated. The ring was following so closely that it actually +rushed many hundreds of miles past us before it was brought to rest. +From it there sprang one of the light pencils, and the <i>Pioneer</i> was +rocked as by a heavy gale when it rushed past on its harmless way into +infinity. The enemy had missed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Hart was operating another mechanism that was new to the +<i>Pioneer</i> and again he sighted along the tiny tube. This time there was +no sound within, no ball of fire without, no visible ray. But, when he +had pressed the release of this second energy, the ring seemed to +shrivel and twist as if gripped by a giant's hand. It reeled and spun. +Then, no longer in a balance of forces, it commenced its long drop +earthward.</p> + +<p>His job finished and finished well, Hart Jones collapsed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Following</span> his more than three days and four nights of superhuman +endeavor, it seemed strange to see Hart slumped white and still over the +control pedestal. He who had energy far in excess of that of any of the +rest of us had worn himself out. Having had no rest or sleep in nearly a +hundred hours, the body that housed so wonderful a spirit simply refused +to carry on. Tenderly we stretched him on the cabin floor, the <i>Pioneer</i> +drifting in space the while. The professor, who was likewise something +of a physician, listened to his heart, drew back his eyelids, and +pronounced him in no danger whatever.</p> + +<p>We slapped his wrists, sprinkled his face and neck with cold water from +the drinking supply, and were soon rewarded by his return to +consciousness. He smiled weakly and fell sound asleep. No war in the +universe could have wakened him then, so we lifted him to his +feet—rather I should say, we guided his practically floating body—and +strapped him in George's hammock, preparing for the homeward journey. +Though dangling from the straps in a position that would be vertical +were we on earth, he slept like a baby. George took the controls in +Hart's place and the professor and I returned to our accustomed +supports.</p> + +<p>The return trip was considerably slower, as George did not wish to push +the <i>Pioneer</i> to its limit as had been necessary when coming out to meet +the enemy, nor was he able to keep control of the ship against a +too-rapid acceleration. Consequently, the rate of acceleration was much +lower and we were not nearly as uncomfortable as on the outgoing trip. +Thus, nearly ten hours were required for the return. And Hart slept +through it all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> order to make best use of the small amount of fuel still in the +cylinders, George circled the earth five times before we entered the +upper limits of the atmosphere, the circles becoming of smaller diameter +at each revolution and the speed of the ship proportionately reduced. An +occasional discharge from one of the forward rocket tubes assisted +materially in the deceleration, yet, when we slipped into level five, +our speed was so great that the temperature of the cabin rose +alarmingly, due to the friction of the air against the hull of the +vessel. It was necessary to use the last remaining ounce of fuel to +reduce the velocity to a safe value. A long glide to earth was then our +only means of landing and, since we were over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Gulf of Mexico at the +time, we had no recourse other than landing in the State of Texas.</p> + +<p>Passing over Galveston in level three, we found that the Humble oil +fields and a great section of the surrounding country had been the +center of one of the enemy bombardments. All was blackness and ruin for +many miles between this point and Houston. At Houston Airport we landed, +unheralded but welcome.</p> + +<p>The lower levels were once more filled with traffic, and one of the +southern route transcontinental liners had just made its stop at this +point. The arrival of the <i>Pioneer</i> was thus witnessed by an unusually +large crowd, and, when the news was spread to the city, their numbers +increased with all the rapidity made possible by the various means of +transportation from the city.</p> + +<p>So it was that Hart Jones, after we finally succeeded in awakening him +and getting him to his feet, was hailed by a veritable multitude as the +greatest hero of all time. The demonstrations become so enthusiastic +that police reserves, hastily summoned from the city, were helpless in +their attempts to keep the crowd in order.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was with greatest difficulty that Hart was finally extricated from +the clutches of the mob and conveyed to the new Rice Hotel in Houston, +where it was necessary to obtain medical attention for him immediately. +He was in no condition at the time to receive the richly deserved +plaudits of the multitude, and, truth to tell, we others from the +<i>Pioneer</i> were in much the same shape.</p> + +<p>To me that night will always be the most terrible of nightmares. My +first thought was of my family and, when I had been assigned to a room, +I immediately asked the switchboard operator for a long-distance +connection to my home in Rutherford. There was complete silence for a +minute and I jangled the hook impatiently, my head throbbing with a +thousand aches and pains. Then, to my surprise, the voice of the hotel +manager greeted me.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Makely," he said softly, and I thought there was a peculiar ring in +his voice, "I think you had better not try to get Rutherford this +evening. We are sending the house physician to your room at once +and—there are orders from Washington, you know—you are to think of +nothing at the present but sleep and a long rest."</p> + +<p>"Why—why—" I stammered, "can't you see? I must communicate with my +family. They must know of my return. I must know if they're safe and +well."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, sir," apologized the manager, "Government orders, you know." +And he hung up.</p> + +<p>Something in that soft voice brought to me an inkling of the truth. An +icy hand gripped my heart as I heard a knock at the door. With palsied +fingers I turned the key and admitted the professor and a kindly-faced +elderly gentleman with a small black bag. One look at the professor told +me the truth. I seized his two arms in a grip that made him wince.</p> + +<p>"Tell me! Tell me!" I demanded, "Has anything happened to my family?"</p> + +<p>"Jack," said the professor slowly, "while we were out there watching +Hart destroy the enemy vessel, Rutherford was destroyed!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> must be that I frightened him by my answering stare, for he backed +away from me in apparent fear. I noticed that the doctor was rummaging +in his bag. I know I did not speak, did not cry out, for my tongue clove +to the roof of my mouth. It seemed I must go mad. The professor still +backed away from me; then, wiry little athlete that he was, he sprang +directly for my knees in a beautiful football tackle. I remember that +point clearly and how I admired his agility at the time. I remember the +glint of a small instrument in the doctor's hand. Then all was +blackness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>Eight days later, they tell me it was, I returned to painful +consciousness in a hospital bed. But let me skip the agony of mind I +experienced then. Suffice it to say that, when I was able, I set forth +for Washington. Hart Jones was there and he had sent for me. But I took +little interest in the going; did not even bother to speculate as to the +reason for his summons. I had devoured the news during my convalescence +and now, more than two weeks after the destruction of the Terror, I knew +the extent of the damage wrought upon our earth by those deadly green +light pencils we had seen issuing from the huge ring up there in the +skies. The horror of it all was fresh in my mind, but my own private +horror overshadowed all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I was</span> glad that Hart had been so signally honored by the World Peace +Board, that he was now the most famous and popular man in the entire +world. He deserved it all and more. But what cared I—I who had done +least of all to help in his great work—that the Terror had been found +where it buried itself in the sand of the Sahara when falling to earth? +What cared I that the discoveries made in the excavating of the huge +metal ring were of inestimable value to science?</p> + +<p>It gave me passing satisfaction to note that all of Hart Jones' theories +were borne out by the discoveries; that Oradel and his minions were +responsible for this terrible war; that the planet they aligned against +us was Venus and that more than a hundred thousand of the Venerians had +been carried in that weird engine of destruction which had been brought +down by Hart.</p> + +<p>It was interesting to read of the fall of that huge ring; how it was +heated to incandescence when it entered our atmosphere at such +tremendous velocity; of the tidal waves of concentric billows in the +sand that led to its discovery by Egyptian Government planes. The +broadcast descriptions and the television views of the stunted and +twisted Venerians whose bodies were recovered from the partly consumed +wreckage were interesting. But it all left me cold. I had no further +interest in life. That the world had escaped an overwhelming disaster +was clear, and it gave me a certain pleasure. But for me it might as +well have been completely destroyed.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I went to Washington. I felt somehow that I owed it to +Hart Jones, the greatest world hero since Lindbergh. I would at least +listen to what he had to say.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">A fast</span> plane carried me, a plane chartered by the government. To me it +seemed that it crawled, though it was a sixth-level ship, and made the +trip in record time. Why I was impatient to reach Washington I do not +know, for I was absolutely disinterested in anything that might occur +there. It was merely that my nerves were on edge, I suppose, and +everything annoyed me.</p> + +<p>Hart met me at the airport and greeted me like a long-lost brother. He +talked incessantly and jumped from one subject to the other with the +obvious intention of trying to get my mind off my troubles until we +reached his office in the Air Traffic building.</p> + +<p>On his door there was the legend, "Director of Research," and, when we +had entered, I observed that the office was furnished with all the +luxury that suited his new position. I dropped into a deeply upholstered +chair at the side of his mahogany desk, and, for the space of several +minutes, Hart regarded me with concern, speaking not a word.</p> + +<p>"Jack, old man," he finally ventured. "I can't talk to you of this +thing. But it makes me feel very badly to see you take it so hard. There +are many things you have to live for, old top, and it is to talk about +these that I sent for you."</p> + +<p>"You mean work?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is the best thing for us all, in any emergency or under any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +circumstances whatever. Preston wants you back for one thing, and he +authorized me to tell you that the job of office manager is waiting for +you at double your former salary."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">My</span> eyes misted at this. Preston was a good old scout! But I could never +bear it to return to the old surroundings, even in the city. "No, Hart," +I said, "I'd rather be away from New York and from that part of the +country. Associations, you know."</p> + +<p>"I understand," he replied, "and that is just what I had hoped you would +decide. Because I have a job for you in the Air Service. A good one, +too.</p> + +<p>"You know there is much reconstruction work to be done on earth. More +than forty cities and towns have been wiped out of existence and these +must be rebuilt. That will occupy the minds and energies of thousands +who have been bereaved as you have. But, in the Air Service, we have a +program that I believe will be more to your liking. The log of the +<i>Terror</i>, in Oradel's handwriting, was found intact, as were a number of +manuscripts pertaining to plans of the Venerians.</p> + +<p>"These misshapen creatures were quite evidently educated by Oradel to a +hatred of our world. We have reason to believe that other attacks may +follow, for they were obviously intending to migrate here in millions. +And, according to records found aboard the <i>Terror</i>, they are of +advanced scientific accomplishment. We may expect them to construct +other vessels similar to the <i>Terror</i> and to come here again. We must be +prepared to fight them off, to carry the war to their own planet if +necessary. My work is to organize a world fleet of space ships for this +purpose, and I'd like you to help me in this. The work will take you all +over the world and will keep you too busy to think about—things."</p> + +<p>It was just like Hart, and I thanked him wordlessly, but from the bottom +of my heart. Yes, I would accept his generous offer. Though I was no +engineer, I had a knowledge of scientific subjects a little above the +average, and I could follow instructions. By George, it was the very +thing! Suddenly I grew enthusiastic.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">There</span> was the sound of voices in the outer office, and Hart's secretary +entered to announce the arrival of George Boehm and Professor Lindquist. +This was great!</p> + +<p>Chubby George, red-faced and smiling as ever, embraced me with one short +arm and pounded me on the back with his other fist in his jovial, joking +manner. It was good to have friends like these! The professor held forth +his hand timidly. He was thinking of that tackle and the half-Nelson he +had used on me while the doctor slipped that needle into my arm back +there in Houston.</p> + +<p>"Don't remove your glasses, Professor," I laughed; "I'm not going to hit +you. That was a swell tackle of yours, and you did me a big service down +there in the Rice Hotel."</p> + +<p>He beamed with pleasure and gripped my hand—mightily, for such a little +fellow. George was whispering to Hart, and I could see that they were +greatly excited over something.</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Hart, when the professor and I finished talking things +over, "George here wants you to take a little trip over to Philly with +him. He has something there he wants to show you."</p> + +<p>I looked from one to the other for signs of a hoax. These two, under +normal circumstances, were always up to something. But what I saw in +their expressions convinced me that I had better go, and somehow, there +rose in my breast a forlorn hope.</p> + +<p>"All right," I agreed. "Let's go!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Once</span> more we four took off together, this time in a speedy little +first-level cabin plane of Hart's design, piloted by the irrepressible +George. I was brimming with questions, but George kept up such a +run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>ning fire of small talk that I was unable to get in a single word +throughout the short trip to the Quaker City. It was quite evident that +something was in the wind.</p> + +<p>Instead of landing at the airport, George swung across the city and +dropped to the roof landing space of a large building which I recognized +as the Germantown Hospital. We had no sooner landed when I was rushed +from the plane to the penthouse over the elevator shafts. We were soon +on the main floor and George went immediately to the desk at the +receiving office, where he engaged in earnest conversation with the +nurse in charge.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing—committing me?" I asked, half joking only. For, +from the mysterious expression of my friends' faces, I was not sure what +to expect.</p> + +<p>"No," laughed Hart. "George learned of the existence of a patient here +who may turn out to be a very good friend of yours."</p> + +<p>I turned this over in my mind, which did not yet function quite +normally. A friend? Why, I had very few that could really be termed good +friends outside of those that accompanied me. It could mean but one +thing. Possibly one of my children—or even my dear wife—might have +escaped somehow. I followed in a daze as a white-capped and gowned nurse +led us along the corridor and into a ward where there were dozens of +high, white beds.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Some</span> of the patients were swathed in bandages; some sat up in their +beds, reading or just staring; others lay inert and pale. The reek of +iodoform pervaded the large room.</p> + +<p>We stopped at the bedside of one of the staring patients, a young woman +who looked unseeingly at our party. Great heavens, it was Marie!</p> + +<p>A physician stood at the other side of her bed, finger on her pulse. The +others drew back as I approached her side, raised her free hand to my +lips and spoke to her.</p> + +<p>"Marie, dear," I asked gently, forcing the lump from my throat as best I +could, "don't you know me? It's Jack, Honey."</p> + +<p>The fixed stare of the great blue eyes shifted in my direction. It +seemed that they looked through and past me into some terrible realm +where only horror held sway. She drew her hand from my grasp and passed +it before those staring, unnatural eyes. There was an audible gulp from +George. But the doctor smiled encouragement to me. I tried once more.</p> + +<p>"Marie," I said, "where are Jim and Jackie?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> hand fluttered to her lap, where it lay, blue-veined and pitifully +thin. The stare focussed on me, seemed to concentrate. Then the film was +gone from the eyes and she saw—she knew me!</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack!" she wailed, "I have been away. Don't you know where they +are?"</p> + +<p>My heart nearly stopped at this, but I sat on the edge of the bed and +took her in my arms, looking at the doctor for approval. He nodded his +head brightly and beckoned to the nurse.</p> + +<p>"Bring the children," I heard him whisper.</p> + +<p>My cup was full. But I must be calm for Marie's sake. She had closed her +eyes now and great tears coursed down her waxen cheeks. Her body shook +with sobs.</p> + +<p>"She'll recover?" I asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>"You bet. Just an aggravated case of amnesia. Hasn't eaten. Didn't even +know her children. Cured now, but she'll need a few weeks to build up." +He snapped shut the lid of his watch.</p> + +<p>Those succinct sentences were the finest I had ever heard.</p> + +<p>Marie clung to me like an infant to its mother. Her sobs gradually +ceased and she looked into my eyes. Little Jim and Jack had come in and +were clamoring for recognition.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack," Marie whispered, "I'm so happy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>She relinquished me and turned her attention to the children. I saw that +my friends had left and that an orderly was placing screens about us. So +I'll close the screen on the remainder of this most happy reunion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was several days before I had the complete story. Being lonesome +during my absence when we were preparing for the voyage into space, and +not knowing just when I would return, Marie had packed a grip and taken +the train for Philadelphia, deciding to spend a few days with her Aunt +Margaret, or at least to remain there with the children until I +returned.</p> + +<p>She had boarded the train at Manhattan Transfer at about the time we +reached the location of the <i>Terror</i> and the train was just pulling out +of the station when there came the first of the new attacks of the +enemy. She thought that the pillar of fire rose from the approximate +location of Rutherford, but was not sure until they reached Newark, when +the news was spread throughout the train by passengers who boarded it +there. She worried and cried over the loss of our little home and had +worked herself into a state of extreme nervousness and near-hysteria by +the time they reached New Brunswick.</p> + +<p>Then, as the long train left New Brunswick, there was another attack, +this one on the town they had just left. The last two cars of the train +were blown from the track by the initial concussion, and the remainder +of the train brought to a grinding, jerking stop that threw the +passengers into a panic.</p> + +<p>Already hysterical, Marie was in no condition to bear up under the +shock, and the loss of memory followed. Jack and Jim clung to her, of +course, and were taken to the Germantown Hospital with her when the +wreck victims were transferred to that point. She had no identification +on her person, and it was by sheerest luck that George, who was visiting +a friend in the same hospital, chanced to see her and thought he +recognized her.</p> + +<p>That was all of it, but to me it was more than enough. From the depths +of despondency, I rose to the peaks of elation. It was true that we +would have to establish a new home, but this would be a joy as never +before. Those I had given up as lost were restored to me and I was +content. Hart would have to make some changes in the duties of that new +job—the world travel was out of the picture. I had had my fill of +adventure.</p> + +<p>Besides, the hot spell was over.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="leper" id="leper"></a>The Forgotten Planet</h2> + +<h3><i>By Sewell Peaslee Wright</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 461px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007088.jpg" width="461" height="550" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">The authentic account of why cosmic man damned an outlaw +world to be, forever, a leper of Space.</div> + + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I have</span> been asked to record, plainly and without prejudice, a brief +history of the Forgotten Planet.</p> + +<p>That this record, when completed, will be sealed in the archives of the +Interplanetary Alliance and remain there, a secret and rather dreadful +bit of history, is no concern of mine. I am an old man, well past the +century mark, and what disposal is made of my work is of little +importance to me. I grow weary of life and living, which is good. The +fear of death was lost when our scientists showed us how to live until +we grew weary of life. But I am digressing—an old man's failing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007089.jpg" width="433" height="550" alt=""It's nothing. Close the exit; we depart at once."" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"It's nothing. Close the exit; we depart at once."</span> +</div> + +<p>The Forgotten Planet was not always so named. The name that it once bore +had been, as every child knows, stricken from the records, actual and +mental, of the Universe. It is well that evil should not be remembered. +But in order that this history may be clear in the centuries to come, my +record should go back to beginnings.</p> + +<p>So far as the Universe is concerned, the history of the Forgotten Planet +begins with the visit of the first craft ever to span the space between +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> worlds: the crude, adventuresome <i>Edorn</i>, whose name, as well as +the names of the nine Zenians who manned her, occupy the highest places +in the roll of honor of the Universe.</p> + +<p>Ame Baove, the commander and historian of the <i>Edorn</i>, made but brief +comment on his stop at the Forgotten Planet. I shall record it in full:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We came to rest upon the surface of this, the fourth of the +planets visited during the first trip of the <i>Edorn</i>, eighteen +spaces before the height of the sun. We found ourselves surrounded +immediately by vast numbers of creatures very different from +ourselves, and from their expressions and gestures, we gathered +that they were both curious and unfriendly.</p> + +<p>"Careful analysis of the atmosphere proved it to be sufficiently +similar to our own to make it possible for us to again stretch our +legs outside the rather cramped quarters of the <i>Edorn</i>, and tread +the soil of still another world.</p> + +<p>"No sooner had we emerged, however, than we were angrily beset by +the people of this unfriendly planet, and rather than do them +injury, we retired immediately, and concluded our brief +observations through our ports.</p> + +<p>"The topography of this planet is similar to our own, save that +there are no mountains, and the flora is highly colored almost +without exception, and apparently quite largely parasitical in +nature. The people are rather short in stature, with hairless heads +and high foreheads. Instead of being round or oval, however, the +heads of these people rise to a rounded ridge which runs back from +a point between and just above the eyes, nearly to the nape of the +neck behind. They give evidence of a fair order of intelligence, +but are suspicious and unfriendly. From the number and size of the +cities we saw, this planet is evidently thickly populated.</p> + +<p>"We left about sixteen spaces before the height of the sun, and +continued towards the fifth and last planet before our return to +Zenia."</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">This</span> report, quite naturally, caused other explorers in space to +hesitate. There were so many friendly, eager worlds to visit, during the +years that relations between the planets were being established, that an +unfriendly people were ignored.</p> + +<p>However, from time to time, as space-ships became perfected and more +common, parties from many of the more progressive planets did call. Each +of them met with the same hostile reception, and at last, shortly after +the second War of the Planets, the victorious Alliance sent a fleet of +the small but terrible Deuber Spheres, convoyed by four of the largest +of the disintegrator ray-ships, to subjugate the Forgotten Planet.</p> + +<p>Five great cities were destroyed, and the Control City, the seat of the +government, was menaced before the surly inhabitants conceded allegiance +to the Alliance. Parties of scientists, fabricators, and workmen were +then landed, and a dictator was appointed.</p> + +<p>From all the worlds of the Alliance, instruments and equipment were +brought to the Forgotten Planet. A great educational system was planned +and executed, the benign and kindly influence of the Alliance made every +effort to improve the conditions existing on the Forgotten Planet, and +to win the friendship and allegiance of these people.</p> + +<p>For two centuries the work went on. Two centuries of bloodshed, strife, +hate and disturbance. No where else within the known Universe was there +ill feeling. The second awful War of the Planets had at last succeeded +in teaching the lesson of peace.</p> + +<p>Two centuries of effort—wasted effort. It was near the end of the +second<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> century that my own story begins.</p> + +<p>Commander at that time of the super-cruiser <i>Tamon</i>, a Special Patrol +ship of the Alliance, I was not at all surprised to receive orders from +the Central Council to report at emergency speed. Special Patrol work in +those days, before the advent of the present de-centralized system, was +a succession of false starts, hurried recalls, and urgent, emergency +orders.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I obeyed</span> at once. In the Special Patrol service, there is no questioning +orders. The planet Earth, from which I sprang, is and always has been +proud of the fact that from the very beginning, her men have been picked +to command the ships of the Special Patrol. No matter how dangerous, how +forlorn and hopeless the mission given to a commander of a Special +Patrol ship, history has never recorded that any commander has ever +hesitated. That is why our uniform of blue and silver commands the +respect that it does even in this day and age of softening and +decadence, when men—but again an old man digresses. And perhaps it is +not for me to judge.</p> + +<p>I pointed the blunt nose of the <i>Tamon</i> at Zenia, seat of the Central +Council, and in four hours, Earth time, the great craft swept over the +gleaming city of the Central Council and settled swiftly to the court +before the mighty, columned Hall of the Planets.</p> + +<p>Four pages of the Council, in their white and scarlet livery, met me and +conducted me instantly to a little anteroom behind the great council +chamber.</p> + +<p>There were three men awaiting me there; three men whose faces, at that +time, were familiar to every person in the known Universe.</p> + +<p>Kellen, the oldest of the three, and the spokesman, rose as I entered +the room. The others did likewise, as the pages closed the heavy doors +behind me.</p> + +<p>"You are prompt, and that is good," thought Kellen. "I welcome you. +Remove now thy menore."</p> + +<p>I glanced up at him swiftly. This must surely be an important matter, +that I was asked to remove my menore band.</p> + +<p>It will, of course, be understood that at that time we had but a bulky +and clumsy instrument to enable us to convey and receive thought; a +device consisting of a heavy band of metal, in which were imbedded the +necessary instruments and a tiny atomic energy generator, the whole +being worn as a circlet or crown upon the head.</p> + +<p>Wonderingly, I removed my menore, placed it upon the long, dark table +around which the three men were standing, and bowed. Each of the three, +in turn, lifted their gleaming circlets from their heads, and placed +them likewise upon the table before them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">You</span> wonder," said Kellen, speaking of course, in the soft and liquid +universal language, which is, I understand, still disseminated in our +schools, as it should be. "I shall explain as quickly and as briefly as +possible.</p> + +<p>"We have called you here on a dangerous mission. A mission that will +require tact and quickness of mind as well as bravery. We have selected +you, have called you, because we are agreed that you possess the +qualities required. Is it not so?" He glanced at his two companions, and +they nodded gravely, solemnly, without speaking.</p> + +<p>"You are a young man, John Hanson," continued Kellen, "but your record +in your service is one of which you can be proud. We trust you—with +knowledge that is so secret, so precious, that we must revert to speech +in order to convey it; we dare not trust it, even in this protected and +guarded place, to the menore's quicker but less discreet communication."</p> + +<p>He paused for a moment, frowning thoughtfully as though dreading to +begin. I waited silently, and at last he spoke again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There is a world"—and he named a name which I shall not repeat, the +name of the Forgotten Planet—"that is a festering sore upon the body of +the Universe. As you know, for two centuries we have tried to pass on to +these people an understanding of peace and friendship. I believe that +nothing has been left undone. The Council and the forces behind it have +done everything within their power. And now—"</p> + +<p>He stopped again, and there was an expression of deepest pain written +upon his wise and kindly face. The pause was for but an instant.</p> + +<p>"And now," he went on firmly, "it is at an end. Our work has been +undone. Two centuries of effort—undone. They have risen in revolt, they +have killed all those sent by the Alliance of which this Council is the +governing body and the mouthpiece, and they have sent us an ultimatum—a +threat of war!"</p> + +<p>"<i>What?</i>"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Kellen</span> nodded his magnificent old head gravely.</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder that you start," he said heavily. "War! It must not be. +It cannot be! And yet, war is what they threaten."</p> + +<p>"But, sir!" I put in eagerly. I was young and rash in those days. "Who +are they, to make war against a united Universe?"</p> + +<p>"I have visited your planet, Earth," said Kellen, smiling very faintly. +"You have a tiny winged insect you call <i>bee</i>. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The bee is a tiny thing, of little strength. A man, a little child, +might crush one to death between a thumb and finger. But the bee may +sting before he is crushed, and the sting may linger on for days, a +painful and unpleasant thing. Is that not so?"</p> + +<p>"I see, sir," I replied, somewhat abashed before the tolerant, kindly +wisdom of this great man. "They cannot hope to wage successful war, but +they may bring much suffering to others."</p> + +<p>"Much suffering," nodded Kellen, still gently smiling. "And we are +determined that this thing shall not be. Not"—and his face grew gray +with a terrible and bitter resolve—"not if we have to bring to bear +upon that dark and unwilling world the disintegrating rays of every ship +of the Alliance, so that the very shell of the planet shall disappear, +and no life ever again shall move upon its surface.</p> + +<p>"But this," and he seemed to shudder at the thought, "is a terrible and +a ruthless thing to even contemplate. We must first try once again to +point out to them the folly of their ways. It is with this mission that +we would burden you, John Hanson."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> is no burden, but an honor, sir," I said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Youth! Youth!" Kellen chided me gently. "Foolish, yet rather glorious. +Let me tell you the rest, and then we shall ask for your reply again.</p> + +<p>"The news came to us by a small scout ship attached to that unhappy +world. It barely made the journey to Jaron, the nearest planet, and +crashed so badly, from lack of power, that all save one man were killed.</p> + +<p>"He, luckily, tore off his menore, and insisted in speech that he be +brought here. He was obeyed, and, in a dying condition, was brought to +this very chamber." Kellen glanced swiftly, sadly, around the room, as +though he could still visualize that scene.</p> + +<p>"Every agent of the Alliance upon that hateful planet was set upon and +killed, following the working out of some gigantic and perfectly +executed plan—all save the crew of this one tiny scout ship, which was +spared to act as a messenger.</p> + +<p>"'Tell your great Council,' was the message these people sent to us, +'that here is rebellion. We do not want, nor will we tolerate, your +peace. We have learned now that upon other worlds than ours there are +great riches. These we shall take. If there is re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>sistance, we have a +new and a terrible death to deal. A death that your great scientists +will be helpless against; a horrible and irresistable death that will +make desolate and devoid of intelligent life any world where we are +forced to sow the seeds of ultimate disaster.</p> + +<p>"'We are not yet ready. If we were, we would not move, for we prefer +that your Council have time to think about what is surely to come. If +you doubt that we have the power to do what we have threatened to do, +send one ship, commanded by a man whose word you will trust, and we will +prove to him that these are no empty words.'"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">That</span>, as nearly as I can remember it," concluded Kellen, "is the +message. The man who brought it died almost before he had finished.</p> + +<p>"That is the message. You are the man we have picked to accept their +challenge. Remember, though, that there are but the four of us in this +room. There are but four of us who know these things. If you for any +reason do not wish to accept this mission, there will be none to judge +you, least of all, any one of us, who know best of all the perils."</p> + +<p>"You say, sir," I said quietly, although my heart was pounding in my +throat, and roaring in my ears, "that there would be none to judge me.</p> + +<p>"Sir, there would be myself. There could be no more merciless judge. I +am honored that I have been selected for this task, and I accept the +responsibility willingly, gladly. When is it your wish that we should +start?"</p> + +<p>The three presiding members of the Council glanced at each other, +faintly smiling, as though they would say, as Kellen had said a short +time before: "Youth! Youth!" Yet I believe they were glad and somewhat +proud that I had replied as I did.</p> + +<p>"You may start," said Kellen, "as soon as you can complete the necessary +preparations. Detailed instructions will be given you later."</p> + +<p>He bowed to me, and the others did likewise. Then Kellen picked up his +menore and adjusted it.</p> + +<p>The interview was over.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">What</span> do you make it?" I asked the observer. He glanced up from his +instrument.</p> + +<p>"Jaron, sir. Three degrees to port; elevation between five and six +degrees. Approximate only, of course, sir."</p> + +<p>"Good enough. Please ask Mr. Barry to hold to his present course. We +shall not stop at Jaron."</p> + +<p>The observer glanced at me curiously, but he was too well disciplined to +hesitate or ask questions.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" he said crisply, and spoke into the microphone beside him.</p> + +<p>None of us wore menores when on duty, for several reasons. Our +instruments were not nearly as perfect as those in use to-day, and +verbal orders were clearer and carried more authority than mental +instructions. The delicate and powerful electrical and atomic mechanism +of our ship interfered with the functioning of the menores, and at that +time the old habit of speech was far more firmly entrenched, due to +hereditary influence, than it is now.</p> + +<p>I nodded to the man, and made my way to my own quarters. I wished most +heartily that I could talk over my plans with someone, but this had been +expressly forbidden.</p> + +<p>"I realize that you trust your men, and more particularly your +officers," Kellen had told me during the course of his parting +conversation with me. "I trust them also—yet we must remember that the +peace of mind of the Universe is concerned. If news, even a rumor, of +this threatened disaster should become known, it is impossible to +predict the disturbance it might create.</p> + +<p>"Say nothing to anyone. It is your problem. You alone should leave the +ship when you land; you alone shall hear or see the evidence they have +to present, and you alone shall bring word of it to us. That is the wish +of the Council."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then it is my wish," I had said, and so it had been settled.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Aft</span>, in the crew's quarters, a gong sounded sharply: the signal for +changing watches, and the beginning of a sleep period. I glanced at the +remote control dials that glowed behind their glass panel on one side of +my room. From the registered attraction of Jaron, at our present speed, +we should be passing her within, according to Earth time, about two +hours. That meant that their outer patrols might be seeking our +business, and I touched Barry's attention button, and spoke into the +microphone beside my bunk.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barry? I am turning in for a little sleep. Before you turn over the +watch to Eitel, will you see that the nose rays are set for the Special +Patrol code signal for this enar. We shall be close to Jaron shortly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir! Any other orders?"</p> + +<p>"No. Keep her on her present course. I shall take the watch from Mr. +Eitel."</p> + +<p>Since there have been changes since those days, and will undoubtedly be +others in the future, it might be well to make clear, in a document such +is this, that at this period, all ships of the Special Patrol Service +identified themselves by means of invisible rays flashed in certain +sequences, from the two nose, or forward, projectors. These code signals +were changed every enar, a period of time arbitrarily set by the +Council; about eighteen days, as time is measured on the Earth, and +divided into ten periods, as at present, known as enarens. These were +further divided into enaros, thus giving us a time-reckoning system for +use in space, corresponding roughly to the months, days and hours of the +Earth.</p> + +<p>I retired, but not to sleep. Sleep would not come. I knew, of course, +that if curious outer patrol ships from Jaron did investigate us, they +would be able to detect our invisible ray code signal, and thus satisfy +themselves that we were on the Council's business. There would be no +difficulty on that score. But what I should do after landing upon the +rebellious sphere, I had not the slightest idea.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Be</span> stern, indifferent to their threats," Kellen, had counseled me, "but +do everything within your power to make them see the folly of their +attitude. Do not threaten them, for they are a surly people and you +might precipitate matters. Swallow your pride if you must; remember that +yours is a gigantic responsibility, and upon the information you bring +us may depend the salvation of millions. I am convinced that they are +not—you have a word in your language that fits exactly. Not pretending +... what is the word?"</p> + +<p>"Bluffing?" I had supplied in English, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Right! Bluffing. It is a very descriptive word. I am sure they are not +bluffing."</p> + +<p>I was sure of it also. They knew the power of the Alliance; they had +been made to feel it more than once. A bluff would have been a foolish +thing, and these people were not fools. In some lines of research they +were extraordinarily brilliant.</p> + +<p>But what could their new, terrible weapon be? Rays we had; at least half +a dozen rays of destruction; the terrible dehydrating ray of the Deuber +Spheres, the disintegrating ray that dated back before Ame Baove and his +first voyage into space, the concentrated ultra-violet ray that struck +men down in fiery torment.... No, it could hardly be a new ray that was +their boasted weapon.</p> + +<p>What, then? Electricity had even then been exhausted of its +possibilities. Atomic energy had been released, harnessed, and directed. +Yet it would take fabulous time and expense to make these machines of +destruction do what they claimed they would do.</p> + +<p>Still pondering the problem, I did fall at last into a fitful travesty +of sleep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I was</span> glad when the soft clamor of the bell aft announced the next +change of watch. I rose, cleared the cobwebs from my brain with an icy +shower, and made my way directly to the navigating room.</p> + +<p>"Everything tidy, sir," said Eitel, my second officer, and a Zenian. He +was thin and very dark, like all Zenians, and had the high, effeminate +voice of that people. But he was cool and fearless and had the uncanny +cerebration of his kind; I trusted him as completely as I trusted Barry, +my first officer, who, like myself, was a native of Earth. "Will you +take over?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I nodded, glancing at the twin charts beneath the ground glass +top of the control table. "Get what sleep you can the next few enaros. +Presently I shall want every man on duty and at his station."</p> + +<p>He glanced at me curiously, as the observer had done, but saluted and +left with only a brief, "Yes, sir!" I returned the salute and turned my +attention again to the charts.</p> + +<p>The navigating room of an interplanetary ship is without doubt +unfamiliar ground to most, so it might be well for me to say that such +ships have, for the most part, twin charts, showing progress in two +dimensions; to use land terms, lateral and vertical. These charts are +really no more than large sheets of ground glass, ruled in both +directions with fine black lines, representing all relatively close +heavenly bodies by green lights of varying sizes. The ship itself is +represented by a red spark and the whole is, of course, entirely +automatic in action, the instruments comprising the chart being operated +by super-radio reflexes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Jaron</span>, the charts showed me at a glance, was now far behind. Almost +directly above—it is necessary to resort to these unscientific terms to +make my meaning clear—was the tiny world Elon, home of the friendly but +impossibly dull winged people, the only ones in the known Universe. I +was there but once, and found them almost laughably like our common +dragon-flies on Earth; dragon-flies that grow some seven feet long, and +with gauzy wings of amazing strength.</p> + +<p>Directly ahead, on both charts, was a brilliantly glowing sphere of +green—our destination. I made some rapid mental calculations, studying +the few fine black lines between the red spark that was our ship, and +the nearest edge of the great green sphere. I glanced at our speed +indicator and the attraction meter. The little red slide that moved +around the rim of the attraction meter was squarely at the top, showing +that the attraction was from straight ahead; the great black hand was +nearly a third of the way around the face.</p> + +<p>We were very close; two hours would bring us into the atmospheric +envelope. In less than two hours and a half, we would be in the Control +City of what is now called the Forgotten Planet!</p> + +<p>I glanced forward, through the thick glass partitions, into the +operating room. Three men stood there, watching intently; they too, were +wondering why we visited the unfriendly world.</p> + +<p>The planet itself loomed up straight ahead, a great half-circle, its +curved rim sharp and bright against the empty blackness of space; the +chord ragged and blurred. In two hours ... I turned away and began a +restless pacing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">An</span> hour went by; an hour and a half. I pressed the attention button to +the operating room, and gave orders to reduce our speed by half. We were +very close to the outer fringe of the atmospheric envelope. Then, +keeping my eye on the big surface-temperature gauge, with its stubby red +hand, I resumed my nervous pacing.</p> + +<p>Slowly the thick red hand of the surface-temperature gauge began to +move; slowly, and then more rapidly, until the eyes could catch its +creeping.</p> + +<p>"Reduce to atmospheric speed," I ordered curtly, and glanced down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +through a side port at one end of the long navigating room.</p> + +<p>We were, at the moment, directly above the twilight belt. To my right, +as I looked down, I could see a portion of the glistening antarctic ice +cap. Here and there were the great flat lakes, almost seas, of the +planet.</p> + +<p>Our geographies of the Universe to-day do not show the topography of +the Forgotten Planet: I might say, therefore, that the entire sphere was +land area, with numerous great lakes embedded in its surface, together +with many broad, very crooked rivers. As Ame Baove had reported, there +were no mountains, and no high land.</p> + +<p>"Altitude constant," I ordered. "Port three degrees. Stand by for +further orders."</p> + +<p>The earth seemed to whirl slowly beneath us. Great cities drifted +astern, and I compared the scene below me with the great maps I took +from our chart-case. The Control City should be just beyond the visible +rim; well in the daylight area.</p> + +<p>"Port five degrees," I said, and pressed the attention button to Barry's +quarters.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barry, please call all men to quarters, including the off-duty +watch, and then report to the navigating room. Mr. Eitel will be under +my direct orders. We shall descend within the next few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir."</p> + +<p>I pressed the attention button to Eitel's room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Eitel, please pick ten of your best men and have them report at the +forward exit. Await me, with the men, at that place. I shall be with you +as soon as I turn the command over to Mr. Barry. We are descending +immediately."</p> + +<p>"Right, sir!" said Eitel.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I turned</span> from the microphone to find that Barry had just entered the +navigating room.</p> + +<p>"We will descend into the Great Court of the Control City, Mr. Barry," +I said. "I have a mission here. I am sorry, but these are the only +instructions I can leave you.</p> + +<p>"I do not know how long I shall be gone from the ship, but if I do not +return within three hours, depart without me, and report directly to +Kellen of the Council. To him, and no other. Tell him, verbally, what +took place. Should there be any concerted action against the <i>Tamon</i>, +use your own judgment as to the action to be taken, remembering that the +safety of the ship and its crew, and the report of the Council, are +infinitely more important than my personal welfare. Is that clear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Too damned clear."</p> + +<p>I smiled and shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry," I said lightly. "I'll be back well within the appointed +time."</p> + +<p>"I hope so. But there's something wrong as hell here. I'm talking now as +man to man; not to my commanding officer. I've been watching below, and +I have seen at least two spots where large numbers of our ships have +been destroyed. The remaining ships bear their own damned emblem where +the crest of the Alliance should be—and was. What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means," I said slowly, "that I shall have to rely upon every man and +officer to forget himself and myself, and obey orders without hesitation +and without flinching. The orders are not mine, but direct from the +Council itself." I held out my hand to him—an ancient Earth gesture of +greeting, good-will and farewell—and he shook it vigorously.</p> + +<p>"God go with you," he said softly, and with a little nod of thanks I +turned and quickly left the room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Eitel</span>, with his ten men, were waiting for me at the forward exit. The +men fell back a few paces and came to attention; Eitel saluted smartly.</p> + +<p>"We are ready, sir. What are your orders?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are to guard this opening. Under no circumstances is anyone to +enter save myself. I shall be gone not longer than three hours; if I am +not back within that time, Mr. Barry has his orders. The exit will be +sealed, and the <i>Tamon</i> will depart immediately, without me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. You will pardon me, but I gather that your mission is a +dangerous one. May I not accompany you?"</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"I shall need you here."</p> + +<p>"But, sir, they are very excited and angry; I have been watching them +from the observation ports. And there is a vast crowd of them around the +ship."</p> + +<p>"I had expected that. I thank you for your concern, but I must go alone. +Those are the orders. Will you unseal the exit?"</p> + +<p>His "Yes, sir!" was brisk and efficient, but there was a worried frown +on his features as he unlocked and released the switch that opened the +exit.</p> + +<p>The huge plug of metal, some ten feet in diameter, revolved swiftly and +noiselessly, backing slowly in its fine threads into the interior of the +ship, gripped by the ponderous gimbals which, as the last threads +disengaged, swung the mighty disc to one side, like the door of some +great safe.</p> + +<p>"Remember your orders," I smiled, and with a little gesture to convey an +assurance which I certainly did not feel, I strode through the circular +opening out into the crowd. The heavy glass secondary door shot down +behind me, and I was in the hands of the enemy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> first thing I observed was that my menore, which I had picked up on +my way to the exit, was not functioning. Not a person in all that vast +multitude wore a menore; the five black-robed dignitaries who marched to +meet me wore none.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have showed more clearly that I was in for trouble. To +invite a visitor, as Kellen had done, to remove his menore first, was, +of course, a polite and courteous thing to do if one wished to +communicate by speech; to remove the menore before greeting a visitor +wearing one, was a tacit admission of rank enmity; a confession that +one's thoughts were to be concealed.</p> + +<p>My first impulse was to snatch off my own instrument and fling it in the +solemn, ugly faces of the nearest of the five dignataries; I remembered +Kellen's warning just in time. Quietly, I removed the metal circlet and +tucked it under my arm, bowing slightly to the committee of five as I +did so.</p> + +<p>"I am Ja Ben," said the first of the five, with an evil grin. "You are +the representative of the Council that we commanded to appear?"</p> + +<p>"I am John Hanson, commander of the ship <i>Tamon</i> of the Special Patrol +Service. I am here to represent the Central Council," I replied with +dignity.</p> + +<p>"As we commanded," grinned Ja Ben. "That is good. Follow us and you +shall have the evidence you were promised."</p> + +<p>Ja Ben led the way with two of his black-robed followers. The other two +fell in behind me. A virtual prisoner, I marched between them, through +the vast crowd that made way grudgingly to let us pass.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I have</span> seen the people of most of the planets of the known Universe. +Many of them, to Earth notions, are odd. But these people, so much like +us in many respects, were strangely repulsive.</p> + +<p>Their heads, as Ame Baove had recorded, were not round like ours, but +possessed a high bony crest that ran from between their lashless, +browless eyes, down to the very nape of their necks. Their skin, even +that covering their hairless heads, was a dull and papery white, like +parchment, and their eyes were abnormally small, and nearly round. A +hateful, ugly people, perpetually scowling, snarling; their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> very voices +resembled more the growl of wild beasts than the speech of intelligent +beings.</p> + +<p>Ja Ben led the way straight to the low but vast building of dun-colored +stone that I knew was the administration building of the Control City. +We marched up the broad, crowded steps, through the muttering, jeering +multitude into the building itself. The guards at the doors stood aside +to let us through and the crowd at last was left behind.</p> + +<p>A swift, cylindrical elevator shot us upward, into a great glass-walled +laboratory, built like a sort of penthouse on the roof. Ja Ben walked +quickly across the room towards a long, glass-topped table; the other +four closed in on me silently but suggestively.</p> + +<p>"That is unnecessary," I said quietly. "See, I am unarmed and completely +in your power. I am here as an ambassador of the Central Council, not as +a warrior."</p> + +<p>"Which is as well for you," grinned Ja Ben. "What I have to show you, +you can see quickly, and then depart."</p> + +<p>From a great cabinet in one corner of the room he took a shining +cylinder of dark red metal, and held it up before him, stroking its +sleek sides with an affectionate hand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Here</span> it is," he said, chuckling. "The secret of our power. In here, +safely imprisoned now, but capable of being released at our command, is +death for every living thing upon any planet we choose to destroy." He +replaced the great cylinder in the cabinet, and picked up in its stead a +tiny vial of the same metal, no larger than my little finger, and not so +long. "Here," he said, turning again towards me, "is the means of +proving our power to you. Come closer!"</p> + +<p>With my bodyguard of four watching every move, I approached.</p> + +<p>Ja Ben selected a large hollow hemisphere of crystal glass and placed it +upon a smooth sheet of flat glass. Next he picked a few blossoms from a +bowl that stood, incongruously enough, on the table, and threw them +under the glass hemisphere.</p> + +<p>"Flora," he grinned.</p> + +<p>Hurrying to the other end of the room, he reached into a large flat +metal cage and brought forth three small rodent like animals, natives of +that world. These he also tossed carelessly under the glass.</p> + +<p>"Fauna," he grunted, and picked up the tiny metal vial.</p> + +<p>One end of the vial unscrewed. He turned the cap gently, carefully, a +strained, anxious look upon his face. My four guards watched him +breathlessly, fearfully.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> cap came loose at last, disclosing the end of the tube, sealed with +a grayish substance that looked like wax. Very quickly Ja Ben rolled the +little cylinder under the glass hemisphere, and picked up a beaker that +had been bubbling gently on an electric plate close by. Swiftly he +poured the thick contents of the beaker around the base of the glass +bell. The stuff hardened almost instantly, forming an air-tight seal +between the glass hemisphere and the flat plate of glass upon which it +rested. Then, with an evil, triumphant smile, Ja Ben looked up.</p> + +<p>"<i>Flora</i>," he repeated. "<i>Fauna.</i> And <i>death</i>. Watch! The little metal +cylinder is plugged still, but in a moment that plug will +disappear—simply a volatile solid, you understand. It is going rapidly +... rapidly ... it is almost gone now! Watch ... In an instant now ... +<i>ah!</i>"</p> + +<p>I saw the gray substance that stopped the entrance of the little metal +vial disappear. The rodents ran around and over it, trying to find a +crevice by which they might escape. The flowers, bright and beautiful, +lay untidily on the bottom of the glass prison.</p> + +<p>Then, just as the last vestige of the gray plug vanished; an amazing, a +terrible thing happened. At the mouth of the tiny metal vial a greenish +cloud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> appeared. I call it a cloud, but it was not that. It was solid, +and it spread in every direction, sending out little needles that lashed +about and ran together into a solid mass while millions of little +needles reached out swiftly.</p> + +<p>One of these little needles touched a scurrying animal. Instantly the +tiny brute stiffened, and from his entire body the greenish needles +spread swiftly. One of the flowers turned suddenly thick and pulpy with +the soft green mass, then another, another of the rodents ... <i>God!</i></p> + +<p>In the space of two heart beats, the entire hemisphere was filled with +the green mass, that still moved and writhed and seemed to press against +the glass sides as though the urge to expand was insistent, +imperative....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">What</span> is it?" I whispered, still staring at the thing.</p> + +<p>"<i>Death!</i>" grunted Ja Ben, thrusting his hateful face close to mine, his +tiny round eyes, with their lashless lids glinting. "Death, my friend. +Go and tell your great Council of this death that we have created for +every planet that will not obey us.</p> + +<p>"We have gone back into the history of dealing death and have come back +with a death such as the Universe has never known before!</p> + +<p>"Here is a rapacious, deadly fungus we have been two centuries in +developing. The spores contained in that tiny metal tube would be +invisible to the naked eye—and yet given but a little time to grow, +with air and vegetation and flesh to feed upon, and even that small +capsule would wipe out a world. And in the cabinet,"—he pointed +grinning triumphantly—"we have, ready for instant use, enough of the +spores of this deadly fungas to wipe out all the worlds of your great +Alliance.</p> + +<p>"To wipe them out utterly!" he repeated, his voice shaking with a sort +of frenzy now. "Every living thing upon their faces, wrapped in that +thin, hungry green stuff you see there under that glass. All life wiped +out; made uninhabitable so long as the Universe shall endure. And +we—<i>we</i> shall be rulers, unquestioned, of that Universe. Tell your +doddering Council <i>that</i>!" He leaned back against the table, panting +with hate.</p> + +<p>"I shall tell them all I have seen; all you have said," I nodded.</p> + +<p>"You believe we have the power to do all this?"</p> + +<p>"I do—God help me, and the Universe," I said solemnly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">There</span> was no doubt in my mind. I could see all too clearly how well +their plans had been laid; how quickly this hellish growth would +strangle all life, once its spores began to develop.</p> + +<p>The only possible chance was to get back to the Council and make my +report, with all possible speed, so that every available armed ship of +the universe might concentrate here, and wipe out these people before +they had time to—</p> + +<p>"I know what you are thinking, my friend," broke in Ja Ben mockingly. +"You might as well have worn the menore! You would have the ships of the +Alliance destroy us before we have time to act. We had foreseen that, +and have provided for the possibility.</p> + +<p>"As soon as you leave here, ships, provided with many tubes like the one +just used for our little demonstration, will be dispersed in every +direction. We shall be in constant communication with those ships, and +at the least sign of hostility, they will be ordered to depart and +spread their death upon every world they can reach. Some of them you may +be able to locate and eliminate; a number of them are certain to elude +capture in infinite space—and if only one, one lone ship, should +escape, the doom of the Alliance and millions upon millions of people +will be pronounced.</p> + +<p>"I warn you, it will be better, much better, to bow to our wishes, and +pay us the tribute we shall demand. Any attempt at resistance will +precipitate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> certain disaster for your Council and all the worlds the +Council governs."</p> + +<p>"At least, we would wipe you out first," I said hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"True," nodded Ja Ben. "But the vengeance of our ships would be a +terrible thing! You would not dare to take the chance!"</p> + +<p>I stood there, staring at him in a sort of daze. What he had said was so +true; terribly, damnably true.</p> + +<p>If only—</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">There</span> was but one chance I could see, and desperate as it was, I took +it. Whirling the heavy metal ring of my menore in my hand, I sprang +towards the table.</p> + +<p>If I could break the sealed glass hemisphere, and loose the fungus upon +its creators; deal to them the doom they had planned for the universe, +then perhaps all might yet be well.</p> + +<p>Ja Ben understood instantly what was in my mind. He and his four aides +leaped between me and the table, their tiny round eyes blazing with +anger. I struck one of the four viciously with the menore, and with a +gasp he fell back and slumped to the floor.</p> + +<p>Before I could break through the opening, however, Ja Ben struck me full +in the face with his mighty fist; a blow that sent me, dazed and +reeling, into a corner of the room. I brought up with a crash against +the cabinet there, groped wildly in an effort to steady myself, and fell +to the floor. Almost before I struck, all four of them were upon me.</p> + +<p>They hammered me viciously, shouted at me, cursed me in the universal +tongue, but I paid no heed. I pretended to be unconscious, but my heart +was beating high with sudden, glorious hope, and in my brain a terrible, +merciless plan was forming.</p> + +<p>When I had groped against the cabinet in an effort to regain my balance, +my fingers had closed upon one of the little metal vials. As I fell, I +covered that hand with my body and hastily hid the tiny tube in a deep +pocket of my blue and silver Service uniform.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Slowly</span>, after a few seconds, I opened my eyes and looked up at them, +helplessly.</p> + +<p>"Go, now!" snarled Ja Ben, dragging me to my feet. "Go, and tell your +Council we are more than a match for you—and for them." He thrust me, +reeling, towards his three assistants. "Take him to his ship, and send +aid for Ife Rance, here." He glanced at the still unconscious figure of +the victim of my menore, and then turned to me with a last warning.</p> + +<p>"Remember, one thing more, my friend: you have disintegrator ray +equipment upon your ship. You have the little atomic bombs that won for +the Alliance the Second War of the Planets. I know that. But if you make +the slightest effort to use them, I shall dispatch a supply of the green +death to our ships, and they will depart upon their missions at once. +You would take upon yourself a terrible responsibility by making the +smallest hostile move.</p> + +<p>"Go, now—and when you return, bring with you members of your great +Council who will have the power to hear our demands, and see that they +are obeyed. And do not keep us waiting over long, for we are an +impatient race." He bowed, mockingly, and passed his left hand swiftly +before his face, his people's sign of parting.</p> + +<p>I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and, hemmed in by my three +black-robed conductors, was hurried down the elevator and back through +the jeering mob to my ship.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> glass secondary door shot up to permit me to enter, and Eitel +gripped my shoulder anxiously, his eyes smoldering angrily.</p> + +<p>"You're hurt, sir!" he said in his odd, high-pitched voice, staring into +my bruised face. "What—"</p> + +<p>"It's nothing," I assured him. "Close the exit immediately; we depart at +once."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" He closed the switch, and the great threaded plug swung +gently on its gimbals and began to revolve, swiftly and silently. A +little bell sounded sharply, and the great door ceased its motion. Eitel +locked the switch and returned the key to his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Good. All men are at their stations?" I asked briskly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir! All except these ten, detailed to guard the exit."</p> + +<p>"Have them report to their regular stations. Issue orders to the ray +operators that they are to instantly, and without further orders, +destroy any ship that may leave the surface of this planet. Have every +atomic bomb crew ready for an instant and concentrated offensive +directed at the Control City, but command them not to act under any +circumstances unless I give the order. Is that clear, Mr. Eitel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!"</p> + +<p>I nodded, and turned away, making my way immediately to the navigating +room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barry," I said quickly and gravely, "I believe that the fate of the +known Universe depends upon us at this moment. We will ascend +vertically, at once—slowly—until we are just outside the envelope, +maintaining only sufficient horizontal motion to keep us directly over +the Control City. Will you give the necessary orders?"</p> + +<p>"Immediately, sir!" He pressed the attention button to the operating +room and spoke swiftly into the microphone; before he completed the +order I had left.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">We</span> were already ascending when I reached the port forward atomic bomb +station. The man in charge, a Zenian, saluted with automatic precision +and awaited orders.</p> + +<p>"You have a bomb in readiness?" I asked, returning the salute.</p> + +<p>"Those were my orders, sir."</p> + +<p>"Correct. Remove it, please."</p> + +<p>I waited impatiently while the crew removed the bomb from the releasing +trap. It was withdrawn at last; a fish-shaped affair, very much like the +ancient airplane bombs save that it was no larger than my two fists, +placed one upon the other, and that it had four silvery wires running +along its sides, from rounded nose to pointed tail, held at a distance +from the body by a series of insulating struts.</p> + +<p>"Now," I said, "how quickly can you put another object in the trap, +re-seal the opening, and release the object?"</p> + +<p>"While the Commander counts ten with reasonable speed," said the Zenian +with pride. "We won first honors in the Special Patrol Service contests +at the last Examination, the Commander may remember."</p> + +<p>"I do remember. That is why I selected you for this duty."</p> + +<p>With hands that trembled a little, I think, I drew forth the little vial +of gleaming red metal, while the bombing crew watched me curiously.</p> + +<p>"I shall unscrew the cap from this little vial," I explained, "and drop +it immediately into the releasing trap. Re-seal the trap and release +this object as quickly as it is possible to do so. If you can better the +time you made to win the honors at the Examination—in God's name, do +so!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" replied the Zenian. He gave brisk orders to his crew, and +each of the three men sprang alertly into position.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">As</span> quickly as I could, I turned off the cap of the little metal vial and +dropped it into the trap. The heavy plug, a tiny duplicate of the exit +door, clicked shut upon it and spun, whining gently, into the opening. +Something clicked sharply, and one of the crew dropped a bar into place. +As it shot home, the Zenian in command of the crew pulled the release +plunger.</p> + +<p>"Done, sir!" he said proudly.</p> + +<p>I did not reply. My eye fixed upon the observation tube that was +following the tiny missile to the ground.</p> + +<p>The Control City was directly below us. I lost sight of the vial almost +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>stantly, but the indicating cross-hairs showed me exactly where the +vial would strike; at a point approximately half way between the edge of +the city and the great squat pile of the administrating building, with +its gleaming glass penthouse—the laboratory in which, only a few +minutes before, I had witnessed the demonstration of the death which +awaited the Universe.</p> + +<p>"Excellent!" I exclaimed. "Smartly done, men!" I turned and hurried to +the navigating room, where the most powerful of our television discs was +located.</p> + +<p>The disc was not as perfect as those we have to-day; it was hooded to +keep out exterior light, which is not necessary with the later +instruments, and it was more unwieldy. However, it did its work, and did +it well, in the hands of an experienced operator.</p> + +<p>With only a nod to Barry, I turned the range band to maximum, and +brought it swiftly to bear upon that portion of the city in which the +little vial had fallen. As I drew the focusing lever towards me, the +scene leaped at me through the clear, glowing glass disc.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Froth</span>! Green, billowing froth that grew and boiled and spread +unceasingly. In places it reached high into the air, and it moved with +an eager, inner life that was somehow terrible and revolting. I moved +the range hand back, and the view seemed to drop away from me swiftly.</p> + +<p>I could see the whole city now. All one side of it was covered with the +spreading green stain that moved and flowed so swiftly. Thousands of +tiny black figures were running in the streets, crowding away from the +awful danger that menaced them.</p> + +<p>The green patch spread more swiftly always. When I had first seen it, +the edges were advancing as rapidly as a man could run; now they were +fairly racing, and the speed grew constantly.</p> + +<p>A ship, two of them, three of them came darting from somewhere, towards +the administration building, with its glass cupola. I held my breath as +the deep, sudden humming from the <i>Tamon</i> told me that our rays were +busy. Would they—</p> + +<p>One of the enemy ships disappeared suddenly in a little cloud of dirty, +heavy dust that settled swiftly. Another ... and the third. Three little +streaks of dust, falling, falling....</p> + +<p>A fourth ship, and a fifth came rushing up, their sides faintly glowing +from the speed they had made. The green flood, thick and insistent, was +racing up and over the administration building now. It reached the roof, +ran swiftly....</p> + +<p>The fourth ship shattered into dust. The fifth settled swiftly—and then +that ship also disappeared, together with a corner of the building. Then +the thick green stuff flowed over the whole building and there was +nothing to be seen there but a mound of soft, flowing, gray-green stuff +that rushed on now with the swiftness of the wind.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">I looked</span> up, into Barry's face.</p> + +<p>"You're ill!" he said quickly. "Is there anything I can do, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, forming the words with difficulty. "Give orders to ascend +at emergency speed!"</p> + +<p>For once my first officer hesitated. He glanced at the attraction meter +and then turned to me again, wondering.</p> + +<p>"At this height, sir, emergency speed will mean dangerous heating of the +surface; perhaps—"</p> + +<p>"I want it white hot, Mr. Barry. She is built to stand it. Emergency +speed, please—immediately!"</p> + +<p>"Right, sir!" he said briskly, and gave the order.</p> + +<p>I felt my weight increase as the order was obeyed; gradually the +familiar, uncomfortable feeling left me. Silently, Barry and I watched +the big surface temperature gauge as it started to move. The heat inside +became uncomfortable, grew intense. The sweat poured from us. In the +operating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> room forward, I could see the men casting quick, wondering +glances up at us through the heavy glass partition that lay between.</p> + +<p>The thick, stubby red hand of the surface temperature gauge moved slowly +but steadily towards the heavy red line that marked the temperature at +which the outer shell of our hull would become incandescent. The hand +was within three or four degrees of that mark when I gave Barry the +order to arrest our motion.</p> + +<p>When he had given the order, I turned to him and motioned towards the +television disc.</p> + +<p>"Look," I said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> looked, and when at last he tore his face away from the hood, he +seemed ten years older.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked in a choked whisper. "Why—they're being wiped +out; the whole of that world—"</p> + +<p>"True. And some of the seeds of that terrible death might have drifted +upward, and found a lodging place upon the surface of our ship. That is +why I ordered the emergency speed while we were still within the +atmospheric envelope, Barry. To burn away that contamination, if it +existed. Now we are safe, unless—"</p> + +<p>I pressed the attention button to the station of the chief of the ray +operators.</p> + +<p>"Your report," I ordered.</p> + +<p>"Nine ships disintegrated, sir," he replied instantly. "Five before the +city was destroyed, four later."</p> + +<p>"You are certain that none escaped?"</p> + +<p>"Positive, sir."</p> + +<p>"Very good."</p> + +<p>I turned to Barry, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Point her nose for Zenia, Mr. Barry," I said. "As soon as it is +feasible, resume emergency speed. There are some very anxious gentlemen +there awaiting our report, and I dare not convey it except in person."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" said Barry crisply.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">This</span>, then, is the history of the Forgotten Planet. On the charts of the +Universe it appears as an unnamed world. No ship is permitted to pass +close enough to it so that its attraction is greater than that of the +nearest other mass. A permanent outpost of fixed-station ships, with +headquarters upon Jaron, the closest world, is maintained by the +Council.</p> + +<p>There are millions of people who might be greatly disturbed if they knew +of this potential menace that lurks in the midst of our Universe, but +they do not know. The wisdom of the Council made certain of that.</p> + +<p>But, in order that in the ages to come there might be a record of this +matter, I have been asked to prepare this document for the sealed +archives of the Alliance. It has been a pleasant task; I have relived, +for a little time, a part of my youth.</p> + +<p>The work is done, now, and that is well. I am an old man, and weary. +Sometimes I wish I might live to see the wonders that the next +generation or so will witness, but my years are heavy upon me.</p> + +<p>My work is done.</p> + + + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> +<h2>ASTOUNDING STORIES</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Appears on Newsstands</i></p> + +<h4>THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH</h4></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="pupil" id="pupil"></a>The Power and the Glory</h2> + +<h3><i>By Charles W. Diffin</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007104.jpg" width="550" height="455" alt=""And I would have been the greatest man in the world."" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"And I would have been the greatest man in the world."</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">Sadly, sternly, the old professor reveals to his brilliant +pupil the greater path to glory.</div> + + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">There</span> were papers on the desk, a litter of papers scrawled over, in the +careless writing of indifferent students, with the symbols of chemistry +and long mathematical computations. The man at the desk pushed them +aside to rest his lean, lined face on one thin hand. The other arm, +ending at the wrist, was on the desk before him.</p> + +<p>Students of a great university had long since ceased to speculate about +the missing hand. The result of an experiment, they knew—a hand that +was a mass of lifeless cells, amputated quickly that the living arm +might be saved—but that was some several years ago, ancient history to +those who came and went through Professor Eddinger's class room.</p> + +<p>And now Professor Eddinger was weary—weary and old, he told himself—as +he closed his eyes to shut out the sight of the interminable papers and +the stubby wrist that had ended forever his experiments and the delicate +manipulations which only he could do.</p> + +<p>He reached slowly for a buzzing phone, but his eyes brightened at the +voice that came to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I've got it—I've got it!" The words were almost incoherent. "This is +Avery, Professor—Avery! You must come at once. You will share in it; I +owe it all to you ... you will be the first to see ... I am sending a +taxi for you—"</p> + +<p>Professor Eddinger's tired eyes crinkled to a smile. Enthusiasm like +this was rare among his youngsters. But Avery—with the face of a poet, +a dreamer's eyes and the mind of a scientist—good boy, Avery!—a long +time since he had seen him—had him in his own laboratory for two +years....</p> + +<p>"What's this all about?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No—no!" said a voice; "I can't tell you—it is too big—greater than +the induction motor—greater than the electric light—it is the greatest +thing in the world. The taxi should be there now—you must come—"</p> + +<p>A knock at the office door where a voice said, "Car for Professor +Eddinger," confirmed the excited words.</p> + +<p>"I'll come," said the Professor, "right away."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> pondered, as the car whirled him across the city, on what this +greatest thing in the world might be. And he hoped with gentle +skepticism that the enthusiasm was warranted. A young man opened the car +door as they stopped. His face was flushed, Eddinger noted, hair pushed +back in disarray, his shirt torn open at the throat.</p> + +<p>"Wait here," he told the driver and took the Professor by the arm to +hurry him into a dilapidated building.</p> + +<p>"Not much of a laboratory," he said, "but we'll have better, you and I; +we'll have better—"</p> + +<p>The room seemed bare with its meager equipment, but it was neat, as +became the best student of Professor Eddinger. Rows of reagent bottles +stood on the shelves, but the tables were a litter of misplaced +instruments and broken glassware where trembling hands had fumbled in +heedless excitement.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you again, Avery." The gentle voice of Professor Eddinger +had lost its tired tone. "It's been two years you've been working, I +judge. Now what is this great discovery, boy? What have you found?"</p> + +<p>The younger man, in whose face the color came and went, and whose eyes +were shining from dark hollows that marked long days and sleepless +nights, still clung to the other's arm.</p> + +<p>"It's real," he said; "it's great! It means fortune and fame, and you're +in on that, Professor. The old master," he said and clapped a hand +affectionately upon a thin shoulder; "I owe it all to you. And now I +have—I have learned.... No, you shall see for yourself. Wait—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> crossed quickly to a table. On it was an apparatus; the eyes of the +older man widened as he saw it. It was intricate—a maze of tubing. +There was a glass bulb above—the generator of a cathode ray, +obviously—and electro-magnets below and on each side. Beneath was a +crude sphere of heavy lead—a retort, it might be—and from this there +passed two massive, insulated cables. The understanding eyes of the +Professor followed them, one to a terminal on a great insulating block +upon the floor, the other to a similarly protected terminal of carbon +some feet above it in the air.</p> + +<p>The trembling fingers of the young man made some few adjustments, then +he left the instrument to take his place by an electric switch. "Stand +back," he warned, and closed the switch.</p> + +<p>There was a gentle hissing from within glass tubes, the faint glow of a +blue-green light. And that was all, until—with a crash like the ripping +crackle of lightning, a white flame arced between the terminals of the +heavy cables. It hissed ceaselessly through the air where now the tang +of ozone was apparent. The carbon blocks glowed with a brilliant +incandescence when the flame ceased with the motion of a hand where +Avery pulled a switch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>The man's voice was quiet now. "You do not know, yet, what you have +seen, but there was a tremendous potential there—an amperage I can't +measure with my limited facilities." He waved a deprecating hand about +the ill-furnished laboratory. "But you have seen—" His voice trembled +and failed at the forming of the words.</p> + +<p>"—The disintegration of the atom," said Professor Eddinger quietly, +"and the release of power unlimited. Did you use thorium?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>The other looked at him in amazement. Then: "I should have known you +would understand," he said humbly. "And you know what it means"—again +his voice rose—"power without end to do the work of the world—great +vessels driven a lifetime on a mere ounce of matter—a revolution in +transportation—in living...." He paused. "The liberation of mankind," +he added, and his voice was reverent. "This will do the work of the +world: it will make a new heaven and a new earth! Oh, I have dreamed +dreams," he exclaimed, "I have seen visions. And it has been given to +me—me!—to liberate man from the curse of Adam ... the sweat of his +brow.... I can't realize it even yet. I—I am not worthy...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> raised his eyes slowly in the silence to gaze in wondering +astonishment at the older man. There was no answering light, no +exaltation on the lined face. Only sadness in the tired eyes that looked +at him and through him as if focused upon something in a dim future—or +past.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see?" asked the wondering man. "The freedom of men—the +liberation of a race. No more poverty, no endless, grinding labor." His +young eyes, too, were looking into the future, a future of blinding +light. "Culture," he said, "instead of heart-breaking toil, a chance to +grow mentally, spiritually; it is another world, a new life—" And again +he asked: "Surely, you see?"</p> + +<p>"I see," said the other; "I see—plainly."</p> + +<p>"The new world," said Avery. "It—it dazzles me; it rings like music in +my ears."</p> + +<p>"I see no new world," was the slow response.</p> + +<p>The young face was plainly perplexed. "Don't you believe?" he stammered. +"After you have seen ... I thought you would have the vision, would help +me emancipate the world, save it—" His voice failed.</p> + +<p>"Men have a way of crucifying their saviors," said the tired voice.</p> + +<p>The inventor was suddenly indignant. "You are blind," he said harshly; +"it is too big for you. And I would have had you stand beside me in the +great work.... I shall announce it alone.... There will be +laboratories—enormous!—and factories. My invention will be perfected, +simplified, compressed. A generator will be made—thousands of +horsepower to do the work of a city, free thousands of men—made so +small you can hold it in one hand."</p> + +<p>The sensitive face was proudly alight, proud and a trifle arrogant. The +exaltation of his coming power was strong upon him.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Professor Eddinger, "in one hand." And he raised his right +arm that he might see where the end of a sleeve was empty.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," said the inventor abruptly; "I didn't mean ... but you +will excuse me now; there is so much to be done—" But the thin figure +of Professor Eddinger had crossed to the far table to examine the +apparatus there.</p> + +<p>"Crude," he said beneath his breath, "crude—but efficient!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> the silence a rat had appeared in the distant corner. The Professor +nodded as he saw it. The animal stopped as the man's eyes came upon it; +then sat squirrellike on one of the shelves as it ate a crumb of food. +Some morsel from a hurried lunch of Avery's, the Professor +reflected—poor Avery! Yes, there was much to be done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>He spoke as much to himself as to the man who was now beside him. "It +enters here," he said and peered downward toward the lead bulb. He +placed a finger on the side of the metal. "About here, I should +think.... Have you a drill? And a bit of quartz?"</p> + +<p>The inventor's eyes were puzzled, but the assurance of his old +instructor claimed obedience. He produced a small drill and a fragment +like broken glass. And he started visibly as the one hand worked +awkwardly to make a small hole in the side of the lead. But he withdrew +his own restraining hand, and he watched in mystified silence while the +quartz was fitted to make a tiny window and the thin figure stooped to +sight as if aiming the opening toward a far corner where a brown rat sat +upright in earnest munching of a dry crust.</p> + +<p>The Professor drew Avery with him as he retreated noiselessly from the +instrument. "Will you close the switch," he whispered.</p> + +<p>The young man hesitated, bewildered, at this unexpected demonstration, +and the Professor himself reached with his one hand for the black lever. +Again the arc crashed into life, to hold for a brief instant until +Professor Eddinger opened the switch.</p> + +<p>"Well," demanded Avery, "what's all the show? Do you think you are +teaching me anything—about my own instrument?" There was hurt pride and +jealous resentment in his voice.</p> + +<p>"See," said Professor Eddinger quietly. And his one thin hand pointed to +a far shelf, where, in the shadow, was a huddle of brown fur and a bit +of crust. It fell as they watched, and the "plop" of the soft body upon +the floor sounded loud in the silent room.</p> + +<p>"The law of compensation," said Professor Eddinger. "Two sides to the +medal! Darkness and light—good and evil—life ... and death!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> young man was stammering. "What do you mean?—a death ray evolved?" +And: "What of it?" he demanded; "what of it? What's that got to do with +it?"</p> + +<p>"A death ray," the other agreed. "You have dreamed, Avery—one must in +order to create—but it is only a dream. You dreamed of life—a fuller +life—for the world, but you would have given them, as you have just +seen, death."</p> + +<p>The face of Avery was white as wax; his eyes glared savagely from dark +hollows.</p> + +<p>"A rat!" he protested. "You have killed a rat ... and you say—you +say—" He raised one trembling hand to his lips to hold them from +forming the unspeakable words.</p> + +<p>"A rat," said the Professor—"or a man ... or a million men."</p> + +<p>"We will control it."</p> + +<p>"All men will have it—the best and the worst ... and there is no +defence."</p> + +<p>"It will free the world—"</p> + +<p>"It will destroy it."</p> + +<p>"No!"—and the white-faced man was shouting now—"you don't +understand—you can't see—"</p> + +<p>The lean figure of the scientist straightened to its full height. His +eyes met those of the younger man, silent now before him, but Avery knew +the eyes never saw him; they were looking far off, following the wings +of thought. In the stillness the man's words came harsh and commanding—</p> + +<p>"Do you see the cities," he said, "crumbling to ruins under the cold +stars? The fields? They are rank with wild growth, torn and gullied by +the waters; a desolate land where animals prowl. And the people—the +people!—wandering bands, lower, as the years drag on, than the beasts +themselves; the children dying, forgotten, in the forgotten lands; a +people to whom the progress of our civilization is one with the ages +past, for whom there is again the slow, toiling road toward the light.</p> + +<p>"And somewhere, perhaps, a conquering race, the most brutal and callous +of mankind, rioting in their sense of power and dragging themselves down +to oblivion...."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">His</span> gaze came slowly back to the room and the figure of the man still +fighting for his dream.</p> + +<p>"They would not," said Avery hoarsely; "they'd use it for good."</p> + +<p>"Would they?" asked Professor Eddinger. He spoke simply as one stating +simple facts. "I love my fellow men," he said, "and I killed them in +thousands in the last war—I, and my science, and my poison gas."</p> + +<p>The figure of Avery slumped suddenly upon a chair; his face was buried +in his hands. "And I would have been," he groaned, "the greatest man in +the world."</p> + +<p>"You shall be greater," said the Professor, "though only we shall know +it—you and I.... You will save the world—from itself."</p> + +<p>The figure, bowed and sunken in the chair, made no move; the man was +heedless of the kindly hand upon his shoulder. His voice, when he spoke, +was that of one afar off, speaking out of a great loneliness. "You don't +understand," he said dully; "you can't—"</p> + +<p>But Professor Eddinger, a cog in the wheels of a great educational +machine, glanced at the watch on his wrist. Again his thin shoulders +were stooped, his voice tired. "My classes," he said. "I must be +going...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> the gathering dusk Professor Eddinger locked carefully the door of +his office. He crossed beyond his desk and fumbled with his one hand for +his keys.</p> + +<p>There was a cabinet to be opened, and he stared long in the dim light at +the object he withdrew. He looked approvingly at the exquisite +workmanship of an instrument where a generator of the cathode ray and an +intricate maze of tubing surmounted electro-magnets and a round lead +bulb. There were terminals for attaching heavy cables; it was a +beautiful thing.... His useless arm moved to bring an imaginary hand +before the window of quartz in the lead sphere.</p> + +<p>"Power," he whispered and repeated Avery's words; "power, to build a +city—or destroy a civilization ... and I hold it in one hand."</p> + +<p>He replaced the apparatus in the safety of its case. "The saviors of +mankind!" he said, and his tone was harsh and bitter.</p> + +<p>But a smile, whimsical, kindly, crinkled his tired eyes as he turned to +his desk and its usual litter of examination papers.</p> + +<p>"It is something, Avery," he whispered to that distant man, "to belong +in so distinguished a group."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_STAR_THAT_BREATHES" id="A_STAR_THAT_BREATHES"></a>A STAR THAT BREATHES</h2> + + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Beta Cephei</span>, the mysterious Milky Way star which expands and contracts +as though it were breathing, at last has a biography.</p> + +<p>A summary of known facts concerning the star, interpreted in the light +of recent observations at the Lick Observatory at the University of +California was completed recently by H. S. Mendenhall, graduate student.</p> + +<p>Mendenhall's interpretations were said to lend weight to the theory that +Beta Cephei is contracting and expanding once in every four and one-half +hours. This is such a terrific rate of speed from a terrestrial point of +view that it appears to be moving toward and away from the earth at a +velocity reaching a maximum of about nine and one-half miles per second.</p> + +<p>Beta Cephei is a variable star in the Constellation Cepheus. It is best +visible in the northern sky during July or August. Its distance from the +earth is estimated roughly at 2,000,000,000,000,000 miles, and +Mendenhall estimates its diameter at almost 2,000,000 miles, more than +twice that of the sun.</p> + +<p>In addition to the apparent velocity caused by contraction and expansion +of its surface five times a day, Beta Cephei seems to have another +motion. This was said by Mendenhall to be a rotation around some other +star in a period of 20 years. Velocity of this rotation is something +over three miles a second.</p> + +<p>Variable stars are of particular interest to astronomers because the +light from them pulsates regularly, flaring and dying as though fuel +were replenished at regular intervals. The rate of this pulsation has +been found to be a measure to the candle power of the star. Its distance +then can be determined by contrasting its actual candle power with the +apparent magnitude as seen from the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="madness" id="madness"></a>Murder Madness</h2> + +<h4>PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL</h4> + +<h3><i>By Murray Leinster</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007109.jpg" width="550" height="445" alt=""Oh my God!" gasped Bell. He'd known this man before. A +Secret Service man—one of the seven who had vanished." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Oh my God!" gasped Bell. He'd known this man before. A +Secret Service man—one of the seven who had vanished.</span> +</div> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Seven</span> United States Secret Service men have disappeared in South +America. Another is found—a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored +that they are victims of a diabolical poison which produces "murder +madness."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">More and more South Americans are stricken with the horrible +"murder madness" that lies in The Master's fearful poison. And Bell is +their one last hope as he fights to stem the swiftly rising tide of a +continent's utter enslavement.</div> + +<p>Charley Bell of the "Trade"—a secret service organization which does +not officially exist—discovers that a sinister system of slavery is +flourishing in South America, headed by a mysterious man known only as +The Master. This slavery is accomplished by means of a poison which +causes its victims to experience a horrible writhing of the hands, +followed by a madness to do murder, two weeks after it is taken.</p> + +<p>The victims get relief only with an antidote supplied through Ribiera, +The Master's Chief Deputy; but in the antidote there is more of the +poison, which again in two weeks will take effect. And so it is that a +person who once receives the poison is forever enslaved.</p> + +<p>Ribiera kidnaps Paula Canalejas, daughter of a Brazilian cabinet +minister who, on becoming a victim, has killed himself, preferring +death to "murder madness." Bell rescues Paula, and they flee from +Ribiera in a plane. They find The Master's hidden jungle stronghold, and +Bell destroys it with a bomb attack from the air. As he is getting away +his motor quits. Paula jumps for her life, and shortly afterwards Bell +follows, drifting straight down towards his enemies below.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> was falling head-first when the 'chute opened, and the jerk was +terrific, the more so as he had counted not the customary ten, but +fifteen before pulling out the ring. But very suddenly he seemed to be +floating down with an amazing gentleness, with the ruddy blossom of a +parachute swaying against a background of lustrous stars very far indeed +over his head. Below him were masses of smoke and at least one huge +dancing mass of flame, where the storage tank for airplane gas had +exploded. It was unlikely in the extreme, he saw now, that anyone under +that canopy of smoke could look up to see plane or parachute against the +sky.</p> + +<p>Clumsily enough, dangling as he was, Bell twisted about to look for +Paula. Sheer panic came to him before he saw her a little above him but +a long distance off. She looked horribly alone with the glare of the +fires upon her parachute, and smoke that trailed away into darkness +below her. She was farther from the flames than Bell, too. The light +upon her was dimmer. And Bell cursed that he had stayed in the plane to +make sure it would dive clear of her before he stepped off himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> glow on the blossom of silk above her faded out. The sky still +glared behind, but a thick and acrid fog enveloped Bell as he descended. +Still straining his eyes hopelessly, he crossed his feet and waited.</p> + +<p>Branches reached up and lashed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> him. Vines scraped against his sides. +He was hurled against a tree trunk with stunning force, and rebounded, +and swung clear, and then dangled halfway between earth and the jungle +roof. It was minutes before his head cleared, and then he felt at once +despairing and a fool. Dangling in his parachute harness when Paula +needed him.</p> + +<p>The light in the sky behind him penetrated even the jungle growth as a +faint luminosity. Presently he writhed to a position in which he could +strike a match. A thick, matted mass of climbing vines swung from the +upper branches not a yard from his fingertips. Bell cursed again, +frantically, and clutched at it wildly. Presently his absurd kickings +set him to swaying. He redoubled his efforts and increased the arc in +which he swung. But it was a long time before his fingers closed upon +leaves which came away in his grasp, and longer still before he caught +hold of a wrist-thick liana which oozed sticky sap upon his hands.</p> + +<p>But he clung desperately, and presently got his whole weight on it. He +unsnapped the parachute and partly let himself down, partly slid, and +partly tumbled to the solid earth below.</p> + +<p>He had barely reached it when, muffled and many times reechoed among the +tree trunks, he heard two shots. He cursed, and sprang toward the sound, +plunging headlong into underbrush that strove to tear the flesh from his +bones. He fought madly, savagely, fiercely.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> heard two more shots. He fought the jungle in the darkness like a +madman, ploughing insanely through masses of creepers that should have +been parted by a machete, and which would have been much more easily +slipped through by separating them, but which he strove to penetrate by +sheer strength.</p> + +<p>And then he heard two shots again.</p> + +<p>Bell stopped short and swore disgustedly.</p> + +<p>"What a fool I am!" he growled. "She's telling me where she is, and +I—"</p> + +<p>He drew one of the weapons that seemed to bulge in every pocket of his +flying suit and fired two shots in the air in reply. A single one +answered him.</p> + +<p>From that time Bell moved more sanely. The jungle is not designed, +apparently, for men to travel in. It is assuredly not intended for them +to travel in by night, and especially it is not planned, by whoever +planned it, for a man to penetrate without either machete or lights.</p> + +<p>As nearly as he could estimate it afterward, it took Bell over an hour +to cover one mile in the blackness under the jungle roof. Once he +blundered into fire-ants. They were somnolent in the darkness, but one +hand stung as if in white-hot metal as he went on. And thorns tore at +him. The heavy flying suit protected him somewhat, but after the first +hundred yards he blundered on almost blindly, with his arms across his +face, stopping now and then to try to orient himself. Three times he +fired in the air, and three times an answering shot came instantly, to +guide him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> then a voice called in the blackness, and he ploughed toward it, and +it called again, and again, and at last he struck a match with trembling +fingers and saw her, dangling as he had dangled, some fifteen feet from +the ground. She smiled waveringly, with a little gasp of relief, and he +heard something go slithering away, very furtively.</p> + +<p>She clung to him desperately when he had gotten her down to solid earth. +But he was savage.</p> + +<p>"Those shots—though I'm glad you fired them—may have been a tip-off to +the town. We've got to keep moving, Paula."</p> + +<p>Her breath was coming quickly.</p> + +<p>"They could trail us, Charles. By daylight we might not leave signs, but +forcing our way through the night...."</p> + +<p>"Right, as usual," admitted Bell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> "How about shells? Did you use all +you had?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly. But I was afraid, Charles."</p> + +<p>Bell felt in his pockets. Half a box. Perhaps twenty-five shells. With +the town nearby and almost certainly having heard their signals to each +other. Black rage invaded Bell. They would be hunted for, of course. +Dogs, perhaps, would trail them. And the thing would end when they were +at bay, ringed about by The Master's slaves, with twenty-five shells +only to expend.</p> + +<p>The dim little glow in the sky between the jungle leaves kept up. It was +bright, and slowly growing brighter. There was a sudden flickering and +even the jungle grew light for an instant. A few seconds later there was +a heavy concussion.</p> + +<p>"Something else went up then," growled Bell. "It's some satisfaction, +anyway, to know I did a lot of damage."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> then, quite abruptly, there was an obscure murmuring sound. It grew +stronger, and stronger still. If Bell had been aloft, he would have seen +the planes from The Master's hangars being rushed out of their shelters. +One of the long row of buildings had caught. And the plateau of Cuyaba +is very, very far from civilization. Tools, and even dynamos and +engines, could be brought toilsomely to it, but the task would be +terrific. Buildings would be made from materials on the spot, even the +shelters for the planes. It would be much more practical to carry the +parts for a saw mill and saw out the lumber on the spot than to attempt +to freight roofing materials and the like to Cuyaba. So that the +structures Bell had seen in the wing lights' glow were of wood, and +inflammable. The powerhouse that lighted the landing field was already +ablaze. The smaller shacks of the laborers perhaps would not be burnt +down, but the elaborate depot for communication by plane and wireless +was rapidly being destroyed. The reserve of gasoline had gone up in +smoke almost at the beginning, and in spreading out had extended the +disaster to nearly all the compact nerve-center of the whole conspiracy.</p> + +<p>Presently the droning noise was tumultuous. Every plane in a condition +to fly was out on the landing field, now brightly lighted by the burning +buildings all about. There was frantic, hectic activity everywhere. The +secretaries of The Master were rescuing what records they could, and +growing cold with terror. In the confusion of spreading flames and the +noise of roaring conflagrations the stopping of the motor up aloft had +passed unnoticed. In the headquarters of The Master there was panic. An +attack had been made upon The Master. A person who could not be one of +his slaves had found his stronghold and attacked it terribly. And if one +man knew that location and dared attack it, then....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> hold of The Master upon all his slaves was based on one fact and its +corollary. The fact was, that those who had been given his poison would +go murder mad without its antidote. The corollary was that those who +obeyed him would be given that antidote and be safe. True, the antidote +was but a temporary one, and mixed with it for administration was a +further dosage of the poison itself. But the whole power of The Master +was based on his slaves' belief that as long as they obeyed him abjectly +there would be no failure of the antidote's supply. And Bell had given +that belief a sudden and horrible shock.</p> + +<p>Orders came from one frightened man, who cursed much more from terror +than from rage. Ribiera had advised him. To do him justice, Ribiera felt +less fear than most. Nephew to The Master, and destined successor to The +Master's power, Ribiera dared not revolt, but at least he had little +fear of punishment for incompetence. It was his advice that set the many +aircraft motors warming up. It was his direc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>tion that assorted out the +brainwork staff. And Ribiera himself curtly took control, indifferently +abandoned the enslaved workers to the madness that would come upon them, +and took wing in the last of a stream of roaring things that swept +upward above the smoke and flame and vanished in the sky.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> and Paula were huddled in between the buttress roots of a jungle +giant, protected on three sides by the monster uprearings of solid wood, +and Bell was absorbedly feeding a tiny smudge fire. The smoke was thick +and choking, but it did keep off the plague of insects which make jungle +travel much less than the romantic adventure it is pictured. Bell heard +the heavy, thunderous buzzing from the town change timbre suddenly. A +single note of it grew loud and soared overhead.</p> + +<p>He stared up instinctively, but saw nothing but leaves and branches and +many climbing things above him, dimly lighted by the smoky little blaze. +The roaring overhead went on, and dimmed. A second roaring came from the +town and rose to a monstrous growling and diminished. A third did +likewise, and a fourth.</p> + +<p>At stated, even intervals the planes at headquarters of The Master took +off from the landing field, ringed about with blazing buildings, and +plunged through the darkness in a straight line. The steadier droning +from the town grew lighter as the jungles echoed for many miles with the +sounds of aircraft motors overhead.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">At</span> last a single plane rose upward and thundered over the jungle roof. +It went away, and away.... The town was silent, then, and only a faint +and dwindling murmur came from the line of aircraft headed south.</p> + +<p>"They've deserted the town, by God!" said Bell, his eyes gleaming. +"Scared off!"</p> + +<p>"And—and we—" said Paula, gazing at him.</p> + +<p>"You can bet that every man who could crowd into a plane did so," said +Bell grimly. "Those that couldn't, if they have any brains, will be +trying to make it some other way to where they can subject themselves to +one of The Master's deputies and have a little longer time of sanity. +The poor devils that are left—well—they'll be <i>camaradas</i>, <i>peons</i>, +laborers, without the intelligence to know what they can do. They'll +wait patiently for their masters to come back. And presently their hands +will writhe.... And the town will be a hell."</p> + +<p>"Then they won't be looking for us?"</p> + +<p>Bell considered. And suddenly he laughed.</p> + +<p>"If the fire has burned out before dawn," he said coldly, "I'll go +looking for them. It's going to be cold-blooded, and it's going to be +rather pitiful, I think, but there's nothing else to do. You try to get +some rest. You'll need it."</p> + +<p>And for all the rest of the dark hours he crouched in the little angle +formed by the roots of the forest giant, and kept a thickly smoking +little fire going, and listened to the noises of the jungle all about +him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was more than a mile back to the town. It was nearer two. But it was +vastly less difficult to force a way through the thick growths by +daylight, even though then it was not easy. With machetes, of course, +Bell and Paula would have had no trouble, but theirs had been left in +the plane. Bell made a huge club and battered openings by sheer strength +where it was necessary. Sweat streamed down his face before he had +covered five hundred yards, but then something occurred to him and he +went more easily. If there were any of the intelligent class of The +Master's subjects left in the little settlement, he wanted to allow time +enough for them to start their flight. He wanted to find the place empty +of all but laborers, who would be accustomed to obey any man who spoke +arro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>gantly and in the manner of a deputy of The Master. Yet he did not +want to wait too long. Panic spreads among the <i>camarada</i> class as +swiftly as among more intelligent folk, and it is even more blind and +hysterical.</p> + +<p>It was nearly eleven o'clock before they emerged upon a cleared field +where brightly blooming plants grew hugely. Bell regarded these grimly.</p> + +<p>"These," he observed, "will be The Master's stock."</p> + +<p>Paula touched his arm.</p> + +<p>"I have heard," she said, and shuddered, "that the men who gather the +plants that go to make the poisons of the <i>Indios</i> do not—do not dare +to sleep near the fresh-picked plants. They say that the odor is +dangerous, even the perfume of the blossoms."</p> + +<p>"Very probably," said Bell. "I wish I could destroy the damned things. +But since we can't, why, we'll go around the edge of the field."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> went upwind, skirting the edge of the planted things. A path showed, +winding over half-heartedly cleared ground. He followed it, with Paula +close behind him. Smoke still curled heavily upward from the heaps of +ashes which he reached first of all. He looked upon them with an +unpleasant satisfaction. He had to pick his way between still smoking +heaps of embers to reach the huts about which laborers stood listlessly, +not working because not ordered to work, not yet frightened because not +yet realizing fully the catastrophe that had come upon them.</p> + +<p>He was moving toward them, deliberately adopting an air of suppressed +rage, when a voice called whiningly.</p> + +<p>"Senhor! Senhor!" And then pleadingly, in Portuguese, "I have news for +The Master! I have news for The Master!"</p> + +<p>Bell jerked his head about. Bars of thick wood, cemented into heavy +timbers at top and bottom. A building that was solid wall on three +sides, and the fourth was bars. A white man in it, unshaven, haggard, +ragged, filthy. And on the floor of the cage....</p> + +<p>There had been another such cage on a <i>fazenda</i> back toward Rio. Bell +had looked into it, and had shot the gibbering Thing that had been its +occupant, as an act of pure mercy. But this man had been through horrors +and yet was sane.</p> + +<p>"Don't look," said Bell sharply to Paula. He went close.</p> + +<p>The figure pressed against the bars, whining. And suddenly it stopped +its fawning.</p> + +<p>"The devil!" said the white man in the cage. "What in hell are you doing +here, Bell? Has that fiend caught you too?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p style="margin-bottom: -2em; margin-left: -0.5em;">"</p><p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Oh</span>, my God!" gasped Bell. He went white with a cold rage. He'd known +this man before. A Secret Service man—one of the seven who had +vanished. "How's this place opened? I'll let you out."</p> + +<p>"It may be dangerous," said the white man with a ghastly grin. "I'm one +of The Master's little victims. I've been trying to work a little game +in hopes of getting within arm's reach of him. How'd you get here? Has +he got you too?"</p> + +<p>"I burned the damned town last night," snarled Bell, "and crashed up +after it. Where's that door?"</p> + +<p>He found it, a solid mass of planks with a log bar fitted in such a way +that it could not possibly be opened from within. He dragged it wide. +The white man came out, holding to his self-control with an obvious +effort.</p> + +<p>"I want to dance and sing because I'm out of there," he told Bell +queerly, "but I know you've done me no good. I've been fed The Master's +little medicine. I've been in that cage for weeks."</p> + +<p>Bell, quivering with rage, handed him a revolver.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to get some supplies and stuff and try to make it to +civilization," he said shortly. "If you want to help...."</p> + +<p>"Hell, yes," said the white man drear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>ily. "I might as well. Number +One-Fourteen was here.... He's The Master's little pet, now. Turned +traitor. Report it, if you ever get out."</p> + +<p>"No," said Bell briefly. "He didn't turn." He told in a very few words +of the finding of the body of a man who had fallen or been thrown from a +plane into the jungle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">They</span> were moving toward the rows of still standing shacks, then, and +faces were beginning to turn toward them, and there was a little stir of +apathetic puzzlement at sight of the white man who had been set free.</p> + +<p>That white man looked suddenly at Paula, and then at Bell.</p> + +<p>"I've been turned into a beast," he said wryly. "Look here, Bell. There +were as many as ten and fifteen of us in that cage at one time—men the +deputies sent up for the purpose. We were allowed to go mad, one and two +at a time, for the edification of the populace, to keep the <i>camaradas</i> +scared. And those of us who weren't going mad just then used to have to +band together and kill them. That cage has been the most awful hell on +earth that any devil ever contrived. They put three women in there once, +with their hands already writhing.... Ugh!..."</p> + +<p>Bell's face was cold and hard is if carved from marble.</p> + +<p>"I haven't lived through it," said the white man harshly, "by being +soft. And I've got less than no time to live—sane, anyhow. I was +thinking of shooting you in the back, because the young lady—"</p> + +<p>He laughed as Bell's revolver muzzle stirred.</p> + +<p>"I'm telling you," said the white man in ghastly merriment, "because I +thought—I thought One-Fourteen had set me the example of ditching the +Service for his own life. But now it's different."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> pointed.</p> + +<p>"There's a launch in that house, with one of these outboard motors. It +was used to keep up communication with the boat gangs that sweat the +heavy supplies up the river. It'll float in three inches of water, and +you can pole it where the water's too shallow to let the propeller turn. +This rabble will mob you if you try to take it, because it'll have taken +them just about this long to realize that they're deserted. They'll +think you are a deputy, at least, to have dared release me. I'm going to +convince them of it, and use this gun to give you a start. I give you +two hours. It ought to be enough. And then...."</p> + +<p>Bell nodded.</p> + +<p>"I'm not Service," he said curtly, "but I'll see it's known."</p> + +<p>The white man laughed again.</p> + +<p>"'Some sigh for the glories of this world, and some for a prophet's +paradise to come,'" he quoted derisively. "I thought I was hard, Bell, +but I find I prefer to have my record clean in the Service—where nobody +will ever see it—than to take what pleasure I might snatch before I +die. Queer, isn't it? Old Omar was wrong. Now watch me bluff, flinging +away the cash for credit of doubtful value, and all for the rumble of a +distant drum—which will be muted!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">They</span> were surrounded by swarming, fawning, frightened <i>camaradas</i> who +implored the Senhor to tell them if he were a deputy of The Master, and +if he were here to make sure nothing evil befell them. They worked for +The Master, and they desired nothing save to labor all their lives for +The Master, only—only—The Master would allow no evil to befall them?</p> + +<p>The white man waved his arms grandiloquently.</p> + +<p>"The Senhor you behold," he proclaimed in the barbarous Portugese of the +hinterland of Brazil, "has released me from the cage in which you saw +me. He is the deputy of The Master himself, and is enraged because the +landing lights on the field were not burning, so that his airplane fell +down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> into the jungle. He bears news of great value from me to The +Master, which will make me finally a sub-deputy of The Master. And I +have a revolver, as you see, with which I could kill him, but he dares +not permit me to die, since I have given him news for The Master. I +shall wait here and he will go and send back an airplane with the grace +of The Master for me and for all of you."</p> + +<p>Bell snarled an assent, in the arrogant fashion of the deputies of The +Master. He waited furiously while the Service man argued eloquently and +fluently. He fingered his revolver suggestively when a wave of panic +swept over the swarming mob for no especial reason. And then he watched +grimly while the light little metal-bottomed boat was carried to the +water's edge and loaded with food, and fuel, and arms, and ammunition, +and even mosquito bars.</p> + +<p>The white man grinned queerly at Bell as he extended his hand in a last +handshake.</p> + +<p>"'I, who am about to die, salute you!'" he said mockingly. "Isn't this a +hell of a world, Bell? I'm sure we could design a better one in some +ways."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> felt a horrible, a ghastly shock. The hand that gripped his was +writhing in his grasp.</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said the white man. "It started about five minutes ago. In +theory, I've about forty-eight hours. Actually, I don't dare wait that +long, if I'm to die like a white man. And a lingering vanity insists on +that. I hope you get out, Bell.... And if you want to do me a +favor,"—he grinned again, mirthlessly—"you might see that The Master +and as many of his deputies as you can manage join me in hell at the +earliest possible moment. I shan't mind so much if I can watch them."</p> + +<p>He put his hands quickly in his pockets as the little outboard motor +caught and the launch went on down-river. He did not even look after +them. The last Bell saw of him he was swaggering back up the little +hillside above the river edge, surrounded by scared inhabitants of the +workmen's shacks, and scoffing in a superior fashion at their fears.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> took Bell just eight days to reach the Paraguay, and those eight days +were like an age-long nightmare of toil and discomfort and more than a +little danger. The launch was headed downstream, of course, and with the +current behind it, it made good time. But the distances of Brazil are +infinite, and the jungles of Brazil are malevolent, and the route down +the Rio Laurenço was designed by the architect of hell. <i>Raudales</i> lay +in wait to destroy the little boat. Insects swarmed about to destroy its +voyagers. And the jungle loomed above them, passively malignant, and +waited for them to die.</p> + +<p>And as if physical sufferings were not enough, Bell saw Paula wilt and +grow pale. All the way down the river they passed little clearings at +nearly equal distances. And men came trembling out of the little houses +upon those <i>fazendas</i> and fawned upon the Senhor who was in the launch +that had come from up-river and so must be in the service of The Master +himself. The clearings and the tiny houses had been placed upon the +river for the service of the terribly laboring boat gangs who brought +the heavier supplies up the river to The Master's central depot. Men at +these clearings had been enslaved and ordered to remain at their posts, +serving all those upon the business of The Master. They fawned abjectly +upon Bell, because he was of <i>os gentes</i> and so presumably was +empowered, as The Master had empowered his more intelligent subjects, to +exact the most degraded of submission from all beneath him in the +horrible conspiracy. Once, indeed, Bell was humbly implored by a panic +stricken man to administer "the grace of The Master" to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> a moody and +irritable child of twelve or so.</p> + +<p>"She sees the red spots, Senhor. It is the first sign. And I have served +The Master faithfully...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> Bell could do nothing. He went on savagely. And once he passed a +gang of <i>camaradas</i> laboring to get heavily loaded dugouts up a fiendish +<i>raudal</i>. They had ropes out and were hauling at them from the bank, +while some of their number were breast-deep in the rushing water, +pushing the dugouts against the stream.</p> + +<p>"They're headed for the plantation," said Bell grimly, "and they'll need +the grace of The Master by the time they get there. And it's abandoned. +But if I tell them...."</p> + +<p>Men with no hope at all are not to be trusted. Not when they are +mixtures of three or more races—white and black and red—and steeped in +ignorance and superstition and, moreover, long subject to such masters +as these men had had. Bell had to think of Paula.</p> + +<p>He could have landed and haughtily ordered them to float or even carry +the light boat to the calmer waters below. They would have obeyed and +cringed before him. But he shot the rapids from above, with the little +motor roaring past rocks and walls of jungle beside the foaming water, +at a speed that chilled his blood.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Paula</span> said nothing. She was white and listless. Bell, himself, was being +preyed upon by a bitter blend of horror and a deep-seated rage that +consumed him like a fever. He had fever itself, of course. He was +taking, and forcing Paula to take, five grains of quinine a day. It had +been included among his stores as a matter of course by those who had +loaded his boat. And with the fever working in his brain he found +himself holding long, imaginary conversations, in which one part of his +brain reproached the other part for having destroyed the plantation of +The Master. The laborers upon that plantation had been abandoned to the +murder madness because of his deed. The caretakers of the tiny <i>fazenda</i> +on the river bank were now ignored. Bell felt himself a murderer because +he had caused The Master's deputies to cast them off in a callous +indifference to their inevitable fate.</p> + +<p>He suffered the tortures of the damned, and grew morose and bitter, and +could only escape that self torture by coddling his hatred of Ribiera +and The Master. He imagined torments to be inflicted upon them which +would adequately repay them for their crimes, and racked his feverish +brain for memories of the appalling atrocities which can be committed +upon the human body without destroying its capacity to suffer.</p> + +<p>It was not normal. It was not sane. But it filled Bell's mind and +somehow kept him from suicide during the horrible passage of the river. +He hardly dared speak to Paula. There was a time when he counted the +days since he had been a guest at Ribiera's estate outside of Rio, and +frenziedly persuaded himself that he saw red spots before his eyes and +soon would have the murder madness come upon him. And then he thought of +the supplies in Ribiera's plane, in which they had escaped from Rio. +They had eaten that food.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was almost unconsciously, then, that he saw the narrow water on which +the launch floated valiantly grow wider day by day. When at last it +debouched suddenly into a vast stream whereon a clumsy steamer plied +beneath a self made cloud of smoke, he stared dully at it for minutes +before he realized.</p> + +<p>"Paula," he said suddenly, and listened in amazement to his voice. It +was hoarse and harsh and croaking. "Paula, we've made it. This must be +the Paraguay."</p> + +<p>She roused herself and looked about like a person waking from a +lethargic sleep. And then her lips quivered, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> she tried to speak and +could not, and tears fell silently from her eyes, and all at once she +was sobbing bitterly.</p> + +<p>That sign of the terrific strain she had been under served more than +anything else to jolt Bell out of his abnormal state of mind. He moved +over to her and clumsily put his arm about her, and comforted her as +best he could. And she sat sobbing with her head on his shoulder, +gasping in a form of hysterical relief, until the engine behind them +sputtered, and coughed, and died.</p> + +<p>When Bell looked, the last drop of gasoline was gone. But the motor had +served its purpose. It had run manfully on an almost infinitesimal +consumption of gasoline for eight days. It had not missed an explosion +save when its wiring was wetted by spray. And now....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> hauled the engine inboard and got out the oars from under the +seats. He got the little boat out to mid-stream, and they floated down +until a village of squalid huts appeared on the eastern bank. He landed, +there, and with much bargaining and a haughty demeanor disposed of the +boat to the skipper of a <i>batelao</i> in exchange for passage down-river as +far as Corumba. The rate was outrageously high. But he had little +currency with him and dared go no farther on a vessel which carried a +boat of The Master's ownership conspicuously towed behind.</p> + +<p>At Corumba he purchased clothes less obviously of <i>os gentes</i>, both for +himself and for Paula, and that same afternoon was able to arrange for +their passage to Asunción as deck passengers on a river steamer going +downstream.</p> + +<p>It was as two peasants, then, that they rode in sweltering heat amid a +swarming and odorous mass of fellow humanity downstream. But it was a +curious relief, in some ways. The people about them were gross and +unwashed and stupid, but they were human. There was none of that +diabolical feeling of terror all about. There were no strained, fear +haunted faces upon the deck reserved for deck passengers and other +cattle. The talk was ungrammatical and literal and of the earth. The +women were stolid-faced and reserved. But when the long rows of hammocks +were slung out in the open air, in the casual fashion of sleeping +arrangements in the back-country of all South America, it was blessedly +peaceful to realize that the folk who snored so lustily were merely +human; human animals, it might be, with no thought above their <i>farinha</i> +and <i>feijos</i> on the morrow, but human.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">And</span> the second day they passed the old fort at Coimbra, and went on. The +passage into Paraguayan territory was signalized by an elaborate customs +inspection, and three days later Asunción itself displayed its red-tiled +roofs and adobe walls upon the shore.</p> + +<p>Bell had felt some confidence in his ability to pass muster with his +Spanish, though his Portuguese was limited, and it was a shock when the +captain of the steamer summoned him to his cabin with a gesture, before +the steamer docked. Bell left Paula among the other deck passengers and +went with the peasant's air of suspicious humility into the captain's +quarters. But the captain's pose of grandeur vanished at once when the +door closed.</p> + +<p>"Señor," said the steamer captain humbly, "I have not spoken to you +before. I knew you would not wish it. But tell me, senor! Have you any +news of what The Master plans?"</p> + +<p>Bell's eyes flickered, at the same time that a cold apprehension filled +him.</p> + +<p>"Why do you speak to me of The Master?" he demanded sharply.</p> + +<p>The steamer captain stammered. The man was plainly frightened at Bell's +tone. Bell relaxed, his flash of panic for Paula gone.</p> + +<p>"I know," said the captain imploringly, "that the great <i>fazenda</i> has +been deserted. On my last trip, down, senor, I brought many of the high +deputies who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> had been there. They warned me not to speak, senor, but I +saw that you were not what you seemed, and I thought you might be going +about to see who obeyed The Master's orders...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> nodded.</p> + +<p>"That is my mission," he said curtly. "Do not speak of it further—not +even to the deputy in Asunción."</p> + +<p>The captain stammered again.</p> + +<p>"But I must see the Señor Francia," he said humbly. "I report to him +after every trip, and if he thought that I did not report all that I +learn...."</p> + +<p>"It is my order," snapped Bell angrily. "If he reproaches you, say that +one who has orders from The Master himself gave them to you. And do not +speak of the destruction of the <i>fazenda</i>. I am searching especially for +the man who caused it. And—wait! I will take your name, and you shall +give me—say—a thousand pesos. I had need of money to bribe a fool I +could not waste time on, up-country. It will be returned to you."</p> + +<p>And again the captain stammered, but Bell stared at him haughtily, and +he knelt abjectly before the ship's safe.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Asunción</span>, as everybody knows, is a city of sixty thousand people, and +the capital of a republic which enjoyed the rule of a family of +hereditary dictators for sixty years; which rule ended in a war wherein +four-fifths of the population was wiped out. And since that beginning it +has averaged eight revolutions to Mexico's three, has had the joy of +knowing seven separate presidents in five years—none of them +elected—and now boasts a population approximately two-thirds +illegitimate and full of pride in its intellectual and artistic tastes.</p> + +<p>Bell and Paula made their way along the cobbled streets away from the +river, surrounded by other similarly peasant-seeming folk. Bell told her +curtly what had happened with the steamer captain.</p> + +<p>"It's the devil," he said coldly, "because this whole republic is under +The Master's thumb. Except among the peasants we can count on nearly +everybody being on the lookout for us, if they so much as suspect we're +alive. And they may because I burned their damned <i>fazenda</i>. So...."</p> + +<p>Paula smiled at him, rather wanly.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, Charles?"</p> + +<p>"Get a boat," said Bell curtly. "One with three or four men, if I can. +If I can buy it with the skipper's money, I will. But I can't take you +to go bargaining. It would look suspicious."</p> + +<p>They had reached the central plaza of the town. The market swarmed with +brown skinned folk and seemed to overflow with fruits. A man was +unconcernedly shoveling oranges out of a cart with a shovel, as if they +had been so much coal. A market woman as unconcernedly dropped some of +the same golden fruit within a small pen where a piglet awaited a +purchaser. To the left, there were rows of unshaded stalls where the +infinitely delicate handmade Paraguayan lace was exposed for sale.</p> + +<p>"I—think," said Paula, "I think I will go in the cathedral. I will be +very devout, Charles, and you will find me there when you return. I will +be safe there, certainly."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> walked with her across the crowded plaza. He should have known that +your peasant does not stride with head up, but regarding the ground. +That a man who works heavily droops his shoulders with weariness at the +end of a day. And especially he should have realized that Paraguay is +not, strictly speaking, a Latin-American nation. It is Latin-Indian, in +which the population graduates very definitely from a sub-stratum of +nearly or quite pure Indian race to an aristocracy of nearly or quite +pure Spanish descent, and that the color of a man's skin fixes his place +in society. Both Bell and Paula were too light of skin for the peasant's +clothes they wore. They aroused curiosity at once. If it was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> an +active curiosity, it was nevertheless curiosity of a sort.</p> + +<p>But Bell left her in the shadowy, cool interior of the cathedral which +seems so pitifully small to be the center of religion for a nation. He +saw her move toward one of the little candle-lit niches in the wall and +fall quite simply on her knees there.</p> + +<p>And he moved off, to wander aimlessly down to the river shore and stare +about and presently begin a desultory conversation with sleepy boatmen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was three hours and more before he returned to the Cathedral, and +Paula was talking to someone. More, talking to a woman in the most +discreet of mantilla'd church-going costumes. Paula saw him in the +doorway, and uttered a little cry of relief. She came hurrying to him.</p> + +<p>"Charles! I have found a friend! Isabella Ybarra. We were schoolmates in +the United States and she has just come back from Paris! So you see, she +cannot—"</p> + +<p>"I see," said Bell very quietly.</p> + +<p>Paula was speaking swiftly and very softly.</p> + +<p>"We went to school together, Charles. I trust her. You must trust her +also. There is no danger, this time. Isabella has never even heard of +The Master. So you see...."</p> + +<p>"I see that you need someone you can trust," said Bell grimly. "<i>I</i> +found that the captain of the steamer had gone to The Master's deputy +here. While I was talking to some boatmen a warning was given to look +out for a man and woman, together, who may try to buy a boat. We're +described, and only the fact that I was alone kept me from being +suspected. Police, soldiers—everybody is looking out for us. Paraguay's +under The Master's thumb more completely than any other nation on the +continent."</p> + +<p>The figure to which Paula had been talking was moving slowly toward +them. A smiling, brown-eyed face twinkled at them.</p> + +<p>"You must be Charles!" said a warm and cluckling voice. "Paula has +raved, Señor. Now I am going to take her off in my carriage. She is my +maid. And you will follow the carriage on foot and I will have the +major-domo let you in the servants' entrance, and the three of us will +conspire."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was incongruous to hear the English of a girl's finishing school from +the mantilla'd young woman who beamed mischievously at him. She had the +delighted air of one aiding a romance. It was doubly incongruous because +of the dark and shadowy Cathedral in which they were, and the raucous +noises of the market in the plaza without. Bell had a sense of utter +unreality as Isabella's good humored voice went on:</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Paula, the time the French teacher caught us in the +pantry? I shall feel just like that time."</p> + +<p>"This is dangerous," said Bell, steadily, "and it is very serious +indeed."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said Isabella comfortably. "Paula, you didn't even know I was +married! A whole year and a half! And he's a darling, really. I'm the +Señora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga, if you please! Bow gracefully!" She +chuckled. "Jaime came all the way to Rio to meet me last month. I'm wild +about him, Paula.... But come on! Follow me humbly, like a nice little +<i>mestizo</i> girl who wants to be my maid, and I'll let you ride with the +<i>cochero</i> and Charles shall follow behind us."</p> + +<p>She swept out of the Cathedral with the air of a grande dame suppressing +a giggle, and Paula went humbly behind her.</p> + +<p>And Bell trudged through the dust and the blistering sun while the +highly polished carriage jolted over cobble stones and the youthful +Señora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga beamed blissfully at the universe +which did not realize that she was a conspirator, and Paula sat modestly +beside the brown skinned <i>cochero</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">It</span> was not a long ride nor a long walk, though the sun was insufferable. +The capital of Paraguay is not large. It is a sleepy, somnolent little +town in which the most pretentious building was begun as the +Presidential Palace and wound up as the home of a bank. But there are +bullet marks on the façade of the <i>Museo Nacionál</i>, and there is still +an empty pedestal here and there throughout the city where the heroes of +last year's revolution, in bronze, have been pulled down and the heroes +of this year's uprising of the people have not yet been set up. Red +tiled roofs give the city color, and the varying shades of its populace +give it variety, and the fact that below the whiter class of inhabitants +<i>Guarani</i> is spoken instead of Spanish adds to the individuality of its +effect.</p> + +<p>But the house into which the carriage turned could have been built in +Rio or Buenos Aires without comment on its architecture. It had the +outer bleakness of most private homes of South America, but if it was +huge and its windows were barred, the patio into which Bell was ushered +by a bewildered and suspicious major-domo made up in color and in charm +for all that the exterior lacked.</p> + +<p>A fountain played amid flowers, and macaws and parrots and myriad other +caged birds hung in their cages about the colonnade around the court, +and Bell found Paula being introduced to a pale young man in the stiff +collar and unspeakably formal morning clothes of the South American who +is of the upper class.</p> + +<p>"Jaime," said Isabella, beaming. "And this is Charles, whom Paula is to +marry! It is romantic! It is fascinating! And I depend on you to give +him clothes so that all our servants won't stare goggle-eyed at him, and +I am going to take Paula off at once and dress her! They are our guests! +And, Jaime, you must threaten all the servants terribly so they will +keep it very secret—that we have two such terrible people with us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Paula</span> smiled at Bell, and he saw that she felt utterly safe and wholly +at peace. Something was hammering at Bell's brain, warning him, and he +could not understand what it was. But he exchanged the decorous limp +handshake which is conventional south of Panama, and followed his +unsmiling host to rooms where a servant laid out a bewildering +assortment of garments. They were all rather formal, the sort of +clothing that is held to be fitting for a man of position where Spanish +is the official if not the common tongue.</p> + +<p>His host retired, without words, and Bell came out later to find him +sipping moodily at a drink, waiting for him. He wiped his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Be seated, Señor," he said heavily, "until the ladies join us."</p> + +<p>He wiped his forehead again and watched somberly while Bell poured out a +drink.</p> + +<p>"Isabella...." He seemed to find it difficult to speak. "She has told me +a little, but there has been no time for more than a little: I do not +wish to have her tell me too much. She does not understand. She was +educated in North America, where customs are different. She demands that +I assist you and the senorita—it is the senorita?"</p> + +<p>Bell stiffened. In all Spanish America the conventions are strict. For a +man and woman to travel together, even perforce and for a short +distance, automatically damns the woman.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Bell grimly.</p> + +<p>His host was very pale indeed.</p> + +<p>"She demands that I assist you and the senorita to escape the police and +the government. Provided that you do not tell me who you are, I will +attempt it. But—"</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Bell quietly, "if you have ever seen red spots dancing +before your eyes."</p> + +<p>His host went utterly livid.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Zuloaga</span> looked down at his hands, as if expecting unguessable things of +them. And then he shrugged, and said harshly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have, Señor. So you see that Isabella, who does not know, is asking +me to risk, not only my life, but her honor."</p> + +<p>Bell said nothing for a moment. He was a little pale.</p> + +<p>"And your honor?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>The pallor on the face of the Señor Jaime Zuloaga was horrible. He tried +to speak, and could not. He stood up, and managed to say:</p> + +<p>"So much I will risk, because you have been my guest. Until to-morrow +morning you are safe, unless the Señor Francia has his spies within my +own house. I—I will attempt, even to procure a boat. But—"</p> + +<p>Something made Bell turn. The major-domo was moving quickly out of +sight. Like a flash Bell was upon him, and like a flash a knife came +out.</p> + +<p>Bell's host gasped. The fact that his servant had spied was more than +obvious, and he had spoke treason against The Master. He leaned against +the table, sick and trembling and mumbling of despair, while there were +crashes in the room into which Bell had plunged, while bodies thrashed +about on the floor, and while stertorous breathing grew less, and +stopped....</p> + +<p>Bell came back, breathing hard. The front of his coat was slashed open.</p> + +<p>"He's dead," he said harshly. "He'd have reported what you said, so I +killed him.... And now we've got to do something with his body."</p> + +<p>He helped in the horrible task, while his host grew more and more +shaken. No other servants came near. And Bell could almost read the +thoughts that went through Zuloaga's brain. One servant had spied, to +report his treason. And that meant assassination for himself, as the +least of punishments, and for his wife....</p> + +<p>But there would be no punishment if he went first to the deputy and said +that Bell had killed the major-domo.</p> + +<p>Bell left the house before dusk, desperately determined to steal a craft +of some sort, return for Paula, and get away from Asunción before dawn.</p> + +<p>He returned after an hour. In the morning a man would be found bound and +gagged, with five hundred pesos stuffed into his pockets. His boat would +have vanished.</p> + +<p>But there was a commotion before the house where Paula waited fearfully. +A carriage stood there, with a company of mounted soldiers about it. +Someone was being put into it. As Bell broke into a run toward the house +the carriage started up and the soldiers trotted after it.</p> + +<p>Paula was taken.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">That</span> night Bell turned burglar. To attempt a rescue of Paula was simply +out of the question. He was entirely aware that he would be expected to +do just such a thing, and that it would be adequately guarded against. +Therefore he prepared for a much more desperate enterprise by +burglarizing a bookstore in the particularly neat method in which +members of The Trade are instructed. The method was invented by a member +of The Trade who was an ex-cabinet maker, and who perished disreputably. +He killed a certain courier of a certain foreign government, thereby +preventing a minor war and irritating two governments excessively, and +was hanged.</p> + +<p>The method, of course, is simplicity itself. One removes the small nails +which hold the molding of a door panel in place. The molding comes out. +So does the panel. One enters through the panel, commits one's burglary, +and comes out, replacing the molding and the nails with reasonable care. +Depending upon the care with which the replacing is done, the means of +entrance is more or less undiscoverable. But it is usually used when it +is not intended that the burglary ever be discussed.</p> + +<p>Bell abstracted two books, wrapping paper and twine. He departed, using +great care. He walked three miles out of town and to the banks of the +Paraguay. There he carefully saturated the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> pages of both books in +water, carefully keeping the bindings from being wetted. Then he tore +one book to pieces, saving the leaves and inserting them between the +leaves of the other book. Then, with a brazil nut candle for +illumination, he began to write.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">You</span> see, when two thoroughly wetted pieces of paper are placed one above +the other with a hard surface such as the cover of another book under +them, you can write upon the top one with a stick. The writing will show +dark against the gray of the saturated paper. You then remove the top +sheet and end the writing reproduced on the bottom sheet. And then you +can dry the second sheet and find the marking vanished—until it is +wetted again. It is, in fact, a method of water-marking paper. And it is +the simplest of all methods of invisible writing.</p> + +<p>Bell wrote grimly for hours. The book he had chosen was an old one, an +ancient copy of one of Lope de Vega's plays, and the pages were wrinkled +and yellow from age alone. When, by dawn, the last page was dried out, +there was no sign that anything other than antiquity had affected the +paper. And Bell wrapped it carefully, and addressed it to an elderly +senora of literary tastes in San Juan, Porto Rico, and enclosed an +affectionate letter to his very dear aunt, and signed it with an +entirely improbable name.</p> + +<p>It was mailed before sunrise, the necessary stamps having been filched +from the burglarized bookstore and the price thereof being carefully +inserted in the till. Bell had made a complete and painstaking report of +every fact he had himself come upon in the matter of The Master and his +slaves and appended to it a copy of the report of the dead Secret +Service operative Number One-Fourteen. He destroyed that after copying +it. And he concluded that since he had been given dismissal by Jamison +in Rio, he considered himself at liberty to take whatever steps he saw +fit. And since the Senhorina Paula Canalejas had been kidnapped by +agents of The Master, he intended to take steps which might possibly +bring about her safety, but would almost certainly cause his death.</p> + +<p>The report should at least be of assistance if the Trade set to work to +combat The Master. Bell had no information whatever about that still +mysterious and still more horrible person himself. But what he knew +about The Master's agents he sent to a lady in Porto Rico who has an +astonishingly large number of far ranging nephews. And then Bell got +himself adequately shaved, bought a hearty breakfast, and, after one or +two heartening drinks, was driven grandly to the residence of the Señor +Francia, deputy of The Master for the republic of Paraguay.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> servants who admitted him gazed blankly when he gave his name. A +door was hastily closed behind him. He was ushered into an elaborate +reception room and, after an agitated pause, no less than six separate +frock-coated persons appeared and pointed large revolvers at him while a +seventh searched him exhaustively. Bell submitted amusedly.</p> + +<p>"And now," he said dryly, "I suppose the Señor Francia will receive me?"</p> + +<p>There was more agitation. The six men remained; with their weapons +pointed at him. The seventh departed, and Bell re-dressed himself in a +leisurely fashion.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later a slender, dark skinned man with impeccably waxed +moustaches entered, regarded Bell with an entirely impersonal interest, +took one of the revolvers from one of the six frock-coated gentlemen, +and seated himself comfortably. He waved his hand and they filed +uneasily from the room. So far, not one word had been spoken.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> retrieved his cigarette case and lighted up with every appearance +of ease.</p> + +<p>"I have come," he said casually, "to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> request that I be sent to The +Master. I believe that he is anxious to meet me."</p> + +<p>The dark eyes scrutinized him coldly. Then Francia smiled.</p> + +<p>"<i>Pero si</i>," he said negligently, "he is very anxious to see you. I +suppose you know what fate awaits you?"</p> + +<p>His smile was amiable and apparently quite friendly, but Bell shrugged.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," he said dryly, "he wants to converse with me. I have been +his most successful opponent to date, I think."</p> + +<p>Francia smiled again. It was curious how his smile, which at first +seemed so genuine and so friendly, became unspeakably unpleasant on its +repetition.</p> + +<p>"Yes." Francia seemed to debate some matter of no great importance. "You +have been very annoying, Señor Bell. The Senhor Ribiera asked that you +be sent to him. It was his intention to execute you, privately. He +described a rather amusing method to me. And I must confess that you +have annoyed me, likewise. Since the Cuyaba plantation was destroyed my +subjects have been much upset. They have been frightened, and even +stubborn. Only last week"—he smiled pleasantly, and the effect was +horrible—"only last week I desired the society of a lady who is my +subject. And her husband considered that, since the <i>fazenda</i> was +destroyed, The Master would be powerless to extend his grace before +long, in any event. So he shot his wife and himself. It annoyed me +enough to make me feel that it would be a pleasure to kill you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> raised the revolver meditatively.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Bell coldly.</p> + +<p>Francia lowered the weapon and laughed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shall not do it. I think The Master would be displeased. You seem +to have the type of courage he most desires in his deputies. And it may +yet be that I shall greet you as my fellow deputy or perhaps my fellow +viceroy. So I shall send you to him. I would say that you have about an +even chance of dying very unpleasantly or of being a deputy. Therefore I +offer you such courtesies as I may."</p> + +<p>Bell puffed a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"I'm about out of cigarettes," he said mildly.</p> + +<p>"They shall be supplied. And—er—if you would desire feminine society, +I will have some of my pretty subjects...."</p> + +<p>"No," said Bell bluntly. "I would like to speak to the Senhorina +Canalejas, though."</p> + +<p>Francia chuckled.</p> + +<p>"She left for Buenos Aires last night. The Senhor Ribiera sent a most +impatient message for her to be sent on at once. I regretted it, but he +had The Master's authority. I thought her charming, myself."</p> + +<p>The skin about Bell's knuckles was white. His hands had clenched +savagely.</p> + +<p>"In that event," he said coldly, "the only other courtesy I would ask is +that of following her as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>Francia rose languidly. The revolver dangled by his side, but his grip +upon it was firm. He smiled at Bell with the same effect of a horrible, +ghastly geniality.</p> + +<p>"Within the hour, Señor," he said urbanely. "With the guard I shall +place over you it is no harm, I am sure, to observe that The Master is +at his retreat in Punta Arenas. You will go there to-morrow, as I go +to-night."</p> + +<p>He moved toward the door, and smiled again, and added pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"The Senhorina was delivered to the Senhor Ribiera this morning."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Matters</span> moved swiftly after that. A servant brought cigarettes and a +tray of liquors—which Bell did not touch. There was the sound of +movement, the scurrying, furtive haste which seems always to imply a +desperate sort of fear. Bell waited in a terrible calmness, while rage +hammered at his temples.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the clattering of horses' hoofs outside. A carriage was being +brought. Soldiers came in and a man beckoned curtly. Bell stuffed his +pockets with smokes and followed languidly. He was realizing that there +was little pretense of secrecy about the power of The Master's deputy +here. Police and soldiers.... But Paraguay, of all the nations of the +southern continent, has learned a certain calm realism about +governmental matters.</p> + +<p>The man who has power is obeyed. The man who has not power is not +obeyed. Titles are of little importance, though it is the custom for the +man with the actual power eventually to assume the official rank of +authority. Since the President in Asunción was no more than a figurehead +who called anxiously upon the Señor Francia every morning for +instructions concerning the management of the nation, Francia +indifferently ignored him whenever he chose and gave orders directly. +There would be very little surprise and no disorder whatever when The +Master proclaimed Paraguay a viceroyalty of his intended empire.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> carriage went smartly through the cobbled streets with a cavalry +escort all about it. An officer sat opposite Bell with his hand on his +revolver.</p> + +<p>"I am receiving at least the honors of royalty," Bell commented coldly +to him, in Spanish.</p> + +<p>"Señor," said the officer harshly, "this is the state in which the +deputies of The Master were escorted."</p> + +<p>He watched Bell heavily, but with the desperate intentness of a man who +knows no excuses will be received if his prisoner escapes.</p> + +<p>Out of the town to a flying field, where a multi-engined plane was +warming up. It was one of the ships that had been at The Master's +<i>fazenda</i> of Cuyaba, one of the ships that had fled from the burning +plantation. Bell was ushered into it with a ceremonious suspicion. +Almost immediately he was handcuffed to his seat. Two men took their +place behind him. The big ship rolled forward, lifted, steadied, and +after a single circling set out to the southeast for Buenos Aires.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> whole performance had been run off with the smoothly oiled +precision of an iron discipline exercised upon men in the grip of deadly +fear.</p> + +<p>"One man, at least," reflected Bell grimly, "has some qualities that fit +him for his job."</p> + +<p>And then, for hour after hour, the big ship went steadily southeast. It +flew over Paraguayan territory for two hours, soaring high over the Lago +Ypoa and on over the swampy country that extends to the Argentine +border. It ignored that border and all customs formalities. It went on, +through long hours of flight, while mountains rose before it. It rose +over those mountains and passed over the first railroad line—the first +real sign of civilization since leaving Asunción—at Mercedes, and +reached the Uruguay river where the Mirinjay joins it. It went roaring +on down above the valley of the Rio Uruguay for long and tedious hours +more. At about noon, lunch was produced. The two men who guarded Bell +ate. Then, with drawn revolvers, they unlocked his handcuffs and offered +him food.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> ate, of exactly those foods he had seen them eat. He submitted +indifferently to the re-application of his fetters. He had reached a +state which was curiously emotionless. If Paula had been turned over to +Ribiera that morning, Paula was dead. And just as there is a state of +grief which stuns the mind past the realization of its loss, so there is +a condition of hatred which leads to an enormous calmness and an +unnatural absence of any tremor. Bell had reached that state. The +instinct of self-preservation had gone lax. Where a man normally thinks +first, if unconsciously, of the protection of his body from injury or +pain, Bell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> had come to think first, and with the same terrible clarity, +of the accomplishment of revenge.</p> + +<p>He would accept The Master's terms, if The Master offered them. He would +become The Master's subject, accepting the poison of madness without a +qualm. He would act and speak and think as a subject of The Master, +until his opportunity came. And then....</p> + +<p>His absolute calmness would have deceived most men. It may have deceived +his guards. Time passed. The Rio de la Plata spread out widely below the +roaring multi-engined plane and the vast expanse of buildings which is +Buenos Aires appeared far ahead in the gathering dusk. Little twinkling +lights blinked into being upon the water and the earth far away. Then +one of the two guards touched Bell on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Señor," he said sharply above the motors' muffled roar, "we shall land. +A car will draw up beside the plane. There will be no customs +inspection. That has been arranged for. You can have no hope of escape. +I ask you if you will go quietly into the car?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Bell evenly. "I went to Señor Francia of my own +accord."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> guard leaned back. The city of Buenos Aires spread out below them. +The tumbled, congested old business quarter glittered in all its +offices, and the broad Avenida de Mayo cut its way as a straight slash +of glittering light through the section of the city to eastward. By +contrast, from above, the far-flung suburbs seemed dark and somber.</p> + +<p>The big plane roared above the city, settling slowly; banked steeply and +circled upon its farther side, and dipped down toward what seemed an +absurdly small area, which sprang into a pinkish glow on their descent. +That area spread out as the descent continued, though, and was a wide +and level field when the ship flattened out and checked and lumbered to +a stop.</p> + +<p>A glistening black car came swiftly, humming into place alongside almost +before the clumsy aircraft ceased to roll. Its door opened. Two men got +out and waited. The hangars were quite two hundred yards away, and Bell +saw the glitter of weapons held inconspicuously but quite ready.</p> + +<p>He stepped out of the cabin of the plane with a revolver muzzle pressing +into his spine. Other revolver muzzles pressed sharply into his sides as +he reached earth.</p> + +<p>Smiling faintly, he took four steps, clambered up into the glistening +black car, and settled down comfortably into the seat. The two men who +had waited by the car followed him. The door closed, and Bell was in a +padded silence that was acutely uncomfortable for a moment. A dome light +glowed brightly, however, and he lighted nearly the last of the +cigarettes from Asunción with every appearance of composure as the car +started off with a lurch.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> windows were blank. Thick, upholstered padding covered the spaces +where openings should have been, and there was only the muffled +vibration of the motor and the occasional curiously distinct noise of a +flexing spring.</p> + +<p>"Just as a matter of curiosity," said Bell mildly, "what is the excuse +given on the flying field for this performance? Or is the entire staff +subject to The Master?"</p> + +<p>Two revolvers were bearing steadily upon him and the two men watched him +with the unwavering attention of men whose lives depend upon their +vigilance.</p> + +<p>"You, Señor," said one of them without expression or a smile, "are the +corpse of a prominent politician who died yesterday at his country +home."</p> + +<p>And then for half an hour or more the car drove swiftly, and stopped, +and drove swiftly forward again as if in traffic. Then there were many +turns, and then a slow and cautious traverse of a relatively few feet. +It stopped,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> and then the engine vibration ceased.</p> + +<p>"I advise you, Señor," said the same man who had spoken before, and in +the same emotionless voice, "not to have hope of escape in the moment of +alighting. We are in an enclosed court and there are two gates locked +behind us."</p> + +<p>Bell shrugged as there was the clatter of a lock operating. The door +swung wide.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> stepped down into a courtyard surrounded by nearly bare walls. It had +once been the <i>patio</i> of a private home of some charm. Now, however, it +was bleak and empty. A few discouraged flowers grew weedily in one +corner. The glow of light in the sky overhead assured Bell that he was +in the very heart of Buenos Aires, but only the most subdued of rumbles +spoke of the activity and the traffic of the city going on without.</p> + +<p>"This way," said the man with the expressionless voice.</p> + +<p>The other man followed. The chauffeur of the car stood aside as if some +formality required him neither to start the motor or return to his seat +until Bell was clear of the courtyard.</p> + +<p>Through a heavy timber door. Along a passageway with the odor of +neglect. Up stairs which once had been impressive and ornamental. Into a +room without windows.</p> + +<p>"You will have an interview with the Señorita Canalejas in five +minutes," said the emotionless voice.</p> + +<p>The door closed, while Bell found every separate muscle in his body draw +taut. And while his brain at first was dazed with incredulous relief, +then it went dark with a new and ghastly terror.</p> + +<p>"They know <i>yagué</i>," he heard himself saying coldly, "which makes any +person obey any command. They may know other and more hellish ones yet."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> fought for self control, which meant the ability to conceal +absolutely any form of shock that might await him. That one was in store +he was certain. He paced grimly the length of the room and back +again....</p> + +<p>Something on the carpet caught his eye. A bit of string. He stared at it +incredulously. The end was tied into a curious and an individual knot, +which looked like it might be the pastime of a sailor, and which looked +like it ought to be fairly easy to tie. But it was one of those knots +which wandering men sometimes tie absent mindedly in the presence of +stirring events. It was the recognition-knot of the Trade, one of those +signs by which men may know each other in strange and peculiar +situations. And there were many other knots tied along the trailing +length of the string. It seemed as if some nervous and distraught +prisoner in this room might have toyed abstractedly with a bit of cord.</p> + +<p>Only, Bell drew it through his fingers. Double knot, single knot, double +knot.... They spelled out letters in the entirely simple Morse code of +the telegrapher, if one noticed.</p> + +<h4>"RBRA GN ON PLA HRE ST TGT J."</h4> + +<p>Your old-time telegrapher uses many abbreviations. Your short-wave fan +uses more. Mostly they are made by a simple omission of vowels in normal +English words. And when the recognition sign at the beginning was +considered, the apparently cryptic letters leaped into meaning.</p> + +<h4>"RiBeRA GoNe ON PauLA HeRe SiT TiGhT Jamison."</h4> + +<p>When the door opened again and a terribly pale Paula was ushered in, +Bell gave no sign of surprise. He simply took her in his arms and kissed +her, holding her very, very close.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Paula</span> remained in the room with Bell for perhaps twenty minutes, and +Bell had the feeling of eyes upon them and of ears listening to their +every word. In their first embrace, in fact, he murmured a warning in +her ear and she gasped a little whispered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> word of comprehension. But it +was at least a relief to be sure that she was alive and yet unharmed. +Francia had been in error when he told Bell of Paula's delivery to the +Brazilian to be enslaved or killed as Ribiera found most amusing. Or +perhaps, of course, Francia had merely wanted to cause Bell all possible +discomfort.</p> + +<p>It was clear, however, blessedly clear and evident, that Paula's pallor +was due to nothing more than terror—a terror which was now redoubled +because Bell was in The Master's toils with her. Forgetting his warning, +she whispered to him desperately that he must try to escape, somehow, +before The Master's poison was administered to him. Outside, he might do +something to release her. Here, a prisoner, he was helpless.</p> + +<p>Bell soothed her, not daring either to confess the plan he had formed of +a feigned submission in order to wreak revenge, or to offer +encouragement because of the message knotted in the piece of string by +Jamison. And because of that caution she came to look at him with a +queer doubt, and presently with a terrible quiet grief.</p> + +<p>"Charles—you—you have been poisoned like the rest?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> feeling of watching eyes and listening ears was strong. Bell had a +part to play, and the necessity for playing that part was the greater +because now he was forced to hope. He hesitated, torn between the need +to play his rôle for the invisible eavesdroppers and the desire to spare +Paula.</p> + +<p>Her hand closed convulsively upon his.</p> + +<p>"V-very well, Charles," she said quietly, though her lips quivered. +"If—if you are going to serve The Master, I—I will serve him too, if +he will let me stay always near you. But if he—will not, then I can +always—die...."</p> + +<p>Bell groaned. And the door opened silently, and there were men standing +without. An emotionless voice said:</p> + +<p>"Señorita, the Señor Ortiz will interview the Señor Bell."</p> + +<p>"I'm coming," said Paula quietly.</p> + +<p>She went, walking steadily. Two men detached themselves from the group +about the door and followed her. The others waited for Bell. And Bell +clenched his hands and squared his shoulders and marched grimly with +them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Again</span> long passages, descending to what must have been a good deal below +the surface of the earth. And then a massive door was opened, and light +shone through, and Bell found himself standing on a rug of the thickest +possible pile in a room of quite barbaric luxury, and facing a desk from +which a young man was rising to greet him. This young man was no older +than Bell himself, and he greeted Bell in a manner in which mockery was +entirely absent, but in which defiance was peculiarly strong. A bulky, +round shouldered figure wrote laboriously at a smaller desk to one side.</p> + +<p>"Señor Bell," said the young man bitterly, "I do not ask you to shake +hands with me. I am Julio Ortiz, the son of the man you befriended upon +the steamer <i>Almirante Gomez</i>. I am also, by the command of The Master, +your jailer. Will you be seated?"</p> + +<p>Bell's eyes flickered. The older Ortiz had died by his own hand in the +first stages of the murder madness The Master's poison produced. He had +died gladly and, in Bell's view, very gallantly. And yet his son.... But +of course The Master's deputies made a point of enslaving whole families +when it was at all possible. It gave a stronger hold upon each member.</p> + +<p>"I beg of you," said young Ortiz bitterly, "to accept my invitation. I +wish to offer you a much qualified friendship, which I expect you to +refuse."</p> + +<p>Bell sat down and crossed his knees. He lit a cigarette thoughtfully, +thinking swiftly.</p> + +<p>"I remember, and admired, your father," he said slowly. "I think that +any man who died as bravely as he did is to be envied."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> younger Ortiz had reseated himself as Bell sat down, and now he +fingered nervously, wretchedly, the objects on his desk. A penholder +broke between his fingers and he flung it irritably into the +wastebasket.</p> + +<p>"You understand," he said harshly, "the obligations upon me. I am the +subject of The Master. You will realize that if you desire to escape, I +cannot permit it. But you did my father a very great kindness. Much of +it I was able to discover from persons on the boat. More, from the +wireless operator who is also the subject of The Master. You were not +acting, Señor, as a secret service operative in your attempt to help my +father. You bore yourself as a very honorable gentleman. I wish to thank +you."</p> + +<p>"I imagine," said Bell dryly, "that anyone would have done what I did."</p> + +<p>He seemed to be quite at ease, but he was very tense indeed. The bulky, +round shouldered figure at the other desk was writing busily with a very +scratchy pen. It was an abominable pen. Its sputtering was loud enough +to be noticeable under any circumstances, but Bell was unusually alert, +just now, and suddenly he added still more drily:</p> + +<p>"Helping a man in trouble is quite natural. One always gets it back. +It's a sort of dealing with the future in which there is a profit on +every trade."</p> + +<p>He put the slightest emphasis on the last word and waited, looking at +young Ortiz, but listening with all his soul to the scratching of the +pen. And that scratching sound ceased abruptly. The pen seemed to write +smoothly all of an instant. Bell drew a deep breath of satisfaction. In +the Trade, when in doubt, one should use the word "Trade" in one's first +remark to the other man. Then the other man will ask your trade, and you +reply impossibly. It is then up to the other man to speak frankly, +first. But circumstances alter even recognition-signs.</p> + +<p>Ortiz had not noticed any by-play, of course. It would have been rather +extraordinary if he had. A pen that scratches so that the sound is +Morse code for "Bell, play up. J." is just unlikely enough to avoid all +notice.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Ortiz</span> drummed upon the desk. "Now, Señor, what can I do that will serve +you? I cannot release you. You know that. I am not the deputy here. +There has been a set-back to The Master's plans and all the deputies are +called to his retreat to receive instructions and to discuss. I have +merely been ordered to carry out the deputy's routine labors until he +returns. However, I will be obeyed in any matter. I can, and will, do +anything that will make you more comfortable or will amuse you, from a +change in your accommodations to providing you with companions. You +observe," he added with exquisite bitterness, "that the limit of my +capacity to prove my friendship is to offer my services as a pander."</p> + +<p>Bell gazed at the tip of his cigarette, letting his eyes wander about +the room for an instant, and permitting them to rest for the fraction of +a second upon the round shouldered, writing form by the side wall.</p> + +<p>"I am sufficiently amused," he said mildly. "I asked to be sent to The +Master. He intends to make me an offer, I understand. Or he did. He may +have changed his mind. But I am curious. Your father told me a certain +thing that seemed to indicate he did not enjoy the service of The +Master. Your tone is quite loyal, but unhappy. Why do you serve him? +Aside, of course, from the fact of having been poisoned by his deputy."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Internally</span>, Bell was damning Jamison feverishly. If he was to play up to +Ortiz, why didn't Jamison give him some sign of how he was to do it? +Some tip....</p> + +<p>"Herr Wiedkind," said Ortiz wearily, "perhaps you can explain."</p> + +<p>The round shouldered figure swung about and bowed profoundly to Bell.</p> + +<p>"Der Señor Ortiz," he said guttural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>ly, and in a sepulchral profundity, +"he does not understand himself. I haff nefer said it before. But he +serfs Der Master because he despairs, andt he will cease to serf Der +Master when he hopes. And I—I serf Der Master because I hope, andt I +will cease to serf him when I despair."</p> + +<p>Ortiz looked curiously and almost suspiciously at the Germanic figure +which regarded him soberly through thick spectacles.</p> + +<p>"It is not customary, Herr Wiedkind," he said slowly, "to speak of +ceasing to serve The Master."</p> + +<p>"Idt is not customary to speak of many necessary things," said the round +shouldered figure dryly. "Of our religions, for example. Of der women we +lofe. Of our gonsciences. Of various necessary biological functions. But +in der presence of der young man who is der enemy of Der Master we can +speak freely, you and I who serf him. We know that maybe der deputies +serf because they enjoy it. But der subjects? Dey serf because dey fear. +Andt fear is intolerable. A man who is afraid is in an unstable +gondition. Sooner or later he is going to stop fearing because he gets +used to it—when Der Master will haff no more hold on him—or else he is +going to stop fearing because he will kill himself."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">To</span> an outsider the spectacle of the three men in their talk would have +been very odd indeed. Two men who served The Master, and one who had +been his only annoying opponent, talking of the service of The Master +quite amicably and without marked disagreement.</p> + +<p>Ortiz stirred and drummed nervously on the desk. The round shouldered +figure put the tips of its fingers together.</p> + +<p>"How did you know," demanded Ortiz suddenly, "that I serve because I +despair?"</p> + +<p>Bell watched keenly. He began to see where the talk was trending, and +waited alertly for the moment for him to speak. This was a battlefield, +this too luxurious room in which young Ortiz seemed an alien. Rhetoric +was the weapon which now would serve the best.</p> + +<p>"Let us talk frankly," said the placid German voice. "You andt I, Señor +Ortiz, haff worked together. You are not a defil like most of the +deputies, and I do not regret hafing been sent here to help you. And I +am not a scoundtrel like most of those who help the deputies, so you +haff liked me a little. Let us talk frankly. I was trapped. I am a +capable segretary. I speak seferal languages. I haff no particular +ambitions or any loyalties. I am useful. So I was trapped. But you, +Señor Ortiz, you are different."</p> + +<p>Ortiz suddenly smiled bitterly.</p> + +<p>"It is a saying in Brazil, if I recall the words, '<i>A cauda do demonio e +de rendas.</i>' 'The devil's tail is made of lace.' That is the story."</p> + +<p>Bell said quietly:</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>Ortiz stared at him. He was very pale. And suddenly he laughed without +any amusement whatever.</p> + +<p>"True," said Ortiz. He smiled in the same bitterness. "I had forgotten. +I am a slave, and the Herr Wiedkind is a slave, and you, Señor Bell, are +the enemy of our master. But I had forgotten that we are gentlemen. In +the service of The Master one does forget that there are gentlemen."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">He</span> laughed again and lighted a cigarette with hands that shook a little.</p> + +<p>"I loved a girl," he said in a cynical amusement. "It is peculiar that +one should love any woman, <i>señores</i>—or do you, Señor Bell, find it +natural? I loved this girl. It pleased my father. She was of a family +fully equal to my own: their wealth, their position, their traditions +were quite equal, and it was a most suitable match. Most remarkable of +all, I loved her as one commonly loves only when no such considerations +exist. It is amusing to me now,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> to think how deeply, and how truly, and +how terribly I loved her...."</p> + +<p>Young Ortiz's pallor deepened as he smiled at them. His eyes, so dark as +to be almost black, looked at them from a smiling mask of whiteness.</p> + +<p>"There was no flaw anywhere. A romance of the most romantic, my father +very happy, her family most satisfied and pleased, and I—I walked upon +air. And then my father suddenly departed for the United States, quite +without warning. He left a memorandum for me, saying that it was a +matter of government, a secret matter. He would explain upon his return. +I did not worry. I haunted the house of my fiancée. The habits of her +family are of the most liberal. I saw her daily, almost hourly, and my +infatuation grew. And suddenly I grew irritable and saw red spots before +my eyes....</p> + +<p>"Her father took me to task about my nervousness. He led me kindly to a +man of high position, who poured out for me a little potion.... And +within an hour all my terrible unease had vanished. And then they told +me of The Master, of the poison I had been given in the house of my +fiancée herself. They informed me that if I served The Master I would be +provided with the antidote which would keep me sane. I raged.... And +then the father of my fiancée told me that he and all his family served +The Master. That the girl I loved, herself, owed him allegiance. And +while I would possibly have defied them and death itself, the thought of +that girl not daring to wed me because of the poison in her veins.... I +saw, then, that she was in terror. I imagined the two of us comforting +each other beneath the shadow of the most horrible of fates...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Ortiz</span> was silent for what seemed to be a long time, smiling mirthlessly +at nothing. When his lips parted, it was to laugh, a horribly discordant +laughter.</p> + +<p>"I agreed," he said in ghastly amusement. "For the sake of my loved +one, I agreed to serve The Master that I might comfort her. And plans +for our wedding, which had been often and inexplicably delayed, were set +in train at once. And the deputy of The Master entertained me often. I +plied him with drink, striving to learn all that I could, hoping against +hope that there would be some way of befooling him and securing the +antidote without the poison.... And at last, when very drunken, he +laughed at me for my intention of marriage. He advised me tipsily to +serve The Master zealously and receive promotion in his service. Then, +he told me amusedly, I would not care for marriage. My fiancée would be +at my disposal without such formalities. In fact—while I stood rigid +with horror—he sent a command for her to attend him immediately. He +commanded me to go to an apartment in his dwelling. And soon—within +minutes, it seemed—the girl I loved came there to me...."</p> + +<p>Bell did not move. This was no moment to interrupt. Ortiz's fixed and +cynical smile wavered and vanished. His voice was harsh.</p> + +<p>"She was at my disposal, as an act of drunken friendship by the deputy +of The Master. She confessed to me, weeping, that she had been at the +disposal of the deputy himself. Of any other person he cared to divert +or amuse.... Oh! <i>Dios!</i>"</p> + +<p>Ortiz stopped short and said, in forced calmness:</p> + +<p>"That also was the night that my father died."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Silence</span> fell. Bell sat very still. The Teutonic figure spoke quietly +after the clock had ticked for what seemed an interminable period.</p> + +<p>"You didt know, then, that your father's death was arranged?"</p> + +<p>Ortiz turned stiffly to look at him.</p> + +<p>"Here," said the placid voice, quaintly sympathetic. "Look at these."</p> + +<p>A hand extended a thick envelope. Ortiz took it, staring with wide, +distended eyes. The round shouldered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> figure stood up and seemed to +shake itself. The stoop of its shoulders straightened out. One of the +seemingly pudgy hands reached up and removed the thick spectacles. A +bushy gray eyebrow peeled off. A straggly beard was removed. The other +eyebrow.... Jamison nodded briefly to Bell, and turned to watch Ortiz.</p> + +<p>And Ortiz was reading the contents of the envelope. His hands began to +shake violently. He rested them on the desk-top so that he could +continue to read. When he looked up his eyes were flaming.</p> + +<p>"The real Herr Wiedkind," said Jamison dryly, "came up from Punta Arenas +with special instructions from The Master. You have talents, Señor +Ortiz, which The Master wished to use. Also you have considerable wealth +and the prestige of an honorable family. But you were afflicted with +ideas of honor and decency, which are disadvantageous in deputies of The +Master. The real Herr Wiedkind had remarkable gifts in eradicating those +ideas."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Jamison</span> sat down and crossed his knees carefully.</p> + +<p>"I looked you up because I knew The Master had killed your father," he +added mildly, "and I thought you'd either be hunting The Master or he'd +be hunting you. My name's Jamison. I killed the real Wiedkind and took +his identification papers. He was a singularly unpleasant beast. His +idea of pleasure made him seem a fatherly sort of person, very much like +my make-up. He was constantly petting children, and appeared very +benign. I am very, very glad that I killed him."</p> + +<p>Ortiz tore at his collar, suddenly. He seemed to be choking.</p> + +<p>"This—this says.... It is The Master's handwriting! I know it! And it +says—"</p> + +<p>"It says," Jamison observed calmly, "that since your father killed the +previous deputy in an attempt to save you from The Master's poison, that +you are to be prepared for the work your father had been assigned. Herr +Wiedkind is given special orders about your—ah—moral education. In +passing, I might say that your father was sent to the United States +because it was known he'd killed the previous deputy. He told Bell he'd +done that killing. And he was allowed to grow horribly nervous on his +return. He was permitted to see the red spots, because he was +officially—even as far as you were concerned—to commit suicide.</p> + +<p>"It was intended that his nervousness was to be noticed. And a plane +tried to deliver a message to him. Your father thought the parcel +contained the antidote to the poison that was driving him mad. Actually, +it was very conventional prussic acid. Your father would have drunk it +and dropped dead, a suicide, after a conspicuous period of nervousness +and worry."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Bell</span> felt his cigarette burning his fingers. He had sat rigid until the +thing burned short. He crushed out the coal, looking at Ortiz.</p> + +<p>And Ortiz seemed to gasp for breath. But with an almost superhuman +effort he calmed himself outwardly.</p> + +<p>"I—think," he said with some difficulty, "that I should thank you. I +do. But I do not think that you told me all of this without some motive. +I abandon the service of The Master. But what is it that you wish me to +do? You know, of course, that I can order both of you killed...."</p> + +<p>Bell put down the stub of his cigarette very carefully.</p> + +<p>"The only thing you can do," he said quietly, "is to die."</p> + +<p>"True," said Ortiz with a ghastly smile. "But I would like my death to +perform some service. The Master has no enemies save you two, and those +of us who die on becoming his enemies. I would like, in dying, to do him +some harm."</p> + +<p>"I will promise," said Jamison grimly, "to see that The Master dies +himself if you will have Bell and myself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> put in a plane with fuel to +Punta Arenas and a reasonable supply of weapons. I include the Señorita +Canalejas as a matter of course."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">Ortiz</span> looked from one to the other. And suddenly he smiled once more. It +was queer, that smile. It was not quite mirthless.</p> + +<p>"You were right, just now," he observed calmly, "when as the Herr +Wiedkind you said that I would quit the service of The Master when I +ceased to despair. I begin to have hopes. You two men have done the +impossible. You have fought The Master, you have learned many of his +secrets, and you have corrupted a man to treason when treason means +suicide. Perhaps, Señores, you will continue to achieve the impossible, +and assassinate The Master."</p> + +<p>He stood up, and though deathly pale continued to smile.</p> + +<p>"I suggest, Señor, that you resume your complexion. And you, Señor Bell, +you will be returned to your confinement. I will make the necessarily +elaborate arrangements for my death."</p> + +<p>Bell rose. He liked this young man. He said quietly:</p> + +<p>"You said just now you wouldn't ask me to shake hands. May I ask +you?..." He added almost apologetically as Ortiz's fingers closed upon +his: "You see, when your father died I thought that I would be very glad +if I felt that I would die as well. But I think"—he smiled wryly—"I +think I'll have two examples to think of when my time comes."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">In</span> the morning a bulky, round shouldered figure entered the room in +which Bell was confined.</p> + +<p>"You will follow me," said a harsh voice.</p> + +<p>Bell shrugged. He was marched down long passageways and many steps. He +came out into the courtyard, where the glistening black car with the +blank windows waited. At an imperious gesture, he got in and sat down +with every appearance of composure, as of a man resignedly submitting +to force he cannot resist. The thick spectacles of the Herr Wiedkind +regarded him with a gogglelike effect. There was a long pause. Then the +sound of footsteps. Paula appeared, deathly pale. She was ushered into +the vehicle—and only Bell's swift gesture of a finger to his lips +checked her cry of relief.</p> + +<p>Voices outside. The guttural Spanish of the Herr Wiedkind. Other, +emotionless voices replying. The Herr Wiedkind climbed heavily into the +car and sat down, producing a huge revolver which bore steadily upon +Bell. The door closed, and he made a swift gesture of caution.</p> + +<p>"Idt may be," said the Germanic voice harshly, "that you and the young +ladty haff much to say to each other. But idt can wait. And I warn you, +<i>mein Herr</i>, that at the first movement I shall fire."</p> + +<p>Bell relaxed. There was the purring of the motor. The car moved off. +Obviously there was some microphonic attachment inside the tonneau which +carried every word within the locked vehicle to the ears of the two men +upon the chauffeur's seat. An excellent idea for protection against +treachery. Bell smiled, and moved so that his lips were a bare half-inch +from Paula's ears.</p> + +<p>"Try to weep, loudly," he said in the faintest of whispers. "This man is +a friend."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">But</span> Paula could only stare at the bulky figure sitting opposite until he +suddenly removed the spectacles, and smiled dryly, and then reached in +his pockets and handed Bell two automatic pistols, and extended a tiny +but very wicked weapon to Paula. He motioned to her to conceal it.</p> + +<p>Jamison—moving to make the minimum of noise—handed Bell a sheet of +stiff cardboard. It passed into Bell's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> fingers without a rustle. He +showed it silently to Paula.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We were overheard last night by someone. We don't know who or how +much he heard. Dictaphone in the room we talked in. Can't find out +who it was or what action he's taken. We may be riding into a trap +now. Ortiz has disappeared. He may be dead. We can only wait and +see.</p></div> + +<p>The car was moving as if in city traffic, a swift dash forward and a +sudden stop, and then another swift dash. But the walls within were +padded so that no sound came from without save the faint vibration of +the motor and now and then the distinct flexing of a spring. Then the +car turned a corner. It went more rapidly. It turned another corner. And +another....</p> + +<p>In the light of the bright dome light, Bell saw beads of sweat coming +out on Jamison's face. He did not dare to speak, but he formed words +with his lips.</p> + +<p>"He's turning wrong! This isn't the way to the field!"</p> + +<p>Bell's jaws clenched. He took out his two automatics and looked at them +carefully. And then, much too short a time from the departure for the +flying field to have been reached, the car checked. It went over rough +cobblestones, and Bell himself knew well that there had been no cobbled +roadway between the flying field and his prison. And then the car went +up a sort of ramp, a fairly steep incline which by the feel of the motor +was taken in low, and on for a short distance more. Then the car stopped +and the motor was cut off.</p> + +<p>Keys rattled in the lock outside. The door opened. The blunt barrel of +an automatic pistol peered in.</p> + +<p class="center">(<i>To be concluded in the next issue.</i>)</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2><a name="readers" id="readers"></a><i>The Readers' Corner</i></h2> + +<h3><i>A Meeting Place for Readers of</i> Astounding Stories</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/asf193007134.jpg" width="550" height="496" alt="" title="Readers' Corner" /> +</div> + +<p><i>About Reprints</i></p> + +<p>From time to time the Editors of Astounding Stories receive letters, +like the two that follow, in which Readers beg us to run reprints, and +now we feel it is time to call attention to the very good reasons why we +must refuse.</p> + +<p>We admit, right off, that some splendid Science Fiction stories have +been published in the past—but are those now being printed in any way +inferior to them? Aren't even <i>better</i> ones being written to-day?—since +a whole civilization now stirs with active interest in science?—since +three or five times as many writers are now supplying us with stories to +choose from?—since science and scientific theory have reached so +immeasurably much farther into the Realm of the Unknown Possible?</p> + +<p>The answer is an emphatic <i>Yes</i>. We all know it.</p> + +<p>"A Trip to the Moon"—for instance—was a good story, but shall we keep +reprinting it to-day, when recent revolutionary theories of space-time +scream to modern authors for Science-Fiction treatment? In the last ten +years the whole aspect, the whole future of science has broadened; we +have sensed an infinity beyond infinity; and who would be so un-modern +as to cling to the oft-told stories of the older science and neglect the +thrilling reaches of the new!</p> + +<p><i>The Saturday Evening Post</i>—again, for instance—has been publishing +good stories for years, but who would have them reprint the old ones +instead of keep giving us good new ones?</p> + +<p>Would it be fair to 99% of our Readers to force on them reprint novels +they have already read, or had a chance to read, to favor the 1% who +have missed them? Of course it wouldn't, and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> of our Readers in that +1% will gladly admit it.</p> + +<p>And how about our authors? Contrary to the old-fashioned opinion, +authors must eat—and how will they eat, and lead respectable lives, and +keep out of jail, if we keep reprinting their <i>old</i> stories and turning +down their <i>new</i> ones? After all, eating is very important; those who +wouldn't simply refrain from eating would have to get jobs as +messengers, and errand boys, etc.—with the result that much of our +fascinating modern Science Fiction would never be written!</p> + +<p>It would be much cheaper for us to buy once-used material. It would +greatly reduce our task of carefully reading every story that comes to +our office, in hopes to finding a fine, new story, or a potentially good +author. But it would be very unwise, and very unfair, as you have seen.</p> + +<p>Many more reasons could be given, but these few are the more important +ones back of our policy of avoiding reprints. Enough said!—<i>The +Editor.</i></p> + + +<p><i>Wants Reprints</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>In you April issue, in answer to a correspondent, you stated that +you were avoiding reprints. Now, that's too bad. Some of the best +Science-Fiction tales are reprints. Witness:</p> + +<p>"The Blind Spot," by Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall; "The War In +The Air," by H. G. Wells; "The Purple Sapphire," by John Taine; +"The Conquest of Mars," by Garrett P. Serviss; "Darkness and Dawn," +and "Into the Great Oblivion," and "The After-Glow," and "The +Air-Trust"—all by George Allan England.</p> + +<p>You are proud—and rightfully so—of your great author, Ray +Cummings. Why not give us several stories which helped to build his +glory? Here are several:</p> + +<p>"Tarranto the Conqueror," "The Man on the Meteor," "The Girl in the +Golden Atom," "The Man Who Mastered Time," "The Fire People."</p> + +<p>Guess I'll sign off now and give the other fellows a +chance.—Isidore Manyon, 544 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y.</p></div> + + +<p><i>What Think You All?</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>There is one question I would like to ask. Perhaps some of the +other readers of Astounding Stories can answer it.</p> + +<p>Could a person remember his own death in a former incarnation? +Some say "no," and some say "yes." If it is true that you can't, +the whole fabric of the wonderful story, one of the most beautiful, +if not the most beautiful I have ever read, "The Moon Maid," by +Edgar Rice Burroughs, is built on a fallacy. You see, I am a +believer in reincarnation and I would surely like to correspond +with others who are also! Would not that also disprove the whole +theory of reincarnation if it is true? I think it is not true, but +I may be wrong. Is reincarnation a proven theory, or unproven?</p> + +<p>You say you are going to avoid reprints. Now that is a mistake. Of +course, some you might avoid, such as those of Wells, Verne, etc., +though I would like you to publish Wells' short stories. There are +many that have not been published in any magazine for a long time, +or at all.</p> + +<p>But please, oh please, do publish A. Merritt's "Through the Dragon +Glass," and give it a cover illustration. It is the only one, I +think, that I want particularly, but I do want it! If you publish +any of H. G. Wells' works, give them cover illustrations, too.</p> + +<p>And publish a lot by Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and authors +like that; you haven't as yet printed a story of the type that A. +Merritt writes, and that is one thing this magazine needs, and lots +of them, as they are the cream of Science Fiction, and the more of +them you have, the better! They are my favorites, and next come +those that Edgar Rice Burroughs writes; also John Taine.—Worth K. +Bryant, 406 No. Third St., Yakima, Wash.</p></div> + + +<p><i>The S: Lynn Rhorer Society</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>This is to inform you that we have organized a society known as the +S. Lynn Rhorer Society of Greater Atlanta, a branch of the Science +Correspondence Club.</p> + +<p>This Society's purpose is to first assist the Science +Correspondence Club and its affiliated branches in the promotion of +science and Scientific Fiction. Second, to create a greater +interest in science and Science Fiction among the laymen who are +already interested, and to create an interest among those who are +not at the present interested, and to hold their interest.</p> + +<p>At the present time we have in our library over three hundred +scientific books; a large collection of ores and rocks from +different states and countries, classified; a large collection of +fossilized bones; a three-inch refracting telescope, and a ten-inch +one in the course of construction; and a large club-house.</p> + +<p>Any information regarding this society can be obtained by +addressing R. A. Marks, Jr., 893 York Ave., S. W., Atlanta, +Georgia, or the undersigned.—F. B. Eason, 400 Jefferson Avenue, E. +Point, Ga.</p></div> + + +<p><i>Unused to the Smaller Size</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I have but one comment on your magazine and that is: Having +complete sets of other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> Science Fiction magazines I would also like +to save Astounding Stories, but in its present size and condition +it looks like trash. Why not have a ballot to what size the +magazine shall be? By having the price raised to 25 cents it can +cover the extra expense. I would surely like to add another +magazine to my collection. Am hereby hoping you will do this for +the sake of Science Fiction lovers all over the country.—Sidney +Mack, 1676 59th Street, Brooklyn, New York.</p></div> + + +<p><i>"The Scienceers" Broadcasts</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>For the benefit of the readers of Astounding Stories who live in +New York, a club known as The Scienceers has recently been formed. +Its purpose is to promote informal fellowship among Science Fiction +fans and to foster discussion of modern developments, theories and +projects in the realm of science.</p> + +<p>The organization is open to all persons over sixteen years of age +who are interested in Science Fiction and its relation to the +various fields of present day science. Since regular weekly +meetings are held, the membership is necessarily restricted to +residents of New York City and vicinity.</p> + +<p>A cordial invitation to join the Scienceers is hereby extended to +all interested. Further information may be obtained by writing to +the undersigned.—Allen Glasser, 961 Forest Avenue, New York, N. Y.</p></div> + + +<p>"<i>Congratulations for Both</i>"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Congratulations for us both. Your company for publishing this +magazine, myself for being able to buy same.</p> + +<p>Have just finished reading the second issue. It is very good. I +read every story in both issues. You bet I am going to be a steady +reader from now on. I like this type of story very much—in fact, +read two other magazines that publish stories of this type every +month. I note with great pleasure that in the March issue you are +starting to publish the first quarter of an interplanetary story by +Ray Cummings. This is, indeed, good news. I have had the pleasure +of reading five of his novels this past year and I greatly enjoyed +all of them. Along with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings is an +"ace high" author on these "unpredictable-future" stories.</p> + +<p>Some four or fives years ago I read in a magazine a portion of two +interplanetary stories by Ray Cummings. Now to the point, I wonder +if it is possible for you to obtain Mr. Cummings' permission to +have your company publish these two stories? Their names I believe +are "Tarranto the Conquerer" and "Into the Fourth Dimension." I, +for one, would greatly appreciate this favor. Please do your best +to try and publish these novels this coming year. Thanks.—Wm. L. +Ebelan, 3906 Springdale Avenue, Baltimore, Md.</p></div> + + +<p><i>Likes the Small Size</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I received a pleasant surprise when I first bought your wonderful +magazine. I started in with the second issue, but I wish I could +get the first.</p> + +<p>All the stories are good. The best of them, I think, is Ray +Cummings' story, "Brigands of the Moon." I have read the first +three parts and am eagerly waiting for the last.</p> + +<p>And now for something about the make-up of the magazine. I like the +small size, and holding the magazine together with two staples is +good.</p> + +<p>The cover designs are very good, but the pictures inside could be +improved on. H. Wesso is a good artist.</p> + +<p>How about publishing the magazine twice a month?—Charles Barrett, +135 Spring St., Woodbury, N. J.</p></div> + + +<p><i>Thanks, Anyhow!</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I hope that you are not going to have a blue cover every month. I +would like to see a different colored background every month. The +cover on the March issue should have been black because space is +black.</p> + +<p>I wish that you would have a full-page picture for each story. +Wesso is the best artist you have. The others haven't enough +imagination.</p> + +<p>I gave "Brigands of the Moon" by Ray Cummings first place in the +March issue of Astounding Stories. It promises to be his best story +since "Tarrano the Conqueror."</p> + +<p>The places of other stories are as follows: 2. "Vandals of the +Stars"; 3. "The Soul Master"; 4. "Cold Light"; 5. "From the Ocean's +Depths."</p> + +<p>If you would enlarge Astounding Stories to 11¾ by 8½ it would +be seen more easily on the newsstands and its circulation would +increase. Please publish it on the first of the month instead of +the first Thursday.—Jack Darrow, 4225 N. Spaulding Avenue, +Chicago, Ill.</p></div> + + +<p>"<i>The Readers' Corner</i>"</p> + +<p>All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come over +in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of stories, +authors, scientific principles and possibilities—everything that's of +common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories.</p> + +<p>Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this is +a department primarily for <i>Readers</i>, and we want you to make full use +of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, brickbats, +suggestions—everything's welcome here: so "come over in 'The Readers' +Corner'" and discuss it with all of us!</p> + +<p class="author"> +—<i>The Editor.</i> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +July 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29198-h.htm or 29198-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/9/29198/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: June 23, 2009 [EBook #29198] +[Last updated: March 20, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + 20c + + ASTOUNDING + STORIES + OF SUPER-SCIENCE + + _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher + + HARRY BATES, Editor + + DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + * * * * * + + [Illustration] + + The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees + + _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading + writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the + Authors' League of America; + + _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American + workmen; + + _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; + + _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. + + _The other Clayton magazines are_: + + ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS + MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY + MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES, and FOREST AND STREAM. + + _More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for + Clayton Magazines._ + + * * * * * + + VOL. III, No. 1 CONTENTS JULY, 1930 + + + COVER DESIGN + + _Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Earth, the Marauder."_ + + + BEYOND THE HEAVISIDE LAYER CAPT. S. P. MEEK 5 + + _For Eighty Vertical Miles Carpenter and Bond Blasted Their + Way--Only to Be Trapped by the Extraordinary Monsters of the + Heaviside Layer._ + + + EARTH, THE MARAUDER ARTHUR J. BURKS 18 + + _Out of Her Orbit Sped the Teeming Earth--A Marauding Planet Bent on + Starry Conquest._ (Beginning a Three-part Novel.) + + + FROM AN AMBER BLOCK TOM CURRY 50 + + _A Giant Amber Block at Last Gives Up Its Living, Ravenous Prey._ + + + THE TERROR OF AIR-LEVEL SIX HARL VINCENT 62 + + _From Some Far Reach of Leagueless Space Came a Great Pillar of + Flame to Lay Waste and Terrorize the Earth._ (A Novelet.) + + + THE FORGOTTEN PLANET SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT 88 + + _The Authentic Account of Why Cosmic Man Damned an Outlaw World to + Be, Forever, a Leper of Space._ + + + THE POWER AND THE GLORY CHARLES W. DIFFIN 104 + + _Sadly, Sternly, the Old Professor Reveals to His Brilliant Pupil + the Greater Path to Glory._ + + + MURDER MADNESS MURRAY LEINSTER 109 + + _More and More South Americans Are Stricken with the Horrible + "Murder Madness" That Lies in the Master's Fearful Poison. And Bell + Is Their One Last Hope as He Fights to Stem the Swiftly Rising Tide + of a Continent's Utter Enslavement._ (Part Three of a Four-part + Novel.) + + + THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 134 + + _A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories._ + + * * * * * + + Single Copies, 20 Cents (In Canada, 25 Cents) + + Yearly Subscription, $2.00 + + Issued monthly by Publishers' Fiscal Corporation, 80 Lafayette St., + New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President: Nathan Goldmann, + Secretary. Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the + Post Office at New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title + registered as a Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member + Newsstand Group--Men's List. For advertising rates address E. R. + Crowe & Co., Inc., 25 Vanderbilt Ave., New York; or 225 North + Michigan Ave., Chicago. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _They were moving sluggishly along the red light, seeming +to flow rather than crawl._] + + + + +Beyond the Heaviside Layer + +_By Capt S. P. Meek_ + + +McQuarrie, the City Editor, looked up as I entered his office. + +"Bond," he asked, "do you know Jim Carpenter?" + +[Sidenote: For eighty vertical miles Carpenter and +Bond blasted their way--only to be +trapped by the extraordinary monsters +of the heaviside layer.] + +"I know him slightly," I replied cautiously. "I have met him several +times and I interviewed him some years ago when he improved the Hadley +rocket motor. I can't claim a very extensive acquaintance with him." + +"I thought you knew him well. It is a surprise to me to find that there +is any prominent man who is not an especial friend of yours. At any rate +you know him as well as anyone of the staff, so I'll give you the +assignment." + +"What's he up to now?" I asked. + +"He's going to try to punch a hole in the heaviside layer." + +"But that's impossible," I cried. "How can anyone...." + +My voice died away in silence. True enough, the idea of trying to make a +permanent hole in a field of magnetic force was absurd, but even as I +spoke I remembered that Jim Carpenter had never agreed to the opinion +almost unanimously held by our scientists as to the true nature of the +heaviside layer. + +"It may be impossible," replied McQuarrie dryly, "but you are not hired +by this paper as a scientific consultant. For some reason, God alone +knows why, the owner thinks that you are a reporter. Get down there and +try to prove he is right by digging up a few facts about Carpenter's +attempt. Wire your stuff in and Peavey will write it up. On this one +occasion, please try to conceal your erudition and send in your story in +simple words of one syllable which uneducated men like Peavey and me can +comprehend. That's all." + + * * * * * + +He turned again to his desk and I left the room. At one time I would +have come from such an interview with my face burning, but McQuarrie's +vitriol slid off me like water off a duck's back. He didn't really mean +half of what he said, and he knew as well as I did that his crack about +my holding my job with the Clarion as a matter of pull was grossly +unjust. It is true that I knew Trimble, the owner of the Clarion, fairly +well, but I got my job without any aid from him. McQuarrie himself hired +me and I held my job because he hadn't fired me, despite the caustic +remarks which he addressed to me. I had made the mistake when I first +got on the paper of letting McQuarrie know that I was a graduate +electrical engineer from Leland University, and he had held it against +me from that day on. I don't know whether he really held it seriously +against me or not, but what I have written above is a fair sample of his +usual manner toward me. + +In point of fact I had greatly minimized the extent of my acquaintance +with Jim Carpenter. I had been in Leland at the same time that he was +and had known him quite well. When I graduated, which was two years +after he did, I worked for about a year in his laboratory, and my +knowledge of the improvement which had made the Hadley rocket motor a +practicability came from first hand knowledge and not from an interview. +That was several years before but I knew that he never forgot an +acquaintance, let alone a friend, and while I had left him to take up +other work our parting had been pleasant, and I looked forward with real +pleasure to seeing him again. + + * * * * * + +Jim Carpenter, the stormy petrel of modern science! The eternal +iconoclast: the perpetual opponent! He was probably as deeply versed in +the theory of electricity and physical chemistry as any man alive, but +it pleased him to pose as a "practical" man who knew next to nothing of +theory and who despised the little he did know. His great delight was to +experimentally smash the most beautifully constructed theories which +were advanced and taught in the colleges and universities of the world, +and when he couldn't smash them by experimental evidence, to attack them +from the standpoint of philosophical reasoning and to twist around the +data on which they were built and make it prove, or seem to prove, the +exact opposite of what was generally accepted. + +No one questioned his ability. When the ill-fated Hadley had first +constructed the rocket motor which bears his name it was Jim Carpenter +who made it practical. Hadley had tried to disintegrate lead in order to +get his back thrust from the atomic energy which it contained and proved +by apparently unimpeachable mathematics that lead was the only substance +which could be used. Jim Carpenter had snorted through the pages of the +electrical journals and had turned out a modification of Hadley's +invention which disintegrated aluminum. The main difference in +performance was that, while Hadley's original motor would not develop +enough power to lift itself from the ground, Carpenter's modification +produced twenty times the horsepower per pound of weight of any +previously known generator of power and changed the rocket ship from a +wild dream to an everyday commonplace. + + * * * * * + +When Hadley later constructed his space flyer and proposed to visit the +moon, it was Jim Carpenter who ridiculed the idea of the attempt being +successful. He proposed the novel and weird idea that the path to space +was not open, but that the earth and the atmosphere were enclosed in a +hollow sphere of impenetrable substance through which Hadley's space +flyer could not pass. How accurate were his prognostications was soon +known to everyone. Hadley built and equipped his flyer and started off +on what he hoped would be an epoch making flight. It was one, but not in +the way which he had hoped. His ship took off readily enough, being +powered with four rocket motors working on Carpenter's principle, and +rose to a height of about fifty miles, gaining velocity rapidly. At that +point his velocity suddenly began to drop. + +He was in constant radio communication with the earth and he reported +his difficulty. Carpenter advised him to turn back while he could, but +Hadley kept on. Slower and slower became his progress, and after he had +penetrated ten miles into the substance which hindered him, his ship +stuck fast. Instead of using his bow motors and trying to back out, he +had moved them to the rear, and with the combined force of his four +motors he had penetrated for another two miles. There he insanely tried +to force his motors to drive him on until his fuel was exhausted. + +He had lived for over a year in his space flyer, but all of his efforts +did not serve to materially change his position. He had tried, of +course, to go out through his air locks and explore space, but his +strength, even although aided by powerful levers, could not open the +outer doors of the locks against the force which was holding them shut. +Careful observations were continuously made of the position of his +flyer and it was found that it was gradually returning toward the earth. +Its motion was very slight, not enough to give any hope for the +occupant. Starting from a motion so slow that it could hardly be +detected, the velocity of return gradually accelerated; and three years +after Hadley's death, the flyer was suddenly released from the force +which held it, and it plunged to the earth, to be reduced by the force +of its fall to a twisted, pitiful mass of unrecognizable junk. + + * * * * * + +The remains were examined, and the iron steel parts were found to be +highly magnetized. This fact was seized upon by the scientists of the +world and a theory was built up of a magnetic field of force surrounding +the earth through which nothing of a magnetic nature could pass. This +theory received almost universal acceptance, Jim Carpenter alone of the +more prominent men of learning refusing to admit the validity of it. He +gravely stated it as his belief that no magnetic field existed, but that +the heaviside layer was composed of some liquid of high viscosity whose +density and consequent resistance to the passage of a body through it +increased in the ratio of the square of the distance to which one +penetrated into it. + +There was a moment of stunned surprise when he announced his radical +idea, and then a burst of Jovian laughter shook the scientific press. +Carpenter was in his glory. For months he waged a bitter controversy in +the scientific journals and when he failed to win converts by this +method, he announced that he would prove it by blasting a way into space +through the heaviside layer, a thing which would be patently impossible +were it a field of force. He had lapsed into silence for two years and +his curt note to the Associated Press to the effect that he was now +ready to demonstrate his experiment was the first intimation the world +had received of his progress. + + * * * * * + +I drew expense money from the cashier and boarded the Lark for Los +Angeles. When I arrived I went to a hotel and at once called Carpenter +on the telephone. + +"Jim Carpenter speaking," came his voice presently. + +"Good evening, Mr. Carpenter," I replied, "this is Bond of the San +Francisco Clarion." + +I would be ashamed to repeat the language which came over that +telephone. I was informed that all reporters were pests and that I was a +doubly obnoxious specimen and that were I within reach I would be +promptly assaulted and that reporters would be received at nine the next +morning and no earlier or later. + +"Just a minute, Mr. Carpenter," I cried as he neared the end of his +peroration and was, I fancied, about to slam up the receiver. "Don't you +remember me? I was at Leland with you and used to work in your +laboratory in the atomic disintegration section." + +"What's your name?" he demanded. + +"Bond, Mr. Carpenter." + +"Oh, First Mortgage! Certainly I remember you. Mighty glad to hear your +voice. How are you?" + +"Fine, thank you, Mr. Carpenter. I would not have ventured to call you +had I not known you. I didn't mean to impose and I'll be glad to see you +in the morning at nine." + +"Not by a long shot," he cried. "You'll come up right away. Where are +you staying?" + +"At the El Rey." + +"Well, check out and come right up here. There's lots of room for you +here at the plant and I'll be glad to have you. I want at least one +intelligent report of this experiment and you should be able to write +it. I'll look for you in an hour." + +"I don't want to impose--" I began; but he interrupted. + +"Nonsense, glad to have you. I needed someone like you badly and you +have come just in the nick of time. I'll expect you in an hour." + + * * * * * + +The receiver clicked and I hastened to follow his instructions. A +ringside seat was just what I was looking for. It took my taxi a little +over an hour to get to the Carpenter laboratory and I chuckled when I +thought of how McQuarrie's face would look when he saw my expense +account. Presently we reached the edge of the grounds which surrounded +the Carpenter laboratory and were stopped at the high gate I remembered +so well. + +"Are you sure you'll get in, buddy?" asked my driver. + +"Certainly," I replied. "What made you ask?" + +"I've brought three chaps out here to-day and none of them got in," he +answered with a grin. "I'm glad you're so sure, but I'll just wait +around until you are inside before I drive away." + +I laughed and advanced to the gate. Tim, the old guard, was still there, +and he remembered and welcomed me. + +"Me ordhers wuz t' let yez roight in, sor," he said as he greeted me. +"Jist lave ye'er bag here and Oi'll have ut sint roight up." + +I dropped my bag and trudged up the well remembered path to the +laboratory. It had been enlarged somewhat since I saw it last and, late +though the hour was, there was a bustle in the air and I could see a +number of men working in the building. From an area in the rear, which +was lighted by huge flood lights, came the staccato tattoo of a riveter. +I walked up to the front of the laboratory and entered. I knew the way +to Carpenter's office and I went directly there and knocked. + +"Hello, First Mortgage!" cried Jim Carpenter as I entered in response to +his call. "I'm glad to see you. Excuse the bruskness of my first +greeting to you over the telephone, but the press have been deviling me +all day, every man jack of them trying to steal a march on the rest. I +am going to open the whole shebang at nine to-morrow and give them all +an equal chance to look things over before I turn the current on at +noon. As soon as we have a little chat, I'll show you over the works." + + * * * * * + +After half an hour's chat he rose. "Come along, First Mortgage," he +said, "we'll go out and look the place over and I'll explain everything. +If my ideas work out, you'll have no chance to go over it to-morrow, so +I want you to see it now." + +I had no chance to ask him what he meant by this remark, for he walked +rapidly from the laboratory and I perforce followed him. He led the way +to the patch of lighted ground behind the building where the riveting +machine was still beating out its monotonous cacaphony and paused by the +first of a series of huge reflectors, which were arranged in a circle. + +"Here is the start of the thing," he said. "There are two hundred and +fifty of these reflectors arranged in a circle four hundred yards in +diameter. Each of them is an opened parabola of such spread that their +beams will cover an area ten yards in diameter at fifty miles above the +earth. If my calculations are correct they should penetrate through the +layer at an average speed of fifteen miles per hour per unit, and by two +o'clock to-morrow afternoon, the road to space should be open." + +"What is your power?" I asked. + +"Nothing but a concentration of infra-red rays. The heaviside layer, as +you doubtless know, is a liquid and, I think, an organic liquid. If I am +right in that thought, the infra-red will cut through it like a knife +through cheese." + +"If it is a liquid, how will you prevent it from flowing back into the +hole you have opened?" I asked. + +"When the current is first turned on, each reflector will bear on the +same point. Notice that they are moveable. They are arranged so that +they move together. As soon as the first hole is bored through, they +will move by clockwork, extending the opening until each points +vertically upward and the hole is four hundred yards in diameter. I am +positive that there will be no rapid flow even after the current is +turned off, for I believe that the liquid is about as mobile as +petroleum jelley. Should it close, however, it would take only a couple +of hours to open it again to allow the space flyer to return." + +"What space flyer?" I demanded quickly. + +"The one we are going to be on, First Mortgage," he replied with a +slight chuckle. + + * * * * * + +"We?" I cried, aghast. + +"Certainly. We. You and I. You didn't think I was going to send you +alone, did you?" + +"I didn't know that anyone was going." + +"Of course. Someone has to go; otherwise, how could I prove my point? I +might cut through a hundred holes and yet these stiff-necked old +fossils, seeing nothing, would not believe. No, First Mortgage, when +those arcs start working to-morrow, you and I will be in a Hadley space +ship up at the bottom of the layer, and as soon as the road has been +opened, two of the lamps will cut off to allow us through. Then the +battery will hold the road open while we pass out into space and +return." + +"Suppose we meet with Hadley's fate?" I demanded. + +"We won't. Even if I am wrong--which is very unlikely--we won't meet +with any such fate. We have two stern motors and four bow motors. As +soon as we meet with the slightest resistance to our forward progress we +will stop and have twice the power plus gravity to send us earthwards. +There is no danger connected with the trip." + +"All the same--" I began. + +"All the same, you're going," he replied. "Man alive, think of the +chance to make a world scoop for your paper! No other press man has the +slightest inkling of my plan and even if they had, there isn't another +space flyer in the world that I know of. If you don't want to go, I'll +give some one else the chance, but I prefer you, for you know something +of my work." + + * * * * * + +I thought rapidly for a moment. The chance was a unique one and one that +half the press men in San Francisco would have given their shirts to +get. I had had my doubts of the accuracy of Jim Carpenter's reasoning +while I was away from him, but there was no resisting the dynamic +personality of the man when in his presence. + +"You win," I said with a laugh. "Your threat of offering some of my +hated rivals a chance settled it." + +"Good boy!" he exclaimed, pounding me on the back. "I knew you'd come. I +had intended to take one of my assistants with me, but as soon as I knew +you were here I decided that you were the man. There really ought to be +a press representative along. Come with me and I'll show you our flyer." + +The flyer proved to be of the same general type as had been used by +Hadley. It was equipped with six rocket motors, four discharging to the +bow and two to the stern. Any one of them, Carpenter said, was ample for +motive power. Equilibrium was maintained by means of a heavy gyroscope +which would prevent any turning of the axis of its rotation. The entire +flyer shell could be revolved about the axis so that oblique motion with +our bow and stern motors was readily possible. Direct lateral movement +was provided for by valves which would divert a portion of the discharge +of either a bow or stern motor out through side vents in any direction. +The motive power, of course, was furnished by the atomic disintegration +of powdered aluminum. The whole interior, except for the portion of the +walls, roof and floor, which was taken up by vitriolene windows, was +heavily padded. + + * * * * * + +At nine the next morning the gates to the enclosure were thrown open and +the representatives of the press admitted. Jim Carpenter mounted a +platform and explained briefly what he proposed to do and then broke the +crowd up into small groups and sent them over the works with guides. +When all had been taken around they were reassembled and Carpenter +announced to them his intention of going up in a space flyer and prove, +by going through the heaviside layer, that he had actually destroyed a +portion of it. There was an immediate clamor of applications to go with +him. He laughingly announced that one reporter was all that he could +stand on the ship and that he was taking one of his former associates +with him. I could tell by the envious looks with which I was favored +that any popularity I had ever had among my associates was gone forever. +There was little time to think of such things, however, for the hour for +our departure was approaching, and the photographers were clamoring for +pictures of us and the flyer. + +We satisfied them at last, and I entered the flyer after Carpenter. We +sealed the car up, started the air conditioner, and were ready for +departure. + +"Scared, Pete?" asked Carpenter, his hand on the starting lever. + +I gulped a little as I looked at him. He was perfectly calm to a casual +inspection, but I knew him well enough to interpret the small spots of +red which appeared on his high cheekbones and the glitter in his eye. He +may not have been as frightened as I was but he was laboring under an +enormous nervous strain. The mere fact that he called me "Pete" instead +of his usual "First Mortgage" showed that he was feeling pretty serious. + +"Not exactly scared," I replied, "but rather uneasy, so to speak." + + * * * * * + +He laughed nervously. + +"Cheer up, old man! If anything goes wrong, we won't know it. Sit down +and get comfortable; this thing will start with a jerk." + +He pulled the starting lever forward suddenly and I felt as though an +intolerable weight were pressed against me, glueing me to my seat. The +feeling lasted only for a moment, for he quickly eased up on the motor, +and in a few moments I felt quite normal. + +"How fast are we going?" I asked. + +"Only two hundred miles an hour," he replied. "We will reach the layer +in plenty of time at this rate and I don't want to jam into it. You can +get up now." + +I rose, moved over to the observation glass in the floor, and looked +down. We were already five or ten miles above the earth and were +ascending rapidly. I could still detect the great circle of reflectors +with which our way was to be opened. + +"How can you tell where these heat beams are when they are turned on?" I +asked. "Infra-red rays are not visible, and we will soon be out of sight +of the reflectors." + +"I forgot to mention that I am having a small portion of visible red +rays mixed with the infra-red so that we can spot them. I have a radio +telephone here, working on my private wavelength, so that I can direct +operations from here as well as from the ground--in fact, better. If +you're cold, turn on the heater." + + * * * * * + +The friction of the flyer against the air had so far made up for the +decreasing temperature of the air surrounding us, but a glance at the +outside thermometer warned me that his suggestion was a wise one. I +turned a valve which diverted a small portion of our exhaust through a +heating coil in the flyer. It was hard to realize that I was actually in +a rocket space ship, the second one to be flown and that, with the +exception of the ill-fated Hadley, farther from the earth than any man +had been before. There was no sensation of movement in that hermetically +sealed flyer, and, after the first few moments, the steady drone of the +rocket motor failed to register on my senses. I was surprised to see +that there was no trail of detritus behind us. + +"You can see our trail at night," replied Carpenter when I asked him +about it, "but in daylight, there is nothing to see. The slight +luminosity of the gasses is hidden by the sun's rays. We may be able to +see it when we get out in space beyond the layer, but I don't know. We +have arrived at the bottom of the layer now, I believe. At any rate, we +are losing velocity." + + * * * * * + +I moved over to the instrument board and looked. Our speed had dropped +to one hundred and ten miles an hour and was steadily falling off. +Carpenter pulled the control lever and reduced our power. Gradually the +flyer came to a stop and hung poised in space. He shut off the power an +instant and at once our indicator showed that we were falling, although +very slowly. He promptly reapplied the power, and by careful adjustment +brought us again to a dead stop. + +"Ready to go," he remarked looking at his watch, "and just on time, too. +Take a glass and watch the ground. I am going to have the heat turned +on." + +I took the binoculars he indicated and turned them toward the ground +while he gave a few crisp orders into his telephone. Presently from the +ground beneath us burst out a circle of red dots from which long beams +stabbed up into the heavens. The beams converged as they mounted until +at a point slightly below us, and a half-mile away they became one solid +beam of red. One peculiarity I noticed was that, while they were plainly +visible near the ground, they faded out, and it was not until they were +a few miles below us that they again became apparent. I followed their +path upward into the heavens. + +"Look here, Jim!" I cried as I did so. "Something's happening!" + +He sprang to my side and glanced at the beam. + +"Hurrah!" he shouted, pounding me on the back. "I was right! Look! And +the fools called it a magnetic field!" + +Upward the beam was boring its way, but it was almost concealed by a +rain of fine particles of black which were falling around it. + +"It's even more spectacular than I had hoped," he chortled. "I had +expected to reduce the layer to such fluidity that we could penetrate +it or even to vaporize it, but we are actually destroying it! That stuff +is soot and is proof, if proof be needed, that the layer is an organic +liquid." + + * * * * * + +He turned to his telephone and communicated the momentous news to the +earth and then rejoined me at the window. For ten minutes we watched and +a slight diminution of the black cloud became apparent. + +"They're through the layer," exclaimed Carpenter. "Now watch, and you'll +see something. I'm going to start spreading the beam." + +He turned again to his telephone, and presently the beam began to widen +and spread out. As it did so the dark cloud became more dense than it +had been before. The earth below us was hidden and we could see the red +only as a dim murky glow through the falling soot. Carpenter inquired of +the laboratory and found that we were completely invisible to the +ground, half the heavens being hidden by the black pall. For an hour the +beam worked its way toward us. + +"The hole is about four hundred yards in diameter right now," said +Carpenter as he turned from the telephone. "I have told them to stop the +movement of the reflectors, and as soon as the air clears a little, +we'll start through." + +It took another hour for the soot to clear enough that we could plainly +detect the ring of red light before us. Carpenter gave some orders to +the ground, and a gap thirty yards wide opened in the wall before us. +Toward this gap the flyer moved slowly under the side thrust of the +diverted motor discharge. The temperature rose rapidly as we neared the +wall of red light before us. Nearer we drew until the light was on both +sides of us. Another few feet and the flyer shot forward with a jerk +that threw me sprawling on the floor. Carpenter fell too, but he +maintained his hold on the controls and tore at them desperately to +check us. + + * * * * * + +I scrambled to my feet and watched. The red wall was alarmingly close. +Nearer we drove and then came another jerk which threw me sprawling +again. The wall retreated. In another moment we were standing still, +with the red all around us at a distance of about two hundred yards. + +"We had a narrow escape from being cremated," said Carpenter with a +shaky laugh. "I knew that our speed would increase as soon as we got +clear of the layer but it caught me by surprise just the same. I had no +idea how great the holding effect of the stuff was. Well, First +Mortgage, the road to space is open for us. May I invite you to be my +guest on a little week-end jaunt to the Moon?" + +"No thanks, Jim," I said with a wry smile. "I think a little trip to the +edge of the layer will quite satisfy me." + +"Quitter," he laughed. "Well, say good-by to familiar things. Here we +go!" + +He turned to the controls of the flyer, and presently we were moving +again, this time directly away from the earth. There was no jerk at +starting this time, merely a feeling as though the floor were pressing +against my feet, a great deal like the feeling a person gets when they +rise rapidly in an express elevator. The indicator showed that we were +traveling only sixty miles an hour. For half an hour we continued +monotonously on our way with nothing to divert us. Carpenter yawned. + +"Now that it's all over, I feel let down and sleepy," he announced. "We +are well beyond the point to which Hadley penetrated and so far we have +met with no resistance. We are probably nearly at the outer edge of the +layer. I think I'll shoot up a few miles more and then call it a day and +go home. We are about eighty miles from the earth now." + + * * * * * + +I looked down, but could see nothing below us but the dense cloud of +black soot resulting from the destruction of the heaviside layer. Like +Carpenter, I felt sleepy, and I suppressed a yawn as I turned again to +the window. + +"Look here, Jim!" I cried suddenly. "What's that?" + +He moved in a leisurely manner to my side and looked out. As he did so I +felt his hand tighten on my shoulder with a desperate grip. Down the +wall of red which surrounded us was coming an object of some kind. The +thing was fully seventy-five yards long and half as wide at its main +portion, while long irregular streams extended for a hundred yards on +each side of it. There seemed to be dozens of them. + +"What is it, Jim?" I asked in a voice which sounded high and unnatural +to me. + +"I don't know," he muttered, half to me and half to himself. "Good Lord, +there's another of them!" + +He pointed. Not far from the first of the things came another, even +larger than the first. They were moving sluggishly along the red light, +seeming to flow rather than to crawl. I had a horrible feeling that they +were alive and malignant. Carpenter stepped back to the controls of the +flyer and stopped our movement; we hung in space, watching them. The +things were almost level with us, but their sluggish movement was +downward toward the earth. In color, they were a brilliant crimson, +deepening into purple near the center. Just as the first of them came +opposite us it paused, and slowly a portion of the mass extended itself +from the main bulk; and then, like doors opening, four huge eyes, each +of them twenty feet in diameter, opened and stared at us. + +"It's alive, Jim," I quavered. I hardly knew my own voice as I spoke. + + * * * * * + +Jim stepped back to the controls with a white face, and slowly we moved +closer to the mass. As we approached I thought that I could detect a +fleeting passage of expression in those huge eyes. Then they disappeared +and only a huge crimson and purple blob lay before us. Jim moved the +controls again and the flyer came to a stop. + +Two long streamers moved out from the mass. Suddenly there was a jerk to +the ship which threw us both to the floor. It started upward at express +train speed. Jim staggered to his feet, grasped the controls and started +all four bow motors at full capacity, but even this enormous force had +not the slightest effect in diminishing our speed. + +"Well, the thing's got us, whatever it is," said Jim as he pulled his +controls to neutral, shutting off all power. Now that the danger had +assumed a tangible form, he appeared as cool and collected as ever, to +my surprise, I found that I had recovered control of my muscle and of my +voice. I became aware that the shoulder which Jim had gripped was aching +badly, and I rubbed it absently. + +"What is it, Jim?" I asked for the third time. + +"I don't know," he replied. "It is some horrible inhabitant of space, +something unknown to us on earth. From its appearance and actions, I +think it must be a huge single-celled animal of the type of the earthly +amoeba. If an amoeba is that large here, what must an elephant look +like? However, I expect that we'll learn more about the matter later +because it's taking us with it, wherever it's going." + + * * * * * + +Suddenly the flyer became dark inside. I looked at the nearest window, +but I could not even detect its outline. I reached for the light switch, +but a sudden change in direction threw me against the wall. There was an +instant of intense heat in the flyer. + +"We have passed the heaviside layer," said Jim. "The brute has changed +direction, and we felt that heat when he took us through the infra-red +wall." + +I reached again for the light switch, but before I could find it our +motion ceased and an instant later the flyer was filled with glaring +sunlight. We both turned to the window. + +We lay on a glistening plain of bluish hue which stretched without a +break as far as we could see. Not a thing broke the monotony of our +vision. We turned to the opposite window. How can I describe the sight +which met our horrified gaze? On the plain before us lay a huge purple +monstrosity of gargantuan dimensions. The thing was a shapeless mass, +only the four huge eyes standing out regarding us balefully. The mass +was continually changing its outline and, as we watched, a long streamer +extended itself from the body toward us. Over and around the flyer the +feeler went, while green and red colors played over first one and then +another of the huge eyes before us. The feeler wrapped itself around the +flyer and we were lifted into the air toward those horrible eyes. We had +almost reached them when the thing dropped us. We fell to the plain with +a crash. We staggered to our feet again and looked out. Our captor was +battling for its life. + + * * * * * + +Its attacker was a smaller thing of a brilliant green hue, striped and +mottled with blue and yellow. While our captor was almost formless, the +newcomer had a very definite shape. It resembled a cross between a bird +and a lizard, its shape resembling a bird, as did tiny rudimentary wings +and a long beak, while the scaly covering and the fact that it had four +legs instead of two bore out the idea that it might be a lizard. Its +huge birdlike beak was armed with three rows of long sharp teeth with +which it was tearing at our captor. The purple amoeba was holding its +assailant with a dozen of its thrown out feelers which were wrapped +about the body and legs of the green horror. The whole battle was +conducted in absolute silence. + +"Now's our chance, Jim!" I cried. "Get away from here while that dragon +has the amoeba busy!" + +He jumped to the control levers of the flyer and pulled the starting +switch well forward. The shock of the sudden start hurled me to the +floor, but from where I fell I was able to watch the battle on the +plain below us. It raged with uninterrupted fury and I felt certain of +our escape when, with a shock which hurled both Jim and me to the +ceiling, the flyer stopped. We fell back to the floor and I reflected +that it was well for us that the interior of the flyer was so well +padded. Had it not been, our bones would have been broken a dozen times +by the shocks to which we had been subjected. + +"What now?" I asked as I painfully struggled to my feet. + +"Another of those purple amoebas," replied Jim from the vantage point of +a window. "He's looking us over as if he were trying to decide whether +we are edible or not." + + * * * * * + +I joined him at the window. The thing which had us was a replica of the +monster we had left below us engaged in battle with the green dragon +which had attacked it. The same indefinite and ever changing outline was +evident, as well as the four huge eyes. The thing regarded us for a +moment and slowly moved us up against its bulk until we touched it. +Deeper and deeper into the mass of the body we penetrated until we were +in a deep cavern with the light coming to us only from the entrance. I +watched the entrance and horror possessed my soul. + +"The hole's closing. Jim!" I gasped. "The thing is swallowing us!" + +"I expected that," he replied grimly. "The amoeba has no mouth, you +know. Nourishment is passed into the body through the skin, which closes +behind it. We are a modern version of Jonah and the whale, First +Mortgage." + +"Well, Jonah got out," I ventured. + +"We'll try to," he replied. "When that critter swallowed us, he got +something that will prove pretty indigestible. Let's try to give him a +stomach ache. I don't suppose that a machine-gun will affect him, but +we'll try it." + +"I didn't know that you had any guns on board." + +"Oh yes, I've got two machine-guns. We'll turn one of them loose, but I +don't expect much effect from it." + + * * * * * + +He moved over to one of the guns and threw off the cover which had +hidden it from my gaze. He fed in a belt of ammunition and pulled his +trigger. For half a minute he held it down, and two hundred and fifty +caliber thirty bullets tore their way into space. There was no evidence +of movement on the part of our host. + +"Just as I thought," remarked Jim as he threw aside the empty belt and +covered the gun again. "The thing has no nervous organization to speak +of and probably never felt that. We'll have to rig up a disintegrating +ray for him." + +"What?" I gasped. + +"A disintegrating ray," he replied. "Oh yes, I know how to make the +fabulous 'death ray' that you journalists are always raving about. I +have never announced my discovery, for war is horrible enough without +it, but I have generated it and used it in my work a number of times. +Did it never occur to you that the rocket motor is built on a +disintegrating ray principle?" + +"Of course it is, Jim. I never thought of it in that light before, but +it must be. How can you use it? The discharge from the motors is a +harmless stream of energy particles." + +"Instead of turning the ray into powdered aluminum and breaking it down, +what is to prevent me from turning it against the body of our captor and +blasting my way out?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well, nothing is. I'll have to modify one of the motors a little, but +it's not a hard job. Get some wrenches from the tool box and we'll +start." + + * * * * * + +An hour of hard work enabled us to disconnect one of the reserve bow +motors and, after the modifications Jim had mentioned, turn the ray out +through the port through which the products of disintegration were meant +to go. When we had bolted it in place with an improvised coupling, Jim +opened the vitriolene screen which held in our air and turned to his +control board. + +"Here goes," he said. + +He pulled the lever to full power and with a roar which almost deafened +us in the small flyer, the ray leaped out to do its deadly work. I +watched through a port beside the motor. There was a flash of intense +light for an instant and then the motor died away in silence. A path to +freedom lay open before us. Jim started one of the stern motors and +slowly we forced our way through the hole torn in the living mass. When +we were almost at the surface, he threw in full power and we shot free +from the amoeba and into the open. Again we were stopped in midair and +drawn back toward the huge bulk. The eyes looked at us and we were +turned around. As the ray swung into a position to point directly toward +one of the eyes, Jim pulled the controlling lever. With the flash of +light which ensued, the eye and a portion of the surrounding tissue +disappeared. The amoeba writhed and changed shape rapidly, while flashes +of brilliant crimson played over the remaining eyes. Again the ray was +brought into play and another of the eyes disappeared. This was +evidently enough for our captor, for it suddenly released us and +instantly we started to fall. Jim caught the control levers and turned +on our power in time to halt us only a few feet above the plain toward +which we were falling. We were close to the point whence we had started +up and we could see that the battle below us was still raging. + + * * * * * + +The green dragon was partially engulfed by the amoeba, but it still +relentlessly tore off huge chunks and devoured them. The amoeba was +greatly reduced in bulk but it still fought gamely. Even as we +approached the dragon was evidently satiated, for it slowly withdrew +from the purple bulk and back away. Long feelers shot out from the +amoeba's bulk toward the dragon but they were bitten off before they +could grasp their prey. + +"Let's get away from here, Jim," I cried, but I spoke too late. Even as +the words left my mouth the green dragon saw us and raised itself in the +air, and with gaping jaws launched itself at us. It took Jim only a +moment to shoot the flyer up into space, and the charge passed +harmlessly beneath us. The dragon checked its headway and turned again +toward us. + +"Use the machine-gun, Pete!" cried Jim. "I've got to run the ship." + +I threw the cover off the gun and fed in a fresh belt of ammunition. As +the green monster dashed toward us I hastily aligned the gun and pulled +the trigger. My aim was good and at least fifty of the bullets plowed +through the approaching bulk before Jim dropped the ship and allowed it +to pass above us. Again the dragon turned and charged, and again I met +it with a hail of bullets. They had no apparent effect and Jim dropped +the ship again and let the huge bulk shoot by above us. Twice more the +dragon rushed but the last rush was less violent than had been the first +three. + +"The bullets are affecting him, Pete!" cried Jim as he shot the flyer +upward. "Give him another dose!" + +I hastily fed in another belt, but it was not needed. The dragon rushed +the fifth time, but before it reached us its velocity fell off and it +passed harmlessly below us and fell on a long curve to the plain below. +It fell near the purple amoeba which it had battled and a long feeler +shot out and grasped it. Straight into the purple mass it was drawn, and +vanished into the huge bulk. + +Jim started one of the stern motors. In a few seconds we were far from +the scene. + +"Have you any idea of which direction to go?" he asked. I shook my head. + +"Have you a radio beacon?" I asked. + +He withered me with a glance. + +"We're beyond the heaviside layer," he reminded me. + + * * * * * + +For a moment I was stunned. + +"We can't be very far from the hole," he said consolingly as he fumbled +with the controls. "But before we try to find it, we had better +disconnect one of the stern motors and rig it as a disintegrating ray so +that we will have one bearing in each direction. We may meet more +denizens of space who like our looks, and we haven't much ammunition +left." + +We landed on the plain and in an hour had a second disintegrating ray +ready for action. Thus armed, we rose from the blue plain and started at +random on our way. For ten minutes we went forward. Then Jim stopped the +flyer and turned back. We had gone only a short distance when I called +to him to stop. + +"What is it?" he demanded as he brought the flyer to a standstill. + +"There's another creature ahead of us," I replied. "A red one." + +"Red?" he asked excitedly as he joined me. About a mile ahead of us a +huge mass hung in the air. It resembled the amoeba which had attacked +us, except that the newcomer was red. As we watched, it moved toward us. +As it did so its color changed to purple. + +"Hurrah!" cried Jim. "Don't you remember, Pete, that the one which +captured us and took us out of the hole was red while in the hole and +then turned purple? That thing just came out of the hole!" + +"Then why can't we see the red beam?" I demanded. + +"Because there's no air or anything to reflect it," he replied. "We +can't see it until we are right in it." + +I devoutly hoped that he was right as he headed the ship toward the +waiting monster. As we approached the amoeba came rapidly to meet us and +a long feeler shot out. As it did so there was a flash of intense light +ahead of us as Jim turned loose the ray, and the feeler disappeared. +Another and another met the same fate. Then Jim rotated the ship +slightly and let out the full force of the ray toward the monster. A +huge hole was torn in it, and as we approached with our ray blazing, the +amoeba slowly retreated and our path was open before us. Again there was +an instant of intense heat as we passed through the red wall, and we +were again in the hole which Jim's lamps had blasted through the layer. +Below us still lay the fog which had obscured the earth when we had +started on our upward trip. + + * * * * * + +Down toward the distant earth we dropped. We had gone about thirty miles +before we saw on the side of the hole one of the huge amoeba which were +so thick above. + +"We might stop and pick that fellow off," said Jim, "but, on the whole, +I think we'll experiment with him." + +He drove the ship nearer and turned it on its axis, holding it in +position by one of the auxiliary discharges. A flash came from our +forward ray and a portion of the amoeba disappeared. A long arm moved +out toward us, but it moved slowly and sluggishly instead of with the +lightninglike swiftness which had characterized the movements of the +others. Jimmy easily eluded it and dropped the ship a few yards. The +creature pursued it, but it moved slowly. For a mile we kept our +distance ahead of it, but we had to constantly decrease our speed to +keep from leaving it behind. Soon we were almost at a standstill, and +Jim reversed our direction and drew nearer. A feeler came slowly and +feebly out a few feet toward us and then stopped. We dropped the ship a +few feet but the amoeba did not follow. Jim glanced at the altimeter. + +"Just as I thought," he exclaimed. "We are about forty-five miles above +the earth and already the air is so dense that the thing cannot move +lower. They are fashioned for existence in the regions of space and in +even the most rarified air they are helpless. There is no chance of one +ever reaching the surface of the earth without years of gradual +acclimation, and even if it did, it would be practically immobile. In a +few years the layer will flow enough to plug the hole I have made, but +even so, I'll build a couple of space flyers equipped with +disintegrating rays as soon as we get down and station them alongside +the hole to wipe out any of that space vermin which tries to come +through. Let's go home. We've put in a good day's work." + +Hundreds of the purple amoeba have been destroyed by the guarding ships +during the past five years. The hole is filling in as Jim predicted, and +in another ten years the earth will be as securely walled in as it ever +was. But in the mean time, no one knows what unrevealed horrors space +holds, and the world will never rest entirely easy until the slow +process of time again heals the broken protective layer. + + * * * * * + +Everyone Is Invited + +_To_ "_Come Over in_ + +'THE READERS' CORNER'"! + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska._] + + + + +Earth, the Marauder + +BEGINNING A THREE-PART NOVEL + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + + +FOREWORD + + +_Despite the fact that for centuries the Secret of Life had been the +possession of children of men, the Earth was dying. She was dying +because the warmth of the sun was fading; because, with the obliteration +of the oceans in order to find new land upon which men might live, her +seasons had become stormy, unbearably cold and dreary: and the very fact +of her knowledge of the Secret of Life, in which men numbered their ages +by centuries instead of by years, was her undoing._ + +[Sidenote: Out of her orbit sped +the teeming Earth--a +marauding planet bent on starry +conquest.] + +[Illustration] + +_For when men did not die, they multiplied beyond all counting, beyond +all possibility of securing permanent abiding places. One man, in the +days when the earth was young, and man lived at best to the age of three +score years and ten, could have, given time and opportunity, populated a +nation. Now, when men lived for centuries, eternally youthful, their +living descendants ran into incalculable numbers._ + +_The earth--strange paradox--was dying because it had learned the Secret +of Life. Twenty centuries before, the last war of aggression had been +fought, in order that an over-populated nation might find room in which +to live. Now all the earth was one nation, speaking one tongue--and +there were no more lands to conquer._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Sarka_ + + +In his laboratory atop the highest peak in the venerable Himalayas, +lived Sarka, conceded by the world to be its greatest scientist, despite +his youth. His grandfather, who had watched the passing of eighteen +centuries, had discovered the Secret of Life and thoughtlessly, in the +light of later developments, broadcast his discovery to the world. The +genius of this man, who was also called Sarka, had been passed on to his +son, Sarka the Second, and by him in even greater degree to Sarka the +Third ... called merely Sarka for the purposes of this history. + +Had Sarka lived in the days before the discovery of the Secret of Life, +people of that day would have judged him a young man of twenty. His real +age was four centuries. + +Behind him as he sat moodily staring at the gigantic Revolving Beryl +stood a woman of most striking appearance. Her name was Jaska, and +according to ideas of the Days Before the Discovery, she seemed a trifle +younger than Sarka. Her hand, unadorned by jewelry of any kind, rested +on Sarka's shoulder as he studied the Revolving Beryl, while her eyes, +whose lashes, matching her raven hair, were like the wings of tiny +blackbirds, noted afresh the wonder of this man. + +"What is to be done?" she asked him at last, and her voice was like +music there in the room where science performed its miracles for Sarka. + + * * * * * + +Wearily Sarka turned to face her, and she was struck anew, as she had +been down the years since she had known this man, every time their +glances met, at the mighty curve of his brow, which rendered +insignificant his mouth, his delicate nose of the twitching nostrils, +the well-deep eyes of him. + +"Something must be done," he said gloomily, "and that soon! For, unless +the children of men are provided with some manner of territorial +expansion, they will destroy one another, only the strongest will +survive, and we shall return to the days when the waters covered the +earth, and monstrous creatures bellowed from the primeval slime!" + +"You are working on something?" she asked softly. + +For a moment he did not answer. While she waited, Jaska peered into the +depths of the Revolving Beryl, which represented the earth. It was fifty +feet in diameter, and in its curved surface and entrancing depths was +mirrored, in this latest development of teleview, all the earth and the +doings of its people. But Jaska scarcely saw the fleeting images, the +men locked in conflict for the right to live, the screaming, +terror-stricken women. This was now a century-old story, and the +civilization of Earth had almost reached the breaking point. + +No, she scarcely saw the things in the Beryl, for she had read the hint +of a vast, awesome secret in the eyes of Sarka--and wondered if he dared +even tell her. + + * * * * * + +"If the people knew," he whispered, "they would do one of two things! +They would tear me limb from limb, and hurl the parts of me outward into +space forever--or they would demand that I move before I am ready--and +cause a catastrophe which could never be rectified; and this grand old +Earth of ours would be dead, indeed!" + +"And this secret of yours?" Jaska now spoke in the sign language which +only these two knew, for there were billions of other Revolving Beryls +in the world, and words could be heard by universal radio by any who +cared to listen. And always, they knew, the legions of enemies of Sarka +kept their ears open for words of Sarka which could be twisted around to +his undoing. + +"I should not tell even you," he answered, his fingers working swiftly +in their secret, silent language, which all the world could see, but +which only these two understood. "For if my enemies knew that you +possessed the information, there is nothing they would stop at to make +you tell." + +"But I would not tell, Sarka," she said softly. "You know that!" + +He patted her hands, and the ghost of a smile touched his lips. + +"No," he said, "you would not tell. Some day soon--and it must be soon +if the children of men are not to destroy themselves, I will tell you! +It is a secret that lies heavily on my heart. If I should make a +mistake.... Chaos! Catastrophe! Eternal, perpetual dark, the children +of men reduced to nothingness!" + + * * * * * + +A little gasp from Jaska, for it was plain that this thing Sarka hinted +at was far and away beyond anything he had hitherto done--and Sarka had +already performed miracles beyond any that had ever been done by his +predecessors. + +"When my grandfather," went on Sarka moodily, "perfected, in this +self-same laboratory, the machinery by which the waters of the oceans +could be disintegrated, our enemies called him mad, and fought their way +up these mountain slopes to destroy him! With the pack at his doors, he +did as he had told them he would do. Though they hurried swiftly into +the great valleys to colonize them--where oceans had been--they were +like ravening beasts, and gave my grandfather no thanks. Our people have +always fought against progress, have always been disparaging of its +advocates! When the first Sarka discovered the Secret they would have +destroyed him, though he made them immortal...." + +"If only the Secret," interrupted Jaska, "could be returned to him who +discovered it! That would solve our problem, for men then would die and +be buried, leaving their places for others." + +Again that weary smile on the face of Sarka. + +"Take back the Secret which is known to-day to every son and daughter of +woman? Impossible! More nearly impossible than the attainment of my most +ambitious dream!" + +"And that dream?" spoke Jaska with speeding fingers. + +"I have wondered about you," said Sarka softly, while those eyes of his +bored deeply into hers. "We have been the best of friends, the best of +comrades; but there are times when it comes to me that I do not know you +entirely! And I have many enemies!" + +"You mean," gasped the woman, for the moment forgetting the secret sign +manual, "you think it possible that I--I--might be one of your enemies, +in secret?" + +"Jaska, I do not know; but in this matter in my mind I trust no one. I +am afraid even that people will read my very thoughts, though I have +learned to so concentrate upon them that not the slightest hint of them +shall go forth telepathically to my enemies! I do not mind death for +myself; but our people must be saved! It is hideous to think that we +have been given the Secret of Life, only to perish in the end because of +it! I am sorry, Jaska, but I can tell no one!" + +But Jaska, one of the most beautiful and intelligent of Earth's +beautiful and intelligent women, seemed not to be listening to Sarka at +all, and when he had finished, she shrugged her shoulders slightly and +prepared to leave. + + * * * * * + +He followed her to the nearest Exit Dome, built solidly into the side of +his laboratory, and watched her as she slipped swiftly into the white, +skin-tight clothing--marked on breast and back with the Red Lily of the +House of Cleric. His eyes still were deeply moody. + +He helped her don the gleaming metal helmet in whose skull-pan was set +the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid--invented by Sarka the Second, used now of +necessity by every human creature--and strode with her to the Outer +Exit, a door of ponderous metal sufficiently strong to prevent the inner +warmth of the laboratory getting out, or the biting cold of the heights +to enter, and studied her still as she buckled about her hips her own +personal Sarka-Belt, which automatically encased her, through contact +with her tight clothing, with the warmth and balanced pressure of the +laboratory, which would remain constant as long as she wore it. + +With a nod and a brief smile, she stepped to the metal door and vanished +through it. Sarka turned gloomily back to his laboratory. Looking into +the depths of the Revolving Beryl and adjusting the enlarging device +which brought back, life size, the infinitesmal individuals mirrored in +the Beryl, he watched her go--a trim white figure which flashed across +the void, from mountain-top to her valley home, like a very white +projectile from another world. Very white, and very precious, but.... + +When she was home, and had waved to him that she had arrived safely, he +forgot her for a time, and allowed his eyes to study the inner workings +of this vast, crowded world whose on-rushing fate was so filling his +brain with doubt, with fear--and something of horror! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The People of the Hives_ + + +Moodily Sarka stared into the depths of the Beryl, which represented the +Earth, and in which he could see everything that earthlings did, after +visually enlarging them, through use of a microscope that could be +adjusted, with relation to the Beryl, to bring out in detail any section +of the world he wished to study. His face was utterly sad. The people at +last truly possessed the Earth--all of it that was, even with the aid of +every miracle known to science, habitable. + +The surface of the Earth was one vast building, like a hive, and to each +human being was allotted by law a certain abiding place. But men no +longer died, unless they desired to do so, and then only when the +Spokesmen of the Gens saw fit to grant permission; and there soon would +be no place for the newborn to live. Even now that point had practically +been reached throughout the world, and in the greater portion it _had_ +been reached, and passed, and men knew that while men did not die, they +could be killed! + +The vast building, towering above what had once been the surface of the +earth, to heights undreamed of before the discovery, was irregular on +its top, to fit the contour of the earth, and its roof, constructed of +materials raped from the earth's core, was so designed as to catch and +concentrate the yearly more feeble rays of the sun, so that its +life-giving warmth might continue to be the boon of living people. + + * * * * * + +It had been found as Earth cooled that life was possible to a depth of +eight miles below the one-time surface, so that the one huge building +extended below the surface to this great depth, and was divided and +re-divided to make homes for men, their wives, and their progeny. But +even so, space was limited. Neighboring families outgrew their +surroundings, overflowed into the habitations of their neighbors--and +every family was at constant war against its neighbors. + +Men did not die, but they could be slain, and there was scarcely a home, +above or below, in all the vast building, which had not planned and +executed murder, times and times--or which had not left its own blood in +the dwelling places of neighbors. + +No law could cope with this intolerable situation, for men, down the +ages, had changed in their essential characteristics but little--and +recognized one law only in their extremity, that of self-preservation. + +So there was murder rampant, and mothers who wept for children, +husbands, fathers or mothers, who would never return to their homes. + +"My grandfather," whispered Sarka, his eyes peering deeply into a +certain area beyond that assigned by law to the House of Cleric, where +men of two neighboring families were locked in mortal, silent conflict, +"should not have frustrated the mad scheme of Dalis! It was slaughter, +wholesale and terrible, but it would have cleansed the souls of the +survivors!" + + * * * * * + +Mentally Sarka was looking back now to that red day when Dalis, the +closest scientific rival of Sarka the First, had come to Sarka the +First with his proposal which at the time had seemed so hideous. Sarka +remembered that interval in all its details, for he had heard it many +times. + +"Sarka," Dalis had said in his high-pitched voice, staring at Sarka the +First out of red-rimmed, fiery eyes, "unless something is done the world +will rush on to self-destruction! Men will slay one another! Fathers +will kill their sons, and sons their fathers, if something is not done! +For always there is marrying and giving in marriage, and each family is +reaching out in all directions, seeking merely space in which to live. +Formerly there were wars which automatically took thought of the +overplus of men; but to-day the world is at peace, as men regard the +term--and every man's hand is against his neighbor! There will be no +more wars, when there should be! There is but one alternative!" + +"And that?" Sarka the First had queried suspiciously. + +"The segregation of the fittest! The destruction, swiftly, painlessly, +of all the others! And when the survivors have again re-populated the +earth to overflowing--a repetition of the same corrective! Men will die, +yes, by millions; but those who are left will be a stronger, sturdier +race, and by this process of elimination, century by century, men will +evolve and become super-men!" + +"And this plan of yours?" + + * * * * * + +For a moment Dalis had paused, breathing heavily, as though almost +afraid to continue. Then, while Sarka the First had listened in frozen +terror, Dalis had explained his ghastly scheme. + +"If it were not for the mountains and the valleys," said Dalis, "and the +world were perfectly round and smooth of surface, that surface would be +covered by water to the depth of one mile! Is that not correct! The +Earth, rotating on its axis, travels about the sun at the rate of +something like nineteen miles per second, so perfectly balanced that +the oceans remain almost quiescent in their beds! But, Sarka, mark me +well! If we could, together, devise a way to halt this rotation for as +much as a few seconds, what would happen?" + +"What would happen?" repeated Sarka the First, dropping his own voice to +a husky, frightened whisper. "Why, the oceans would be hurled out of +their beds, and a wall of water a mile high or more--it is all +guesswork!--would rush eastward around the world, bearing everything +before it! It would uproot and destroy buildings, sweep the rocky +covering of the earth free of soil; and humanity, caught on the earth +below the highest level of the world's greatest tidal wave, would be +engulfed!" + +"Exactly!" Dalis had said with a grin. "Exactly! Only--the people we +wish to survive could be warned, and these could either be aloft when +the tidal wave swept the face of the earth, or could be safely out of +reach of the waters on the sides of the highest mountains!" + + * * * * * + +Sarka the First, wanly smiling, catching his breath at last, now that he +realized the utter impossibility of this mad scheme, had been minded to +humor the fancies of a man whom he had believed not quite sane. + +"Why not," he began, "take away from men the Secret of Life, so that +they will die, as formerly, when the world was young?" + +"When all the world knows the Secret, when even children learn it before +they are capable of walking?" demanded Dalis sarcastically. "You could +only remove knowledge of the Secret from the brains of men by removing +those brains themselves! Your thought is more terrible even than mine, +because it leads to this inescapable conclusion!" + +"But supposing for a moment your mad scheme were possible, who should +say whom, of all the earth's people, should be saved, whom sacrificed?" + +"What better test could be given than that which I am proposing?" Dalis +had snarled. "Those worthy of being saved would save themselves! Those +who would perish would not be worth saving! As natural, as inescapable +as the law of the survival of the fittest, which has been an axiom of +life since men first crawled out of the slime and asked each other +questions as they caught their first glimpses of the stars and pondered +the reasons for them!" + +"But where, then, was there any point in my giving to people the Secret +of Life?" + +"Had you paused to think," snapped Dalis, "you would never have done so! +Your lust for power, and for fame, destroyed your foresight!" + + * * * * * + +"And is it not, Dalis," replied Sarka the First, softly, "for this, +really, that you have come to me? To berate me? To throw at my head mad +schemes impossible of accomplishment? I have always known you for an +enemy, Dalis, because you are envious of what I have accomplished, what +you sense that I will accomplish as time passes!" + +"I do not love you, Sarka!" retorted Dalis frankly. "I despise you! Hate +you! But I need the aid of that keen brain of yours! You see, hate you +though I may, I do you honor still. I have something up here," tapping +the dome of his brow, only less lofty than that of Sarka, "which you +lack. You have something I have not, never can attain! But together we +are complements, each of the other, and to the two of us this scheme is +possible!" + +"I am very busy, Dalis," Sarka the First had replied coldly. "I must ask +you to leave me! What you propose is impossible, unthinkable!" + +"So," retorted Dalis, "you think me mad? You think me incapable of +perfecting this plan about whose details you have not even yet been +informed! You would show me the door as though you were a king and I a +slave--when kings and slaves vanished from the earth millenniums ago! +Then listen to me, Sarka! I know how to do this thing about which I have +told you. I can halt, for a brief moment only, the whirl of the earth +about its axis. And by so doing I can flood the earth with the waters of +the oceans! If you will not listen to me, I shall do it myself! You +shall have two days in which to give me an answer, for I admit that I +need you, who would balance me, make sure I made no fatal mistakes! But +if you do not, I will act ... along the lines I have hinted!" + + * * * * * + +Apparently as unconcerned as though he had not just listened to a scheme +for almost total depopulation of the world, the destruction of millions +upon millions of lives, Sarka the First had dismissed Dalis--who had +straightway used all his offices to arouse the world of science against +the first Sarka. + +But, when the two days of grace given by Dalis had passed, there were no +oceans--for Sarka the First had been planning for a century against the +time when the earth must of necessity be over-populated, and had worked +and slaved in his laboratory against the contingency which had +developed. + +He had smiled, though there was a trace of fear on his face after Dalis +had left, for _his_ scheme had been worked out--not to destroy, but to +save! + +And from this same laboratory in which Sarka now sat and pondered on the +next step in man's expansion, Sarka the First had, in fear and trembling +at first, but with his confidence growing by leaps and bounds, worked +his own miracle. Untold millions and billions of rays, whose any portion +of which, coming in contact with water, immediately separated its +hydrogen and oxygen, thus disintegrating its molecules, were hurled +forth from their store-houses beneath the laboratory, across the faces +of the mighty oceans of Earth.... + +And when men saw the miracle, they rushed into the mighty valleys where +the oceans had been, and began to build new homes! + + * * * * * + +That had been centuries ago--scores of centuries. + +Now all the earth, all the livable part of the earth, above its +surface--and below it to the depths of miles--was filled with people, +like bees in a monster hive, like ants of antiquity in their warrened +hills. And there was no place now that they could go. + +So they fought among themselves for the right to live. + +"But my grandfather was right!" Sarka almost screamed it, speaking aloud +in the silence of his laboratory. "My grandfather was right! Dalis was +wrong! Science should be the science of Life, not of Death! Yet whither +shall we go! Where now shall we find places for our people who are daily +being born in myriads, to live, and love and flourish?" + +But there was no answer. Only the humming of the perpetually revolving +Beryl, which showed to the sad eyes of Sarka that the people of his +beloved earth were rushing onward to Chaos, unless.... + +"If only I could be sure about Jaska!" he moaned. "If only my courage +were as great as that of which I stand in need! For if I fail, even +Dalis, had he succeeded with that scheme of his in grandfather's time, +would be less a monster, less a criminal!" + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Spokesmen of the Gens_ + +For a long moment Sarka looked broodingly out across the world beyond +the metalized glass which formed the curving dome of his laboratory +roof. There was little that could be seen, for always the mighty, cold +winds, ruffed with flurries of snow and particles of ice, swept over +this artificial roof of the world. Here and there huge portions of the +area within the range of his normal vision were swept clear and clean of +snow and ice--and looked bluely, bitterly cold and hostile. + +Without the Sarka-Belts, people who ventured forth from their hives +would instantly freeze to the consistency of marble in those winds and +storms. For the people of Earth had built their monster habitation +toward the stars until they reached up into the altitude of perpetual +cold. + +Only under that gleaming roof was there warmth. Many of the men, and +women, and children who had lost in the now century-old fight for +survival had merely been tossed out of the hives. A painless, swift +death--but each death, in a world so highly specialized that each grown +person fitted into his niche naturally and easily, was a distinct loss, +not much, perhaps, but enough for the loss to be felt. + + * * * * * + +Sarka, closing his eyes for a moment as though to shut out a horror +which in his mind he could visualize, turned back to the Revolving +Beryl, in which he kept in constant touch with all parts of the world at +will. + +"It _must_ be done!" he muttered. "I must take action. It means the loss +of thousands, perhaps millions of lives, in such a war as the mind of +man has not hitherto conceived; but for a Cause greater than any which +has ever hitherto been an excuse for armed conflict. But I must discuss +it with the Spokesmen of the Gens!" + +On the table before Sarka was a row of vari-colored lights, whose source +was beneath the floor of the laboratory, out of the heart of the +master-mountain, part of the intricate machinery of this laboratory +which had been almost twenty centuries in the perfecting. In the +dwelling place of each of the Spokesmen was a single light, colored like +one of the lights on Sarka's table. To speak with any one of the +Spokesmen Sarka had but to dim the properly colored light by covering it +with the palm of his hand. The light in the home of the thus signalled +Spokesman was dimmed, and the Spokesman would know that Sarka desired +to converse with him. + +Sarka noted the blue light, and shuddered. For if he covered it with his +palm it would summon Dalis, a great scientist, but an erratic one, as +Sarka the First had so clearly shown. + +Sarka turned again to the Beryl. The area of which Dalis was Spokesman +was, roughly speaking, that part of what had once been the Pacific +Ocean, north of a line drawn east and west through the southernmost of +the Hawaiian Islands, northward to the Pole. The home of Dalis was in +the heart of what had once been an island historians claimed had been +called Oahu, now a mountain peak still retaining a hint of the +pre-Discovery name: Ohi. + + * * * * * + +The total number of the Spokesmen, the oldest of earth's inhabitants, +was twelve, and the remainder of the Earth not under the tutelary rule +of Dalis was divided up among the other eleven Spokesmen. Cleric, for +example, father of Jaska, was Spokesman of that area which men had once +called Asia, the vast valleys of the once Indian Ocean and the +Mediterranean; while the youngest of the Spokesmen, in a manner serving +his apprenticeship, was tutelary head of the vast plateau once called +Africa. The name of this man was Gerd. + +"He, at least," thought Sarka, thinking of each Spokesman in turn and +cataloguing each in his mind, "will be with me. I wonder about the +others, and especially Dalis. He has always hated us!" + +Then, with the air of a man who has made up his mind and crosses his +particular Rubicon in a single step, Sarka rose to his feet and passed +along the row of vari-colored lights, covering each one with his hand in +rapid succession. + +Then he sat down again, almost holding his breath, and waited. As he +stared at the row of lights his eyes lingered longest on two which were +almost golden in color--and his face was very gentle, almost reverent. +For those two lights were signals to Sarka the First and Sarka the +Second, his grandfather and his father! + + * * * * * + +It was Dalis, the irascible, the fiery tempered, the erratic, who first +made answer. + +"Yes! What is it now?" + +Sarka smiled a trifle grimly as he spoke a single word. + +"Wait!" + +The voice of Dalis, which Sarka had good cause to remember, had sounded +as loudly in the laboratory as though Dalis had been present there in +person, for men had learned to communicate by voice almost without the +aid of radio and its appurtenances though the principle upon which the +first crude beginnings of radio were fashioned still applied. Each man's +dwelling place was both a "sender" and a "receiver," and men could talk +and be talked to no matter where they lived--individuals telepathically +summoned at desire of anyone wishing verbal contact. + +"Gerd is here!" came the voice of that Spokesman. + +To him also Sarka spoke one word. + +"Wait!" + +"I am here, Sarka!" came a musical voice. "And Jaska is with me, +listening!" + +That would be Cleric, loyal friend, master scientist, but always shy of +contact with people, though swift to anger and self-forgetfulness when +he knew himself right and was opposed. Sarka darted a look back at the +Revolving Beryl, adjusted swiftly the Beryl-microscope, and smiled into +the faces of Jaska and Cleric, who looked enough alike that they might +have been brother and sister, though Cleric had been born ten centuries +before his daughter Jaska. They smiled back at him. + + * * * * * + +He shifted the Beryl-microscope and stared for a second at Dalis, there +in the Beryl, and marked the antagonism Dalis was at no pains to hide. + +One by one the Spokesmen reported. + +Klaser, from the Americas; Durce from the valleys of the vanished +Atlantic; Boler from that part of the Artic Circle not included in the +wedge which the Gens of Dalis thrust northward to the Pole: Vardee; +Prull; Yuta; Aal; Vance and Hime. Each from his appointed area, each +from the official headquarters of his Gens, the name given to those +people who acknowledged the tutelage of a Spokesman. Each Spokesman, +therefore, was the mouthpiece of millions of men, women and children. +And over the Spokesmen, and not themselves Spokesmen, were three +scientists: The Sarkas, First, Second and Third. + +When all twelve of the Spokesmen had reported and been bidden by Sarka +to wait, a smile touched the face of Sarka for an instant as two other +voices, so nearly alike they might have been the voice of a single +person, reported themselves. + +"I am here, son! What is it?" + +Oddly enough, Sarka's father and grandfather reported with exactly the +same words. Sarka smiled at a whimsical thought of his own. It had been +some time since the three scientist Sarkas had been together, and +despite the vast differences in their ages they might have been +triplets! + + * * * * * + +The reports were in and the Spokesmen were waiting; but for almost a +minute Sarka waited still. Then he spoke swiftly those words for which +there could be no recall: + +"Gentlemen, the time is come when we must go to war!" + +For a long moment after he had spoken there was no answer. Then it came, +in the jeering laughter of the antagonistic Dalis. + +"War? Against whom? The Sarkas are always dreaming!" + +"And Dalis," continued Sarka, "shall be one of the leaders of Earthlings +in this war which I am about to propose! You doubtless recall a proposal +you once made to Sarka the First? Your proposal to halt for a few +moments the headlong whirl of the earth about its axis, thus to +flood--" + +"Stop!" interrupted Dalis. "Stop! Immediately!" + +And Sarka stopped. He had forgotten, in the excitement of his urge to +explain his plans, that the millions of people who gave official +allegiance to Dalis had never been informed of the hideous proposal he +had made, back there centuries ago, as a corrective for a world rapidly +approaching over-population. Had his people known, never again would the +voice of Dalis be heard in life. The Spokesmen knew, and the Sarkas; but +no others. Sarka understood the protest of Dalis; honored it. + +"Dalis," he went on, more softly, "after I have explained what I wish to +do, you will come to me here, prepared to explain to me exactly how you +planned doing what you proposed to my grandfather--for your knowledge +will be necessary to me...." + +"Isn't it enough that your grandfather stole from me, and amplified, an +idea that would have made me forever famous, without his grandson also +stealing the fruit of my brains?" + +"Your brains," said Sarka sharply, "belong to your people. What I plan +is for their betterment. But it means war, war which may last a century, +two centuries, in which lives of countless thousands may be lost." + + * * * * * + +Sarka's last words were almost drowned out by the humming sound that +came out of the Revolving Beryl, that perfected device which was the +ultimate in the evolution of television and vibration-transference. +Sarka's heart sank, for he knew the meaning of that sound. So did the +Spokesmen. + +"You see?" came the rasping voice of Dalis. "You hear? Look into your +Beryl! See the clenched fists of the earth's myriads being shaken at +you! Listen to the protests of the millions who hear your every word! +See what Earthlings think of the prospect of war!" + +For a moment Sarka spoke directly to the people. + +"Be silent and listen! It will be war, yes; but not such a skulking, +hideous war as ye wage among yourselves for a place to live! You, +fathers, are guilty of slaying your sons! You, sons, of slaying your +fathers! Merely by thrusting them forth from the hives, into the Outer +Cold! This war I propose shall be a war that shall match your manhood, +if ye indeed be men! Listen to me, and I will find for you new lands to +conquer, new homes for your holding, if ye can take them!" + +"But where," interrupted the sarcastic voice of Dalis, "are these new +lands of which you speak? Inside the Earth? Already our hives reach into +the Earth a distance of eight miles. Where else, then?" + +"For shame, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, "and you a scientist! Every bit of +habitable land on this globe is some man's dwelling place! Spokesmen of +the Gens of Earth, look out your windows! Look out and upward--and read +Dalis' answer in the stars!" + + * * * * * + +For a full minute there was silence throughout the earth, and Sarka saw +that the Spokesmen were doing his bidding. He himself looked out, out +through the swirling storm which tore at the crest of the Himalayas, a +dark and forbidding Outside, in the starred dome of which rode the pale +orbed moon! + +"It is obvious, son," came the voice of Sarka the First, "what you mean. +But how accomplish it?" + +"Fifteen centuries ago, my father's father," cried Sarka, "Dalis told +you that he possessed the power to halt for a moment the headlong whirl +of the world on its axis about the sun! He could do it then--and no man, +whatever he may think of Dalis as a man, has ever known him to lie! If, +fifteen centuries ago, he could bring the whirling world to pause, why +can we not, now...." + +And, even though he had thought of this for years upon end, had spoken +over and over to himself the words he was now using, rehearsing his +proposed argument to the Spokesmen of the Gens, Sarka found himself for +a moment almost afraid to continue and speak them. + +"I understand, Sarka!" came the excited voice of Gerd, youngest of the +Spokesmen. "And I follow wherever you think it best to lead! You mean +... you mean...." + +"Exactly!" Sarka managed at last. "If the Earth can be stayed on its +axis, it can be diverted from its orbit entirely! I know, for I have +found the manner of its doing, though I need the genius of Dalis to +check my work and my calculations! We have no new land on this Earth to +conquer; but the Universe is filled with countless other worlds! What +say ye, Spokesmen of the Gens? What say ye, Gens of Earth?" + +But for the time of a thousand heartbeats neither the Spokesmen or the +Gens made answer to Sarka, and all the world fell utterly silent, +absorbing this unbelievable thing of which Sarka had hinted. + + * * * * * + +Over the metalized roof of the world the snows and storms, the winds and +the wraiths of the long dead moaned and screamed as with an icy voice of +abysmal warning. + +And for the time of those thousand heartbeats, the world was pausing to +listen. + +When realization came, the answer would come from the Spokesmen and from +the Gens; and here in the Sarka laboratory, his Rubicon crossed at last, +sat Sarka, staring through the Beryl-microscope into the depths of the +Revolving Beryl. His face was dead white, his eyes narrowed. + +The first voice which came startled him. + +"It is mad, Sarka! Mad! Mad! But I am with you, always!" + +It was the voice of Jaska, daughter of Cleric! + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Earthlings Make Ready_ + +"I too, am with you!" came the voice of Gerd. + +"Spoken like a child!" snapped Dalis. "For you are as much a child as +this third of the dreaming Sarkas! The scheme is mad, madder even than +Jaska intimates! The scheme I once proposed, in which I was cheated by +the grandfather of this madman, was times and times more feasible and +practicable!" + +"Suppose," came the soft voice of Sarka the First, interrupting Dalis, +"that you put the matter up to your Gens, O wise and noble Dalis, and +see which scheme they would endorse if given the choice in the +matter--and were your scheme still possible!" + +This quickly silenced the vituperation of Dalis, but in no wise +prevented his continuance as a rather loud antagonist of the plan. + +"How," he demanded, "can you return the Earth to its orbit, even +granting you are able to take this initial step? How keep life on the +Earth during its flight on this rainbow-chasing voyage you propose?" + +"All these things have been taken into consideration, O Dalis!" retorted +Sarka. "All of my scheme is practicable, as I think you will agree when +I have told you its details. What think you of the plan, Klaser? And +you, Durce? Boler? Vardee? Prull? Yuta? Aal? Vance? Hime?" + +When the Spokesmen had answered, some of them hesitantly, for the people +all this time had remained silent--and none of the Spokesmen could be +sure how his own Gens would feel in the matter--it developed that seven +of the Spokesmen were for the scheme, if it should prove to be possible. + +"If this is the voice of the majority of the Gens," snapped Dalis, +"given thus by their Spokesmen, then I vote with the majority! I shall +call upon you immediately, Sarka, for a conference!" + + * * * * * + +"I am glad," said Sarka softly, "that the majority of the Spokesmen are +with me. Especially am I glad that Dalis and Cleric vote with me. For +the others I have only this to say: I have thought this matter over for +almost a century, and I know that the time has come when we must act, to +save ourselves from self-destruction. Had you not decided with me, I +should have acted alone!" + +"Yes?" snapped Dalis. "How?" + +"I have, here in my laboratory," replied Sarka, "the power whereby to +accomplish the scheme of which I have told you! Had all the Gens defied +me, I would have nevertheless sent the Earth outward on its voyage, +bringing it within reach of the denizens, first of the Moon, second of +Mars--and you people of little courage would have been compelled to +fight to save yourselves!" + +"You would have forced us into war?" came the quavering voice of Prull, +the first Spokesman aside from Dalis to take active part in the +discussion. "Then why, if you had the means in the beginning to enforce +your will upon us, confer with us at all?" + +Sarka thrilled with satisfaction, for this question gave him the excuse +he sought. He had been wondering and scheming how to compel the +Spokesmen of the Gens to obey his will. + +"I wanted your opinions," he said shortly. "But I also wish you to know +that I have the power to go on, whether you wish it or not--_and you +must obey me!_" + + * * * * * + +How would the twelve Gens take this ultimatum of Sarka? For breathless +moments after he had spoken he waited, and the Spokesmen with him. Then +came the voice of Cleric, addressing his people, yet leaving the +contacts open so that Sarka and the other Spokesmen might hear. + +"What say you, O Gens of Cleric?" he cried, his voice an exultant, +clarioning paean of rejoicing. "Do we follow this man who promises us +life again? Do we follow this man who promises us that once again we +shall dwell in plenty, without the blood of relatives and neighbors on +our hands? Answer this man, O Gens--for I say unto you that wheresoever +he leads I would follow him!" + +Silence for a heartbeat. Then a murmuring like the sound of the waves of +the long-vanished seas sounded in the laboratory, wherein all things +were seen, all sounds were heard. A monster voice, loud and savage, from +the Gens of Cleric. + +"We follow Cleric wherever he leads!" Finally the words became +intelligible. "It matters not to us whom Cleric follows, so long as we +may follow Cleric!" + +"Well spoken, O Gens of Cleric!" snapped Sarka when the murmuring died +down to a whisper, then faded out entirely. "Deck yourselves in the +white garments of Cleric! Emblazon upon your backs and breast the Red +Lily of his House! Prepare for war! These are your orders; the details I +leave to Cleric!" + +There came the voice Dalis. + +"Give your orders to my Gens direct, O Sarka!" rasped Dalis. "For I +leave this very moment to come to you!" + +"Thank you," said Sarka, a great wave of exaltation sweeping over him. +He had expected Dalis to be the last and most difficult to manage. Then +to the Gens of Dalis, as the blue light on the table in the laboratory +showed Sarka that Dalis was already winging toward him: "Deck yourselves +in the green garments of Dalis! Wear as your insignia the yellow star of +his House, and prepare for war! Make new and modern Ray Directors! +Refurbish your rotting machines of destruction! Make ready, and make +haste! For the Gens of Dalis will be the first of all the Gens to move +in attack against the Dwellers Outside! When the time comes I shall tell +you where you shall dwell--if you win the land I shall show you!" + + * * * * * + +The humming of myriad voices inside the laboratory was now almost +continuous, but ever the words of Sarka went out to the Spokesmen and to +the Gens, though, save in the case of Cleric and of Dalis, he did not +speak to the Gens direct, because he did not wish in one iota to usurp +the authority of the Spokesmen themselves. + +But when less than an hour had passed, he realized that the first step +had been successfully taken, and that from now on the success or failure +of the scheme rested in his own hands. Perspiration bedewed his +forehead, and for a second he prayed. + +"God of our fathers! Grant that we be not mistaken! Grant that we be +right in what we plan! Grant that success attend our arms! Grant that +this scheme of mine lead us not to catastrophe--for if this should +develop, only I am guilty, and only I should be punished!" + +"Amen!" + +As one voice, the Spokesmen of the Gens spoke the word, and Sarka heard +it. He had forgotten for the moment that the Spokesmen still could hear +him. + +"That is all," he said huskily. "Prepare your Gens, each of you, for +such battle as even our histories never have recorded! For we go against +foemen whose strength we do not know, whose manner of life we do not +know, and we must not fail! Make haste with your preparations! Your time +is short! And Spokesmen, counsel your Gens that they put aside at once +all personal differences, all family quarrels, all quarrels with their +neighbors! That each adult individual, each unmarried woman, and such +married woman as have all their children grown, and who no longer need +them, prepare to go forth to battle! From this laboratory, within a +brief space, Dalis and the Sarkas will give you further word!" + + * * * * * + +Then he dimmed the lights, and severed contact with the Spokesmen of the +Gens. Only two lights he did not dim, at the moment, and to two men he +spoke softly. + +"My father and my father's father! Come to me at once! For there shall +be need of the combined genius of the Sarkas if my scheme is to +succeed!" + +From both Sarkas, as though they had rehearsed the words against this +need of them, came answer: + +"Aye, son, we come!" + +From that moment on until Dalis and the Sarkas were ready to take the +most momentous step ever taken in the history of the world, the humming +within the laboratory did not cease. For the people, the millions and +billions of people of the hives, were busy, eagerly and feverishly busy, +preparing new armament, new engines of destruction, against the time +when there should be need of them. And for perhaps the first time in +centuries, the people were happy. + +For not even the passage of a thousand centuries, or a thousand thousand +centuries, could flush from the warm hearts of men the love of conflict! + +Sarka smiled wanly, his face very pale. He had spoken, his people were +busy with preparations, and now there could be no turning back. The +world, when he spoke the word, would rush outward to glorious +conflict--or to destruction! + +A buzzer sounded near the Exit Dome. Sarka raced to give the "Enter" +Signal--and Dalis, he of the hawk-eyes, the sharp nose and sharper +tongue, entered the presence of the man who, in a twinkling, had made +himself master of the world. + +"Well," he said harshly, "I am here! What do you wish of me?" + +"We Sarkas," said Sarka easily, "wish to assure ourselves that you will +do nothing to obstruct our plans! Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, you are +prisoner of the Sarkas until you have passed your word!" + +"That I will never do!" said Dalis calmly. "I have passed my word to go +forward with you; but I meant, and you knew I meant, to go forward only +as far as to me seemed right and reasonable!" + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Betrayal of Dalis_ + +And until the arrival of the other two Sarkas, Dalis said nothing. His +face flushed an angry red as Sarka the First received the "Enter" Signal +and stepped into the laboratory which had once been his--which he had +delivered into the capable hands of Sarka the Second, in order to find +new channels for his genius, as a worker for the betterment of the +world's people. This he had found in organization, so that the people +worked and labored, despite their personal quarrels, in closer harmony +than they ever had before. But now Sarka the Third had called, and the +two Sarkas responded. Dalis snarled at his ancient enemy, who looked to +be the image of Sarka the Third and not one whit older, though one had +preceded the other into the world by many centuries. + +"Still the pleasant, congenial Dalis, I see!" smiled Sarka the First. + + * * * * * + +For the moment it seemed that Dalis would die there of his seething +anger; but he answered no word for all of a minute. Then: + +"This mad grandson of yours has made me a prisoner, until such time as I +concur in all his plans!" + +"If he says you are a prisoner, that you are!" snapped the elder Sarka +angrily. "Son, what is this thing you plan?" + +"For almost a century," replied Sarka, "I have been planning this. I +knew, when father told me that Dalis had sworn he was able to halt for a +moment the headlong flight of the Earth in its orbit, that Dalis did not +lie or bluff! In your day, even, that was possible, and I continued with +the knotty problem until I deduced the manner of its doing. I, too, can +halt the Earth's rotation, or throw it out of its orbit! I took your +idea, Dalis, _independently_ of you, knowing you would never reveal +your secret to a Sarka, and amplified it until I can not only halt the +Earth in its orbit, but throw it out of its orbit entirely!" + +For a moment Sarka studied the angry face of Dalis, and his own was very +thoughtful. + +"Dalis," he said at last, "I wish you were not our enemy! For you are a +genius, and the world has need of all the knowledge of such genius as it +possesses. Why do you oppose us?" + +"Because," snarled Dalis, "I guessed something of your plan that I do +not like! I do not like the Sarkas, never have; but neither have the +Sarkas any love for me! When you spoke to us all, I knew that somehow +you had discovered the secret! You spoke, when you delivered your +ultimatum, of attacking the Moon, and after it Mars! You also granted to +my Gens what would have seemed a great honor--to anyone who did not +fathom the tricky scheming of the Sarkas!--that of being the first into +the fray! If we are to be first, and the Moon is to be the first +attacked, then you plan to relieve the world forever of me, your +arch-enemy, by exiling me and all my Gens upon the Moon! A dead world, +covered with ashes, whose people dwell in dank caverns, like gnomes of +the underworld...." + + * * * * * + +"Stay!" snapped Sarka. "But I granted you a greater honor even than +that, Dalis! I planned on your Gens, led by you, making a successful +conquest of the Moon--because only such a genius as Dalis could force +from this dead world a living for his Gens! Because you are the wisest +of the Spokesmen, I planned for you the greatest task! Because I need +you ... I do not slay you!" + +"I thank you," bowing low, with the deepest sarcasm, "but you honor me +too much! And tell me, pray, if it is not true that you plan for the +Sarkas their choice of the best and newest worlds of the Universe?" + +Sarka did not answer for a second, while his sensitive nostrils quivered +with fury. The Sarkas had not noticed, but Jaska, daughter of Cleric, +had admitted herself through the Exit Dome, in a way known only to Sarka +and to herself, as she had entered many times before so as not to +disturb Sarka at his labors. She now stood silently there, divesting +herself of her Belt and outer clothing, beneath which was the golden +toga worn by all the women of the earth. Dalis, however, had seen her, +and his eyes narrowed craftily as he awaited the answer of Sarka. + +"Dalis," said Sarka softly, "it is not for you to question me, but to +obey me! I have not undertaken this step without mastering all its +details, and I refuse to allow you to swerve me in a single one of them +from my plan." + + * * * * * + +Dalis straightened, standing stiffly at savage attention, and met the +angry eyes of Sarka without flinching. There was no fear in Dalis, as +all the world knew. But he was a schemer, and selfish. + +"After all," he said, "I have known Sarkas to make promises they could +not keep! How do I know, how does the world know, that you can do what +you say you can do?" + +"If," said Sarka, "I close all contact of this laboratory with the world +outside, so that none may hear what I say save we four, and I then +whisper here the secret you never told, Dalis, when my father's father +refused to help you--will you then believe?" + +The face of Dalis went suddenly white, but he nodded, his eyes burning +redly. Jaska moved closer to the men, who stood near the table of the +vari-colored lights. + +"You needed my father's father," said Sarka softly, "because the secret +of your scheme rested here in this laboratory, which is the highest +point in the world! You pretended to need him in your scheme; but you +did not need my father's father, though you _did_ need his laboratory, +and some of the facts of science that _he_ discovered. So you came to +him with your scheme, discovered that he believed, though he denied it, +your scheme was possible--because he refused to aid you in it! Then, as +an excuse to re-enter this laboratory, you told him you would return +within two days! Now, shall I tell you your secret?" + + * * * * * + +The lips of Dalis were moving soundlessly. His right hand started to +rise, as though he would make it signal the negative he was unable for a +moment to speak. But even as he stood there, swaying slightly on his +feet, Sarka dashed to the lights on the table, disconnecting them one by +one; to the Revolving Beryl, which then ceased to revolve for the first +time in centuries--whirled when he had finished, and stepped to the very +center of the room. + +"Now," he whispered, "your secret, Dalis!" + +Still the hand upraised, still Dalis tried to speak, and could not. + +Sarka spoke, in a hoarse, almost terrified whisper, four words: + +"The Beryl! The Ovoids!" + +Gasps of surprise from the other two Sarkas, whose eyes for a second +flashed to the huge Beryl, which now was still, silent--and blind. +Dawning comprehension was evident in their faces. + +"The success of the Revolving Beryl," whispered Sarka, "which sees all +that transpires in this world, depends on one fact: that its revolving +is proportionately timed to infinite exactness with the revolution of +the Earth about its axis! This Beryl is the Master Beryl of the Earth, +which was why Dalis needed this Beryl, and could use no other!" + + * * * * * + +"Suppose that for a period of two days, uniformly progressive, this +Beryl were forced to revolve in sharp jerks at an increasing rate of +speed! With all connections in place, and all the world's Beryls attuned +to the speed of this one--what would happen? What would happen if a +single Gens were marshalled in warlike array atop the area of the Gens, +and kept up a steady, rhythmic march for a period of hours?" + +"In a few hours," whispered Sarka the First, "the roof of the Gens area +would begin to vibrate, to vibrate throughout all the area, and even +into all surrounding Gens areas--and in time the roof would collapse!" + +"Exactly!" said Sarka, breathing heavily. "This Beryl, when attuned to +all other Beryls in the world, would have this vibratory effect, not +only on a certain area of the world--but upon the entire world!--Force +the speed of the Beryls to the uttermost limit, and you sway the world +to your will! As a marching horde would sway the roof of a vast section +of the world if the horde's commander willed! + +"But that is not enough! The world would tremble, but nothing more! The +Earth's store of Ovidum, which is Anti-Gravitational, and used in minute +quantities in our Anti-Gravitational Ovoids, is evenly distributed +throughout the world. By vibration of the Beryls I can control it, +scatter it or gather it all together wherever I will! By shifting +through vibration this Anti-Gravitational material, I can disrupt, make +uneven, or nullify the pull of gravity on the Earth!" + +"That would do it," said Dalis, finding his voice at last; "but how +would you control the course the Earth would take, thus thrown out of +its orbit?" + +"That, my dear Dalis, is for the moment my secret!" + +"But is it?" Dalis suddenly shouted. + + * * * * * + +Before the three Sarkas could recover from their surprise at the man's +sudden vehemence, he made a swift, terrifying move. He leaped away from +them to stand beside Jaska, daughter of Cleric. + +"Sarka," he shrieked, "I know you love this woman! Note this little tube +I hold against her side. With it I can cause her to vanish for all time, +merely by a slight pressure of the fingers! And that will I do, unless +you immediately open all contacts with the world and remain silent while +I tell the people of Earth how you would betray them!" + +The three Sarkas were petrified with amazement and horror, for they +recognized the slender tube in the hand of Dalis as a Ray Director, the +world's greatest engine of destruction, and knew that it would do +exactly as Dalis had said it would. + +Automatically, because they were brave men, they had stepped a trifle +closer to Jaska and Dalis. Perspiration poured from their cheeks as they +stared at this rebel. But their fears were for Jaska, who now spoke for +the first time. + +"Let him do as he wills," she said smilingly, "since for the good of the +world I do not fear to die! Refuse him, Sarka, and know that I go into +Death's Darkness loving you always, and knowing that you will succeed in +the end, in spite of the opposition of men like Dalis!" + + * * * * * + +A man of unexpected actions, this Dalis, for while the attentions of the +Sarkas were on the little tableau he had staged, his eyes had darted to +the Beryl, to the control which Sarka had touched to still its +revolving. Now he sprang away from Jaska, was free of her and the Sarkas +before any could move to intercept him. + +He dashed to the Beryl. Instantly it swept into motion, while Dalis +whirled to face the Sarkas, and from his lips came a burst of triumphant +laughter. One hand was on the Beryl Control, the other still held the +Ray Director. + +"Fools!" he cried. "Fools! Duped like children! And now it is Dalis who +is master of the world! Move closer to me, and I will turn my Ray +Director upon this Beryl, which you have so kindly informed me is master +of all the Beryls and of all Ovidum deposits! Be glad that I do not turn +it upon you; but for you I have a kinder, more honorable fate! I now am +master, and will direct the destiny of the world! But I will never +leave it, because I suspect that it is the most pleasant of all the +worlds! I will, however, choose for the Sarkas a world that shall be the +dreariest in all the Universe!" + +The Sarkas whirled as soft laughter came from Jaska, daughter of Cleric. +Strange, lilting laughter. They turned in time to see her vanish through +the Exit Dome; but for a long moment her jeering laughter seemed to +sound in the laboratory she had left-and, to judge by her laughter, had +betrayed! For Dalis, arch-traitor, echoed her laughter! + + +CHAPTER VI + +_The Beryls in Tune_ + +"Remember," said Dalis, as the Beryl began to revolve and its humming +mounted moment by moment to normal, "that you must concur in whatever I +say to the people of the Earth--for if you do not, I swear that I will +destroy this Master Beryl! Then what happens to your scheme, Sarka the +Third? You see, there is no change in the plans, save one: I am the +master, not you!" + +Dalis was not a madman, for the world conceded him place in its list of +geniuses next below the three Sarkas, which was high honor indeed; but +Dalis possessed in abundance that most universal of all human +emotions--jealousy. For centuries he had been nursing it, watching the +Sarkas always in the niches just above him, yet never being able to +attain to their eminence. Now.... + +He had outwitted them. It might be for a moment only, but while his +mastery lasted he would drink deeply of personal satisfaction. Now, +however, there was no gloating in his face, for he realized, as Sarka +had realized, the infinite gravity of the whole situation. If a mistake +were made, the world would plunge to destruction--or go cooling forever +in a headlong race through space. + +"I keep the Ray Director hidden," he whispered, while the murmuring of +the Master Beryl mounted as it gained speed again, "but know you, +Sarkas, that its muzzle points at the Master Beryl, always!" + + * * * * * + +Now the forms of Earth were appearing on the Beryl. Men in countless +hordes were maneuvering in myriads, legions and armies, across the face +of the globe. There was no marching, but an effortless, swift as light +almost, aerial maneuvering. For each human being possessed the +tight-fitting metalized cloth, with the gleaming helmet in whose +skull-pan was the Anti-Gravitational Ovoid, which was the "outside" +garment of earthlings. With the Ovoid sitting exactly against the skull, +man had but to will himself in any direction, at any livable height, and +the action took place. In the same way, one man, to whom others in an +organization gave allegiance by appointment, could will all his +underlings into whatever formation he desired. + +As beautiful and effortless at the flight of those birds which had +vanished from the earth centuries before. + +"Remember, Dalis," said Sarka, "that while the speed of the Earth in its +orbit is between eighteen and nineteen miles per second, once thrown out +of its orbit, and forced to follow a straight or nearly straight line, +the speed may be many times that-or much less!" + +"The simplest facts of science," snarled Dalis, "were known to me a +thousand years before you were born! Now I shall tell the Spokesmen of +the Gens, and be sure that you second what I say!" + +He paused. Then, raising his voice impressively, he spoke. + +"O Spokesmen of the Gens, O Gens of Earth, hark ye to the words of Dalis +and of Sarka! The time has come to try the experiment of which Sarka +told you, and which I, Dalis, of the Gens of Dalis, have found good, and +hereby certify! See that all your Beryls are mathematically tuned to +catch every sound, every vibration, every picture, from this Beryl of +Sarka, henceforth to be known as the Master Beryl! + + * * * * * + +"No matter what happens, no matter what changes take place in the +temperature of your homes, no matter what storms may come, touch not +your Beryls until instructed from this laboratory! Tune your Beryls, +then leave them, and hasten faster with your preparations for war! Each +Spokesman of a Gens will at once instruct the members of his Gens that +all partitions between families shall immediately be removed, outward +from a common center in each case, until one hundred families occupy a +single dwelling place. Materials from destroyed partitions shall be +carefully hoarded, and the newer and bigger areas shall become +maneuvering places for the hundred families which will occupy each given +area! + +"Facing a crisis as we are, no thought can be given to privacy, and +neighborly quarrels must be forgotten! This move is necessary because no +single dwelling place is large enough to be used as a place of +maneuver--and from now on until the command is given, maneuvers must not +be held Outside! For hark ye, O Spokesmen, O Gens of Earth, we are about +to start upon our voyage into outer space! Spokesmen, call in your +maneuvering myriads! You have five minutes!" + +In five minutes not a flying man could be seen in all the cold, stormy +outside. Dalis spoke again. + +"Tune your Beryls and remove partitions, taking care that in reducing +partitions you so estimate your stresses and strains that the roof of +the world be not endangered by weight that is unsupported, or improperly +supported! + +"Food Conservers, redouble your production and rush your transportation +of Food Capsules! + +"Mothers of men, take over the labors of your sons and your husbands! +Sisters and sweethearts of men, join the myriads in maneuvers, for you, +too, may require knowledge of fighting!" + + * * * * * + +In spite of himself, an ejaculation of admiration escaped the lips of +Sarka. Hearing it, Dalis turned to him, and a flush of pleasure tinged +his cheeks as Sarka shaped one word with his lips: + +"Excellent!" + +Then, after a pause, Sarka spoke directly to the Gens of Earth. + +"Take heed of the words of Dalis, for they are also the words of the +Sarkas!" + +Then an expression of surprise flashed across the face of Sarka as +Dalis' fingers began to move in a swift sort of pantomime--for the sign +manual he used was the secret manual of Jaska and Sarka! His heart cold +within him at this new proof of her betrayal, Sarka nevertheless noted +the words which dropped silently off the fingers of this enemy of the +Sarkas. + +"You are wise to resist no further! Together we can do much, and if you +give your word not to oppose me, we can work together; but I will be the +master!" + +"But, if we grant you the mastery, will you heed our advice if it is +good?" + +"I will, but I alone will be the judge of its worth!" + +"Then we work together henceforth. Let us begin! In the time required to +move from here to the Moon, our people will have ample opportunity to +perfect themselves in maneuvers! Are you ready, O my father, and +father's father?" + +"Ready!" they said together. + + * * * * * + +But for a moment Dalis hesitated. "Your word!" he snapped, looking at +each Sarka in turn, and each in his turn nodded. They had given their +word, but not their love, to Dalis. Dalis bowed low to Sarka the +Youngest, who darted to the onyx base in which revolved the Master +Beryl, and pressed a small lever of metalized jade, set in a slot on the +southern side of the base of onyx. The humming sound within the Beryl +became perceptibly louder, and as the minutes passed, and Sarka stood, +arms folded, watching the Revolving Beryl, it continued to increase. + +Here was the crisis, and as they watched its sure, certain approach, +they forgot their enmities, Dalis and the Sarkas, and watched the +whirling Beryl. Minute by minute its humming increased. The figures +still were plain to be seen within the Beryl, but were becoming blurred +of outline. Partitions had been removed all over the earth, increasing +the size of rooms a hundredfold, reducing their number a hundredfold. +The Gens of Earth, by hundred-families, were maneuvering under the Heads +of Hundreds. The depths of the Master Beryl, therefore, was a maze of +flying men, with their extremities slightly blurred, and becoming more +so as the Master Beryl increased its speed. + + * * * * * + +Here now was shown the value of the organization fostered by Sarka the +First--for in all the world there was no single Beryl out of tune with +the Master Beryl; and as the Master Beryl increased the speed of its +revolving, so increased at the same time the speed of all the other +Beryls. Minute by minute the humming of the Master, and with it the +others, increased in volume. + +"Father!" spoke Sarka. "To the Observatory, behind the Beryl, please, to +watch the stars, and from them to note the direction we take when the +combined vibrations of the Beryls have affected the quiescence of +Earth's deposits of Ovidum and, through its shifting, disturbed the +flight of the Earth in its orbit!" + +With a brief nod Sarka's father hurried around the Master Beryl to the +tiny Observatory beyond, from which, through the Micro-Telescopes, those +who knew could read the secrets of the planets, the stars--the Universe. +Sarka watched him go, wondering if Dalis might not forbid him. But Dalis +merely watched him go and said nothing. + + * * * * * + +Now that the time of Change was upon the world, Dalis realized his +responsibility. It was little wonder that he began to be for the first +time a little bit afraid. + +"Note, Dalis!" snapped Sarka, and Dalis started nervously as his name +was spoken. "Feel the trembling of the laboratory, just as the same +trembling affects all the other buildings in the world in which Beryls +are located. As the minutes pass the trembling will go deeper and +deeper, and by to-morrow the first tremors will be reaching into the +Earth to several miles below the last habitable Inner Level! And +then.... + +"Then," repeated Sarka tersely, "my father will know by his study of the +stars in which new direction we are traveling! For within twenty-four +hours the Earth will have started on its voyage of conquest!" + +"Is there no way, Sarka," queried Dalis, "by which we can control the +direction of our flight!" + +"There _is_ a way, O wise and gallant Dalis! But since you do not know +it, who now is master?" + +Dalis' face became as pale as chalk, and Sarka smiled a little as he +watched him. Then, wondering what new resolve stirred the depths of this +master egotist of the earth, he watched emotions flash to and fro across +the face of Dalis, watched the color return to his cheeks. The cold of +death gripped at his heart when Dalis spoke. + +"I do not fear death, O wise and gallant Sarka!" he mocked. "For I have +lived fully and well, and for many, many centuries! You know that I do +not fear to slay people of the Earth, for did I not propose to your +father's father that a flood would be beneficial to unfit earthlings? +Hear, then! Keep your secret, and I shall allow the Earth to go outward +into space, out of control, in whatever direction it will. If any other +worlds happen to lie in our pathway...." + + * * * * * + +Dalis shrugged indifferently, turning his back on Sarka, to peer again +into the depths of the Master Beryl, whose voice had risen to a vaster +murmur, whose pictures were becoming moment by moment more blurred as +time fled irrevocably into eternity. + +Sarka the First took advantage of his opportunity, and leaped at the +back of Dalis, hands extended to fasten them in the throat of his +ancient enemy. Dalis whirled, with a burst of laughter, and the muzzle +of his Ray Director covered the person of the First Sarka. In a flash +the spot where Sarka the First had been was vacant, and there was no +single sign to show that he had ever stood there! + +Silence then in the laboratory, save for the mounting murmur of the +Master Beryl! + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Outer Space_ + +"He only proved a belief I have entertained for centuries!" snarled +Dalis. "That all the male Sarkas are fools--and the females for bearing +them!" + +Sarka said nothing, but within his breast a deep hatred was forming for +Dalis. He had disliked him before, and had been amused by him; but in +the busy life of Sarka there had been no time for hatred of anyone. Busy +people had no time for hatreds. + +"You should be torn to pieces for that, Dalis!" was all he said. "We +needed my father's father in our efforts! But the loss to the world of +one super-genius cannot be balanced by slaying another--so you are safe! + +"What he could do, I can do!" snapped Dalis. + +Sarka turned away from him, seating himself beside the table of the +vari-colored lights, and his heart was heavy as lead in his breast. He +blamed Jaska for much of this, and his heart was burdened, despite her +treachery, by the fact that he loved her, always would love her. Love +was the one possession which made centuries of life desirable to men of +the Earth. For men could spend centuries in seeking a true mate, knowing +that there were other centuries still in which to enjoy her. Woman was +man's greatest boon, his excuse for living, as was man excuse for woman. +Through the centuries, when humankind remained forever young, the joy in +each other of those truly mated grew as their knowledge grew.... + + * * * * * + +And now Jaska had failed Sarka, when for half a century they had loved +each other! Why had she done it? He had given her no reason to do so. +Had there been some other reason? Why had she laughed, and left them, +after the betrayal of the Master Beryl into the hands of Dalis? + +"Before God," whispered Sarka, "I believe that you, Jaska, were playing +a game to dupe Dalis, as he played a game to dupe us!" + +Down in his heart he was not sure. But somehow, just to whisper to +himself his faith in Jaska, gave it back to him in some measure, and by +so much lightened the weight upon his heart. For now his +responsibilities were greater than they had ever been before, and he had +need of all his faculties. + +"She'll come back, or somehow communicate with me, and explain +everything," he told himself. But he refused to ponder on how Dalis the +betrayer had gained possession of the secret sign manual he had believed +known only to Jaska and himself. That, too, might be explained +satisfactorily, for Dalis was cunning. + +From the side of the laboratory opposite the Revolving Beryl came a soft +tinkling sound, like the striking of a musical bell. Sarka rose wearily, +strode to the wall, where a narrow aperture opened, in which rested Food +Capsules sufficient for one meal for three men. He smiled wryly. They +knew then, the Food Conservers deep in the earth as they were, that +Sarka the First was no more--and sent food for three men! All the world +knew, perhaps, yet no single person had raised voice in protest--or if +any had, the mounting murmur of the Beryls had drowned it out. + + * * * * * + +"Sarka!" spoke Dalis suddenly. "At what time do you estimate that the +flight of the Earth in its orbit will be materially affected?" + +"It is being affected this moment, Dalis, shifting the Ovidum store!" +said Sarka shortly. "Within twelve hours we will be in readiness to +start our journey!" + +Remaining absolutely motionless within the domed laboratory, it was now +possible to feel the ever so slight motion, not only of the laboratory, +but of the mountain crest upon which it rested. Not so much a to-and-fro +motion as a round-about motion. + +Just as the slightest sound flies outward through space endlessly, and +the slightest vibration moves outward until the end of time and of +space, Sarka knew that the vibration set up by the Beryl, slight though +it was, was already being felt at the Poles of the Earth. Not enough to +be noticed there, but existant, just the same. + +"In twelve hours the world will be fighting against this combined +vibration and Anti-Gravitational Force we are starting, and second by +second accelerating," Sarka explained to Dalis: "fighting to remain on +its pathway about the Sun! But we will win against it, and with each new +vibration, each succeeding one being more strongly felt, we will force +the Earth that much more against the _pull_ which holds it in its +orbit!" + +The laboratory was trembling. The mountain beneath it was trembling. +Both in accordance with scientific design. There was no element of +chance in it, for the mountain moved, and the laboratory on its crest +moved, as science willed. It was now difficult for Sarka to remain still +where he sat, for the trembling was exciting his heart action, and +causing the blood to rush to his cheeks, making him feverish. He rose +to his feet and began pacing the floor. + +He strode to the jade lever, moved it ahead a fraction of a fraction of +an inch, and perceptibly the murmuring of the Beryl increased, as did +the trembling of the laboratory and of the mountain. + + * * * * * + +Twelve hours later exactly, Sarka shouted a single word to Dalis. + +"Now!" + +The laboratory was swinging about in a sort of circle in a way that made +one dizzy if one remained still for the merest second. Sarka, glancing +out into the Outside, across which blew the storms of the heights, and +noting that no cracks appeared in the surface of the world's vast roof, +knew that this swaying motion had been transmitted evenly to all the +Earth, and that, so far at least, his calculations had been correct. + +But Dalis was in a cold sweat of fear, and deathly sick. The motion of +the laboratory, like the inside of a whirling top, made him ill, though +Sarka could tell that he fought against it with all his great will. + +Sarka strode to him, looked him in the eyes for a moment. Dalis looked +back, glaring defiance. + +"Are you afraid, Dalis?" he shouted, to be heard above the screaming of +the Master Beryl. + +"I am not afraid," croaked Dalis. "Has the time arrived?" + +Sarka paused, as though for dramatic effect, and raised his right hand +high, while his left hand dropped to the metalized jade lever. There +still was room in the slot in the onyx base for the lever to move +forward ever so little. + + * * * * * + +"We have reached the exact place," cried Sarka, "where the Earth can, by +pressure upon this lever, be continued on in its orbit--or forced out of +it--out into space! Which shall it be, Dalis? If I move the lever +forward we start our voyage, and may not be able to return!" + +For a moment the nostrils of Dalis quivered as though with fear. His +face was white with his illness; but out of his eyes peered the fanatic +self-confidence of the man. + +"Push it forward, O Sarka!" he managed. + +Sarka, smiling slightly, pushed the lever to its uttermost limit, still +with his right arm upraised. For full five minutes he stood thus, and +then.... + +"Now!" he shouted, bringing down his arm. "We have begun our journey +into space! Come, let us look Outside, and await the first reports from +my father!" + +The two men, forgetting again for a moment the fact of their enmity, +strode to the southern wall of the laboratory and looked out across the +roof of the world. + +"You will note, Dalis," said Sarka conversationally, "that in a matter +of hours, the roaring of the Etheric winds will possess everything! We +will have passed into the infinite reaches of Outer Space, where, if I +may make so bold as to say so, it were better if Dalis, self-named +master of the world, knew whither he was going!" + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Moon Minions Prepare_ + +"It is time," said Sarka softly, "that we who have urged the world to +forget its quarrels should forget our own. What difference who is +master, so long as success attend our efforts?" + +"Then tell me your secret of control of our flight!" snapped Dalis. + +Before Sarka could answer, however, Sarka the Second entered the +laboratory area before the Master Beryl. He looked a question at his +son, and Sarka knew that his father was asking what had become of Sarka +the First. He shrugged his shoulders, and nodded his head toward Dalis. +Sarka the Second gave no more sign of perturbation than had his son, but +deep within his eyes were signal fires of fury which centuries of +penance on the part of Dalis would not erase. But now, with Sarka the +First gone, Dalis must live. + +"We are headed," said Sarka's father softly, "in the general direction +of the Moon! If we could travel toward it in a straight line, we would +reach it, if we kept our pace of about eighteen miles per second, in +approximately four hours! But since we are out of control, I fear we +will pass it too far away for our fighters to fly across the intervening +space! Or we may be drawn against it, in planetary collision, which of +course means annihilation. We are traveling noticeably faster than while +in the earth's orbit. I am able to see something of the preparation of +Moon-men to receive us!" + + * * * * * + +Dalis turned to Sarka, and the perspiration bedewed his forehead. In +order to make this mad mission successful, he must know Sarka's secret +of control. Had he been in Sarka's place, _he_ would have kept his +secret, no matter what happened, and he believed in his heart that Sarka +would do the same. It never occurred to him that Sarka, no matter who +the master, would divulge his secret in order to save humanity from +destruction. + +"We have approximately four hours, Dalis!" Sarka prompted the betrayer. +"I need at least an hour for my experiments! Do you, knowing as you do +that I have planned all this out, know exactly what course our voyage +should take, still insist on holding the reins yourself?" + +"I agree, for this time, to listen to your advice, as I promised you!" + +"Then let me suggest that you do some of the work which I had planned +should be done by my father's father! It is time that the world's +Induction Conduits be placed in operation, in order that our people be +supplied with equable temperature from the Earth's Core, as our +temperature changes due to our position with relation to the sun! Stand +back and give me the controls!" + + * * * * * + +For a moment Dalis stared at the two Sarkas. Would they seize power the +moment he moved away from the Beryl Control? In their places he knew he +would have done it. In their places he knew he would never have +submerged self in the good of the people. But, somewhat diffidently, he +moved away. Sarka the Second returned to the Observatory, behind the +Beryl, while Sarka stopped before the table where the lights were. + +After a moment of thought-conversation with Sarka the Second in the +Observatory, he dimmed the light which connected his laboratory with the +headquarters of Klaser, in the Americas. + +"Klaser," he barked, "for the period of one second cut the speed of +every Beryl within your Gens to half its present speed!" + +"I obey, O Sarka!" came the voice of Klaser. + +"Have we changed direction?" Sarka mentally questioned his father. + +"Slightly, but we are curving away, instead of toward the Moon! Try +again!" + +Sarka dimmed the light of Cleric, who instantly made answer. + +"I am here, Sarka!" + +"Stop the Beryls of your Gens for two seconds, but be prepared to speed +them up immediately afterward, if ordered, to the speed at which they +are now revolving! Klaser, hold the speed of your Beryls as they are!" + +"I obey, O Sarka!" came the musical tones of Cleric. + +"I hear, O Sarka!" replied Klaser. + +"Now, my father," queried Sarka again, telepathically, "what direction +do we travel?" + +"We are heading in a direction which will cause us to pass the Moon at a +distance of approximately fifty thousand miles!" + +"From which point our fighters can reach the Moon in exactly two hours, +after they have passed through our atmosphere!" cried Sarka exultantly, +aloud. + +"True, son!" replied Sarka the Second, mentally. "I suggest you hold +our course steady as it is!" + + * * * * * + +The motion of the earth now was as that of a steadily falling body, and +the shifting of the Ovidum store caused by vibrations set up by the +Beryls had set the Earth on its course toward the Moon. Sarka now gave +instructions to Klaser and to Cleric to return the speed of the Beryls +to that which they had attained at the moment the journey of the Earth +had begun--thus bringing them once more into harmony with the Master +Beryl, and rendering the Ovidum static. + +Dalis re-entered the laboratory from the Wall Tube, near the Dome Exit, +by which he had passed down to the lowest Inner Level, and stared +suspiciously at the two Sarkas. He found them half-smiling their +satisfaction. + +"We pass the Moon within fifty thousand miles!" exulted Sarka. "A flight +of two hours for the Gens which attacks the Moon! Do you refuse, O +Dalis, to send your Gens against the Moon?" + +"Why not send the Gens of Gerd!" demanded Dalis. "He is the youngest of +the Spokesmen, and what better test is there for him than this?" + +"It is because he is so young that we do not wish to send him," replied +Sarka coldly. "The colonization of the Moon by Earthlings requires the +guiding genius of a Spokesman who has the experience of a Dalis--or a +Sarka, else you would now be dead!" + +"Then let it be a Sarka!" barked Dalis. + +"Who, then, will control the further flight of the Earth?" + +"You! Let your father lead my Gens against the Moon!" + +"What will your Gens say, O Dalis? That their revered Spokesman feared +to lead them in person?" + +"Enough of this squabbling," snapped Sarka the Second. "Do you not +realize that within a matter of hours, some Gens must be sent into +battle? Come with me to the Observatory, where you will be given +something beside squabbling with which to occupy your minds!" + + * * * * * + +Leaving the earth on its lonely flight through space, the three men +hurried to the Observatory, where they seated themselves before the +eye-pieces of the Micro-Telescopes, whose outer circles had been aimed +at the Moon. + +For a moment the three stared breathlessly at the surface of this dead +sister of the Earth. They noted her valleys, her craters which seemed +bottomless, and saw that even as they watched, valleys and craters +became sharper of outline, proving that they were approaching the Moon +at a tremendous speed. It seemed, too, as though they were heading +toward sure collision, though Sarka the Second had said that they would +pass the Moon at a distance of fifty thousand miles. + +"You will note activity at the very rims of the craters!" said the Elder +Sarka easily. "The craters are man-made, not volcanic, as some +scientists believe, and are shaped to converge the rays of the sun, as +our roof is created for the same purpose. But note the activity at the +rims of the craters!" + + * * * * * + +Closer the men peered, studying the rims as instructed by Sarka the +Second. All about them--and as they watched, activity became apparent on +the inner slopes of the craters--winged creatures seemed to be flying. +They looked like tiny oblate spheroids, and they were in swift action, +darting to and fro like bees which have been disturbed in their hives. + +"Those spheres are of metal," said Sarka the Second, "and they are the +fighting Aircars of the Moon-men!" + +Neither Dalis nor Sarka denied this statement, for they knew it to be +fact. It became apparent that the movement of the Aircars was not a +movement of chance, but as skillfully ordered as any maneuvers which +had, during the last few hours, been executed by any of the Gens of +Earth. That they were of metal became apparent when, through the +Micro-Telescopes, the watchers caught the glint of the sun on the +surfaces of the cars. + +Sarka did a swift mental calculation, and announced the result. + +"Those Aircars average something like four hundred feet in length, and +are doubtless filled with fighting Moon-men!" + +"That's right," said Dalis, who also had been calculating this very +thing, "but our Ray Directors will disintegrate the Aircars as easily as +my Ray Director disintegrated Sarka the First!" + + * * * * * + +"The remaining Sarkas received this statement in silence, for Dalis' +choice of a comparison had been an unhappy one, to say the least. + +"I am wondering," said Sarka, "if you, my father, and you Dalis, have +noted the peculiar appendages of the Aircars?" + +"I saw them some minutes ago," said his father moodily, "and I am almost +afraid to guess their use! If they are what I fear they are, then the +Moon-men have been expecting this attack of ours for years and years, +and have been preparing for it! If they have known, and have been +preparing, then we are facing a race of super-Beings indeed--for we have +known but little of their activities!" + +"What, then," said Dalis, "do you think is the purpose of those +appendages?" + +"Those appendages, cilia, flagella, call them whatever you wish, are +man-made tentacles, created for the purpose of seizing, crushing and +destroying--then discarding...." + +For a full two minutes the three men sat there, and horrible doubts +flooded their brains. For the conclusion was obvious. The Gens of Earth +would go into action flying, not as organizations, inside an Aircar, but +as individuals, in swarms, myriads, legions and hordes. In order to do +the utmost damage with their Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators, +they must approach within a reasonable distance--and the picture of +those mighty tentacles, hurled like leashed lightning bolts into the +midst of the attackers, folding in individuals by scores and hundreds, +crushing them and dropping them contemptuously, was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate! + + * * * * * + +It was difficult to estimate the possible speed of the Aircars of the +Moon-men, at least at this distance. Besides, perhaps not a single one +of them was traveling at top speed, because of the fact of their crowded +traffic. + +This thought passed through the minds of the three men. + +"But we'll know," said Sarka dully, "when they get into action. For if I +am not mistaken, those Aircars are being mustered on the rims of those +craters to await orders, not to resist our attack, but to launch their +own attack before we are ready! Dalis, are you going to allow your Gens +to go into action against these Outsiders, without the inspiration of +your personal leadership?" + +The nostrils of Dalis were quivering with the intensity of his emotion. +His vast egotism told him that he, Dalis, could successfully combat +these Aircars of the Moon-men, and he wished with all his heart to issue +the orders to his Gens. But, vain as he was, he did not even wish to +have the appearance of acceding to the original plan of Sarka! Sarka had +planned for Dalis to attack the dwellers of the Moon, and Dalis had +refused. Now, when this challenge of the Aircars was a direct challenge +to his genius as a potential warlord of earth and he wished to accept +the challenge, he was torn two ways. + +Should he go ahead under the common leadership of the Sarkas? Or should +he still refuse battle--and perhaps see some lesser Spokesman go forth +to win glory and imperishable renown to himself? + + * * * * * + +A thought message, a command almost, impinged on the brains of the +three. + +"I wish to speak with you aloud!" The message was from Jaska! + +The three men rose and darted into the room of the Master Beryl. They +had no sooner entered than the clear voice of Jaska sounded in the +laboratory. + +"Sarka, I am no traitor! I am Jaska, who loves you! I am in the +headquarters of Dalis at Ohi, and the Gens of Dalis has indicated its +allegiance to me, having been informed by me that it is the wish of +Dalis, whose presence is needed at the place of the Master Beryl! +Command us, O Sarka, for we are ready to attack!" + +There the voice ended, while the two Sarkas turned again to face Dalis. + +Sarka now was glad that Dalis knew the secret sign manual, and his +fingers worked swiftly as he spoke to the rebel. + +"Will you, then, Dalis, allow your Gens to be led to glory by a woman? A +woman, moreover, who has duped you?" + +"The woman is a fool!" said Dalis. "She will lead the Gens to +destruction!" + +"Who, then, will be blamed if she does? Your Gens believe she is their +new Spokesman at your wish! If they are told otherwise, they will think +that Dalis himself is afraid to lead them!" + +"We shall see," said Dalis, "if I could win honor by leading my Gens in +a successful attack against the Moon-men, how much greater will be my +glory if Jaska attacks, is repulsed--and I go in to turn defeat into +victory!" + +Thus spake the colossal selfishness of Dalis, who took no thought of the +possible, nay, certain, loss of countless lives because of his +obstinancy. + +"I suggest," he said, "that you instruct your beloved Jaska to make +ready; for if I am not mistaken, when we return to the Observatory we +will discover that the Aircars of the Moon-men have left their craters +and are racing outward from the Moon to meet us! Or perhaps you would +lead my Gens, to safeguard Jaska!" + + +CHAPTER IX + +_The Attack of the Yellow Stars_ + +"Why should I safeguard Jaska?" asked Sarka quietly. "She is a true +daughter of Cleric! If Cleric does not fear for her to be Spokesman of a +Gens, why should I? He is her father. If she wins, the more glory will +be hers! If she loses, she will at least have tried!" + +"Meaning," snarled Dalis, "that I have refused even to try!" + +Sarka shrugged expressively, and the three stepped once more into the +Observatory, took their places before the Micro-Telescopes. For a moment +they could not see the outline of the Moon, for during their brief +sojourn in the laboratory the Moon seemed to have disintegrated, flying +into countless spheroidal pieces. + +"You see?" said Dalis. "The Moon-men do not wait for us! They attack!" + +It was all too true that the Aircars which had been mustered at the rims +of the Moon's craters had been hurled outward into space, outward toward +the on-rushing Earth, and the myriad numbers of them for a time shut out +all view of the surface of the Moon. + +"God!" spoke Sarka, and it was like a prayer. His cheeks were pale as +death, for in a moment he would speak the word which would send the Gens +of Dalis, under the leadership of Jaska, out against these formidable +Aircars of the Moon-men, and the appearance of the on-rushing cars was +terrifying. That their flying radius, outward, was a great one, was +manifest by the fact that the Earth would not for another hour reach its +closest estimated point with the Moon. + + * * * * * + +Sarka, exchanging glances with his father, rose and stepped again into +the laboratory. Even as he entered the room of the Master Beryl, +Jaska's broken signal came through. + +"I am ready, Sarka!" came her soft voice, vibrant with confidence. "The +Gens is ready, and the Gens believes in me!" + +For a moment Sarka hesitated before taking the plunge. Then he spoke the +fatal words. + +"Go, Jaska, and my love goes with you!" + +As the Earth approached closer to the Moon, the revolving of the Beryls +had been decreased, so that the motion of the Master Beryl was almost +normal--normal being that speed with which it revolved when it was +necessary to use it for visual contact with the people of the Earth. + +Out of the area of the Gens of Dalis darted the green specks which were +the flying people of Dalis! Sarka, staring in among them, focussing the +Beryl-microscope, sought for some way of identifying Jaska, who led +them. A thrill coursed through him when he made her out, +unmistakably--dressed still in the tight white clothing of her own Gens, +with the Red Lily of the house of Cleric on her breast and on her back! +The daughter of Cleric was leading the Gens of Dalis into combat under +her own colors and her father's insignia! + + * * * * * + +Sarka raced back to the Observatory, seated himself again to watch the +attack, which must of necessity be joined within a matter almost of +minutes. Those myriads of Aircars flying outward from the Moon, had +seemed invincible; but up until now he had never seen an entire Gens +mustered at one time. His whole being thrilled with the awesome grandeur +of the spectacle; it seemed that not an able-bodied individual of the +Gens of Dalis had failed to answer the muster of the Gens. + +Millions upon millions of people, taking off the icy roof of that part +of the Earth lying between Ohi and the North Pole, from the heart of +what had once been part of the Pacific Ocean. + +So many of them were there that when they were free of the Earth, +flashing outward at two thousand miles an hour, it was impossible to see +the Moon or those formidable Aircars--and still, out of the heart of the +area of the Gens of Dalis, came other myriads, each flight waiting only +for the preceding flight to clear! + +The green, tight fitting clothing of the Gens of Dalis, each individual +wearing the yellow star of the Spokesman of the Gens! A marvelous, +awe-inspiring sight! + +And this was but a single area, and the earth was divided into twelve +such areas, some smaller, none larger, which showed Sarka for the first +time a hint of the mighty man-power, and fighting woman-power which he +controlled. However, once free of the Earth, conduct of the fight would +be in the hands of the Spokesman--Jaska, acting for Dalis. + + * * * * * + +Sarka turned to Dalis, his eyes flashing. + +"Does it not thrill you, O Dalis?" he demanded. "Do you not wish now +that you had gone out with your people as their leader?" + +"They follow Jaska like sheep," he stated with a snort. "But wait! My +Gens seem invincible, because it bulks between us and the Aircars of the +Moon-Dwellers! Wait, see how the battle goes! The Gens may yet have need +of Dalis!" + +Sarka studied those outgoing hosts, which were dwindling away to mere +specks with vast speed, for through the cordons and cordons of them he +could now see the Aircars more plainly. It was still possible, when one +looked through the Micro-Telescopes, to see the slim figure of Jaska +leading the attack. She was in the vanguard of the Gens of Dalis leading +her people onward as though she had been born to command--utterly +fearless. + +"And I was small enough," whispered Sarka, "to doubt you! I even told +you that I doubted you! Forgive me, Jaska! Forgive me!" + +And still, as Level after Level gave up its myriads, the Gens of Dalis +shot forth from the Gens area, and winged away, following the lead of +Jaska. Millions of people, armed with Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators. How tiny the individuals seemed, against the mighty bulk +of those Aircars of the Moon! + +But Sarka did not fear, save for the safety of Jaska, as he was +realizing anew that he had scarcely skimmed the surface of the man-might +of the Earth. + + * * * * * + +Now, seen through the myriads of the Dalis Gens, he could see again the +on-rushing Aircars, and his heart misgave him for a moment as he could +tell, by estimation, that at least a hundred families were outlined +against each individual car, which moment by moment grew larger. + +Those tentacles were now much in evidence, rising and falling under and +around the racing Aircars like serpents, or dragging ropes; but seeming +like living things in the sentient manner of their moving--eager to come +in contact with the first of the earthlings, and to wrap those tentacles +about them, crush them, hurl them into space. + +Sarka went back into the laboratory only long enough to attune the +Beryls of the Earth to a point where the Earth would remain almost +stationary, comparatively speaking, taking a curving course about the +surface of the Moon, as it had for countless millions of years coursed +about the Sun. + +Then, back to the Observatory, to see how went the battle. Through the +Micro-Telescopes the first meeting was plain to be seen. The Gens of +Dalis rushed headlong to meet the Aircars and many of them rushed +headlong to their destruction. + +Sarka noted a group of perhaps a hundred people break forth from the +vanguard of the attackers, and mount to a safe height above the Aircars +against which the Gens were hurling themselves. A sigh of relief escaped +him, and he wished there were some way in which he could learn the +individual identities of the ninety and nine who had taken Jaska +forcibly out of danger! For her white clothing, and her Red Lily of +Cleric were plainly visible and recognizable! The men of the Gens of +Dalis might permit the leadership of a woman, but they would not permit +her to be needlessly endangered. + + * * * * * + +Sarka turned to Dalis, and noted that the face of the master egotist was +pale and drawn, his nostrils quivering with emotion, as he watched his +Gens go into battle, and a feeling of satisfaction coursed through Sarka +like a little white flame. Dalis was proud of his Gens, and now was +wishing that he, and not Jaska, were leading them onward. + +"I would wager something," whispered Sarka to himself, "that Dalis will +not be able to stand it! That before battle has been joined for ten +minutes, he will have gone out to take over the leadership of the Gens! +Jaska must have guessed that, too! Wise, clever Jaska!" + +With a fearless massing of forces, the people of the yellow stars joined +battle with the Aircars! The manner of men who flew the Aircars was +still unknown to the people of Earth. + +But in a trice they would know. + +In a matter of minutes Earth would realize the horror of what faced the +Gens of Dalis, whom Jaska led! + +For with the sending out of their Aircars the Moon-men had given but the +merest hint of their ponderous, devastating might! + + +CHAPTER X + +_Tentacles of Terror_ + +Dalis had always been a stormy petrel, but as he sat before his +Micro-Telescope, watching his Gens go into battle against the Moon-men, +not even Sarka the Second guessed the depth of infamy of which Dalis +was capable. + +Dalis had given a hint, but Sarka had, in his sudden realization of the +fact that Jaska really loved him, and was no traitor, forgotten that +hint. How had Dalis learned the secret sign-manual of Jaska and Sarka? +Therein lay the hint. + +Dalis, in common with all other Earth's scientists, possessed the +ability to think deeply, yet to so mask his thoughts that no one else +could grasp them telepathically--and it was well for the peace of mind +of the Sarkas that they could not read the black thought of the man, or +look into the future, even so far as a dozen years. + +The Gens of the yellow stars moved into contact with the Aircars of the +Moon. Earth and Moon were gripped in the horror of war, the war between +worlds, where no quarter might be asked or given, because fought between +alien peoples who did not so much as comprehend each other's languages, +or even their signals. + +The people of the Gens swarmed about the Aircars like myriad swarms of +angry bees, but it was only to Dalis that this simile came, for only +Dalis, of these three, had ever seen a swarm of bees. + + * * * * * + +Sweeping in closely, the Gens brought forth from their resting places in +their Sarka-Belts their Ray Directors and their Atom-Disintegrators, and +turned the blighting rays of them against the gleaming, ice-colored +sides of the aerial monsters. + +But even as the Gens brought their instruments of destruction into play, +the mighty tentacles of the first hundred Aircars had got into action. +Down they whirled to catch at the flying bodies of the pigmylike +individuals of the Gens, and hundreds of Earthlings were caught in those +tentacles in the first moment of conflict. + +Sarka studied the reaction of the people, thus captured. He could see +the expressions of unutterable agony on their faces, could see their +cheeks turn black with--what? There was no way of knowing; but all sorts +of guesses were possible. Those tentacles, from their action upon the +human beings which they encompassed, might be charged with electricity. +For the people they captured turned black, then shriveled slowly--and +were released by the tentacles.... + +They fell sluggishly away, through the great space which yet separated +the Earth and the Moon. But the people who fell, fell aimlessly, going +neither toward the Earth or the Moon, like black feathers in a vagrant +breeze. + +"Great God, do you see father?" cried Sarka. "The--whatever it is--that +turns our people into cinders and drops them, has no effect on the +Anti-Gravitational Ovoids in the skull-pans of the helmets, and without +mental direction, the Ovoids neither rise nor fall but wander aimlessly! + +"See? As the fight continues, those who still live, as they dart here +and there through the battle area, will be confronted continually by the +blackened faces and shriveled figures of their departed friends, +relatives and neighbors, and will see at first hand what will happen to +themselves if they are caught by the tentacles!" + + * * * * * + +From the lips of Dalis came one single burst of laughter, filled with +bitterness. No other word came from his lips, no other sign. He merely +sat and stared, and masked his hell-black thoughts so that neither of +the Sarkas might read them. But in the fertile mind of Dalis a plan was +being born--a plan that, he knew, had always been growing back in his +mental depths, somewhere, down the centuries, since first he had become +an enemy of the Sarkas. The Sarkas ruled the Earth, and.... + +But he would spring his surprise when he believed the time right, for +Dalis possessed a faculty which neither of the Sarkas possessed--an +example of it being his incomprehensible knowledge of the secret code +of moving fingers used by Sarka and Jaska. + +The Gens of Dalis drew back in consternation at this wholesale taking +off of the first line of attack. Out of that first line, comprising +perhaps a thousand families, scarcely a hundred had escaped the groping +of those mighty tentacles of the Aircars--and the black, shriveled +things which had been men floated all about the Aircars which had +destroyed them, warnings to those who followed them into the fray. Those +who had somehow escaped the wrath of the tentacles in the first +engagement fled back into the heart of the next line of sky-skirmishers, +fear and horror in their faces. + +Here, answering to the will of Jaska, a mile or so above the heart of +the conflict, they reformed with their people, and prepared again to +attack. But how to attack these formidable Aircars successfully? + + * * * * * + +That was the question. Ray Directors had been turned against them, but +something was decidedly wrong. The first car to feel the blast of even +one of those Ray Directors should have vanished, become as nothing, as +had the body of Sarka the First before the Ray Director of Dalis. + +But apparently nothing had happened. Why? + +Grimly Dalis and the two remaining Sarkas pondered the problem, +wondering at the same time what Jaska would now do, how reform her Gens, +how send it again to an attack that seemed hopeless. + +"There they go again!" whispered Sarka. + +The first two myriads of the Gens of Dalis had now crowded together +until they formed a veritable cloud which masked, for a moment, the +Aircars of the Moon. Then, as one person, answering to the will of +Jaska, they swept in to the attack again. + +But as they approached the Aircars, they divided four ways--up, down, +to right and to left, and smashed into the Aircars from four directions +at once. Jaska, knowing that countless lives must be lost to destroy +these monsters of the Moon, was trying to down them by mass attack, +hoping that, while the inner groups gave their lives, those who followed +after them would get in close enough to use their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators. + +"She is wasting lives to no avail!" cried Dalis. "There is a way to beat +these people!" + +"It is really your responsibility, O Dalis!" snapped Sarka. "Why do you +not go out and lead your Gens? If you know, why remain here and watch +the destruction of all the people of your Gens?" + +"You know why our Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators do not work, or +work but poorly? Because our fighters are within the gravitational pull +of the Moon, instead of the Earth, and machines which work perfectly on +Earth are thrown out of balance when under the influence of the Moon!" + +"Then," cried Sarka, "we must sweep in close enough to our people...." + + * * * * * + +Without waiting to say another word, for thousands of men were dying +each breath-space, Sarka raced into the laboratory and gave the signal +to race up the speed of the Beryls, to attune them with the increasing +speed of the Master Beryl, whose jade lever now was set at the halfway +mark in the onyx slot. + +When he returned to the Observatory, Dalis was gone, and Sarka the +Second sat alone. + +"I knew he would go," said Sarka, "for he cannot endure to see someone +else take credit for winning this first victory--if it is even possible +to win it! I knew that, vain though he is, Dalis is yet a man!" + +"I am not so sure of that, son!" replied the Elder Sarka. "For I have +known him longer than you have! There's something else in that brain of +his which takes no thought of the death of people of his Gens--or for +the betterment of the other people of the Earth! I wonder...." + +But even as he spoke, Dalis was away, flying free and fast toward the +scene of battle. In a few minutes his will would be felt by his Gens, +and Jaska could return again. Sarka sought for her. She was still safe, +high above the battle. Thousands and thousands of those shriveled things +now floated in the space about the cars, above them, below them, +everywhere. But the Gens of Dalis had at last caused some trouble to the +Aircars of the Moon. + +A hundred of them, like stricken birds, were falling downward toward the +Moon, great holes torn in their sides. But as they fell, their +tentacles, which whipped here and there like snakes in their +death-throes, carried with them their full capacity in people of the +Gens of Dalis! + + * * * * * + +With the partial destruction of the Aircars which were falling, the +force that actuated the death-dealing of those tentacles seemed to have +gone out of them. For the people now held in the grip of the mighty +tentacles were still alive! Their squirmings could be plainly seen, and +their cries could have been heard, had it not been that the noise of +battle drowned out all other sounds. + +A hundred Aircars falling, and the men and fighting women of the Gens of +Dalis, with new courage in them now they realized that the Aircars were +not entirely invincible, renewed the attack with savage vigor. + +Taking no thought of the death which must surely come to them, they +circled and pressed the Aircars; and when the tentacles caught at some +of them, others climbed to the very body of the Aircars, over the +shriveling bodies of the dying, and turned their Ray Directors and Atom +Disintegrators against the gray sides of the monsters. + +Even before Dalis had reached the vanguard of his Gens another hundred +Aircars were falling, each with its tentacles wrapped tightly about such +of the earthlings as they could grasp. Falling ... falling ... still +living, plunging down. + +Now Dalis had reached the scene of the fray, and was assuming command. + +As he did so a single white-robed figure, life-size when seen through +the Micro-Telescopes, darted out of the fray and headed at top speed for +the dwelling place of Sarka. Jaska, relieved, was returning home! + +But though Jaska flew at top speed, she did not seem to grow larger, or +draw nearer to the Earth! + + * * * * * + +Out of the ruck of the defenders of the Moon, a single Aircar, whose +gleaming gray side was marked with queer crimson splashes, broke free to +pursue Jaska! + +She fled at top speed, yet the Aircar was gaining, proof that the Moon +had developed speed greater than Earth had attained. + +"But why," queried Sarka, "does she draw no nearer?" + +"Great God!" ejaculated Sarka the Second, after a brief examination of +certain chartographs beside his Micro-Telescope. "We are moving away +from the Moon! Something is forcing us away! The people of the Moon have +something whose nature we do not know, capable of forcing them away from +us--while they pull our people toward them! You see? If they pulled us +toward them, we could overthrow them, for we outnumber them perhaps +thousands to one; but if they force themselves away faster than the Gens +of Dalis, if defeated, can follow us, they can destroy, or capture, the +Gens at their leisure!" + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, out of the Earth, past the all-seeing eyes of the +Micro-Telescopes, swept a new myriad. Men in white, wearing the Red Lily +of the House of Cleric! Cleric was sending out men to rescue Jaska from +the Aircar which pursued her! But would Jaska or these who went forth +to fetch her ever be able again to attain landing place upon the Earth! + +It looked doubtful. + +Even as Sarka asked himself this question fresh Aircars shot from the +rims of Moon craters, rushing outward to add their weight in the battle +against the Gens of Dalis. The Gens of Dalis was doomed! + +In the mind of Sarka the Second there still loomed a hellish doubt that +would not down. + +The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska now, protecting her with their +lives against the tentacles of that lone Aircar splashed with +crimson--and all were flying a losing race with the Earth, which was +still being forced outward from the Moon! + + * * * * * + + _IN THE NEXT ISSUE_ + + + ON THE PLANET OF DREAD + + _An Exciting Interplanetary Story_ + + By R. F. Starzl + + + EARTH, THE MARAUDER + + _Part Two of the Thrilling Novel_ + + By Arthur J. Burks + + + THE FLYING CITY + + _A Novelet Concerning an + Amazing Aerial Metropolis_ + + By H. Thompson Rich + + + MURDER MADNESS + + _The Conclusion of the + Gripping Continued Novel_ + + By Murray Leinster + + ----And Others! + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: Marable, in a desperate frenzy, hacked at the reptile's +awful head.] + + + + +From An Amber Block + +_By Tom Curry_ + + +"These should prove especially valuable and interesting without a doubt, +Marable," said the tall, slightly stooped man. He waved a long hand +toward the masses of yellow brown which filled the floor of the spacious +workrooms, towering almost to the skylights, high above their heads. + +[Sidenote: A giant amber block at last gives up its living, ravenous +prey.] + +"Is that coal in the biggest one with the dark center?" asked an +attractive young woman who stood beside the elder of the men. + +"I am inclined to believe it will prove to be some sort of black +liquid," said Marable, a big man of thirty-five. + +There were other people about the immense rooms, the laboratories of the +famous Museum of Natural History. Light streamed in from the skylights +and windows; fossils of all kinds, some immense in size, were +distributed about. Skilled specialists were chipping away at matrices +other artists were reconstructing, doing a thousand things necessary to +the work. + +A hum of low talking, accompanied by the irregular tapping of chisels +on stone, came to their ears, though they took no heed of this, since +they worked here day after day, and it was but the usual sound of the +paleontologists' laboratory. + +Marable threw back his blond head. He glanced again toward the dark +haired, blue eyed young woman, but when he caught her eye, he looked +away and spoke to her father, Professor Young. + +"I think that big one will turn out to be the largest single piece of +amber ever mined," he said. "There were many difficulties in getting it +out, for the workmen seemed afraid of it, did not want to handle it for +some silly reason or other." + + * * * * * + +Professor Young, curator, was an expert in his line, but young Marable +had charge of these particular fossil blocks, the amber being pure +because it was mixed with lignite. The particular block which held the +interest of the three was a huge yellow brown mass of irregular shape. +Vaguely, through the outer shell of impure amber, could be seen the +heart of ink. The chunk weighed many tons, and its crate had just been +removed by some workmen and was being taken away, piece by piece. + +The three gazed at the immense mass, which filled the greater part of +one end of the laboratory and towered almost to the skylights. It was a +small mountain, compared to the size of the room, and in this case the +mountain had come to man. + +"Miss Betty, I think we had better begin by drawing a rough sketch of +the block," said Marable. + +Betty Young, daughter of the curator, nodded. She was working as +assistant and secretary to Marable. + +"Well--what do you think of them?" + +The voice behind them caused them to turn, and they looked into the face +of Andrew Leffler, the millionaire paleontologist, whose wealth and +interest in the museum had made it possible for the institution to +acquire the amber. + + * * * * * + +Leffler, a keen, quick moving little man, whose chin was decorated with +a white Van Dyke beard, was very proud of the new acquisition. + +"Everybody is talking about the big one," he continued, putting his hand +on Marable's shoulder. "Orling is coming to see, and many others. As I +told you, the workmen who handled it feared the big one. There were +rumors about some unknown devil which lay hidden in the inklike +substance, caught there like the proverbial fly in the amber. Well, let +us hope there is something good in there, something that will make worth +while all our effort." + +Leffler wandered away, to speak to others who inspected the amber +blocks. + +"Superstition is curious, isn't it?" said Marable. "How can anyone think +that a fossil creature, penned in such a cell for thousands and +thousands of years, could do any harm?" + +Professor Young shrugged. "It is just as you say. Superstition is not +reasonable. These amber blocks were mined in the Manchurian lignite +deposits by Chinese coolies under Japanese masters. They believe +anything, the coolies. I remember working once with a crew of them that +thought--" + +The professor stopped suddenly, for his daughter had uttered a little +cry of alarm. He felt her hand upon his arm, and turned toward her. + +"What is it, dear?" he asked. + +She was pointing toward the biggest amber block, and her eyes were wide +open and showed she had seen something, or imagined that she had seen +something, that frightened her. + + * * * * * + +Professor Young followed the direction of her finger. He saw that she +was staring at the black heart of the amber block; but when he looked he +could see nothing but the vague, irregular outline of the inky +substance. + +"What is it, dear?" asked Young again. + +"I--I thought I saw it looking out, eyes that stared at us--" + +The girl broke off, laughed shortly, and added, "I suppose it was Mr. +Leffler's talking. There's nothing there now." + +"Probably the Manchurian devil shows itself only to you," said her +father jokingly. "Well, be careful, dear. If it takes a notion to jump +out at you, call me and I'll exorcise it for you." + +Betty blushed and laughed again. She looked at Marable, expecting to see +a smile of derision on the young man's face, but his expression was +grave. + +The light from above was diminishing; outside sounded the roar of +home-going traffic. + +"Well, we must go home," said Professor Young. "There's a hard and +interesting day ahead of us to-morrow, and I want to read Orling's new +work on matrices before we begin chipping at the amber." + +Young turned on his heel and strode toward the locker at the end of the +room where he kept his coat and hat. Betty, about to follow him, was +aware of a hand on her arm, and she turned to find Marable staring at +her. + +"I saw them, too," he whispered. "Could it have been just imagination? +Was it some refraction of the light?" + + * * * * * + +The girl paled. "I--I don't know," she replied, in a low voice. "I +thought I saw two terrible eyes glaring at me from the inky heart. But +when father laughed at me, I was ashamed of myself and thought it was +just my fancy." + +"The center is liquid, I'm sure," said Marable. "We will find that out +soon enough, when we get started." + +"Anyway, you must be careful, and so must father," declared the girl. + +She looked at the block again, as it towered there above them, as though +she expected it to open and the monster of the coolies' imagination leap +out. + +"Come along, Betty," called her father. + +She realized then that Marable was holding her hand. She pulled away and +went to join her father. + +It was slow work, chipping away the matrix. Only a bit at a time could +be cut into, for they came upon many insects imbedded in the amber. +These small creatures proved intensely interesting to the +paleontologists, for some were new to science and had to be carefully +preserved for study later on. + +Marable and her father labored all day. Betty, aiding them, was +obviously nervous. She kept begging her father to take care, and +finally, when he stopped work and asked her what ailed her, she could +not tell him. + +"Be careful," she said, again and again. + + * * * * * + +Her father realized that she was afraid of the amber block, and he poked +fun at her ceaselessly. Marable said nothing. + +"It's getting much softer, now the outside shell is pierced," said +Young, late in the day. + +"Yes," said Marable, pausing in his work of chipping away a portion of +matrix. "Soon we will strike the heart, and then we will find out +whether we are right about it being liquid. We must make some +preparations for catching it, if it proves to be so." + +The light was fading. Outside, it was cold, but the laboratories were +well heated by steam. Close by where they worked was a radiator, so that +they had been kept warm all day. + +Most of the workers in the room were making ready to leave. Young and +Marable, loath to leave such interesting material, put down their +chisels last of all. Throughout the day various scientific visitors had +interrupted them to inspect the immense amber block, and hear the +history of it. + +All day, Betty Young had stared fascinatedly at the inky center. + +"I think it must have been imagination," she whispered to Marable, when +Young had gone to don his coat and hat. "I saw nothing to-day." + +"Nor did I," confessed Marable. "But I thought I heard dull scrapings +inside the block. My brain tells me I'm an imaginative fool, that +nothing could be alive inside there, but just the same, I keep thinking +about those eyes we thought we saw. It shows how far the imagination +will take one." + +"It's getting dark, Betty," said her father. "Better not stay here in +the shadows or the devil will get you. I wonder if it will be Chinese or +up-to-date American!" + + * * * * * + +The girl laughed, said good night to Marable, and followed her father +from the laboratory. As they crossed the threshold a stout, red-faced +man in a gray uniform, a watchman's clock hanging at his side, raised +his hat and smiled at the young woman and her father. + +"Hello, Rooney," cried Betty. + +"How d'ye do, Miss Young! Stayin' late this evenin'?" + +"No, we're leaving now, Rooney. Good night." + +"G' night, Miss Young. Sleep happy." + +"Thanks, Rooney." + +The old night watchman was a jolly fellow, and everybody liked him. He +was very fond of Betty, and the young woman always passed a pleasant +word with him. + +Rooney entered the room where the amber blocks were. The girl walked +with her father down the long corridor. She heard Marable's step behind +them. + +"Wait for me a moment, father," she said. + +She went back, smiling at Marable as she passed him, and entered the +door, but remained in the portal and called to Rooney, who was down the +laboratory. + +He came hurrying to her side at her nervous hail. + +"What is it, ma'am?" asked Rooney. + +"You'll be careful, won't you, Rooney?" she asked in a low voice. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm always careful. Nobody can get in to harm anything +while Rooney's about." + +"I don't mean that. I want you to be careful yourself, when you're in +this room to-night." + +"Why, miss, what is there to be wary of? Nothin' but some funny lookin' +stones, far as I can see." + + * * * * * + +The young woman was embarrassed by her own impalpable fears, and she +took leave of Rooney and rejoined her father, determined to overcome +them and dismiss them from her mind. + +All the way home and during their evening meal and afterwards, Professor +Young poked fun at Betty. She took it good-naturedly, and laughed to see +her father in such fine humor. Professor Young was a widower, and Betty +was housekeeper in their flat; though a maid did the cooking for them +and cleaned the rooms, the young woman planned the meals and saw to it +that everything was homelike for them. + +After a pleasant evening together, reading, and discussing the new +additions to the collection, they went to bed. + +Betty Young slept fitfully. She was harassed by dreams, dreams of huge +eyes that came closer and closer to her, that at last seemed to engulf +her. + +She awakened finally from a nap, and started up in her bed. The sun was +up, but the clock on the bureau said it was only seven o'clock, too +early to arise for the day's work. But then the sound of the telephone +bell ringing in the hall caused her to get up and don her slippers and +dressing gown and hurry out into the living room. + + * * * * * + +Before she reached the phone, however, she heard her father's voice +answering. + +"Hello.... Yes, speaking. Good morning, Smythe." + +Smythe was the janitor of the museum. Betty, standing behind her father, +wondered what he could want that he should phone so early in the +morning. Her father's next words sent a thrill of fright through her +heart. + +"My God! I--I can't believe it!" cried Young. "Is he dead?" + +There was a pause; Betty caught the sound of the excited Smythe's tones +through the receiver. + +"Who--who is it?" she whispered, clasping her parent's arm. + +"I'll be right down, yes." + +Young hung up, turned to his daughter. His face was sad, heavily lined +with shadows of sorrow. + +"Dear, there's been a tragedy at the museum during the night. Poor +Rooney has been murdered--at least so they believe--and Smythe, who +found him, wants me to come down and see if anything has been stolen. I +must go at once. The body is in our laboratory." + +"Rooney? Ah, poor fellow." + +The girl wept a little, but braced herself to assist her father. + +"I'm going with you," she said. + +"No, no. You'd better remain here: you can come along later," said +Young. "I don't like to have you see such sights, dear. It wouldn't be +good for you." + +"I'll be all right. I promise you I will." + +She insisted and he was forced to let her accompany him to the museum. +They hailed a cab and were soon at the door. The elevator took them to +the top floor, and swiftly they passed along the corridors and came to +the portal which led into the rooms where the amber blocks were. + + * * * * * + +Smythe greeted them, a worried look on his seamed face. "I've sent for +an ambulance, Professor," he said. + +Young nodded, brushed past him, and entered the laboratory. In the +morning light the amber blocks had taken on a reddish tinge. Now, they +seemed to oppress the young woman, who had bravely remained at her +father's side as he walked quickly to the base of the biggest block. + +A vague shape lay in the shadows between the wall and the largest amber +mass. Professor Young bent over the body of Rooney, and felt the pulse. + +"He's been dead some time," he said. + +She nodded, stricken to the heart by this terrible end of her old friend +Rooney. + +"There's nothing we can do for him, now," went on her father soberly. +"It looks as though he had been set upon and stabbed time after time by +his assailant or assailants, whoever they were." + +"How--how pale he is," said Betty. "Poor Rooney was so jolly and +red-faced, but his skin is like chalk." + +"And he's shrunken, too. It seems there's no blood left in his veins," +said her father. + + * * * * * + +Marable, who had been called also, came in then and aided in the +examination. He said good morning to Betty and her father, and then went +to bend over Rooney's body. + +"See the look of abject terror on his face," Betty heard Marable say to +her father as the two examined the corpse. "He must have been very much +afraid of whoever killed him." + +"They beat him up frightfully," said Young. "There must have been +several of the assassins; it would take more than one man to do such +damage." + +"Yes. His ribs are crushed in--see, this gash, Professor, would be +enough to cause death without any of the other wounds." + +Betty Young could not take her eyes from the ghastly sight. She steeled +herself to bear it, and prayed for strength that she should not faint +and cause her father trouble. She could see the two men examining a +large blistered area under the corpse's armpit, in the center of which +was a sharp vertical slit which had without doubt punctured the artery +near the surface of the axilla. Perhaps it had pierced even to the +heart. + +"Bloodless," exclaimed Marable, noticing the same thing as her father +had spoken of. "It is as if the blood had been pumped out of his body!" + +"Yes, I think it has drained out." + +"There is not much of a pool here where he lies, though," said Marable, +in a low voice. "See, there are only splotches about, from various cuts +he received." + +"Maybe he was dragged here from another room," said Young. "When the +others come, we will soon know if anything is missing. It seems that men +desperate enough to commit such a murder would not leave without trying +to get what they came after. Unless, of course, the killing of Rooney +frightened them away before they could get their booty." + + * * * * * + +Smythe approached the group, with a physician in tow. The latter +confirmed the facts which Marable and Young had found: that Rooney had +been killed by the deep gash near the heart and that most of the blood +was drained from the body. + +"They seem like the slashes from an extremely sharp and large razor," +said the medical man. + +Others were coming in to look at Rooney, and the museum was buzzing with +activity as various curators, alarmed about the safety of their valuable +collections, feverishly examined their charges. + +"He punched his clock in here at two A.M.," said Smythe. "I seen that. +It's the last time he'll ever do his duty, poor feller." + +"Curious odor," said the doctor, sniffing. "It smells like musk, but is +fetid. I suppose it's some chemical you use." + +"I noticed that, too," said Professor Young. "I don't recognize it, +myself." + +Marable, who had been looking at the floor between the great block of +amber and the body, uttered an exclamation which caused the two men to +look up. + +"There are wavy lines leading around back of the block," said Marable, +in answer to their questions. + +The young man disappeared behind the block, and then he called to them +excitedly to join him. Betty Young pressed closer, and finally slipped +past the corpse and stood by her father. + + * * * * * + +Before her, she saw a large pool of black liquid. It had been hidden by +the corner of the block, so that they had not noticed it, so busy were +they looking at Rooney. + +And there was a great cavity in the heart of the amber block. Pieces of +the yellow brown mass lay about, as though they had fallen off and +allowed the inky substance to escape. + +"It's hardened or dried out in the air," said Young. + +"It looks like black lacquer," said Betty. + +The musky smell was stronger here. The great amber block seemed to +stifle them with its size. + +"Our chipping and hammering and the heat of the radiator causing it to +expand must have forced out the sepia, or whatever it is," said Young. +There was a disappointed note in his voice "I had hoped that inside the +liquid we would discover a fossil of value," he went on. + +Marable looked at Betty Young. They stared at one another for some +seconds, and both knew that the same thought had occurred to the other. +The frightful eyes--had they then been but figments of the imagination? + +Marable began looking around carefully, here and there. Betty realized +what he was doing, and she was frightened. She went to his side. "Oh, be +careful," she whispered. + +"The giant block has been moved a little," he replied, looking into her +pretty face. "Have you noticed that?" + +Now that she was told to look, she could see the extremely heavy amber +block was no longer in the position it had been in. Marks on the floor +showed where it had been dragged or shifted from its original resting +place. + + * * * * * + +Betty Young gasped. What force could be so powerful that it could even +budge so many tons? A derrick had been used, and rollers placed under +the block when men had moved it. + +Reason tried to assert itself. "It--it must have exploded. That would +cause it to shift," she said faintly. + +Marable shrugged. His examination was interrupted by the arrival of the +museum's chemist, sent for by Young. The chemist took a sample of the +black liquid for analysis. Reports were coming in from all over the +museum, different departments declaring, one after another, that nothing +had been disturbed or stolen from their sections. + +Betty Young went again to Marable's side. She followed the direction of +his eyes, and saw long, clawlike marks on the floor, radiating from the +sepia. + +"Doctor Marable," she said, "please don't--don't look any longer. Leave +this terrible place for the day, anyway, until we see what happens in +the next twenty-four hours." + +He smiled and shook his head. "I must make a search," he replied. "My +brain calls me a fool, but just the same, I'm worried." + +"Do you really think ...?" + +He nodded, divining her thought. The girl shivered. She felt terror +mounting to her heart, and the matter-of-fact attitudes of the others in +the great laboratory did not allay her fears. + +Rooney's body was removed. The place was cleaned up by workmen, and +Marable's search--if that was what his constant roving about the +laboratory could be called--ceased for a time. The chemist's report came +in. The black liquid was some sort of animal secretion, melonotic +probably. + + * * * * * + +In spite of the fact that they had learned so many facts about the +murder, they as yet had not solved the mystery. Who had murdered Rooney, +and why? And where had his blood gone to? In no other rooms could be +found any traces of a struggle. + +"If you won't do anything else, please carry a gun," begged Betty of +Marable. "I'm going to try to take father home, right after lunch, if +he'll go. He's so stubborn. I can't make him take care. I've got to +watch him and stay beside him." + +"Very well," replied Marable. "I'll get a revolver. Not that I think it +would be of much use, if I did find--" He broke off, and shrugged his +broad shoulders. + +Leffler came storming into the room. "What's this I hear?" he cried, +approaching Marable. "A watchman killed in the night? Carelessness, man, +carelessness! The authorities here are absurd! They hold priceless +treasures and allow thieves to enter and wreak their will. You, Marable, +what's all this mean?" + +Leffler was angry. Marable looked into his red face coolly. "We do the +best we can, Mr. Leffler," he said. "It is unlikely that anyone would +wish to steal such a thing as that block of amber." + +He waved toward the giant mass. + +Leffler made a gesture of impatience. "It cost me many thousands of +dollars," he cried. + +"It is time for lunch, Professor," said Betty. + +Marable bowed to Leffler and left the millionaire sputtering away, +inspecting the various specimens he had contributed. + +The one o'clock gong had struck, and all the workers and investigators +were leaving in paleontological laboratories for a bite to eat. + + * * * * * + +Marable, with Betty, went out last. Leffler was over in one corner of +the room, hidden from their sight by a corner of an amber block. They +could hear Leffler still uttering complaints about the carelessness of +the men in charge of that section of the museum, and Marable smiled at +Betty sadly. + +"Poor Rooney," he said. "Betty, I feel more or less responsible, in a +way." + +"No, no," cried the girl. "How could you have foreseen such a thing?" + +Marable shook his head. "Those eyes, you know. I should have taken +precautions. But I had no idea it could burst from its prison so." + +For the first time Marable had definitely mentioned his idea of what +had occurred. The girl had understood it all along, from their broken +conversation and from the look in the young scientist's eyes. + +She sighed deeply. "You will get a revolver before you search further?" +she said. "I'm going to. Smythe has one, and I know he'll lend it to +me." + +"I will," he promised. "You know, Leffler has the same idea we have, I +think. That's why he keeps talking about it being our fault. I believe +he has seen something, too. His talk about the devil inside the block +was half in earnest. I suppose he put it down to imagination, or perhaps +he did not think this fossil to be dangerous." + +They went out together, and walked toward the restaurant they +frequented. Her father was there, lunching with one of the +superintendents of the museum. He smiled and waved to Betty. + +Everyone, of course, was discussing the killing of Rooney. + + * * * * * + +After an hour, during which the two young people spoke little, Marable +and Betty Young left the restaurant and started back toward the museum. +Her father was still at his table. + +They walked up the driveway entrance, and then Marable uttered an +exclamation. "Something's wrong," he said. + +There was a small crowd of people collected on the steps. The outer +doors, instead of being open as usual, were closed and guards stood +peering out. + +Marable and Betty were admitted, after they had pushed their way to the +doors. + +"Museum's closed to the public, sir," replied a guard to Marable's +question. + +"Why?" asked Marable. + +"Somethin's happened up in the paleontological laboratories," answered +the guard. "Dunno just what, but orders come to clear the rooms and not +let anybody in but members of the staff, sir." + +Marable hurried forward. Betty was at his heels. "Please get yourself a +gun," she said, clutching his arm and holding him back. + +"All right. I'll borrow one from a guard." + +He returned to the front doors, and came back, slipping a large pistol +into his side pocket. + +"I want you to wait here," he said. + +"No. I'm going with you." + +"Please," he said. "As your superior, I order you to remain downstairs." + +The girl shrugged. She allowed him to climb the stairs to the first +floor, and then she hurried back in search of Smythe. + + * * * * * + +Smythe obtained a gun for her, and as she did not wish to wait for the +slow elevator, she ran up the steps. Smythe could not tell her +definitely what had occurred in the upper laboratory that had caused the +museum to be closed for the day. + +Her heart beating swiftly, Betty Young hurried up the second flight of +stairs to the third floor. A workman, whom the girl recognized as a +manual laborer in the paleontological rooms, came running down, passing +her in full flight, a look of abject terror on his face. + +"What is it?" she cried. + +He was so frightened he could not talk logically. "There was a black +fog--I saw a red snake with legs--" + +She waited for no more. A pang of fear for the safety of Marable shot +through her heart, and she forced herself on to the top floor. + +Up there was a haze, faintly black, which filled the corridors. As Betty +Young drew closer to the door of the paleontological laboratories, the +mist grew more opaque. It was as though a sooty fog permeated the air, +and the girl could see it was pouring from the door of the laboratory in +heavy coils. And her nostrils caught the strange odor of fetid musk. + +She was greatly frightened; but she gripped the gun and pushed on. + + * * * * * + +Then to her ears came the sound of a scream, the terrible scream of a +mortally wounded man. Instinctively she knew it was not Marable, but she +feared for the young professor, and with an answering cry she rushed +into the smoky atmosphere of the outer laboratories. + +"Walter!" she called. + +But evidently he did not hear her, for no reply came. Or was it that +something had happened to him? + +She paused on the threshold of the big room where were the amber blocks. + +About the vast floor space stood the numerous masses of stone and amber, +some covered with immense canvas shrouds which made them look like ghost +hillocks in the dimness. Betty Young stood, gasping in fright, clutching +the pistol in her hand, trying to catch the sounds of men in that +chamber of horror. + +She heard, then, a faint whimpering, and then noises which she +identified in her mind as something being dragged along the marble +flooring. A muffled scream, weak, reached her ears, and as she took a +step forward, silence came. + +She listened longer, but now the sunlight coming through the window to +make murky patches in the opaque black fog was her chief sensation. + +"Walter!" she called. + +"Go back, Betty, go back!" + +The mist seemed to muffle voices as well as obscure the vision. She +advanced farther into the laboratory, trying to locate Marable. Bravely +the girl pushed toward the biggest amber block. It was here that she +felt instinctively that she would find the source of danger. + +"Leffler!" she heard Marable say, almost at her elbow, and the young man +groaned. The girl came upon him, bending over something on the floor. + + * * * * * + +She knelt beside him, gripping his arm. Now she could see the outline of +Leffler's body at her feet. The wealthy collector was doubled up on the +ground, shrivelled as had been Rooney. His feet, moving as though by +reflex action, patted the floor from time to time, making a curious +clicking sound as the buttons of his gray spats struck the marble. + +But it was obvious, even in the murky light, that Leffler was dead, that +he had been sucked dry of blood. + +Betty Young screamed. She could not help it. The black fog choked her +and she gasped for breath. Leaving Marable, she ran toward the windows +to throw them open. + +The first one she tried was heavy, and she smashed the glass with the +butt of the gun. She broke several panes in two of the windows, and the +mist rolled out from the laboratory. + +She started to return to the side of Marable. He uttered a sudden shout, +and she hurried back to where she had left him, stumbling over Leffler's +body, recoiling at this touch of death. + +Marable was not there, but she could hear him nearby. + +Cool air was rushing in from the windows, and gradually the fog was +disappearing. Betty Young saw Marable now, standing nearby, staring at +the bulk of an amber block which was still covered by its canvas shroud. +Though not as large as the prize exhibit, this block of amber was large +and filled many yards of space. + +"Betty, please go outside and call some of the men," begged Marable. + +But he did not look at her, and she caught his fascinated stare. +Following the direction of his gaze, the girl saw that a whisp of smoky +mist was curling up from under the edge of the canvas cover. + +"It is there," whispered Betty. + + * * * * * + +Marable had a knife which he had picked up from a bench, and with this +he began quietly to cut the canvas case of the block, keeping several +feet to each side of the spot where the fog showed from beneath the +shroud. + +Marable cut swiftly and efficiently, though the cloth was heavy and he +was forced to climb up several feet on the block to make his work +effective. The girl watched, fascinated with horror and curiosity. + +To their ears came a curious, sucking sound, and once a vague tentacle +form showed from the bottom of the canvas. + +At last Marable seized the edge of the cut he had made and, with a +violent heave, sent the canvas flap flying over the big block. + +Betty Young screamed. At last she had a sight of the terrible creature +which her imagination had painted in loathing and horror. A flash of +brilliant scarlet, dabbed with black patches, was her impression of the +beast. A head flat and reptilian, long, tubular, with movable nostrils +and antennae at the end, framed two eyes which were familiar enough to +her, for they were the orbs which had stared from the inside of the +amber block. She had dreamed of those eyes. + +But the reptile moved like a flash of red light, though she knew its +bulk was great; it sprayed forth black mist from the appendages at the +end of its nose, and the crumpling of canvas reached her ears as the +beast endeavored to conceal itself on the opposite side of the block. + + * * * * * + +Marable had run to the other side of the mass. The air, rushing in from +the windows, had cleared the mist, in spite of the new clouds the +creature had emitted, and Betty could see for some feet in either +direction now. + +She walked, with stiff, frozen muscles, around to join Marable. As she +came near to him, she saw him jerking off the entire canvas cover of the +block to expose the horrible reptile to the light of day. + +And now the two stood staring at the awful sight. The creature had +flattened itself into the crevices and irregular surfaces of the block, +but it was too large to hide in anything but a huge space. They saw +before them its great bulk, bright red skin blotched with black, which +rose and fell with the breathing of the reptile. Its long, powerful +tail, tapering off from the fat, loathsome body, was curled around the +bottom of the block. + +"That's where it's been hidden, under the shroud. We've been within a +few feet of it every moment we've been at work," said Marable, his voice +dry. "There were many hiding places for it, but it chose the best. It +came out only when there was comparative quiet, to get its food...." + +"We--we must kill it," stammered the girl. + +But she could not move. She was looking at the immense, cruel, lidless +eyes, which balefully held her as a serpent paralyzes a bird. The +tubular nostrils and antennae seemed to be sniffing at them, waving to +and fro. + +"See the white expanse of cornea, how large it is," whispered Marable. +"The pupils are nothing but black slits now." The interest excited by +this living fossil was almost enough to stifle the dread of the creature +in the man. + +But the girl saw the huge flat head and the crinkled tissue of the +frilled mouth with its sucker disks. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, from the central portion of the sucker-cup mouth issued a +long, straight red fang. + +The two drew back as the living fossil raised a short clawed leg. + +"It has the thick body of an immense python and the clawed legs of a +dinosaur," said Marable, speaking as though he were delivering a +lecture. The sight, without doubt, fascinated him as a scientist. He +almost forgot the danger. + +"Oh, it's horrible," whispered the girl. + +She clung to his arm. He went on talking. "It is some sort of +terrestrial octopus...." + +To the girl, it seemed that the living fossil was endless in length. +Coil after coil showed as the ripples passed along its body and the +straight fang threatened them with destruction. + +"See, it is armored," said Marable. + +"Betty, no one has ever had such an experience as this, seen such a +sight, and lived to tell of it. It must be ravenous with hunger, shut up +in its amber cell inside the black fluid. I--" + +A sharp, whistling hiss interrupted his speech. The reptile was puffing +and swelling, and as it grew in bulk with the intake of the air, its +enamel-like scales stood out like bosses on the great body. It spat +forth a cloud of black, oily mist, and Marable came to himself at last. + +He raised his revolver and fired at the creature, sending shot after +shot from the heavy revolver into the head. + + * * * * * + +Betty Young screamed as the reptile reared up and made a movement toward +them. Marable and the girl retreated swiftly, as the beast thumped to +the floor with a thud and started at them, advancing with a queer, +crawling movement. + +It was between them and the door. Betty thrust her gun into Marable's +hands, for his own was empty and he had hurled it at the monster. + +"Hurry! Run for your life!" ordered Marable, placing himself between +Betty and the reptile. + +She would not leave him till he swerved to one side, going dangerously +close to the beast and firing into its head. The rush of the flowing +body stopped; it turned and pursued him, leaving the girl safe for the +moment, but separated from Marable. + +Luckily, on the smooth marble it could not get an efficient grip with +its clawlike arms. It was clumsy in its gait, and for a time the man +eluded it. + +Betty Young, looking about for a weapon, calling for help at the top of +her lungs, caught sight of a fireman's ax in a glass case on the wall. +She ran over, smashed the glass with the small hammer, and took out the +heavy ax. + +Shot after shot reverberated through the big laboratory as Marable tried +to stop the monster. Betty, bravely closing in from the rear, saw +Marable leaping from side to side as the brute struck viciously at him +time and again. + +The creature had been emitting cloud after cloud of black fog, and the +atmosphere, in spite of the open windows, was dim in its vicinity. +Vaguely Betty heard shouts from the far hall, but all she could do was +to call out in return and run toward the horror. + + * * * * * + +Marable, out of breath, had climbed to the top of an amber block. Betty, +close by, saw the reptile rear its bulk up into the air, until it was +high enough to strike the man. + +Before it could send forth its death-dealing fang to pin Marable to the +block, however, Betty Young brought the ax down on its back with all her +strength. + +There was a sickening thud as the sharp weapon sunk deep into the fleshy +back. She struck again, and the creature fell in folds, like a +collapsing spring. It lashed back at her, but she leaped clear as it +slashed in agony, thrashing about so that the whole room seemed to rock. + +Marable came scrambling down the side of the block to help her. He was +breathing hard, and she turned toward him; as Betty looked away, a +portion of the scarlet tail hit her in the body and she fell, striking +her head on the floor. + +Marable reached down, seized the ax, and in a desperate frenzy hacked at +the reptile's awful head. He leaped in and out like a terrier, sinking +the ax deep into the neck and head of the beast. He gave the impression +of slashing at heavy rubber, and Betty Young, trying to drag herself +away from that dangerous body, heard his whistling breath. + +They were almost hidden from one another now, in the mist which came +from the thing's nostrils. + +"Help, help!" screamed the girl, mustering her last strength in the +despairing cry. + +She saw Marable go down, then, as the reptile hit him a glancing blow +with its body. When the powerful young fellow did not rise, the girl +thought it was all over. The air really became black to her; she fainted +and lay still. + + * * * * * + +When Betty Young opened her eyes, the air had cleared greatly, and she +could see the familiar outlines of the paleontological laboratory and +the bulks of the amber blocks. Her father was holding her head in his +lap, and was bathing her temples with water. + +"Darling," he said, "are you badly hurt?" + +"No," she murmured faintly. "I'm--I'm all right. But--but Walter--did +it--" + +"He's all right," said her father. "The reptile was dying, and could do +him no damage. We finished it off." + +Then, Marable, covered with blood, which he was trying to wipe from his +hands and clothes, came and smiled down at her. + +"Well," said Professor Young, "you two have mutilated a marvelous and +unique specimen between you." + +There were several men examining something nearby. Turning her eyes in +their direction, Betty saw they were viewing the remains of the reptile. + + * * * * * + +Marable helped her to her feet, and stood with one arm about her. +Professor Orling, the famous specialist on fossil reptiles, was speaking +now, and the others listened. + +"I think we will find it to be some sort of missing link between the +dinosaurs and mososaurs. It is surely unbelievable that such a creature +should be found alive; but perhaps it can be explained. It is related to +the amphibians and was able to live in or out of the water. Now, we have +many instances of reptiles such as lizards and toads penned up in solid +rock but surviving for hundreds of years. Evidently this great reptile +went through the same sort of experience. I would say that there has +been some great upheaval of nature, that the reptile was caught in its +prison of amber thousands and thousands of years ago. Through +hibernation and perhaps a preservative drug it emitted in the black +fluid, this creature has been able to survive its long imprisonment. +Naturally, when it was released by the cutting away of part of the amber +which penned it in, it burst its cell, ravenous with hunger. The +fanglike tooth we see was its main weapon of attack, and it set upon the +unfortunate watchman. After knocking him unconscious, its sucker-like +fringe glued the mouth near the heart while the fang shot into the +arteries and drew forth the body fluids. There is a great deal to be +done with this valuable find, gentlemen. I would suggest that--" + + * * * * * + +Marable grunted. "Oh, hell," he murmured in Betty Young's ear. "To the +devil with paleontology, Betty. You saved my life. Come out and let's +get married. I love you." + +The girl smiled up into his eyes. The scientists close by were listening +fascinatedly to Orling's words, and had no time to watch the two young +people, for they stared at the reptile's body as the great man went from +section to section, lecturing upon one point after another. + +"You've forgotten paleontology for a moment, thank goodness," said +Betty. "I'm glad." + +"Yes, Betty dear. This terrible experience has shaken me, and I realized +how much I love you when I saw you in danger. What an awful few minutes! +If I had to live them over again, I don't think I could face them." + +"Never mind," she murmured. "We are safe, Walter. After all, it's not +every woman who is helped by a living fossil to make the man she loves +realize he loves her!" + +[Illustration: The SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays.] + + + + +The Terror of Air-Level Six + +_By Harl Vincent_ + + +It was a sweltering evening in mid-August, during that unprecedented +heat wave which broke Weather Bureau records in 2011. New York City had +simmered under a blazing sun for more than three weeks, and all who were +able had deserted the city for spots of lesser torridity. But I was one +of those unfortunates who could not leave on account of the pressing +urgency of business matters and, there being nothing else to do, kept +doggedly at my work until it seemed that nerves and body must soon give +way under the strain. To-night, as I boarded the pneumatic tube, I +dropped into the nearest seat and could not even summon the energy to +open my newspaper. + +[Sidenote: From some far reach of leagueless Space +came a great pillar of flame to lay waste +and terrorize the Earth.] + +For some minutes I sat as in a daze, wishing merely that the journey was +over, and that I was on my own front porch out in Rutherford. After +awhile I stirred and looked around. Seeing none of my acquaintances in +the car, I finally opened the newspaper and was considerably startled by +the screaming headlines that confronted me from its usually conservative +first page: + + SECOND COAST TRANSPORT + PLANE LOST! + + Disaster Like First in Air-Level + Six! + +No wonder the newsboys had been crying an extra on Broadway! I had given +no heed to the import of their shoutings, but this was real news and +well worthy of an extra edition. Since the mysterious loss of the SF-61, +only four days previously, the facilities of the several air +transportation systems were seriously handicapped on account of the +shaken confidence of the general public. It was not surprising that +there was widespread reluctance at trusting human lives and valuable +merchandise to the mercies of the inexplicable power which had +apparently wiped out of existence the SF-61, together with its +twenty-eight passengers and the consignment of one-half million dollars +in gold. And now the NY-18 had gone the way of the other! + +Details were meager. Both ships had failed to reply to the regular +ten-minute radio calls from headquarters and had not since been seen or +heard from. In both cases the last call had been answered when the ship +was proceeding at full speed on its regular course in air-level six. The +SF-61 last reported from a position over Mora in New Mexico, and four +days of intensive search by thousands of planes had failed to locate +ship or passengers. To-day, in the early hours of the morning, the NY-18 +reported over Colorado Springs, on the northern route, and then, like +the SF-61, dropped out of existence insofar as any attempts at +communicating with or locating her were concerned. She, too, carried a +heavy consignment of specie, though only eleven passengers had risked +the westward journey. + + * * * * * + +Someone had dropped into a seat at my side, and I looked up from my +reading to meet the solemn eyes of Hartley Jones, a young friend whom I +had not seen for several months. + +"Why, hello, Hart," I greeted him. "Glad to see you, old man. Where in +Sam Hill have you been keeping yourself?" + +"Glad to see you, too, Jack," he returned warmly. "Been spending most of +my time out at the hangar." + +"Oh, that's right. You fellows built a new one at Newark Airport, didn't +you?" + +"Yeah. Got a great outfit there now, too. Why don't you drop around and +see us one of these days?" + +"I will, Hart, and I want you to take me up some time. You know I have +never been in one of these new ships of yours. But what do you think of +this mess?" I pointed to the black headlines. + +He grinned joyously and flipped back the lapel of his coat, displaying a +nickeled badge. "George and I are starting out to-night to look around a +little," he gloated. "Just been appointed deputy air commissioners; and +we got a couple of guns on our newest plane. Air Traffic Bureau thinks +there's dirty work afoot. Twelve-motored planes don't disappear without +leaving a trace. Anyhow, we've got a job, and we're going to try and +find out what's wrong. How'd you like to come along?" + +"What?" I replied. "You know darn well I'm too busy. Besides, I'd be no +good to you. Just extra load, and not pay load at that. And then, I'm +broke--as usual." + + * * * * * + +Hartley Jones grinned in his engaging way. "You'd be good company," he +parried; "and, what's more, I think the trip would do you a lot of good. +You look all shot to pieces." + +"Forget it," I laughed. "It's just the heat. And I'll have to leave you +here, Hart. Drop in and see us, will you? The wife was asking for you +only yesterday." + +"Jack, dear," my wife greeted me at the door of my modest suburban home, +"Mr. Preston just called, and he wants you to call him right back." + +"Oh, Lord," I groaned, "can't I forget the office for one evening?" +Preston was manager of the concern for which I worked. + +Nevertheless, though our two fine youngsters were clamoring for their +dinner, I made the telephone call at once. + +"Makely," came the voice of the boss, when the connection was completed, +"I want you to take the night plane for Frisco. Hate to ask you, but it +must be done. Townley is sick and someone has to take those Canadian Ex. +bonds out to Farnsworth. You're the only one to do it, and after you get +there, you can start on that vacation you need. Take a month if you +wish." + +The thought of Hartley Jones' offer flashed through my mind. "But have +you read of the loss of the NY-18?" I asked Preston. + +"I have, Makely. There'll be another hundred a month in your check, too, +to make up for the worry of your family. But the government is sending +thirty Secret Service men along on the SF-22, which leaves to-night. In +addition, there will be a convoy of seven fighting planes, so there is +not likely to be a repetition of the previous disasters." + +That hundred a month sounded mighty good, for expenses had been mounting +rapidly of late. "All right, Mr. Preston," I agreed. "I will be at the +airport before midnight. But how about the bonds?" + +"I'll drive around after dinner and deliver them to you. And thanks for +your willingness, Makely. You'll not be sorry." + + * * * * * + +My wife had listened intently and, from my words, she knew what to +expect. Her face was a tragic mask when I replaced the receiver on its +hook, and my heart sank at her expression. + +Then there came the ring of the telephone and, for some reason, my pulse +raced as I went to the hall to answer it. Hartley Jones' cheerful voice +greeted me and he was positively gleeful when I told him of my +projected trip. + +"Hooray!" he shouted. "But you'll not take the SF-22. You'll take the +trip with me as I wanted. I tell you what: You be out at Newark Airport +at eleven-thirty, but come to my hangar instead of to that of the +transportation company. We'll leave at the same time as the regular +liner, and we'll get your old bonds to Frisco, regardless of what might +happen to the big ship. Also we might learn something mighty +interesting." + +I argued with him, but to no avail. And the more I argued, the greater +appeal was presented by his proposition. Finally there was nothing to do +but agree. + + * * * * * + +Preston arrived with the bonds shortly after the children were tucked in +their beds. I did not tell him of my change in plans. He did not stay +long, and I could see that he was uncomfortable under the accusing eyes +of Marie, for all his own confidence in the safety of the trip in the +closely-guarded SF-22. + +At precisely eleven-thirty I reached the great steel and glass hangar +where Hart Jones and George Boehm carried on their experiments with +super-modern types of aircraft. Hart Jones had inherited more than two +million dollars, and was in a fair way to spend it all on his favorite +hobby, though those who knew him best vowed that he would make many +times that amount through royalties on his ever-growing number of +valuable inventions. + +The immense doors were open, and I gazed for the first time into the +hangar whose spacious interior provided storage and manufacturing +facilities for a dozen or more planes of Hart Jones' design. A curiously +constructed example of his handiwork stood directly before me, and +several mechanics were engaged in making it ready for flight. My friend +advanced from their midst to meet me, a broad smile on his grease +smeared countenance. + +"Greetings, Jack," he said, taking my small bag from my hands. "Right on +time, I see. And I can't tell you how glad I am that you are coming with +us. So is George." + +"Well, I didn't expect to," I admitted; "but there is no need of telling +you that I had far rather be in your ship than in the big one." + + * * * * * + +George Boehm, the same jolly chap I had several times met in Hart's +company, but fatter than ever, crawled from beneath the shiny metal body +of the plane and scrambled to his feet at my side. + +"Going in for a bit of adventuring, Mr. Makely?" he asked, wiping his +hand with a piece of cotton waste before extending it. + +"Yes," I replied, as I squeezed his chubby fingers. "Can't stick in the +mud all my life, George. And I wouldn't want to be in better company for +my first attempt either." + +"Nor we," he returned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Rather have a +greenhorn on the Pioneer than some government agent, who'd be butting in +and trying to run everything. Think you'll be scared?" + +"Probably," I admitted; "but I guess I can stand it." + +"Hear the latest news broadcast?" interrupted Hart Jones. + +"No. What was it?" I asked. + +"There has been a report from out near Cripple Creek," said Hart +solemnly, "that a pillar of fire was observed in the mountains shortly +after the time the NY-18 last reported. The time and the location +coincide with her probable position and the report was confirmed by no +less than three of the natives of that locality. Of course the +statements are probably extravagant, but they claim this pillar of fire +extended for miles into the heavens and was accompanied by a tremendous +roaring sound that ceased abruptly as the light of the flame +disappeared, leaving nothing but blackness and awe-inspiring silence +behind." + + * * * * * + +"Lot of bunk!" grunted George, who was vigorously scrubbing the back of +his neck. + +"Sounds like a fairy tale," I commented. + +"Nevertheless, there may be something in it. In fact, there must be. +Three of these mountaineers observed practically the same phenomenon +from quite widely separated points, though one of them said there were +three pillars of fire and that these looked more like the beams of +powerful search-lights. All agreed on the terrific roar. And, after all, +these two liners did disappear. There must be something quite out of the +ordinary about the way in which they were captured or destroyed, and +this occurrence may well be supposed to have a bearing on the matter." + +"Possibly they were destroyed by some freak electrical storm," I +suggested. + +"Where then are the wrecked vessels?" asked Hart. "No, Jack, electrical +storms do not destroy huge air liners and then suck them out into space +beyond our vision. These two ships are no longer on the surface of the +earth, else they would have been long since located. The magnetic +direction finders of the transportation people have covered every inch +of the United States, as well as Mexico and Canada." + +"Of course they might have been carried halfway around the world by a +wind of unprecedented velocity." I commenced a silly argument in favor +of the theory that the elements had accounted for the two vessels, but +was interrupted by the mounting roar of great engines throbbing +overhead. + +"Hurry up there, George!" shouted Hart. "It's the SF-22 coming in. We +have to be ready for the take-off in five minutes!" + + * * * * * + +He hastened to take George's place at the washbowl and all was activity +within the confines of our hangar. George and I left the office and went +out to the landing field, which was now brilliant with the glare of +floodlights. The _Pioneer_ had been trundled into the open and stood +ready for the flight. Not a hundred feet above the field, the huge +silver moth that was the SF-22 swept by in a wide circle that would +bring her into the wind. The roar of her engines died as she swung out +of the circle of light into the surrounding darkness. + +The crowds which had gathered to witness her landing buzzed with excited +comment and speculation. Her nose brought slightly up, she dropped to a +perfect three-point landing, the brakes screeching as she was brought to +a standstill at the hangar of the transportation company. + +"Come on now, you fellows," came the voice of Hart Jones from the hangar +entrance, "there's no time to lose. The _Pioneer_ takes off immediately +after the big fellow." + +We hurried to the waiting ship, which seemed like a tiny toy when +compared with the giant SF-22. I had observed very little of the +construction of the _Pioneer_, but I could now see that she was quite +different in design from the ordinary plane. A monoplane she was, but +the wing structure was abnormally short and of great thickness, and +there were a number of tubes projecting from the leading edge that gave +the appearance of a battery of small cannon. The body, like all planes +designed for travel in air-level six, was cigar-shaped, and had +hermetically sealed ports and entrance manholes. A cluster of the +cannon-shaped tubes enclosed the tail just back of the fins and rudder +and, behind the wing structure atop the curved upper surface of the +body, there was a sphere of gleaming metal that was probably three feet +in diameter. + + * * * * * + +Before I could formulate questions regarding the unusual features of the +design, we were within the _Pioneer's_ cabin and Hart Jones was engaged +in clamping the entrance manhole cover to its rubber seat. A throbbing +roar that penetrated our double hull attracted my attention and, looking +through a nearby porthole, I saw that the convoy of army planes had +taken off and was circling over the SF-22 in anticipation of her start. +Trim, speedy fighting ships these were, with heavy caliber machine-guns +in turrets fore and aft and normally manned by crews of twelve each. The +under surfaces of their bodies glistened smooth and sleek in the light +from the field, for the landing gears had been drawn within and the +openings sealed by the close-fitted armor plate that protected these +ordinarily vulnerable portions when in flight. + +The SF-22 was ready to take off and the crowds were drawing back into +the obscurity beyond the huge circle of blinding light. One after +another her twelve engines sputtered into life, and ponderously she +moved over the field, gathering speed as the staccato barking of the +exhausts gradually blended into a smooth though deafening purr. The tail +of the great vessel came up, then the wheels, and she was off into the +night. + + * * * * * + +Hart Jones sat at a bewildering array of instruments that covered almost +the entire forward partition of the cabin. He pressed a button and the +starting motor whined for a moment. Then the single engine of the +_Pioneer_ coughed and roared. Slowly we taxied in the direction taken by +the SF-22, whose lights were now vanishing in the darkness. I saw George +open a valve on the wall and Hart stretched the fingers of his left hand +to what appeared to be the keyboard of a typewriter set into the +instrument board. He pressed several of the keys and pulled back his +stick. There was a whistling scream from astern and I was thrown back in +my seat with painful force. With that, the motor roared into full speed +and we had left the airport far behind. + +"What on earth?" I gasped. + +"Rocket propulsion," laughed Hart. "I should have warned you. Those +tubes you saw outside at the tail and along the leading edge of the +wings. Only used three of them, but that was sufficient for the +take-off." + +"But I thought this rocket business was not feasible on account of the +wastage of fuel due to its low efficiency," I objected. + +"We should worry about fuel," said Hart. + +I looked about me and saw that there was very little space for the +storage of this essential commodity. "Why?" I inquired. "What fuel do +you use?" + +"Make our own," he replied shortly. He was busy at the moment, +maneuvering the _Pioneer_ into a position above and behind the SF-22 and +her convoy. + +"You make your own fuel enroute?" I asked in astonishment. + +"Yes. That sphere you saw on top. It is the collecting end of an +electrical system for extracting nitrogen and other elements, from the +air. This extraction goes on constantly while we are in the atmosphere +and my fuel is an extremely powerful explosive of which nitrates are the +base. The supply is replenished continuously, so we have no fear of +running short even in the upper levels." + + * * * * * + +George had crawled through a small opening into some inaccessible region +in the stern of the vessel. I pondered over what Hart had just told me, +still keeping my eyes glued to the port, through which could be seen the +fleet we were following. The altimeter registered thirty-five thousand +feet. We were entering air-level six--the stratosphere! Below us the +troposphere, divided into five levels, each of seven thousand feet, +teemed with the life of the air. The regular lanes were filled with +traffic, the lights of the speeding thousands of freight and pleasure +craft moving in orderly procession along their prescribed routes. + +Up here in the sixth level, which was entirely for high-speed traffic of +commercial and government vessels making transcontinental or +transoceanic voyages, we were the only adventurers in sight--we and the +convoyed liner we were following. The speed indicator showed six hundred +miles an hour, and the tiny spot of light that traveled over the chart +to indicate our position showed that we were nearing Buffalo. + +Glancing through one of the lower ports, I saw the lights of the city +shining dimly through a light mist that fringed the shore of Lake Erie +and extended northward along the Niagara. Then we were out over the +lake, and the luminous hue was slipping rapidly behind. I looked ahead +and saw that the distance to the SF-22 and her convoy had somewhat +increased. We were a mile behind and some two thousand feet above them. +Evidently Hart was figuring on keeping at a safe distance for +observation of anything that might happen. + + * * * * * + +Our motor was running smoothly and the angle of the propeller blades had +been altered to take care of the change in air density from the lower +altitudes. It flashed across my mind that this was an ideal location for +an attack, if such was to be made on the SF-22. + +Then, far ahead, I saw a beam of light stab through the darkness and +strike the tossing surface of the lake. Another and another followed, +and I could see that the SF-22 and her convoy were surrounded by these +unearthly rays. They converged from high above to outline a brilliant +circle where they met on the surface of the waters, and in the midst of +the cone formed by the beams, the liner and its seven tiny followers +could be seen to falter, and huddle more closely together. + +It all happened in the twinkling of an eye--so quickly, in fact, that +Hart and I had not the time to exchange remarks over the strange +occurrence. For a moment the eight vessels hovered, halted suddenly by +this inexplicable force from out the heavens. Then there rose from the +apex of the inverted cone of light a blinding column of blue-white +radiance that poured skyward an instant and was gone. To our ears came a +terrific roaring that could be likened to nothing we had heard on earth. +The _Pioneer_ was tossed and buffeted as by a cyclone, and George came +tumbling from the opening he had entered, his round face grown solemn. +Then came eery silence, for the _Pioneer's_ motor had gone dead. Ahead +there was utter darkness. The liner and her convoy had completely +vanished and the _Pioneer_ was slipping into a spin! + + * * * * * + +"What's up?" asked George of Hart, who was tugging frantically at the +controls. + +"The liner has gone the way of the first two," he replied: "and the yarn +about the pillar of fire was not so far wrong after all." + +"You saw the same thing?" asked George incredulously. + +"Yes, and so did Jack. There came some beams of light from the sky; then +the pillar of fire and the roaring you heard, after which the vessels +were gone and our electrical system paralyzed." + +"Holy smoke!" ejaculated George. "What to do now?" + +As he spoke, the _Pioneer_ came out of the spin, and we were able to +resume our positions in the seats. None of us was strapped in, and we +had been clinging to whatever was handiest to keep from being tossed +about in the cabin. Hart wiped his forehead and growled out an oath. The +instrument board was still illuminated, for its tiny lamps were supplied +with current from the storage battery. But the main lights of the cabin +and the ignition system refused to function. We were gliding now, but +losing altitude rapidly, having already dropped to the lower limits of +level five. + +"Can't you use the rocket tubes?" I inquired hesitatingly. + +"They are fired in the same manner as the motor," replied Hart; "but we +might try an emergency connection from the storage battery, which is +ordinarily used only in starting and for the panel lights." + + * * * * * + +George was already fussing with the connections in a small junction box +from which he had removed the cover. Meanwhile, the black waters of Lake +Erie were rushing upward to meet us, and the needle of the altimeter +registered twelve thousand feet. + +"Here's the trouble!" shouted George, triumphantly holding up a small +object he had removed from the junction box. "Ignition fuse is blown." + +"Probably by some radiations from the cone of light and the column that +destroyed the liner. Lucky we were no closer," were Hart's muttered +comments. + +George produced a spare fuse and inserted it in its proper place. The +cabin lights glowed instantly and the motor started at once. + +"Well, I'm going up after the generators of this mysterious force that +is destroying our cross-country ships and killing our people," asserted +Hart. "The rays came from high above, but the _Pioneer_ can go as high +as anything that ever flew--_higher_." + +He snapped a switch and a beam of light that rivalled the so-called +pillar of fire bored far into the night, dimming the stars by its +brilliance. Again his fingers strayed to the rows of white keys and the +rocket tubes shrieked in response to his pressure. This time I was +prepared for the shock of acceleration, but the action was maintained +for several seconds and I found the pressure against my back growing +painful. Then it was relieved, and I glanced at the altimeter. Its +needle had reached the end of the scale, which was graduated to eighty +thousand feet! + +"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that we are more than +sixteen miles in the air?" + +"Nearly thirty," replied Hart, pointing to another dial which I had not +seen. This one was graduated in miles above sea-level, and its needle +wavered between the twenty-nine and thirty mark! + + * * * * * + +Again Hart pressed the rocket buttons, and we shot still higher into the +heavens. Thirty, forty, fifty miles registered the meter, and still we +climbed. + +"Great Scott!" blurted a voice I knew was my own, though I had no +consciousness of willing the speech. "At this rate we'll reach the +moon!" + +"We could, if we wished," was Hart's astounding reply; "I wish you +wouldn't say too much about it when we return. We have oxygen to breathe +and an air-tight vessel to retain it. With the fuel we are using, we +could easily do it, provided a sufficient supply were available. +However, the _Pioneer_ does not have large enough storage tanks as yet, +and, of course, we cannot now replenish our supply with sufficient +rapidity, for the atmosphere has become very rare indeed--where we are. +My ultimate object, though, in building the _Pioneer_, was to construct +a vessel that is capable of a trip to the moon." + +"You think you could reach a great enough velocity to escape the +gravitational pull of the earth?" I asked, marveling more and more at +the temerity and resourcefulness of my science-minded friend. + +"Absolutely," he replied. "The speed required is less than seven miles a +second, and I have calculated that the _Pioneer_ can do no less than +twenty." + +Mentally I multiplied by sixty. I could hardly credit the result. Twelve +hundred miles a minute! + +"But, how about the acceleration?" I ventured. "Could the human body +stand up under the strain?" + +"That is the one problem remaining," he replied; "and I am now working +on a method of neutralizing it. From the latest results of our +experiments, George and I are certain of its feasibility." + + * * * * * + +The _Pioneer_ was now losing altitude once more, and Hart played the +beam of the searchlight in all directions as we descended. He and George +watched through one of the floor ports and I followed suit. We were +falling, unhampered by air resistance, and our bodies were practically +weightless with reference to the _Pioneer_. It was a strange sensation: +there was the feeling of exhilaration one experiences when inhaling the +first whiff of nitrous oxide in the dentist's chair--a feeling of +absolute detachment and care-free confidence in the ultimate result of +our precipitous descent. + +I found considerable amusement in pushing myself from side to side of +the cabin with a mere touch of a finger. There was no up nor down, and +sometimes it seemed to me that we were drifting sideways, sometimes that +we fell upward rather than downward. Hart and George were unconcerned. +Evidently they were quite accustomed to the sensations. They bent their +every energy toward discovering what had caused the disaster to the +SF-22 and its convoy. + +For several hours we cruised about on the strangest search ever made in +the air. Alternately shooting skyward to unconscionable altitudes and +dropping to levels five and six to replenish our fuel supply, we covered +the greater portion of the United States before the night was over. But +the powerful searchlight of the _Pioneer_ failed to disclose anything +that might be remotely connected with the disappearance of the SF-22. + +For me it was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Lightning dashes from +coast to coast which required but a few minutes of time--circling many +miles above New York or Washington or Savannah in broad daylight with +the sun low on the up-curved horizon; then shooting westward into the +darkness and skirting the Pacific coast less than fifteen minutes later, +but with four hours' actual time difference. Space and time were almost +one. + + * * * * * + +Hart had not provided the _Pioneer_ with a radio or television +transmitter, but there was an excellent receiver, and, through its +agency we learned that the world was in a veritable uproar over the +latest visitation of the mysterious terror of the sixth air level. All +commercial traffic in levels four, five and six was ordered +discontinued, and the government air control stations were flashing long +messages in code, the import of which could but be guessed. Vision +flashes showed immense gatherings at the large airports and in the +public squares of the great cities, where the general populace become +more and more excited and terrified by the awful possibilities pictured +by various prominent speakers. + +The governments of all foreign powers made haste to disclaim +responsibility for the air attacks or for any attempt at making war on +the United States. News broadcasts failed to mention Hart Jones or the +_Pioneer_, since the mission had been kept secret. The phenomenon of the +rays and the roaring column of light had been observed from many points +on this occasion and there was no longer any doubt as to the nature of +the terror as visible to the eye, though theories as to the action and +source of the rays conflicted greatly and formed the basis of much +heated discussion. + +Eventually the advancing dawn reached San Francisco, and with its advent +Hart decided to make a landing in that city so that my bonds could be +delivered. + + * * * * * + +Jones was apparently a very much mystified and discouraged man. "Jack," +he said, "it seems to me that this thing is but the beginning of some +tremendous campaign that is being waged against our country by a clever +and powerful enemy. And I feel that our work in connection with the +unraveling of the mystery and overcoming the enemy or enemies is but +begun. It's a cinch that the thing is organized by human minds and is +not any sort of a freak of the elements. Our work is cut out for us, all +right, and I wish you would stick to George and me through the mess. +Will you?" + +"Sure," I agreed, readily enough. "After these bonds are delivered I am +free for a month." + +"Ha! Ha!" cackled George, without mirth. "A month! We're doggoned lucky +if we get to the bottom of this in a year." + +"Nonsense!" snapped Hart, who was considerably upset by the failure to +locate the source of the disastrous rays. "There is nothing supernatural +about this, and anything that can be explained on a scientific basis can +be run to earth in short order. These rays are man-made and, as such, +can be accounted for by man. Our greatest scientists must be put to work +on the problem at once--in fact, they have quite probably been called in +by the government already." + + * * * * * + +He was maneuvering the _Pioneer_ to a landing on the broad field of the +San Francisco airport. Hundreds of idle planes of all sizes lined the +field, and, unmindful of the earliness the hour, a great crowd was +collected in expectation of sensational reports from the occupants of +arriving ships. The unusual construction of the _Pioneer_ attracted +considerable attention and it was with difficulty that the police kept +back the crowd when she rolled to a stop near the office of the local +government supervisor. We hustled inside and were greeted by that +official with open arms. + +"Glory be!" he exclaimed. "Hart Jones and the _Pioneer_. Every airport +in the land has been on the lookout for you all night. It was feared you +had been lost with the SF-22 and the others. Code messages to the +supervisors of all districts advised of your mission, though it has been +kept out of the general news, as has the message from the enemy." + +"Message from the enemy!" gasped Hart, George and I, echoing the words +like parrots. + +"Yes. A demand that the United States surrender, and a threat to descend +into the lower levels if the demand is not complied with in twenty-four +hours!" + +"Who is this enemy?" asked Hart, "and where?" + +"Who they are is not known," replied the official gravely; "and as to +the location, the War Department is puzzled. Direction finders +throughout the country took readings on the position of their radio +transmitter and these readings differed widely in result. But the +consensus of opinion is that the messages originate somewhere out in +space, probably between fifty and one hundred thousand miles from our +earth." + +"Great guns!" Hart glanced at George and me, where we stood with +stupidly hanging jaws. "And what does the government want of me now?" + +"You are considered to be the one man who might be able to cope with the +problem, and are ordered to report to the Secretary of War, in person, +immediately." + + * * * * * + +Hart was electrified into instant activity. "Here," he said in a voice +of authority that commanded the official's attention and respect, "see +that this package of bonds is delivered at once to the addressee and +that the addressor is advised of its safe arrival. We're off at once." + +Suiting action to the words, he thrust my packet into the hands of the +astonished supervisor. Then, turning sharply on his heel, he flung back, +"Advise the Secretary of War that I shall report to him in person in +less than one hour." + +As we stepped through the entrance of the _Pioneer_, he shot a final +look at the official and laughed heartily at his sudden accession of +energy. We had not the slightest doubt that Hart's orders would be +immediately and efficiently carried out. + + * * * * * + +In precisely forty-five minutes, we stood before the desk of Lawrence +Simler, then Secretary of War, in Washington. + +"You are Mr. Hartley Jones?" inquired the stern-visaged little man. + +"I am, Mr. Secretary, and these are my friends and co-workers, George +Boehm and John Makely." + +The Secretary acknowledged the introduction gravely, then plunged into +the heart of the matter at hand with the quick energy for which he was +famed. + +"It may or may not be a serious situation," he said, "but certainly it +has thus far been quite alarming. In any event, we have taken the matter +out of the hands of the Air Traffic Bureau. We are prepared to defy the +ultimatum of the enemy, whoever he may be. But we want your help, Mr. +Jones. Every ship of the Air Navy will be in the upper levels within the +prescribed twenty-four hours, and we will endeavor to stave off their +attacks until such time as you can fit the _Pioneer_ for a journey to +their headquarters." + +"How can your antiquated war vessels, capable of hurling a high +explosive shell no more than fifty miles, fight off an enemy that is +thousands of miles distant?" asked Hart. + +"It is believed by the research engineers of the government that, though +their headquarters may be located at a great distance, the raiders drop +to a comparatively low altitude at the time of one of their attacks, +returning immediately thereafter to their base." + +Hart Jones shook his head. "The engineers may be correct," he stated; +"but how on earth can you expect a little vessel like the _Pioneer_ to +battle an enemy who is possessed of these terribly destructive weapons +and who has sufficient confidence in his own invulnerability to declare +war on the greatest country on earth?" + + * * * * * + +Secretary Simler dropped his voice to a confidential tone, and his keen +gray eyes flashed excitement as he unfolded the details of the +discoveries and plans of the War Department. We three listened in +undisguised amazement to a tale of the unceasing labors of our Secret +Service agents in foreign countries, of elaborate experiments with +deadly weapons and the chemicals of warfare. + +We heard of marvelous new rays that could be projected for many miles +and destroy whole armies at a single blast; rays that would, in less +time than that required to tell of the feat, reduce to a mass of fused +metal the greatest firstline battleships of the old days of ocean +warfare. We heard of preparations for defensive warfare throughout the +civilized world, preparedness that insured so terrible and final a war +that it was literally impossible for a great world conflagration to +again break out. We learned that the present mysterious signs of a +coming war could not possibly have originated in any country on earth, +else they would have been known of long in advance, due to the network +of the Secret Service system. This war, so unexpectedly thrust upon us, +was undoubtedly a war of planets! + +"But," objected Hart, "the messages were in English, were they not?" + +"They were," continued Secretary Simler, "and that puzzled our experts +in the beginning. But, it may well be that our enemy from out the skies +has had spies among us for many years and could thus have learned our +languages and radio codes. In any event, we are to meet destructive rays +with others equally destructive, and you, Hartley Jones, are the man who +can make our effectiveness certain." + +"I?" + +"Yes. How long a time will be required in fitting out the _Pioneer_ for +reliable space flying?" + + * * * * * + +Hart Jones pondered the matter and I could see that he was overjoyed at +the prospect of getting into the thing in earnest. "About one week," he +replied, "providing you can send a force of fifty expert mechanics to my +hangar at once and supply all material as fast as I shall require it." + +"Excellent," said the Secretary. "We'll have the men there in a few +hours and will obtain whatever you need, regardless of cost, for +immediate delivery. Incidentally, there will be several scientists as +well, who will supervise the installation of two types of ray generators +and their projecting mechanisms on the _Pioneer_. You will need them +later." + +"I don't doubt we shall," said Hart. "And now, with your permission, we +shall leave for the hangar. I'm ready to start work." + +"Capital!" Secretary Simler pressed every one of a row of buttons set in +his desk top. We were dismissed. + +"Well," said I, when we reached the outside, "he has given you quite a +job, Hart!" + +"You said something," he replied. "But, if this threat from the skies +proves as real and as calamitous as I think it will, we all have our +work cut out for us." + +"Do you really believe this enemy comes from another planet?" asked +George as we entered the _Pioneer_ for the trip home. + +"Where else can they be from?" countered Hart. "But, really it makes no +difference to us now. We have to go after them in earnest. Don't want to +quit, do you, George?" + +"Wha-a-at?" shouted George, as he jerked savagely at the main switch of +the _Pioneer_. "You know me better than that, Hart. Did I ever let you +down in anything?" + +"No," admitted the smiling Hart, "you never did, bless your heart. But +Jack here is another matter. He has a wife and two kids to look after. +That lets him out automatically." + + * * * * * + +My heart sank at the words, for I knew that he meant what he said. And, +truth to tell, I saw the justice in his remarks. + +"But, Hart," I faltered, "I'd like to be in on this thing." + +"I know you would, old man. But I think it's out of the question, for +the present at least. You can help with the reconstruction of the +_Pioneer_, however." + +And meekly I accepted his dictum, though with secretly conflicting +emotions. Little did I realize at the time that Hart knew far more than +he pretended and that he had merely attempted to salve his own +conscience in this manner. + +I was very anxious to return to my family, and, as I sped homeward in a +taxicab after the _Pioneer_ landed at her own hangar, my mind was filled +with doubts and fears. Secretary Simler had been very brief in his talk, +but his every word carried home the gravity of the situation. What if +these invaders carried the war to the surface? Suppose they seared the +countryside and the cities and suburbs with rays of horrible nature that +would shrivel and blast all that lay in their path? My heart chilled at +the thought and it was a distinct relief when I gazed on my little home +and saw that it was safe--so far. I paid the driver with a much too +large bank note and dashed up my own front steps two at a time. + +A few hours later I tore myself away and returned to the hangar, where +the _Pioneer_ now reposed in a scaffolded cradle. The sight which met my +eyes was astonishing in the extreme, for the hangar had been transformed +into a huge workshop with seemingly hundreds of men already at work. It +was a scene of furious activity, and, to my utter amazement, I observed +that the _Pioneer_ was already in an advanced stage of disassembly. + + * * * * * + +I had no difficulty in locating Hart Jones, for he was striding from +lathe to workbench to boring mill, issuing his orders with the sureness +and decision of a born leader of men. He welcomed me in his most brisk +manner and immediately assigned me to a portion of the work in the +chemical laboratory--something I was at least partly fitted for. + +We labored far into the night, when a siren called us to rest and food. +This was to be a night and day job, and not a man of those on duty gave +thought to the intense nervous and physical strain. Sixty-five of us I +learned there were, though it had seemed there were several times that +number. + +During the rest period, Hart switched on the large television and sound +mechanism of the public news broadcasts. Great excitement prevailed +throughout the United States, for there had been a leak and the news had +gone abroad regarding the message from the enemy. There was widespread +panic and disorder and the government was besieged with demands for +authentic news. The twenty-four hours of grace had nearly expired. + +Finally the public was told of what actually was happening. Our entire +fleet of one thousand air cruisers was in air-level six, waiting for the +enemy. America was going to fight in earnest! + + * * * * * + +Flashes of our air cruisers in construction and in action came over the +screen; voice-vision records of the popular officers of the fleet +followed in quick succession. Then came the blow--the first of the +strange war. + +Two vessels of the air fleet had been destroyed by the triple rays and +pillar of fire! Fifty cruisers rushing to the scene had been unable to +find any traces of the source of the deadly rays. And, this time, there +was an alarming added element. The pillar of fire had risen from a point +near Gadsden in Alabama and, in its wake, there spread a sulphurous, +smoldering fire that crept along the ground and destroyed all in its +path. Farms, factories, and even the steel rails of the railroads were +consumed and burned into the ground as if by the breath of some +tremendous blast furnace. Hundreds of inhabitants of the section +perished, and it was reported that the fumes from the strange fires were +drifting in the direction of Birmingham, terrifyingly visible in +blue-green clouds of searing vapor. + +With the first news of the disaster came a wave of fear that spread over +the country with the rapidity of the ether waves that carried the news. +Then came stern determination. This enemy must be swept from the skies! +Gatherings in public places volunteered en masse for whatever service +the government might ask of them. The entire world was in an uproar, and +from Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia, came immediate offers of +their air fleets to assist in fighting off the Terror. + + * * * * * + +In less than an hour there were nearly five thousand cruisers in +air-level six, patroling its entire depth from thirty-five thousand to +one hundred thousand feet altitude. + +We resumed work in the hangar, but the news service was kept in +operation as far as the amplifiers were concerned, though the television +screen was switched off on account of the likelihood of its distracting +the workers. + +Again came the report of a major disaster, this time over Butte in +Montana. Four American vessels and one British were the victims in level +six. And the city of Butte was in flames; blue, horrible flames that +literally melted the city into the ground. Again there was no trace of +the invaders. + +How puny were the efforts of the five thousand air cruisers! Marvels of +engineering and mechanical skill, these vessels were. Deadly as were the +weapons they carried--weapons so terrible that war on earth was +considered impossible since their development--they were helpless +against an enemy who could not be located. Though our vessels were +capable of boring high into the stratosphere, the enemy worked from +still higher. + +"Holy smoke!" gasped Hart Jones, who had stopped at my side. "What a +contract I have on my hands!" + + * * * * * + +He looked in the direction of the partly dismantled _Pioneer_, and I +could see by the fixedness of his stare that he was thinking of her +insignificant size in comparison with the job she was to undertake. + +Above the din of the machines in the hangar rang the startled voice of a +news announcer. Panic-stricken he seemed, and we stopped to listen. +Another blow of the terror of the skies--and now close by! Over +Westchester County in New York State there was a repetition of the +previous attacks. Only two of the cruisers had vanished this time; but +several towns, including Larchmont and Scarsdale, were pools of molten +fire! + +Sick at heart, I thought of my little home in Rutherford and of the dear +ones it contained. I thought of telephoning, but, what was the use? +There was no warding off of this terrible thing that had so suddenly +come to our portion of the world. It was the blowing of the last +trumpet, the way things looked. + +The announcer had calmed himself. His voice droned tonelessly now, as +was the custom. Another raid, on the Mexican Border now. We were +stupefied by the rapidity of the enemy's attacks; then electrified once +more by the most astounding news of all. Alexandria, in Egypt, was the +base of a pillar of fire! Fully half of the city was wiped out, and the +remainder in a mortal funk, terrorized and riotous. The United States +was not alone in the war! + +The foreign fleets which reinforced our own were ordered home +immediately. But to what avail? The world was doomed! + + * * * * * + +In the morning, after nine fearful attacks during the night, there came +another message from the enemy and this was repeated in five languages +and addressed to the entire world: + +"People of Earth," it read, "this is our final warning. One chance has +been given and you have proved stubborn. Consider well that your +civilization be not entirely destroyed, and answer as the expiration of +forty-eight hours, using our transmitting frequency. Our hand is to be +withheld for that period only, when, unless our demands are met, all of +your large cities and towns will be destroyed. Our terms for peace are +that we be permitted to land without resistance on your part; that you +surrender farm and forest lands, cities and towns, able-bodied men of +twenty to forty, selected women of seventeen to thirty, and tribute in +the form of such supplies and precious metals as we may specify, all to +the extent of forty per cent of your resources. No compromise will be +accepted." + +That was all. It was during a rest period at the Jones hangar and I had +brought Hart and George to my home for breakfast. We sat at the table +when the news instrument brought the message. Marie was pouring the +coffee, and my two small boys, Jim and Jack, had gone to the playroom, +from whence their joyous voices could be heard. We four were struck dumb +at the announcement, and Marie looked at me with so awful an expression +of dread that my coffee turned bitter in my mouth. Marie was just +twenty-eight! + +"What beasts!" cried Hart. "Allow them to land without resistance? I +should say not! Rather we should fight them off until all of us perish." + + * * * * * + +He had risen from his chair in his anger. Now he sat down suddenly and +shook a forefinger in my face. + +"Say!" he exploded. "You can't tell me that some master mind of our own +world is not back of this!" + +"I'm not telling you," I replied, startled at the fierce fire that +flashed from his eyes. + +"I know. I'm just trying to think aloud and I'm liable to say anything. +But this sort of business is the work of humans as sure as you're born. +Still I believe that what Simler says is true. I can't believe that any +country on earth is back of the thing. It must be an attack from beings +of another planet, but I think they have as a leader a man who is of +our own earth." + +Marie's eyes opened wide at this. "But how could that be?" she asked. +"Surely no one from our earth has made the trip to one of the other +planets?" + +"It may be that someone has," replied Hart. "Do you remember Professor +Oradel? Remember, about ten years ago, I think it was, when he and a +half dozen or more of extremely radical scientists built a rocket they +claimed would reach the moon? They were ridiculed and hissed and +relegated to the position of half-baked, crazy inventors. But Oradel had +a large private fortune, and he and his crowd built themselves a +workshop and laboratory in a secluded region in the Ozarks. Here they +labored and experimented and eventually the rocket ship was constructed. +No person was in their confidence, but when the machine was completed +they issued a statement to the press to the effect that they were ready +for the voyage to the moon, and that, when they returned, a reckoning +with the world was to be made for its disbelief and total lack of +sympathy. Again the press subjected Oradel to a series of scathing +denunciations, and the scientific publications refused to take +cognizance of his claims in any way, shape or form." + + * * * * * + +"Then, one night, a great rocket roared into the heavens, leaving a +terror-stricken countryside in the wake of its brilliantly visible tail. +Several observatories whose telescopes picked up and followed the trail +of the contraption reported that it described a huge parabola, mounting +high into the stratosphere and falling back to earth, where it was lost +in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. There the thing ended and it was +soon forgotten. But I believe that this rocket ship of Oradel's reached +Mars or Venus and that the peoples of whichever planet they reached have +been prevailed upon and prepared to war upon the world." + +"That would explain their knowledge of our languages and codes." I +ventured, "and would likewise account for the fact that the first of our +ships to be attacked were those carrying large shipments of currency. +Though if these were destroyed by the fire columns, I can not see what +good the money would do them." + +"Don't believe the first three were destroyed," grunted Hart. "You'll +remember that in these cases the pillars of fire, or whatever you want +to call them, were of a cold light, whereas now they are viciously hot +and leave behind them the terrible destructive fires that spread and +spread and seemingly never are extinguished. No, I think that the force +used is something of the nature of an atom-disrupting triad of beams and +that these set up the column as a veritable tornado, a whirling column +of roaring wind rushing skyward with tremendous velocity. The first +ships, I believe, were carried into the stratosphere and captured intact +by the enemy. + +"Since the declaration of war the nature of the column has altered. The +three beams, instead of meeting at or near the surface of the earth, now +join high in the heavens and the column strikes downward instead of +expending its force upward. An added energy is used which produces the +terribly destructive force below. And now we are able to locate +fragments of the ships destroyed above, whereas previously there were no +traces." + + * * * * * + +"Sounds reasonable," commented George. "But why have they not landed and +waged their war right here without warning, if that is what they now +intend to do?" + +"A natural question, George. But I have a hunch that the space flier or +fliers of the enemy are conserving fuel by remaining beyond gravity. You +know, in space flying, the greatest expenditures of energy are in +leaving or landing on a body and, once landed, they might not have +sufficient fuel for a getaway. They know we are not exactly helpless, +once they are in our midst, and are taking this means of reducing us to +the point of complete subjection before risking their precious selves +among us." + +The telephone startled us by its insistent ring. It was a call from the +hangar for Hart. The news broadcast announcer was in the midst of a long +dissertation regarding the discovery only this morning that there were +certain apparent discrepancies in the movements of the tides and +unwonted perturbations of the moon's orbit. There flashed on the screen +a view of the great observatory at Mount Wilson, and Professor Laughlin +of that institution stepped into the foreground of the scene to take up +the discussion so mechanically repeated by the announcer. + +"Must leave for the hangar at once," declared Hart, returning from the +telephone. "Simler and his staff are there and we are wanted +immediately." + +"Oh, Jack!" Marie begged with her eyes. + +"Got to be done, Honey," I responded, "and, believe me, I am going to do +what little I can to help. Suppose we surrendered!" + + * * * * * + +I shuddered anew at the very thought and took hurried leave of my +family, Hart and George awaiting me in the hall. Had I known what was to +transpire before the end of the war, I am certain I would have been in +much less of a hurry. + +We rushed to the hangar, where Secretary Simler and his party awaited us +in the office. Rather, I should say, they waited for Hart Jones. + +"Mr. Jones," said the Secretary of War, when the introductions were +over, "it is up to you to get the _Pioneer_ in shape to go out after +these terrible creatures before the forty-eight hours have expired. We +have replied to their ultimatum and have told them we will have our +answer ready within the appointed time, but it is already agreed between +the nations of the World Alliance that our reply is to be negative. +Better far that we submit to the utter destruction of our civilization +than agree to their terms." + +"I believe I can do it, Mr. Secretary," was Hart Jones' simple comment. +"At least I will try. But you must let me have an experienced astronomer +at once with whom to consult." + +"Astronomer?" + +"Yes--immediately. I have a theory, but am not enough of a student of +astronomy myself to work it out." + +"You shall have the best man in the Air Naval Observatory at once." +Secretary Simler chewed his cigar savagely. "And anything else you might +need," he concluded. + +"There is nothing else, sir." Hart turned from the great men who +regarded him solemnly, some with expressions of hope, others with plain +distrust written large on their countenances. + + * * * * * + +They left in silence and we returned to our work with renewed vigor. +Within an hour there arrived by fast plane an undersized, +thick-spectacled man who presented himself as Professor Linquist +from the government observatory. He was immediately taken into the +office by Hart and the two remained behind closed doors for the best +part of four hours. + +Meanwhile the hangar hummed with activity as usual. We in the chemical +laboratory were engaged in compounding the high explosive used as fuel +in the _Pioneer_. This was being compressed to its absolute limit and +was stored in long steel cylinders in the form of a liquid of extremely +low temperature. These cylinders were at once transferred to a special +steel vault where the temperature was kept at a low enough point to +prevent expansion and consequent loss of the explosive, not to speak of +the danger of destroying the entire lot of us in its escape. + +The generating apparatus of the _Pioneer_ was to be dispensed with for +this trip, since it was of no value outside the atmosphere where there +was no air from which to extract the elements necessary for the +production of the explosive. Instead, the entire supply of fuel for the +trip was to be carried aboard the vessel in the cylinders we were +engaged in filling. Hart had calculated that there was just sufficient +room to store fuel for a trip of about two hundred thousand miles from +the earth and a safe return. We hoped this would be enough. + + * * * * * + +On the scaffolding around the _Pioneer_ there were now so many workers +that it seemed they must forever be in one another's way. But the work +was progressing with extreme rapidity. Already there projected from her +blunt nose a slender rod of shining metal which was the projector of one +of the destructive rays whose generator and auxiliaries were being +installed under the supervision of the government experts. The force had +been trebled and was now working in shifts of two hours each, the pace +being so exhausting that highest efficiency was obtained by using these +short periods. + +Additional rocket tubes were being installed, and the steel framework of +a bulge now showed on the hull, this bulge being an additional fuel +storage compartment that would provide a slight additional resistance +and consequently lower speed in the lower levels, but would prove little +hindrance in level six and none at all in outer space. + +When Hart emerged from his office he appeared to be very tired, indeed, +but his face bore an expression of triumph that could not be mistaken. +He and this little scientist from Washington had evidently arrived at +some momentous conclusion regarding the enemy. + +"Jack," he said, when he reached my bench during his first round of the +hanger, "celestial mechanics is a wonderful thing. I had a hunch, and +this astronomer chap has proved it correct with his mathematics. Our +friend the enemy is out there in space at a point where his own mass and +velocity are exactly counteracted by those of the earth and its +satellite, the moon. He is just floating around in space, doing no work +whatsoever to maintain his own position. He has temporarily assumed the +role of a second satellite to us and is revolving around us at a +definite period that was calculated by Lindquist. The gravitational pull +of the moon keeps him from falling to the earth and that of the earth +keeps him from approaching the moon. The resultant of the set of forces +is what determines his orbit and the disturbance in the normal balance +is what has been observed by the astronomers who reported changes in the +tides and in the moon's orbit." + + * * * * * + +"But Lindquist's figures prove that the vessel or fleet of the enemy +must be of tremendous size to produce such discrepancies, +infinitesimally small though they might seem. We have a big fellow with +whom to deal, but we know where to find him now." + +"How can he work from a fixed position to make his attacks on the earth +at such widely separated points?" I asked. + +"It isn't a fixed position in the first place, and besides the earth +rotates once in twenty-four hours, while the moon travels around the +earth once in about twenty-eight days. But, even so, the widespread +destruction could not be accounted for. He must send out scouting +parties or something of that sort. That is one of the things we are to +learn when we get out there. We'll have some fun, Jack." + +"Will the _Pioneer_ be ready?" I asked. Evidently I was to go. + +"She will, with the exception of the acceleration neutralizers. But I'm +having some heavily-cushioned and elastic supports made that will, I +believe, save us from injury. And I guess we can stand the discomfort +for once." + +"Yes," I agreed, "in such a cause, I, for one, am willing to go through +anything to help keep this overwhelming disaster from our good old +world." + +"Jack," he whispered, "we must prevent it. We've got to!" + +Then he was gone, and I watched him for a moment as he dashed headlong +from one task to another. He was a whirlwind of energy once more. + + * * * * * + +Forty-three hours and twenty minutes had passed since the receipt of the +enemy's ultimatum. The last bolt was being tightened in the remodeled +_Pioneer_, and Secretary Simler and his staff were on hand to witness +the take-off of the vessel on which the hopes of the world were pinned. +The news of our attempt had been spread by cable and printed news only, +for there was fear that the enemy might be able to pick up the +broadcasts of the news service and thus be able to anticipate us. As +usual, there were many scoffers, but the consensus of opinion was in +favor of the project. At any rate, what better expedient was there to +offer? + +The huge airport, now unused on account of the complete cessation of air +traffic, was closed to the public. But there was quite a crowd to +witness the take-off, the visitors from Washington, the officials of the +field, and the two hundred workers who had enabled us to make ready for +the adventure in time. There were four to enter the _Pioneer_: Hart, +George, Professor Lindquist, and myself. And when the entrance manhole +was bolted home behind us, the watchers stood in silence, waiting for +the roar of the _Pioneer's_ motor. As the starter took hold, Hart waved +his hand at one of the ports and every man of those two hundred and some +watchers stood at attention and saluted is if he were a born soldier and +Hart a born commander-in-chief. + + * * * * * + +We taxied heavily across the field, for the _Pioneer_ was much +overloaded for a quick take-off. She bumped and bounced for a +quarter-mile before taking to the air and then climbed very slowly +indeed, for several minutes. Our speed was a scant two hundred miles an +hour when we swung out over New York and headed for the Atlantic. And +then Hart made first use of the rocket tubes, not daring to discharge +the hot gases below while over populated land at so low an altitude. He +touched one button, maintaining the pressure for but a fraction of a +second. The ocean slipped more rapidly away from beneath our feet and he +touched the button once more. Our speed was now nearly seven hundred +miles an hour and we made haste to buckle ourselves into the padded, +hammocklike contrivances which had been substituted for the former +seats. In a very few minutes we entered level six and the motor was cut +off entirely. + +A blast from a number of the tail rockets drove me into my supporting +hammock so heavily that I found difficulty in breathing, and could +scarcely move a muscle to change position. The rate of acceleration was +terrific, and I am still unable to understand how Hart was able to +manipulate the controls. For myself, I could not even turn my head from +its position in the padding and I felt as if I were being crushed by +thousands of tons of pressure. Then, the pressure was somewhat relieved +and I glanced to the instruments. We were more than a thousand miles +from our starting point and the speed indicator read seven thousand +miles an hour. We were traveling at the rate of nearly two miles a +second! + + * * * * * + +Another blast from the rockets, this one of interminable length, and I +must have lost consciousness. For when I next took note of things I +found that we had been out for nearly two hours and that the tremendous +pressure of acceleration was relieved. I moved my head, experimentally +and found that my senses were normal, though there was a strange and +alarming sensation of being wrong side up. Then I remembered that I had +experienced the same thing when we first searched the upper levels of +the atmosphere for the origin of the destructive rays of the enemy. + +But this was different! I gazed through a nearby port and saw that the +sky was entirely black, the stars shining magnificently brilliant +against their velvet background. Streamers of brilliant sunlight from +the floor ports struck across the cabin and patterned the ceiling. +Looking between my feet I saw the sun as a flaming orb with streamers of +incandescence that spread in every direction with such blinding +luminosity that I could not bear the sight for more than a few seconds. +Off to what I was pleased to think of as our left side, there was a huge +globe that I quickly made out as our own earth. Eerily green it shone, +and, though a considerable portion of the surface was obscured by +patches of white that I recognized as clouds, I could clearly make out +the continents of the eastern hemisphere. It was a marvelous sight and I +lost several minutes in awed contemplation of the wonder. Then I heard +Hart laugh. + +"Just coming out of it, Jack?" he asked. + + * * * * * + +I stared at him foolishly. It had seemed to me that I was alone in this +vast universe, and the sound of his voice startled me. "Guess I'm not +fully out of it yet," I said. "Where are we?" + +"Oh, about sixty thousand miles out," he replied carelessly; "and we are +traveling at our maximum speed--that is, the maximum we need for this +little voyage." + +"Little voyage!" I gasped. And then I looked at George and the professor +and saw that they, too, were grinning at my discomfiture. I laughed +crazily, I suppose, for they all sobered at once. + +Traveling through space at more than forty thousand miles an hour, it +seemed that we were stationary. Movement was now easy--too easy, in +fact, for we were practically weightless. The professor was having a +time of it manipulating a pencil and a pad of paper on which he had a +mass of small figures that were absolutely meaningless to me. He was +calculating and plotting our course and, without him, we should never +have reached the object we sought. + +Time passed rapidly, for the wonders of the naked universe were a +never-ending source of fascination. Occasionally a series of rocket +charges was fired to keep our direction and velocity, but these were +light, and the acceleration so insignificant that we were put to no +discomfort whatever. But it was necessary that we keep our straps +buckled, for, in the weightless condition, even the slightest increase +or decrease in speed or change in direction was sufficient to throw us +the length of the cabin, from which painful bruises might be received. + + * * * * * + +The supports to which we were strapped and which saved us from being +crushed by the acceleration and deceleration, were similar to hammocks, +being hooked to the floor and ceiling of the cabin rather than suspended +horizontally in the conventional manner. This was for the reason that +the energy of the rockets was expended fore and aft, except for +steering, and the forces were therefore along the horizontal axis of the +vessel. The supports were elastic and the padding deep and soft. Being +swiveled at top and bottom, they could swing around so that deceleration +as well as acceleration was relieved. For this reason the controls had +been altered so that the flexible support in which Hart was suspended +could rotate about their pedestal, thus allowing for their operation by +the pilot either when accelerating or decelerating. How he could control +the muscles of his arms and hands under the extreme conditions is still +a mystery to me, however, and George agrees with me in this. We found +ourselves to be utterly helpless. + +My next impression of the trip is that of swinging rapidly around and +finding myself facing the rear wall of the cabin. Then the tremendous +pressure once more at a burst from the forward tubes. We had commenced +deceleration. For me there were alternate periods of full and +semi-consciousness and, to this day, I can remember no more than the +high spots of that historical expedition. + + * * * * * + +Then we were free to move once more, and I turned to face the instrument +board. Our relative velocity had become practically zero; that is, we +were traveling through space at about the same speed and in the same +direction as the earth. The professor and Hart were consulting a pencil +chart and excitedly looking first through the forward ports and then +into the screen of the periscope. + +"This is the approximate location," averred the professor. + +"But they are not here," replied Hart. + +George and I peered in all directions and could see nothing excepting +the marvels of the universe we had been viewing. The moon now seemed +very close and its craters and so-called seas were as plainly visible as +in a four-inch telescope on earth. But we saw nothing of the enemy. + +The earth was a huge ball still, but much smaller than when I had first +observed it from the heavens. The sun's corona--the flaming streamers +which the professor declared extended as much as five million miles into +space--was partly hidden behind the rim of the earth and the effect was +blinding. A thin crescent of brilliant light marked the rim of our +planet and the rest was in shadow, but a shadow that was lighted +awesomely in cold green by reflected light from her satellite. + +"I have it!" suddenly shouted the professor. "We are all in very nearly +the same line with reference to the sun, and the enemy is between the +blazing body and ourselves. We must shift our position, move into the +shadow of the earth. We have missed our calculation by a few hundred +miles, that is all." + +All! I thought. These astronomers, so accustomed to dealing in +tremendous distances that must be measured in light-years, thought +nothing of an error of several hundred miles. But I suppose it was +really an inconsiderable amount, at that. + +At any rate, we shifted position and looked around a bit more. We saw +nothing at first. Then Hart consulted the chronometer. + +"Time is up!" he shouted. + + * * * * * + +On the instant there was a flash of dazzling green light from a point +not a hundred miles from our position, a flash that was followed by a +streaking pencil of the same light shooting earthward with terrific +velocity. Breathlessly we followed its length, saw it burst like a bomb +and hurl three green balls from itself which sped at equally spaced +angles to form a perfect triangle. They hovered a moment at about two +thousand miles above the surface of the earth, according to the +professor, who was using the telescope at the time, and shot their +deadly rays toward our world. We were too late to prevent the renewal of +hostilities! + +Another and another streak of green light followed and we knew that +great havoc was being wrought back home. But these served to locate the +enemy's position definitely and we immediately set about to draw nearer. +We were still somewhat on the dark side of the object, which had +prevented our seeing it. Now we swung about so that it was plainly +visible. And, what a strange appearance it presented, out here in space! + +Fully fifteen miles in diameter, it was a huge doughnut, a great ring of +tubing with a center-opening that was at least eighty per cent of its +maximum diameter. There it hovered, sending out those deadly missiles in +a continuous stream toward our poor world. As we approached the weird +space flier, we saw that a number of objects floated about within the +great circle of its inner circumference. The NY-18, the SF-61 and the +SF-22, without doubt! The theory of Hart's was correct in every detail. + + * * * * * + +We were still at about ten miles distance from the great ring and the +streaking light pencils were speeding earthward at the rate of one a +minute now. There was no time to lose. Already there was more +destruction on its way than had been previously wrought--several times +over. + +Hart was sighting along a tiny tube that projected into the forward +partition and he maneuvered the _Pioneer_ until she was nose on to the +great ring. He pulled a switch and there came a purring that was +entirely new. A row of huge vacuum tubes along the wall lighted to vivid +brilliancy and a throbbing vibration filled the artificial air of the +cabin. + +He pulled a small lever at the side of the tube and the vessel rocked to +the energy that was released from those vacuum tubes. The thin rod which +had been installed at the _Pioneer's_ nose burst into brilliant +flame--orange tinted luminescence that grew to a sphere of probably ten +feet in diameter. Then there was a heavy shock and the ball of fire left +its position and, with inconceivable velocity, sprang straight for the +side of the great ring. It was a fair hit and, when the weird missile +found its mark, it simply vanished--swallowed up in the metal walls of +the monster vessel. For a moment we thought nothing was to result. Then +we burst into shouts of joy, for a great section of the ring fused into +nothingness and was gone! Fully a quarter of the circumference of the +ring had disappeared into the vacuum of space. Truly, the governments of +Earth had developed some terrible weapons of their own! + +We watched, breathless. + + * * * * * + +The green light pencils no longer streaked their paths of death in the +direction of our world, which now seemed so remote. The great ring with +the vacant space in its rim wabbled uncertainly for a moment as though +some terrific upheaval from within was tearing it asunder. Then it +lurched directly for the _Pioneer_. We had been observed! + +But Hart was equal to the occasion and he shot the _Pioneer_ in the +direction of the earth with such acceleration that we all were flattened +into our supports with the same old violence. Then, with equal violence, +we decelerated. The ring was following so closely that it actually +rushed many hundreds of miles past us before it was brought to rest. +From it there sprang one of the light pencils, and the _Pioneer_ was +rocked as by a heavy gale when it rushed past on its harmless way into +infinity. The enemy had missed. + +Meanwhile, Hart was operating another mechanism that was new to the +_Pioneer_ and again he sighted along the tiny tube. This time there was +no sound within, no ball of fire without, no visible ray. But, when he +had pressed the release of this second energy, the ring seemed to +shrivel and twist as if gripped by a giant's hand. It reeled and spun. +Then, no longer in a balance of forces, it commenced its long drop +earthward. + +His job finished and finished well, Hart Jones collapsed. + + * * * * * + +Following his more than three days and four nights of superhuman +endeavor, it seemed strange to see Hart slumped white and still over the +control pedestal. He who had energy far in excess of that of any of the +rest of us had worn himself out. Having had no rest or sleep in nearly a +hundred hours, the body that housed so wonderful a spirit simply refused +to carry on. Tenderly we stretched him on the cabin floor, the _Pioneer_ +drifting in space the while. The professor, who was likewise something +of a physician, listened to his heart, drew back his eyelids, and +pronounced him in no danger whatever. + +We slapped his wrists, sprinkled his face and neck with cold water from +the drinking supply, and were soon rewarded by his return to +consciousness. He smiled weakly and fell sound asleep. No war in the +universe could have wakened him then, so we lifted him to his +feet--rather I should say, we guided his practically floating body--and +strapped him in George's hammock, preparing for the homeward journey. +Though dangling from the straps in a position that would be vertical +were we on earth, he slept like a baby. George took the controls in +Hart's place and the professor and I returned to our accustomed +supports. + +The return trip was considerably slower, as George did not wish to push +the _Pioneer_ to its limit as had been necessary when coming out to meet +the enemy, nor was he able to keep control of the ship against a +too-rapid acceleration. Consequently, the rate of acceleration was much +lower and we were not nearly as uncomfortable as on the outgoing trip. +Thus, nearly ten hours were required for the return. And Hart slept +through it all. + + * * * * * + +In order to make best use of the small amount of fuel still in the +cylinders, George circled the earth five times before we entered the +upper limits of the atmosphere, the circles becoming of smaller diameter +at each revolution and the speed of the ship proportionately reduced. An +occasional discharge from one of the forward rocket tubes assisted +materially in the deceleration, yet, when we slipped into level five, +our speed was so great that the temperature of the cabin rose +alarmingly, due to the friction of the air against the hull of the +vessel. It was necessary to use the last remaining ounce of fuel to +reduce the velocity to a safe value. A long glide to earth was then our +only means of landing and, since we were over the Gulf of Mexico at the +time, we had no recourse other than landing in the State of Texas. + +Passing over Galveston in level three, we found that the Humble oil +fields and a great section of the surrounding country had been the +center of one of the enemy bombardments. All was blackness and ruin for +many miles between this point and Houston. At Houston Airport we landed, +unheralded but welcome. + +The lower levels were once more filled with traffic, and one of the +southern route transcontinental liners had just made its stop at this +point. The arrival of the _Pioneer_ was thus witnessed by an unusually +large crowd, and, when the news was spread to the city, their numbers +increased with all the rapidity made possible by the various means of +transportation from the city. + +So it was that Hart Jones, after we finally succeeded in awakening him +and getting him to his feet, was hailed by a veritable multitude as the +greatest hero of all time. The demonstrations become so enthusiastic +that police reserves, hastily summoned from the city, were helpless in +their attempts to keep the crowd in order. + + * * * * * + +It was with greatest difficulty that Hart was finally extricated from +the clutches of the mob and conveyed to the new Rice Hotel in Houston, +where it was necessary to obtain medical attention for him immediately. +He was in no condition at the time to receive the richly deserved +plaudits of the multitude, and, truth to tell, we others from the +_Pioneer_ were in much the same shape. + +To me that night will always be the most terrible of nightmares. My +first thought was of my family and, when I had been assigned to a room, +I immediately asked the switchboard operator for a long-distance +connection to my home in Rutherford. There was complete silence for a +minute and I jangled the hook impatiently, my head throbbing with a +thousand aches and pains. Then, to my surprise, the voice of the hotel +manager greeted me. + +"Mr. Makely," he said softly, and I thought there was a peculiar ring in +his voice, "I think you had better not try to get Rutherford this +evening. We are sending the house physician to your room at once +and--there are orders from Washington, you know--you are to think of +nothing at the present but sleep and a long rest." + +"Why--why--" I stammered, "can't you see? I must communicate with my +family. They must know of my return. I must know if they're safe and +well." + +"I'm sorry, sir," apologized the manager, "Government orders, you know." +And he hung up. + +Something in that soft voice brought to me an inkling of the truth. An +icy hand gripped my heart as I heard a knock at the door. With palsied +fingers I turned the key and admitted the professor and a kindly-faced +elderly gentleman with a small black bag. One look at the professor told +me the truth. I seized his two arms in a grip that made him wince. + +"Tell me! Tell me!" I demanded, "Has anything happened to my family?" + +"Jack," said the professor slowly, "while we were out there watching +Hart destroy the enemy vessel, Rutherford was destroyed!" + + * * * * * + +It must be that I frightened him by my answering stare, for he backed +away from me in apparent fear. I noticed that the doctor was rummaging +in his bag. I know I did not speak, did not cry out, for my tongue clove +to the roof of my mouth. It seemed I must go mad. The professor still +backed away from me; then, wiry little athlete that he was, he sprang +directly for my knees in a beautiful football tackle. I remember that +point clearly and how I admired his agility at the time. I remember the +glint of a small instrument in the doctor's hand. Then all was +blackness. + +Eight days later, they tell me it was, I returned to painful +consciousness in a hospital bed. But let me skip the agony of mind I +experienced then. Suffice it to say that, when I was able, I set forth +for Washington. Hart Jones was there and he had sent for me. But I took +little interest in the going; did not even bother to speculate as to the +reason for his summons. I had devoured the news during my convalescence +and now, more than two weeks after the destruction of the Terror, I knew +the extent of the damage wrought upon our earth by those deadly green +light pencils we had seen issuing from the huge ring up there in the +skies. The horror of it all was fresh in my mind, but my own private +horror overshadowed all. + + * * * * * + +I was glad that Hart had been so signally honored by the World Peace +Board, that he was now the most famous and popular man in the entire +world. He deserved it all and more. But what cared I--I who had done +least of all to help in his great work--that the Terror had been found +where it buried itself in the sand of the Sahara when falling to earth? +What cared I that the discoveries made in the excavating of the huge +metal ring were of inestimable value to science? + +It gave me passing satisfaction to note that all of Hart Jones' theories +were borne out by the discoveries; that Oradel and his minions were +responsible for this terrible war; that the planet they aligned against +us was Venus and that more than a hundred thousand of the Venerians had +been carried in that weird engine of destruction which had been brought +down by Hart. + +It was interesting to read of the fall of that huge ring; how it was +heated to incandescence when it entered our atmosphere at such +tremendous velocity; of the tidal waves of concentric billows in the +sand that led to its discovery by Egyptian Government planes. The +broadcast descriptions and the television views of the stunted and +twisted Venerians whose bodies were recovered from the partly consumed +wreckage were interesting. But it all left me cold. I had no further +interest in life. That the world had escaped an overwhelming disaster +was clear, and it gave me a certain pleasure. But for me it might as +well have been completely destroyed. + +Nevertheless, I went to Washington. I felt somehow that I owed it to +Hart Jones, the greatest world hero since Lindbergh. I would at least +listen to what he had to say. + + * * * * * + +A fast plane carried me, a plane chartered by the government. To me it +seemed that it crawled, though it was a sixth-level ship, and made the +trip in record time. Why I was impatient to reach Washington I do not +know, for I was absolutely disinterested in anything that might occur +there. It was merely that my nerves were on edge, I suppose, and +everything annoyed me. + +Hart met me at the airport and greeted me like a long-lost brother. He +talked incessantly and jumped from one subject to the other with the +obvious intention of trying to get my mind off my troubles until we +reached his office in the Air Traffic building. + +On his door there was the legend, "Director of Research," and, when we +had entered, I observed that the office was furnished with all the +luxury that suited his new position. I dropped into a deeply upholstered +chair at the side of his mahogany desk, and, for the space of several +minutes, Hart regarded me with concern, speaking not a word. + +"Jack, old man," he finally ventured. "I can't talk to you of this +thing. But it makes me feel very badly to see you take it so hard. There +are many things you have to live for, old top, and it is to talk about +these that I sent for you." + +"You mean work?" I asked. + +"Yes. That is the best thing for us all, in any emergency or under any +circumstances whatever. Preston wants you back for one thing, and he +authorized me to tell you that the job of office manager is waiting for +you at double your former salary." + + * * * * * + +My eyes misted at this. Preston was a good old scout! But I could never +bear it to return to the old surroundings, even in the city. "No, Hart," +I said, "I'd rather be away from New York and from that part of the +country. Associations, you know." + +"I understand," he replied, "and that is just what I had hoped you would +decide. Because I have a job for you in the Air Service. A good one, +too. + +"You know there is much reconstruction work to be done on earth. More +than forty cities and towns have been wiped out of existence and these +must be rebuilt. That will occupy the minds and energies of thousands +who have been bereaved as you have. But, in the Air Service, we have a +program that I believe will be more to your liking. The log of the +_Terror_, in Oradel's handwriting, was found intact, as were a number of +manuscripts pertaining to plans of the Venerians. + +"These misshapen creatures were quite evidently educated by Oradel to a +hatred of our world. We have reason to believe that other attacks may +follow, for they were obviously intending to migrate here in millions. +And, according to records found aboard the _Terror_, they are of +advanced scientific accomplishment. We may expect them to construct +other vessels similar to the _Terror_ and to come here again. We must be +prepared to fight them off, to carry the war to their own planet if +necessary. My work is to organize a world fleet of space ships for this +purpose, and I'd like you to help me in this. The work will take you all +over the world and will keep you too busy to think about--things." + +It was just like Hart, and I thanked him wordlessly, but from the bottom +of my heart. Yes, I would accept his generous offer. Though I was no +engineer, I had a knowledge of scientific subjects a little above the +average, and I could follow instructions. By George, it was the very +thing! Suddenly I grew enthusiastic. + + * * * * * + +There was the sound of voices in the outer office, and Hart's secretary +entered to announce the arrival of George Boehm and Professor Lindquist. +This was great! + +Chubby George, red-faced and smiling as ever, embraced me with one short +arm and pounded me on the back with his other fist in his jovial, joking +manner. It was good to have friends like these! The professor held forth +his hand timidly. He was thinking of that tackle and the half-Nelson he +had used on me while the doctor slipped that needle into my arm back +there in Houston. + +"Don't remove your glasses, Professor," I laughed; "I'm not going to hit +you. That was a swell tackle of yours, and you did me a big service down +there in the Rice Hotel." + +He beamed with pleasure and gripped my hand--mightily, for such a little +fellow. George was whispering to Hart, and I could see that they were +greatly excited over something. + +"Jack," said Hart, when the professor and I finished talking things +over, "George here wants you to take a little trip over to Philly with +him. He has something there he wants to show you." + +I looked from one to the other for signs of a hoax. These two, under +normal circumstances, were always up to something. But what I saw in +their expressions convinced me that I had better go, and somehow, there +rose in my breast a forlorn hope. + +"All right," I agreed. "Let's go!" + + * * * * * + +Once more we four took off together, this time in a speedy little +first-level cabin plane of Hart's design, piloted by the irrepressible +George. I was brimming with questions, but George kept up such a +running fire of small talk that I was unable to get in a single word +throughout the short trip to the Quaker City. It was quite evident that +something was in the wind. + +Instead of landing at the airport, George swung across the city and +dropped to the roof landing space of a large building which I recognized +as the Germantown Hospital. We had no sooner landed when I was rushed +from the plane to the penthouse over the elevator shafts. We were soon +on the main floor and George went immediately to the desk at the +receiving office, where he engaged in earnest conversation with the +nurse in charge. + +"What are you doing--committing me?" I asked, half joking only. For, +from the mysterious expression of my friends' faces, I was not sure what +to expect. + +"No," laughed Hart. "George learned of the existence of a patient here +who may turn out to be a very good friend of yours." + +I turned this over in my mind, which did not yet function quite +normally. A friend? Why, I had very few that could really be termed good +friends outside of those that accompanied me. It could mean but one +thing. Possibly one of my children--or even my dear wife--might have +escaped somehow. I followed in a daze as a white-capped and gowned nurse +led us along the corridor and into a ward where there were dozens of +high, white beds. + + * * * * * + +Some of the patients were swathed in bandages; some sat up in their +beds, reading or just staring; others lay inert and pale. The reek of +iodoform pervaded the large room. + +We stopped at the bedside of one of the staring patients, a young woman +who looked unseeingly at our party. Great heavens, it was Marie! + +A physician stood at the other side of her bed, finger on her pulse. The +others drew back as I approached her side, raised her free hand to my +lips and spoke to her. + +"Marie, dear," I asked gently, forcing the lump from my throat as best I +could, "don't you know me? It's Jack, Honey." + +The fixed stare of the great blue eyes shifted in my direction. It +seemed that they looked through and past me into some terrible realm +where only horror held sway. She drew her hand from my grasp and passed +it before those staring, unnatural eyes. There was an audible gulp from +George. But the doctor smiled encouragement to me. I tried once more. + +"Marie," I said, "where are Jim and Jackie?" + + * * * * * + +The hand fluttered to her lap, where it lay, blue-veined and pitifully +thin. The stare focussed on me, seemed to concentrate. Then the film was +gone from the eyes and she saw--she knew me! + +"Oh, Jack!" she wailed, "I have been away. Don't you know where they +are?" + +My heart nearly stopped at this, but I sat on the edge of the bed and +took her in my arms, looking at the doctor for approval. He nodded his +head brightly and beckoned to the nurse. + +"Bring the children," I heard him whisper. + +My cup was full. But I must be calm for Marie's sake. She had closed her +eyes now and great tears coursed down her waxen cheeks. Her body shook +with sobs. + +"She'll recover?" I asked the doctor. + +"You bet. Just an aggravated case of amnesia. Hasn't eaten. Didn't even +know her children. Cured now, but she'll need a few weeks to build up." +He snapped shut the lid of his watch. + +Those succinct sentences were the finest I had ever heard. + +Marie clung to me like an infant to its mother. Her sobs gradually +ceased and she looked into my eyes. Little Jim and Jack had come in and +were clamoring for recognition. + +"Oh, Jack," Marie whispered, "I'm so happy." + +She relinquished me and turned her attention to the children. I saw that +my friends had left and that an orderly was placing screens about us. So +I'll close the screen on the remainder of this most happy reunion. + + * * * * * + +It was several days before I had the complete story. Being lonesome +during my absence when we were preparing for the voyage into space, and +not knowing just when I would return, Marie had packed a grip and taken +the train for Philadelphia, deciding to spend a few days with her Aunt +Margaret, or at least to remain there with the children until I +returned. + +She had boarded the train at Manhattan Transfer at about the time we +reached the location of the _Terror_ and the train was just pulling out +of the station when there came the first of the new attacks of the +enemy. She thought that the pillar of fire rose from the approximate +location of Rutherford, but was not sure until they reached Newark, when +the news was spread throughout the train by passengers who boarded it +there. She worried and cried over the loss of our little home and had +worked herself into a state of extreme nervousness and near-hysteria by +the time they reached New Brunswick. + +Then, as the long train left New Brunswick, there was another attack, +this one on the town they had just left. The last two cars of the train +were blown from the track by the initial concussion, and the remainder +of the train brought to a grinding, jerking stop that threw the +passengers into a panic. + +Already hysterical, Marie was in no condition to bear up under the +shock, and the loss of memory followed. Jack and Jim clung to her, of +course, and were taken to the Germantown Hospital with her when the +wreck victims were transferred to that point. She had no identification +on her person, and it was by sheerest luck that George, who was visiting +a friend in the same hospital, chanced to see her and thought he +recognized her. + +That was all of it, but to me it was more than enough. From the depths +of despondency, I rose to the peaks of elation. It was true that we +would have to establish a new home, but this would be a joy as never +before. Those I had given up as lost were restored to me and I was +content. Hart would have to make some changes in the duties of that new +job--the world travel was out of the picture. I had had my fill of +adventure. + +Besides, the hot spell was over. + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Forgotten Planet + +_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_ + + +I have been asked to record, plainly and without prejudice, a brief +history of the Forgotten Planet. + +[Sidenote: The authentic account of why cosmic man damned an outlaw +world to be, forever, a leper of Space.] + +That this record, when completed, will be sealed in the archives of the +Interplanetary Alliance and remain there, a secret and rather dreadful +bit of history, is no concern of mine. I am an old man, well past the +century mark, and what disposal is made of my work is of little +importance to me. I grow weary of life and living, which is good. The +fear of death was lost when our scientists showed us how to live until +we grew weary of life. But I am digressing--an old man's failing. + +[Illustration: "It's nothing. Close the exit; we depart at once."] + +The Forgotten Planet was not always so named. The name that it once bore +had been, as every child knows, stricken from the records, actual and +mental, of the Universe. It is well that evil should not be remembered. +But in order that this history may be clear in the centuries to come, my +record should go back to beginnings. + +So far as the Universe is concerned, the history of the Forgotten Planet +begins with the visit of the first craft ever to span the space between +the worlds: the crude, adventuresome _Edorn_, whose name, as well as +the names of the nine Zenians who manned her, occupy the highest places +in the roll of honor of the Universe. + +Ame Baove, the commander and historian of the _Edorn_, made but brief +comment on his stop at the Forgotten Planet. I shall record it in full: + + "We came to rest upon the surface of this, the fourth of the + planets visited during the first trip of the _Edorn_, eighteen + spaces before the height of the sun. We found ourselves surrounded + immediately by vast numbers of creatures very different from + ourselves, and from their expressions and gestures, we gathered + that they were both curious and unfriendly. + + "Careful analysis of the atmosphere proved it to be sufficiently + similar to our own to make it possible for us to again stretch our + legs outside the rather cramped quarters of the _Edorn_, and tread + the soil of still another world. + + "No sooner had we emerged, however, than we were angrily beset by + the people of this unfriendly planet, and rather than do them + injury, we retired immediately, and concluded our brief + observations through our ports. + + "The topography of this planet is similar to our own, save that + there are no mountains, and the flora is highly colored almost + without exception, and apparently quite largely parasitical in + nature. The people are rather short in stature, with hairless heads + and high foreheads. Instead of being round or oval, however, the + heads of these people rise to a rounded ridge which runs back from + a point between and just above the eyes, nearly to the nape of the + neck behind. They give evidence of a fair order of intelligence, + but are suspicious and unfriendly. From the number and size of the + cities we saw, this planet is evidently thickly populated. + + "We left about sixteen spaces before the height of the sun, and + continued towards the fifth and last planet before our return to + Zenia." + + * * * * * + +This report, quite naturally, caused other explorers in space to +hesitate. There were so many friendly, eager worlds to visit, during the +years that relations between the planets were being established, that an +unfriendly people were ignored. + +However, from time to time, as space-ships became perfected and more +common, parties from many of the more progressive planets did call. Each +of them met with the same hostile reception, and at last, shortly after +the second War of the Planets, the victorious Alliance sent a fleet of +the small but terrible Deuber Spheres, convoyed by four of the largest +of the disintegrator ray-ships, to subjugate the Forgotten Planet. + +Five great cities were destroyed, and the Control City, the seat of the +government, was menaced before the surly inhabitants conceded allegiance +to the Alliance. Parties of scientists, fabricators, and workmen were +then landed, and a dictator was appointed. + +From all the worlds of the Alliance, instruments and equipment were +brought to the Forgotten Planet. A great educational system was planned +and executed, the benign and kindly influence of the Alliance made every +effort to improve the conditions existing on the Forgotten Planet, and +to win the friendship and allegiance of these people. + +For two centuries the work went on. Two centuries of bloodshed, strife, +hate and disturbance. No where else within the known Universe was there +ill feeling. The second awful War of the Planets had at last succeeded +in teaching the lesson of peace. + +Two centuries of effort--wasted effort. It was near the end of the +second century that my own story begins. + +Commander at that time of the super-cruiser _Tamon_, a Special Patrol +ship of the Alliance, I was not at all surprised to receive orders from +the Central Council to report at emergency speed. Special Patrol work in +those days, before the advent of the present de-centralized system, was +a succession of false starts, hurried recalls, and urgent, emergency +orders. + + * * * * * + +I obeyed at once. In the Special Patrol service, there is no questioning +orders. The planet Earth, from which I sprang, is and always has been +proud of the fact that from the very beginning, her men have been picked +to command the ships of the Special Patrol. No matter how dangerous, how +forlorn and hopeless the mission given to a commander of a Special +Patrol ship, history has never recorded that any commander has ever +hesitated. That is why our uniform of blue and silver commands the +respect that it does even in this day and age of softening and +decadence, when men--but again an old man digresses. And perhaps it is +not for me to judge. + +I pointed the blunt nose of the _Tamon_ at Zenia, seat of the Central +Council, and in four hours, Earth time, the great craft swept over the +gleaming city of the Central Council and settled swiftly to the court +before the mighty, columned Hall of the Planets. + +Four pages of the Council, in their white and scarlet livery, met me and +conducted me instantly to a little anteroom behind the great council +chamber. + +There were three men awaiting me there; three men whose faces, at that +time, were familiar to every person in the known Universe. + +Kellen, the oldest of the three, and the spokesman, rose as I entered +the room. The others did likewise, as the pages closed the heavy doors +behind me. + +"You are prompt, and that is good," thought Kellen. "I welcome you. +Remove now thy menore." + +I glanced up at him swiftly. This must surely be an important matter, +that I was asked to remove my menore band. + +It will, of course, be understood that at that time we had but a bulky +and clumsy instrument to enable us to convey and receive thought; a +device consisting of a heavy band of metal, in which were imbedded the +necessary instruments and a tiny atomic energy generator, the whole +being worn as a circlet or crown upon the head. + +Wonderingly, I removed my menore, placed it upon the long, dark table +around which the three men were standing, and bowed. Each of the three, +in turn, lifted their gleaming circlets from their heads, and placed +them likewise upon the table before them. + + * * * * * + +"You wonder," said Kellen, speaking of course, in the soft and liquid +universal language, which is, I understand, still disseminated in our +schools, as it should be. "I shall explain as quickly and as briefly as +possible. + +"We have called you here on a dangerous mission. A mission that will +require tact and quickness of mind as well as bravery. We have selected +you, have called you, because we are agreed that you possess the +qualities required. Is it not so?" He glanced at his two companions, and +they nodded gravely, solemnly, without speaking. + +"You are a young man, John Hanson," continued Kellen, "but your record +in your service is one of which you can be proud. We trust you--with +knowledge that is so secret, so precious, that we must revert to speech +in order to convey it; we dare not trust it, even in this protected and +guarded place, to the menore's quicker but less discreet communication." + +He paused for a moment, frowning thoughtfully as though dreading to +begin. I waited silently, and at last he spoke again. + +"There is a world"--and he named a name which I shall not repeat, the +name of the Forgotten Planet--"that is a festering sore upon the body of +the Universe. As you know, for two centuries we have tried to pass on to +these people an understanding of peace and friendship. I believe that +nothing has been left undone. The Council and the forces behind it have +done everything within their power. And now--" + +He stopped again, and there was an expression of deepest pain written +upon his wise and kindly face. The pause was for but an instant. + +"And now," he went on firmly, "it is at an end. Our work has been +undone. Two centuries of effort--undone. They have risen in revolt, they +have killed all those sent by the Alliance of which this Council is the +governing body and the mouthpiece, and they have sent us an ultimatum--a +threat of war!" + +"_What?_" + + * * * * * + +Kellen nodded his magnificent old head gravely. + +"I do not wonder that you start," he said heavily. "War! It must not be. +It cannot be! And yet, war is what they threaten." + +"But, sir!" I put in eagerly. I was young and rash in those days. "Who +are they, to make war against a united Universe?" + +"I have visited your planet, Earth," said Kellen, smiling very faintly. +"You have a tiny winged insect you call _bee_. Is it not so?" + +"Yes." + +"The bee is a tiny thing, of little strength. A man, a little child, +might crush one to death between a thumb and finger. But the bee may +sting before he is crushed, and the sting may linger on for days, a +painful and unpleasant thing. Is that not so?" + +"I see, sir," I replied, somewhat abashed before the tolerant, kindly +wisdom of this great man. "They cannot hope to wage successful war, but +they may bring much suffering to others." + +"Much suffering," nodded Kellen, still gently smiling. "And we are +determined that this thing shall not be. Not"--and his face grew gray +with a terrible and bitter resolve--"not if we have to bring to bear +upon that dark and unwilling world the disintegrating rays of every ship +of the Alliance, so that the very shell of the planet shall disappear, +and no life ever again shall move upon its surface. + +"But this," and he seemed to shudder at the thought, "is a terrible and +a ruthless thing to even contemplate. We must first try once again to +point out to them the folly of their ways. It is with this mission that +we would burden you, John Hanson." + + * * * * * + +"It is no burden, but an honor, sir," I said quietly. + +"Youth! Youth!" Kellen chided me gently. "Foolish, yet rather glorious. +Let me tell you the rest, and then we shall ask for your reply again. + +"The news came to us by a small scout ship attached to that unhappy +world. It barely made the journey to Jaron, the nearest planet, and +crashed so badly, from lack of power, that all save one man were killed. + +"He, luckily, tore off his menore, and insisted in speech that he be +brought here. He was obeyed, and, in a dying condition, was brought to +this very chamber." Kellen glanced swiftly, sadly, around the room, as +though he could still visualize that scene. + +"Every agent of the Alliance upon that hateful planet was set upon and +killed, following the working out of some gigantic and perfectly +executed plan--all save the crew of this one tiny scout ship, which was +spared to act as a messenger. + +"'Tell your great Council,' was the message these people sent to us, +'that here is rebellion. We do not want, nor will we tolerate, your +peace. We have learned now that upon other worlds than ours there are +great riches. These we shall take. If there is resistance, we have a +new and a terrible death to deal. A death that your great scientists +will be helpless against; a horrible and irresistable death that will +make desolate and devoid of intelligent life any world where we are +forced to sow the seeds of ultimate disaster. + +"'We are not yet ready. If we were, we would not move, for we prefer +that your Council have time to think about what is surely to come. If +you doubt that we have the power to do what we have threatened to do, +send one ship, commanded by a man whose word you will trust, and we will +prove to him that these are no empty words.'" + + * * * * * + +"That, as nearly as I can remember it," concluded Kellen, "is the +message. The man who brought it died almost before he had finished. + +"That is the message. You are the man we have picked to accept their +challenge. Remember, though, that there are but the four of us in this +room. There are but four of us who know these things. If you for any +reason do not wish to accept this mission, there will be none to judge +you, least of all, any one of us, who know best of all the perils." + +"You say, sir," I said quietly, although my heart was pounding in my +throat, and roaring in my ears, "that there would be none to judge me. + +"Sir, there would be myself. There could be no more merciless judge. I +am honored that I have been selected for this task, and I accept the +responsibility willingly, gladly. When is it your wish that we should +start?" + +The three presiding members of the Council glanced at each other, +faintly smiling, as though they would say, as Kellen had said a short +time before: "Youth! Youth!" Yet I believe they were glad and somewhat +proud that I had replied as I did. + +"You may start," said Kellen, "as soon as you can complete the necessary +preparations. Detailed instructions will be given you later." + +He bowed to me, and the others did likewise. Then Kellen picked up his +menore and adjusted it. + +The interview was over. + + * * * * * + +"What do you make it?" I asked the observer. He glanced up from his +instrument. + +"Jaron, sir. Three degrees to port; elevation between five and six +degrees. Approximate only, of course, sir." + +"Good enough. Please ask Mr. Barry to hold to his present course. We +shall not stop at Jaron." + +The observer glanced at me curiously, but he was too well disciplined to +hesitate or ask questions. + +"Yes, sir!" he said crisply, and spoke into the microphone beside him. + +None of us wore menores when on duty, for several reasons. Our +instruments were not nearly as perfect as those in use to-day, and +verbal orders were clearer and carried more authority than mental +instructions. The delicate and powerful electrical and atomic mechanism +of our ship interfered with the functioning of the menores, and at that +time the old habit of speech was far more firmly entrenched, due to +hereditary influence, than it is now. + +I nodded to the man, and made my way to my own quarters. I wished most +heartily that I could talk over my plans with someone, but this had been +expressly forbidden. + +"I realize that you trust your men, and more particularly your +officers," Kellen had told me during the course of his parting +conversation with me. "I trust them also--yet we must remember that the +peace of mind of the Universe is concerned. If news, even a rumor, of +this threatened disaster should become known, it is impossible to +predict the disturbance it might create. + +"Say nothing to anyone. It is your problem. You alone should leave the +ship when you land; you alone shall hear or see the evidence they have +to present, and you alone shall bring word of it to us. That is the wish +of the Council." + +"Then it is my wish," I had said, and so it had been settled. + + * * * * * + +Aft, in the crew's quarters, a gong sounded sharply: the signal for +changing watches, and the beginning of a sleep period. I glanced at the +remote control dials that glowed behind their glass panel on one side of +my room. From the registered attraction of Jaron, at our present speed, +we should be passing her within, according to Earth time, about two +hours. That meant that their outer patrols might be seeking our +business, and I touched Barry's attention button, and spoke into the +microphone beside my bunk. + +"Mr. Barry? I am turning in for a little sleep. Before you turn over the +watch to Eitel, will you see that the nose rays are set for the Special +Patrol code signal for this enar. We shall be close to Jaron shortly." + +"Yes, sir! Any other orders?" + +"No. Keep her on her present course. I shall take the watch from Mr. +Eitel." + +Since there have been changes since those days, and will undoubtedly be +others in the future, it might be well to make clear, in a document such +is this, that at this period, all ships of the Special Patrol Service +identified themselves by means of invisible rays flashed in certain +sequences, from the two nose, or forward, projectors. These code signals +were changed every enar, a period of time arbitrarily set by the +Council; about eighteen days, as time is measured on the Earth, and +divided into ten periods, as at present, known as enarens. These were +further divided into enaros, thus giving us a time-reckoning system for +use in space, corresponding roughly to the months, days and hours of the +Earth. + +I retired, but not to sleep. Sleep would not come. I knew, of course, +that if curious outer patrol ships from Jaron did investigate us, they +would be able to detect our invisible ray code signal, and thus satisfy +themselves that we were on the Council's business. There would be no +difficulty on that score. But what I should do after landing upon the +rebellious sphere, I had not the slightest idea. + + * * * * * + +"Be stern, indifferent to their threats," Kellen, had counseled me, "but +do everything within your power to make them see the folly of their +attitude. Do not threaten them, for they are a surly people and you +might precipitate matters. Swallow your pride if you must; remember that +yours is a gigantic responsibility, and upon the information you bring +us may depend the salvation of millions. I am convinced that they are +not--you have a word in your language that fits exactly. Not pretending +... what is the word?" + +"Bluffing?" I had supplied in English, smiling. + +"Right! Bluffing. It is a very descriptive word. I am sure they are not +bluffing." + +I was sure of it also. They knew the power of the Alliance; they had +been made to feel it more than once. A bluff would have been a foolish +thing, and these people were not fools. In some lines of research they +were extraordinarily brilliant. + +But what could their new, terrible weapon be? Rays we had; at least half +a dozen rays of destruction; the terrible dehydrating ray of the Deuber +Spheres, the disintegrating ray that dated back before Ame Baove and his +first voyage into space, the concentrated ultra-violet ray that struck +men down in fiery torment.... No, it could hardly be a new ray that was +their boasted weapon. + +What, then? Electricity had even then been exhausted of its +possibilities. Atomic energy had been released, harnessed, and directed. +Yet it would take fabulous time and expense to make these machines of +destruction do what they claimed they would do. + +Still pondering the problem, I did fall at last into a fitful travesty +of sleep. + + * * * * * + +I was glad when the soft clamor of the bell aft announced the next +change of watch. I rose, cleared the cobwebs from my brain with an icy +shower, and made my way directly to the navigating room. + +"Everything tidy, sir," said Eitel, my second officer, and a Zenian. He +was thin and very dark, like all Zenians, and had the high, effeminate +voice of that people. But he was cool and fearless and had the uncanny +cerebration of his kind; I trusted him as completely as I trusted Barry, +my first officer, who, like myself, was a native of Earth. "Will you +take over?" + +"Yes," I nodded, glancing at the twin charts beneath the ground glass +top of the control table. "Get what sleep you can the next few enaros. +Presently I shall want every man on duty and at his station." + +He glanced at me curiously, as the observer had done, but saluted and +left with only a brief, "Yes, sir!" I returned the salute and turned my +attention again to the charts. + +The navigating room of an interplanetary ship is without doubt +unfamiliar ground to most, so it might be well for me to say that such +ships have, for the most part, twin charts, showing progress in two +dimensions; to use land terms, lateral and vertical. These charts are +really no more than large sheets of ground glass, ruled in both +directions with fine black lines, representing all relatively close +heavenly bodies by green lights of varying sizes. The ship itself is +represented by a red spark and the whole is, of course, entirely +automatic in action, the instruments comprising the chart being operated +by super-radio reflexes. + + * * * * * + +Jaron, the charts showed me at a glance, was now far behind. Almost +directly above--it is necessary to resort to these unscientific terms to +make my meaning clear--was the tiny world Elon, home of the friendly but +impossibly dull winged people, the only ones in the known Universe. I +was there but once, and found them almost laughably like our common +dragon-flies on Earth; dragon-flies that grow some seven feet long, and +with gauzy wings of amazing strength. + +Directly ahead, on both charts, was a brilliantly glowing sphere of +green--our destination. I made some rapid mental calculations, studying +the few fine black lines between the red spark that was our ship, and +the nearest edge of the great green sphere. I glanced at our speed +indicator and the attraction meter. The little red slide that moved +around the rim of the attraction meter was squarely at the top, showing +that the attraction was from straight ahead; the great black hand was +nearly a third of the way around the face. + +We were very close; two hours would bring us into the atmospheric +envelope. In less than two hours and a half, we would be in the Control +City of what is now called the Forgotten Planet! + +I glanced forward, through the thick glass partitions, into the +operating room. Three men stood there, watching intently; they too, were +wondering why we visited the unfriendly world. + +The planet itself loomed up straight ahead, a great half-circle, its +curved rim sharp and bright against the empty blackness of space; the +chord ragged and blurred. In two hours ... I turned away and began a +restless pacing. + + * * * * * + +An hour went by; an hour and a half. I pressed the attention button to +the operating room, and gave orders to reduce our speed by half. We were +very close to the outer fringe of the atmospheric envelope. Then, +keeping my eye on the big surface-temperature gauge, with its stubby red +hand, I resumed my nervous pacing. + +Slowly the thick red hand of the surface-temperature gauge began to +move; slowly, and then more rapidly, until the eyes could catch its +creeping. + +"Reduce to atmospheric speed," I ordered curtly, and glanced down +through a side port at one end of the long navigating room. + +We were, at the moment, directly above the twilight belt. To my right, +as I looked down, I could see a portion of the glistening antarctic ice +cap. Here and there were the great flat lakes, almost seas, of the +planet. + +Our geographies of the Universe to-day do not show the topography of +the Forgotten Planet: I might say, therefore, that the entire sphere was +land area, with numerous great lakes embedded in its surface, together +with many broad, very crooked rivers. As Ame Baove had reported, there +were no mountains, and no high land. + +"Altitude constant," I ordered. "Port three degrees. Stand by for +further orders." + +The earth seemed to whirl slowly beneath us. Great cities drifted +astern, and I compared the scene below me with the great maps I took +from our chart-case. The Control City should be just beyond the visible +rim; well in the daylight area. + +"Port five degrees," I said, and pressed the attention button to Barry's +quarters. + +"Mr. Barry, please call all men to quarters, including the off-duty +watch, and then report to the navigating room. Mr. Eitel will be under +my direct orders. We shall descend within the next few minutes." + +"Very well, sir." + +I pressed the attention button to Eitel's room. + +"Mr. Eitel, please pick ten of your best men and have them report at the +forward exit. Await me, with the men, at that place. I shall be with you +as soon as I turn the command over to Mr. Barry. We are descending +immediately." + +"Right, sir!" said Eitel. + + * * * * * + +I turned from the microphone to find that Barry had just entered the +navigating room. + +"We will descend into the Great Court of the Control City, Mr. Barry," +I said. "I have a mission here. I am sorry, but these are the only +instructions I can leave you. + +"I do not know how long I shall be gone from the ship, but if I do not +return within three hours, depart without me, and report directly to +Kellen of the Council. To him, and no other. Tell him, verbally, what +took place. Should there be any concerted action against the _Tamon_, +use your own judgment as to the action to be taken, remembering that the +safety of the ship and its crew, and the report of the Council, are +infinitely more important than my personal welfare. Is that clear?" + +"Yes, sir. Too damned clear." + +I smiled and shook my head. + +"Don't worry," I said lightly. "I'll be back well within the appointed +time." + +"I hope so. But there's something wrong as hell here. I'm talking now as +man to man; not to my commanding officer. I've been watching below, and +I have seen at least two spots where large numbers of our ships have +been destroyed. The remaining ships bear their own damned emblem where +the crest of the Alliance should be--and was. What does it mean?" + +"It means," I said slowly, "that I shall have to rely upon every man and +officer to forget himself and myself, and obey orders without hesitation +and without flinching. The orders are not mine, but direct from the +Council itself." I held out my hand to him--an ancient Earth gesture of +greeting, good-will and farewell--and he shook it vigorously. + +"God go with you," he said softly, and with a little nod of thanks I +turned and quickly left the room. + + * * * * * + +Eitel, with his ten men, were waiting for me at the forward exit. The +men fell back a few paces and came to attention; Eitel saluted smartly. + +"We are ready, sir. What are your orders?" + +"You are to guard this opening. Under no circumstances is anyone to +enter save myself. I shall be gone not longer than three hours; if I am +not back within that time, Mr. Barry has his orders. The exit will be +sealed, and the _Tamon_ will depart immediately, without me." + +"Yes, sir. You will pardon me, but I gather that your mission is a +dangerous one. May I not accompany you?" + +I shook my head. + +"I shall need you here." + +"But, sir, they are very excited and angry; I have been watching them +from the observation ports. And there is a vast crowd of them around the +ship." + +"I had expected that. I thank you for your concern, but I must go alone. +Those are the orders. Will you unseal the exit?" + +His "Yes, sir!" was brisk and efficient, but there was a worried frown +on his features as he unlocked and released the switch that opened the +exit. + +The huge plug of metal, some ten feet in diameter, revolved swiftly and +noiselessly, backing slowly in its fine threads into the interior of the +ship, gripped by the ponderous gimbals which, as the last threads +disengaged, swung the mighty disc to one side, like the door of some +great safe. + +"Remember your orders," I smiled, and with a little gesture to convey an +assurance which I certainly did not feel, I strode through the circular +opening out into the crowd. The heavy glass secondary door shot down +behind me, and I was in the hands of the enemy. + + * * * * * + +The first thing I observed was that my menore, which I had picked up on +my way to the exit, was not functioning. Not a person in all that vast +multitude wore a menore; the five black-robed dignitaries who marched to +meet me wore none. + +Nothing could have showed more clearly that I was in for trouble. To +invite a visitor, as Kellen had done, to remove his menore first, was, +of course, a polite and courteous thing to do if one wished to +communicate by speech; to remove the menore before greeting a visitor +wearing one, was a tacit admission of rank enmity; a confession that +one's thoughts were to be concealed. + +My first impulse was to snatch off my own instrument and fling it in the +solemn, ugly faces of the nearest of the five dignataries; I remembered +Kellen's warning just in time. Quietly, I removed the metal circlet and +tucked it under my arm, bowing slightly to the committee of five as I +did so. + +"I am Ja Ben," said the first of the five, with an evil grin. "You are +the representative of the Council that we commanded to appear?" + +"I am John Hanson, commander of the ship _Tamon_ of the Special Patrol +Service. I am here to represent the Central Council," I replied with +dignity. + +"As we commanded," grinned Ja Ben. "That is good. Follow us and you +shall have the evidence you were promised." + +Ja Ben led the way with two of his black-robed followers. The other two +fell in behind me. A virtual prisoner, I marched between them, through +the vast crowd that made way grudgingly to let us pass. + + * * * * * + +I have seen the people of most of the planets of the known Universe. +Many of them, to Earth notions, are odd. But these people, so much like +us in many respects, were strangely repulsive. + +Their heads, as Ame Baove had recorded, were not round like ours, but +possessed a high bony crest that ran from between their lashless, +browless eyes, down to the very nape of their necks. Their skin, even +that covering their hairless heads, was a dull and papery white, like +parchment, and their eyes were abnormally small, and nearly round. A +hateful, ugly people, perpetually scowling, snarling; their very voices +resembled more the growl of wild beasts than the speech of intelligent +beings. + +Ja Ben led the way straight to the low but vast building of dun-colored +stone that I knew was the administration building of the Control City. +We marched up the broad, crowded steps, through the muttering, jeering +multitude into the building itself. The guards at the doors stood aside +to let us through and the crowd at last was left behind. + +A swift, cylindrical elevator shot us upward, into a great glass-walled +laboratory, built like a sort of penthouse on the roof. Ja Ben walked +quickly across the room towards a long, glass-topped table; the other +four closed in on me silently but suggestively. + +"That is unnecessary," I said quietly. "See, I am unarmed and completely +in your power. I am here as an ambassador of the Central Council, not as +a warrior." + +"Which is as well for you," grinned Ja Ben. "What I have to show you, +you can see quickly, and then depart." + +From a great cabinet in one corner of the room he took a shining +cylinder of dark red metal, and held it up before him, stroking its +sleek sides with an affectionate hand. + + * * * * * + +"Here it is," he said, chuckling. "The secret of our power. In here, +safely imprisoned now, but capable of being released at our command, is +death for every living thing upon any planet we choose to destroy." He +replaced the great cylinder in the cabinet, and picked up in its stead a +tiny vial of the same metal, no larger than my little finger, and not so +long. "Here," he said, turning again towards me, "is the means of +proving our power to you. Come closer!" + +With my bodyguard of four watching every move, I approached. + +Ja Ben selected a large hollow hemisphere of crystal glass and placed it +upon a smooth sheet of flat glass. Next he picked a few blossoms from a +bowl that stood, incongruously enough, on the table, and threw them +under the glass hemisphere. + +"Flora," he grinned. + +Hurrying to the other end of the room, he reached into a large flat +metal cage and brought forth three small rodent like animals, natives of +that world. These he also tossed carelessly under the glass. + +"Fauna," he grunted, and picked up the tiny metal vial. + +One end of the vial unscrewed. He turned the cap gently, carefully, a +strained, anxious look upon his face. My four guards watched him +breathlessly, fearfully. + + * * * * * + +The cap came loose at last, disclosing the end of the tube, sealed with +a grayish substance that looked like wax. Very quickly Ja Ben rolled the +little cylinder under the glass hemisphere, and picked up a beaker that +had been bubbling gently on an electric plate close by. Swiftly he +poured the thick contents of the beaker around the base of the glass +bell. The stuff hardened almost instantly, forming an air-tight seal +between the glass hemisphere and the flat plate of glass upon which it +rested. Then, with an evil, triumphant smile, Ja Ben looked up. + +"_Flora_," he repeated. "_Fauna._ And _death_. Watch! The little metal +cylinder is plugged still, but in a moment that plug will +disappear--simply a volatile solid, you understand. It is going rapidly +... rapidly ... it is almost gone now! Watch ... In an instant now ... +_ah!_" + +I saw the gray substance that stopped the entrance of the little metal +vial disappear. The rodents ran around and over it, trying to find a +crevice by which they might escape. The flowers, bright and beautiful, +lay untidily on the bottom of the glass prison. + +Then, just as the last vestige of the gray plug vanished; an amazing, a +terrible thing happened. At the mouth of the tiny metal vial a greenish +cloud appeared. I call it a cloud, but it was not that. It was solid, +and it spread in every direction, sending out little needles that lashed +about and ran together into a solid mass while millions of little +needles reached out swiftly. + +One of these little needles touched a scurrying animal. Instantly the +tiny brute stiffened, and from his entire body the greenish needles +spread swiftly. One of the flowers turned suddenly thick and pulpy with +the soft green mass, then another, another of the rodents ... _God!_ + +In the space of two heart beats, the entire hemisphere was filled with +the green mass, that still moved and writhed and seemed to press against +the glass sides as though the urge to expand was insistent, +imperative.... + + * * * * * + +"What is it?" I whispered, still staring at the thing. + +"_Death!_" grunted Ja Ben, thrusting his hateful face close to mine, his +tiny round eyes, with their lashless lids glinting. "Death, my friend. +Go and tell your great Council of this death that we have created for +every planet that will not obey us. + +"We have gone back into the history of dealing death and have come back +with a death such as the Universe has never known before! + +"Here is a rapacious, deadly fungus we have been two centuries in +developing. The spores contained in that tiny metal tube would be +invisible to the naked eye--and yet given but a little time to grow, +with air and vegetation and flesh to feed upon, and even that small +capsule would wipe out a world. And in the cabinet,"--he pointed +grinning triumphantly--"we have, ready for instant use, enough of the +spores of this deadly fungas to wipe out all the worlds of your great +Alliance. + +"To wipe them out utterly!" he repeated, his voice shaking with a sort +of frenzy now. "Every living thing upon their faces, wrapped in that +thin, hungry green stuff you see there under that glass. All life wiped +out; made uninhabitable so long as the Universe shall endure. And +we--_we_ shall be rulers, unquestioned, of that Universe. Tell your +doddering Council _that_!" He leaned back against the table, panting +with hate. + +"I shall tell them all I have seen; all you have said," I nodded. + +"You believe we have the power to do all this?" + +"I do--God help me, and the Universe," I said solemnly. + + * * * * * + +There was no doubt in my mind. I could see all too clearly how well +their plans had been laid; how quickly this hellish growth would +strangle all life, once its spores began to develop. + +The only possible chance was to get back to the Council and make my +report, with all possible speed, so that every available armed ship of +the universe might concentrate here, and wipe out these people before +they had time to-- + +"I know what you are thinking, my friend," broke in Ja Ben mockingly. +"You might as well have worn the menore! You would have the ships of the +Alliance destroy us before we have time to act. We had foreseen that, +and have provided for the possibility. + +"As soon as you leave here, ships, provided with many tubes like the one +just used for our little demonstration, will be dispersed in every +direction. We shall be in constant communication with those ships, and +at the least sign of hostility, they will be ordered to depart and +spread their death upon every world they can reach. Some of them you may +be able to locate and eliminate; a number of them are certain to elude +capture in infinite space--and if only one, one lone ship, should +escape, the doom of the Alliance and millions upon millions of people +will be pronounced. + +"I warn you, it will be better, much better, to bow to our wishes, and +pay us the tribute we shall demand. Any attempt at resistance will +precipitate certain disaster for your Council and all the worlds the +Council governs." + +"At least, we would wipe you out first," I said hoarsely. + +"True," nodded Ja Ben. "But the vengeance of our ships would be a +terrible thing! You would not dare to take the chance!" + +I stood there, staring at him in a sort of daze. What he had said was so +true; terribly, damnably true. + +If only-- + + * * * * * + +There was but one chance I could see, and desperate as it was, I took +it. Whirling the heavy metal ring of my menore in my hand, I sprang +towards the table. + +If I could break the sealed glass hemisphere, and loose the fungus upon +its creators; deal to them the doom they had planned for the universe, +then perhaps all might yet be well. + +Ja Ben understood instantly what was in my mind. He and his four aides +leaped between me and the table, their tiny round eyes blazing with +anger. I struck one of the four viciously with the menore, and with a +gasp he fell back and slumped to the floor. + +Before I could break through the opening, however, Ja Ben struck me full +in the face with his mighty fist; a blow that sent me, dazed and +reeling, into a corner of the room. I brought up with a crash against +the cabinet there, groped wildly in an effort to steady myself, and fell +to the floor. Almost before I struck, all four of them were upon me. + +They hammered me viciously, shouted at me, cursed me in the universal +tongue, but I paid no heed. I pretended to be unconscious, but my heart +was beating high with sudden, glorious hope, and in my brain a terrible, +merciless plan was forming. + +When I had groped against the cabinet in an effort to regain my balance, +my fingers had closed upon one of the little metal vials. As I fell, I +covered that hand with my body and hastily hid the tiny tube in a deep +pocket of my blue and silver Service uniform. + + * * * * * + +Slowly, after a few seconds, I opened my eyes and looked up at them, +helplessly. + +"Go, now!" snarled Ja Ben, dragging me to my feet. "Go, and tell your +Council we are more than a match for you--and for them." He thrust me, +reeling, towards his three assistants. "Take him to his ship, and send +aid for Ife Rance, here." He glanced at the still unconscious figure of +the victim of my menore, and then turned to me with a last warning. + +"Remember, one thing more, my friend: you have disintegrator ray +equipment upon your ship. You have the little atomic bombs that won for +the Alliance the Second War of the Planets. I know that. But if you make +the slightest effort to use them, I shall dispatch a supply of the green +death to our ships, and they will depart upon their missions at once. +You would take upon yourself a terrible responsibility by making the +smallest hostile move. + +"Go, now--and when you return, bring with you members of your great +Council who will have the power to hear our demands, and see that they +are obeyed. And do not keep us waiting over long, for we are an +impatient race." He bowed, mockingly, and passed his left hand swiftly +before his face, his people's sign of parting. + +I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and, hemmed in by my three +black-robed conductors, was hurried down the elevator and back through +the jeering mob to my ship. + + * * * * * + +The glass secondary door shot up to permit me to enter, and Eitel +gripped my shoulder anxiously, his eyes smoldering angrily. + +"You're hurt, sir!" he said in his odd, high-pitched voice, staring into +my bruised face. "What--" + +"It's nothing," I assured him. "Close the exit immediately; we depart at +once." + +"Yes, sir!" He closed the switch, and the great threaded plug swung +gently on its gimbals and began to revolve, swiftly and silently. A +little bell sounded sharply, and the great door ceased its motion. Eitel +locked the switch and returned the key to his pocket. + +"Good. All men are at their stations?" I asked briskly. + +"Yes, sir! All except these ten, detailed to guard the exit." + +"Have them report to their regular stations. Issue orders to the ray +operators that they are to instantly, and without further orders, +destroy any ship that may leave the surface of this planet. Have every +atomic bomb crew ready for an instant and concentrated offensive +directed at the Control City, but command them not to act under any +circumstances unless I give the order. Is that clear, Mr. Eitel?" + +"Yes, sir!" + +I nodded, and turned away, making my way immediately to the navigating +room. + +"Mr. Barry," I said quickly and gravely, "I believe that the fate of the +known Universe depends upon us at this moment. We will ascend +vertically, at once--slowly--until we are just outside the envelope, +maintaining only sufficient horizontal motion to keep us directly over +the Control City. Will you give the necessary orders?" + +"Immediately, sir!" He pressed the attention button to the operating +room and spoke swiftly into the microphone; before he completed the +order I had left. + + * * * * * + +We were already ascending when I reached the port forward atomic bomb +station. The man in charge, a Zenian, saluted with automatic precision +and awaited orders. + +"You have a bomb in readiness?" I asked, returning the salute. + +"Those were my orders, sir." + +"Correct. Remove it, please." + +I waited impatiently while the crew removed the bomb from the releasing +trap. It was withdrawn at last; a fish-shaped affair, very much like the +ancient airplane bombs save that it was no larger than my two fists, +placed one upon the other, and that it had four silvery wires running +along its sides, from rounded nose to pointed tail, held at a distance +from the body by a series of insulating struts. + +"Now," I said, "how quickly can you put another object in the trap, +re-seal the opening, and release the object?" + +"While the Commander counts ten with reasonable speed," said the Zenian +with pride. "We won first honors in the Special Patrol Service contests +at the last Examination, the Commander may remember." + +"I do remember. That is why I selected you for this duty." + +With hands that trembled a little, I think, I drew forth the little vial +of gleaming red metal, while the bombing crew watched me curiously. + +"I shall unscrew the cap from this little vial," I explained, "and drop +it immediately into the releasing trap. Re-seal the trap and release +this object as quickly as it is possible to do so. If you can better the +time you made to win the honors at the Examination--in God's name, do +so!" + +"Yes, sir!" replied the Zenian. He gave brisk orders to his crew, and +each of the three men sprang alertly into position. + + * * * * * + +As quickly as I could, I turned off the cap of the little metal vial and +dropped it into the trap. The heavy plug, a tiny duplicate of the exit +door, clicked shut upon it and spun, whining gently, into the opening. +Something clicked sharply, and one of the crew dropped a bar into place. +As it shot home, the Zenian in command of the crew pulled the release +plunger. + +"Done, sir!" he said proudly. + +I did not reply. My eye fixed upon the observation tube that was +following the tiny missile to the ground. + +The Control City was directly below us. I lost sight of the vial almost +instantly, but the indicating cross-hairs showed me exactly where the +vial would strike; at a point approximately half way between the edge of +the city and the great squat pile of the administrating building, with +its gleaming glass penthouse--the laboratory in which, only a few +minutes before, I had witnessed the demonstration of the death which +awaited the Universe. + +"Excellent!" I exclaimed. "Smartly done, men!" I turned and hurried to +the navigating room, where the most powerful of our television discs was +located. + +The disc was not as perfect as those we have to-day; it was hooded to +keep out exterior light, which is not necessary with the later +instruments, and it was more unwieldy. However, it did its work, and did +it well, in the hands of an experienced operator. + +With only a nod to Barry, I turned the range band to maximum, and +brought it swiftly to bear upon that portion of the city in which the +little vial had fallen. As I drew the focusing lever towards me, the +scene leaped at me through the clear, glowing glass disc. + + * * * * * + +Froth! Green, billowing froth that grew and boiled and spread +unceasingly. In places it reached high into the air, and it moved with +an eager, inner life that was somehow terrible and revolting. I moved +the range hand back, and the view seemed to drop away from me swiftly. + +I could see the whole city now. All one side of it was covered with the +spreading green stain that moved and flowed so swiftly. Thousands of +tiny black figures were running in the streets, crowding away from the +awful danger that menaced them. + +The green patch spread more swiftly always. When I had first seen it, +the edges were advancing as rapidly as a man could run; now they were +fairly racing, and the speed grew constantly. + +A ship, two of them, three of them came darting from somewhere, towards +the administration building, with its glass cupola. I held my breath as +the deep, sudden humming from the _Tamon_ told me that our rays were +busy. Would they-- + +One of the enemy ships disappeared suddenly in a little cloud of dirty, +heavy dust that settled swiftly. Another ... and the third. Three little +streaks of dust, falling, falling.... + +A fourth ship, and a fifth came rushing up, their sides faintly glowing +from the speed they had made. The green flood, thick and insistent, was +racing up and over the administration building now. It reached the roof, +ran swiftly.... + +The fourth ship shattered into dust. The fifth settled swiftly--and then +that ship also disappeared, together with a corner of the building. Then +the thick green stuff flowed over the whole building and there was +nothing to be seen there but a mound of soft, flowing, gray-green stuff +that rushed on now with the swiftness of the wind. + + * * * * * + +I looked up, into Barry's face. + +"You're ill!" he said quickly. "Is there anything I can do, sir?" + +"Yes," I said, forming the words with difficulty. "Give orders to ascend +at emergency speed!" + +For once my first officer hesitated. He glanced at the attraction meter +and then turned to me again, wondering. + +"At this height, sir, emergency speed will mean dangerous heating of the +surface; perhaps--" + +"I want it white hot, Mr. Barry. She is built to stand it. Emergency +speed, please--immediately!" + +"Right, sir!" he said briskly, and gave the order. + +I felt my weight increase as the order was obeyed; gradually the +familiar, uncomfortable feeling left me. Silently, Barry and I watched +the big surface temperature gauge as it started to move. The heat inside +became uncomfortable, grew intense. The sweat poured from us. In the +operating room forward, I could see the men casting quick, wondering +glances up at us through the heavy glass partition that lay between. + +The thick, stubby red hand of the surface temperature gauge moved slowly +but steadily towards the heavy red line that marked the temperature at +which the outer shell of our hull would become incandescent. The hand +was within three or four degrees of that mark when I gave Barry the +order to arrest our motion. + +When he had given the order, I turned to him and motioned towards the +television disc. + +"Look," I said. + + * * * * * + +He looked, and when at last he tore his face away from the hood, he +seemed ten years older. + +"What is it?" he asked in a choked whisper. "Why--they're being wiped +out; the whole of that world--" + +"True. And some of the seeds of that terrible death might have drifted +upward, and found a lodging place upon the surface of our ship. That is +why I ordered the emergency speed while we were still within the +atmospheric envelope, Barry. To burn away that contamination, if it +existed. Now we are safe, unless--" + +I pressed the attention button to the station of the chief of the ray +operators. + +"Your report," I ordered. + +"Nine ships disintegrated, sir," he replied instantly. "Five before the +city was destroyed, four later." + +"You are certain that none escaped?" + +"Positive, sir." + +"Very good." + +I turned to Barry, smiling. + +"Point her nose for Zenia, Mr. Barry," I said. "As soon as it is +feasible, resume emergency speed. There are some very anxious gentlemen +there awaiting our report, and I dare not convey it except in person." + +"Yes, sir!" said Barry crisply. + + * * * * * + +This, then, is the history of the Forgotten Planet. On the charts of the +Universe it appears as an unnamed world. No ship is permitted to pass +close enough to it so that its attraction is greater than that of the +nearest other mass. A permanent outpost of fixed-station ships, with +headquarters upon Jaron, the closest world, is maintained by the +Council. + +There are millions of people who might be greatly disturbed if they knew +of this potential menace that lurks in the midst of our Universe, but +they do not know. The wisdom of the Council made certain of that. + +But, in order that in the ages to come there might be a record of this +matter, I have been asked to prepare this document for the sealed +archives of the Alliance. It has been a pleasant task; I have relived, +for a little time, a part of my youth. + +The work is done, now, and that is well. I am an old man, and weary. +Sometimes I wish I might live to see the wonders that the next +generation or so will witness, but my years are heavy upon me. + +My work is done. + + * * * * * + +ASTOUNDING STORIES + +_Appears on Newsstands_ + +THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: "_And I would have been the greatest man in the world._"] + + + + +The Power and the Glory + +_By Charles W. Diffin_ + + +There were papers on the desk, a litter of papers scrawled over, in the +careless writing of indifferent students, with the symbols of chemistry +and long mathematical computations. The man at the desk pushed them +aside to rest his lean, lined face on one thin hand. The other arm, +ending at the wrist, was on the desk before him. + +[Sidenote: Sadly, sternly, the old professor reveals to his brilliant +pupil the greater path to glory.] + +Students of a great university had long since ceased to speculate about +the missing hand. The result of an experiment, they knew--a hand that +was a mass of lifeless cells, amputated quickly that the living arm +might be saved--but that was some several years ago, ancient history to +those who came and went through Professor Eddinger's class room. + +And now Professor Eddinger was weary--weary and old, he told himself--as +he closed his eyes to shut out the sight of the interminable papers and +the stubby wrist that had ended forever his experiments and the delicate +manipulations which only he could do. + +He reached slowly for a buzzing phone, but his eyes brightened at the +voice that came to him. + +"I've got it--I've got it!" The words were almost incoherent. "This is +Avery, Professor--Avery! You must come at once. You will share in it; I +owe it all to you ... you will be the first to see ... I am sending a +taxi for you--" + +Professor Eddinger's tired eyes crinkled to a smile. Enthusiasm like +this was rare among his youngsters. But Avery--with the face of a poet, +a dreamer's eyes and the mind of a scientist--good boy, Avery!--a long +time since he had seen him--had him in his own laboratory for two +years.... + +"What's this all about?" he asked. + +"No--no!" said a voice; "I can't tell you--it is too big--greater than +the induction motor--greater than the electric light--it is the greatest +thing in the world. The taxi should be there now--you must come--" + +A knock at the office door where a voice said, "Car for Professor +Eddinger," confirmed the excited words. + +"I'll come," said the Professor, "right away." + + * * * * * + +He pondered, as the car whirled him across the city, on what this +greatest thing in the world might be. And he hoped with gentle +skepticism that the enthusiasm was warranted. A young man opened the car +door as they stopped. His face was flushed, Eddinger noted, hair pushed +back in disarray, his shirt torn open at the throat. + +"Wait here," he told the driver and took the Professor by the arm to +hurry him into a dilapidated building. + +"Not much of a laboratory," he said, "but we'll have better, you and I; +we'll have better--" + +The room seemed bare with its meager equipment, but it was neat, as +became the best student of Professor Eddinger. Rows of reagent bottles +stood on the shelves, but the tables were a litter of misplaced +instruments and broken glassware where trembling hands had fumbled in +heedless excitement. + +"Glad to see you again, Avery." The gentle voice of Professor Eddinger +had lost its tired tone. "It's been two years you've been working, I +judge. Now what is this great discovery, boy? What have you found?" + +The younger man, in whose face the color came and went, and whose eyes +were shining from dark hollows that marked long days and sleepless +nights, still clung to the other's arm. + +"It's real," he said; "it's great! It means fortune and fame, and you're +in on that, Professor. The old master," he said and clapped a hand +affectionately upon a thin shoulder; "I owe it all to you. And now I +have--I have learned.... No, you shall see for yourself. Wait--" + + * * * * * + +He crossed quickly to a table. On it was an apparatus; the eyes of the +older man widened as he saw it. It was intricate--a maze of tubing. +There was a glass bulb above--the generator of a cathode ray, +obviously--and electro-magnets below and on each side. Beneath was a +crude sphere of heavy lead--a retort, it might be--and from this there +passed two massive, insulated cables. The understanding eyes of the +Professor followed them, one to a terminal on a great insulating block +upon the floor, the other to a similarly protected terminal of carbon +some feet above it in the air. + +The trembling fingers of the young man made some few adjustments, then +he left the instrument to take his place by an electric switch. "Stand +back," he warned, and closed the switch. + +There was a gentle hissing from within glass tubes, the faint glow of a +blue-green light. And that was all, until--with a crash like the ripping +crackle of lightning, a white flame arced between the terminals of the +heavy cables. It hissed ceaselessly through the air where now the tang +of ozone was apparent. The carbon blocks glowed with a brilliant +incandescence when the flame ceased with the motion of a hand where +Avery pulled a switch. + +The man's voice was quiet now. "You do not know, yet, what you have +seen, but there was a tremendous potential there--an amperage I can't +measure with my limited facilities." He waved a deprecating hand about +the ill-furnished laboratory. "But you have seen--" His voice trembled +and failed at the forming of the words. + +"--The disintegration of the atom," said Professor Eddinger quietly, +"and the release of power unlimited. Did you use thorium?" he inquired. + +The other looked at him in amazement. Then: "I should have known you +would understand," he said humbly. "And you know what it means"--again +his voice rose--"power without end to do the work of the world--great +vessels driven a lifetime on a mere ounce of matter--a revolution in +transportation--in living...." He paused. "The liberation of mankind," +he added, and his voice was reverent. "This will do the work of the +world: it will make a new heaven and a new earth! Oh, I have dreamed +dreams," he exclaimed, "I have seen visions. And it has been given to +me--me!--to liberate man from the curse of Adam ... the sweat of his +brow.... I can't realize it even yet. I--I am not worthy...." + + * * * * * + +He raised his eyes slowly in the silence to gaze in wondering +astonishment at the older man. There was no answering light, no +exaltation on the lined face. Only sadness in the tired eyes that looked +at him and through him as if focused upon something in a dim future--or +past. + +"Don't you see?" asked the wondering man. "The freedom of men--the +liberation of a race. No more poverty, no endless, grinding labor." His +young eyes, too, were looking into the future, a future of blinding +light. "Culture," he said, "instead of heart-breaking toil, a chance to +grow mentally, spiritually; it is another world, a new life--" And again +he asked: "Surely, you see?" + +"I see," said the other; "I see--plainly." + +"The new world," said Avery. "It--it dazzles me; it rings like music in +my ears." + +"I see no new world," was the slow response. + +The young face was plainly perplexed. "Don't you believe?" he stammered. +"After you have seen ... I thought you would have the vision, would help +me emancipate the world, save it--" His voice failed. + +"Men have a way of crucifying their saviors," said the tired voice. + +The inventor was suddenly indignant. "You are blind," he said harshly; +"it is too big for you. And I would have had you stand beside me in the +great work.... I shall announce it alone.... There will be +laboratories--enormous!--and factories. My invention will be perfected, +simplified, compressed. A generator will be made--thousands of +horsepower to do the work of a city, free thousands of men--made so +small you can hold it in one hand." + +The sensitive face was proudly alight, proud and a trifle arrogant. The +exaltation of his coming power was strong upon him. + +"Yes," said Professor Eddinger, "in one hand." And he raised his right +arm that he might see where the end of a sleeve was empty. + +"I am sorry," said the inventor abruptly; "I didn't mean ... but you +will excuse me now; there is so much to be done--" But the thin figure +of Professor Eddinger had crossed to the far table to examine the +apparatus there. + +"Crude," he said beneath his breath, "crude--but efficient!" + + * * * * * + +In the silence a rat had appeared in the distant corner. The Professor +nodded as he saw it. The animal stopped as the man's eyes came upon it; +then sat squirrellike on one of the shelves as it ate a crumb of food. +Some morsel from a hurried lunch of Avery's, the Professor +reflected--poor Avery! Yes, there was much to be done. + +He spoke as much to himself as to the man who was now beside him. "It +enters here," he said and peered downward toward the lead bulb. He +placed a finger on the side of the metal. "About here, I should +think.... Have you a drill? And a bit of quartz?" + +The inventor's eyes were puzzled, but the assurance of his old +instructor claimed obedience. He produced a small drill and a fragment +like broken glass. And he started visibly as the one hand worked +awkwardly to make a small hole in the side of the lead. But he withdrew +his own restraining hand, and he watched in mystified silence while the +quartz was fitted to make a tiny window and the thin figure stooped to +sight as if aiming the opening toward a far corner where a brown rat sat +upright in earnest munching of a dry crust. + +The Professor drew Avery with him as he retreated noiselessly from the +instrument. "Will you close the switch," he whispered. + +The young man hesitated, bewildered, at this unexpected demonstration, +and the Professor himself reached with his one hand for the black lever. +Again the arc crashed into life, to hold for a brief instant until +Professor Eddinger opened the switch. + +"Well," demanded Avery, "what's all the show? Do you think you are +teaching me anything--about my own instrument?" There was hurt pride and +jealous resentment in his voice. + +"See," said Professor Eddinger quietly. And his one thin hand pointed to +a far shelf, where, in the shadow, was a huddle of brown fur and a bit +of crust. It fell as they watched, and the "plop" of the soft body upon +the floor sounded loud in the silent room. + +"The law of compensation," said Professor Eddinger. "Two sides to the +medal! Darkness and light--good and evil--life ... and death!" + + * * * * * + +The young man was stammering. "What do you mean?--a death ray evolved?" +And: "What of it?" he demanded; "what of it? What's that got to do with +it?" + +"A death ray," the other agreed. "You have dreamed, Avery--one must in +order to create--but it is only a dream. You dreamed of life--a fuller +life--for the world, but you would have given them, as you have just +seen, death." + +The face of Avery was white as wax; his eyes glared savagely from dark +hollows. + +"A rat!" he protested. "You have killed a rat ... and you say--you +say--" He raised one trembling hand to his lips to hold them from +forming the unspeakable words. + +"A rat," said the Professor--"or a man ... or a million men." + +"We will control it." + +"All men will have it--the best and the worst ... and there is no +defence." + +"It will free the world--" + +"It will destroy it." + +"No!"--and the white-faced man was shouting now--"you don't +understand--you can't see--" + +The lean figure of the scientist straightened to its full height. His +eyes met those of the younger man, silent now before him, but Avery knew +the eyes never saw him; they were looking far off, following the wings +of thought. In the stillness the man's words came harsh and commanding-- + +"Do you see the cities," he said, "crumbling to ruins under the cold +stars? The fields? They are rank with wild growth, torn and gullied by +the waters; a desolate land where animals prowl. And the people--the +people!--wandering bands, lower, as the years drag on, than the beasts +themselves; the children dying, forgotten, in the forgotten lands; a +people to whom the progress of our civilization is one with the ages +past, for whom there is again the slow, toiling road toward the light. + +"And somewhere, perhaps, a conquering race, the most brutal and callous +of mankind, rioting in their sense of power and dragging themselves down +to oblivion...." + + * * * * * + +His gaze came slowly back to the room and the figure of the man still +fighting for his dream. + +"They would not," said Avery hoarsely; "they'd use it for good." + +"Would they?" asked Professor Eddinger. He spoke simply as one stating +simple facts. "I love my fellow men," he said, "and I killed them in +thousands in the last war--I, and my science, and my poison gas." + +The figure of Avery slumped suddenly upon a chair; his face was buried +in his hands. "And I would have been," he groaned, "the greatest man in +the world." + +"You shall be greater," said the Professor, "though only we shall know +it--you and I.... You will save the world--from itself." + +The figure, bowed and sunken in the chair, made no move; the man was +heedless of the kindly hand upon his shoulder. His voice, when he spoke, +was that of one afar off, speaking out of a great loneliness. "You don't +understand," he said dully; "you can't--" + +But Professor Eddinger, a cog in the wheels of a great educational +machine, glanced at the watch on his wrist. Again his thin shoulders +were stooped, his voice tired. "My classes," he said. "I must be +going...." + + * * * * * + +In the gathering dusk Professor Eddinger locked carefully the door of +his office. He crossed beyond his desk and fumbled with his one hand for +his keys. + +There was a cabinet to be opened, and he stared long in the dim light at +the object he withdrew. He looked approvingly at the exquisite +workmanship of an instrument where a generator of the cathode ray and an +intricate maze of tubing surmounted electro-magnets and a round lead +bulb. There were terminals for attaching heavy cables; it was a +beautiful thing.... His useless arm moved to bring an imaginary hand +before the window of quartz in the lead sphere. + +"Power," he whispered and repeated Avery's words; "power, to build a +city--or destroy a civilization ... and I hold it in one hand." + +He replaced the apparatus in the safety of its case. "The saviors of +mankind!" he said, and his tone was harsh and bitter. + +But a smile, whimsical, kindly, crinkled his tired eyes as he turned to +his desk and its usual litter of examination papers. + +"It is something, Avery," he whispered to that distant man, "to belong +in so distinguished a group." + + + + +A STAR THAT BREATHES + + +Beta Cephei, the mysterious Milky Way star which expands and contracts +as though it were breathing, at last has a biography. + +A summary of known facts concerning the star, interpreted in the light +of recent observations at the Lick Observatory at the University of +California was completed recently by H. S. Mendenhall, graduate student. + +Mendenhall's interpretations were said to lend weight to the theory that +Beta Cephei is contracting and expanding once in every four and one-half +hours. This is such a terrific rate of speed from a terrestrial point of +view that it appears to be moving toward and away from the earth at a +velocity reaching a maximum of about nine and one-half miles per second. + +Beta Cephei is a variable star in the Constellation Cepheus. It is best +visible in the northern sky during July or August. Its distance from the +earth is estimated roughly at 2,000,000,000,000,000 miles, and +Mendenhall estimates its diameter at almost 2,000,000 miles, more than +twice that of the sun. + +In addition to the apparent velocity caused by contraction and expansion +of its surface five times a day, Beta Cephei seems to have another +motion. This was said by Mendenhall to be a rotation around some other +star in a period of 20 years. Velocity of this rotation is something +over three miles a second. + +Variable stars are of particular interest to astronomers because the +light from them pulsates regularly, flaring and dying as though fuel +were replenished at regular intervals. The rate of this pulsation has +been found to be a measure to the candle power of the star. Its distance +then can be determined by contrasting its actual candle power with the +apparent magnitude as seen from the earth. + +[Illustration: _"Oh my God!" gasped Bell. He'd known this man before. A +Secret Service man--one of the seven who had vanished._] + + + + +Murder Madness + +PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Murray Leinster_ + + +Seven United States Secret Service men have disappeared in South +America. Another is found--a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored +that they are victims of a diabolical poison which produces "murder +madness." + +[Sidenote: More and more South Americans are stricken with the horrible +"murder madness" that lies in The Master's fearful poison. And Bell is +their one last hope as he fights to stem the swiftly rising tide of a +continent's utter enslavement.] + +Charley Bell of the "Trade"--a secret service organization which does +not officially exist--discovers that a sinister system of slavery is +flourishing in South America, headed by a mysterious man known only as +The Master. This slavery is accomplished by means of a poison which +causes its victims to experience a horrible writhing of the hands, +followed by a madness to do murder, two weeks after it is taken. + +The victims get relief only with an antidote supplied through Ribiera, +The Master's Chief Deputy; but in the antidote there is more of the +poison, which again in two weeks will take effect. And so it is that a +person who once receives the poison is forever enslaved. + +Ribiera kidnaps Paula Canalejas, daughter of a Brazilian cabinet +minister who, on becoming a victim, has killed himself, preferring +death to "murder madness." Bell rescues Paula, and they flee from +Ribiera in a plane. They find The Master's hidden jungle stronghold, and +Bell destroys it with a bomb attack from the air. As he is getting away +his motor quits. Paula jumps for her life, and shortly afterwards Bell +follows, drifting straight down towards his enemies below. + + +CHAPTER XI + +Bell was falling head-first when the 'chute opened, and the jerk was +terrific, the more so as he had counted not the customary ten, but +fifteen before pulling out the ring. But very suddenly he seemed to be +floating down with an amazing gentleness, with the ruddy blossom of a +parachute swaying against a background of lustrous stars very far indeed +over his head. Below him were masses of smoke and at least one huge +dancing mass of flame, where the storage tank for airplane gas had +exploded. It was unlikely in the extreme, he saw now, that anyone under +that canopy of smoke could look up to see plane or parachute against the +sky. + +Clumsily enough, dangling as he was, Bell twisted about to look for +Paula. Sheer panic came to him before he saw her a little above him but +a long distance off. She looked horribly alone with the glare of the +fires upon her parachute, and smoke that trailed away into darkness +below her. She was farther from the flames than Bell, too. The light +upon her was dimmer. And Bell cursed that he had stayed in the plane to +make sure it would dive clear of her before he stepped off himself. + + * * * * * + +The glow on the blossom of silk above her faded out. The sky still +glared behind, but a thick and acrid fog enveloped Bell as he descended. +Still straining his eyes hopelessly, he crossed his feet and waited. + +Branches reached up and lashed at him. Vines scraped against his sides. +He was hurled against a tree trunk with stunning force, and rebounded, +and swung clear, and then dangled halfway between earth and the jungle +roof. It was minutes before his head cleared, and then he felt at once +despairing and a fool. Dangling in his parachute harness when Paula +needed him. + +The light in the sky behind him penetrated even the jungle growth as a +faint luminosity. Presently he writhed to a position in which he could +strike a match. A thick, matted mass of climbing vines swung from the +upper branches not a yard from his fingertips. Bell cursed again, +frantically, and clutched at it wildly. Presently his absurd kickings +set him to swaying. He redoubled his efforts and increased the arc in +which he swung. But it was a long time before his fingers closed upon +leaves which came away in his grasp, and longer still before he caught +hold of a wrist-thick liana which oozed sticky sap upon his hands. + +But he clung desperately, and presently got his whole weight on it. He +unsnapped the parachute and partly let himself down, partly slid, and +partly tumbled to the solid earth below. + +He had barely reached it when, muffled and many times reechoed among the +tree trunks, he heard two shots. He cursed, and sprang toward the sound, +plunging headlong into underbrush that strove to tear the flesh from his +bones. He fought madly, savagely, fiercely. + + * * * * * + +He heard two more shots. He fought the jungle in the darkness like a +madman, ploughing insanely through masses of creepers that should have +been parted by a machete, and which would have been much more easily +slipped through by separating them, but which he strove to penetrate by +sheer strength. + +And then he heard two shots again. + +Bell stopped short and swore disgustedly. + +"What a fool I am!" he growled. "She's telling me where she is, and +I--" + +He drew one of the weapons that seemed to bulge in every pocket of his +flying suit and fired two shots in the air in reply. A single one +answered him. + +From that time Bell moved more sanely. The jungle is not designed, +apparently, for men to travel in. It is assuredly not intended for them +to travel in by night, and especially it is not planned, by whoever +planned it, for a man to penetrate without either machete or lights. + +As nearly as he could estimate it afterward, it took Bell over an hour +to cover one mile in the blackness under the jungle roof. Once he +blundered into fire-ants. They were somnolent in the darkness, but one +hand stung as if in white-hot metal as he went on. And thorns tore at +him. The heavy flying suit protected him somewhat, but after the first +hundred yards he blundered on almost blindly, with his arms across his +face, stopping now and then to try to orient himself. Three times he +fired in the air, and three times an answering shot came instantly, to +guide him. + + * * * * * + +And then a voice called in the blackness, and he ploughed toward it, and +it called again, and again, and at last he struck a match with trembling +fingers and saw her, dangling as he had dangled, some fifteen feet from +the ground. She smiled waveringly, with a little gasp of relief, and he +heard something go slithering away, very furtively. + +She clung to him desperately when he had gotten her down to solid earth. +But he was savage. + +"Those shots--though I'm glad you fired them--may have been a tip-off to +the town. We've got to keep moving, Paula." + +Her breath was coming quickly. + +"They could trail us, Charles. By daylight we might not leave signs, but +forcing our way through the night...." + +"Right, as usual," admitted Bell. "How about shells? Did you use all +you had?" + +"Nearly. But I was afraid, Charles." + +Bell felt in his pockets. Half a box. Perhaps twenty-five shells. With +the town nearby and almost certainly having heard their signals to each +other. Black rage invaded Bell. They would be hunted for, of course. +Dogs, perhaps, would trail them. And the thing would end when they were +at bay, ringed about by The Master's slaves, with twenty-five shells +only to expend. + +The dim little glow in the sky between the jungle leaves kept up. It was +bright, and slowly growing brighter. There was a sudden flickering and +even the jungle grew light for an instant. A few seconds later there was +a heavy concussion. + +"Something else went up then," growled Bell. "It's some satisfaction, +anyway, to know I did a lot of damage." + + * * * * * + +And then, quite abruptly, there was an obscure murmuring sound. It grew +stronger, and stronger still. If Bell had been aloft, he would have seen +the planes from The Master's hangars being rushed out of their shelters. +One of the long row of buildings had caught. And the plateau of Cuyaba +is very, very far from civilization. Tools, and even dynamos and +engines, could be brought toilsomely to it, but the task would be +terrific. Buildings would be made from materials on the spot, even the +shelters for the planes. It would be much more practical to carry the +parts for a saw mill and saw out the lumber on the spot than to attempt +to freight roofing materials and the like to Cuyaba. So that the +structures Bell had seen in the wing lights' glow were of wood, and +inflammable. The powerhouse that lighted the landing field was already +ablaze. The smaller shacks of the laborers perhaps would not be burnt +down, but the elaborate depot for communication by plane and wireless +was rapidly being destroyed. The reserve of gasoline had gone up in +smoke almost at the beginning, and in spreading out had extended the +disaster to nearly all the compact nerve-center of the whole conspiracy. + +Presently the droning noise was tumultuous. Every plane in a condition +to fly was out on the landing field, now brightly lighted by the burning +buildings all about. There was frantic, hectic activity everywhere. The +secretaries of The Master were rescuing what records they could, and +growing cold with terror. In the confusion of spreading flames and the +noise of roaring conflagrations the stopping of the motor up aloft had +passed unnoticed. In the headquarters of The Master there was panic. An +attack had been made upon The Master. A person who could not be one of +his slaves had found his stronghold and attacked it terribly. And if one +man knew that location and dared attack it, then.... + + * * * * * + +The hold of The Master upon all his slaves was based on one fact and its +corollary. The fact was, that those who had been given his poison would +go murder mad without its antidote. The corollary was that those who +obeyed him would be given that antidote and be safe. True, the antidote +was but a temporary one, and mixed with it for administration was a +further dosage of the poison itself. But the whole power of The Master +was based on his slaves' belief that as long as they obeyed him abjectly +there would be no failure of the antidote's supply. And Bell had given +that belief a sudden and horrible shock. + +Orders came from one frightened man, who cursed much more from terror +than from rage. Ribiera had advised him. To do him justice, Ribiera felt +less fear than most. Nephew to The Master, and destined successor to The +Master's power, Ribiera dared not revolt, but at least he had little +fear of punishment for incompetence. It was his advice that set the many +aircraft motors warming up. It was his direction that assorted out the +brainwork staff. And Ribiera himself curtly took control, indifferently +abandoned the enslaved workers to the madness that would come upon them, +and took wing in the last of a stream of roaring things that swept +upward above the smoke and flame and vanished in the sky. + + * * * * * + +Bell and Paula were huddled in between the buttress roots of a jungle +giant, protected on three sides by the monster uprearings of solid wood, +and Bell was absorbedly feeding a tiny smudge fire. The smoke was thick +and choking, but it did keep off the plague of insects which make jungle +travel much less than the romantic adventure it is pictured. Bell heard +the heavy, thunderous buzzing from the town change timbre suddenly. A +single note of it grew loud and soared overhead. + +He stared up instinctively, but saw nothing but leaves and branches and +many climbing things above him, dimly lighted by the smoky little blaze. +The roaring overhead went on, and dimmed. A second roaring came from the +town and rose to a monstrous growling and diminished. A third did +likewise, and a fourth. + +At stated, even intervals the planes at headquarters of The Master took +off from the landing field, ringed about with blazing buildings, and +plunged through the darkness in a straight line. The steadier droning +from the town grew lighter as the jungles echoed for many miles with the +sounds of aircraft motors overhead. + + * * * * * + +At last a single plane rose upward and thundered over the jungle roof. +It went away, and away.... The town was silent, then, and only a faint +and dwindling murmur came from the line of aircraft headed south. + +"They've deserted the town, by God!" said Bell, his eyes gleaming. +"Scared off!" + +"And--and we--" said Paula, gazing at him. + +"You can bet that every man who could crowd into a plane did so," said +Bell grimly. "Those that couldn't, if they have any brains, will be +trying to make it some other way to where they can subject themselves to +one of The Master's deputies and have a little longer time of sanity. +The poor devils that are left--well--they'll be _camaradas_, _peons_, +laborers, without the intelligence to know what they can do. They'll +wait patiently for their masters to come back. And presently their hands +will writhe.... And the town will be a hell." + +"Then they won't be looking for us?" + +Bell considered. And suddenly he laughed. + +"If the fire has burned out before dawn," he said coldly, "I'll go +looking for them. It's going to be cold-blooded, and it's going to be +rather pitiful, I think, but there's nothing else to do. You try to get +some rest. You'll need it." + +And for all the rest of the dark hours he crouched in the little angle +formed by the roots of the forest giant, and kept a thickly smoking +little fire going, and listened to the noises of the jungle all about +him. + + * * * * * + +It was more than a mile back to the town. It was nearer two. But it was +vastly less difficult to force a way through the thick growths by +daylight, even though then it was not easy. With machetes, of course, +Bell and Paula would have had no trouble, but theirs had been left in +the plane. Bell made a huge club and battered openings by sheer strength +where it was necessary. Sweat streamed down his face before he had +covered five hundred yards, but then something occurred to him and he +went more easily. If there were any of the intelligent class of The +Master's subjects left in the little settlement, he wanted to allow time +enough for them to start their flight. He wanted to find the place empty +of all but laborers, who would be accustomed to obey any man who spoke +arrogantly and in the manner of a deputy of The Master. Yet he did not +want to wait too long. Panic spreads among the _camarada_ class as +swiftly as among more intelligent folk, and it is even more blind and +hysterical. + +It was nearly eleven o'clock before they emerged upon a cleared field +where brightly blooming plants grew hugely. Bell regarded these grimly. + +"These," he observed, "will be The Master's stock." + +Paula touched his arm. + +"I have heard," she said, and shuddered, "that the men who gather the +plants that go to make the poisons of the _Indios_ do not--do not dare +to sleep near the fresh-picked plants. They say that the odor is +dangerous, even the perfume of the blossoms." + +"Very probably," said Bell. "I wish I could destroy the damned things. +But since we can't, why, we'll go around the edge of the field." + + * * * * * + +He went upwind, skirting the edge of the planted things. A path showed, +winding over half-heartedly cleared ground. He followed it, with Paula +close behind him. Smoke still curled heavily upward from the heaps of +ashes which he reached first of all. He looked upon them with an +unpleasant satisfaction. He had to pick his way between still smoking +heaps of embers to reach the huts about which laborers stood listlessly, +not working because not ordered to work, not yet frightened because not +yet realizing fully the catastrophe that had come upon them. + +He was moving toward them, deliberately adopting an air of suppressed +rage, when a voice called whiningly. + +"Senhor! Senhor!" And then pleadingly, in Portuguese, "I have news for +The Master! I have news for The Master!" + +Bell jerked his head about. Bars of thick wood, cemented into heavy +timbers at top and bottom. A building that was solid wall on three +sides, and the fourth was bars. A white man in it, unshaven, haggard, +ragged, filthy. And on the floor of the cage.... + +There had been another such cage on a _fazenda_ back toward Rio. Bell +had looked into it, and had shot the gibbering Thing that had been its +occupant, as an act of pure mercy. But this man had been through horrors +and yet was sane. + +"Don't look," said Bell sharply to Paula. He went close. + +The figure pressed against the bars, whining. And suddenly it stopped +its fawning. + +"The devil!" said the white man in the cage. "What in hell are you doing +here, Bell? Has that fiend caught you too?" + + * * * * * + +"Oh, my God!" gasped Bell. He went white with a cold rage. He'd known +this man before. A Secret Service man--one of the seven who had +vanished. "How's this place opened? I'll let you out." + +"It may be dangerous," said the white man with a ghastly grin. "I'm one +of The Master's little victims. I've been trying to work a little game +in hopes of getting within arm's reach of him. How'd you get here? Has +he got you too?" + +"I burned the damned town last night," snarled Bell, "and crashed up +after it. Where's that door?" + +He found it, a solid mass of planks with a log bar fitted in such a way +that it could not possibly be opened from within. He dragged it wide. +The white man came out, holding to his self-control with an obvious +effort. + +"I want to dance and sing because I'm out of there," he told Bell +queerly, "but I know you've done me no good. I've been fed The Master's +little medicine. I've been in that cage for weeks." + +Bell, quivering with rage, handed him a revolver. + +"I'm going to get some supplies and stuff and try to make it to +civilization," he said shortly. "If you want to help...." + +"Hell, yes," said the white man drearily. "I might as well. Number +One-Fourteen was here.... He's The Master's little pet, now. Turned +traitor. Report it, if you ever get out." + +"No," said Bell briefly. "He didn't turn." He told in a very few words +of the finding of the body of a man who had fallen or been thrown from a +plane into the jungle. + + * * * * * + +They were moving toward the rows of still standing shacks, then, and +faces were beginning to turn toward them, and there was a little stir of +apathetic puzzlement at sight of the white man who had been set free. + +That white man looked suddenly at Paula, and then at Bell. + +"I've been turned into a beast," he said wryly. "Look here, Bell. There +were as many as ten and fifteen of us in that cage at one time--men the +deputies sent up for the purpose. We were allowed to go mad, one and two +at a time, for the edification of the populace, to keep the _camaradas_ +scared. And those of us who weren't going mad just then used to have to +band together and kill them. That cage has been the most awful hell on +earth that any devil ever contrived. They put three women in there once, +with their hands already writhing.... Ugh!..." + +Bell's face was cold and hard is if carved from marble. + +"I haven't lived through it," said the white man harshly, "by being +soft. And I've got less than no time to live--sane, anyhow. I was +thinking of shooting you in the back, because the young lady--" + +He laughed as Bell's revolver muzzle stirred. + +"I'm telling you," said the white man in ghastly merriment, "because I +thought--I thought One-Fourteen had set me the example of ditching the +Service for his own life. But now it's different." + + * * * * * + +He pointed. + +"There's a launch in that house, with one of these outboard motors. It +was used to keep up communication with the boat gangs that sweat the +heavy supplies up the river. It'll float in three inches of water, and +you can pole it where the water's too shallow to let the propeller turn. +This rabble will mob you if you try to take it, because it'll have taken +them just about this long to realize that they're deserted. They'll +think you are a deputy, at least, to have dared release me. I'm going to +convince them of it, and use this gun to give you a start. I give you +two hours. It ought to be enough. And then...." + +Bell nodded. + +"I'm not Service," he said curtly, "but I'll see it's known." + +The white man laughed again. + +"'Some sigh for the glories of this world, and some for a prophet's +paradise to come,'" he quoted derisively. "I thought I was hard, Bell, +but I find I prefer to have my record clean in the Service--where nobody +will ever see it--than to take what pleasure I might snatch before I +die. Queer, isn't it? Old Omar was wrong. Now watch me bluff, flinging +away the cash for credit of doubtful value, and all for the rumble of a +distant drum--which will be muted!" + + * * * * * + +They were surrounded by swarming, fawning, frightened _camaradas_ who +implored the Senhor to tell them if he were a deputy of The Master, and +if he were here to make sure nothing evil befell them. They worked for +The Master, and they desired nothing save to labor all their lives for +The Master, only--only--The Master would allow no evil to befall them? + +The white man waved his arms grandiloquently. + +"The Senhor you behold," he proclaimed in the barbarous Portugese of the +hinterland of Brazil, "has released me from the cage in which you saw +me. He is the deputy of The Master himself, and is enraged because the +landing lights on the field were not burning, so that his airplane fell +down into the jungle. He bears news of great value from me to The +Master, which will make me finally a sub-deputy of The Master. And I +have a revolver, as you see, with which I could kill him, but he dares +not permit me to die, since I have given him news for The Master. I +shall wait here and he will go and send back an airplane with the grace +of The Master for me and for all of you." + +Bell snarled an assent, in the arrogant fashion of the deputies of The +Master. He waited furiously while the Service man argued eloquently and +fluently. He fingered his revolver suggestively when a wave of panic +swept over the swarming mob for no especial reason. And then he watched +grimly while the light little metal-bottomed boat was carried to the +water's edge and loaded with food, and fuel, and arms, and ammunition, +and even mosquito bars. + +The white man grinned queerly at Bell as he extended his hand in a last +handshake. + +"'I, who am about to die, salute you!'" he said mockingly. "Isn't this a +hell of a world, Bell? I'm sure we could design a better one in some +ways." + + * * * * * + +Bell felt a horrible, a ghastly shock. The hand that gripped his was +writhing in his grasp. + +"Quite so," said the white man. "It started about five minutes ago. In +theory, I've about forty-eight hours. Actually, I don't dare wait that +long, if I'm to die like a white man. And a lingering vanity insists on +that. I hope you get out, Bell.... And if you want to do me a +favor,"--he grinned again, mirthlessly--"you might see that The Master +and as many of his deputies as you can manage join me in hell at the +earliest possible moment. I shan't mind so much if I can watch them." + +He put his hands quickly in his pockets as the little outboard motor +caught and the launch went on down-river. He did not even look after +them. The last Bell saw of him he was swaggering back up the little +hillside above the river edge, surrounded by scared inhabitants of the +workmen's shacks, and scoffing in a superior fashion at their fears. + + +CHAPTER XII + +It took Bell just eight days to reach the Paraguay, and those eight days +were like an age-long nightmare of toil and discomfort and more than a +little danger. The launch was headed downstream, of course, and with the +current behind it, it made good time. But the distances of Brazil are +infinite, and the jungles of Brazil are malevolent, and the route down +the Rio Laurenco was designed by the architect of hell. _Raudales_ lay +in wait to destroy the little boat. Insects swarmed about to destroy its +voyagers. And the jungle loomed above them, passively malignant, and +waited for them to die. + +And as if physical sufferings were not enough, Bell saw Paula wilt and +grow pale. All the way down the river they passed little clearings at +nearly equal distances. And men came trembling out of the little houses +upon those _fazendas_ and fawned upon the Senhor who was in the launch +that had come from up-river and so must be in the service of The Master +himself. The clearings and the tiny houses had been placed upon the +river for the service of the terribly laboring boat gangs who brought +the heavier supplies up the river to The Master's central depot. Men at +these clearings had been enslaved and ordered to remain at their posts, +serving all those upon the business of The Master. They fawned abjectly +upon Bell, because he was of _os gentes_ and so presumably was +empowered, as The Master had empowered his more intelligent subjects, to +exact the most degraded of submission from all beneath him in the +horrible conspiracy. Once, indeed, Bell was humbly implored by a panic +stricken man to administer "the grace of The Master" to a moody and +irritable child of twelve or so. + +"She sees the red spots, Senhor. It is the first sign. And I have served +The Master faithfully...." + + * * * * * + +And Bell could do nothing. He went on savagely. And once he passed a +gang of _camaradas_ laboring to get heavily loaded dugouts up a fiendish +_raudal_. They had ropes out and were hauling at them from the bank, +while some of their number were breast-deep in the rushing water, +pushing the dugouts against the stream. + +"They're headed for the plantation," said Bell grimly, "and they'll need +the grace of The Master by the time they get there. And it's abandoned. +But if I tell them...." + +Men with no hope at all are not to be trusted. Not when they are +mixtures of three or more races--white and black and red--and steeped in +ignorance and superstition and, moreover, long subject to such masters +as these men had had. Bell had to think of Paula. + +He could have landed and haughtily ordered them to float or even carry +the light boat to the calmer waters below. They would have obeyed and +cringed before him. But he shot the rapids from above, with the little +motor roaring past rocks and walls of jungle beside the foaming water, +at a speed that chilled his blood. + + * * * * * + +Paula said nothing. She was white and listless. Bell, himself, was being +preyed upon by a bitter blend of horror and a deep-seated rage that +consumed him like a fever. He had fever itself, of course. He was +taking, and forcing Paula to take, five grains of quinine a day. It had +been included among his stores as a matter of course by those who had +loaded his boat. And with the fever working in his brain he found +himself holding long, imaginary conversations, in which one part of his +brain reproached the other part for having destroyed the plantation of +The Master. The laborers upon that plantation had been abandoned to the +murder madness because of his deed. The caretakers of the tiny _fazenda_ +on the river bank were now ignored. Bell felt himself a murderer because +he had caused The Master's deputies to cast them off in a callous +indifference to their inevitable fate. + +He suffered the tortures of the damned, and grew morose and bitter, and +could only escape that self torture by coddling his hatred of Ribiera +and The Master. He imagined torments to be inflicted upon them which +would adequately repay them for their crimes, and racked his feverish +brain for memories of the appalling atrocities which can be committed +upon the human body without destroying its capacity to suffer. + +It was not normal. It was not sane. But it filled Bell's mind and +somehow kept him from suicide during the horrible passage of the river. +He hardly dared speak to Paula. There was a time when he counted the +days since he had been a guest at Ribiera's estate outside of Rio, and +frenziedly persuaded himself that he saw red spots before his eyes and +soon would have the murder madness come upon him. And then he thought of +the supplies in Ribiera's plane, in which they had escaped from Rio. +They had eaten that food. + + * * * * * + +It was almost unconsciously, then, that he saw the narrow water on which +the launch floated valiantly grow wider day by day. When at last it +debouched suddenly into a vast stream whereon a clumsy steamer plied +beneath a self made cloud of smoke, he stared dully at it for minutes +before he realized. + +"Paula," he said suddenly, and listened in amazement to his voice. It +was hoarse and harsh and croaking. "Paula, we've made it. This must be +the Paraguay." + +She roused herself and looked about like a person waking from a +lethargic sleep. And then her lips quivered, and she tried to speak and +could not, and tears fell silently from her eyes, and all at once she +was sobbing bitterly. + +That sign of the terrific strain she had been under served more than +anything else to jolt Bell out of his abnormal state of mind. He moved +over to her and clumsily put his arm about her, and comforted her as +best he could. And she sat sobbing with her head on his shoulder, +gasping in a form of hysterical relief, until the engine behind them +sputtered, and coughed, and died. + +When Bell looked, the last drop of gasoline was gone. But the motor had +served its purpose. It had run manfully on an almost infinitesimal +consumption of gasoline for eight days. It had not missed an explosion +save when its wiring was wetted by spray. And now.... + + * * * * * + +Bell hauled the engine inboard and got out the oars from under the +seats. He got the little boat out to mid-stream, and they floated down +until a village of squalid huts appeared on the eastern bank. He landed, +there, and with much bargaining and a haughty demeanor disposed of the +boat to the skipper of a _batelao_ in exchange for passage down-river as +far as Corumba. The rate was outrageously high. But he had little +currency with him and dared go no farther on a vessel which carried a +boat of The Master's ownership conspicuously towed behind. + +At Corumba he purchased clothes less obviously of _os gentes_, both for +himself and for Paula, and that same afternoon was able to arrange for +their passage to Asuncion as deck passengers on a river steamer going +downstream. + +It was as two peasants, then, that they rode in sweltering heat amid a +swarming and odorous mass of fellow humanity downstream. But it was a +curious relief, in some ways. The people about them were gross and +unwashed and stupid, but they were human. There was none of that +diabolical feeling of terror all about. There were no strained, fear +haunted faces upon the deck reserved for deck passengers and other +cattle. The talk was ungrammatical and literal and of the earth. The +women were stolid-faced and reserved. But when the long rows of hammocks +were slung out in the open air, in the casual fashion of sleeping +arrangements in the back-country of all South America, it was blessedly +peaceful to realize that the folk who snored so lustily were merely +human; human animals, it might be, with no thought above their _farinha_ +and _feijos_ on the morrow, but human. + + * * * * * + +And the second day they passed the old fort at Coimbra, and went on. The +passage into Paraguayan territory was signalized by an elaborate customs +inspection, and three days later Asuncion itself displayed its red-tiled +roofs and adobe walls upon the shore. + +Bell had felt some confidence in his ability to pass muster with his +Spanish, though his Portuguese was limited, and it was a shock when the +captain of the steamer summoned him to his cabin with a gesture, before +the steamer docked. Bell left Paula among the other deck passengers and +went with the peasant's air of suspicious humility into the captain's +quarters. But the captain's pose of grandeur vanished at once when the +door closed. + +"Senor," said the steamer captain humbly, "I have not spoken to you +before. I knew you would not wish it. But tell me, senor! Have you any +news of what The Master plans?" + +Bell's eyes flickered, at the same time that a cold apprehension filled +him. + +"Why do you speak to me of The Master?" he demanded sharply. + +The steamer captain stammered. The man was plainly frightened at Bell's +tone. Bell relaxed, his flash of panic for Paula gone. + +"I know," said the captain imploringly, "that the great _fazenda_ has +been deserted. On my last trip, down, senor, I brought many of the high +deputies who had been there. They warned me not to speak, senor, but I +saw that you were not what you seemed, and I thought you might be going +about to see who obeyed The Master's orders...." + + * * * * * + +Bell nodded. + +"That is my mission," he said curtly. "Do not speak of it further--not +even to the deputy in Asuncion." + +The captain stammered again. + +"But I must see the Senor Francia," he said humbly. "I report to him +after every trip, and if he thought that I did not report all that I +learn...." + +"It is my order," snapped Bell angrily. "If he reproaches you, say that +one who has orders from The Master himself gave them to you. And do not +speak of the destruction of the _fazenda_. I am searching especially for +the man who caused it. And--wait! I will take your name, and you shall +give me--say--a thousand pesos. I had need of money to bribe a fool I +could not waste time on, up-country. It will be returned to you." + +And again the captain stammered, but Bell stared at him haughtily, and +he knelt abjectly before the ship's safe. + + * * * * * + +Asuncion, as everybody knows, is a city of sixty thousand people, and +the capital of a republic which enjoyed the rule of a family of +hereditary dictators for sixty years; which rule ended in a war wherein +four-fifths of the population was wiped out. And since that beginning it +has averaged eight revolutions to Mexico's three, has had the joy of +knowing seven separate presidents in five years--none of them +elected--and now boasts a population approximately two-thirds +illegitimate and full of pride in its intellectual and artistic tastes. + +Bell and Paula made their way along the cobbled streets away from the +river, surrounded by other similarly peasant-seeming folk. Bell told her +curtly what had happened with the steamer captain. + +"It's the devil," he said coldly, "because this whole republic is under +The Master's thumb. Except among the peasants we can count on nearly +everybody being on the lookout for us, if they so much as suspect we're +alive. And they may because I burned their damned _fazenda_. So...." + +Paula smiled at him, rather wanly. + +"What are you going to do, Charles?" + +"Get a boat," said Bell curtly. "One with three or four men, if I can. +If I can buy it with the skipper's money, I will. But I can't take you +to go bargaining. It would look suspicious." + +They had reached the central plaza of the town. The market swarmed with +brown skinned folk and seemed to overflow with fruits. A man was +unconcernedly shoveling oranges out of a cart with a shovel, as if they +had been so much coal. A market woman as unconcernedly dropped some of +the same golden fruit within a small pen where a piglet awaited a +purchaser. To the left, there were rows of unshaded stalls where the +infinitely delicate handmade Paraguayan lace was exposed for sale. + +"I--think," said Paula, "I think I will go in the cathedral. I will be +very devout, Charles, and you will find me there when you return. I will +be safe there, certainly." + + * * * * * + +He walked with her across the crowded plaza. He should have known that +your peasant does not stride with head up, but regarding the ground. +That a man who works heavily droops his shoulders with weariness at the +end of a day. And especially he should have realized that Paraguay is +not, strictly speaking, a Latin-American nation. It is Latin-Indian, in +which the population graduates very definitely from a sub-stratum of +nearly or quite pure Indian race to an aristocracy of nearly or quite +pure Spanish descent, and that the color of a man's skin fixes his place +in society. Both Bell and Paula were too light of skin for the peasant's +clothes they wore. They aroused curiosity at once. If it was not an +active curiosity, it was nevertheless curiosity of a sort. + +But Bell left her in the shadowy, cool interior of the cathedral which +seems so pitifully small to be the center of religion for a nation. He +saw her move toward one of the little candle-lit niches in the wall and +fall quite simply on her knees there. + +And he moved off, to wander aimlessly down to the river shore and stare +about and presently begin a desultory conversation with sleepy boatmen. + + * * * * * + +It was three hours and more before he returned to the Cathedral, and +Paula was talking to someone. More, talking to a woman in the most +discreet of mantilla'd church-going costumes. Paula saw him in the +doorway, and uttered a little cry of relief. She came hurrying to him. + +"Charles! I have found a friend! Isabella Ybarra. We were schoolmates in +the United States and she has just come back from Paris! So you see, she +cannot--" + +"I see," said Bell very quietly. + +Paula was speaking swiftly and very softly. + +"We went to school together, Charles. I trust her. You must trust her +also. There is no danger, this time. Isabella has never even heard of +The Master. So you see...." + +"I see that you need someone you can trust," said Bell grimly. "_I_ +found that the captain of the steamer had gone to The Master's deputy +here. While I was talking to some boatmen a warning was given to look +out for a man and woman, together, who may try to buy a boat. We're +described, and only the fact that I was alone kept me from being +suspected. Police, soldiers--everybody is looking out for us. Paraguay's +under The Master's thumb more completely than any other nation on the +continent." + +The figure to which Paula had been talking was moving slowly toward +them. A smiling, brown-eyed face twinkled at them. + +"You must be Charles!" said a warm and cluckling voice. "Paula has +raved, Senor. Now I am going to take her off in my carriage. She is my +maid. And you will follow the carriage on foot and I will have the +major-domo let you in the servants' entrance, and the three of us will +conspire." + + * * * * * + +It was incongruous to hear the English of a girl's finishing school from +the mantilla'd young woman who beamed mischievously at him. She had the +delighted air of one aiding a romance. It was doubly incongruous because +of the dark and shadowy Cathedral in which they were, and the raucous +noises of the market in the plaza without. Bell had a sense of utter +unreality as Isabella's good humored voice went on: + +"Do you remember, Paula, the time the French teacher caught us in the +pantry? I shall feel just like that time." + +"This is dangerous," said Bell, steadily, "and it is very serious +indeed." + +"Pooh!" said Isabella comfortably. "Paula, you didn't even know I was +married! A whole year and a half! And he's a darling, really. I'm the +Senora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga, if you please! Bow gracefully!" She +chuckled. "Jaime came all the way to Rio to meet me last month. I'm wild +about him, Paula.... But come on! Follow me humbly, like a nice little +_mestizo_ girl who wants to be my maid, and I'll let you ride with the +_cochero_ and Charles shall follow behind us." + +She swept out of the Cathedral with the air of a grande dame suppressing +a giggle, and Paula went humbly behind her. + +And Bell trudged through the dust and the blistering sun while the +highly polished carriage jolted over cobble stones and the youthful +Senora Isabella Ybarra de Zuloaga beamed blissfully at the universe +which did not realize that she was a conspirator, and Paula sat modestly +beside the brown skinned _cochero_. + + * * * * * + +It was not a long ride nor a long walk, though the sun was insufferable. +The capital of Paraguay is not large. It is a sleepy, somnolent little +town in which the most pretentious building was begun as the +Presidential Palace and wound up as the home of a bank. But there are +bullet marks on the facade of the _Museo Nacional_, and there is still +an empty pedestal here and there throughout the city where the heroes of +last year's revolution, in bronze, have been pulled down and the heroes +of this year's uprising of the people have not yet been set up. Red +tiled roofs give the city color, and the varying shades of its populace +give it variety, and the fact that below the whiter class of inhabitants +_Guarani_ is spoken instead of Spanish adds to the individuality of its +effect. + +But the house into which the carriage turned could have been built in +Rio or Buenos Aires without comment on its architecture. It had the +outer bleakness of most private homes of South America, but if it was +huge and its windows were barred, the patio into which Bell was ushered +by a bewildered and suspicious major-domo made up in color and in charm +for all that the exterior lacked. + +A fountain played amid flowers, and macaws and parrots and myriad other +caged birds hung in their cages about the colonnade around the court, +and Bell found Paula being introduced to a pale young man in the stiff +collar and unspeakably formal morning clothes of the South American who +is of the upper class. + +"Jaime," said Isabella, beaming. "And this is Charles, whom Paula is to +marry! It is romantic! It is fascinating! And I depend on you to give +him clothes so that all our servants won't stare goggle-eyed at him, and +I am going to take Paula off at once and dress her! They are our guests! +And, Jaime, you must threaten all the servants terribly so they will +keep it very secret--that we have two such terrible people with us." + + * * * * * + +Paula smiled at Bell, and he saw that she felt utterly safe and wholly +at peace. Something was hammering at Bell's brain, warning him, and he +could not understand what it was. But he exchanged the decorous limp +handshake which is conventional south of Panama, and followed his +unsmiling host to rooms where a servant laid out a bewildering +assortment of garments. They were all rather formal, the sort of +clothing that is held to be fitting for a man of position where Spanish +is the official if not the common tongue. + +His host retired, without words, and Bell came out later to find him +sipping moodily at a drink, waiting for him. He wiped his forehead. + +"Be seated, Senor," he said heavily, "until the ladies join us." + +He wiped his forehead again and watched somberly while Bell poured out a +drink. + +"Isabella...." He seemed to find it difficult to speak. "She has told me +a little, but there has been no time for more than a little: I do not +wish to have her tell me too much. She does not understand. She was +educated in North America, where customs are different. She demands that +I assist you and the senorita--it is the senorita?" + +Bell stiffened. In all Spanish America the conventions are strict. For a +man and woman to travel together, even perforce and for a short +distance, automatically damns the woman. + +"Go on," said Bell grimly. + +His host was very pale indeed. + +"She demands that I assist you and the senorita to escape the police and +the government. Provided that you do not tell me who you are, I will +attempt it. But--" + +"I wonder," said Bell quietly, "if you have ever seen red spots dancing +before your eyes." + +His host went utterly livid. + + * * * * * + +Zuloaga looked down at his hands, as if expecting unguessable things of +them. And then he shrugged, and said harshly: + +"I have, Senor. So you see that Isabella, who does not know, is asking +me to risk, not only my life, but her honor." + +Bell said nothing for a moment. He was a little pale. + +"And your honor?" he asked quietly. + +The pallor on the face of the Senor Jaime Zuloaga was horrible. He tried +to speak, and could not. He stood up, and managed to say: + +"So much I will risk, because you have been my guest. Until to-morrow +morning you are safe, unless the Senor Francia has his spies within my +own house. I--I will attempt, even to procure a boat. But--" + +Something made Bell turn. The major-domo was moving quickly out of +sight. Like a flash Bell was upon him, and like a flash a knife came +out. + +Bell's host gasped. The fact that his servant had spied was more than +obvious, and he had spoke treason against The Master. He leaned against +the table, sick and trembling and mumbling of despair, while there were +crashes in the room into which Bell had plunged, while bodies thrashed +about on the floor, and while stertorous breathing grew less, and +stopped.... + +Bell came back, breathing hard. The front of his coat was slashed open. + +"He's dead," he said harshly. "He'd have reported what you said, so I +killed him.... And now we've got to do something with his body." + +He helped in the horrible task, while his host grew more and more +shaken. No other servants came near. And Bell could almost read the +thoughts that went through Zuloaga's brain. One servant had spied, to +report his treason. And that meant assassination for himself, as the +least of punishments, and for his wife.... + +But there would be no punishment if he went first to the deputy and said +that Bell had killed the major-domo. + +Bell left the house before dusk, desperately determined to steal a craft +of some sort, return for Paula, and get away from Asuncion before dawn. + +He returned after an hour. In the morning a man would be found bound and +gagged, with five hundred pesos stuffed into his pockets. His boat would +have vanished. + +But there was a commotion before the house where Paula waited fearfully. +A carriage stood there, with a company of mounted soldiers about it. +Someone was being put into it. As Bell broke into a run toward the house +the carriage started up and the soldiers trotted after it. + +Paula was taken. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +That night Bell turned burglar. To attempt a rescue of Paula was simply +out of the question. He was entirely aware that he would be expected to +do just such a thing, and that it would be adequately guarded against. +Therefore he prepared for a much more desperate enterprise by +burglarizing a bookstore in the particularly neat method in which +members of The Trade are instructed. The method was invented by a member +of The Trade who was an ex-cabinet maker, and who perished disreputably. +He killed a certain courier of a certain foreign government, thereby +preventing a minor war and irritating two governments excessively, and +was hanged. + +The method, of course, is simplicity itself. One removes the small nails +which hold the molding of a door panel in place. The molding comes out. +So does the panel. One enters through the panel, commits one's burglary, +and comes out, replacing the molding and the nails with reasonable care. +Depending upon the care with which the replacing is done, the means of +entrance is more or less undiscoverable. But it is usually used when it +is not intended that the burglary ever be discussed. + +Bell abstracted two books, wrapping paper and twine. He departed, using +great care. He walked three miles out of town and to the banks of the +Paraguay. There he carefully saturated the pages of both books in +water, carefully keeping the bindings from being wetted. Then he tore +one book to pieces, saving the leaves and inserting them between the +leaves of the other book. Then, with a brazil nut candle for +illumination, he began to write. + + * * * * * + +You see, when two thoroughly wetted pieces of paper are placed one above +the other with a hard surface such as the cover of another book under +them, you can write upon the top one with a stick. The writing will show +dark against the gray of the saturated paper. You then remove the top +sheet and end the writing reproduced on the bottom sheet. And then you +can dry the second sheet and find the marking vanished--until it is +wetted again. It is, in fact, a method of water-marking paper. And it is +the simplest of all methods of invisible writing. + +Bell wrote grimly for hours. The book he had chosen was an old one, an +ancient copy of one of Lope de Vega's plays, and the pages were wrinkled +and yellow from age alone. When, by dawn, the last page was dried out, +there was no sign that anything other than antiquity had affected the +paper. And Bell wrapped it carefully, and addressed it to an elderly +senora of literary tastes in San Juan, Porto Rico, and enclosed an +affectionate letter to his very dear aunt, and signed it with an +entirely improbable name. + +It was mailed before sunrise, the necessary stamps having been filched +from the burglarized bookstore and the price thereof being carefully +inserted in the till. Bell had made a complete and painstaking report of +every fact he had himself come upon in the matter of The Master and his +slaves and appended to it a copy of the report of the dead Secret +Service operative Number One-Fourteen. He destroyed that after copying +it. And he concluded that since he had been given dismissal by Jamison +in Rio, he considered himself at liberty to take whatever steps he saw +fit. And since the Senhorina Paula Canalejas had been kidnapped by +agents of The Master, he intended to take steps which might possibly +bring about her safety, but would almost certainly cause his death. + +The report should at least be of assistance if the Trade set to work to +combat The Master. Bell had no information whatever about that still +mysterious and still more horrible person himself. But what he knew +about The Master's agents he sent to a lady in Porto Rico who has an +astonishingly large number of far ranging nephews. And then Bell got +himself adequately shaved, bought a hearty breakfast, and, after one or +two heartening drinks, was driven grandly to the residence of the Senor +Francia, deputy of The Master for the republic of Paraguay. + + * * * * * + +The servants who admitted him gazed blankly when he gave his name. A +door was hastily closed behind him. He was ushered into an elaborate +reception room and, after an agitated pause, no less than six separate +frock-coated persons appeared and pointed large revolvers at him while a +seventh searched him exhaustively. Bell submitted amusedly. + +"And now," he said dryly, "I suppose the Senor Francia will receive me?" + +There was more agitation. The six men remained; with their weapons +pointed at him. The seventh departed, and Bell re-dressed himself in a +leisurely fashion. + +Ten minutes later a slender, dark skinned man with impeccably waxed +moustaches entered, regarded Bell with an entirely impersonal interest, +took one of the revolvers from one of the six frock-coated gentlemen, +and seated himself comfortably. He waved his hand and they filed +uneasily from the room. So far, not one word had been spoken. + + * * * * * + +Bell retrieved his cigarette case and lighted up with every appearance +of ease. + +"I have come," he said casually, "to request that I be sent to The +Master. I believe that he is anxious to meet me." + +The dark eyes scrutinized him coldly. Then Francia smiled. + +"_Pero si_," he said negligently, "he is very anxious to see you. I +suppose you know what fate awaits you?" + +His smile was amiable and apparently quite friendly, but Bell shrugged. + +"I suppose," he said dryly, "he wants to converse with me. I have been +his most successful opponent to date, I think." + +Francia smiled again. It was curious how his smile, which at first +seemed so genuine and so friendly, became unspeakably unpleasant on its +repetition. + +"Yes." Francia seemed to debate some matter of no great importance. "You +have been very annoying, Senor Bell. The Senhor Ribiera asked that you +be sent to him. It was his intention to execute you, privately. He +described a rather amusing method to me. And I must confess that you +have annoyed me, likewise. Since the Cuyaba plantation was destroyed my +subjects have been much upset. They have been frightened, and even +stubborn. Only last week"--he smiled pleasantly, and the effect was +horrible--"only last week I desired the society of a lady who is my +subject. And her husband considered that, since the _fazenda_ was +destroyed, The Master would be powerless to extend his grace before +long, in any event. So he shot his wife and himself. It annoyed me +enough to make me feel that it would be a pleasure to kill you." + + * * * * * + +He raised the revolver meditatively. + +"Well?" said Bell coldly. + +Francia lowered the weapon and laughed. + +"Oh, I shall not do it. I think The Master would be displeased. You seem +to have the type of courage he most desires in his deputies. And it may +yet be that I shall greet you as my fellow deputy or perhaps my fellow +viceroy. So I shall send you to him. I would say that you have about an +even chance of dying very unpleasantly or of being a deputy. Therefore I +offer you such courtesies as I may." + +Bell puffed a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. + +"I'm about out of cigarettes," he said mildly. + +"They shall be supplied. And--er--if you would desire feminine society, +I will have some of my pretty subjects...." + +"No," said Bell bluntly. "I would like to speak to the Senhorina +Canalejas, though." + +Francia chuckled. + +"She left for Buenos Aires last night. The Senhor Ribiera sent a most +impatient message for her to be sent on at once. I regretted it, but he +had The Master's authority. I thought her charming, myself." + +The skin about Bell's knuckles was white. His hands had clenched +savagely. + +"In that event," he said coldly, "the only other courtesy I would ask is +that of following her as soon as possible." + +Francia rose languidly. The revolver dangled by his side, but his grip +upon it was firm. He smiled at Bell with the same effect of a horrible, +ghastly geniality. + +"Within the hour, Senor," he said urbanely. "With the guard I shall +place over you it is no harm, I am sure, to observe that The Master is +at his retreat in Punta Arenas. You will go there to-morrow, as I go +to-night." + +He moved toward the door, and smiled again, and added pleasantly: + +"The Senhorina was delivered to the Senhor Ribiera this morning." + + * * * * * + +Matters moved swiftly after that. A servant brought cigarettes and a +tray of liquors--which Bell did not touch. There was the sound of +movement, the scurrying, furtive haste which seems always to imply a +desperate sort of fear. Bell waited in a terrible calmness, while rage +hammered at his temples. + +Then the clattering of horses' hoofs outside. A carriage was being +brought. Soldiers came in and a man beckoned curtly. Bell stuffed his +pockets with smokes and followed languidly. He was realizing that there +was little pretense of secrecy about the power of The Master's deputy +here. Police and soldiers.... But Paraguay, of all the nations of the +southern continent, has learned a certain calm realism about +governmental matters. + +The man who has power is obeyed. The man who has not power is not +obeyed. Titles are of little importance, though it is the custom for the +man with the actual power eventually to assume the official rank of +authority. Since the President in Asuncion was no more than a figurehead +who called anxiously upon the Senor Francia every morning for +instructions concerning the management of the nation, Francia +indifferently ignored him whenever he chose and gave orders directly. +There would be very little surprise and no disorder whatever when The +Master proclaimed Paraguay a viceroyalty of his intended empire. + + * * * * * + +The carriage went smartly through the cobbled streets with a cavalry +escort all about it. An officer sat opposite Bell with his hand on his +revolver. + +"I am receiving at least the honors of royalty," Bell commented coldly +to him, in Spanish. + +"Senor," said the officer harshly, "this is the state in which the +deputies of The Master were escorted." + +He watched Bell heavily, but with the desperate intentness of a man who +knows no excuses will be received if his prisoner escapes. + +Out of the town to a flying field, where a multi-engined plane was +warming up. It was one of the ships that had been at The Master's +_fazenda_ of Cuyaba, one of the ships that had fled from the burning +plantation. Bell was ushered into it with a ceremonious suspicion. +Almost immediately he was handcuffed to his seat. Two men took their +place behind him. The big ship rolled forward, lifted, steadied, and +after a single circling set out to the southeast for Buenos Aires. + + * * * * * + +The whole performance had been run off with the smoothly oiled +precision of an iron discipline exercised upon men in the grip of deadly +fear. + +"One man, at least," reflected Bell grimly, "has some qualities that fit +him for his job." + +And then, for hour after hour, the big ship went steadily southeast. It +flew over Paraguayan territory for two hours, soaring high over the Lago +Ypoa and on over the swampy country that extends to the Argentine +border. It ignored that border and all customs formalities. It went on, +through long hours of flight, while mountains rose before it. It rose +over those mountains and passed over the first railroad line--the first +real sign of civilization since leaving Asuncion--at Mercedes, and +reached the Uruguay river where the Mirinjay joins it. It went roaring +on down above the valley of the Rio Uruguay for long and tedious hours +more. At about noon, lunch was produced. The two men who guarded Bell +ate. Then, with drawn revolvers, they unlocked his handcuffs and offered +him food. + + * * * * * + +He ate, of exactly those foods he had seen them eat. He submitted +indifferently to the re-application of his fetters. He had reached a +state which was curiously emotionless. If Paula had been turned over to +Ribiera that morning, Paula was dead. And just as there is a state of +grief which stuns the mind past the realization of its loss, so there is +a condition of hatred which leads to an enormous calmness and an +unnatural absence of any tremor. Bell had reached that state. The +instinct of self-preservation had gone lax. Where a man normally thinks +first, if unconsciously, of the protection of his body from injury or +pain, Bell had come to think first, and with the same terrible clarity, +of the accomplishment of revenge. + +He would accept The Master's terms, if The Master offered them. He would +become The Master's subject, accepting the poison of madness without a +qualm. He would act and speak and think as a subject of The Master, +until his opportunity came. And then.... + +His absolute calmness would have deceived most men. It may have deceived +his guards. Time passed. The Rio de la Plata spread out widely below the +roaring multi-engined plane and the vast expanse of buildings which is +Buenos Aires appeared far ahead in the gathering dusk. Little twinkling +lights blinked into being upon the water and the earth far away. Then +one of the two guards touched Bell on the shoulder. + +"Senor," he said sharply above the motors' muffled roar, "we shall land. +A car will draw up beside the plane. There will be no customs +inspection. That has been arranged for. You can have no hope of escape. +I ask you if you will go quietly into the car?" + +"Why not?" asked Bell evenly. "I went to Senor Francia of my own +accord." + + * * * * * + +The guard leaned back. The city of Buenos Aires spread out below them. +The tumbled, congested old business quarter glittered in all its +offices, and the broad Avenida de Mayo cut its way as a straight slash +of glittering light through the section of the city to eastward. By +contrast, from above, the far-flung suburbs seemed dark and somber. + +The big plane roared above the city, settling slowly; banked steeply and +circled upon its farther side, and dipped down toward what seemed an +absurdly small area, which sprang into a pinkish glow on their descent. +That area spread out as the descent continued, though, and was a wide +and level field when the ship flattened out and checked and lumbered to +a stop. + +A glistening black car came swiftly, humming into place alongside almost +before the clumsy aircraft ceased to roll. Its door opened. Two men got +out and waited. The hangars were quite two hundred yards away, and Bell +saw the glitter of weapons held inconspicuously but quite ready. + +He stepped out of the cabin of the plane with a revolver muzzle pressing +into his spine. Other revolver muzzles pressed sharply into his sides as +he reached earth. + +Smiling faintly, he took four steps, clambered up into the glistening +black car, and settled down comfortably into the seat. The two men who +had waited by the car followed him. The door closed, and Bell was in a +padded silence that was acutely uncomfortable for a moment. A dome light +glowed brightly, however, and he lighted nearly the last of the +cigarettes from Asuncion with every appearance of composure as the car +started off with a lurch. + + * * * * * + +The windows were blank. Thick, upholstered padding covered the spaces +where openings should have been, and there was only the muffled +vibration of the motor and the occasional curiously distinct noise of a +flexing spring. + +"Just as a matter of curiosity," said Bell mildly, "what is the excuse +given on the flying field for this performance? Or is the entire staff +subject to The Master?" + +Two revolvers were bearing steadily upon him and the two men watched him +with the unwavering attention of men whose lives depend upon their +vigilance. + +"You, Senor," said one of them without expression or a smile, "are the +corpse of a prominent politician who died yesterday at his country +home." + +And then for half an hour or more the car drove swiftly, and stopped, +and drove swiftly forward again as if in traffic. Then there were many +turns, and then a slow and cautious traverse of a relatively few feet. +It stopped, and then the engine vibration ceased. + +"I advise you, Senor," said the same man who had spoken before, and in +the same emotionless voice, "not to have hope of escape in the moment of +alighting. We are in an enclosed court and there are two gates locked +behind us." + +Bell shrugged as there was the clatter of a lock operating. The door +swung wide. + + * * * * * + +He stepped down into a courtyard surrounded by nearly bare walls. It had +once been the _patio_ of a private home of some charm. Now, however, it +was bleak and empty. A few discouraged flowers grew weedily in one +corner. The glow of light in the sky overhead assured Bell that he was +in the very heart of Buenos Aires, but only the most subdued of rumbles +spoke of the activity and the traffic of the city going on without. + +"This way," said the man with the expressionless voice. + +The other man followed. The chauffeur of the car stood aside as if some +formality required him neither to start the motor or return to his seat +until Bell was clear of the courtyard. + +Through a heavy timber door. Along a passageway with the odor of +neglect. Up stairs which once had been impressive and ornamental. Into a +room without windows. + +"You will have an interview with the Senorita Canalejas in five +minutes," said the emotionless voice. + +The door closed, while Bell found every separate muscle in his body draw +taut. And while his brain at first was dazed with incredulous relief, +then it went dark with a new and ghastly terror. + +"They know _yague_," he heard himself saying coldly, "which makes any +person obey any command. They may know other and more hellish ones yet." + + * * * * * + +He fought for self control, which meant the ability to conceal +absolutely any form of shock that might await him. That one was in store +he was certain. He paced grimly the length of the room and back +again.... + +Something on the carpet caught his eye. A bit of string. He stared at it +incredulously. The end was tied into a curious and an individual knot, +which looked like it might be the pastime of a sailor, and which looked +like it ought to be fairly easy to tie. But it was one of those knots +which wandering men sometimes tie absent mindedly in the presence of +stirring events. It was the recognition-knot of the Trade, one of those +signs by which men may know each other in strange and peculiar +situations. And there were many other knots tied along the trailing +length of the string. It seemed as if some nervous and distraught +prisoner in this room might have toyed abstractedly with a bit of cord. + +Only, Bell drew it through his fingers. Double knot, single knot, double +knot.... They spelled out letters in the entirely simple Morse code of +the telegrapher, if one noticed. + +"RBRA GN ON PLA HRE ST TGT J." + +Your old-time telegrapher uses many abbreviations. Your short-wave fan +uses more. Mostly they are made by a simple omission of vowels in normal +English words. And when the recognition sign at the beginning was +considered, the apparently cryptic letters leaped into meaning. + +"RiBeRA GoNe ON PauLA HeRe SiT TiGhT Jamison." + +When the door opened again and a terribly pale Paula was ushered in, +Bell gave no sign of surprise. He simply took her in his arms and kissed +her, holding her very, very close. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Paula remained in the room with Bell for perhaps twenty minutes, and +Bell had the feeling of eyes upon them and of ears listening to their +every word. In their first embrace, in fact, he murmured a warning in +her ear and she gasped a little whispered word of comprehension. But it +was at least a relief to be sure that she was alive and yet unharmed. +Francia had been in error when he told Bell of Paula's delivery to the +Brazilian to be enslaved or killed as Ribiera found most amusing. Or +perhaps, of course, Francia had merely wanted to cause Bell all possible +discomfort. + +It was clear, however, blessedly clear and evident, that Paula's pallor +was due to nothing more than terror--a terror which was now redoubled +because Bell was in The Master's toils with her. Forgetting his warning, +she whispered to him desperately that he must try to escape, somehow, +before The Master's poison was administered to him. Outside, he might do +something to release her. Here, a prisoner, he was helpless. + +Bell soothed her, not daring either to confess the plan he had formed of +a feigned submission in order to wreak revenge, or to offer +encouragement because of the message knotted in the piece of string by +Jamison. And because of that caution she came to look at him with a +queer doubt, and presently with a terrible quiet grief. + +"Charles--you--you have been poisoned like the rest?" + + * * * * * + +The feeling of watching eyes and listening ears was strong. Bell had a +part to play, and the necessity for playing that part was the greater +because now he was forced to hope. He hesitated, torn between the need +to play his role for the invisible eavesdroppers and the desire to spare +Paula. + +Her hand closed convulsively upon his. + +"V-very well, Charles," she said quietly, though her lips quivered. +"If--if you are going to serve The Master, I--I will serve him too, if +he will let me stay always near you. But if he--will not, then I can +always--die...." + +Bell groaned. And the door opened silently, and there were men standing +without. An emotionless voice said: + +"Senorita, the Senor Ortiz will interview the Senor Bell." + +"I'm coming," said Paula quietly. + +She went, walking steadily. Two men detached themselves from the group +about the door and followed her. The others waited for Bell. And Bell +clenched his hands and squared his shoulders and marched grimly with +them. + + * * * * * + +Again long passages, descending to what must have been a good deal below +the surface of the earth. And then a massive door was opened, and light +shone through, and Bell found himself standing on a rug of the thickest +possible pile in a room of quite barbaric luxury, and facing a desk from +which a young man was rising to greet him. This young man was no older +than Bell himself, and he greeted Bell in a manner in which mockery was +entirely absent, but in which defiance was peculiarly strong. A bulky, +round shouldered figure wrote laboriously at a smaller desk to one side. + +"Senor Bell," said the young man bitterly, "I do not ask you to shake +hands with me. I am Julio Ortiz, the son of the man you befriended upon +the steamer _Almirante Gomez_. I am also, by the command of The Master, +your jailer. Will you be seated?" + +Bell's eyes flickered. The older Ortiz had died by his own hand in the +first stages of the murder madness The Master's poison produced. He had +died gladly and, in Bell's view, very gallantly. And yet his son.... But +of course The Master's deputies made a point of enslaving whole families +when it was at all possible. It gave a stronger hold upon each member. + +"I beg of you," said young Ortiz bitterly, "to accept my invitation. I +wish to offer you a much qualified friendship, which I expect you to +refuse." + +Bell sat down and crossed his knees. He lit a cigarette thoughtfully, +thinking swiftly. + +"I remember, and admired, your father," he said slowly. "I think that +any man who died as bravely as he did is to be envied." + + * * * * * + +The younger Ortiz had reseated himself as Bell sat down, and now he +fingered nervously, wretchedly, the objects on his desk. A penholder +broke between his fingers and he flung it irritably into the +wastebasket. + +"You understand," he said harshly, "the obligations upon me. I am the +subject of The Master. You will realize that if you desire to escape, I +cannot permit it. But you did my father a very great kindness. Much of +it I was able to discover from persons on the boat. More, from the +wireless operator who is also the subject of The Master. You were not +acting, Senor, as a secret service operative in your attempt to help my +father. You bore yourself as a very honorable gentleman. I wish to thank +you." + +"I imagine," said Bell dryly, "that anyone would have done what I did." + +He seemed to be quite at ease, but he was very tense indeed. The bulky, +round shouldered figure at the other desk was writing busily with a very +scratchy pen. It was an abominable pen. Its sputtering was loud enough +to be noticeable under any circumstances, but Bell was unusually alert, +just now, and suddenly he added still more drily: + +"Helping a man in trouble is quite natural. One always gets it back. +It's a sort of dealing with the future in which there is a profit on +every trade." + +He put the slightest emphasis on the last word and waited, looking at +young Ortiz, but listening with all his soul to the scratching of the +pen. And that scratching sound ceased abruptly. The pen seemed to write +smoothly all of an instant. Bell drew a deep breath of satisfaction. In +the Trade, when in doubt, one should use the word "Trade" in one's first +remark to the other man. Then the other man will ask your trade, and you +reply impossibly. It is then up to the other man to speak frankly, +first. But circumstances alter even recognition-signs. + +Ortiz had not noticed any by-play, of course. It would have been rather +extraordinary if he had. A pen that scratches so that the sound is +Morse code for "Bell, play up. J." is just unlikely enough to avoid all +notice. + + * * * * * + +Ortiz drummed upon the desk. "Now, Senor, what can I do that will serve +you? I cannot release you. You know that. I am not the deputy here. +There has been a set-back to The Master's plans and all the deputies are +called to his retreat to receive instructions and to discuss. I have +merely been ordered to carry out the deputy's routine labors until he +returns. However, I will be obeyed in any matter. I can, and will, do +anything that will make you more comfortable or will amuse you, from a +change in your accommodations to providing you with companions. You +observe," he added with exquisite bitterness, "that the limit of my +capacity to prove my friendship is to offer my services as a pander." + +Bell gazed at the tip of his cigarette, letting his eyes wander about +the room for an instant, and permitting them to rest for the fraction of +a second upon the round shouldered, writing form by the side wall. + +"I am sufficiently amused," he said mildly. "I asked to be sent to The +Master. He intends to make me an offer, I understand. Or he did. He may +have changed his mind. But I am curious. Your father told me a certain +thing that seemed to indicate he did not enjoy the service of The +Master. Your tone is quite loyal, but unhappy. Why do you serve him? +Aside, of course, from the fact of having been poisoned by his deputy." + + * * * * * + +Internally, Bell was damning Jamison feverishly. If he was to play up to +Ortiz, why didn't Jamison give him some sign of how he was to do it? +Some tip.... + +"Herr Wiedkind," said Ortiz wearily, "perhaps you can explain." + +The round shouldered figure swung about and bowed profoundly to Bell. + +"Der Senor Ortiz," he said gutturally, and in a sepulchral profundity, +"he does not understand himself. I haff nefer said it before. But he +serfs Der Master because he despairs, andt he will cease to serf Der +Master when he hopes. And I--I serf Der Master because I hope, andt I +will cease to serf him when I despair." + +Ortiz looked curiously and almost suspiciously at the Germanic figure +which regarded him soberly through thick spectacles. + +"It is not customary, Herr Wiedkind," he said slowly, "to speak of +ceasing to serve The Master." + +"Idt is not customary to speak of many necessary things," said the round +shouldered figure dryly. "Of our religions, for example. Of der women we +lofe. Of our gonsciences. Of various necessary biological functions. But +in der presence of der young man who is der enemy of Der Master we can +speak freely, you and I who serf him. We know that maybe der deputies +serf because they enjoy it. But der subjects? Dey serf because dey fear. +Andt fear is intolerable. A man who is afraid is in an unstable +gondition. Sooner or later he is going to stop fearing because he gets +used to it--when Der Master will haff no more hold on him--or else he is +going to stop fearing because he will kill himself." + + * * * * * + +To an outsider the spectacle of the three men in their talk would have +been very odd indeed. Two men who served The Master, and one who had +been his only annoying opponent, talking of the service of The Master +quite amicably and without marked disagreement. + +Ortiz stirred and drummed nervously on the desk. The round shouldered +figure put the tips of its fingers together. + +"How did you know," demanded Ortiz suddenly, "that I serve because I +despair?" + +Bell watched keenly. He began to see where the talk was trending, and +waited alertly for the moment for him to speak. This was a battlefield, +this too luxurious room in which young Ortiz seemed an alien. Rhetoric +was the weapon which now would serve the best. + +"Let us talk frankly," said the placid German voice. "You andt I, Senor +Ortiz, haff worked together. You are not a defil like most of the +deputies, and I do not regret hafing been sent here to help you. And I +am not a scoundtrel like most of those who help the deputies, so you +haff liked me a little. Let us talk frankly. I was trapped. I am a +capable segretary. I speak seferal languages. I haff no particular +ambitions or any loyalties. I am useful. So I was trapped. But you, +Senor Ortiz, you are different." + +Ortiz suddenly smiled bitterly. + +"It is a saying in Brazil, if I recall the words, '_A cauda do demonio e +de rendas._' 'The devil's tail is made of lace.' That is the story." + +Bell said quietly: + +"No." + +Ortiz stared at him. He was very pale. And suddenly he laughed without +any amusement whatever. + +"True," said Ortiz. He smiled in the same bitterness. "I had forgotten. +I am a slave, and the Herr Wiedkind is a slave, and you, Senor Bell, are +the enemy of our master. But I had forgotten that we are gentlemen. In +the service of The Master one does forget that there are gentlemen." + + * * * * * + +He laughed again and lighted a cigarette with hands that shook a little. + +"I loved a girl," he said in a cynical amusement. "It is peculiar that +one should love any woman, _senores_--or do you, Senor Bell, find it +natural? I loved this girl. It pleased my father. She was of a family +fully equal to my own: their wealth, their position, their traditions +were quite equal, and it was a most suitable match. Most remarkable of +all, I loved her as one commonly loves only when no such considerations +exist. It is amusing to me now, to think how deeply, and how truly, and +how terribly I loved her...." + +Young Ortiz's pallor deepened as he smiled at them. His eyes, so dark as +to be almost black, looked at them from a smiling mask of whiteness. + +"There was no flaw anywhere. A romance of the most romantic, my father +very happy, her family most satisfied and pleased, and I--I walked upon +air. And then my father suddenly departed for the United States, quite +without warning. He left a memorandum for me, saying that it was a +matter of government, a secret matter. He would explain upon his return. +I did not worry. I haunted the house of my fiancee. The habits of her +family are of the most liberal. I saw her daily, almost hourly, and my +infatuation grew. And suddenly I grew irritable and saw red spots before +my eyes.... + +"Her father took me to task about my nervousness. He led me kindly to a +man of high position, who poured out for me a little potion.... And +within an hour all my terrible unease had vanished. And then they told +me of The Master, of the poison I had been given in the house of my +fiancee herself. They informed me that if I served The Master I would be +provided with the antidote which would keep me sane. I raged.... And +then the father of my fiancee told me that he and all his family served +The Master. That the girl I loved, herself, owed him allegiance. And +while I would possibly have defied them and death itself, the thought of +that girl not daring to wed me because of the poison in her veins.... I +saw, then, that she was in terror. I imagined the two of us comforting +each other beneath the shadow of the most horrible of fates...." + + * * * * * + +Ortiz was silent for what seemed to be a long time, smiling mirthlessly +at nothing. When his lips parted, it was to laugh, a horribly discordant +laughter. + +"I agreed," he said in ghastly amusement. "For the sake of my loved +one, I agreed to serve The Master that I might comfort her. And plans +for our wedding, which had been often and inexplicably delayed, were set +in train at once. And the deputy of The Master entertained me often. I +plied him with drink, striving to learn all that I could, hoping against +hope that there would be some way of befooling him and securing the +antidote without the poison.... And at last, when very drunken, he +laughed at me for my intention of marriage. He advised me tipsily to +serve The Master zealously and receive promotion in his service. Then, +he told me amusedly, I would not care for marriage. My fiancee would be +at my disposal without such formalities. In fact--while I stood rigid +with horror--he sent a command for her to attend him immediately. He +commanded me to go to an apartment in his dwelling. And soon--within +minutes, it seemed--the girl I loved came there to me...." + +Bell did not move. This was no moment to interrupt. Ortiz's fixed and +cynical smile wavered and vanished. His voice was harsh. + +"She was at my disposal, as an act of drunken friendship by the deputy +of The Master. She confessed to me, weeping, that she had been at the +disposal of the deputy himself. Of any other person he cared to divert +or amuse.... Oh! _Dios!_" + +Ortiz stopped short and said, in forced calmness: + +"That also was the night that my father died." + + * * * * * + +Silence fell. Bell sat very still. The Teutonic figure spoke quietly +after the clock had ticked for what seemed an interminable period. + +"You didt know, then, that your father's death was arranged?" + +Ortiz turned stiffly to look at him. + +"Here," said the placid voice, quaintly sympathetic. "Look at these." + +A hand extended a thick envelope. Ortiz took it, staring with wide, +distended eyes. The round shouldered figure stood up and seemed to +shake itself. The stoop of its shoulders straightened out. One of the +seemingly pudgy hands reached up and removed the thick spectacles. A +bushy gray eyebrow peeled off. A straggly beard was removed. The other +eyebrow.... Jamison nodded briefly to Bell, and turned to watch Ortiz. + +And Ortiz was reading the contents of the envelope. His hands began to +shake violently. He rested them on the desk-top so that he could +continue to read. When he looked up his eyes were flaming. + +"The real Herr Wiedkind," said Jamison dryly, "came up from Punta Arenas +with special instructions from The Master. You have talents, Senor +Ortiz, which The Master wished to use. Also you have considerable wealth +and the prestige of an honorable family. But you were afflicted with +ideas of honor and decency, which are disadvantageous in deputies of The +Master. The real Herr Wiedkind had remarkable gifts in eradicating those +ideas." + + * * * * * + +Jamison sat down and crossed his knees carefully. + +"I looked you up because I knew The Master had killed your father," he +added mildly, "and I thought you'd either be hunting The Master or he'd +be hunting you. My name's Jamison. I killed the real Wiedkind and took +his identification papers. He was a singularly unpleasant beast. His +idea of pleasure made him seem a fatherly sort of person, very much like +my make-up. He was constantly petting children, and appeared very +benign. I am very, very glad that I killed him." + +Ortiz tore at his collar, suddenly. He seemed to be choking. + +"This--this says.... It is The Master's handwriting! I know it! And it +says--" + +"It says," Jamison observed calmly, "that since your father killed the +previous deputy in an attempt to save you from The Master's poison, that +you are to be prepared for the work your father had been assigned. Herr +Wiedkind is given special orders about your--ah--moral education. In +passing, I might say that your father was sent to the United States +because it was known he'd killed the previous deputy. He told Bell he'd +done that killing. And he was allowed to grow horribly nervous on his +return. He was permitted to see the red spots, because he was +officially--even as far as you were concerned--to commit suicide. + +"It was intended that his nervousness was to be noticed. And a plane +tried to deliver a message to him. Your father thought the parcel +contained the antidote to the poison that was driving him mad. Actually, +it was very conventional prussic acid. Your father would have drunk it +and dropped dead, a suicide, after a conspicuous period of nervousness +and worry." + + * * * * * + +Bell felt his cigarette burning his fingers. He had sat rigid until the +thing burned short. He crushed out the coal, looking at Ortiz. + +And Ortiz seemed to gasp for breath. But with an almost superhuman +effort he calmed himself outwardly. + +"I--think," he said with some difficulty, "that I should thank you. I +do. But I do not think that you told me all of this without some motive. +I abandon the service of The Master. But what is it that you wish me to +do? You know, of course, that I can order both of you killed...." + +Bell put down the stub of his cigarette very carefully. + +"The only thing you can do," he said quietly, "is to die." + +"True," said Ortiz with a ghastly smile. "But I would like my death to +perform some service. The Master has no enemies save you two, and those +of us who die on becoming his enemies. I would like, in dying, to do him +some harm." + +"I will promise," said Jamison grimly, "to see that The Master dies +himself if you will have Bell and myself put in a plane with fuel to +Punta Arenas and a reasonable supply of weapons. I include the Senorita +Canalejas as a matter of course." + + * * * * * + +Ortiz looked from one to the other. And suddenly he smiled once more. It +was queer, that smile. It was not quite mirthless. + +"You were right, just now," he observed calmly, "when as the Herr +Wiedkind you said that I would quit the service of The Master when I +ceased to despair. I begin to have hopes. You two men have done the +impossible. You have fought The Master, you have learned many of his +secrets, and you have corrupted a man to treason when treason means +suicide. Perhaps, Senores, you will continue to achieve the impossible, +and assassinate The Master." + +He stood up, and though deathly pale continued to smile. + +"I suggest, Senor, that you resume your complexion. And you, Senor Bell, +you will be returned to your confinement. I will make the necessarily +elaborate arrangements for my death." + +Bell rose. He liked this young man. He said quietly: + +"You said just now you wouldn't ask me to shake hands. May I ask +you?..." He added almost apologetically as Ortiz's fingers closed upon +his: "You see, when your father died I thought that I would be very glad +if I felt that I would die as well. But I think"--he smiled wryly--"I +think I'll have two examples to think of when my time comes." + + * * * * * + +In the morning a bulky, round shouldered figure entered the room in +which Bell was confined. + +"You will follow me," said a harsh voice. + +Bell shrugged. He was marched down long passageways and many steps. He +came out into the courtyard, where the glistening black car with the +blank windows waited. At an imperious gesture, he got in and sat down +with every appearance of composure, as of a man resignedly submitting +to force he cannot resist. The thick spectacles of the Herr Wiedkind +regarded him with a gogglelike effect. There was a long pause. Then the +sound of footsteps. Paula appeared, deathly pale. She was ushered into +the vehicle--and only Bell's swift gesture of a finger to his lips +checked her cry of relief. + +Voices outside. The guttural Spanish of the Herr Wiedkind. Other, +emotionless voices replying. The Herr Wiedkind climbed heavily into the +car and sat down, producing a huge revolver which bore steadily upon +Bell. The door closed, and he made a swift gesture of caution. + +"Idt may be," said the Germanic voice harshly, "that you and the young +ladty haff much to say to each other. But idt can wait. And I warn you, +_mein Herr_, that at the first movement I shall fire." + +Bell relaxed. There was the purring of the motor. The car moved off. +Obviously there was some microphonic attachment inside the tonneau which +carried every word within the locked vehicle to the ears of the two men +upon the chauffeur's seat. An excellent idea for protection against +treachery. Bell smiled, and moved so that his lips were a bare half-inch +from Paula's ears. + +"Try to weep, loudly," he said in the faintest of whispers. "This man is +a friend." + + * * * * * + +But Paula could only stare at the bulky figure sitting opposite until he +suddenly removed the spectacles, and smiled dryly, and then reached in +his pockets and handed Bell two automatic pistols, and extended a tiny +but very wicked weapon to Paula. He motioned to her to conceal it. + +Jamison--moving to make the minimum of noise--handed Bell a sheet of +stiff cardboard. It passed into Bell's fingers without a rustle. He +showed it silently to Paula. + + We were overheard last night by someone. We don't know who or how + much he heard. Dictaphone in the room we talked in. Can't find out + who it was or what action he's taken. We may be riding into a trap + now. Ortiz has disappeared. He may be dead. We can only wait and + see. + +The car was moving as if in city traffic, a swift dash forward and a +sudden stop, and then another swift dash. But the walls within were +padded so that no sound came from without save the faint vibration of +the motor and now and then the distinct flexing of a spring. Then the +car turned a corner. It went more rapidly. It turned another corner. And +another.... + +In the light of the bright dome light, Bell saw beads of sweat coming +out on Jamison's face. He did not dare to speak, but he formed words +with his lips. + +"He's turning wrong! This isn't the way to the field!" + +Bell's jaws clenched. He took out his two automatics and looked at them +carefully. And then, much too short a time from the departure for the +flying field to have been reached, the car checked. It went over rough +cobblestones, and Bell himself knew well that there had been no cobbled +roadway between the flying field and his prison. And then the car went +up a sort of ramp, a fairly steep incline which by the feel of the motor +was taken in low, and on for a short distance more. Then the car stopped +and the motor was cut off. + +Keys rattled in the lock outside. The door opened. The blunt barrel of +an automatic pistol peered in. + +(_To be concluded in the next issue._) + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: _The Readers' Corner_ + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of_ Astounding Stories] + + +_About Reprints_ + +From time to time the Editors of Astounding Stories receive letters, +like the two that follow, in which Readers beg us to run reprints, and +now we feel it is time to call attention to the very good reasons why we +must refuse. + +We admit, right off, that some splendid Science Fiction stories have +been published in the past--but are those now being printed in any way +inferior to them? Aren't even _better_ ones being written to-day?--since +a whole civilization now stirs with active interest in science?--since +three or five times as many writers are now supplying us with stories to +choose from?--since science and scientific theory have reached so +immeasurably much farther into the Realm of the Unknown Possible? + +The answer is an emphatic _Yes_. We all know it. + +"A Trip to the Moon"--for instance--was a good story, but shall we keep +reprinting it to-day, when recent revolutionary theories of space-time +scream to modern authors for Science-Fiction treatment? In the last ten +years the whole aspect, the whole future of science has broadened; we +have sensed an infinity beyond infinity; and who would be so un-modern +as to cling to the oft-told stories of the older science and neglect the +thrilling reaches of the new! + +_The Saturday Evening Post_--again, for instance--has been publishing +good stories for years, but who would have them reprint the old ones +instead of keep giving us good new ones? + +Would it be fair to 99% of our Readers to force on them reprint novels +they have already read, or had a chance to read, to favor the 1% who +have missed them? Of course it wouldn't, and all of our Readers in that +1% will gladly admit it. + +And how about our authors? Contrary to the old-fashioned opinion, +authors must eat--and how will they eat, and lead respectable lives, and +keep out of jail, if we keep reprinting their _old_ stories and turning +down their _new_ ones? After all, eating is very important; those who +wouldn't simply refrain from eating would have to get jobs as +messengers, and errand boys, etc.--with the result that much of our +fascinating modern Science Fiction would never be written! + +It would be much cheaper for us to buy once-used material. It would +greatly reduce our task of carefully reading every story that comes to +our office, in hopes to finding a fine, new story, or a potentially good +author. But it would be very unwise, and very unfair, as you have seen. + +Many more reasons could be given, but these few are the more important +ones back of our policy of avoiding reprints. Enough said!--_The +Editor._ + + +_Wants Reprints_ + + Dear Editor: + + In you April issue, in answer to a correspondent, you stated that + you were avoiding reprints. Now, that's too bad. Some of the best + Science-Fiction tales are reprints. Witness: + + "The Blind Spot," by Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall; "The War In + The Air," by H. G. Wells; "The Purple Sapphire," by John Taine; + "The Conquest of Mars," by Garrett P. Serviss; "Darkness and Dawn," + and "Into the Great Oblivion," and "The After-Glow," and "The + Air-Trust"--all by George Allan England. + + You are proud--and rightfully so--of your great author, Ray + Cummings. Why not give us several stories which helped to build his + glory? Here are several: + + "Tarranto the Conqueror," "The Man on the Meteor," "The Girl in the + Golden Atom," "The Man Who Mastered Time," "The Fire People." + + Guess I'll sign off now and give the other fellows a + chance.--Isidore Manyon, 544 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. + + +_What Think You All?_ + + Dear Editor: + + There is one question I would like to ask. Perhaps some of the + other readers of Astounding Stories can answer it. + + Could a person remember his own death in a former incarnation? + Some say "no," and some say "yes." If it is true that you can't, + the whole fabric of the wonderful story, one of the most beautiful, + if not the most beautiful I have ever read, "The Moon Maid," by + Edgar Rice Burroughs, is built on a fallacy. You see, I am a + believer in reincarnation and I would surely like to correspond + with others who are also! Would not that also disprove the whole + theory of reincarnation if it is true? I think it is not true, but + I may be wrong. Is reincarnation a proven theory, or unproven? + + You say you are going to avoid reprints. Now that is a mistake. Of + course, some you might avoid, such as those of Wells, Verne, etc., + though I would like you to publish Wells' short stories. There are + many that have not been published in any magazine for a long time, + or at all. + + But please, oh please, do publish A. Merritt's "Through the Dragon + Glass," and give it a cover illustration. It is the only one, I + think, that I want particularly, but I do want it! If you publish + any of H. G. Wells' works, give them cover illustrations, too. + + And publish a lot by Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and authors + like that; you haven't as yet printed a story of the type that A. + Merritt writes, and that is one thing this magazine needs, and lots + of them, as they are the cream of Science Fiction, and the more of + them you have, the better! They are my favorites, and next come + those that Edgar Rice Burroughs writes; also John Taine.--Worth K. + Bryant, 406 No. Third St., Yakima, Wash. + + +_The S: Lynn Rhorer Society_ + + Dear Editor: + + This is to inform you that we have organized a society known as the + S. Lynn Rhorer Society of Greater Atlanta, a branch of the Science + Correspondence Club. + + This Society's purpose is to first assist the Science + Correspondence Club and its affiliated branches in the promotion of + science and Scientific Fiction. Second, to create a greater + interest in science and Science Fiction among the laymen who are + already interested, and to create an interest among those who are + not at the present interested, and to hold their interest. + + At the present time we have in our library over three hundred + scientific books; a large collection of ores and rocks from + different states and countries, classified; a large collection of + fossilized bones; a three-inch refracting telescope, and a ten-inch + one in the course of construction; and a large club-house. + + Any information regarding this society can be obtained by + addressing R. A. Marks, Jr., 893 York Ave., S. W., Atlanta, + Georgia, or the undersigned.--F. B. Eason, 400 Jefferson Avenue, E. + Point, Ga. + + +_Unused to the Smaller Size_ + + Dear Editor: + + I have but one comment on your magazine and that is: Having + complete sets of other Science Fiction magazines I would also like + to save Astounding Stories, but in its present size and condition + it looks like trash. Why not have a ballot to what size the + magazine shall be? By having the price raised to 25 cents it can + cover the extra expense. I would surely like to add another + magazine to my collection. Am hereby hoping you will do this for + the sake of Science Fiction lovers all over the country.--Sidney + Mack, 1676 59th Street, Brooklyn, New York. + + +_"The Scienceers" Broadcasts_ + + Dear Editor: + + For the benefit of the readers of Astounding Stories who live in + New York, a club known as The Scienceers has recently been formed. + Its purpose is to promote informal fellowship among Science Fiction + fans and to foster discussion of modern developments, theories and + projects in the realm of science. + + The organization is open to all persons over sixteen years of age + who are interested in Science Fiction and its relation to the + various fields of present day science. Since regular weekly + meetings are held, the membership is necessarily restricted to + residents of New York City and vicinity. + + A cordial invitation to join the Scienceers is hereby extended to + all interested. Further information may be obtained by writing to + the undersigned.--Allen Glasser, 961 Forest Avenue, New York, N. Y. + + +"_Congratulations for Both_" + + Dear Editor: + + Congratulations for us both. Your company for publishing this + magazine, myself for being able to buy same. + + Have just finished reading the second issue. It is very good. I + read every story in both issues. You bet I am going to be a steady + reader from now on. I like this type of story very much--in fact, + read two other magazines that publish stories of this type every + month. I note with great pleasure that in the March issue you are + starting to publish the first quarter of an interplanetary story by + Ray Cummings. This is, indeed, good news. I have had the pleasure + of reading five of his novels this past year and I greatly enjoyed + all of them. Along with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings is an + "ace high" author on these "unpredictable-future" stories. + + Some four or fives years ago I read in a magazine a portion of two + interplanetary stories by Ray Cummings. Now to the point, I wonder + if it is possible for you to obtain Mr. Cummings' permission to + have your company publish these two stories? Their names I believe + are "Tarranto the Conquerer" and "Into the Fourth Dimension." I, + for one, would greatly appreciate this favor. Please do your best + to try and publish these novels this coming year. Thanks.--Wm. L. + Ebelan, 3906 Springdale Avenue, Baltimore, Md. + + +_Likes the Small Size_ + + Dear Editor: + + I received a pleasant surprise when I first bought your wonderful + magazine. I started in with the second issue, but I wish I could + get the first. + + All the stories are good. The best of them, I think, is Ray + Cummings' story, "Brigands of the Moon." I have read the first + three parts and am eagerly waiting for the last. + + And now for something about the make-up of the magazine. I like the + small size, and holding the magazine together with two staples is + good. + + The cover designs are very good, but the pictures inside could be + improved on. H. Wesso is a good artist. + + How about publishing the magazine twice a month?--Charles Barrett, + 135 Spring St., Woodbury, N. J. + + +_Thanks, Anyhow!_ + + Dear Editor: + + I hope that you are not going to have a blue cover every month. I + would like to see a different colored background every month. The + cover on the March issue should have been black because space is + black. + + I wish that you would have a full-page picture for each story. + Wesso is the best artist you have. The others haven't enough + imagination. + + I gave "Brigands of the Moon" by Ray Cummings first place in the + March issue of Astounding Stories. It promises to be his best story + since "Tarrano the Conqueror." + + The places of other stories are as follows: 2. "Vandals of the + Stars"; 3. "The Soul Master"; 4. "Cold Light"; 5. "From the Ocean's + Depths." + + If you would enlarge Astounding Stories to 11-3/4 by 8-1/2 it would + be seen more easily on the newsstands and its circulation would + increase. Please publish it on the first of the month instead of + the first Thursday.--Jack Darrow, 4225 N. Spaulding Avenue, + Chicago, Ill. + + +"_The Readers' Corner_" + +All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come over +in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of stories, +authors, scientific principles and possibilities--everything that's of +common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories. + +Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this is +a department primarily for _Readers_, and we want you to make full use +of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, brickbats, +suggestions--everything's welcome here: so "come over in 'The Readers' +Corner'" and discuss it with all of us! + + --_The Editor._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +July 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JULY 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29198.txt or 29198.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/9/29198/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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